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the curse o’ Andy D’Urso

in the 2002 / 2003 Premiership season
a certain Frenchman, lost all sense of reason
for in the closing stages of the League
Arsenal let slip, a comfortable eight point lead

but Arsene Wenger, would like it to be known
that it had nothing to do, with Martin Keown
no, despite his ill-timed o.g.
the fault lies squarely, with a referee

and neither was the bizzare own goal by Kaolo Toure
the reason why the rival reds, were busily singing ‘hooray!’
and Sol Campbell’s elbow so errant
didn’t fit the bill, for our Gallic pedant

no, no, you see
it was all the fault, of ONE referee

it was nothing to do with an arrogance, a swagger
over-confidence, surely? no, we have it wrong, it was a dagger;
a stab in the back
from a man ‘formerly in black’

nor did the season hinge, on the form of a goalkeeping icon
as the Gallic Master was quick to refute, with the tv mic on
no, he announced loud and clear, Seaman was no Nemesis
it was the presence of a certain match controller, on the premises

so there’s definately one arbiter, dropped from his Christmas card list
as Wenger regales, on all the bad tackles missed
that lead to crippling injuries, to a crop of star players
the reason for which, he attributed to whistling betrayers

it couldn’t be, could it? that all the ups and downs
could have been curtailed, without the Upson frowns
when a glaring lack of cover, in the centre of defence
ultimately brought failure and an attitude intense?

no, no, you see
it was all the fault, of THAT referee

one in particular, shoulders the blame
a whole season’s misfortune, condensed, all in one game

for it was the man with the whistle
who caused Arsene to bristle
and so I daresay Mr D’Urso
will never be Wenger’s favourite perso n.


rhymes can be so contrived these days!

as can the excuses from bitter football managers – Arsene Wenger lost a lot of friends with his sore loser stance.

He was particularly upset with the following match :

April 26th 2003
Bolton 2 Arsenal 2
h-t 0-0
Bolton scorers : Djorkaeff, Keown og
Arsenal scorers : Wiltord, Pires
Arsenal were 2-0 up!
Referee : Andy D’Urso

Laville of Bolton was sent off in the last minute, but Arsenal were unhappy with the number of heavy tackles that were committed before that

Manchester United went on to win the League that season.
Earlier in the campaign, reserve centre back Matthew Upson was sold to Birmingham City. By the end of the season he had made his debut for England.

Source: https://footballpoets.org/news/2003/06/24/the-curse-o-andy-durso/