Gooner Talk

On last week’s Match of the Day, BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson claimed that if tackles like the one Gael Clichy received at Bolton were banned, the game would be ‘for the jessies’.

The former Liverpool defender’s words will certainly come back to bite him.

First Gael Clichy. Now Man United’s Rodrigo Possebon. Both players were extremely lucky to escape without a broken leg after horrific challenges by Bolton’s Kevin Davies, and Middlesborough’s Emanuel Pogatetz – the latter apologised for his actions and admitted he committed a reckless tackle on the promising young Brazilian. As for Kevin Davies, well, surprise surprise, there was no apology from Wanderers’ renowned fouling frontman.

Lawrenson missed the point entirely – while the physical nature of the game must remain, tackles like the ones stated above are simply not acceptable when they run the very real risk of breaking someone’s leg. Pundits like Lawrenson do not help the matter with their consistent line of ‘Arsenal don’t like it up ‘em’, as if that somehow excuses the sometimes violent challenges that come our way.

My point is, no one wants to see tackles being kicked out of the game, they are the mainstake of our wonderful sport. If you can identify a dangerous tackle then it should be punished by a red card, no one would argue with that. But tackles are starting to get out of control, players walk on the pitch with their main objective to kick the players off the park. Someone needs to tell the likes of Mark Lawrenson that comments like his are no help at all to football, and like I said earlier, his words will definitely, almost certainly, come back to bite him.

Big mistake Lawro, big mistake.