Search: 'Martin Hayes'
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Since playing a key role in Arsène's 1998 triumphs, this former Arsenal striker has become virtually anonymous and also larger than life, as Ian Davey discovered
“Riding along on the Christ-oph-er Wreh” went the memorable anthem conceived in honour of the Liberian striker who arrived at Arsenal in 1997. He was so good, in fact, that Arsène Wenger signed him twice (he had taken him to Monaco when he was just 14); and he was even supposed to be cousin of a former World Footballer of the Year, George Weah.
Dear WSC
In his article Mind the Gap (WSC 209), which celebrated a rise in attendances in what used to be Division Two, Ed Parkinson did confess that as a fan of promoted Hartlepool he might be viewing the league with rose-tinted spectacles. Having read the article, I feel he must have gone the whole hog and had a full rose-tinted laser eye operation. Having witnessed many games in this division last season and having seen all the teams play at least once, I can honestly say that the standard of football never exceeded mediocre. Plymouth were the only good footballing side and they didn’t look anywhere near as good once Paul Sturrock swapped addresses on the south coast. As well as attributing the rise in attendances to what he considered to be “fine football”, Ed also noted that the struggles of “a few self-styled big clubs” such as Sheffield Wednesday provided pleasure for many. However, average attendances in Division Two were only up 6.5 per cent on the previous year and, with an average home attendance of 22,000 (almost twice that of any other team in the Division and four times more than Hartlepool), is it not more likely that it was the presence of “self-styled big club” Sheffield Wednesday that caused the upsurge in attendances rather than the alleged quality of the football?
Stuart Thorpe, via email
Do you ever see a picture of a player and come up confidently with half a dozen names for him? Matt Nation knows the feeling, especially with one former Arsenal man
A recent article on European Union expansion highlighted the problems Slovenia faces in trying to convince people that it is who it says it is. People who try to point it out on a map usually end up putting their finger on Serbia & Montenegro. The flag gets confused with the Russian one. Even George W is convinced Slovenia is half of what used to be Czechoslovakia.
Dear WSC
There’s something that’s puzzling me about this year’s title race. In every previous season when Manchester United have been trailing by a stack of points Alex Ferguson has talked about the opposition “doing a Devon Loch”. This season he hasn’t mentioned that unfortunate horse once, though. It’s almost as if he’s lost all enthusiasm for racing.
Chris Front, Redcar