Wenger blasts the bully boys
Arsene Wenger fully appreciates English football is a man’s game – but he will never accept Arsenal just have to sit back and take rough-house treatment.
Sheffield United captain Chris Morgan was yesterday banned for three games by the Football Association after being found guilty of violent conduct for punching Robin van Persie during his side’s Barclays Premiership victory over the Gunners on December 30 – an incident missed at the time by referee Lee Mason.
Wenger’s men were labelled ‘big babies’ by Blades midfielder Phil Jagielka and took criticism from some observers following another match in which they had apparently been out-muscled.
However, the Arsenal manager today vehemently defended his side, whom he feels have been on the end of some unwarranted tactics which go outside the spirit of the game.
Wenger said: “I accept we have to be kicked because we have a young team. But to get out there and be kicked and punched, and in the end you still have to say ‘sorry we are not strong enough’, that is difficult to take.
“If it is a physical game, and they show more commitment and want it more than us, then it is okay.
“But I do not feel it is right to punch people in the stomach and after say ‘okay, they are babies crying’, because that it is not the way I see the game.
“I have no paranoia – football is football and there are some things you have to accept and some things you do not have to accept, whether you won or lost.
“I want my players to be respected, and when things go overboard I am not here to say, ’yes, you are right, we lost 1-0 and I am a bad loser’.
“What happens sometimes is not right – the laws are there to protect the players.”
Wenger maintained it is the match officials who must ultimately protect the players.
He said: “I do not have any problems with the opposing managers – it is down to the referees. They set how far you can go in every game.
“I feel that Neil Warnock says to his his team that they have to be absolutely committed – I find that right, but after that the referee has to set how far they can go.
“It is about 100% commitment and that is one of the great strengths of the English game, respected all over the world.
“Most ’coward’ players I played with were those who tried to hit somebody - the bravest never tried to ’do’ anyone, they went always for the ball.
“When you are brave you are strong and you respect the rules. There is a big difference.
“When you go 100% for the ball I respect that 200% – but when I see a player giving another player an elbow before he goes for the ball, I say, ’sorry my friend, you have nothing to do in the game’. It is not football.”
Wenger, 57, continued: “Football has become better, because in that period when I was playing you had guys who were professional killers, because not every game was on television and it was not under scrutiny.
“How many players have got away with what Morgan did 20 years ago? When you went away in Europe, at some places when it was a corner, you were hit everywhere.”
Lacking the likes of an enforcer such as midfielder Patrick Viera, no-nonsense defender Martin Keown or veteran striker Dennis Bergkamp, Wenger accepts his current young side have perhaps become easy targets.
“I feel this team when they have more experience will handle it much better and they have done it much better recently,” he said.
“I cannot deny that we had a weakness there when teams decided to play that way. That is why we are where we are.”
Wenger added: “When we played with guys who had been playing for 10 years, they were shown more respect at the start than they do towards a young player.
“Players like Dennis Bergkamp, he could stand up for himself as well, but there was also a reluctance from the guys to kick him.”
The Gunners will face Liverpool twice in the space of four days on Merseyside as they go head-to-head again in the last eight of the Carling Cup on Tuesday night.
With the resumption of the Champions League campaign next month, suggestions Wenger was ready to sacrifice progression in one of the domestic knockout competitions were quickly dismissed.
He said: “We have decided to go for every game we play until the end of the season with a desire to win it, whether it is Premiership or FA Cup or whatever.”
