By Myles Palmer
I was thinking about reactions today.
Arsene often talks about reactions.
And I was thinking that there is far too much pressure on Arsene.
He needed Sol for a couple more games, but Bolton will be his last, after the appeal failed.
Last weekend Ray Parlour reacted to the absence of Vieira by playing like a hero and kicking the team into gear, so that they could beat Middlesbrough 2-0.
On Wednesday night Ronaldo reacted to the absence of Raul by scoring an astonishing hat-trick against Man United.
OK, Ronaldo is 8 kilos overweight. His arse is bigger than Kenny Dalglish’s.
But the way he destroyed Rio Ferdinand and spotted that gap by the near post, and blasted it past Barthez, was PHENOMENAL !
Even Batistuta in his prime could not have scored that goal.
Batigoal was a bang-bang player.
Shoot a lot, miss a lot, score spectacular goals.
Ronaldo had three shots and scored a hat-trick.
His comeback is one of the greatest sporting stories of all time.
His physical and mental anguish has been huge.
But he has come through it all like a champion.
It’s a tough, tense time for Arsene right now, without Vieira, his main man, the skipper who carried the team to wins against Everton and Chelsea.
Arsene has to be chief scout, coach, psychologist, general manager, spin doctor, spokesman and all-round guru.
On top of that, the finance for Ashburton Grove has stalled.
The club has to convince banks to lend £300m.
If Arsenal win the double, that money will be easier to raise.
If they win nothing, it will be harder.
I think that’s an added pressure on the manager, who is already wearing too many hats and doing too many jobs.
Arsene already carries a lot of weight, a lot of expectations.
The banks might be saying : Let’s see what you win.
Probably not. We can never know that.
Are the bankers tuning in to Sky Sports for the 12.30 kick-off tomorrow?
We will never know that either.
But it’s far too much pressure on one guy.
Arsene looks healthy and wears it well, but all this is a crippling, damaging weight to carry.
I hope he is gonna be OK over the next 22 days.
Easter already seems a long time ago.
Losing 2-1 to Valencia on March 19th seems like six months ago.
Enjoyed Easter, nice to have student son Michael with us for 5 days.
He and flatmate Ajay (both Gooners) went over from Sheffield to Manchester for the Sheffield United semi.
After the game,Michael said, it was if both sides had lost.
The Blades fans were fed up.
And the Arsenal fans couldn’t believe they had come all the way from London and not seen a game of football.
He said that when Dennis came on, everything changed in a second and Arsenal suddenly started to play well.
The other Easter highlight was the Pakistani ambassador.
It was a Sky News story about Hans Blix going back to Iraq. and the Pakistani ambassador to the UN was talking.
A smooth, prosperous-looking, bespectacled gent in a grey suit.
He said that, for the record, we need to know if there were WMD in Iraq.
Reporter : “What if none are found?”
Ambassador (smiling): “I can’t tell you what the response would be. But it probably wouldn’t be shock and awe.”
Have a great weekend !
25 April 2003
PS
Do you read The Guardian?
Back around Feb 15 I wrote here about the peace march.
Protesting with my local teenagers on the day of the Man Utd-Arsenal FA Cup tie.
The kids are featured in The Guardian Weekend mag today.Colour pics of Rowenna and Kierra outside the House of Commons.