Arsenal News 24/7Writer: Rocky7 
Date:Monday February 12 2007
Time: 8:47PM
UK time is: 15:03:27
Choose your club
Other Sites
Network Navigation
Vital Partners
'If It's Football, It's Vital'
Time Wasters Are a Waste Of Time
In the wake of yesterday's home 2-1 win over the pie munchers, we are left with the fall out which is the discussion over time wasting.
After sifting through the papers at work this morning something became glaringly apparent; Small clubs are allowed to cheat when they play big teams.
We have all been party to the arguments between football fans with regards to 'Beauty vs The Beast' on the football pitch & while I'd prefer every team to attempt to play exciting and beautiful football, I can understand a team playing to it's strengths and playing a physical style over the aesthetically pleasing version of the game. However the advocation of time wasting by various publications is infuriating to say the least.
It seems as though a football club of the smaller variety is allowed certain concessions within the game to level the playing field.
Forget the fact that Arsene Wenger and Arsenal have worked long and hard to put the team in the fantastic position we now find ourselves in, most of the footballing world seems content to overlook these small yet annoying discrepancies in order to peg the more spectacular teams back a little.
Whether or not the decision to consistently let these clubs get away with time wasting and other such activities is a conscious one is open to discussion, but there is no denying that the gap between the top four and the rest of the league is large (everyone knows it) and (conspiracy alert) it would not surprise me one jot if the powers that be had sanctioned these decisions in order to bring the teams closer together and make their league more entertaining, and furthermore, more marketable.
However, there is no getting away from the fact that time wasting IS cheating and should be punished accordingly, a rule which was not observed yesterday until Jens Lehmann received a yellow card for his antics that were quite obviously a piss take rather than an attempt to gain an advantage.
The fact that six second half substitutions were made yesterday and only 3 minutes of injury time were played (the rule being an additional 30 seconds to be added per sub) suggests that Dowd was not following the laws of the game. Indeed having farcically booked Jens Lehmann for time wasting, he never actually repaid the clock.
As Mr Stillman correctly pointed out yesterday, football is an expensive hobby, and after forking out a small fortune for tickets, and indeed the scandalous amounts we are forced to pay for our Sky Sports subscriptions, we as fans should be entitled to get what we have paid for......football.
So before the red tops and their fellow morons jump on the 'Same old Arsenal' band wagon, they should seek to stop this cancer that taints our game, and cease penalising big clubs for being successful.
Rant over.
Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Monaco
Your Comments
What a load of *****!!! So it was time wasting when Kirkland did it, but not when Lehman did it. He was just joking around, and he's known for his sense of humour of course!!!!! Seem to remember Arsenal time wasting for the last 30 minutes of an FA cup final against Southampton a couple of years back. But let me guess, that was a totally different situation???!!! Blleedin hell, you people don't half contradict yourselves!
Blade1889
blade1989 - you are of homosexual sexual orientation. lehmann did it once and 'wasted' no more than 30 seconds in retrieving the ball. kirkland was doing it all the game, even in the first half. and anyway lehmann got what he deserved, a yellow for time wasting, so what are you complaining about? i would have to agree with you though - an fa cup final is different to a weekend premiership game. besides, i recall arsenal keeping possession of the ball well (on the pitch) well in the final stages, unlike wigan, who kept the ball out of play for as long as possible. although wigan played well, they got what they deserved for timewasting. btw, what team do you support blade?
karandeep357
What Lehmann did was to point out the obvious ***** taking of Kirkland that had been going on all match, and was penalised for one instance. And when Arsenal waste time it is in a legal way with ball retention, and not farting about with water bottles.
Rocky7
Blade1889, i would have thought you would be busy with your cheating scum of a club to comment on others. Elbows from your captain or defenders diving in the box pretending they were fouled (when spuds scored a perfectly good goal on saturday). As for the FA cup final you seem to remember so well, turn your memory back to the first 5 minutes of that game & see how honest Henry was when in actual fact southampton should have conceded a penalty & been down to 10 men, then the cup final would have been over in the first 5 minutes & the last 85 minutes would have been irrelevant!!
Ashburton Gooner
a voice of reason, definite case .....of the pot calling the kettle black as we say in the north.
good article paul, controversery gets a response.
Hudders
In what way has there been any hypocrisy?!
Rocky7
What's the point in taking the ***** or displaying any sort of humour where referees are concerned. They have no humour nor do they tolerate it. Lehmann is a great keeper but he has a few brain cells missing with his antics. How many keepers have 5 yellow cards? His subsequent suspension may well put added pressure on the side in the matches to come. Grow up Jens.
TH14 was well within his rights to 'protest' over Kirkland's behaviour. Time wasting and cheating should be stamped out ASAP. The majority of refereeing is inept and until referees run games in a more professional manner we are just going to have to put up with it! Let's hope we get a decent ref on Wednesday against the cloggers! Does anyone know who that may be?
Emkay
Prawn sandwiches drizzled in french sauce v pie munchers with chips made predominantly English Potatoes but with some from various countries of denomination.
Jonski
Kirkland’s antics yesterday were completely infuriating. Having said this, it's not down to manager or opposition players to correct this, rather the man in charge in the middle
Considering Dowd had one of the worse days of any ref at our place, wot more could we expect. Once he had allowed him to prolong his kicks, the hand cleaning made me laugh though, Kirkland had the go ahead to maintain this throughout the remainder of the game.
You have to laugh at Jen's actions. He made his point, which IMO is why he received a card, rather than the time taken up, it was a question of authority, with Dowd looking more the fool for it.
I still can't quiet figure out how we got 6 yellows though.
916995
well, it started with flooding the midfield right after the invincibles year, then it was the bully boy beat us of the pitch, then defending with 10 men at the beginning of this season, now its the time wasting - even Man U tired this, lehman again hilarious in his response to this once we had gone 2-1 up...it really seems like it is them V us in the prem
bootoo
Lehmann gets carded for humerously exaggerating Kirklands blatant time wasting....Henry takes heat for making a humerous comment to Kirkland following an o/g (something about offering Kirkland to take the ball so he could waste more time). Talk about blowing things out of proportion! Kirkland and Henry were having a laugh about it on the pitch post match so why can't everyone else? Time wasting hurts the fans the most...those that pay for their seats, and those that pay per view.
SUX2BU
The point about the substitutions is at least fair!
sandgroanun
haha thank god here in america we didnt have to listen to the sky crew we got martin tyler
ahops101
It's one thing to slow the game down on the pitch (although mucking around near the corner flag is frustrating), but wasting time at free-kicks, substitutions etc should be curtailed by refs. Sometimes it can be like watching basketball or american football what with time-outs etc.
JakeB
Emkay it sounds to me like your an arsenal fan so before you go bagging Jens take a deep breath and have a laugh. Stop taking life so seriously the stress will kill you. Lehmann actually did himself and the team a favour, the next two games are both cup games which he doesnt and wouldnt have played in regardless of the card. Im not saying he thought about this before taking the ***** but he actually relieved himself of 4 yellow cards and a very realistic chance of him getting another and being suspended when he would've actually played, it was f***in funny and i cant see how you can say henrys aggresive taunt was okay (also hilarious) and Lehmanns light hearted ***** take wasnt, thats tottenscum logic!
Ozi Gooner
blade1889, the Cup Final you refer to saw Arsenal retain the ball, uninterrupted, for six and a half minutes. The ball only left play once for a foul by Marsden. That is skill, something your horrible club would know absolutely nothing about.
Little Dutch
Its gone on in football ever since the first pigs bladder was placed on mud to kick around, if you look at Liverpool in the 70's they spent more time kicking the ball back to the keeper to kill games than any other club, erg the rules changed to stop clubs ripping fans off with 70 minutes of negative possession.
col8
Gianluca Vialli, a man who knows a thing or two about football, thinks the game should be cut to 2 halves of 30 minutes each. However, the clock stops every time the ball goes out of play. The net result would be 60 minutes of football versus the 55 minutes we see today. Until we fans let the players and managers know how much we despise time wasting it will certainly continue. I thought Henry was great with Kirkland and I hope he was sufficiently embarrassed to stop it in the future!
Westl
2 halves of 30 minutes each with NBA style time keeping...interesting...very interesting!
bootoo
The refereeing was joke, Kirkland should have clearly been booked. I love Jens, and he did this in the ManU game as well, to prove his point. I think, overall, there is no need for drastic measures, as long the refs penalise blatant time-wasting by booking players, this will reduce.
prits
I see Fat Sam has stuck his oar in again!! I think that man has serious issues with arsenal, no doubt they rejected him as a managerial candidate at some point. I love hearing him mouth off every year about how Bolton are going to make the champions league just to see their oap's fall apart with 10 games to go. I think I am right in saying their next league match is against the spuds at *****e hart lane, no doubt that will be the start of their decline!!
Ashburton Gooner
What did he say G4L?
iceman10
Ive just read it, what an absolute tool he is! Please let us shut his walrus mouth up once and for all the fat thief!
iceman10
He forgets how Arsene backed him after the panorama programme, what a piece of S*@t human being.
iceman10
A referree following the rules of the game - are you having a laugh? Does such a thing even exist??
bmb
Sorry for my ignorance but what did he say? Or where can i read what he said?
Genuine Pace
u will call me blind here but ... when arsenal time waste it is not by stopping the game they run to corners and hold the play up or play it around the back four ... other teams just waste the time .... by keeping the ball out of play which is actually cheating ... if we do it which we do its fair because we keep the ball in play and continue to carry on playing ... i hope i make sense ...
Achilles
it is ridiculous if you change the words kirkland to lehman and wigan to arsenal in this article it is the story of arsenals key to success. dowd won you the match so shut up you cheating ********s
patspurs123
Zakora is an honest player is he? Go back to the morgue that is www.sp*rs.vitalfootball.co.uk and go mourn with the others.
iceman10
pires cole bergkamp henry fabregas list goes on all cheating scum benefitted over their carreer by referees decisions. you should realise that before you go on about one dive that had nothing to do with you how about rosicky diving for a penalty or rvp handballing b4 winning a penalty or maybe keane being flagged offside for nothing if your memory doesnt go far back as you probably are thick. arsenal are scum and how about lgumberg at the immigrants what does he think this is the triple jump i have never seen a player go down so often in one match if that isnt time wasting i dont no what is. i just think it is a disgrace that you can write an article complaining about refereeing in a game you won only because of ref decisions. and you have an unbeaten run that would never have happened if it werent for the occasional dive and foul that are judged legal by the ref.
patspurs123
patspurs123 you have to agree that spurs also have the 'occasional dive and foul that are judged legal by the ref', where is your 49 game unbeaten run?
bootoo
I was unlucky enough to watch the league game against Tottenscum in a boozer rammed with the vermin, needless to say I was the loudest in the place, Ljungberg was kicked all over the place - the bloke was on fire and all the hapless losers could do was rake their studs down his achilles and chop him down at every opportunity, just blatantly cynical play. Still, looking at the depressing suicide site that is vitalsp*rs noone can blame you for coming over here for some light (hand) relief Pat.
nikolaijns
Ah remember Ginola that guy was a real tough nut, never dived a bit! How about Barbie-tov vs the mancs 10/10 cards were held up all over the shoebox after that dive.
iceman10
Shampoo ******
nikolaijns
blimey even w-h-o-r-e is a swear word!! whats the world coming to?
nikolaijns
Both clubs and the referee should be ashamed after a disgraceful match that did nothing for the Premiership. Arsenal have been a pet hate of mine for a while as they say they play 'the beautiful game' but are the most brattish team in the league. All they do is whine and complain.
Middlesbrough
well done Middlesborough! new world record for shortest time in which to contradict yourself is now yours, you come to whine and complain about us whining and complaining Bravo sir!.
nikolaijns
touche' nikolaijns
fran merida
cheers Fran lad.
nikolaijns
he says as Gibson moans about the lack of English talent!
iceman10
lol that was funny about ginola
patspurs123
berbatov is class though he isnt a diver he is just weak. there is no defending eboues childish behaviour though what a real man. face it if fabregas was at spurs nobody would like him as he wouldnt get away wit all his lunges and kicks and niggling at players and refs. the guy is dirty he gets the decision no matter what.
patspurs123
and it is true that all gray and keys and the newspapers do is harp on about arsenal playing such wonderful football and their impressive new stadium. it is such a load of c-r-a-p
patspurs123
to sum Boro up: the former team of the current brilliant England manager, where chairman Gibson enjoys watching his English team play wonderful football led by the genuine Yorkshire man Yakubu, who never ever dives. Talk about irony...
G4L
and to sum Sp*rs up: utter s-h-i-t-e
G4L
and it is true that all gray and keys and the newspapers do is harp on about arsenal playing such wonderful football and their impressive new stadium. it is such a load of c-r-a-p
You must spend a lot of time reading our match reports and watching us on Sky to form that opinion. You sure you're a Spurs supporter?
flv
Boro whinged their way into getting an un-qualified manager oh the irony!
iceman10
patspur, so if you have a chance to sign Fabrigas..being the crap player he is, you would never sign him. would you?
questforavalon
If only Zokora had signed for us eh? Haha!
flv
Thank the Lord for patspur123!!! You have just summed up what every club thinks of Arse:
'pires cole bergkamp henry fabregas list goes on all cheating scum benefitted over their carreer by referees decisions. you should realise that before you go on about one dive that had nothing to do with you how about rosicky diving for a penalty or rvp handballing b4 winning a penalty or maybe keane being flagged offside for nothing if your memory doesnt go far back as you probably are thick. arsenal are scum and how about lgumberg at the immigrants what does he think this is the triple jump i have never seen a player go down so often in one match if that isnt time wasting i dont no what is. i just think it is a disgrace that you can write an article complaining about refereeing in a game you won only because of ref decisions. and you have an unbeaten run that would never have happened if it werent for the occasional dive and foul that are judged legal by the ref.'
Nice one mate! ;-)
Blade1889
Hulse has dived this season to win a pen has he not? Gillespie punching people, Morgan punching people, a manager who tells his players to break peoples legs, who tells his players to feign injury to get a match abandoned. All that is disgraceful, your club is a stain on the premiership.
iceman10
Hulse has dived this season and I've already voiced my disgust at that! I don't have one rule for United and another for everyone else like you Iceman you see. And Hulse did not win a penalty it was waved away by the ref, and rightly so, he should have been red carded in my opinion. Hulse obviously isn't as skilled at conning referee's as Lungberg, Cole, Veira, Henry, Lehman et al!
Blade1889
A Spurs fan who wants to be a Gooner and a Blade who wants to be a Spurs fan. Fascinating!
flv
No, just two people who hate the cheating Arsenal scum!!!
Blade1889
Thats what every club thinks of Arsenal yet our captain gets standing ovations at many away grounds! Thats what you think because your bitter at us knocking you out in the semi's a few years back. Your views are twisted because we knocked you out of the FA cup with a dodgy goal, got the game replayed (The act of cheats??) and beat you again. Twisted and bitter.
iceman10
Cant answer the other points no blade?
iceman10
Can you imagine the love in after their game last saturday flv! "ooooh say something bad about Arsenal again, ooooh go on"
iceman10
So much hatred! Such a poor waste of energy! You know Ice, I think all these guys need is for somebody to give them a hug! 8-)
flv
No he is just supporting a scum fans opinion of arsenal cos he dont want the spuds on his beloved site knocking them over the pathetic dive by one of their defenders last saturday, which incidentally robbed the scum of a point at least!! I think if he actually takes his head out his a*** he will see everyone hates sheff utd & that total c*** of a manager!!
Ashburton Gooner
you know you are bitter when you say arsenal dont play the beautiful game....EVERYONE KNOWS IT AND READILY ADMITS IT, UNCLUDING OPPOSITION MANAGERS. thats like saying george bush is well spoken. everyone knows the truth...EVEN YOU spatspur123.
mish
cmon i dare you to say it...say we dont play attractive entertaining football....cmon.
mish
i personally dont enjoy watching arsenal play maybe ppl who dont hate them may but footabll is quite subjective in areas you see like ppl saying epl is the best league in the world i dont agree with that. being a spurs fan the team i like to watch is spurs and prefer the way they play wether they or loosing or not. and no i wouldnt sign fabregas as i dont manage a football club. if i managed arsenal or man u i would if i was martin jol i wouldnt take him for free as he wouldnt be the same because he wouldnt get the same decisions he does at arsenal. and btw berbatov has got 2 standing ovations in europe and do u hear commentators ranting and raving about him? no they wait 4 his downfalls.
patspurs123
Henry is a pusy
psclub
pratspurs u sure have no taste for good football. watching the spineless spuds get rolled over week in week out. exciting isn't it? and barbie got TWO standing ovations in Europe? wow. probably against some of the really good sides you played this year. you're so pathetic including the psclub moron who has **** for brains
G4L
lol leverkusen and besiktas oh yeah leverkusen are rubbish just like all the teams whose european glory is mainly the fact that they got to the cl final in the past ten years. god teams like that really wind me up. you are the one who is pathetic changing my name around like a five year old .G4Y
patspurs123
the mighty leverkusen and the powerful besiktas. let me laugh at you... HAHAHHAHAHA if you followed a bit of euro footie u'd realise that the two teams u just mentioned are; the no. 3 club in TURKEY (barely), and a VERY mediocre Leverkusen side whose best players are a dodgy old Bosnian by the name of Barbarez and a Ukrainian 'talent' Voronin. Seeing that you compare to them is quite understandable they are in your 'class'. Btw out of those 2 standing ovations Barbietov received one from the fans of his former team for his service there, so that leaves him with one fantastic standing ovation. again: great! I changed your name because only an ignorant prat would say the rubbish you did. follow your spuddies as they flirt with relegation. and it's GOONER 4 LIFE to you beaatch!
G4L
Might be bad to admit, but I'm getting a kick out of reading these comments. lol. And don't kid yourself, patspurs123. Even if YOU wouldn't sign Fabregas for free, Martin Jol or any other manager would give their left leg to have him play for their club. And he wouldn't be the same? Excuse me, but last time I checked he was considered one of the brightest stars when he was in the Barcelona B team. He also participated in the FIFA U-17 World Championship and won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball award. And this was before he went to Arsenal. Booyah. And I understand people's frustrations over the officiating, and perhaps instead of directing personal attacks, why not try to think of solutions to fix the problem? Like, video replays? I personally don't really have an opinion for that, but couldn't it possibly resolve some problems that are faced in a match where a double take would make a difference?
ducksworth
im with ducksworth on this one. a yellow the first time anyone timewastes would have an INSTANT effect no one would risk a red card for it. or even better loss of possesion to the other side. as for video referees...well they seem to have mixed in well with other sports. so we couls have them for stuff like penalty decisions or to see if the ball went over the line etc. etc.
mish
Have Your Say
Recent Articles
Who Is Your Vital Arsenal Player of the Season? (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Newcastle United 0 Arsenal 1 (Monday May 20 2013)
VIDEO: Wenger Praises 'Exceptional' Attitude (Monday May 20 2013)
Arsene Wenger, Now Is The Time (Monday May 20 2013)
The Moment That Made It All Worthwhile (Sunday May 19 2013)
Happy St Totteringham's Day To Gooners Everwhere (Sunday May 19 2013)
Team News: Last Game Of The Season (Sunday May 19 2013)
The Squeaky Bum Preview (Friday May 17 2013)
Wenger Confirms Sanogo Deal Almost Done (Friday May 17 2013)
Mid-Morning Ablutions #11 (Thursday May 16 2013)
Archived Articles
Vital Members League (view all)
| 1. | nikolaijns | 53 |
| 2. | Rocky7 | 52 |
| 3. | Naijagunner | 42 |
| 4. | Wyn Mills | 31 |
| 5. | Nwankwo25 | 20 |
| 6. | prits | 20 |
| 7. | flv | 20 |
| 8. | gunnerkid107 | 18 |
| 9. | julieloveshenry4ever | 15 |
| 10. | Deltaforce | 13 |
League Results (view all)
| Latest Results | ||||
| Newcastle | 0 | - | 1 | Arsenal |
| Arsenal | 4 | - | 1 | Wigan |
| Q.P.R. | 0 | - | 1 | Arsenal |
| Arsenal | 1 | - | 1 | Man Utd |
| Fulham | 0 | - | 1 | Arsenal |
| Arsenal | 0 | - | 0 | Everton |
League Table (view table)
| Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
| 1. Man Utd | 38 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 43 | 89 |
| 2. Man City | 38 | 23 | 9 | 6 | 32 | 78 |
| 3. Chelsea | 38 | 22 | 9 | 7 | 36 | 75 |
| 4. Arsenal | 38 | 21 | 10 | 7 | 35 | 73 |
| 5. Spurs | 38 | 21 | 9 | 8 | 20 | 72 |
| 6. Everton | 38 | 16 | 15 | 7 | 15 | 63 |
| 7. Liverpool | 38 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 28 | 61 |
Breaking League News
| Vital Villa Man Of The Match v Wigan
» Aston Villa : 21/05/2013 14:00:00
|
| USA Tour Request
» Chelsea : 21/05/2013 13:07:00
|
| Another Step Nearer Home for Jose
» Chelsea : 21/05/2013 13:06:00
|
| International call-ups: Cummings selected
» Reading : 21/05/2013 13:00:00
|
| The Aston Villa Summer Transfer Thread Pt 1
» Aston Villa : 21/05/2013 12:27:00
|
| Brentford Midfielder Linked
» Aston Villa : 21/05/2013 12:24:00
|
| No, No, NO. Weimann & Benteke Cannot Be Sold!
» Aston Villa : 21/05/2013 12:16:00
|
Current Site Poll (view all polls)
|
|