Predictably, the aftermath of Arsenal's outclaasing at the hands of Manchester City in the Carling Cup quarter-final was not so much how another generation of promising kids from the Arsenal youth system failed to win the trophy, but how Arsene Wenger failed to shake Mark Hughes' hand at the end of the match.
The post-match handshake between managers is sacrosanct in England. I've always felt it was very silly. Two fully grown men can yell expletives at each other for close to two hours and then after the referee blows his whistle, awkwardly slap hands like two naked studs at an orgy. It does provide some from of interest to see the body language between the managers. West Ham's Gianfranco Zola seems to be well liked. No sterile fishlike handshakes for him...A few words, smiles, a grip of the upper arm and firm meaty handshake.
Most of them though are just sterile affairs where the manager's don't even look at each other. Mark Hughes could probably afford to employ an out of work manager to do the nasty business of shaking hands for him especially in these swine-flu times because really, in the grand scheme of things, it means absolutely nothing.
The sheeplike bleating from the press and management in the aftermath means that no one is questioning the young side. Whether Wenger planned this or not, the fact remains that these youngsters do not have to read excoriating accounts of their failure, their inability to compete with the big boys so soon. Rather, all the news is with their manager.
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