10 MOST-BOOKED PLAYERS EVER IN PREMIER LEAGUE, COURTESY OF OPTA 99: Kevin Davies (Southampton, Blackburn, Bolton) 99: Lee Bowyer (Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle, Birmingham) 97: Paul Scholes (Manchester United) 96: Gareth Barry (Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton) 92: Scott Parker (Charlton, Chelsea, Newcastle, West Ham, Tottenham, Fulham) 89: Robbie Savage (Leicester, Birmingham, Blackburn, Derby) 85: George Boateng (Coventry, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Hull City) 83: Kevin Nolan (Bolton, Newcastle, West Ham) 82: Philip Neville (Manchester United, Everton) 81: Wayne Rooney (Everton, Manchester United) So its Newcastle ManU Everton and West Spam
Go back to the 70s for the real dirty players Tommy Smith, Ron (chopper) Harris and Nornam Hunter to name but three.
Dirtiest I've ever seen were Gentile, Bremner, Harris, Stiles, Storey, Keane. None of them deserved the luxury of a prison cell, and would have been more at home in a zoo cage.
The real hard men were pre-premier league. Many a time a forward got out of the way of the harder tacklers, but then they went all continental and started diving. But if I had to nominate 10 dirtiest players of that time it would be Leeds United, the whole team except for Paul Madeley were assassins.
Catts is only 26 remember - Shelvey committed the worst foul of the game and got a simple telling off from the ref - Cattermole committed one foul half as bad and got a yellow card!
Scholes was barely a 'dirty' player, he just couldn't tackle to save his life. Very few of his were reckless or malicious. The dirtiest players I've seen in the Premier League era are in terms of overall being a ****er on the pitch, Luis Suarez and El Hadji Diouff, two ****ing vermin of the highest order.
Exactly. 100% bang on. Cards don't equate to being dirty. How many times as a board have we defended carts for being reckless rather than dirty?!?! As for scholes, if you ever watched him, the manner he played was clearly not dirty.
Cattermole gets that famous 'red mist' you can almost see his red cards coming before they happen, but you can tell he's not a dirty player. The passion those types of players play with, and you can include Rooney in that, is often to their own and the teams detriment. A player I genuinely believe is a nasty bastard on the pitch is Karl Henry, he and Joey Barton just seem more intent on spoiling games than winning games sometimes, although to me, Joey Barton is just pure comedy on the pitch.
Wrong about Catts mind Terry - Most of his reds for us have been second yellows - and most of his yellows for us aren;t even fouls when Steven Gerrard does them!! - His Yellow on Saturday wasn't half as bad as Shelvey's dirty foul and Shelvey just got a little talking to. No surprise really. One of the big reasons I detest Hull City is because of the way Meyler and Elmohamady targetted him to try to get him sent off with constant diving and feigning injury and getting in the referee's face. One thing is for certain though - I'd want to be on his side in a fight and not against him!!
Carts doesn't kick out at people like Rooney though. Its going for a ball that's past him by or tackling a player that's beaten him for pace etc. The only red mist I can think of was at Newcastle directed at the ref telling him exactly what he was.
I'm not debating Cattermole with you Marcus I've only got 2 cm of fingers left from last time we had this chat!
Jesus, can't believe I've been sucked into this... His challenge against, Hull I think it was, regardless of whether he connected or not, was just stupid. He earned his own reputation, there's no point arguing about this with you lot as he's your player and you'll do exactly what I'd do to defend Rooney. Rooney is different, he is the victim of being one of the best players in the league, players climb all over him, grab his shirt, always in his personal space, he's the type of person to react to that. I don't think he's particularly dirty, but then again, it doesn't bother me either if somebody else thinks he is.
The Hull red card where he went for the ball and missed everything and got a red card for someone diving and rolling about? Seriously Terry? You could've picked the MK Dons one where it was just a silly rash OTT tackle but not the Hull one! And on the other side of this - you don;t mind these things happening when it's a completely level playing field. Catts was sent off for nothing - Brady took out a man and got a yellow card in the same game - Brady's challenge was far worse! No-one deserves a reputation for something that happened 5 years ago. I was a lying cheat with my ex wife and most of my ex girlfriends - yet have been completely faithful to my wife now. Doesn;t mean I deserve a reputation as a cheat. A reputation precedes someone - yet he is no dirtier than Gerrard, Shelvey, Wilshere etc. but gets more yellow cards - as I say - all I ask for is a level playing field. FWIW - I don't reckon Gerrard or Wilshere would've got a red for what Rooney did - he seems to be an easy target for refs too and what Shelvey did in our game at the weekend was a terrible tackle but he never even got a yellow!
Where did I say that? If you want to deny something that I've brought up as my opinion it's fine mate, but what you say isn't fact, it's your perception of the situation. I've said I'm not interested in debating it again, the main reason being it gets nowhere but also he's been outstanding for probably all of 2014 as far as I can recall. I like to let bygones be bygones but there's no doubting that if you get yourself a reputation at any point in your career, it's impossible to shake off and isn't comparable to a personal relationship you had with your ex! Ref's will continue to pigeon-hole him until the day he hangs up his boots, that just won't change.
