The Best Of Your E-Mails And Discussion Forum Postings

While Manchester United were limbering up for there exertions in Turin, you lot were busy squabbling about they were still the most hated team in Britain. . Keep your letters on any subject coming to: . And don't forget to let us know where you're writing from so we can boast about how global 365 is.


E-Mail Of The Day: Why Arsenal Are Now The Most Hated Club In Britain
I think it is fair to say that United are no longer the team to hate in England. I don't agree that they have stopped being their usual whingeing selves but, let's face it, compared to Arsenal's 'The World Hates Us' attitude, United's whining is of a Vauxhall Conference standard.

As a Midlander living in London, I have no allegiance to United or Arsenal but reading the Evening Standard would make anyone hate Arsenal for life. I realise it is the Capital's evening paper but the reporting is as biased as Wenger's post-match comments.

I could not believe he reckoned 'the luckiest team won' after last Wednesday's semi-final replay. United should have been four up before Bergkamp's fluke. And if the Keane decision had been against Arsenal we would never had heard the end of it. For those readers lucky enough not to have to read the Standard, at any given opportunity Wenger claimed Arsenal were unlucky in Europe - not outplayed by Kiev, not lacking in flair, just unlucky. The man's unsporting attitude would put anyone off his teams for life.

And as for their disciplinary record? It is so bad but Wenger believes nothing is wrong. If Ferguson ignored such a record at United, the press would have a field day.

In addition, Arsenal are the worst of winners as well as losers. Listen to their fans chanting 'easy, easy' etc at Wimbledon on Monday night. United's second team easily beat Sheffield Wednesday as expected on Saturday and came off talking about a job well done. No fanfare from their supporters. They would have looked silly. But the Arsenal fans were in triumphant mood claiming Southern supremacy over the North etc. Embarrassing for true football fans to observe.

Living in London, I now realise that it is this very attitude that ends up with successful Southern teams never maintaining supremacy over the top teams from the North. They believe their own hyperbole. Worse, their fans also do. Up North and in the Midlands, they laugh at this bullshit carry on. I don't believe United always win with complete grace, but they don't behave like the ignorant morons in the Capital who don't understand that one winning season in eight is a reason to bore everyone to death with their misplaced arrogance and aloofness.

Hard as it is to say it but a United victory in the Premiership will be a welcome relief from the tedious annoyance of listening to the Arsenal manager's unsporting comments and the general ignorance and arrogance of their fans.
James Dunne, Nottingham


The Great Hate Debate Rages On
Re: Yesterday's claim from Chelsea fan Gary J Dunsmore that he was delighted if people now hated Chelsea. Plenty of people like the way Chelsea play and how it has meant that there are three teams in England now capable of winning the league, not just Arsenal and Moanchester United.

If Gary wants to know what it is to be hated then he should support Millwall. We are the most hated club in the country but we don't care. It would, however, be nice if the press concentrated on our huge support at Wembley and how well we were behaved and not taking digs at our supporters by claiming that Wembley escaped a national disaster on Sunday.
Ian Toal, Rayleigh, Essex


...United's flirtation with Murdoch, not to mention their enthusiasm for the Media Partners concept of a European Super League of permanent members, serves only to intensify the desire to see United get stuffed. Clive Tyldesley ranting his usual xenophobic rubbish about underhand Italian theatricals (where is the democracy in ITV's desperate attempt to convince us that the nation is behind United?) makes the job so much easier.
Matt Holt, Edinburgh


...Falling Out Of Loathe With United? Whatever next, perhaps I should stop listening to the biased ITV commentary without irritation or maybe just go all the way and invite Dwight Yorke round to entertain my girlfriend whilst I'm out.
Ian (A Liverpool fan)


He's The Gaffer
Re: Yesterday's Discussion Forum debate on classic Keggy Keegle quotes. If I am not mistaken, Keegan was the "expert" summariser on a broadcast match some years ago and was fascinated by what one of the managers was going to tell his players at half-time. He was heard to say: "I'd love to be a mole on the wall in the home dressing room during the interval".
Phil Morris


The Double Life Of Ashley Ward
Get yourself the current Sports Illustrated Swimwear edition. After you have finished perving up, check out the feature 'Hugging the Shore'. The credits read: 'Swimsuit by blah, hair by blah blah, makeup by Ashley Ward'. Could AW's off the pitch activities by affecting his form?
Marcus Williamson, Oxford


Why Sheffield Wednesday SHOULD Be In Europe After All
I say this as a total hypocrite; what a wonderful decision it was by UEFA to offer a place in its self-named cup competition to the winner of the Fair Play League. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it (as long as Sheffield Wednesday finish top) and I'm no brain surgeon, but how the hell is it calculated?

Within our team, and in the realms of top class football, we had a player suspended for the most amount of time since the "attempted murder" by Eric Cantona. We also have a goalkeeper who seems to pride himself on trying to get sent off every week; a striker who is slower than the first-ever Ford Tractor and is inevitably cautioned week in week out for swinging his leg ten seconds after the ball has been cleared; a brilliant little Italian, who undoubtedly is more talented than his fellow countryman Franco Zola, but still has yet to learn that you aren't allowed to tell the ref that his wife reminds him of David Mellor!!

All in all, I simply can't believe that, however much I love the Owls, and however much I'll pay through the teeth to watch them, they deserve European football next year. Surely this one last UEFA cup place should go to a team who has battled all season to finish in that elusive fifth place? Let's face it, it is quite an achievement.

But having said that, who is in that position to finish fifth? West Ham United? No thanks! Can you imagine Trevor Brooking on Match of the Day? Would we ever hear the end of how "absolutely breath-taking" West Ham United are? The only thing breath-taking about them is when you walk the local streets that are full of empty kebab wrappers and stray rabid animals that try to p*ss on your leg (oh, and the dogs try to do that as well!) and the stench makes you heave. And can you imagine the likes of Ajax and Milan, with their ultra-modern 50,000-plus stadiums visiting the ramshackle Boleyn Ground, it would be an embarrassment to the British public. No, I believe West Ham are better suited to minor clubs, such as Barnsley and Sheffield United, rather than Barcelona and Juventus.

Middlesbrough? Please spare us! Don't put Gazza on the world stage. There once was a day when Gazza would indeed have taken Europe by storm, but can you picture it in the bland surroundings of the dreary North-East club - no neither can I? The kind of football sported by Middlesbro would only seek to remind our European critics that British football has in fact not moved forward since the days of Billy Bremner and his fellow lynch mob at Leeds United. Stick to yo-yoing the divisions, lads.

Aston Villa? Now, being a Wednesday supporter, I can relate to the Villa Park faithful. Always playing second fiddle in the media to Manchester United, Liverpool and the London clubs. Being told that "Manchester United weren't at full throttle today", when in reality, they were simply the second-best team on the day and deserved to lose. The simple fact is that; Villa, why bother playing in Europe? When you get to the final the TV channels won't bother showing it, instead we'll be treated to a re-run of War of the Monster Trucks, or the pilot showing of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em! And that'll be Sky Sports!!

Now The Owls. I haven't a shadow of a doubt that if we do manage to squirm our way into this prestigious football event, it will be enjoyed by 75% of South Yorkshire, and ridiculed by the rest of the country. Do we give a toss? Do we f*ck! Bring on Europe. Bring on the World. And up yours to that moaning git Harry Redknapp!!!
Duncan Riley - Loyal, Passionate Owl


All-Stars And Stripes
Now I'm not the biggest fan of American ideas, but instead of the Charity Shield couldn't we have an All-Star game like in the NBA? I reckon this would be a great idea and pull in a massive audience. Instead of East versus West in America we could have North versus South or something. The players participating could be voted for by the public as well as managers. Wot do ya think, eh?
Francis, West London


Baaad News
Is it true that Wimbledon have it written into their contracts that if they lose by five goals, they eat at a restaurant of Sam Hamman's choice, where they serve raw sheep's brains and the like?
Chris Lord


POSTINGS TO OUR DISCUSSION FORUM
Eat football! Sleep football! Talk bollocks in our mighty Discussion Forum!

The Eloquence Of The English
The contrast between British and European football was thrown into sharp focus when, asked what he thought about former Spurs boss Christian Gross, Frenchman David Ginola told The Sun: "When we were together every day it was like being with a woman you don't love anymore. You have to eat with them in the kitchen. There is silence and sometimes there are rows. When you get a new manager it is like being with a new woman." Asked exactly the same question, sometime England keeper Ian Walker said Gross was: "A w*nker."
Blue Nose


Best Strip In The Premiership
Man Utd.
Bone

...Bollox, it's got to be the famous blue and white halves.
Blackburn Original

...It wasn't Giggs' against Arsenal.
Bobby Moore-Lower


I Was Just Thinking...
Has anyone else ever thought what a stupid name Tottenham Hotspur is for a football club? Surely this has gone un-noticed for years.
Despair Squid

...No. not really! Tottenham = the place where were set up and the 'Hotspur' comes from 'Harry Hotspur'.
Neil

...So who is Harry Hotspur?
Mat

...Harry Hotspur was a great English warrior.
Neil

...Err, no he wasn't.
Mat

...A traitor to the flag killed fighting Henry IV, actually. Tottenham took on his name, possibly as a tribute to traitors everywhere. Harry Hotspur was not a hero.
Bobby Moore-Lower

...They've got a very appropriate manager then.
Gayle (o.g.)


Worst Ground In The Premiership
Villa Park.
Bone

...The Dell.
Royal

...Agreed. Leicester a close second.
Bobby Moore-Lower

...First thing Southampton have won since Alex Stepney waved the ball into the net in 1976.
Navigator


Why Are American Kids So Freaked Up?
Did you all read about those tw*ts shooting all the kids, 25 feared dead? Anyway, Charlton looked doomed, shame really.
Sky Blue Through & Through