(“hey, come over here and say that”)
On the heels of Sol Campbell and Roy Keane expressing their frustration with fan abuse, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger chimes in ahead of the Gunners’ boxing day visit to Fratton Park. From the Independent’s Jason Burt :
“Most of it is abusive but why do people get away with it?” Wenger said. “Because they are in the mass of people. Sometimes the best [thing to do] is to film them and show the DVD to their family at home. That is the way to deal with it.”
Wenger is not saying that either players or managers should be immune from criticism, but he believes a line should be drawn on what is acceptable.
“They are entitled to an opinion,” he said of supporters. “They can say to the manager, ‘You are useless’, but you cannot say, ‘You are a fucking bastard’.
“Sol has a big point,” Wenger said of the man he signed from Spurs. “Why should we not be respected just because we are on the pitch? I agree completely with him.”
Isiah Thomas might well concur, though there’s a slight difference in that Wenger rarely catches such grief from his club’s own supporters.