Mais non, Arsene
I suppose it was just a little too much to ask, wasn't it?
Yes, I, Arsene Wenger, apologise to Martin Taylor for what I said about him and I apologise for my team's general behaviour . . .
Dream on. Wenger's first meeting with the media since Eduardo's leg was shattered and ankle left askew tells you everything about a brilliant manager, but a flawed person.
He may not care, Arsenal may not care, some of the London media may not care, but Wenger and his side have lost a lot of respect in these parts.
Today, at his weekly pre-match briefing, Wenger should have been man enough to categorically accept that calling for Taylor to be banned and banging on about murderers and violence was a major mistake.
Instead he, and the media at large, continue to glibly trot out the fact that he retracted his comments of post-match last Saturday.
No he hasn't if you analyse it.
He said he was now giving Taylor the 'benefit of the doubt' . . . 'if he was genuine'. Oh, merci, Arsene.
Taylor broke his silence on the whole affair today and came across as the sort of person he is: decent, genuine, intelligent, caring.
When I sat down with Taylor to chat at his house, you sensed it wasn't something he had exactly been relishing and rushing to get off his chest.
And he was very emotional talking about the tackle and the aftermath.
He could easily have had a huge pop at Wenger, but he didn't out of deference to Eduardo's predicament.
And after I had written my stories up, he requested that certain bits were left out and others changed so as not to potentially inflame the situation.
Taylor didn't want to be portrayed as a victim (despite the death threats that have genuinely shook him and his family). He kept on stressing that it was about Eduardo and what an impressive man he was.
Of course, Taylor had also to defend himself against various accusations and criticisms. He reads newspapers, logs onto the Internet and knows what goes on in the world we live in, not just footballing circles.
When you've been branded some kind of assassin, the 'Butcher of Birmingham', you have every right to explain exactly what happened from your standpoint, and stress why it was accidental and in no way malicious or deliberate.
And he wanted to thank people in the game and from various walks of life who have written or spoken to him expressing their support and offering advice.
Blues had been under enormous pressure all week to put him up before the media masses to say his piece.
Taylor didn't want that, a free for all.
He wanted to be comfortable in a controlled environment and chose to be interviewed myself at the Birmingham Mail (there is an element of trust there built up over the years) and a national newspaper reporter who is a close friend of his agent.
It wasn't as if he was obliged to speak to anyone when you consider it, either. Plenty of people had stuck up for him, it wasn't as if he was up on criminal charges desperately trying to clear his name.
Taylor hopes a line can be drawn under the whole episode, but knows that is unlikely. He will deal with whatever comes his way in the immediate to near future, but of greater concern to him is Eduardo's welfare and complete recovery.
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Colin Tattum
Mail man Colin Tattum’s view of what’s going on at Birmingham City FC.
This comment is slightly off the point of Tatt's story above, but here goes...
As we have all come to know, Arsene Wenger has very selective visual capabilities specially geared to protecting his own players indiscretions. Wenger would obviously not have seen anything untoward about the injury to Villa's Curtis Davies yesterday, but I am amazed that no-one else has passed comment or even sought to analyse how it happened. Am I the only person who sees an Arsenal player (Diaby, I think) clash with Davies (off the ball!) immediately prior to him leaping up with the pain of the injury? Watch a recording of M.O.T.D and it's as plain as the nose on your face that Davies did not collide with team-mate Zat Knight as reported on the SkySports website! Of course, we all know it must have been an accident and therefore completely un-newsworthy...it was an Arsenal player!
Agreed. The media let Wenger off big style. Only Tatts and the Mail have told it like it is re him and his side. The Taylor coverage has been brilliant. I wondered about the Davies injury too. If it had been an Arsenal player, imagine the uproar.
There's a reason Wenger has the word a**e in his first name...
I think Arsene is just angry. And rightly so. Malicious tackle? Maybe not. Outside the laws of the game? Well his studs were showing, he was over the ball and despite what McCleish says, pictures clearly show Taylor making contact half way up the lads shin, so yes it was outside the laws of the game. I can imagine the reaction of Birmingham's fans if the boot was on the other foot... i know what mine would be.