It's Caused Some Lively Debate.....

Me and a mate were having a discussion about this yesterday. Villa supporters were chanting about Eduardo having a simliar walk to Heather Mills and the Arsenal fans close to our section reacted big time.

One Villa supporter who more than lilely wasn't even involved, ended up in hospital after being thrown down some stairs. When Curtis Davies ended up being stretchered off many Arsenal fans cheered - two wrongs making a right then?

There were Villa fans away at Wigan the season before last singing about Karen Brady having a tumour - Villa fans or not, they made me sick and I'd have happily gone over and taken on every one of them because they crossed a line which had nothing to do with football anyway. That wasn't a "football related injury" - that was a life threatening illness to a woman they decided to mock because of where she works.

The injury to the Arsenal lad was not nice at all but is unfortunately part of the game. The Spurs fans were already making up songs at Wembley just hours after it happened. The difference to me is that the player will be well looked after for the next 6/9 months, his life isn't at risk and he'll be back and scoring goals again before we know it. He hasn't got to worry about his job or where his next pay-packet comes from.

So yeah, the songs may be in very poor taste but it ain't the end of the world. Remember, 15 years ago this probably wouldn't have come up for discussion.

Times have changed and along with Sky - football supporters have changed too. Currently there is a mix of everyone, families, lads, women, singers, non-singers, those that want to stand etc. The song is bound to offend - some, like me will agree it's tastless but it's banter - the same banter that's gone on for the last 25 years I've been going to games.

...and while I'm at it, where was the wall-to-wall media coverage for Mark Delaney after Carlos Bocanegra's horror-tackle at Fulham a few years back? No great outcry for Bocanegra to be banned for life despite the fact his "challenge" was ten times worse than that of Martin Taylor's. Taylor can honestly hold his hand up and say it was an accident - Bocanegra can't.

I hope this makes a little sense. As a football supporter through the 80's, 90's and 00's I don't find chants like the Eduardo one funny at all but I don't think it should spark mass hysteria, or indeed one of our own ending up in Hospital. Remember, if you do find it all too much, don't ever laugh at someone else's misfortune, or at the next text message you get that's sligtly racist, sexist or offensive in any way.

According to the author "Fabregas The King" (Guffaw, Guffaw) of this piece on an Arsenal Website Eduardo must have died and the world could be about to end. He's clearly never heard his own singing anti-semitic songs about Spurs ever. It's worth reading, if only for the high drama of it all. Who's the more deserving of being called "scum" - People who sing songs, or ones who throw coins and chuck people down stairs?

For what it's worth from me: Get well soon Eduardo. Equally and more so get well soon Curtis Davies.

Anyway, supporters always feed on someone else's problems - that goalie for Oxford United will never forget 90 minutes of torture at The Manor Ground when we beat them in the League Cup, and he'll never get over his baldness either!

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