exactly...Originally Posted by SWv2
exactly...
“Other clubs never came into my thoughts once I knew Arsenal wanted to sign me.”
To be fair, its up against some pretty stiff competition in that one game alone.
I still cant quite believe he gave that penalty...not just because it was a very, very obvious dive but also because even if there had been contact there is no way on earth he could have seen it as it was on the blind side of him. His linesman would have had a perfect view of it and said nothing- then again, this is the same linesman that was two yards away from Van Nistlerooy stamping his studs down Cole's shin and remarkably managed to completely miss that even though it was inches from where he was looking.
The Ljungberg and Cole incidents were the clearest of the reddest, red cards. Both not even resulting in a booking, of course. Ridicules. Riley? ****.
“Other clubs never came into my thoughts once I knew Arsenal wanted to sign me.”
The clearest proof that the whole thing was bent was that united's entire game plan was based on Riley doing exactly what he did.
People will happily tell you these days that united were simply muscling us out of the game because we don't like it up them. This completely ignores the fact that that Arsenal side were a handful and were not the sort to be intimidated.
The truth is unted's game plan was based on kicking us as hard and as often as possible to disrupt the game, injure players and hopefully to get us to retaliate, knowing full well that their players would not get punished whatever they did (see Neville, Rio, van nistelrooy) whereas if a single Arsenal player had reacted badly they would have been sent off.
United constructed their entire game plan on the ref giving them everything they wanted. That is a hell of a risk unless you KNOW you can rely on it.
Dunno. If players see a referee isn't going to punish them to commit fouls, it will embolden them to commit more and worse fouls. I think United got that sense after a couple of the early 'reducers' on JAR went unpunished and it got worse from there. Equally, linesmen will take their lead from the ref.
In short, I don't believe the game was bent because 'cui bono?' I do, however, believe that Riley was biased (consciously or unconsciously) against Arsenal and refereed accordingly. Still disgraceful, but not 'bent' in the sense of there being a conspiracy.
What I did find extraordinary, though, was the determination of the media to largely ignore the appalling refereeing of such a big game. I can only conclude that this was because they realised most of their audience (and football more widely) wanted Arsenal to lose and so they didn't want to question the legitimacy of that result by pointing out that it was probably the most dreadfully biased and incompetent refereeing display in the history of the Premier League.
I dont really buy that at all. I am not saying that Riley was on the payroll. I am saying that United knew full well before the game that they could seriously take the piss and he wouldn't lift a finger. Either through indirect influence, sheer pressure or just because they knew Riley was hopelessly weak. You can see this in how they pressure him after every awful challenge. Neville goes up and screams in his face after hacking Reyes to the floor or the third time. What on earth is he complaining about? How can he possibly be angry about something?
This was not the usual example of a ref being a 'homer'... it was the clearest possible example of a referee being simply unwilling to give any kind of decision against one side and that side being very, very confident that that was the case.
I think the premier league should be eternally ashamed of the fact that the longest unbeaten run in its history was brought to an end in this fashion.
The media chose to focus on the pizza incident afterwards instead- hard to believe but somehow we came out of this game as the bad guys!
I doubt ManU went into the game confident that Riley would cheat for them, however in the back of their minds they also knew what his record was for them.
The key point in the match was probably the Cole yellow. The Munichs had just spent about 10-15 minutes kicking Reyes off the park and G Neville probably should have seen red at that point, yet they hadn't received a card of any kind. At that point Cole commits a slightly cynical, non-violent foul and gets a yellow.
I'm guessing that at that point they all thought to themselves 'game on - this is 12 v 11' and then proceeded to act accordingly over the rest of the game.
But shouldn't we move on? No one was angrier than I, no one remains as bitter and twisted as I (well, maybe IUFG) but surely we should get over this? I mean, it really isn't healthy.
I think lots of factors came into play. Ferguson certainly told them to target our players and probably said Riley 'lets the game flow' at OT, so you'll probably get away with it. I agree it was the worst example of bias and incompetence I've ever seen in a top English game, I'm just saying I don't think its bentness was planned or orchestrated.
As I say, the media reaction was the most extraordinary thing. Normally, TV can't stop poring over bad refereeing, but here it was simply glossed over. It was genuinely weird and ensured that I'll never believe there isn't an anti-Arsenal bias in the media.
In those days it was clear to me that The Arsenal were being punished because they hired a "Frenchman" and he had a team with the temerity to challenge "one of our own", AF and MU. AW was monikered "The Frenchman" in every news article. NOt so much any more, but it was very real then.
It's just how we are, Chief; we don't particularly mean anything by it*. Ferguson is always referred to as the "Scot", by the press too.
*Although, it's complicated; A Briton calling someone French is almost certainly intended as a mild insult. However, equally, said Frenchman would proudly accept it as a generous compliment, coming from a Briton.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
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