Respectfully Yours

There can be no consolation for losing a game like the Champions League final, but Arsenal players, officials and fans would have appreciated the generous remarks of Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard, who has conducted himself with great dignity during his time at the club.

Unfortunately Rijkaard’s courtesy and dignity also served to highlight the absence of those qualities in some of his players. In addition to the crowd who surrounded the referee and plied him with card waving gestures designed to reinforce the prospect of Jens Lehmann’s dismissal in the 18th minute, there were the kickers (led by that consummate ‘tapper of ankles’, the distasteful Marc Van Bommel), the divers (Bommel included) and the flagrant time wasters (which, disappointingly, included Henrik Larrson).

The only comfort for Arsenal is that, in their eccentric way, all of these transgressions demonstrated a degree of respect for, and perhaps even fear of, Arsenal which surpassed anything their coach may have felt – and may yet influence Thierry Henry’s deliberations about his future.