Eduardo: 'Arsenal Will Always Be In My Heart'

what a shame,its over before it began

This is a letter I've sent to F365, which I hope will be included in the afternoon mailbox. But I thought it was worth reproducing here: I know somebody wrote in a few days ago articulating their sadness at Eduardo's departure, but having read his comments about Arsenal now his departure is confirmed, I wanted to outline not only how sad I am that his career has gone off track since the terrible injury, but to praise him highly for his parting comments, in which he professes his appreciation to the club, the medical staff and the supporters.//b// I realise hammy sound bites can be ten a penny when a player leaves, but it would have been very easy and very tempting for Eduardo to lash out, as players often do, for not being played last season. He could have blamed the new formation which clearly didn't suit him, he could have lambasted the British press for the hysterical abuse they meted out to him for the dive against Celtic. (Yes, it was a dive, but the opprobrium he received was infinitely worse than what Shawcross and Taylor combined received. Perspective?) He could have spat the English league was full of thugs and blamed Martin Taylor for curtailing an Arsenal career that looked set to really take off. He did none of these things, he humbly thanked the club and the supporters for sticking with him and didn't mention one thing about the injustices he suffered. From afar I'm sure it looks to supporters of other clubs that Arsenal fans' attachment to Eduardo is purely sentimental due to his terrible injury and there is an element of that. But these comments show there is more to it than that, we liked him because he served the club with distinction and dignity, never complained and largely, kept his head down, his mouth shut and put in a shift every single time he played. Which is more than can be said for certain other recently departed ex Arsenal strikers. Thank you Eddie.

Eduardo : " Arsenal will always be in my heart ". And you in ours mate, always.

Eduardo, is he the same Eduardo, that got his leg smashed @ birmingham, shame, and he got better to dive against Celtic, oh well.

>>>spu 4 life - Over on VS, you call us " Scum ", " ********s " and because your site has mentioned Arsenal, there is a "virus" on your computer. Strange then that you felt compelled to come on here and post a message.

And once again TRH and his fellow classless lowlife trash-spud specimen ruin this site. TRH has singlehandedly destroyed the fun I have in coming to this site.

An individual as classy as Eduardo and an action as commendable as the one he made today deserves much better than this utterly repugnant gutter journalism from a vile publication that is, I don't doubt, TRH's rag of choice. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1296612/Eduardo-big-shot-joined-Arsenal--hes-latest-striking-failure.html

Since when was Eddy joining a big shot transfer? From what I remember it was a very low key transfer and a surprise one at that. It was never a high profile transfer but at the time a shrewd bit of business by AW. I think the ***** who wrote that excuse for an article is still clearly bitter about the part Eduardo played in making sure England didnt qualify for Euro 2008

Once again TRH, you fail to comprehend that this is, primarily, an ARSENAL site for ARSENAL fans. An ARSENAL player's career was cut short by an appalling injury inflcited needlessly. The player in question chose to send a personal message to the supporters. As ARSENAL supporters, that strikes a chord and invites and receives our sentiment. By it's very virtue, this is a moment of some emotion between fans and player, trying to pour scorn on that is effectively useless. It's like turning up at a stranger's funeral, walking over to the bereaved's next of kin and saying, "There, there, very sad, but, you know, ***** happens." Of course I'm not comparing this to a funeral in its enormity, but to rubbish the sentiment is useless. I deleted your last comment because it was another poor attempt to wind up the members and throw the thread off track yet again. It probably is a slight breach of power in my use of the admin tool, but frankly, I won't let you ruin this particular thread. Not today.

Tim, you don't have to justify your actions to TRH, or any other moron from VS for that matter. Your use of the ' admin tool ' is nowhere near being a " slight breach of power ". It is sensible editing in an attempt to save this emotional thread from going the way of many others. Hijacked and destroyed. Personally, when it comes to the ' usual suspects ' from VS, the admin tool should be used alot more frequently.

Class is a complex concept that a lot of people fail to grasp and clearly Eduardo has it in abundance. Top bloke. All the best Eddy!!

There were many inaccuracies in the Daily Racist's portrayal, but what troubled me was their fetishisation over Eduardo's injury, using his broken bones so gleefully as a metaphor was particularly troubling and suggests the writer is not of sound mind.

People taking cheap shots at Eduardo even though he's left the country. I really do feel he will be miles better off where he is now. We might have the greatest club in the country to play for, but this footballing nation really does stink to high heaven. Good luck Eddie, I don't think you'll need it, but it's there anyway.

Your collective group mentality just gets more bizarre by the day. Perhaps you should announce your independence from Enla

The kind of life, wages and medical care he got here was given to him by Arsenal Football Club courtesy of Arsenal fans, which is probably why he thanked us all. The rest of the country gave him nothing but sh** for his entire Arsenal career. I'm suprised he stayed as long as he did with the treatment he recieved.

If you need me to be specific then you obviously don't watch football much and you're blatantly here on the wind up. So I'll politely advise you to do one.

It's such a shame that Eduardo wasn't the same player after his injury. I wish him all the best at his new club and I hope it works out for him!

It's already been explained to you dozens of times TRH, stick to the topic, don't insult other members. If you want to have a debate about fascism, we have a forum, start a thread and the people who want to discuss it with you, can do there. This thread is about Eduardo, the posts you've made about Eduardo you'll notice, remain. Ones that deliberately incite other members and attempt to destabilise the thread don't.

Eduardo was a classy individual both on and off the pitch as others have already stated. Sorry to see him leave but as AW has said, he needs regular first team football and we can't offer him that. Hope he gets his confidence back and continues to have a successful career. As for TRH, why does anyone bother to respond to his idiotic comments. He is like a stalker obsessed with our club. Please everyone ignore him and I'm sure one day he will go away.

How dare you cb25Yid!!! didn't you know, this guy had the talent of ten Maradonas and it was snatched away by Martin Taylor and the evil dark-lord Pulis. He was killed, maimed for life by the dirty English press, all the players, the media, the people, the government...WE ALL CARRY A WEIGHT OF GUILT OVER THIS!!!!. Personally, i'm off to beat myself silly with a rusty tire-iron as a form of self-flagelation, whilst wailing 'WE ARE SO SORRY EDUARDOOOOO, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE US!!!!? over and over like a mantra.

Why do people fail to understand that it's ok to be sad about a player's career dwindling? Why do people insist on this pathetic "well, he didn't die, did he?" reaction? It shows such a level of immaturity, you are allowed to be sad about things that don't necessarily involve death. What does the quality of the player actually matter in this context? Are you implying that it's o.k that he was crocked and his career ruined because he wasn't the best player ever? And since when did a dangerous obsessive such as TRH get to give out tips on emotional maturity. You need to be in a secure insitution and a straitjacket mate, so to mock our reaction is incredibly rich indeed.