Dear Football Association,
In light of the fact that Arsenal have suffered three leg-breaking tackles in four years at the hands of teams who publicly state that they are going to use violence against the Arsenal side, I would like to submit a selection of teams for your referees to watch out for as the 2009/2010 season winds to a close. These teams and their players are not “just good lads” nor are the tactics they deploy “accidents.” These teams intentionally deploy dangerous and reckless tackles on Arsenal because you and the media perpetrate the myth that Arsenal don’t like rough play.
Let me make this clear, I’m not asking you for special treatment, rather just some clarification. If your desire is to have games such as this year’s Merseyside derby, or Stoke v. Arsenal define English football, then so be it: good luck winning the World Cup with players like Ryan Shawcross.
But since the unveiling of the Football Association’s multi-million pound National Football Centre and the public pronouncements that this means a sea change from the old “lump and crunch” football to a modernized game, I suspect that you too understand the problems in the English game and want to stamp them out. So, I’m not asking for special treatment, but rather that you simply instruct the referees to call a foul a foul and put an end to this pernicious lie that only Arsenal don’t like getting kicked.
Unless, of course you think that potentially career ending tackles are acceptable in the modern game. In that case, by all means carry on and ignore this dossier I have prepared.
Hull City v. Arsenal: March 13th
Hull City, managed by Sam Allardyce (we’ll get to him in a second) acolyte Phil Brown, has quite a number of potential leg breakers on their side but none stands out as much as Stephen Hunt.
Don’t get me wrong, Hull have plenty of dirty players, all you have to do is look at the ugly scenes last time the two teams clashed. Sparked by the constant fouling of Craig Fagan and stoked by Stephen Hunt’s constant recklessness, the match threatened to devolve into a scrum until the referee stepped in and calmed things down.
So, I’m not saying that none of the other players will act recklessly, I’m just saying you might want to pay attention to Stephen Hunt a little. This is the guy who nearly killed Petr Cech and who still constantly goes into challenges with keepers and pretty much every other player in a reckless and dangerous manner.
Birmingham v. Arsenal: March 27th
To say that there’s some prior here is an understatement. Birmingham boss Alex McLeish is a known proponent of the “reducer” tackle and his public pronouncements about kicking Arsenal off the pitch prior to the match where Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg combined with his statements after the match are all you really need to know about how this match will go.
How, exactly, a player like Lee Bowyer has been able to keep playing after his catalog of offenses is one of the miracles of the Premier League. Bowyer has already broken one leg, this season, and I’m sure that when Arsenal come to town McLeish will have a word with him about attending to Cesc Fabregas. I would hope that the FA would have a word with the match official about attending to Lee Bowyer.
Arsenal v. Manchester City: April 24th
Unlike the other teams listed here, Manchester City don’t set out their stall to kick other teams off the pitch. In fact, by-and-large they are a good attacking side who play relatively fair football but they have one player who, in particular, tries his hardest to maul Arsenal players when they meet: former Arsenal player, Emmanuel Adebayor.
Your offices might remember him, he’s the player who tried to break Fabregas’ leg and then tried to rip van Persie’s face off before he ran 90 yards in order to cause a minor riot in front of the Arsenal away fans.
The problem is that Adebayor has both a poor disciplinary record and an unhealthy obsession with his former club. I mean, how obvious is it that this guy is going to be a problem in this match when he gives yet another interview about Arsenal, while serving a compound suspension for his dirty play against Arsenal and Stoke?
Adebayor clearly has a personal vendetta against Arsene Wenger, the fans, and judging from some of his interviews certain personnel in this Arsenal side. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he pulled a Roy Keane and tried to end Bendtner’s career, after all he head-butted him when they were teammates. How much further is it from head-butting a teammate from going in studs-up knee-high against a player you feel did you wrong, who plays for a team where you think the manager did you wrong, surrounded by fans you hate?
You may want to keep an eye on him, just sayin’.
Blackburn Rovers v. Arsenal: May 1st
The father of the “kick Arsenal” brand of football, Sam Allardyce, will be in charge for Arsenal’s penultimate match of this season and could have an impact on both the title chase and England’s World Cup hopes.
Allardyce briefly enjoyed success against Arsenal back when he was in charge of Bolton Wanderers in the 2005/2006 season and has done more than any other manager to perpetuate the myth that Arsenal aren’t tough enough for the Premier League. At his peak, in 05/06, Bolton managed 4 points against Arsenal in the league and also knocked them out of the FA cup — it was and will always be the pinnacle of his pathetic career.
November 25th 2006 was the last time a Sam Allardyce led team beat Arsenal but it hasn’t stopped him from talking about how much he knows about beating them. Nor has the non-stop string of humiliations stopped him from employing the same tactic. And neither has it stopped the lazy members of the British press from using this minor aberration as “evidence” of some larger flaw.
The problem with a Sam Allardyce team is that he doesn’t just employ one player to do his dirty work but rather tries to assemble an entire team full of assassins. Witness what Allardyce did to Newcastle; assembling a side who counted Nicky Butt, Steven Taylor, and the infamous Joey Barton among their numbers.
Sam Allardyce has employed a similar tactic this season with Blackburn Rovers adding such ill-luminaries as Pascal Chimbonda and El-Hadji Diouf to teach young players like Steven Nzonzi the ropes.
It’s a tough call for you all as for who to focus in on. In the run in last season Diouf tried to break Manuel Almunia’s ankle with an obviously intentional foul and I if he didn’t try something similar in this match, I would be shocked.
But Nzonzi has the most to prove to both his manager and the rest of the league and after watching him throw Lucas to the ground against Liverpool today, I suspect he’ll be one of the ones to really keep an eye on. After all, he’s touted as the “new Vieira” and what better way to show how “Vieira” he is than to constant foul Vieira’s namesake, Arsenal?
Conclusion
So there you have it, FA, there’s a list of squads that I would watch out for against Arsenal as the season winds down. It’s not that these clubs have the monopoly on dirty play, Arsenal’s play can be dirty as well. Nor am I the type of fan who wants to turn football into a non-contact sport.
It’s that these teams have a history of being allowed by your referees to be overly aggressive, especially against top sides like Arsenal, Man U, and Chelsea. It’s no coincidence that Stephen Hunt nearly killed Petr Cech and has been involved in several similar incidents against Arsenal. Ryan Shawcross has damaged no less than three player’s ankles in just 4 season in the EPL. Judging by the fact that the first was a tackle from behind, the second was an intentional foul of his colleague off the pitch, and the third was a recklessly high challenge on the young Aaron Ramsey this can’t be down to just bad luck: the player must be dangerous.
Considering the other teams and players I have listed above also have a similar track record, you can’t also say that it’s just bad luck that they are involved in many incidents. You have to admit that you are responsible for not reigning these players in with suspensions. That you are responsible for not instructing your referees to reign these players in with cards during matches. And you have to decide what you want the English Premier League to become; a league where the best players in the world compete for world trophies, or a league where borderline criminals like Ryan Shawcross are allowed to end a colleague’s career in a moment of madness.
Football is supposed to be a beautiful game, and football in England is in danger of becoming a glorified rugby scrum. You are the only one’s who can do anything about it, the ball’s in your hands.
couldnt agree with you more…
You should really print it, put it in the envelope and send. Wonder if there’d be any reaction.
Excellent article.
But I disagree with you in stating that Allardyce is the father of the “kick Arsenal” brand.
In my view, the real father of that brand is Alex Ferguson….Sam Allardyce just happens to be his most high profile disciple in that regard, but make no mistake, it all started with Ferguson.
totaly agree with you Miko
We can all point to such incidents and I can point to three involving Arsenal and Bolton players.
Diaby – over the top tackle on Campo – broke his foot.
Diaby – red card on Steinsson for another over the top studs up tackle
Gallas – shocking studs up stamp on Mark Davies last month
Funnily enough Arsene saw nowt wrong with any of the above tackles.
And whilst I’m at it, did the Stoke fans boo and jeer as Ramsey was stretcherd off the pitch? As happened with the Davies at the Emirates last month?
All the best to Ramsey by the way, the victim of an accidental, non malicious tackle, unlike the three I highlighted above.
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 11:36 am
@Micky, Exactly, unless you are suggesting that there be an arms race in football, those types of tackles need to be banned from the game.
As it stands Arsenal HAVE to tackle like that or we’d suffer a broken leg in every game from teams like the notlob cloggers. If you want to play football like that, then so be it, that’s the point of the article, just let us know that you’re OK with England being also-rans in world football.
But if you want English football to, I don’t know, EVOLVE, you may want to catch up to the rest of the world. Or maybe just adopt some of the changes the world made 20 years ago.
You also missed the time Diaby knocked out Saint Terry.
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 11:37 am
@Tim, Very nearly kicked his dick head clean off…
Micky Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 11:44 am
@Tim, So Gallas stamped on Davies last month in self defence?
You really believe that?
It’s not an English thing – that’s the nature of the game. If you think that these types of injuries don’t happen at every level of the game, in every country, every weekend you’re deluding yourself.
English football needs to evolve? Maybe so – how are Arsenal contributing to that? How many Englishmen in their line up last night?
Wiseman Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
@Micky, How long was Davies out for, a week? He rolled around like he had broken his leg so that we wouldn’t go score a goal, and his pathetic act didn’t work
Yes we had no Englishmen in our line-up last night, and consequently no Stoke players got their legs broken.
And these types of challenges don’t happen all the time, and if they do then they to be stamped out. It’s like saying “oh don’t cry that your wife got raped, it happens at every level of society, in every county, every weekend” What a compelling argument.
And Arsenal are contributing much more to English football than stoke are, how many fans do stoke have around the world? maybe a hundredth of Arsenal’s? Why, because they are a shit football team that’s best footballer can only use his arms well.
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
@Micky, Ah yes, the Gallas challenge: played every night on television and decried from mountain top to mountain top as the dirtiest thing anyone has ever done in England, which is why you are even bringing it up.
Davis played the very next week and that’s all the proof you need to know that Gallas held back JUST ENOUGH to not break his leg. Had Gallas gone full-Shawcross we’d be talking about a different thing but he didn’t and we’re not.
How many legs have Arsenal left hanging off their opponents, their victim damaged for years? How many?
0
Arsenal have suffered 3 in 4 years, if you weren’t so biased that fact would sink in.
FabGooner Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
@Tim,
Spot on!! I have been watching Sky, BBC and everybody is talking about how Shawcross is not that type of player, and what a lovely boy he is. THATS NOT THE FUCKING POINT!!!!!
Its clear that this 22 year old was fired up by Pulis to go in hard, because Pulis and all the other managers of teams you talked about in this article know technically they are inferior to arsenal, so you have to “rough ‘em up”. The issue develops when players like Shawcross don’t have the maturity to understand that you HAVE to be in control of your body when you tackle, so when, like Gallas you mistim your challenge you don’t destroy another professionals career!
Dim-witted managers like Pulis take individuals with potential and give them no latitude to develop like a Pique at Barca or Ramos at Madrid.
If you guys have the chance watch Sunday Supplement on Sky’s website. Listen to what Patrick Barclay is saying. SPOT F-ing ON.
Lastly. I was at the Anfield when Arsenal won the league in 1989, I followed every game in the Invincible campaign and NEVER have I been prouder of my time than yesterday!
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
@Micky, as for your second retardation, I mean “assertion” I watch a ton of world football and I have only seen these type of leg breaking tackles happen very, very rarely.
As for the third thing, I think that the 12 other teams in the league who send out leg breakers could do a lot more to evolve English football than just Arsenal alone.
Last I checked Sol is English, Theo is English, Keiran Gibbs is English, Wilshere is English, and if you look at the Arsenal academy it’s chock-full of English players. I’d say that Arsenal are doing more to evolve English football than a side like Bolton has done in their entire history.
But you know what? It’s hard for the English Arsenal players to get a game because your boys keep breaking their legs (Gibbs) or their shoulders (Theo).
So maybe you could ask your manager to teach his players how to play football and then Arsene would have a chance to bring some young Englishmen through the ranks rather than having them sidelined for an entire season with a broken foot because of an over-zealous tackle.
Owinok Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 1:25 am
@Micky, And why should it be Arsenal’s duty to change English football? By signing Taylor and Shawcross? English football fanatic delusion!
Ben Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
@Micky, you mug. You cannot compare the crowd jeering off a player with a double leg fracture to the crowd jeering off a player who grovelled around and in fact was found to have some bruising and no fracture. The two don’t compare, so shut up, you mug.
Oh and you listed 3 Arsenal tackles and the worst that happened was a broken foot (relatively minor injury). They don’t really compare to ankle fracture/dislocation, open ankle dislocation and factured tibia, and fractured tib/fib. Not even in the same league. So shut up and fuck off you complete twat.
Stephen Henderson Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
@Micky,
The Stoke fans were singing “You’ve only got one leg” when Ramsey was taken off.
XTG Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
@Micky, You are a complete mug. Have you seen the tackle in slow-motion. Ramsey was already at the ball and Shawcross was late, high and reckless:
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2194/horrifictackle1.jpg
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4702/horrifictackle2.jpg
I remember allardyce in the post match interview saying that he felt that the yellow card wasn’t justified for the “tackle”. Which goes to show what type of game he wants to play.
There is a clear reason why we are top of the fair play league!
Has any Arsenal player been sent of this season? Draw you own conclusions!
One of the long term problems as I see it, is contained in two words, interpretation and expediency. Referees are permitted to indulge themselves with the concepts contained in these words, in relation to the rules.
The rules are not there to be interpreted, they are there to be applied, and applied equally in accordance with the rules of Association Football, nor should a referees judgment be clouded by expediency, allowing infringements to go unpunished. If this leads initially to more free-kicks, more cards and more sendings off, so be it.
More attention needs to be applied to fouls off the ball, deliberate body-checking, shirt pulling, holding, obstruction, etc, all off which interfere with the free-flow that officials are keen to promote.
Also, why are there two sets of rules, and decision making criteria, for fouls inside, and fouls outside the penalty area? The rules apply to all areas of the pitch, and if the correct application leads to more penalties, then so be it.
Lastly, if any club incites its players to commit fouls on us, outside the rules, or indeed if a player commits a foul which exceeds by far the norms of the game, then let him be subject to the laws of the land. An assault is an assault. In the case of Aaron, let Stoke, as Shawcross’s employers, pay for all the medical attention, therapy, and his wages, whilst he is unable to work.
Viva!
It’s true – we are out to get you
Us Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
@Everyone, I knew it!
I would LOVE to see Arsenal sue Stoke City for compensation. They could use video evidence of other horror tackles and argue that Stoke have a policy of deliberately trying to injure or intimidate through violent play.
Of course, there’s a chance that Arsenal won’t win compensation, but launching such a case really brings the issue to the forefront and will deter teams like Blackburn, Birmingham and Hull from playing that way against us.
We have to do this!
XTG Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
@Paul, Aye.
i dont agree with your topic , let alone the content. we are here for talking about football. injury happens to everybody…… as long as premierleague is fast and forward. full of tackles. Gallas devastatingly hurt Bolton’s player (davis) , but no body came to tell about it.
stop hypocrytic articles please
b Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
@jonathan, i think you’ll find that everyone and their grandmother was up in arms about that Gallas tackle. Nobody came out and said that Gallas was really a nice lad and would never do such a thing on purpose.
The Law Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
@jonathan, Gallas “devastatingly” hurt a Bolton player who was in training the next week. I guess we need a new word for when a player is put out of commission for a month or a year. Knob.
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
@jonathan, the difference is degrees.
A reckless challenge with intent leaves a player with their leg shattered in two.
A 50-50 challenge where Gallas pulls back just a bit leaves the player back in the team the next week.
Guess which happened where?
Guess which has happened 3 times in 4 years to the same team?
Ben Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
@jonathan, Davies wasn’t even injured, you cockmuncher
XTG Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
@jonathan, Mug. Davis missed a week, and pretended it was bad. Ramsey got clobbered by a high and late “challenge”.
now with injuries growing and all long term wenger will get the heat later on to buy new players whereas they are in such a bad position of paying the injured player and buying someone and paying him also…
so wenger gets in a bad position . he is forced by media to buy buy buy. and financially wenger and the club will be like wtf!
and then the talk of no trophies will start. and wenger will add more pressure on himself and gets frustrated when he trusts and gets good players and they get fucking injured with reckless shit tackles and it adds pressure on everyone when there is no need for it.
we all want physical toughness in games… like we want that in arsenal when we couldnt handle drogba… the chelsea game we were shot on that but there was no shit tackles in that. that defeats i can understand. but these sam’s team, stoke teams are utter wanks.. lets post this lettter and arseblogs article to the FA.
Plain and simple,Gallas’ challenge had the Mail readers and Sky pundits chuntering for days in middle England,whereas Shawcross was immediately protected by the xenophobic English press and pundits who claimed that he wouldn’t set out to break anyones’ leg; well I suggest you view the tackle again at full speed and ask yourself why he needed to play\hack through the ball\man at such a pace when he was nowhere near 100 % sure that he would get the ball and if he did it would have gone out the groun.Shawcross has previous and has broken someone else’s ankle in 2007 and his tackle on Adebardoor was a disgrace a couple of years ago,leaving him out the game for 4 weeks.
XTG Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
@Eddy, Exactly. The speed and lateness of his challenge was unnecessary.
@ Micky
Thank you for your examples of ‘career-threatening’ injuries inflicted by Arsenal players.
Unfortunately you have completely missed the point of the article, which I will sum up for you in one word: premeditation. You see in the ‘real world’ if your boss tells you to go and ‘rough up’ a rival, speaks publicly about it prior to the event, and you go out and break that rival’s leg in TWO places…you have premeditation, and therefore INTENT. In the court of law, that is a punishable crime.
In at least TWO of the instances leading up to the serious injuries recently suffered by Arsenal players, managers and players of the opposition teams have spoken about their violent intentions, the carried them out. as a wise man said, ‘you can’t fire a gun and be ‘surprised and remorseful’ when someone get’s hit…
I am sure you will be hard-pressed to find a press-conference where Wenger has urged his playes to employ these dirty tactics_ take a look at pre-match comments made before the matches where Arsenal players have inflicted injuries…THAT is the point….PEMEDITATION = INTENT
How comes when Eduardo’s “dive” happened it was in every news bulletin in the country!
How comes when Aaron Ramsey suffers a career threatening injury there is hardly a mention with Wayne not shaking Terry’s hand still a more important news.
Let’s kick some fuss now. Let’s petition FA to tackle this officially. All we need to do is use some bare statistic and a video evidence.
Re. comparing the Gallas tackle to Shawcross’
Today on another Arsenal blog I was debating with the blogger, who said Shawcross’ tackle was accidental.
We ended up talking about the Gallas tackle on a Bolton player, Davis. This tackle: http://twitpic.com/zv125
If you look at the picture, you see that Gallas’ tackling technique is the classic technique taught by proper coaches. His weight is behind the ball, his tackling foot is sliding along the ground, he is in control of his body and his movements are measured. From his hands you can see he’s slightly pulling out of the tackle.
That’s probably why he ended up doing no damage to the Bolton player. Had he flown in, lunging with serious force the situation could have been different…which is what Shawcross did.
Contrast with Shawcross who’s been told to get stuck in, fly into tackles etc.
You soon see why Shawcross would injure other players.
XTG Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
@OleGunner, Shawcross:
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2194/horrifictackle1.jpg
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4702/horrifictackle2.jpg
A lunge, high and late. Unnecessary force behind the challenge.
@ Micky
And for your information, there was a small section of Stoke supporters booing Ramsey and even making obscene gestures at him as he was stretchered off
Watch the match highlights again and stop trying to make like your team’s supporters are the classiest in the premier league.
Micky=cunt
I fear the Brum game as being the worst chance of a leg break and wonder whether Wenger will put Eduardo in the squad or not.
Will our Croatian want to go back to the scene of his trauma? There’ll be no Martyin Taylor there, but as you say Bowyer(who is in the same level of single brain celled thuggery as Barton) will be there.
BTW Tim – I’m going to the Burnley game – so where are you going to pre match? I’ll be sinking a few pints on the Blackstock road in all probability.
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
@Chary, at The Arsenal tavern?
Chary Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
@Tim, That’s the one, either in the main bar or the one the section round the corner you get into via the door on the side street(Mountgrove road).Is that where you’re going?
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
@Chary, I had no plans, I usually go to the Famous Cock, but that sounds like a neat new place to go.
Chary Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
@Tim, The famous Cock, I don’t know that one. I should really as I worked on Blackstock Road for 5 years till 2007.
Tim Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
@Chary, it’s actually all the way on the opposite side of the stadium, right out of the Highbury and Islington tube station.
It’s easy to get to from the tube, hence the reason I stop there!
Miko_Gooner Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
@Tim, does the Famous Cock belong to Terry? Or Cole?
Oh, forgive me, couldn’t resist…
Chary Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
@Miko_Gooner, I thought it had some Tottenumb connection.
Where I travel from I get off at The Arsenal tube station, on the Picadilly line, I’m sure you know it’s the one in the final scenes of Fever Pitch.
You mean the one on your left as you come out of H & I station Tim ? That’s still quite a walk to the stadium, although there’s a Thai restaurant on the Holloway road called “The Chompoo” I go to if I want to wait for the crowed to die down before I tackle the trains home.
what a brilliant article – it’s obvious you’ve spent years writing essays judging by the structure of the piece – i’m sure you passed all your exams with flying colours!!
as for the meat of the debate, it’s clear that the f.a. needs to understand that if it continues to turn a blind eye to the caveman tactics of that piece of shit allardyce then our game will revert back to the good old days of wimbledon, watford, mullets & strained necks with all the skillful
players long gone – aggression is fine providing the timing & skill is there – without it, you end up with another career potentialy ended before it’s begun
For the life of me, I cannot understand why some fans cannot simply go to their own fans’ blogsites instead of going to other people’s and posting bollocks devoid of proper reasoning.
This is CLEARLY an ARSENAL FANS’ blogsite. People have informed and sensible debates here, not badly phrased, half-baked, spoon-fed opinions. Anyone who feels incapable of keeping pace intelligently should just go to their own cavemen and savage blogsite.
This blogsite is for humans with a heart and compassion; not for thuggish beasts masquerading as humans.
Tim, you really don’t have to answer, or explain anything, to every jack-water, thick head nincompoop who comes to challenge without proper reasoning. If they sound logical, by all means, dialogue with them. But if they are just talking bollocks, dump them like a sack of rotten potatoe that they probably are.
I don’t normally have a lot of time for Rafael Benitez, but he was hilarious after the ‘Pool win over Allardyce’s Boltburn today, commenting on the “style” that Boltburn employ (25 fouls and 5 yellows in the game):
“I think it is a model for all the managers around the world, their style of football, his behaviour. It is the perfect model for all the kids and I’m sure all parents will enjoy this model and encourage their kids to be the same. The style of football, I think, Barcelona are thinking of copying.”
ctpa Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
@esm, We are going to miss Benitez’s recent excursions into acerbic witticism.
Pires broke his leg avoiding a nasty tackle. If that had connected I think it will be the end of his career.Me thinks the old farts in the FA are unlikely to take action unless one of their son/relatives is seriouly injured.
In the Stoke game the Stoke defender dived with two feet studs showing when Eduardo was shooting. Fortunatley Eduauado jumped off in time. The defender shd have been red carded no if and buts.
I think the refs shd be tougher on the thugs or there will be more such Ramssy injuries.Any tackle deemded to be injury threatening shd be given a yellow/red.Two footed/sliding tackles shd be give a red and the player banned ten not three matches.
All these are unlikely to happen for a million years.But if you want to fight fire,you have to do it with fire and not kid gloves.
Gareth26GOONER Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 12:28 am
@Anthony Tan, wasnt a leg break. Wasnt even a bad tackle either
Tim, I would change the word “define” to “defile” following Arsenal vs. Stoke in your blog because that’s what teams like Stoke, Bolton, Birmingham, Hull and Blackburn are doing to the EPL.
Martin Samuel, someone in the British media who gets it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1254454/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Now-Aaron-Ramsey–broken-legs-chance.html
Ah yes, Lee Bowyer. He gave a recent interview where he states that he’s grown up and more mature than he once was. He is after all in his early 30′s now. He wants people to forget what he was and see what he’s become. He’s a father now, he’s scoring goals he’s a team leader and he’s trying to clean up his legacy. As Joe Biden said to Dick Cheney: “don’t try to rewrite history”.
I remember a similar ‘whitewash’ interview given by Joey Barton just before he pummeled a kid outside a McDonald’s in a drunken rage and was finally sent to prison. Then there is Steven Gerrard’s drunken escapade that he escaped punishment for. There is a class of people in British footabll who were it not for football would either be dead or in prison. These people are now given ‘license’ by their ‘mob boss’ managers to go out and ‘protect’ their ‘turf’ by breaking foreign gang members legs. Except for the missing scar, Allardyce could be Al Capone and McLeish could be Bugsy Moran.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5996814,00.html
Hey Roy here’s the thing, Shawcross was ‘careless’ with tackle and maimed a player, then he should be off. Intent has nothing to do with it. You as a player are responsible for the actions and consequences of your body on the field of play. In hockey if you accidentally touch another player’s face with your stick then you are off because you are responsible for your stick and whatever consequence occurs with its use. Whoever broke your leg should been given a straight red as well because they were probably just as ‘careless’ as Shawcross. Shawcross is working on getting his leg breaking skill down to a science since it’s his second one.
Don’t bother to argue with a WUM-ing c**t like Mickey, just leave the pikey to his own limited thoughts.
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