Former Stoke star opens up over Aaron Ramsey leg break, revealing Tony Pulis ‘despised’ Arsene Wenger and was ‘out of control’
Dave Kitson has claimed Tony Pulis despised Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger so much it contributed to the horrific leg break suffered by Aaron Ramsey against Stoke City eight years ago.The striker was a substitute on that infamous day in February 2010 when Ryan Shawcross snapped the leg of Gunners star Ramsey and says the injury was so bad he could hear the sound of it from the bench.
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3Arsenal players react with horror after Aaron Ramsey breaks his leg at StokeRamsey, who sustained fractures to the tibia and fibula in his right leg, screamed in agony after the reckless challenge and Kitson has shed light on his anguish from that day and the animosity between the two sides.“I heard the crack of Ramseys leg from the bench,” Kitson recalled in his column for The Sun.“I heard the screaming. And the build-up to the game contributed to this moment.“Stoke manager Tony Pulis absolutely despised Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, hated the way he played.“All week I had never seen a manager so desperate to win a game of football, it was bordering on out of control.
3Dave Kitson says he heard the leg snap from the substitutes’ bench“Like every other game he was telling us to turn them and get at them and all the usual stuff managers say. But that particular game it was very much lads, dont forget, be aggressive in the tackle, dominate your man. That was the message.“It started that sort of feeling where it began to bubble within the players through the course of the week. Until finally it got to match day. The changing room was full of aggression and I remember the team talk more than anything.“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.”Kitson, who joined Stoke in 2008 after impressing in the Premier League with Reading, remembers the look of anger he got from Wenger and how Pulis’ style of football which cost Ramsey eight months of his career ‘crossed the line’.“It was just horrendous. I distinctly remember Wenger turning around in the technical area absolutely horrified by it,” went on.
3Kitson says Pulis despised Wenger“The first person he looked at when he turned around was me on the bench because I was in line with him.“Even though it wasnt me who broke his leg, I was on that bench, part of that team.“Wenger gave me this look of complete and utter disappointment – the kind of look your dad gives you when youve f***** up, when hes gone beyond anger.“It was as if he was saying to me Im surprised that you would be a part of this. Thats how I felt. I didnt know where to look, I was totally embarrassed.“Prior to that happening I was probably quite a tough footballer and a tough man. But, in that split second, Wenger gave me that look and I lost something inside of me.“I thought there is more to life than this. This was not the reason I became a footballer and I really didnt want to be included in this or put my name to this.“In that moment, I thought I dont want to be here, I dont want to play like this and I dont want to be a part of it. I carried on for a bit after that but I just lost my stomach for it in the end.“I would rather not be a footballer at all than have to play that way.” He continued: “It was always Tonys way or the highway. If you didnt do it, you didnt play and you didnt train with the first team.“In hindsight I should have sat down with Tony after that Arsenal game and told him I wasnt happy, but it wasnt really something you did.“If you look at Pulis, he was successful. Success for Stoke City was staying in the Premier League and he achieved it.“Nobody can deny that. He knows how to win football matches. He finds a way to win, thats the mark of a good manager.“Its just the way that he went about it, I didnt want to be a part of it.”Now 38, Kitson left Stoke in 2010 to join Portsmouth, before retiring at Oxford United in 2014.
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