Dirty TackleArsenal fans sing Adebayor shooting chant, Wenger refuses a shake
Just in case you were feeling good about the state of humanity, Sunday's North London derby stomped that out. The match itself was an exciting one, with Kyle Walker sending a low, swerving blast just under the diving Wojciech Szczesny from outside the box for the winner in Spurs' 2-1 victory (see it here). But the chants from the stands will unfortunately overshadow the game.
Emmanuel Adebayor was in the starting XI for Spurs and facing his old club for the first time since apologizing for his behavior while playing against them for Man City two years ago. Some Arsenal fans apparently did not accept this apology, however, and decided to tell Adebayor how they still feel about him by singing "It should have been you, it should have been you, Shot in Angola. It should have been you." This was a reference to the horrific machine gun attack on the Togo national team buses before last year's African Cup of Nations that killed three people. Adebayor was on one of those buses and later said he was "still haunted" by the attempt to kill him and all of his teammates.
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Keep in mind, this vile chant came from a fanbase that has long been understandably outspoken against the distasteful jokes from Spurs supporters and others about Arsene Wenger being a "pedophile" because of his penchant for signing and nurturing young talent. So by the logic of certain fans of the game, calling a football manager a pedophile is bad (agreed!), but saying you wish a player who you don't like was shot in a nightmarish tragedy he experienced first-hand is quite alright (not agreed!).
Said Spurs manager Harry Redknapp on the subject (via the Guardian):
"How do you chant something like that?" the Spurs manager said. "You can't be right, mentally. There's kids up there. How do you bring kids up to sing songs about the Busby Babes [and the Munich air disaster]? What's that kid going to become? I dread to think. I don't know what you can do but you can do something to the parents of those kids. It's disgusting. It's got no place in life."
Meanwhile, in a far lesser corner of the unseemly behavior spectrum, Arsene Wenger, as he sometimes does after a bitter loss, refused to shake the outstretched hand of Spurs coach Clive Allen. That prompted a verbal tiff between the two and Wenger called for Allen to follow him into the tunnel for a dose of untold fury, but stewards kept Allen from doing so.
When asked about the matter, Wenger defended himself with a bit of humor:
"I shook the hand of the manager and the assistant," Wenger said. "How many hands do I have to shake? Is it a prescription? If the story of the game is Clive Allen, you must ask him."
So why did Wenger draw the handshaking line at Allen? Well, the two had a touchline scuffle last season that Arsene probably hasn't forgotten about. On Wenger's advice, Allen was asked about what happened, though. This is what he said (via Mirror Football):
"He refused to shake my hand. He says he didn't see or hear me. But he's two-bob, he is."
Two-bob.
Photo: Getty
