KANE HOPPS

is outraged. ‘For him to sit in his studio and call me an idiot . . . I’m shocked Gary Neville actually said that on live TV in front of millions,’ he gripes. Arsenal fan Hopps prefers protests of a more private kind: like holding up a red-and-white banner reading ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. TIME TO GO’ for the television cameras, moments after Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal team had lost 3-1 at Chelsea. Now, whatever one may think about Wenger, it is a bit rich that a person indulging in a very public protest should then be upset at a strongly expressed opinion. Some of our more robust below-the-line commentators are similarly sensitive when challenged. They don’t like it up ’em, as Corporal Jones had it. So they’d last two minutes in Neville’s job; or Wenger’s. It should go without saying that supporters have a right to protest. Hopps was not abusive, or threatening, and it is not as if Arsenal fans have failed to give the manager every chance — but it does rather sum up the malaise at the club when the faithful pre-arrange protests in anticipation of defeat. Hopps brought his banner to Stamford Bridge expecting to lose, and was proved right. Yet does that mean it would have remained unseen in his pocket had Arsenal won? And how directionless is that? If enough is enough, if it is time for Wenger to go, then what difference would one win that bucked a seasons-long trend make? But that’s how it is at Arsenal. If Arsenal get outplayed at Manchester United and lose, Wenger must go, if they equalise against the run of play in the 89th minute and somehow sneak a draw, then the protests are packed away for another week. That is no way to run a football club. If Hopps wants Wenger out, he puts up his banner at the start, not the end — because the result is immaterial.