If Nani felt that his showboating against Arsenal during Manchester United’s 4-0 win on Saturday would earn him more than Arsenal defender William Gallas’ leg, then he was right. But he must have certainly thought that he would be lauded by everyone; instead he is actually being criticized for it, even by his own manager.
Ironic, isn’t it? But Arsenal midfielder Gilberto is in no mood to get entangled into any philosophic and aesthetic rumbling about how Nani’s intuition added a touch of glamour to the match. The Brazilian defensive midfielder says:
It was important for us we didn’t lose control and lose another man.
I just spoke to him(Nani) and told him it wasn’t necessary for him to do that. I told him he could get a bad kick doing that.
In these type of situations I do my best to calm down my team-mates because we need all of them on the pitch to fight for the team.
No wonder that the Premiership is devoid of much of the aestheticism and spectacle that football actually is. Had Nani been exhibiting that trick in Spain, he would have been hitting the headlines all week for his sorcery.
Caughtoffside.com – Sports blog, Football blog offering Football news