- Jens Lehmann: never one to take injustice lying down
Arsenal fans know Jens Lehmann all too well. Whether it’s his madness or inconsistent goalkeeping, the 40-year-old German is never a dull moment on the pitch, though that’s exactly what you want from your man between the posts. Still, he gets points for effort, and his latest act of team sabotage was an absolute doozy.
Playing for Stuttgart these days, a team mired in a relegation battle (2-7-7 to start the season, putting them just 1 point above the drop zone) and just minutes away from recording a valuable victory over 8th-placed Mainz. What happened next was typical moronicism from Jens Lehmann.
Check the tape: (fixed the video)
What should have been business as usual from the professional turned into yet more dropped points for the beleaguered club as Mainz scored from the spot and bagged a 1-1 draw. Lehmann simply could not let Aristide Bance’s petulant act go, following it up with one of his own and throwing Stuttgart into even more turmoil.
Markus Babbel must be thanking his lucky stars to be far away from Stuttgart now. New manager Christian Gross took the setback on the chin: “The scene with Jens was unnecessary. I know the player Lehmann very well but know little about the person Lehmann. I will intensively analyse the situation with him. The success of the team is above everything.”
Does he realize just what a gargantuan task it will be to convince the Mad Dog of this simple truth? After all, Lehmann’s hosed his team several times in recent times; fresh off a 40,000 fine for disparaging remarks about the team’s fans and an incident midweek in which he was caught urinating behind the advertising hoardings during their 3-1 Champions League win over Unirea Urziceni.
Jens Lehmann is a man whose loyalty extends only as far as his own ego and sense of self-righteousness. Throwing opponents’ shoes behind the goal and arguing with fans is chump change to him, and absurdity like this in the Bundesliga, with his team struggling to achieve any kind of form, has already cost the team one manager since the summer. Question is, when will they finally kick him out? He’s already said he would retire at the end of the season, so just cut him loose early before he damages the team even more.
[UPDATE] As Anonsters noted, Mad Jens took his shenanigans off the pitch as well, stealing the glasses from a fan after the match on his way to the team bus. What a guy!
video is no longer available
Should be fixed now!
Silly move from Jens, but Bance is an epic c-word. No need to roll around and carry on like that.
yes, Bance is an epic character
NYK: is Bance from Burkina Faso too? I’m really looking to boost our hits from Ouagadoudou
I still haven’t seen that video of Jens relieving himself. The one on the blog post has been removed. Anyone found another?
@Eladio: You can find it pretty easily on youtube… I found several last night. (I would post a link but streaming video is verboten here at work.)
@Eladio: Just do a Google image search for “Jens Lehmann’s dick.” I’m sure that will work out well for you.
You mean you want me to put effort into finding it, instead of being served it on a platter?
Crazy Jens
So I guess you heard about the incident after the game as Lehmann was leaving, where Jens stole a fan’s eye-glasses?
Ha, yes, Anonsters, I did, though for some reason I neglected to include it in the post. Though it’s definitely worth mentioning that the man responsible for all these childish, ridiculous acts is in fact a 40-year-old man.
I like the way Rafael Honigstein (or however you spell his name, too lazy to Google it) described it on the Football Weekly podcast (or perhaps the way it actually happened, I don’t know): the fan asking Jens why he just can’t be normal for once.
@Anonsters – in the entire history of recorded time, there has been only 1 universal truth. Jens Lehmann is a twat.
@NYK: How about in the history of unrecorded time? :P