Monday, February 25, 2008

Arsenal's Eduardo Career in Doubt; What of Martin Taylor?

Eduardo's horrific injury ended his season--perhaps his career. It has also given Arsenal a rallying cry, if you're to believe Mathieu Flamini, who is invoking the spirit of George Gipp and wants to win one for Eduardo.

Flamini says he'll never forget what he saw on the field Saturday and he told the media that he may never get over the incident which left the Brazilian-born Croatian with a compound fracture of his leg.

"We wanted to win it before, but now we want to win it also for him. Eduardo is not going to be with us for a long time so, of course, we want to win it for him."

Now I'm 50-50 on whether to use such incidents as inspiration for winning or crutch for losing.
But right now with Arsenal sliding and United relentless in its pursuit of the treble (Premiership, FA Cup, Champions League), one could hardly blame the Gunners for pulling out all stops.
The other issue here is what happens to Martin Taylor. the Birmingham captain is being assailed from all fronts, some calling for lifetime bans, others for 12 months and worse cries from still others.

The tackle was shocking; the intent hardly malicious. Regardless, Taylor will likely be made an example of. Sadly, people are never proactive in such cases. Football officials had to wait for a tragedy before getting tough on vicious tackles and hard fouls.

From other blogs:
Here's a great take on the Taylor tackle.

Arsenal FC blog has more on the win it for Eduardo theme.

101 Great Goals argues that Eduardo's career is worth more than a three-game suspension for Taylor.

Talking for Arsenal has some well wishes for Eduardo.

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