Sorry seems to be the hardest word

Well, sorry seems to be the word that Eduardo is obsessed about.

He wants Martin Taylor to apologise for that infamous tackle. But why should he?

Taylor didn't go after him with vicious intent, deliberately trying to break his leg, top him, he wasn't yielding a baseball bat or knuckle duster for goodness sake.

It was a bad tackle, but a mistimed tackle.

Eduardo is rapidly losing sympathy for his bleatings. Yes, it is great to see him back after a potentially career-ending injury. But why harp on at Taylor?

Could it be that if Taylor does say 'sorry' it could be interpreted as an admission of guilt in a court of law? There's an angle for you.

Arsenal have to look at themselves here as well.

Taylor has done all the right things since the incident a year ago.

He went to see Eduardo in hospital, twice, immediately after the game. And he was told to channel all subsequent communication through Arsenal's liasion officer Paul Irwin, which he did.

Taylor has even told Arsenal that he would be willing to meet Eduardo face-to-face.

So for Arsenal to allow Eduardo to spout what he did in a national newspaper this week (presumably for a hefty fee) - which was blatantly false - should they not feel a tad
sheepish, if not culpable?

If Arsene Wenger has anything about him, he should draw a line under the whole episode when he next speaks to the press and absolve Taylor properly. That could be difficult, however, considering the disgraceful way he hung Taylor out to dry straight after the 2-2 draw at St Andrew's.

Today, more media than usual assembled at Blues training HQ at Wast Hills for Alex McLeish's pre-match press conference. It was because Taylor was put up for interview.

The national newspapers were beside themselves trying to get a juicy comment or two from Taylor. And they wanted to know why he hadn't apologised.

McLeish doesn't usually lose his composure, but his patience began to wear thin with some of our finest scribes (allegedly), who only turn up at Blues when there's a sniff of such potentially controversial copy.

Here's how the questioning went:

Journalist: "Were you disappointed that Eduardo had said Taylor had not said sorry?".

McLeish: "I was disappointed because I know different. As far as I'm concerned a line gets drawn under it. But it's amazing that people still want to make a story out of it.
The thing is, we know the facts. But how long do you keep it going? We can produce facts for you, show you thousands of emails, get the proof of the pudding, get the Arsenal people in here and tell you Martin was up at the hospital twice, he's done this, that, the other . . . but some people want to keep it going. Why?"

Journalist: "Eduardo's agent?".

McLeish: "Well, he's been a naughty guy then. Eduardo's agent deserves no credit for that at all."

Journalist: "Is the fact that it's a legal issue he has never said the words 'I am sorry'?".

McLeish: "I don't know that. What do you mean? Sorry for what?".

Journalist: "For the tackle."

McLeish: "I think Martin has said he was sorry for the injury that was caused to Eduardo. He never meant it, so why say sorry for that? Is that fair?"

Chris Kershaw, Blues press officer: "Martin has repeatedly said he went for the ball, he tried to win a tackle, not deliberately set out to injure Eduardo."

McLeish: "There's a different interpretation of it here. Martin was extremely sorry for the injury that Eduardo sustained in the challenge, but he genuinely went for the ball. And I
know that anybody with half a brain in football knows that. And it's only the mischief-makers that are saying things to the contrary."

So there. Taylor has been villified unfairly. He broke another player's leg. He didn't mean to. The player is now back. Deal with it, move on.