Dropping a Rickett –double standards

By Boris Mellor
July 2 2005

When it comes to English players there is a double standard applied to Arsenal. We should hang on to any player, however below standard they may be, if they are English.

Should they be released this will be greeted with a great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Arsenal will be told, by some that it is proof that Arsenal is the French National Team. No doubt matches between Liverpool and ourselves will be advertised as France v Spain. However I digress let’s get back to the double standards.

Apparently, according to some, Wenger spends his time plotting how to do down great English talent. Why he should do this is beyond me, but it’s not my theory so I do not have to justify it. But it even affects some Arsenal fans, so last year when Arsenal dispensed with the services of Rohan Ricketts a minority felt Wenger had made a great mistake. Thus the issue was raised at the shareholders annual meeting given Hill Wood the chance to practice his one liners. "He might be good enough for Tottenham," said Hill-Wood, causing guffaws of glee.

I even met Spurs fans who told me what a great coup they had made, but it turned out they were wrong. Unfortunately, he has not been retained by Tottenham. But no great hoo ha now, or even the admittance that Arsenal had evaluated his talent correctly.

The Double Standard

So when Arsenal let a player go its refusing to give English players a chance, but if Spurs let Ricketts go, that’s a normal run of affairs. Jeffers complained he didn’t get a chance at Highbury and the press sympathised, but he fared no better at Everton or Charlton, but without the sympathy from the press. I genuinely hoped that both players had succeeded, and in Jeffers’ case suspect he might have squandered his own talent. Football is a cruel competitive sport, especially when you don’t make the grade. But it’s not just at Arsenal that these standards are applied, as Ricketts and Jeffers have sadly discovered

That a UEFA rule will attempt to make clubs keep players on the basis of residence rather than talent is crass. A club takes on a player at 15, there is no guarantee that by 18-19 they will have made the grade. But clubs may feel pressure to keep sub standard players to keep to the rules. That really will be a double standard, and it will damage the game.

If they are good enough, whatever the passport, they will come through, if they are not, but still play because of quotas, I can’t imagine fans, paying the prices they have to pay for the Premiership, being that happy