Benitez goes “beyond the pale” again
2 comments April 23rd, 2009
It’ll be no surprise to you that just two days after our topsy-turvy clash with Liverpool, I’m still talking about that game. You might, however, expect me to talk about the stunning individual display of Andrey Arshavin, or the fact that the draw was yet another vital step towards Champions League qualification.
Sadly, I can’t. Instead, I find myself fixating on a gesture made by Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez after Arshavin’s second goal, which drew the game level at 2-2. Benitez clearly raised his hands in the air and clapped them together, as I hope the technology at my disposal (Sky+, an iPhone, and MS Paint) will demonstrate:
Now it could be argued that Benitez was clapping his hands in frustration at his own side’s poor defending. However, I believe it is in fact clear that the Liverpool manager is figuratively suggesting that the diminuitive Arshavin is a fly, whilst the ‘clap’ is instead a poorly concealed mime of squashing the tiny forward between his fat Spanish palms.
I hoped in his Sky interview after the game, Benitez would clarify these gestures. I think you’ll see them as pretty dismissive to Andrey and to Arsenal’s team as a whole. I think they are disrespectful and quite humiliating.
Apparently a devastated Arshavin waited to have a word with Rafa Benitez in his room after the game but as usual, and unfortunately, he didn’t turn up.
I was hugely disappointed by those gestures and having re-looked at them this morning I think I’m right and I think everyone will see why I’m complaining.
Arrogance is one thing. You cannot forgive contempt, which is what Benitez showed Arshavin on Tuesday night.
In my experience no Liverpool manager has ever done that. It was beyond the pale.