Left back - a football blog

After watching Emmanuel Eboue take a theatrical flop in the penalty box against Milan last night, Richard Keys tried to stoke up his usual post-match controversy by insisting it could have been a penalty. His reasoning for this - which he gave repeatedly - was that “there was contact”.

So what? There’s quite often contact between players in the penalty area. If every bit of contact was awarded a penalty, we’d see rugby scores.

There are ten reasons a player might be penalised, but none of them involve simply making contact. Stop stirring, Keys, you tiresome sod.

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Anyone who watched the penalty given for Man Utd’s fourth goal in their win over Derby might want to remind themselves of this quote from Alex Ferguson, less than a week ago:

“The penalty incident is a result of a perceived idea of the referee that Ronaldo dives, there is no question of that.

“Ronaldo is paying for his reputation, but he is nothing like that now. He is a mature and magnificent footballer and he has been unfairly treated.”

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Amazing scenes at Celtic Park where the Scottish side beat the European Champions 2-1. Just after Celtic scored a late winner a fan ran on the pitch with his arms out and barely touched AC Milan keeper Dida just at the very top of his chest.

Suitably outraged Dida began to chase after the fan then collapsed on the ground in fake agony. The medics came on and he quite obviously pretended to be injured and ended up being stretchered off. This is while his team is a goal down and still with 3 minutes of injury time to play.

Now, let me say firstly that the fan had no business being on the pitch and should not have touched Dida. However, the contact between the fan and Dida would not have been sufficient to knock down an 80 year old man with dodgy hips and some kind of brittle bone disease. It seems that Dida thought if he played it up he might get Celtic kicked out or the result reversed.

Celtic should be punished for the fan coming on the pitch but Dida should also be punished for his histrionics and bad acting. It was quite simply a disgraceful way for a professional footballer to behave. A 6′4 man rolling around as if he’d been run over by a truck from the slightest of contacts from that fan.

I hope UEFA don’t get fooled. Certainly nobody who was watching it and understands football will have fallen for Dida’s bullshit but then this is UEFA we’re talking about.

If it were up to me I’d ban him for at least three games. You are pathetic Dida. A pathetic diva Dida. Grow up. Milan fans should be ashamed of him and I hope they condemn him as loudly as everyone else will. Of course you can’t have people coming on the pitch and laying hands on players but you can’t have players doing that on the very rare occasion that it happens.

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Who ate all the pies makes a good point about John Terry’s behaviour in the United v Chelsea match.

In times past we have criticised teams like Man United and players like Roy Keane for their aggressive approach to referees. Remember Keane’s vein bulging as he screamed at Andy D’Urso? However, they are nothing to Terry and Chelsea who have been getting worse and worse in recent seasons, and now it’s at a point where Chelsea players are almost constantly putting hands on the official.

Terry’s attempt to snatch the red card out of Mike Dean’s hand was childish and pathetic but also the action of somebody who now has no respect for the man in the middle. It’s like he is trying to decide what is right and wrong, like he’s trying to overrule the official. It’s arrogant and very, very wrong.

Nothing will happen though. The FA just don’t have the balls to punish an England captain the way he should be punished.

Updated: As suspected, Terry gets away with it.

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After seeing his side lose at the weekend, Fulham’s Lawrie Sanchez accused Arsenal of diving. He’s since seen the same footage as the rest of us, which shows Fulham were lucky not to get another penalty awarded against them earlier in the match, and has issued an apology (kind of) for his accusations:

I have to hold my hand up and say I was probably wrong to a certain extent.

It’s very likely to be the most vague, grudging and half-hearted apology you’ll ever hear, but it’s an apology nonetheless; and when was the last time you heard a manager come out with one of those?

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He’s got some humorous lawyers though. I like this:

Joey strenuously denies the charge and welcomes the opportunity to clear his name in the public forum.

Just a reminder - this is what Barton did to Dabo. During training. In, what you might call, a public forum.

I hope he gets life and made share a cell with the Yorkshire Ripper.

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From today’ Sun:

Ronaldo is a big player. But if he wants to be a bigger one, he must be fair with his opponents. The final should be played with happiness. I’ll be disappointed if some players are diving and trying to get the opposition red cards on Saturday.

I know he’s trying to make the ref keep an eye on Ronaldo but how can he say that with a straight face when he’s got players like Robben, Drogba, Joe Cole and even Shaun Wright-Phillips in his team?

All the talk of how thin his squad is and how he might have to play Hilario as a striker just makes me think he’s preparing for defeat as much as victory.

United to win on Saturday.

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It seems that Adriano has been given a two game ban for his shocking dive for Inter against Roma on Wednesday night. I heartily applaud punishments like this and sooner they start doing it in England the better.

Via Who ate all the pies.

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Leroy Lita seems vehement that his three match ban for allegedly headbutting a Charlton player, with a name far too long to type out, was completely unjustified.

He’s accused his opponent of being a cheat and a diver and suggested the FA don’t do anything about diving cheats. Can anyone who saw the incident comment?

It’s just that Sky News don’t seem to repeat these kinds of things over and over and over again when it’s not a ‘big’ club involved.

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Now, I think Geoff Shreves from Sky is an enormous twat and to be honest I’d probably tell him to ‘fuck off’ if he came near me as well. However, shouldn’t a top Premiership manager show some restraint when a fairly legitimate question is asked of a player who has, through his own fault and the apologist manager at his club, got a reputation as one the biggest divers in the game?

Transcript follows courtesy of the Sun.

SHREEVES: “I asked him . . . ”

FERGUSON: “F*****g (inaudible) bastard.”

S: “Don’t talk to me like that.”

F: “F**k off to you.”

S: “Don’t talk to me like that. Don’t even think about it.”

F: “Don’t you think about it, you ****. F**k off. Right?”

S: “Listen, are you going to do the interview in a professional manner or not? Do you want to do it or not?”

F: “You f*****g be professional. You be professional. You’re the one.”

S: “I’m entitled to ask . . . . Cristiano gave the right answer.”

F: “F*****g hell with your answers.”

S: “Don’t talk to me like that. Go away. If you want to behave civilly, fine. Don’t talk to me like that.”

F: “F**k off.” (door slams).

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