Even at broken Bloomfield Road, the fans serenaded the brilliance of Ramsey

THE Arsenal fans, overwhelmingly in the majority in broken Bloomfield Road, serenaded Aaron Ramsey, imploring him to stay.

Not in Blackpool, obviously. But they know Ramsey’s choices do not include their preferred option – that was taken from the contract table in October, for reasons still to be believably explained by anyone.

They know Arsenal feel comfortable enough to allow a midfielder, now coveted by some of European football’s grandest names, to leave in the summer for nothing.

Those Blackpool supporters, whose hatred of the club’s ownership was not entrenched go, sitting on top of the opposition bus to prevent it leaving the team hotel was one of the more creative, and a reminder of the grim state of affairs at a club that enlivened the Premier

League only eight years ago.

And the club of Sta n l e y

Matthews, Stan Mortensen and

Jimmy Armfield, for goodness sake.

This is a club that won this competition in 1953’s fabled final.

It is now a club where, according to one member of staff I spoke to, the community department had to have a whip-round to buy some tables because the ownership would not pay for them.

This is a club where, recent Sunderland visitors testified, seats were in d isrepair and decorated by the town’s omnipresent gulls.

This is a club ownership that makes Mike Ashley seem a wildly popular figure in comparison.

This is a club once lovable enough to have a tangerine duck – yep, an actual live, quacking, dyed variety – as its