http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19952554 Wales boss Chris Coleman wants Romanian referee Alexandru Tudor to protect Gareth Bale in Tuesday's World Cup qualifier against Croatia in Osijek. Winger Bale scored both Wales' goals in the 2-1 victory over Scotland, including a controversial penalty. But Coleman believes teams unfairly target the Tottenham star. "Belgium did it, Serbia did it. Croatia will do it. Scotland tried to. Teams double up, treble up [on him]," claimed the Wales manager. "It's going to happen every game; every time he puts a Tottenham jersey on. "I'm not saying he needs any extra protection from the referee, but [his] fair share [of protection]." Coleman, who celebrated his first win in five attempts as manager, said Bale's penalty against Scotland was a fair decision. But he claimed his side have often been on the wrong end of referees' decisions. "A lot has been made about the penalty. Shaun [Maloney] has come out and said there was a little bit of contact because he is an honest kid. "When you are running that fast [like Bale], the least little touch you are going to fall down. "The amount of times he [Bale] doesn't get free kicks when he should [is significant]. "The home game against Belgium [we] never got a fair crack of the whip for sure. We were disappointed with a lot of the decisions that went against us. "Equally, on Friday night we should have had two more penalties, [but] people are talking about the disallowed Scotland goal. We are looking for a bit of consistency. We are looking for a fair crack of the whip." Asked by BBC Wales Sport whether he thought Bale's performance against Scotland was the greatest by a Welshman on a football pitch Coleman replied: "I wouldn't disagree with that. No. "I thought he was brilliant, to show that type of energy and quick-thinking. "It was 1-1 and we'd be forgiven for taking a point because we had lost the last four games. "We wanted to go and win the game." After his two-goal performance Coleman believed Bale could go down in legend alongside the likes of other Welsh greats Ryan Giggs and John Charles. "I never saw John Charles. My dad said he was something special," added Coleman. "Giggsy was something special - I always say he is the best player I ever played with. "Baley is young and obviously he is getting a lot of attention and he deserves because he is a great player. "Baley is certainly going to go down as a Welsh legend. "He has not peaked yet. He is an amazing player." Coleman's call comes iin the wake of Davor Suker, the president of the Croatian Football Federation, saying Bale should move to Real Madrid, if he is given the chance.
I agree that Bale needs more protection, not from Sukor, that's just a tribute to Bale's high level of performance, but from the foulers and kickers who continually try to frustrate Bale and push him into taking evasive action. Those are the cheats that are the cancer in the game, not diving. I also think Bale needs to be protected from quite a few Spurs fans who seems to want to denigrate him and concentrate on his 'diving' rather than his brilliance.
When Arsenal complained about similar incidents with our players - we were labelled a 'bunch of Jessies', despite three of our players suffering broken legs and ankles from reckless tackles . . .
No a hundred times. A ref cannot single out a player for protection because he'll be accused of bias and rightly so. Bale will just have to toughen up and become more alert.
Bale doesn't need special protection, he just needs proper protection as do all the creative talents in our game.
Harry Redknapp had similar views because there were stories from the training ground that when Bale went down and stayed down, Harry stopped our physios coming on and treating him, in an effort to make him toughen up.
Aye I remember Harry making comments in the media about Bale and needing to toughen up, which is still true as he too "delicate" at times, sometimes players have to take a kicking, or ride heavy tackles, get back up and power on.
Bale just needs match officials to do their job properly, in my opinion. He's frequently targeted for 'special' treatment by certain players and some of their tactics are extremely questionable. Phil Neville intentionally unbalancing him when he went up for a header a couple of seasons ago was a particularly dangerous move that went unnoticed and he's far from the only one to try it.
It's something talented players have to tolerate. They will always be special targets for the cloggers so mental toughness has to be adopted. The best way to get back at these prats is to score against them and win,revenge being served cold so to speak.
Protection? Players play and get fouled, if fouled its a free, what the fook is all this protection about? Isn't that what the rules are for? Protection Messi Ronaldo both of whom Bale has been sort of compared to get kicked pulled and fouled and do not in any way get "Protected" Complete nonsense. Unfortunately preventing a team playing or a player playing is part of the game. Neutralising a threat. Ohhh terrible. It all smacks of "Wah wah why wont you let my good player score"
By protection, he means that the rules are enforced properly and fairly. Anyone going for him rather than the ball should be yellow/red carded depending on recklessness. That isn't particular to Bale, but should be the case for all players. Surely everyone wants to see the flair players doing their thing without thugs chopping them down unfairly. Proper tackling is great to watch (see the career of Ledley King) but Adam like thuggery has no place in the game.
Do you just come onto this board to display your ignorance, BBF? Have you ever watched Barca or Real and seen the number of extremely soft free-kicks that they get, especially in La Liga? Have you somehow forgotten Ronaldo's record for diving when he was at Man Utd, despite being a Liverpool fan? You could barely have chosen two more protected players in the modern game if you'd have tried. Please put aside your jealousy for Spurs for a second and think about what you're posting, next time. It only takes a couple of seconds to read back what you've written and you'd prevent yourself from looking so utterly ridiculous.
Exactly PNP, the nonsense coverage about that game where Neville and other Everton players fouled Bale out of the game put my blood pressure through the roof. If players like Neville are allowed to continually foul Bale, of course they can mark him out of the game. It's the cynical fouling that is the cancer in the game, not diving.
They shouldn't have to tolerate it, as Coleman says they should be protected, and as I and others have said, all Bale needs for protection is for refs to enforce the laws of the game, and punish the fouling cheats.
