Source: Daily_Mail
Piers Morgan: High Noon showdown will decide Arsene Wenger's fate at Arsenal
John Terry, as I said last week, had to be sacked as England captainand Fabio Capello's firm decisive action is to be applauded. But let mestress that my rationale was not based on any of the dubious high moralgrounds being espoused by some of my former journalist colleagues. Mosttabloid reporters' private lives, trust me, make footballers look likeMother Teresa. [LNB]No, what Terry does sexually, and to whom, is entirely his affair.Until, and this is the crucial distinction, it directly conflicted withhis ability to lead the team.[LNB]And short of him seducing Signor Capello's wife into a foursome withKatie Price and Alex Reid, it's hard to imagine a more intolerableprofessional lapse than him cuckolding his potential World Cupdefensive partner's girlfriend. [LNB]To be brutally honest, though, my personal interest is rather morefixed on Terry's ability to lead his Chelsea against Arsenal today thanhis future with England. Because today's clash at Stamford Bridge hasmassive significance.[LNB]Caught in a storm: Arsene Wenger must be feeling the pressure[LNB]There are many wonderful scenes in High Noon,my favourite Western. But few better than when Gary Cooper's character,Marshal Will Kane, initially leaves town before the big showdown,saying: 'This is crazy, I don't even have any guns.' [LNB]Arsene Wenger must have felt like that as he left the Emirates lastSunday. His Arsenal side had been outplayed, outmuscled and outclassedby a rampant Rooney-led Manchester United. Just as we were by Chelseaat home a few weeks ago. [LNB]And the mood among the natives trudging down the Holloway Road wasdangerously mutinous. 'Wenger's lost it,' was the general view.[LNB]The manager's stubborn refusal to sign anyone but creaking old SolCampbell in the transfer window seemed to have been exposed asconfirmation that his Gallic marbles had finally slid off the tray. Andfor a few hours, I agreed. [LNB]It wasn't the losing so much as the way we lost. I don't mind beingbeaten by an obviously superior team. But this was, on paper, theweakest United side that I can remember coming to us for a long time.Yet they still destroyed us.[LNB] More from Piers Morgan On Sport... Piers Morgan: It's all over for captain John Terry. Now Fabio Capello should turn to Wayne Rooney30/01/10 Piers Morgan: Surely it's time to put the awful Gary Neville out of his misery23/01/10 Piers Morgan: Thierry Henry's the Arsenal old boy Arsene Wenger really needs16/01/10 Piers Morgan: Here's to Alexander the Great - not Coyle the betrayer09/01/10 Best of British: Morgan on Sport award for the Football Personality of the Year26/12/09 PIERS MORGAN: Ashton's a good guy, he doesn't deserve such a cruel fate12/12/09 Piers Morgan: My team of the decade... and there's no place for you, Keano05/12/09 PIERS MORGAN: Chelsea star Nicolas 'Le Sulk' Anelka shows my Dad was right all along28/11/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE And it wasn't a lack of talent that made us succumb the likes ofAndrey Arshavin, Cesc Fabregas and Thomas Vermaelen would walk into anyXI it was worse than that, it was a lack of heart.[LNB]We were, frankly, pathetically spineless. A horde of mice against apack of lions. United looked hungrier, nastier and more determined.[LNB]Watching Nani ravage our left flank of Denilson and Gael Clichy waslike watching a panther toy with two dumb antelopes. Add Manuel Almuniato the mix a goalkeeper who instils about as much confidence as recovering sexaholic Russell Brand telling poor,unsuspecting Katy Perry: 'You're the only one for me, luv' the lackof any proper striker at all and poor performances from our starplayers, and the whole day turned into a hideous nightmare. [LNB]Then a strange thing happened. I woke up on Monday morning, checkedthe Premier League table and realised that we were still only fivepoints behind Chelsea, and further, that we were due to play them today.[LNB]And the sheer importance of this game suddenly hit me.[LNB]It's not just going to decide whether we can win the Premier League this season (lose, and we go a surely irretrievable nine points behind), but I suspect it might also decide Wenger's chances of surviving much longer as manager. The cups have gone, we have no chance of winning the Champions League Barcelona may as well be given the trophy now, such is their majestic magnificence and all we have left is the Premier League to break what will be an intolerable five-year run without silverware.[LNB]And the fact is that most Arsenal fans have run out of patience. They don't want to hear any more talk of 'transition', they want results. [LNB]Wenger's kids have now grown up, he's refused all entreaties to buy in any more big players and resolutely insisted that this squad is good enough to win the League. Now, he must deliver on that pledge. [LNB]And that, I believe, means that this game is Wenger's own High Noon. And I think that he knows it, which is why he cancelled all leave for the first team this week after the United debacle and read them the riot act.[LNB]The positive news, though, is that, as Marshal Kane discovered, sometimes you don't have to have the most guns to win. You just need the most guts, determination, focus and spirit.[LNB]At High 6pm tonight, we will see whether Marshal Wenger still has it in him to inspire his players to the passion and desire that it takes to win a gunfight.[LNB] [LNB]Avram and Roman, the odd coupleI was having dinner, as the token man, with nine glamorous women at Zuma restaurant (hey, anything John Terry can do, I can do better) in London's Knightsbridge last week, when I spied two familiar faces at a nearby table.[LNB]Both of them were chuckling away, seemingly without a care in the world, as highly expensive food and wine arrived throughout the evening. [LNB]One was Roman Abramovich, the other was Portsmouth boss Avram Grant. [LNB] Old pals' act: Grant and Abramovich have a chuckle at Chelsea's training ground[LNB]The former had just been given the green light to spend further hundreds of millions on transfer deals after all (after Chelsea were cleared of any wrongdoing over the signing of French teenager Gael Kakuta), while the latter had just been given the green light by his wife to have as many naughty Thai massages as he wants (after he'd been photographed emerging from a parlour of disrepute).[LNB]I swear I saw them both mouthing 'Football's the winner!' as they munched their caviar.[LNB] [LNB]Toon get shirt shriftNewcastle's new signing Leon Best has turned down the No 9 shirt because he doesn't think he's earned the right to wear it, yet. [LNB]This might have been true when Alan Shearer's burly frame was tucked inside. But given that the last occupant was the hapless Obafemi Martins, I think young Leon's honourable reluctance is a little misplaced.[LNB] [LNB]Star players in the National Football League in America have been queuing up to donate their brains for medical research into concussion.[LNB]Apparently they were going to try a similar exercise in British football. But after David Beckham, El-Hadji Diouf, Joey Barton and Ashley Cole volunteered their services, the idea was quietly shelved.[LNB] Golfer Phil Mickelson's insistence on using an old wedge to abuse unfairly a glitch in the rules and gain an advantage on his fellow pros has come as no surprise to me.[LNB]The man is renowned as the most annoying player on the circuit. Or as one current giant of the game told me a couple of years ago: 'Mickelson is not just the biggest ***** in golf, he's the biggest ***** in world sporting history.'[LNB] [LNB]Robbie Keane has traipsed off to Celtic and, naturally, we are informed that this is his 'dream' move to the club he has 'always supported'.[LNB]Of course, those of us with slightly longer memories will recall that he spoke of similar 'dream moves' when he first went to Tottenham, then when he went to Liverpool and then when he went back to White Hart Lane again.[LNB]The eternally fantastical Mr Keane has more dreams than Martin Luther King, Barack Obama and Susan Boyle put together.[LNB] [LNB]Have your sayHow I have loved reading your self-deprecating, witty, acerbic columns and books over the years and seeing your charming, good-looking self on TV. But I especially like your vilification of Owen 'Herod' Coyle in recent weeks. Please keep it up.[LNB]NICOLA HARTLEY (Burnley fan)[LNB]Piers says: 'It's always nice to hear from more intelligent, perceptive readers, Nicola. And don't worry about Herod, he's going to cop it from me for a long time to come.'[LNB]Agree about the dull Mike Phelan being sent out to face the cameras. Why does the BBC allow itself to be degraded by Sir Alex? It should just refuse Phelan and keep the reporting one-sided, like Ferguson's own one-eyed reading of games?[LNB]RAY MUDIE[LNB]Piers says: 'I like your thinking. Or just interview Carlos Tevez about United after every game?'[LNB]When will you ever snap out of spewing fatuous drivel and cotton on to some horse sense? Forlorn hope. And yes, it was a hypophora.[LNB]JENNIFER, LIVERPOOL[LNB]Piers says: 'If you want to try to bamboozle me with long words, then forget it, Jennifer. Not only did I study Latin and Greek at school but I am also one of Britain's great antidisestablishmentarians and prone to floccinaucinihilipilification when it comes to readers like you.'[LNB]Even a marshmallow is harder than you look. [LNB]GEOFF, MANCHESTER[LNB]Piers says: 'Half the world's starving, most of the rest is at war, and you're talking marshmallows, Geoff? Get a grip, man.'[LNB] [LNB]
