Sky and The BBC Inflame Ramsey/Shawcross Incident

Newshound · Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 54167

Sky Sport's and MOTD's decision not to show the tackle/foul that left Arsenal's teenage midfielder Aaron Ramsey with a broken leg inevitably lead fan's to conclude that the perpetrator, Stoke's Ryan Shawcross, must have committed a heinous, leg breaking foul similar to the one by Birmingham defence Martin Taylor that left Eduardo with a detached ankle. Wenger did not help matters in his post match interviews when mentioning Eduardo and, bizarrely Diaby who no one can have any sympathy for given the murderous challenges he has committed in the past. 
 
Before I get to what actually happened, with the benefit of a slow-motion DVR replay, let me make one thing clear. I do believe in the cliched rubbish trotted out by the pundits on Sky Sports and MOTD such as 'he was going for the ball', 'he got the ball', 'he's an honest lad' and all that other bollocks. As far as this country is concerned the media and the fans fester an environment in which putting in ILLEGAL tackles is encouraged. I saw a number of yellow card challenges in the Man City game, in addition to the bookings, that went unpunished. In the Stoke-Arsenal game Cesc Fabregas should have been red carded for his foul from behind late on, Birmingham's Liam Ridgewell should have seen red for a wild two footed lunge on James McCarthy (but the media instead chose to focus on an injury to the linesman) and this season Tottenham's Jermaine Defoe had committed some atrocious fouls. He stamped on Aaron Mokoena, he stamped on Sunderland goalkeeper Craig Gordon's elbow AFTER he had the ball in his hands and just this past week at Wigan after a two footed, jumping foul on Gary Caldwell, which again did not even earn him a booking, Paul Merson on Sky Sports claimed he isn't 'that type of player' - he clearly is. The referees, the fans, the players, the coaches, the pundits, they don't know the rules, they don't know the difference between a tackle and a foul. The types of challenges committed on a weekly basis in the EPL simply do not happen in Italy or Spain and I dare say in other leagues as well. In Serie A especially half a dozen red cards in one round of fixtures is not uncommon. A look at last season's team discipline between the top three European leagues shows a staggering disparity in the red card count between the EPL as compared to both La Liga and Serie A : 
 
2008-2009 Team Discipline 
 
EPL : 1170 yellow cards, 62 red cards 
La Liga : 2053 yellow card, 151 red cards 
Serie A : 1711 yellow card, 123 red cards 
 
Back to the Ramsey/Shawcross incident. Bendtner was trying to turn Shawcross on the centre circle, the ball popped up and hit Shawcross on the hand, as Bendtner appealed for handball Shawcross ran forward but his touch was heavy, Ramsey came steaming in with his left foot in the air as he made a challenge, almost jumping into a tackle HE SHOULD NOT BE MAKING, Shawcross followed through, trying to kick clear and judging by the still from MOTD Ramsey's right ankle was at an angle to the ground as Shawcross made contact. I know I'll get grief for this but that hasn't stopped me in the past, I actually blame Ramsey to some extent. There is no way he was going to win the ball without hurting either himself or Shawcross. These are the type of tackles players like Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho etc, etc do not make. So why is it encouraged in the EPL? 50-50 balls always seem to result in an injury anyway. Shawcross was just going for a ball that was more or less his, Ramsey made a stupid challenge and paid a heavy price. 
 
In a broader context Wenger is right and something needs to be done to change the attitudes of fans, players, coaches and the media but I don't expect anything to happen. The rules are and have been designed to protect players from foul play. They need to be applied in the EPL as they are in Italy and Spain. 

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