Camden New Journal - Sports: 2footed

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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY - ARSENAL FAN
Published: 7 June 2007

SO Uefa reckon that Liverpool are the worst fans in Europe after that kafuffle during the Champions League final. Note: Arsenal went all the way to the final the year before without any sign of trouble.
But Michel Platini and his henchmen are wrong about Liverpool. Sure, they might go about winning the European Cup when they can’t even win the league. And sure they wear too many badges and sob loads when they lose.
But they are not the worst fans in Europe.
There are only two clubs that deserve that title.
TOTTENHAM
The Tottenham fan has no idea about how to behave in Europe because they don’t go there much. Before last season, the closest they got to Europe was the Chas and Dave tour of Benidorm. So as soon as they got to Seville – high on orange squash – they got rather excitable and started chucking the chairs around. They brought shame on the whole country that night and so it served them right when Seville knocked them out of the tin pot tournament they were competing in.
Other crimes: Fat supporters in skin-tight replica kits; wild celebrations; boring chants that have no place in football.
Robbie Keane’s last minute penalty in 2004: it meant nothing – two seconds later Arsenal were named champions at White Hart Lane.
CHELSEA
The Chelsea fan has only been supporting ‘their’ club for approximately two to three years. They have no qualms about the fact ‘their’ team spent £970 million on new players to win the league. They then spent a further £170 million and failed to hold onto the championship. (I’m using rough figures here, but it was something in that order). They name parts of their stadium after Kerry Dixon and Nigel Spackman but none of the current ‘fans’ have a clue about who they were. Let me fill them in – those players were second raters who won nothing.
Other crimes: Accepting Cashley Cole as one of their own – he will only turn his back on you; chucking vegetables; rubbish chants about mowing meadows.
Worst fans in Europe… Tottenham or Chelsea? Chelsea or Tottenham? You decide.

Is he right? What do you think? To let us know your views just email us at:
sports@camdennewjournal.

I SHARE Dan Carrier’s frustration at the lack of English players in the Arsenal team, however, this isn’t the fault of the club itself or Arsene Wenger.
No, the person to blame is Tony Blair. He chose not to push for an opt-out for football from European labour legislation when negotiating the Amsterdam Treaty.
This would have allowed the FA Premiership to continue to limit the number of non-British players playing for English clubs.
Therefore it’s clearly his fault that we have declining numbers of English players playing at the highest level in the Premiership.
CLLR ANDREW MENNEAR
Frognal and Fiztjohns Ward (Conservative)
NW6

I READ Dan Carrier’s column (Two Footed Tackle, CNJ May 31).
Then I realised that Spurs have been wandering in the wilderness longer than Moses leading his people to the ‘promised land’.
Where was Dan when it all started back in 1961? Or should I say ended?
The messiahs have come and gone and still they wander. Their last successful messiah called George was a Gooner.
It doesn’t upset me that we do not have a Gooner in the international set-up.
The fact that England manager Steve McClaren was worried about his team beating Estonia speaks volumes for the Spurs’ contingent and their quality.
Buying every English player good or bad may give Spurs a chance of beating the eight Gooners in the English team in the days when there were no foreign players.
What about Jermain Defoe who is being bounced out of the England team by two foreign players at Spurs called Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov?
Poor Dan, you disillusioned man.
It must be sad to support England because there are no Gooners in the team.
You still have a Spurs connection with Terry Vegetables – sorry I mean Venables. You never know Dan, McClaren and Terry could end up being the new Little and Large and entertain you at Spurs during half time.
GEOFFREY GILBERT, NW8

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