Strange men are strange

Morning all.

Given the day that was in it here yesterday, I didn’t see any of the football, but caught up on some highlights of Man Utd’s win over Liverpool this morning. A classic cup tie, I guess, also some of the dodgiest goalkeeping you’ll see. It was like both of them were playing at in slow motion while the game was going on around them at full speed. Mostly though, I couldn’t care less.

However, what did catch my eye was post-game stuff involving both managers. First, Jurgen Klopp taking exception to a question and going off in a huff was quite funny. I suspect there are some linguistic issues at play when he says the guy is not in great shape. I don’t think he’s saying the reporter is unfit or fat, probably more about the quality of the question.

Fair to say Klopp wasn’t in the mood for that ‘dumb’ question pic.twitter.com/8oWS10P6ZZ

— Kevin Palmer (@RealKevinPalmer) March 17, 2024

I was just trying to imagine what Richard Keys might do if Mikel Arteta had been that rude in a post-game interview.

“Andy, this is out of order. He’s going to kill someone if he isn’t reigned in. Mark my words, Andy, Arteta is a menace … and his next step will be ritual murder and the slaughter of innocents!”

Then Andy Gray will make that sound he makes, like a Scottish dog choking on a piece of haggis, which means he basically agrees with Richard, but isn’t prepared to use actual words to do so. But look, Klopp being grumpy after losing an FA Cup quarter-final to Man Utd in the last minute to a shot that could have been saved if your grandad was playing in goal is fairly understandable.

What’s hard to get your head around is the response of Erik ten Hag to a question about whether this win could be a turning point for his team. Somehow, he’s still got ants in his pants about Arsenal’s 3-2 win over United back in … *checks calendar* … early September. That’s almost 200 days ago.

Ten Hag's response when asked if this could be a huge turning point for @ManUtd:

"We've missed so many opportunities. At Arsenal we should have had a penalty. Then we scored, disallowed. Then we conceded a goal which should have been disallowed."

https://t.co/rHqZGTvfSR pic.twitter.com/toVNL6EUep

— Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) March 17, 2024

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking he was a good coach based on what he did at Ajax, but obviously our exposure to him was limited, so we didn’t know what kind of a person he really was. His time at Man Utd has given us that glimpse behind the curtain. We now know the real ten Hag, and he is a very, very strange man.

And I think it’s important to put that in context: I think most managers are a little strange in their own way. You kinda have to be do the job in the first place, because of just how difficult it is, but this bloke stands head and shoulders above the rest. Even Pep, who is a weird little man who can be genuinely a bit unsettling in the way he talks sometimes, and is probably a biter if you got into a scrap with him.

Your team has beaten an old rival in dramatic circumstances to get to an FA Cup semi-final where you’ll face Coventry, making you huge favourites to reach the final, and you come out with some stuff about a Premier League game that happened 6 months earlier?! Not to mention that the goal was disallowed because it was offside, not because you were somehow the victim of an injustice. On top of that, he is the only person who thinks that was a penalty (well, maybe Hojlund does too but at least he’s not going on about it), and the Arsenal goal should have been disallowed for what – making him sad or something?

Grade-A weirdo. With the other semi-final taking place between Man City and Chelsea, we could easily have a repeat of last season’s final. A Manchester derby at Wembley, and when Haaland scores the winner, ten Hag will go on live TV and start talking about how the game at Arsenal should have been replayed or something. All very odd.

Right, I’d better leave it there for now. We are recording an Arsecast Extra for you this morning, so keep an eye out for the call for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Podcast should be out around noon. Until then.

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