As expected the Shawcross ‘is not that kind of player’ brigade have been out in force since he broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg on Saturday evening. He’s from a lovely family, apparently, and doesn’t have a bad bone in his body (unlike Aaron Ramsey who has two, courtesy of the Stoke player).
There’s no way that was a malicious challenge, Ryan isn’t that sort of player.
So spoke Stoke’s assistant manager … in October 2007 when Shawcross broke former Arsenal man Francis Jeffers ankle in a tackle. Link to the article in the Stoke Sentinel.
When Arsenal played Stoke in November 2008 Shawcross made a challenge on Emmanuel Adebayor which put him out for about three weeks. Here’s the video – the challenge was off the pitch, the ball was gone and he deliberately targeted Adebayor’s ankle. He walked away, the ref gave nothing, the commentator’s risible comment about how he was ‘no respecter of big reputations’ a perfect example of what I spoke about yesterday. Instead of saying ‘That was a bad foul which has no place in the game’ he smirked at the young Englishman kicking the foreigner. Good lad.
And two days ago Shawcross put Ramsey out of the game for a long, long time. Arsene Wenger said at his press conference post Stoke:
Spare me the articles tomorrow about how nice Shawcross is because we had all that with Eduardo.
Let me say again, I don’t believe for one second that Shawcross meant to break Ramsey’s leg. However, the defence of him being not that kind of player rings hollow when you look at his past. He has a history of hurting other players. He is that kind of player. And his tears on Saturday I’m sure were genuine but they were the tears of a man who knows he has gone too far. You can call him physical, combative, hard … anything you like. For me the bottom line is he’s dirty. Not always, but sometimes, and when at 22 you’ve already broken two players legs you might need to rethink your approach to the game.
I fully expect his teammates and his manager to stick up for him, that is how football works. We all have our opinion of Ryan Shawcross, for us he will always be the guy who broke Ramsey’s leg. I hope, as the England team assemble at our training ground this week, he has a most uncomfortable time. Yet this is not just about Shawcross, it’s about the culture of excuse making for dangerous, violent play which is all too prevelant in the media and which is exacerbated by the FA’s continual refusal to punish it.
Here’s an example, from a couple of last season. Kevin Nolan on Everton’s Victor Anichebe. Look at the the picture to your left. Thankfully Anichebe did not have his leg broken. I don’t really believe in miracles but when you look at that picture it’s hard to imagine how he got away with it. I remember watching Match of the Day afterwards and I’m pretty sure it was Alan Shearer who led the bleating about how Kevin Nolan ‘is not that kind of player’.
Update: It turns out Anichebe missed the rest of that season and made his first start of this one only this weekend. Nolan got a 3 match ban.
Shearer was at it again at the weekend about Shawcross, saying he had no history of this kind of thing – WRONG – and they all consistently, maddeningly, miss the point. You don’t have to be that kind of player but if you tackle somebody like that then you have to be punished for what is an act of violence that has no place on a football pitch. That is not tackling, that is not trying to win the ball. When you go in with two feet, both of them stamping down on the shin of a fellow player there is only one thing you are trying to do and that is hurt him. It might be a moment of madness, atypical behaviour perhaps, but that’s all it takes.
The fact that you’ve never done it before doesn’t excuse it. You don’t kill someone in real life and get away with it because ‘you’re not that kind of person’. Once is enough. Yet the culture that exists in English football is to excuse it time and time again. Nolan got a three match ban for his tackle on Anichebe. Shawcross will miss three games (just one more than Alex Song for cumulative bookings). How is that right? When the punishment does not fit the crime the crimes will continue to happen.
You have idiots like Talksport who are the lowest of the low. I know it’s hard for people not to react but they’re bottom feeding trolls. Their whole existence is based on boosting their listenership. Do you do that with sensible comment that might do something positive for the game? Of course not. You get more listeners by being outrageous, by making comments you know will rile people and make them call in. You put halfwits like Alan Brazil and Stan Collymore on air as if their opinions on the game matter in the slightest and you instruct them to wind up the audience. I know it’s tough but the easy answer is just to switch off.
Nevertheless I completely understand the reaction of fans from whatever club trying to ring in and reason with these people. We all love the game, they only love the sound of their own voices and the ratings. That is the bottom line. Yet they have a malign influence on football, in my opinion. Look at the furore over Eduardo’s dive. One of the nicest guys in the game pilloried relentlessly over a bit of gamesmanship that happens over and over and over in games. We don’t want to see diving, I think we all accept that, but a media led witch-hunt against Eduardo lasted weeks. It affected Arsenal to the point where referees were not giving us stonewall penalties in Europe and at home.
The double standards are appalling. Steven Gerrard spent the league game at the Grove against us falling over and diving, because he is as bad as anyone when it comes down to it. I didn’t hear Collymore or Brazil or anyone else launch a campaign against him. They focus on the trivia, the diving, shirt pulling, hearsay about people possibly spitting, yet when they have a chance to condemn acts of violence on the pitch their only interest is to wind people up and defend the indefensible.
I imagine the reaction from these sanctimonious hypocrites would be entirely different if Wayne Rooney had his leg smashed to pieces. I hope that never happens but if it did then we might hear something about how certain challenges are not acceptable. The problem of course is that the Talksport culture is ubiquitous and as long as that exists and former players and pundits and presenters continue to make excuses for the likes of Shawcross then we remain no closer to having a positive effect on the game.
The FA too. Spineless at the best of times, we know that, but how long have I said on this blog that their disciplinary system is antiquated and broken? You cannot possibly justify to anyone with a brain Shawcross missing three games while Song misses two for a series of yellow cards and Ramsey misses up to a year, if he comes back at all. It is obscene. As I’ve said, no player goes out to break another player’s leg, but no driver goes out to kill someone. If the driver speeds and drives recklessly though, he is responsible for what might happen. When you behave in a certain way you must be held accountable for the consequences … except in football where you can destroy a player, have a massive impact on another team, and your ‘punishment’ is a couple of weeks off (at most), on full pay before coming back as if nothing ever happened. What. The. Fuck?
For me the bottom line is this – those with responsibility are shirking it. The FA with their unwillingness to revamp their disciplinary procedures. Certain sections of the media who see an incident like Aaron Ramsey as a way to boost ratings and make more money. They are parasites on the game of football. Disgusting, reprehensible and dangerous. They excuse thuggery and violence and the effect of that is more thuggery and more violence. They should be ashamed of themselves but to feel shame you have to have a slight understanding of right and wrong and they just don’t care. The more outraged Arsenal fans that ring in, the more right they think they are. They are just vile.
And it’s not just confined to tabloids or trashy radio stations. The marked difference between the Independent’s Sam Wallace and the fantastic Patrick Barclay on Sky’s Sunday Supplement shows you how pervasive it is. Wallace is an excuse maker whose lack of focus on what is important is a contributory factor to injuries like this.
It’s nice this morning to see some articles question the ‘He’s not that kind of player’ excuse, but we need more. Football is a game that most of us love a great deal but it’s a game with its priorities wrong. I remember after the Cesc v Phil Brown hullabaloo last season Mark Bright said on the radio, “I’d rather be elbowed or kicked, than spat on”. This is the kind of nonsense that makes me very cross indeed. Spitting is horrible but would Mark Bright really prefer an elbow in the face breaking his nose and knocking out his teeth? Would he prefer to be kicked like Aaron Ramsey was kicked? I don’t think so. Wipe it off, it’s all over. Not nice, but over. Sadly Aaron Ramsey can’t just wipe it off.
I’m not going to try and tell anyone what they can and can’t listen to but the best way to hurt idiots like Talksport is to just turn it off. Ring them full of indignation and they’ve got exactly what they want. They’ll cut you off, speak over you, make you angrier and it’s a vicious circle. I fully understand people’s desire to counter the shite that is peddled but it’s just perpetuating it. These people are morally bankrupt, you can’t change their minds. All we can do is hope that enough people with common sense and a platform to counter it do just that.
I’ve seen some journalists do that this morning, I hope more follow and the focus when something like this happens again is not on how the perpetrator of violence is not that kind of player, instead it’s on the victim, the impact to him and his club and how something can be done about it to stop it happening again.
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Other: The club confirmed the double break for Aaron Ramsey without giving any kind of time frame for his return. It’s obviously too soon.
Eduardo on Aaron:
Seeing that again made me think about my injury and what happened. It brought back my memories. But I am totally convinced Ramsey will come back. The whole team is with him, supporting him
Bendtner:
It was a terrible, totally mad tackle from Ryan Shawcross, and he is really smashing hard into Aaron. I don’t believe, that anybody would try to intentionally to make an injury on another player, a fellow professional, but the way he is going into the tackle is out of control, and that doesn’t belong anywhere.
Quotes via The Mirror.
The players are away now with their international teams. A series of friendlies that are pointless but because it’s World Cup year it’s all right, you see. I hope that whatever crack in the pavement we collectively stood on, our bad luck with injuries is over and done with, and that they all come back safe, sound and intact.
We’ve got a league to go and win. Till tomorrow.
