'Memries' February 13th 1999, the day we all loved Steve Bruce!

[Grecian2000]

Although that game is the only thing I can probably genuinely remember about his manager reign other than every fucker being sold.

Things I remember about his reign:

Michael Bridges ending his time as "player manager".
The Arsenal disgrace.
A stand up bust up with Colin when Mark Patterson took out Kachouro at the knees, in front of the dugouts, and Colin applauded him enthusiastically.

That's about it really.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Things I remember about his reign:

Michael Bridges ending his time as "player manager".
The Arsenal disgrace.
A stand up bust up with Colin when Mark Patterson took out Kachouro at the knees, in front of the dugouts, and Colin applauded him enthusiastically.

That's about it really.

I vividly recall him giving his post-match interview on Radio Sheffield at Loftus Road after John Deehan had been arrested.

 

[Revolution]

Things I remember about his reign:

Michael Bridges ending his time as "player manager".
The Arsenal disgrace.
A stand up bust up with Colin when Mark Patterson took out Kachouro at the knees, in front of the dugouts, and Colin applauded him enthusiastically.

That's about it really.

Getting drenched at Oxford as we won away for the first time in a year was the most memorable game for me that season. Wettest I've ever been at a game.

Kachouro's sudden burst of form after a dreadful 1997-8 before getting badly injured was also noteworthy.

 

[TheFlashingBlade]

If Wenger wanted to be fair-minded, he should have instructed his team to let us score an equaliser straight away.

That’s what other managers have done in similar incidents.

I can’t believe Wenger and Arsenal get so much credit for being sporting when it was in their hands to make full amends immediately.

Wenger did not want to be fair minded at all. My best mate, who is an Arsenal fan, was sitting next to David Dein (Arsenal's vice-Chairman) at the game (he was helping Arsenal get a new shirt sponsorship deal at the time) and as soon as the goal went in Dein turned to him and said "this is terrible - Arsenal's good name will be dragged through the mud and it will wipe millions off the value of any deal" and he sent a directive down to order Wenger to offer us a replay. That is why we were offered a replay - for commercial-minded, not fair-minded, reasons.

I wasn't at the original game (I was in a hospital at my daughter's birth) but was at the replay and when Wenger was given his special "AXA Spirit of the Cup" award for his wonderful and unique gesture of sportsmanship I was frothing at the mouth telling anyone who would listen what had really happened.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Kachouro's sudden burst of form after a dreadful 1997-8 before getting badly injured was also noteworthy.

I mentioned yesterday the brief and lethal Porter-Miller partnership as they both played together and scored last night for Crewe. I think they got 6 in 4 games in 2012/13.

I liken that to the similarly briefly effective Saunders-Katchouro spell, which saw 9 in 7 up to the aforementioned QPR game where Katman was sent off, Deehan was arrested, and Saunders was sold. Part of the disastrous Sunderland game that followed saw Katchouro pick up a serious injury – he never recaptured that form for us.

 

[Revolution]

I mentioned yesterday the brief and lethal Porter-Miller partnership as they both played together and scored last night for Crewe. I think they got 6 in 4 games in 2012/13.

I liken that to the similarly briefly effective Saunders-Katchouro spell, which saw 9 in 7 up to the aforementioned QPR game where Katman was sent off, Deehan was arrested, and Saunders was sold. Part of the disastrous Sunderland game that followed saw Katchouro pick up a serious injury – he never recaptured that form for us.

I went to the QPR game. 2-0 up in no time and then an hour of hanging on.

Kachouro only scored one more goal after his injury. He had a very odd career at the Lane.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Wenger did not want to be fair minded at all. My best mate, who is an Arsenal fan, was sitting next to David Dein (Arsenal's vice-Chairman) at the game (he was helping Arsenal get a new shirt sponsorship deal at the time) and as soon as the goal went in Dein turned to him and said "this is terrible - Arsenal's good name will be dragged through the mud and it will wipe millions off the value of any deal" and he sent a directive down to order Wenger to offer us a replay. That is why we were offered a replay - for commercial-minded, not fair-minded, reasons.

I wasn't at the original game (I was in a hospital at my daughter's birth) but was at the replay and when Wenger was given his special "AXA Spirit of the Cup" award for his wonderful and unique gesture of sportsmanship I was frothing at the mouth telling anyone who would listen what had really happened.

It was also a game where they had initially rested Anelka and had Adams unavailable. They knew in making the offer that they certainly wouldn’t be resting anyone, and would have Adams back for it. It felt tokenistic – our only decent chance to win that at Highbury was there on that day. We weren’t going to be afforded that good an opportunity 2nd time up, not unless we had home advantage.

 

[Harry's Game]

Ahh Bruce. Only manager I genuinely sympathised with, understood why he resigned.

Yes he had been tapped up by Huddersfield.

 

[Revolution]

Yes he had been tapped up by Huddersfield.

Plus he had been lied to by the board re funds available when he took the job, and then had a number of players (Stuart, Holdsworth, Borbokis, Saunders) sold against his wishes.

 

[Roygbiv]

My most memorable thing of that season was the 4-0 home drubbing against Sunderland. I think Bruce took himself off that day and never played again.

I was still in school and went to loads of away days that season but only saw us win once against Notts Country in the cup replay. I also went to the Bury away game when we drew 3-3 and Warnock wore a United tie.

 

[JJ Sefton]

I was there with friends on the Arsenal end. Not much fun. Someone at my school was having an 18th birthday party that night at Epping Forest Country Club and I turned up, rat arsed, with a United scarf tied round my head.

 

[Eddiecolquhounsleg]

That might be the case, those are decades I either wasn’t alive or not yet a fan, but I’d have said it was about as novel a concept to the game as the backpass rule. This was 1999 – it was not something new, and the outrage at the time was completely fair. I genuinely don’t think I’ve been more angry at a game before.

I don't want to get involved with the minutiae of when this convention came in but the back pass rule is enshrined in the laws of the game and if I was bothered I could probably find out when it came in. Kicking the ball out was a convention then and is still a convention now and it needs eradicating from the game by using the existing laws that adequately cover injuries.
Why should a full back, say, 70 yards from a player lying on the floor, his own or the opposition, be expected to know what injury that player is suffering from, if any, and then make an unqualified medical decision that that player needs treatment and kick the ball out of play? Referees should referee the game. It's what they are paid to do.
All this has done has made the divers and shirkers able to control the game knowing that if they go down somebody will kick the ball out.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Why should a full back, say, 70 yards from a player lying on the floor, his own or the opposition, be expected to know what injury that player is suffering from, if any, and then make an unqualified medical decision that that player needs treatment and kick the ball out of play?

You’re confusing two very different things here – an opponent stopping the game by kicking the ball out vs an opponent giving the ball back after an injury stoppage. There were several minutes of delay for treatment to Morris, it was clear that this was a delay for injury, and clear to nearly all about what should be done afterwards.

 

[Eddiecolquhounsleg]

You’re confusing two very different things here – an opponent stopping the game by kicking the ball out vs an opponent giving the ball back after an injury stoppage. There were several minutes of delay for treatment to Morris, it was clear that this was a delay for injury, and clear to nearly all about what should be done afterwards.

I'm not confused. Surely kicking the ball out is then followed by giving the ball back to the opposition? They are not mutually exclusive. And remember the kicking out can be done by your own team or the opposition.
The point I am trying to make, however badly, is that the kicking out/passing back is only a convention. There are no specific words in the laws of the game that covers this situation and is therefore open to interpretation.
That's why we see crowds baying for the ball to be kicked out when a player is down, but there is no duty on that player to do so. Some refs let players kick the ball out, others tell players to kick the ball out, but why should they?
No individual player should have to make a value judgement on whether one of his own teammates, or a member of the opposition, is injured while the ball is in play. That should be left to the ref to determine if any injury is sufficient fo the game to be stopped , and for that player to receive treatment, then restart the game with a drop ball.
I would like that to be contested, but I can see why the ref would restart with an uncontested drop ball.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Why should a full back, say, 70 yards from a player lying on the floor, his own or the opposition, be expected to know what injury that player is suffering from, if any, and then make an unqualified medical decision that that player needs treatment and kick the ball out of play?

I'm not confused. Surely kicking the ball out is then followed by giving the ball back to the opposition? They are not mutually exclusive. And remember the kicking out can be done by your own team or the opposition.

I don’t want to get into a back and forth on this but I only made the distinction because you raised the point quoted above in relation to the Kanu/Overmars incident. This wasn’t about someone the other end of the pitch not realising a player was injured. It is different for a player making an in-play judgment compared to one after 5 minutes of play being stopped.

No individual player should have to make a value judgement on whether one of his own teammates, or a member of the opposition, is injured while the ball is in play.

I completely agree, because as shown by the game at Highbury players cannot be trusted to do the right thing. It’s why the ref now dictates what happens.

 

[Eddiecolquhounsleg]

I don’t want to get into a back and forth on this but I only made the distinction because you raised the point quoted above in relation to the Kanu/Overmars incident. This wasn’t about someone the other end of the pitch not realising a player was injured. It is different for a player making an in-play judgment compared to one after 5 minutes of play being stopped.



I completely agree, because as shown by the game at Highbury players cannot be trusted to do the right thing. It’s why the ref now dictates what happens.

Me neither. But this discussion is exactly why the whole "kick the ball out" thing is a fiasco.
The actual laws of the game can be bad enough, but these type of "rules", made up on the hoof, and over a long period of time, just bring the game into disrepute.
Think I will leave it there.

 

[JOEYDEE]

We should have told Arsenal to shove the replay offer up their arse!
Without that "goal",it was 1-1,Wenger knew that Arsenal would likely win the replay at home,but not so sure at BDTBL.
where,it should have rightly been played.
Wenger and Dein must have been laughing their cocks off !!

 

[PokerBlade]

It really annoyed me that people bought into that excuse that Kanu didn't know about the English convention when Overmars is the one that, instead of telling him, makes a run and knocks it into the goal.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

If Wenger wanted to be fair-minded, he should have instructed his team to let us score an equaliser straight away.

That’s what other managers have done in similar incidents.

I can’t believe Wenger and Arsenal get so much credit for being sporting when it was in their hands to make full amends immediately.

Football London website describes the incident as “hilarious”.

Ray Parlour admits they should have let us score but still thinks “we done the right thing”!

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/ray-parlour-nwankwo-kanu-arsenal-15822909