Discussing deliberate fouls on fellow professionals has
become a bit taboo since Roy Keane’s admission about his
premeditated knee-high tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland, but Bolton’s
Kevin Nolan has broken the silence to say that he urged teammate
Jlloyd Samuel to foul Theo Walcott during their match against
Arsenal on Saturday.
Nolan said: “I said to Jlloyd Samuel, ‘Give him a little
kick and see if he comes back at you’. We are in danger of losing
that side - the roughing up of people.” It remains to be seen
whether Nolan will face any action for his comments.
This sort of thing has always gone on in football, and particularly
in British football. The typical defence to this sort of thing
normally run along two broad lines. One is that football is a
“contact sport” and, by implication, if you don’t want to get
kicked then don’t play. The other defence revolves around playing
to your strengths. Nobody would dare to ask Theo Walcott if he mind
sprinting at 70 per cent to give Samuel a chance to tackle him
cleanly, so why shouldn’t the defender take advantage of the fact
that he is bigger and stronger than Walcott?
The rebuke to the latter argument is pretty obvious: Walcott’s
pace doesn’t hurt anyone (at least, not unless they get their legs
tangled up) and it will not end someone’s career. Undoubtedly there
are players up and down the country applying these principles
week-in, week-out at grassroots level, and by the same token there
are players who were just a bit too good for the game they were
playing in who get their leg broken every week.
I can sympathise with Nolan who, as an industrious midfielder
not afraid to put his foot in, obviously feels this aspect of the
game is dying out. But this is not what the majority of the public
want from football matches in the 21st century. In the past, the
likes of Norman Hunter and Ron Harris have carved cult reputations
for themselves through their willingness to kick the proverbial
seven shades out of opponents, but that is no longer the case.
There is still a place for tackles, even hard tackles, but watching
the best player on the field get kicked around the park does not
appeal to your average football fan.
The star names in football at the moment - Cristiano Ronaldo,
Kaka, Lionel Messi - have that status because they are given the
protection to show us what they are capable of, and football would
be a duller sport if we didn’t get to see their skills.
Source: Soccerlens