Suarez ban a little harsh
Where do we start with Luis Suarez? He is without doubt one of the best players in the world. His directness and trickiness are so effective and he’s a constant headache for opposition defenders. I absolutely love watching him play.
That’s his Jekyll side, but his Hyde character leaves a very sour taste in the mouth.
It really is hard to fathom why he did what he did last weekend. There was no real incident or build-up to this between him and Ivanovic. If there had been some off-the-ball antics or maybe a late tackle by Ivanovic then at least we would have some indication as to what triggered his red mist.
I’ve been guilty myself of seeing red on a football pitch on occasion, but there are certain things which are simply taboo for most players.
Diving is one, although it’s seen more as a frustration or an annoyance than anything else. Spitting is probably the ultimate disrespectful and disgusting act on a football pitch. I’d accept a punch in the face any day over someone’s saliva. Thankfully, biting — or “nibbling” as one slightly biased Liverpool fan described it — is an occurrence we don’t really see a lot of. Had I been on the receiving end of a bite, I think I would have reacted in the much same way as Ivanovic did – I’d have simply been shocked. The irony is that if he had reacted aggressively, then he would more than likely have been sent off and Chelsea, down to ten men, might have gone on to lose the game. In fact, I think Ivanovic handled this whole affair with a lot of dignity and class — and that’s certainly not something that can be said about Chelsea too often.
When it was announced that Suarez’s punishment would be ten games I did think it was a little on the harsh side but, by the same token, when you put yourself in situations like this you leave yourself at the mercy of people who, in some cases, will want to make an example of you. Suarez’s reputation, rightly or wrongly, clearly didn’t help his case. Still, you have to wonder sometimes how the authorities arrive at some of their decisions. Why, for example, did he get three games less for racially abusing a fellow professional? Why did Jermaine Defoe escape punishment when he nibbled at Mascherano in 2006? You’ve got to love the FA’s double standards.
Ironically, I picked Suarez as my PFA Player of the Year, judged purely on his performances this season and the way he has so often carried Liverpool. But a lot of the other lads in the Bolton canteen at the time weren’t picking him for non-footballing reasons, something I think will have been the case up and down the country.
Liverpool FC as a football club and a brand are going through a huge rebuilding process to try and get themselves back to the glory years but incidents like this certainly don’t help. I have absolutely no doubt that if Suarez wasn’t so crucial to the team and the way Brendan Rogers wants to play, then they would have taken the moral high ground and either transfer-listed him or suspended him. You can’t tell me that they would be treating a squad or reserve team player the same way if they had behaved like this a year or so after the Evra incident.
When all is said and done, Suarez is obviously guilty as sin and I certainly don’t condone his behaviour. But I do feel footballers are judged more harshly than other sports people — and even persecuted to a degree — because of the huge wages they are on. Would David Cameron be commenting on this in the House of Commons if it had been a game of volleyball? Let’s not forget that there’s a lot of what they like to call ungentlemanly conduct that goes on in rugby, while I’m also aware the GAA this month investigated allegations of one player biting another.
On a brighter note, we saw Manchester United crowned champions on Monday night at Old Trafford with a stylish performance, at least in that impressive first half. It was that man again, Robin Van Persie who made the difference and I have no doubt he is the main the reason they have clinched the title with ease over City. He looks a different player and person to the one we saw at Arsenal in years gone by. He seems very much at home at United and there is an obvious camaraderie between him and his team mates. One key thing is that his performances have been so consistent so that, even when he went on a slightly barren goal run by his standards, the other aspects of his game were still top quality.
They way the United players celebrated the other night showed the whole world what it means to them to wrestle the title back from their “noisy neighbours”. The future looks very bright for them with the likes of Smalling, Jones, Cleverley, Welbeck, Rafael and De Gea now all having the experience of winning a league. To lose the title the way they did last year will have not only wounded these players but, in the longer run, inspired them. If ever they need any motivation then they’ll only have to cast their memories back to how they felt on the bus back from Sunderland that day.
I’ve sung Phil Jones’ praise from the minute I first saw him train at Blackburn but even I was a bit surprised to hear Alex say he may well go on to be one of the best players ever to play at Old Trafford. When you think of the competition there over the years – the likes of Best, Charlton, Giggs, Keane, Robson,and Ronaldo to name but a few — you can see how highly Alex rates this young prodigy.
And it also tells you I would make a hell of a scout!
