RedsUnite: a man utd blog

I am strapped for time today, so instead of reliving yesterday’s massacre and singing the praises of our United side–all of whom performed admirably yesterday–I’m going to use this time to do something a little different.

Arsenal striker Eduardo had his leg broken by Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor. Here’s what Arseblog had to say about it:

That is the kind of challenge we should not accept. Not as fans. As administrators. As managers, players, pundits or anything else. It was absolutely deplorable and it’s been waiting to happen for years now.

Do I think Martin Taylor set out to break Eduardo’s leg? No. I think it’d be a very sick individual that did that. Do I think Martin Taylor decided to get ’stuck in’ to Eduardo, ‘just to show him he’s around’? Yes, I do. I think he wanted to get in a heavy challenge early in the game and perhaps put the Crozilian off his game. 99.9% of the time these ‘tackles’ don’t end up with serious injury but this time Taylor is that .01%.

Eduardo’s foot was planted on the floor, Taylor came in a foot over the ball - not 2 inches, not 6 inches, at least a foot - and he has a put at risk the career of a fellow professional. It was a horrific challenge. Sorry, but anyone who has played football knows from simply looking at that picture that the tackle was designed to hurt. You don’t leave the ground like that, you don’t lead with your studs like that if you’re not trying to hurt the opponent. To say it was ‘mistimed’ is simply trying to make excuses. I’m sure Taylor feels bad but so he should. He should feel like a fucking piece of shit because what he did was as cowardly and appalling a tackle as I’ve seen in a long time. Here’s the slow-mo video of it, if you stomach it. But watch it and then try and tell me that Taylor didn’t set out to ‘do’ Eduardo. It was nothing to do with Eduardo being too quick, it was deliberate and downright dangerous.

Immediately afterwards Arsene Wenger said Taylor should never play football again. Later he, quite rightly, retracted that saying he had been speaking in the heat of the moment but I can understand where he’s coming from. It’s rare, really, really rare, for a player to suffer serious injury at the hands of another pro. We’ve seen players snap cruciates and smack heads and things but you know the last two really bad tackles I can remember that have put players out for a long time have both been on Arsenal players. Dan Smith of Sunderland badly injured Abou Diaby and now Martin Taylor has ended Eduardo’s season and quite possibly his career.

And here’s the worst thing for me - the maximum ban Martin Taylor can serve is three games. It’s nonsense. I was critical of Eboue’s tackle last week but the fact that Eboue and Taylor get the same ban is ludicrous. You might have seen Jeremie Aliadiere red carded yesterday for a small slap. How is it fair that Aliadiere will get three games for not hurting an opponent at all yet Taylor, who may have broken Eduardo’s leg beyond repair, gets the same ban?

I’ve said this before but there must be a sliding scale for red cards given for violent conduct. A review panel should be able to look at what Martin Taylor did and decide that his ban should last 5 games or 10 games or 20 games. Whether the ref saw it or dealt with it at the time is irrelevant. The ref has seconds to make a decision, replays let us see if there was intent or if it was accidental. They let us see the real damage.

You cannot deal with all ‘violent conduct’ incidents the same way. Some are more violent than other and deserve bigger punishment. There has to be a way to punish Martin Taylor more than you punish Jeremie Aliadiere. It’s just the most stupid thing I can think of that this is not possible. How can you give a three game ban to somebody for a little slap and the same to somebody who breaks somebody’s leg? It’s like giving shoplifters the same jail time as rapists.

It was always going to take a horrific injury to somebody before this issue came to the fore. As long as I’ve been writing Arseblog I’ve been going on about it, and that’s coming up on 6 years now. Sadly it’s our player who has suffered but if there’s any positive to be taken from it it’ll be that some kind of change in the laws of the game will be precipitated. That those who perpetrate real acts of violence on fellow players are punished accordingly and not merely give a three game slap on the wrist then sent on their way.

To Eduardo and his family, all the very best. I’m sure he knows that every Arsenal fan, and I’m sure most football fans across England, will be wishing him a successful and speedy recovery. It doesn’t hurt to say it out loud though.

Here, here. I feel horrible for the lad and wish him the best in his recovery. I don’t think there is anything I could say that Arseblogger hasn’t already stated well. Tackles like the one on Eduardo demand the stiffest of penalties. They should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis for malice and recklessness and punished accordingly. While it may have been an Arsenal player who suffered this time, it doesn’t take much for me to imagine one of our players suffering the same fate. Bad teams have little recourse against sides like ours and Arsenal’s. In order to compensate for the disparities in talent between the sides they are often instructed to dig in against us and set the tone early. While this is smart tactically, there is a fine line between good, physical play and what we saw with Martin Taylor. Most of the time the line is not crossed and when it is the victim is usually able to avoid Eduardo’s fate. But when the line is crossed the full weight of the law must come down on those who commit such rash, careless tackles, as such tackles have no place on the pitch.

While we may pulled back within three points yesterday, I didn’t want us to achieve it this way. Arsenal’s men were clearly affected psychologically and I, personally, would have preferred that Arsenal won yesterday so as to not encourage Taylor’s actions. I would simply like to offer my sympathies to Eduardo and the Arsenal community, as I know I would expect the same if one of our guys had his career imperiled in the same manner. Here’s hoping the FA makes the necessary changes to protect its players and discourage such viciousness on the pitch.