حسام غالي: The Fall Guy

Hossam Ghaly. Do not kneejerk yourselves into a frenzy. This man did not disgrace himself by taking the shirt off and throwing it away having been subbed after coming on as a sub. He did not spit in the face of the Cockerel. Yes, it appeared to be petulant. Yes, it looked selfish and disrespectful. But you may also think that some degree of passion was displayed, making up for the lack of composure shown on the pitch. Self inflicted frustration and the sound of 36,000 frustrated moans can make you do silly things. But then sometimes you do silly things because you are instructed to do so. And because on the surface it looks like the reaction that people expect you to deliver when in fact you are simply following a script that has been handed down to you.

It's difficult to prove this, but I'm certain that the whole Ghaly incident was a very well organised sting, a dramatic sketch fooling the watching public and WHL faithful.

Iconic: Seen by millions

Ghaly's performance was bad. Very bad. In fact, so bad that it seemed like he was doing it on purpose. Compare his performance to others that had started the match from the opening whistle.

How was several mis-placed passes and dinks of the ball finding no one any worse than Tainio's wonderfully pathetic performance? TT is a player who sums up the Levy Era of transfers (along with the Ghaly transfer). Can't pass, runs around a lot and thus gets labelled 'tenacious' and receives thunderous applause for the odd successful tackle, but nobody seems to be half as frustrated as me with the fact that he is incapable of playing 5 games on the trot without getting injured. The bloke, apart from having a sharp haircut, is fucking shit. He is also a lame passer of the ball. Yet he escaped any jeers and boo's from the sheep of the Lane who flicker from one emotion to the next like Pete Doherty stumbling between rehab and a needle.

Yet Ghaly came on and played even worse than Tainio. How is that physically possible to achieve unless you actually attempt to play that badly on purpose?

Martin Jol; clueless to the conspiracy at hand

Ghaly has the touch of a rapist, but he is not the only guilty one. The £8M Zokora who even having played a full season, has taken up the best part of that finding his way around the Prem, but still struggles with his first touch. Surely, a 'Carrick Replacement' should have the basic skill of control under management? But his lack of first touch is apparently forgivable it would seem, week to week.

Anyone watching would have seen that in the space of 30 minutes, the boo-boys decimated Hossam's confidence from zero to minus-zero. His shirt-throwing was a 'fuck you' to the lack of support he got. But it was all too obvious and staged. How eager was he to pull his shirt off as he walked off the pitch?

Ghaly wants out of Spurs. He has (going back weeks) already asked for a transfer. He believes he is being held back at Spurs. Not allowed to keep his place in the team and constantly played out of position. The player has no future at the club. And Levy knows this and took his opportunity to turn it into his favour.

I can't prove this (yet) but I'm certain that Ghaly was instructed to play badly to orchestrate a move away from WHL so that Levy can reclaim some of the money (Jol doesn't want Ghaly out...or at least didn't till Thursday evening). So Jol was unaware of what was set to play out against Blackburn.

I'm not completely certain of Steed Malbanque's part in all this. Was he genuinely injured? Did he feign injury to allow Ghaly to enter stage and give the performance of a life-time?

The throwing of the shirt (Levy's idea) was a symbolic disposal of this seasons design - making way for next seasons 125th Anniversary range (which, coincidently took place on Friday). Another textbook subliminal message from the mastermind chairman.

And as for Ghaly, his exit would guarantee the exposure required to elevate his struggling profile to one that would allow potential bidders to fax across their offers. Ghaly's previous independent attempts were to lose all his front teeth and score at Stamford Bridge, but these incidents did not have the desired effect he wished. Ghaly required help. Levy was there to offer his helping hand.

Ghaly got what he wanted this time. And Mr Money-in-the-bank Levy will claim back the cash spent on Hossam when Jol is now forced to sell him.

Fond memory

According to Jol and the club Ghaly has been fined and has apologised, but according to an interview on Egyptian television on Friday he had not even spoken or seen Jol since the incident. Seems that the cover-up is already under way. And Jol is nothing more than a wave in the sea. A sea of deception and lies.

As much as Ghaly is the fall guy here we do have something in common. We are both oppressed by a plight of ignorance. I am surrounded by ignorant people who don't see through Levy and his agenda. Ghaly is Lee Harvey Oswald. A patsy. Both of us are unable to express ourselves and our beliefs because the powers that be deem us insignificant and manipulative. But I'm just a little bit more clued up than my friend Hossam.

We are brothers, still. Except I don't speak Arabic and he probably doesn't have a criminal record for streaking at the West Stand entrance with a Levy effigy attached to his groin.