by Tony Attwood
The Everton supporter who, while holding his three year old son, ran or was pushed forward and assaulted the Lyon player has said that he is “ashamed” of his actions. That’s obviously quite right, so he should be.
However he also has blamed Everton for not taking the right security measures to prevent him from reaching the pitch.
That is a slightly odd statement – a bit like saying, “yes I took explosives into Parliament and blew the place up because I’m annoyed about Brexit, but it is the government’s fault for not stopping me by having better security.” It’s an argument, but not necessarily a very good one.
However it raises another question: the behaviour of Everton fans.
For some years I have been urging Arsenal FC to take action against Everton supporters who persist in bringing flares and smoke bombs into the Emirates Stadium when their team play Arsenal. This is not the only group of supporters who have done it, but they are, as far as I can remember, the only group who have come onto this site and put up a defence of their actions.
Part of this defence was to do with what they found to be a muddle in my writing over the difference between flares and smoke bombs, and part of it was down to the fact that everyone does it. I don’t really find either an excuse – any more than the gent who carried his child forward and hit the Lyon player has an excuse.
But in a sense the same type of argument is continuing in each case as the man involved in the Lyon incident claimed that Everton should have had the right security measures in place to prevent him being able to reach the pitch. He also blamed the players for putting his son in danger by “swinging their arms”, and insisted that he was “carried forward with other fans”.
He added, “I put myself and my son in a dangerous position by taking my eye off the ball and getting carried forward with other fans. Before I knew it I was through the gate, which should have been shut. Everton should have provided adequate security. It was not intentional but I’d been too concentrated on screaming abuse at the players for being s***.”
Now just to be clear, I think the word “s***” as so coyly presented by the Independent from which that quote comes, should actually be “s***s” since this is a plural object in the sentence. Grammar is important even in these circumstances. Right, glad we got that sorted.
But back to Everton fans at the Emirates. I have long argued that when a club’s supporters smuggle flares and smoke bombs into the ground Arsenal should write to the visiting club and say, “if this happens once more, we will cut your ticket allocation in half next time we play.”
Of course with Everton this might not be for a number of seasons if they take a detour into the lower reaches of the Football League, but even so I still think the whole thing is worth doing.
And then if the club has any sense it will announce through is various supporters’ clubs what will happen, and if they continue their unacceptable behaviour, they have their allocation cut. If they do it again, it is cut in half again. If not, and they go through a whole match without any flares or smoke bombs it can go back up again. Half up, half down.
It is a simple way of introducing a safety measure and giving the club whose fans behave in a dangerous manner a chance to work with the vast majority of reasonable and decent supporters who attend their matches, and get things sorted out.
And to be clear, I am not just talking about Everton fans in regards to the Emirates. I advocated a similar situation with the Tottenham fans who pelted the ambulance crew when Theo was injured in front of them a few years back. And yes, I would fully advocate the same for Tottenham to do to the Arsenal fans who caused damage at Old WHL by ripping a hoarding from its position in front of them.
I’m not an advocate of some sort of authoritarian regime at games, but I know that as I have got older my chances of moving at speed to get out of the way of trouble have significantly declined. And that tends to focus my thinking just a little bit more.
Anyway, enough of that. Next up, Knor-Witch Sit E.
Geddit?
Oh all right, suit yourself.
- We won 5-2 so what did they say about it? How football commentary is being manipulated
- Everton – Arsenal 2-5, a walk in the (Goodison) Park
Everton have sacked Koeman lunchtime Monday. Seventh last season, sell their top goalscorer, fail to replace him adequately and sack him after 9 games of the season. Who would want to be a football manager!
Andrew
Mikel Arteta?
Koeman getting a £9m pay off, I would love his job. I have been struggling on benefits for a while now. How can anyone feel sorry for a football manager?
@Andrew
It’s not like Koeman didn’t have enough money on his disposal. He had. He got expensive players in all lines of his team. Expensive players from the relegation battlers/relegated teams he hand-picked himself, I’d add.
Always very arrogant after undeserved good results against Arsenal. The fact Arsene sacked him on his own birthday was a real pleasure for me.
He did spend lots of money this summer…. but no result.
The ‘suggestion’ by the commentators on SKY yesterday was that they weren’t “all his own choices”.
I don’t know how true that is or why they even think it, but when they said it, I said to Mrs N, that’s why a ‘director of football’ is, in my view, all wrong.
The manager should sink or swim on his own choices(signings), his own tactics, his own substitutions.
He has to be 100% accountable.
But as I say, I have no idea if they were all his choices or not. If they were then the blame lies squarely at his door.
Firstly for thinking for one second that that many signings at one go was ever going to work.
Secondly, having made the decision, for failing to make it even look remotely like it was going to work.
He wont be out of work for long, so I wont be shedding too many tears for him.
At least we now know that the strategy that Red and White Holdings would have had us employ is a disaster. Thank goodness we are run by someone who isn’t an egomaniac and who let’s his expert staff do what they are good at.
Yes insideright, the trick Everton tried this season is what some fans have said we should do: buy, buy, buy and buy some more. Wenger has always said that this can lead to big problems. It seems it did at Everton
Koeman joins the long list of managers mooted by Online Gooner as an ideal replacement for Arsene Wenger, that have gone onto inglorious failure.
I rate Koeman very high as a coach. Everton was to be his first big job as a coach of a potential top 10 epll club. However, I think he was too much in a hurry to make his mark. He got carried away with the opportunity to spend big. He bought to many players (15of them) in his new season.
i am sure you were being lightly amusing but . . . pedantically . . . or perhaps, linguistically . . . the seemingly singular s*** from the hitter is adjectival (as in ‘i thought they c***’) so no plural necessary . . . a plural *hits would mean something else . . . i’m sure the scouse nobel peace prize nominee was not suggesting the players were actively and knowingly malevolent, merely, you know, not very good . . .
Gooner In Exile
“Koeman joins the long list of managers mooted by Online Gooner as an ideal replacement for Arsene Wenger, that have gone onto inglorious failure.”
Exactly.
Also, do you remember how all the pundits were wetting themselves in the summer when Koeman was spending all that money?
Will we hear a word of contrition?
And remember this from that plank Owen back on October the first?
“Former Liverpool, Manchester United and Real Madrid forward Michael Owen has upset a lot of Arsenal fans this week after he made claims that they are heading for a seventh place finish in the Premier League.”
He said Everton would finish above Arsenal.
The guy is a p**k yet he’ll be back on BT Sport spouting the same inane clap trap, and whats worse, getting paid with my money.
I know who I think is nicking a living.
These people are NEVER I repeat NEVER held to account and they have the temerity to criticise Wenger.
Same as:
Graham Souness: Managerial failure.
Paul Merson: Managerial failure.
Tony Adams: Managerial failure.
Gary Neville: Managerial failure.
Then we have the list that haven’t even had the cajones’ to give management a try.
Wright.
Scholes.
P. Neville.
Keown
and on it goes.
All serial critics of Arsenal and Wenger yet not one of them fit to lace his boots.
Nitram
I notice you left out Stewart Robson from your above list of managerial failures, is that because having won 1 and lost 2 of his 3 games as Southend manager you class him as a managerial success!!!?
I’m not sure that Koeman had a proper say over who was bought or not. I think that was our ex-shareholder wielding his ego.
Rooney was just a sop to over emotional fans. Hardly building for the future. Another nail in the coffin of the concept of a Director of Football with more power than the manager.
Bleacher Report has an article on 50 worst managers of all time.
Tony Adams is 4 out of 50.
Graeme Souness is 32 of 50.
Giroud won the Puskas award!
@ Gord – 23/10/2017 at 7:52 pm – Well done GIROUD ! And well deserved too.
@ Nitram – 23/10/2017 at 6:09 pm – I think that we ought to add the name of former Everton legend Don Hutchinson (and probably his partner Dion Dublin) to that list , seeing that they are on tv almost everyday on PL programs that I subscribe to.
They seem to have so much endless knowledge to impart daily , that only a stint in the manager’s job will ever shut them up.
And Phil Nevile ‘s experience at Valencia would stand him in good stead as the Director of Football . Another Everton legend , he too has so much to offer . And that they are all British is an onus ,as I’m sure that the fans must look forward to a British manager , after the fiasco by last two foreign managers.
And finally I, too may get some respite from their ramblings !
Give Phil the Everton job please.
http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/41733364