Congratulations on a sound, articulate and reasoned argument, I look forward to tomorrow and your conclusions.

Cheers

It’s a celebration of ignorance of the highest order.

No wonder “Ingerland” has consistently failed to win anything at international level since 1966.

These were some of the same points I raised in my comments yesterday:
How would be British react if Rooney or Lampard had their foot broken?
How could anyone “read” Shawcross’ mind to determine intent?
How many legs does this have to break before he is labelled a thug?
What is the relationship of the quality of english footballers and England’s performance in world and continental tournaments?

I am going to say only one thing “most tackles, like the one Ryan Shawcross committed, in football are malicious and therefore intentional”. You may disagree it’s my view, which stems from a little psychology. The only problem here is we cannot get a psychologist to go deep into the minds of perpetrators. If we could, the folly of such statements as “he had no intention to hurt …” would be exposed. The only reason one (a footballer) would use the tricks of “… they do not like it up them” is because it would cause so much pain to the opponent to the extent that they (opponent) would be afraid of coming across and attempt to go past the perpetrator again (cue Jose Antonio Reyes vs the Neville brothers back in 2004). It is used as a deterrent, a painful deterrent!! If your opponent is not going to be deterred, it would not be worth it? Now, tell me, is that not intentional? That means the perpetrator intentionally causes pain to the “opponent” who, in return, has to think twice to go past the perpetrator.

To me this “… no intention …” thing is absolutely nonsense! Most footballers would not agree with my view, just ask Hansen and Shearer and even Arsenal players (they are not angels as everyone knows) or any one that has played football; but that is what would be going on in their minds when they are perpetrating such acts. “Make him / them feel the pain of your challenge, that way he will not try his tricks on you again”. Do not let these footballers fool you! The first thing is “intention to cause pain”, the next is the extent / level of pain which is dependent on the severity of the injury. Severity of injury will, more often, depend on the amount of force used.

Darius, I wrote in your blog last week, that most injuries that Arsenal suffer from opponents in games / matches are caused by malicious tackles from the opposition. These are the kind of tackles I was referring to. They are malicious because, the opponents go with the intention of causing pain. In many cases they are actually premeditated because these oppositions would discuss how to stop Arsenal in their dressing rooms, so do not tell me they did not intend to. If you tackled and took the ball with minimal or no pain, your opponent would not be afraid of you, and therefore will repeat their tricks or find a better trick against you and be able to go past you, and make a good pass or score a goal. This is the footballer’s mindset not only in England but elsewhere, particularly where there is light or no punishment for such acts.

Last season, on the same Britannia stadium, Arsenal lost three players, two from serious injuries (Adebayor – by an off-the ball tackle by who else but the “… he is not that sort of …” Ryan Shawcross; and Walcot by a tackle from behind by Delap) and one van Persie for a red card. This time Arsenal has lost two, Ramsey (return date only God knows) as well as Song (for two matches) for something, in the first place was not even cautionable, and even if it was, Stoke players (some of whom committed more serious offenses) could not be booked for. Shawcross got away with it last season (he nearly did it again this time, the referee was reluctant to even caution him until he saw how serious the injury was), the referee and every pundit and FA and almost every other premier and non-premier league fans applauded his acts. They are supporting him again. No surprise there. Unfortunately, this is not the first time he (Shawcross) has caused such serious injury, just ask Francis Jeffers in 2007 and Emmanuel Adebayor last season. How long will people continue defending him that “he cannot hurt a fly”? Of course, I understand that he is the least to blame, the football establishment and the thuggish culture is. Like many gooners have suggested, I wish Arsenal could sue Shawcross and his club, and the referee or if it were possible, the FA for sanctioning the “bullying / kicking / up them” or whatever other name it is called” of Arsenal.

I think that physicality is ok provided it is used within the rules & is used with discipline throughout the game.

In the Stoke game they started just like that but couldn’t keep it up. They tired quite badly & Shawcross lost whatever discipline he had in going for a ball that had already gone.

It is not really possible to get any satisfaction from the punditry. Even Keown & Dixon were towing the party line. Split second late, unlucky etc….

That being the case even they, who are relatively recently retired, missed the point. This lad was late & to me it wasn’t a tackle at all. He was trying to kick a ball that was no longer there & Ramsey got the full impact. I am happy that there was no malice but there was such a poor level of awareness & technique from a player, who is not only performing regularly in the top flight of English football, but has now just been picked for the England squad.

He has previous – Jeffers & Ade (definitely malicious yet condoned by Jonathon Pierce – yet another to tow the party line).

Arseblogger has put in a couple of must reads. Today he has a quote from Bentner. I would love to know the true thoughts of Sol Campbell. If the break had not looked so bad & shocking I have a feeling that this would have caused a major bundle.

Sol’s conduct after the incident says it all for me.

Meanwhile England will struggle to add to its solitary trophy/final, because brawn is still of greater value than technique for the bone headed majority of football fans in this country.

Arsenal fans are a minority but until we become part of the majority the England football team will continue to be an embarrassment, when it comes to competing at the top level.

I believe Bob Wilson has said much the same on the BBC site, but has already been called an idiot from one of the cream of the island race.