Barton banned for 12 matches!

i remember that weekend, after the incident, i did an experiment of my own with a mate. without telling him what i was going to do i motioned my head in towards his - i did NOT touch his head at all. guess what he did...?

he backed off, touched his face and said "what the **** did you do that for?"

aggressive intent = red card

 

Thanks supers! First you get me to work out Norwich's best value player (still working on that) and now I'm going to that!

 

just do it on someone who won't beat you up afterwards. that was my grave error

 

To be fair, it is not just us that is talking about this subject is it? I think you will find most football fans across the country are talking about this just as they were when JB had his tantrum at the Etihad

 

How about this one?

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I'll try. I'm wondering if Supers were to tell me to walk off a cliff if I would!

 

wonky, are you listening to me?

i want you to run, run for your life. i want you to run and find cliff richard and then i want you to stand on his head and jump off.

DO IT!!

 

Seeing all this reminds me of how "unphysical" the game as begun.

I first started watching City in 1967 and I lived then in Brandon. Our next door neighbour, for his sins was a Town fan and season ticket holder, and on a few occassions took me to games at Binland - they were in the First Division then and we were in the Second . This way I did happen to see some of the legends of the game - Best, Charlton, Law, Hurst, Moore, Greaves, Banks, etc.

I also saw genuine physical players - hard men. People such as Norman Hunter, Nobby Stiles, Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner, Tommy Smith and Ron "Chopper" Harris. Thugs like Barton would never have squared up to people like these - he'd have ended up in the 10th row of the stand if he'd have tried.

The thing is, these players were hard, sometimes downright dirty, but they were fair and never out to bully people the way Barton does.

Diving, falling over like a shot deer when someone farts near you and other such antics have cheapened the game and while it is more technically efficient and faster paced nowadays I sometimes think we've lost something from the game over the years.

Maybe I'm just getting old ....

 

I agree, although I'm not old enough to of seen those players, even in my life it has become less physical. Fans love hard tackles etc and this can cause the crowd to get behind the team as much as shots on goal etc. However the rules seem to of been skewed strongly in favour of attackers and flair players to the extent where you can barely put in a tackle. Things like players coming shoulder to shoulder almost always end in a free kick for the player who hits the deck first. While of course they must remain sensitive to truly dangerous play, just because there is contact does not always make it a foul, just as not diving to the floor does not necessarily mean they have not been fouled e.g. shirt pulling. I feel the laws have become biased towards attacking play to try and increase goals and entertainment and should be readjusted so the art of defending and tackling is also encouraged.

 

Yes I suppose that had it been a John Prescott punch to Tevez I could have forgiven him.