He had beautiful technique too with the way he struck a ball, one of those players who never scored a normal goal and he got his fair share of them.
To some extent, he's not soft anyway. Most of his red cards have been from bad timing rather than overt aggression but I think any player who embraces the physical side of the game like he does probably has something about them.
I remember watching John Kay break his leg and whilst being stretchered off he sat up and waved at the crowd who were chanting his name and then proceeded to pretend to row the stretcher off the pitch.
Interesting debate Billy, I think you've got physically tough footballers and aggressive footballers, but whether there's many who'd genuinely back their **** up off the pitch is another debate altogether.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/norths-top-25-football-hardmen-1365681 Heres a list of players from the north east clubs. It's interesting that it makes light hearted reference regarding Shearer kicking Lennon in the bonce. As if it is an indication how he was a proper hard nut for doing it. I think it was a proper cowardly thing to do. You could claim that it was out of character though mind cos he did throw himself about a bit, but what he did there was disgusting. What made it worse was the fact that he got away with it. Edit: It later seems to indicate that an elbow thrown by Alex Rae on David Ginola was something to celebrate as well. Wrong! This articles terrible actually.
I doubt many players would go in as aggressively and as often as he does if he thought one of the blokes would get up and deck him. Not sure if he'd go in as hard on the likes of M'Vila or Kone though.
It's like lads in cars, it's sort of a barrier... they're 10x harder than they normally are because they can lock themselves in the car. I've seen in it other walks of life as well, officers hiding behind rank slides in the armed forces. Footballers get this protection, their team mates will have their back, they'll not get their head jumped all over for calling somebody a **** on the pitch. It's hard to say 'cos you don't know what they get up to in private, but would I be intimidated by Lee Cattermole or Lamine Kone? Lol. I've been hit by many nutjob lads in training and survived, although I can't be certain it's all still functioning properly up there.
Shearer was very lucky. He got away with it for a variety of reasons, not least because he was Englands best hope of achieving anything at the time (lets not go into the argument over how good he was, but i think we can agree the FA saw him as essential to any England hopes). He was helped a lot by the Leicester manager (O'Neill at that time i believe) and Lennon both played it down hugely. He should have been punished for it. Elbowing is cowardly - when intentional - and is no indication of a hard man, the punishment should be a red card and the person you elbowed gets to punch you in the face. I think that's fair. Alex Rae may have done it but he's only one of a thousand and Newcastle have had their fair share.
Some good call's. I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'hard man'. For me it's someone who is prepared to take it AS WELL as dishing it out. So over recent years Kevin Ball stands out. The first time Sunderland played Wimbledon some reporter asked Viney Jones how he felt about facing another hard man in Kevin Ball. Viney's answer was that he'd never heard of him. Kevin introduced himself inside a couple of minutes and kept at him all through the game. In the end, Jones went into hiding. Go back a bit though to Wild Bill Elliot, a former Manager. Bill started of as a Winger where he was capped. Though he played in most positions for us he gradually worked his way from there to the half back line, then ended up as a full back. His annual battles with Dave Hickson of Everton, where the pair of them knocked the proverbial seven bell out of each other was the highlight of the Season for many of us.
Ball probs the toughest in my lifetime. would dish it out and take a smack if needed. Rae used to do a little whistle, through his front teeth kinda thing, when he wanted the ball in a scoring / shooting position. random fact someone once told me but i noticed you'd see/hear him doing it when he played. either that or i was sat next to shep the cumbrian
Billy Whitehurst. From what i have heard from ex footballers on phone ins etc he was not just a hardman on the pitch but a fighter off the pitch. He was a genuine nutter and very few would dare to cross the bloke...apparently. We have had many tough tacklers etc over the years as mentioned in previous posts but Whitehurst was a genuine hardman.
Never heard any tales of him being a scrapper off the pitch Comm. I wouldn't like to cross him though lol.
I remember being in the Barnes the night he smacked one of his team mates in the pub toilet. I think it was a ginger lad, David Corner(?) comes to mind.
