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St Valentine’s Day Massacre

Clik The Mouse

Tuesday, February 15th, 2005

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 No, not the result
though 5-1 versus Palace
was emphatic enough

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 No, not the number of bulls
butchered
for the burgers

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 No, not the prawns
sandwiched
between gluttony and greed

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 No, not the grapes
harvested in Champaigne
for the flutes ‘n suits

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 No, not the English language
as spoken from foreign tongues
with a respectful fluency

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 For this massacre :
no Englishman
was lined up against the wall and shot

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 But how else should we explain
their extinction
in a 16 man squad?

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Injury and illness, account for three
a loan spell for another –
but the rest? Barren times for the game’s mother.

© Clik the mouse, 14th February 2005

Notes

Last night, 14/2/2005, in their match versus Crystal Palace, Arsenal fielded the first foreign 16-man squad in English football history, because Ashley Cole was ill and Sol Campbell and Justin Hoyte were out injured.

Jermaine Pennant is out on loan to Birmingham. And Stuart Taylor is only 3rd choice keeper.

Arsenal’s 16-man squad against Palace featured six Frenchmen, three Spaniards, two Dutchmen, one Cameroon international, one German, one Ivory Coast international, one Brazilian and one Swiss national.

Even when Chelsea fielded the first overseas line-up in English football at Southampton on Boxing Day 1999, there were still four young English players on the bench – Jody Morris, Jon Harley, John Terry and Mark Nicholls.

At Arsenal, meanwhile, only Cole has come through the ranks to become a first-team regular in recent seasons, although Matthew Upson has played for England since moving to Birmingham.

NB – this is not intended to be xenophobic.
More an observation, of the very point that UEFA is trying to address
with it’s latest proposal of clubs having to have a percentage of home grown talent within it’s squad for European competitions (and internal league competitions).

This proposal is likely to be stonewalled due to Freedom of Employment rules within the EU.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/st-valentines-day-massacre/