So Kevin Nolan will now face a three match ban for violent conduct, after his dreadful tackle on Victor Anichebe in today’s match, but I don’t think it’s sufficient punishment for such a bad challenge. It’s about time that the Premier League and the F.A. clamped down on such challenges more often. His team mate Danny Guthrie also received a 3 match ban after breaking Craig Fagans leg with a horrible and downright shameful tackle back in September.
Anichebe is lucky not have had his shin broken by Nolans two footed stamp and his look of shock when receiving the red card was pitiful. Chris Hughton has said that his first impression is that the challenge was poorly timed and not malicious. Quite how you can badly time a two footed lunge on to someone’s leg I do not know, but comments like that are frankly daft. Hughton may be trying to deflect the focus from Nolan, but mistimed? Never. It was a deliberate and controlled challenge by someone who knew exactly what he was doing. Let’s remember that Nolan was bragging about getting his former team mate at Bolton, J’Lloyd Samuel, to kick Theo Walcott as he was too fast for him back in September. Hardly the actions of an innocent man.
It’s about time the F.A. pulled their fingers out and started throwing the book at players who commit such tackles. I’m a big believer in suspensions matching injuries in situations like this. Guthrie should have been banned for 3 months after what he did to Fagan, Nolan should be banned for as long as Anichebe is out for. The lad has had a terrible season with injuries and this couldn’t have come at a worse time for him. He’s just back in to the first team squad and now gets clobbered by Nolan who claims it was accidental.
It just makes a mockery of the disciplinary process when players can commit such fouls and the F.A. sit silently by without reacting. After Gerrards behavior in the match against Chelsea, when he should have been sent off, Boswinga stamping on a players back whilst the assistant referee looked on and then Steve Bennets revelations, well, admissions, that players deliberately foul people to pick up cards to get time off makes you wonder just what is the point of the F.A.’s disciplinary panel. The Respect campaign seems to have fallen off the radar again but it takes the players, managers, the authorities and referees to all pull together.
When John Terry had his red card rescinded after being sent off against Manchester City, the Respect campaign simply fell apart. How on earth can referee’s be expected to make a decision and then have it reversed on a whim? Having said that, Howard Webb had an absolute mare in yesterdays Manchester United v Blackburn Rovers game. The penalty incident especially. If it’s not a foul, then what happened to booking the player for simulation? Personally, I thought Gamst Pedersen went down very, very easily but if that had happened outside the box, what would the decision have been.
The F.A. need to start showing some guts and get tough with players who commit such challenges. Enough is enough.
Paul, I thoroughly agree with you. Fair play to the ref for catching this one. The foul seemed somewhat innocuous when viewed in real-time during the game, but the slo-mo action replay definitely showed how horrific the tackle was. What’s with Newcastle United and their brand of heavy-handed football a la Joey Barton, Kevin Nolan and Danny Guthrie?
Cheers,
The Gaffer
The MartinTalor tackle on Eduardo should have been more than 3 games. How about 5 games, or 10 games.
you two have to be kidding me? there is no way a tackle like that deserves a 3 game ban. for a challange like that you’re joking. however, i am not defending nolans challenge because in the “modern” game its a red card. which just goes to show how little you can get away with these days. nolan should only be suspended for one game at the most for this tackle and thats that.
Lincoln, have you ever played football?
I’ve been on the receiving end of a few tackles like that and picked up some fairly nasty injuries. But having played the game, I know that you can’t “mistime” a tackle to a degree which sees you end up so high and so two-footed and so studs up.
In which case, Nolan has shown a genuine desire to hurt Anichebe, and for me three games is not enough of a punishment for that. Footballers put their bodies on the line for their teams, and although they are paid handsomely, run some pretty big risks with the unnatural strain that the game demands – see Mikel Arteta’s injury in the same match. There are enough risks in football without players going out to deliberatley hurt one another, and it needs to be clamped down upon.
Adam, completely agree with you. It was reckless and nasty. The mistimed argument simply does not stand up to scrutiny.
adam i have played football for 20 years and have been on the receiving end of far worse tackles that have gone unpunished. mistimed tackles are just part of the game. you could tell from kevin’s reaction that he hasn’t meant to hurt Anichebe. nolan made a poor decision, he was hesitant and by the time he reacted the ball was gone. its as simple as that. he apologized immediatly and i believe it was a genuine apology I’m a big fan of Kevin Nolan and have seen enough of him to know what kind of player he is and he is not one to deliberately injure an opposing player.
Personally I thought it was a horrible tackle but not as bad as Danny Guthrie tackle, that was very cynical. On separate subject i’ve noticed a massive increase in players diving and also trying to get other players booked by gesture to refs to produce cards. I’ve noticed this in a lot of Premiership and Championship games this season and I think this needs stamping out and some level of consistency shown with this as well.
Obvious Send off.
No doubt about it. And it would have been an obvious send off twenty years ago, too, Lincoln.
It wasn’t a poor decision. It was late, over the ball, and everything else was wrong with it. Center knew it was a send-off the second he blew the whistle.. you can tell he was trying to manage the crowd away and back before he did it.
You can be a fan, but denying that was VC? At this level, ALL fouls that MIGHT look deliberate are.. and that one looked pretty deliberate to this ref.