Afternoon peeps;
first things first where were some real fantastic comments on the blog yesterday, people took the time to make their points not only eloquently but respectfully and I appreciate that and thank you all.
Ive moved on from the anger phase and now I just want something done – I stress, I’m not after a ban for Ryan Shawcross as such, I’m not going to say something outlandish like “BAN THE ANIMAL FOR LIFE!!!!”; that would get us nowhere and is not my personal opinion anyway, I still don’t think he meant it as such.
What we need now is for the FA to talk about this issue, not only this issue but the Eduardo issue which they avoided like the plague and the Abou Diaby issue which never even got into the spotlight like this – another one of these is Man United youngster Possiebon being very very lucky to survive an assault by Emmanuel Pogatetz who is a player with form for this kind of stuff, I think he was banned for 11-12 games before he moved to Middlesborough.
These unnecessary reckless tackles must be weened out of the game but the cowardice of the FA, UEFA and FIFA – the people with the power – means that these events will just keep on happening and in the end it will be to the detriment of the English game.
Excuses, excuses and excuses are made time after time – “hes not the sort”, “he’s a nice lad, salt of the earth kinda lad”, “he didn’t intend to hurt him” blah, blah, blah. I, and everyone knows that Shawcross didn’t intend to bust Ramsey’s leg like that so why can’t they face up to the fact that the tackle was reckless and Shawcross was out of control, it takes a hell of a lot of force to break a leg like that, it was not just a mistimed tackle but the force with which Shawcross went into the tackle was totally unnecessary.
The media have a responsibility too, and to the credit of some, the issue has been spoken about and they have focussed on how tackles like this have to be stopped because it is ruining the game – others don’t deserve the time of day, a certain ex-player demanding that Shawcross was the victim and Wenger should apologise to him is quite frankly, a lunatic.
If the FA and other authorities keep on living in their fluffy bunny land and don’t act on this, Aaron Ramsey will just be the latest in a long line of players who will have to suffer awful injuries like these and that is not right.
In the comments goonermagic and I came up with two proposals in the space of minutes so I’m sure the FA could do the same, but will they? No. I want to know why, they are pathetic, ignorant fools who do not have the best interests of the game at heart, their incompetence has been shown in many cases, the most high profile being the management of the Wembley Stadium project…all that money on one stadium and they still can’t get a pitch that won’t cut up and deteriorates at a laughable rate during a game. Ive seen better Sunday League pitches.
Back to the point in question anyway, why can’t there be a panel to review every single red card and determine the punishment? In that case not one issue such as this can escape because when a player breaks a leg its almost certainly a red card that is awarded. In most cases I am sure that the 1 or 3 game ban will suffice, a system like this would be able to clamp down on players who are repeatedly sent off and address that problem too and nip it right in the bud and prevent injuries such as this from happening.
I also have to show you this, yes, it is another incident involving Ryan Shawcross:
He is a player who is 21-22 years of age and he has already caused two serious injuries in his career from over aggressive tackling, this is just another case of him using ridiculous force in tackles, I have pointed out the Adebayor challenge already in a previous post I believe (tackled Adebayor about five yards off the pitch and put him out for 3 weeks).
*********
I also have to take issue with the Media, again. How many headlines saying that Wenger had said there was a “conspiracy” against Arsenal were there this weekend and early this week? Two I can think of.
Anyway, they got those headlines from the quote (and I’m paraphrasing) “its happened 3 times now, I don’t believe in coincidences”. I spoke with John Cross of the Mirror on this issue and he defended it (fine by me) and explained:
“Conspiracy means to conspire against. Therefore, Stoke, Brum & Sund conspired against AFC. And I’m on your side!
“I urge you to think again about the conspiracy theory in relation to it not being a coincidence. He is effectively saying there is a calculated campaign against Arsenal by smaller clubs. A conspiracy. How is that twisting words?”
I still think it is twisting Arsene Wenger’s words, maybe its me just being picky? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
Anyway, I think I will leave it there for today, it would be great to see you in the comments again. Before we go, theres a picture that the press (you could call it that, I’m on about Talkshite Radio and all the half-wit pundits) should take note of, a message from our captain Cesc Fabregas:
Till tomorrow
Arsenal News 24/7
I don’t think the FA will do anything until a key player for England is tackled and injured in a similar way and out of a long time. They would act sooner if, for instance, Rooney was tackled between now and June 2010 and misses the WC. Only then will they entertain doing anything about reckless tackles.
I should add that there is something Wenger can do in deterring players from tackling Arsenal in this way. That is to get more players in the mold of Sol Campbell and Patrick Vieira whom breeds fear in opponents. No one would think of tackling any of our players hard if they knew they might be kicked as well – hard!
stupid FA and UEFA
We should not encourage any behaviour like this, If we had players who reacted to being kicked out of a game, I think opposing managers would encourage it even more.If Rooney had been injured like this there would have been a totally different slant from the media, and the F.A would probably change the rules to protect their Golden Boy!I have also read today that Ferguson has given his support the thug Shawcross, has he forgotten about possebon? He just has to get his word in to take another swipe at Wenger! Thanks again for finding more evidence that Shawcross is ‘that type of player’, if someone went round assaulting people like he does outside a game of football, they would be in prison! I think that Witsel commited a similar challenge earlier in the season for Standard and received a lengthy ban, something like 8 games, this is the least the F.A. should do.
yours is quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs. great work again.
did anyone see MoTD2 on sunday? i am so massively dissapointed that both lee dixon and martin keown didnt come out with any arsenal bias, rather they just went with the consensus reiterating that shawcross is a good lad and it was a 50-50 ball etc. the question shouldnt be is shawcross a good lad or not. the question should be, are arsenal targeted?
how can two of our greatest players not back the team? that instance alongside the views expressed by alan smith, brian marwood, paul merson, ian wright etc over the years proves to me that there is a media bias and if you are pro-arsenal you wont be long in the job.
like arsene i dont do coincidence’s (there’s was enough of them on 911 or 7/7 to fill the worlds ocean’s.. ooops sorry wrong blog!) and this bullying of arsenal HAS been engendered and propogated by our morally corrupt media. dont know if i read it on here or the also excelent arseblog and the point was made that how dare sky sports refuse to show a reply of ‘the tackle’ when in efect its their style of journalism that has justified this bullying of arsenal and yet they refuse to show the consequences of their actions. wankers!
one last point if i may… about a year ago i decided to stop buying a newspaper, stop watching TV (apart from sport) and to stop listening to the radio. it works people!!
xx
Finding players who can “kick back” when kicked might solve the problem but it sends the wrong message. As a Gunner from the USA, I am shocked at the way most of the media has defended that reckless thug and in some cases blamed Wenger for not encouraging our boys to hit back. This is how English players are raised? “if you can’t beat them, foul them”? USAs chances @ WC is looking better already.
I agree with other commenters, if this would have been Rooney the FA would have reacted quickly to ban such tackles. But it was just a poor Welshman so let’s call up shawcross for int duty instead, these are the type capello needs it appears.
Enough has been said about stupidly hapless journalism. By “conspiracy”, they make it seem like there’s a conniving act by teams/managers to always have a go at Arsenal when there really is no need as the media already do, with help from different players and managers alike commenting about Arsenal’s lack of “spine” and hence making it a general consensus in the process, that Arsenal are a team to be bullied. I think we’ve handled that pretty well this season and that is leading to a “let’s get harder against them” campaign.
Anyone would be stupid to deny that they think we are a “soft” side as the talk (brainwashing imo)all season from pokenosers and even our own fans had been about getting someone in the defensive midfield role, someone not easily kicked off the ball… what am I saying.
It is true opposing teams’ physicality gets over-extended particularly when playing against Arsenal and even managers don’t have to tell their players anymore; it’s now a general consensus, believe it or not!
Thanks for the comments guys, I will reply later tonight when Im back home.
Thanks for the compliments too, really appreciated!
I’m an Arsenal fan from the USA as well and its getting easier by the minute to laugh at the notion that England has any chance whatsoever in the Cup this year. They play cheap and dirty with hard challenges and dives. The difference is that in the Cup there won’t be Biast British Refs to overlook their transgresions. The Premier League Is the Best League in the World, but if the Refs don’t start living by one set of rules for every player and/or team then bad challenges will continue, and the talent will leave for other leagues.
I am an Arsenal fan from Spain and while I think that Spanish refs are not better than their English counterparts (they´re just as bad, really) at least they tend to punish severely these type of tackles (particularly those leading to a serious injury like in this case) with a red card. The case is then reviewed by the Spanish FA and a game ban is imposed accordingly (could be anything between 8 and 15 games depending upon some factors i.e. nature of the tackle, injury caused by such tackle, length of time the injured player is likely to be sidelined, etc) I know this system is far from perfect and in no way would lessen the type of suffering that awaits poor Ramsey for the next few months but at least it ensures that, on the one hand a certain degree of justice is imparted and on the other it acts as some sort of deterrent for players the like of Shawcross who do not think twice about using excessive force when tackling.