Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh has caused a storm after being pictured after the side’s loss at the weekend smoking. Is it worth all the uproar?
Footballer spotted relaxing shocker. The papers were full of headlines yesterday about how Chamakh is now destined to leave Arsenal after incurring the wrath of his manager.
Forgive our cynicism, but the shisha incident should have zero impact on his future.
Chamakh was heading for the Arsenal exit door long before Saturday’s photo emerged.
His future should be decided by what happens on the pitch, not what happens off it.
And by this mantra, Chamakh has proved he is not good enough for the Gunners over a period of two seasons, scoring just a solitary goal against Blackburn this campaign.
He is quite clearly heading for an exit this summer, and if Arsene Wenger had not seen this until now, which I highly doubt, then his insight is not as good as has been perceived.
There was one article suggesting that smoking from a shisha pipe is ‘as damaging as smoking 100 cigarettes’ – which has more than a whiff of exaggeration about it.
Footballing and smoking should not go hand in hand, but often do.
Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov are two strikers recently pictured with cigarettes, while photos of England’s players smoking cigars after their World Cup 2010 exit caused national outrage.
Not because of the unhealthiness, but because it displayed a celebratory attitude at a time when fans felt they had disgraced the Three Lions shirt.
This is where the real anger towards Chamakh comes in. It is not that fans or his manager are displeased with the actual act of smoking a shisha, it is his laid back attitude displayed in the photo which showed he ‘could not care less’ about Arsenal’s loss.
Witness the displeasure aimed at Chamakh, compared to QPR player Adel Taarabt, also pictured smoking, who won.
Had QPR lost 2-1, Chamakh scored twice and Taarabt had a bad game, Taarabt would be the one getting most of the flak for ‘shisha-gate.’
It is a national problem with sports stars. If they win, we allow them to get away with anything, witness England’s Ashes hero’s all-night drinking session after winning in 2005. If they had done that after losing there would have been national outrage.
Chelsea’s players hit the bars after their 4-1 win over Napoli- had they done that after losing there also would have been outcry.
In this case, the ‘incident’ should not have even made the news.
Chamakh deserves to be slated for his poor performances and attitude when he gets on the pitch, but for smoking a shisha pipe?
We understand nowadays footballers live in a world where everything nowadays is so health-focused, but it is also about mental attitudes. If the odd moment of relaxation in the company of his compatriot helps Chamakh feel more at home, then so be it.
He is going to be sold in the summer regardless, so Wenger should let him get on with it. Who knows, it may even improve him?
image: © wonker
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