Tony Pulis, memorably described by Barney Ronay of the Guardian as a baseball cap-wearing Sun Tzu, waged the most artless of wars on Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. Their meetings were sour affairs, with Aaron Ramsey's horrific leg break the most sickening moment of the rivalry.
In a new column with The Sun, former Stoke striker Dave Kitson seems to link that incident with the attitude Pulis whipped up on the training ground ahead of that game, such was the manager's dislike of Wenger and all his club stood for.
"All week", says Kitson, "I had never seen a manager so desperate to win a game of football, it was bordering on out of control".
I remember Pulis pacing up and down shouting random things — this bundle of nervous energy blurting random swear words, trying to burn off his own nervous energy.
And, of course, the upshot of all of that energy was that we went over the top and it cost Ramsey a year of his career.
It seemed to me that was as a direct result of players reacting to their manager’s over-enthusiasm and buying into that whole thing and carrying out his instructions and crossing the line...
...it just went too far. His desperation to beat Wenger and justify his way of playing football. It crossed the line and went too far.
He was just desperate to win and some of the tackles we would put in — myself included because it was asked of you — were shocking really.
The whole column is an indictment of Pulis' style of play, with Kitson eventually claiming that he would prefer to leave the club than play that style, and that he was embarrassed to be part of a team that had inflicted such a horrific injury on Ramsey.
It can be read in full here.
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