Sometimes Shit Just Happens

[Lieutenant Pigeon]

Dodd me if you like but I reckon this deserves a thread on its own...


Fantastic piece by Martin Samuel in today's Times - should be the last word on the subject (but it won't!)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 07,00.html


C.

[Apocalypse Now]

Fantastic article, deserves a full read. Maybe even a few emails to the author, brilliant.

[higher]

A copy to Mourinho too.

[M4 Junction 11]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8305-2409107,00.html

The Times
October 18, 2006

So, José, you believe that this was deliberate, do you? In that case we challenge you: try it
By Martin Samuel, Sports Writer of the Year

WE START the day with an aptitude test. First, find a piece of open land, at least 50 yards uninterrupted. Start running. Get up to full pelt, as fast as you can go, the sort of speed you would be looking to achieve if you were, for instance, a Reading midfield player who thought that he had a sniff at goal after 20 seconds against Chelsea. Are you there yet? Good. Now drop your knee. Hello again. Were they nice at the hospital? I hope so. Man running fast like that, falls flat on his face, sounds nasty. Still, we have proven one thing: it would have been as good as physically impossible for Stephen Hunt to have fouled Petr Cech in the way José Mourinho has suggested, unless he was willing to risk serious injury to himself.

Those of a less adventurous nature may wish to try the following experiment instead. Walk across the room at normal pace and, in stride, drop your knee. See what I mean? It is an unnatural action. Your body is not conditioned to move in this way unless your aim is to fall forward face first or continue in the style of Max Wall, and neither stance is truly conducive to Premiership football.

Also, if Hunt is genuinely capable of taking people out with just his kneecap at running speed, he would be best advised to hand in his notice at Reading and head straight for Washington DC, because the CIA has vacancies for men such as him and could save a fortune on guns.

Of course, the problem with the knee as a weapon of choice is, as Mark Lawrenson astutely observed on Match of the Day on Saturday night, its vulnerability. The over-the-top tackle is traditionally made studs showing, with the sole of the foot, an area that can withstand great impact (think of jumping from a high wall). The harder the opponent kicks against the studs, the worse his injury, while the assailant’s leg is at an angle perfectly adjusted to absorb pressure.

Compare that with the knee. There is all kinds of stuff around there that a footballer cannot be without: posterior cruciate ligament, anterior cruciate ligament, lateral capsular ligament, medial capsular ligament, fibular collateral ligament, tibial collateral ligament, patellar ligament, transverse ligament, fibular, tibia . . . I’ve missed a few, I know.

Anyway, the point is that no professional sportsman in his right mind would lead with a knee in an attempted assault. It would be the equivalent of trying to win the Tour de France by taking out your rivals with your front wheel. And we are asked to believe that Hunt was in his right mind on Saturday. Indeed, we are asked to believe that he was not just thinking straight but coldly, calculatingly and maliciously about hurting an opponent. While running at speed. And ordering his body to do something that every natural impulse in his brain would have tried to override and reject.

In the matter of minutes that elapsed between the final whistle and Mourinho’s post-match interview, it is unlikely that the Chelsea manager had time to consider his allegations from every logical angle. Nor would he have reviewed the footage of the incident frame by frame, over and over, as would have happened at television studios around the country before the experts that Mourinho so despises gave their verdict.

I sat with Chris Kamara at Sky’s base in Isleworth, West London, on Sunday morning as he slowed down the film and replayed it several times until we felt confident enough to pass opinion. I think this is what happened: Cech collected the ball in his hands, at which point Hunt was roughly two strides away from him and travelling at speed; their juxtaposition was such, though, that Hunt probably believed that if he continued his run along its line there would be no contact, which is why he did not jump; what he did not efficiently factor in, though, was the slippery surface, which took Cech, who was sliding, into his path; this unexpected event accounted for the awkwardness of Hunt’s stance as he collided with Cech; in attempting to brace for the impact, he turned his leg away and was beginning to fall, which is why his right knee clipped Cech’s temple.

If he wanted to hurt him, he could have done it the old-fashioned way and left a foot in.

This was a freak incident which produced a freak injury. Every person who played or plays the game professionally that I have spoken to acknowledges this, bar one.

We should begin by giving Mourinho something he has not granted Hunt: the benefit of the doubt. His team had just won a very competitive match in which two of his goalkeepers had been carried off on stretchers and taken to hospital after physical challenges from Reading players. Protective of his men, as all managers are, it is understandable that he should suspect foul play. In the heat of the moment there is mitigation for his post-match comments, too, however inflammatory they may appear.

Mourinho believed what he said at the time. It would be fascinating to discover how often he has studied the incident since, though, because to continue down this line when the emotion has been removed from the situation seems unreasonable.

Mourinho is an intelligent man. Too often he sees the debate from a selfish perspective, but join the club. Sir Alex Ferguson has never been caught in possession of an open mind when it comes to matters affecting Manchester United. What we believe, though, is that when these men get home, when they sit in front of the fire with a large whisky and reflect, they do not see the game vastly different from the rest of us.

Ferguson knows he could have handled Roy Keane’s departure more skilfully; Arsène Wenger did actually have a view of the stonewall penalty against his team that the referee missed; Mourinho acknowledges that Barcelona were the better team over two legs last season.

This is what makes Mourinho’s — and Chelsea’s — stance so puzzling; that, given the chance to adjust, to soften, they have remained resolutely hardline. Chelsea will press ahead with a complaint to the FA, alleging that Hunt’s challenge was reckless, avoidable and should be treated as an exceptional case, even though there is little hope of success. At least this will open a dialogue around the issue of professional responsibility.
Intriguingly, Mourinho had less of a problem with the challenge by Ibrahima Sonko that resulted in Carlo Cudicini having to go to hospital, even though, in throwing himself at the ball at full speed, Sonko showed scant regard for the wellbeing of the players around him. He was making a genuine attempt to equalise but he had his head down and did not show sufficient consideration for those in his way.

If the injuries that occurred have one positive, it is that the duty of care towards an opponent is now high on football’s agenda, although only the Reading players will know whether they exercised due caution on this occasion. Sadly, there are other issues, too. Within 30 minutes of the finish, Mourinho was using the general reluctance to support his more extreme statements as further evidence of conspiracy against his club. This is nonsense. The outcry after Michael Essien’s tackle on Dietmar Hamann last season, for instance, came because it was an open-and-shut case. What Mourinho must understand is that he is in a minority over Cech and a huge element of doubt surrounds his allegations against Hunt.

It is not only members of the media who are sceptical; the professional game also rejects his view. Mourinho may choose to believe that these opinions are rooted in bias, but that is insulting to the integrity of men such as Bob Wilson and Gordon Taylor, respected figures in the sport with no reason to give anything more than an honest appraisal. Mourinho undermines his arguments when he goes off on these tangents, which are then dismissed as paranoid rants, and valid points are lost, such as the one he made yesterday about treatment times.

It is worthless debating with him in this mood because he will not see beyond Chelsea versus the rest.

Out of interest, I looked at every mention of his club in this column this season: Didier Drogba an early contender for Footballer of the Year; John Terry for England captain; a defence, in passing, of Frank Arnesen, Chelsea’s head of development and scouting, after the Panorama investigation. Not one negative word, apart from a small joke about Mourinho’s new haircut and a minor supporting role in some fun at the expense of Ashley Cole’s autobiography.

Yet Mourinho remains convinced that the world is against his club and will see its refusal to take up arms against Reading and Hunt as further evidence of corruption. “I hope when this is finished it is not the Reading player that has an award for fair play and our goalkeeper who is charged by the FA,â€

[Ian Royal]

great article, although there is a brief mention of his claims about treatment times that the author doesn't seem to have noticed are utter bullcrap yet.

Have to disagree about the sentiments at the end though. Just because Jose is paranoid and was in the heat of the moment does not mean he and Chelsea should not be charged. He has a responsibility to not make wild accusations and review the facts first. The behaviour since has also in no way changed and so he needs to be disciplined IMO.

The best thing for English football would be for him to feck off back abroad.

[brendywendy]

always liked that samuels

[M4 Junction 11]

The Mirror
18 October 2006

YOU'RE A LIAR JOSE
Blues boss ridiculed over Cech outburst
By Martin Lipton Chief Football Writer

JOSE MOURINHO was branded a liar by Reading and the NHS last night over his version of the Petr Cech injury scare.

The Chelsea boss claimed his goalkeeper's life was put at risk at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday because he had to wait 30 minutes for an ambulance.

But Mourinho was accused by Reading - who were backed up by the South Central Ambulance NHS Trust - of getting his facts wrong.

Cech was sitting up and talking properly for the first time yesterday, 72 hours after the clash with Stephen Hunt that resulted in emergency brain surgery. Mourinho claimed: "My goalkeeper was 30 minutes in the dressing room waiting for an ambulance which then couldn't get near the dressing room.

"He had to go in a wheelchair, when he had the injury he had, in a lift. If my keeper had died in the dressing room because of that it is something English football has to think about."

But he was accused of "very serious factual inaccuracies" by Reading. Trust spokesman Graham Groves added: "Chelsea called an ambulance at 1745 which arrived at 1752 and Petr Cech was in hospital by 1811. The removal of the patient was a decision taken by Chelsea who were offered two routes out of the stadium - around the pitch on a stretcher or via a small lift in a wheelchair - and they chose the wheelchair."

But Chelsea stood by Mourinho's version of events.

[Cemy Junction Expat]

The Daily Mail
Last updated at 09:16am on 17th October 2006

It's Chelsea, not Hunt, who need to apologise

By DES KELLY

Stephen Hunt sent the first letter to Petr Cech. It said he hoped to see him make a speedy recovery. His second letter should be sent to Chelsea, saying he hopes to see them in court.

No matter how many times you rewind the footage, no matter how often you replay the collision between the Reading player and Stamford Bridge's unfortunate goalkeeper, I defy you to demonstrate beyond doubt that there is any evidence of malice.

Although the incident has been reviewed and analysed by pundits with the kind of forensic intensity previously reserved for Abraham Zapruder's Super 8mm film of the JFK assassination, there is just one statement that can be made about Cech's injury without fear of contradiction; it looks like an accident.

Yet Jose Mourinho immediately condemned the fateful moment as "an act of violence" and insisted it was on a par with Ben Thatcher's blatant and cynical elbow on Portsmouth's Pedro Mendes earlier in the season.

This was rubbish, of course, but then the Chelsea boss has a habit of making ill-judged remarks in the heat of the moment.

At least on this occasion the outpouring of emotion was understandable if not excusable. Mourinho had just seen his first-choice goalkeeper whisked to hospital with a fracture of the skull and when a microphone was thrust under his nose on the final whistle his remarks were the inevitable consequence of a naturally skewed perspective.

But the reason why Hunt should consider taking serious steps to clear his name is that the club studied their manager's comments, weighed up their merits overnight, and then announced the following day: "We endorse the post-match comments of Jose Mourinho."

So can we take the following remarks by the Chelsea manager as official club policy on the matter? "Hunt clearly flexed his leg to catch Petr. He dropped his knee. When the keeper has the ball in his hands, what are you going to do? You are only going in there to hurt him," said Mourinho, before adding Cech was "lucky to be alive".

It is something to say a player has cheated. It is quite another to suggest he could have killed a fellow professional with a deliberate attack. If we are looking for evidence of a premeditated assault, surely this is it? At best the club and Mourinho may be guilty of slander; at worst, it is an accusation of quite unthinkable proportions.

Mourinho then peered over his grassy knoll again and had the gall to claim the incident should be compared to Michael Essien's notoriously vicious studs-up lunge at Didi Hamann, another ridiculous conspiracy theory that is presumably endorsed by the club.

The Football Association are now considering taking action against Chelsea for their inflammatory comments and typically paranoid onslaught on common sense, rather than target Hunt.

Quite right. Look at the incident for yourself. You will see a player moving at high speed in pursuit of a ball on a slick surface collide with a goalkeeper who came rushing out at his feet.

Hunt certainly had a case for following the ball. He could have got there a split-second earlier and won a penalty, or he might have pressured Cech into spilling possession. Either way, it was a legitimate match incident. I did not see him raise a boot, aim a knee, drop his leg or do anything other than clash with an opponent.

For Hunt to deliberately take out Cech, as Mourinho and others claim, it follows that he made a conscious decision to connect with his kneecap, which is never the most sensible of options. If in doubt, ask Reading's thoroughly decent manger Steve Coppell and he will tell you all you need to know about how a career can be ended early by a knee injury.

Some observers also claim Hunt "looked down" just before contact, as if this was some kind of smoking gun. Well, of course he did. He was looking down at the ball and at the goalkeeper at his feet. What was he supposed to do? Look to the sky? Close his eyes?

Obviously, Chelsea are going to be dismayed by the loss of a key player, but trying to mount a witch-hunt against a relative unknown who had picked up only one yellow card before this incident says more about them than Hunt.

I hope Chelsea see sense and quietly drop their complaint. I hope their replacement goalkeeper performs admirably tomorrow night. I hope the best team wins when they face Barcelona. Above all, I hope Cech recovers from his terrible injury soon.

But anyone who suggests it was anything other than an accident needs their head examined.

[Lieutenant Pigeon]

Press are swinging in nicely behind us...


C.

[Royal Rother]

Is it possible to post this up, without further comment, on the Chelsea boards?

[bobby m's syrup]

Changing horses in mid stream? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... =1779&ct=5

[M4 Junction 11]

Press are swinging in nicely behind us...


C.

Jose fcuks with the Chelsea media machine.
He's not going to be the popular one for making them all look like fools

[Custard Cream]

Chelsea fans too interested in agreeing with Oliver here .........

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/oliverholt/

LOOK AGAIN..THIS TIME MOURINHO HAS GOT ONE RIGHT
18 October 2006
HERE'S a little multiple choice quiz question for a professional footballer on how he might be expected to behave in a given situation.

A few seconds after the start of a match one Saturday evening, you see the world's best goalkeeper run out of his goal and gather the ball cleanly. You, an opposing midfielder, are still several yards away. Do you:

A. Realise there is no chance of the world's best goalkeeper spilling the ball, change the direction of your run and jog back towards the half-way line.

B.Go for the Hollywood option, carry on with your run and hurdle the keeper as he lies on the floor clutching the ball.

C. Continue to run straight at the goalkeeper as he lies on the floor with the ball, watch your knee collide with his head and then stand back as he is taken to hospital with a fractured skull.

Tough one, isn't it? A real head-scratcher. Or, in the vexed case of Stephen Hunt and Petr Cech, a real headbreaker.

The best that can be said of Reading's enthusiastic midfielder, who hurtled into Cech in the first minute of last Saturday's clash with Chelsea, is that he has an exceedingly slow football brain.

The worst is that his aggression has put Cech out of football for a year and may have changed the life of the goalkeeper forever.

Cech has two metal plates in his head now as he lies in the John Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and yet football's neanderthal instinct seems to be to leap to Hunt's defence.

One of the worst things about the incident is the way the apologists for violence in football have formulated such a preposterous defence for the Reading player.

Because in their rush to defend the indefensible all they have done is blurred the message that what Hunt did was unacceptable and by doing that, they've cleared the way for it to happen again.

The grizzled old pros with no cartilage in either knee and not a lot between the ears either have been trotted out to produce the usual garbage about the good old days.

You know the type. The Monty Python merchants unwittingly re-enacting the Four Yorkshiremen sketch. "You were lucky," they say. "We used to dream about getting kneed in the head."

Bob Wilson wins the prize for getting closest to that but then I suppose that's what you expect from a bloke who was mentor to a muppet who called himself Safe Hands.

Let's get one thing straight right away. Hunt's challenge on Cech wasn't for a 50-50 ball. It wasn't even 60-40 against Hunt. Not 70-30 either. Not 80-20. Not 90-10.

Cech had it. It was 100 per cent his. It was under his control. It was in his possession.

"Our momentum meant a collision was unavoidable," Hunt said. Sorry, pal, I know you're desperate but that's not true.

It was totally avoidable. I'll tell you how. Just don't slam your knee into Cech's head. Simple. Fractured skull suddenly entirely avoidable.

Whether Hunt meant to do it or not is another matter. Only he will ever know that.

I imagine he is somewhat taken aback by quite how serious the consequences of his action have been to a fellow professional. Again, only he knows that. What is certain is that according to the laws of the game, he should have been sent off for the injury he inflicted on Cech.

He wasn't in control of the outcome of his challenge and it endangered the safety of his opponent. That equals a red card.

Luckily for Hunt, a wet lettuce called Mike Riley was in charge and the best he could muster was one of his thin little smiles.

And don't listen to the people who say it couldn't have been deliberate because it would be professional suicide for a footballer to knee someone in the head.

Those people say Hunt would never have done that because he would have been too worried about hurting himself.

Well, remind me then which player got carried off on a stretcher and is still in hospital and which player played for 90 minutes without a scratch?

Hunt may well have placed his knee in terrible danger when it collided with Petr Cech's head but thankfully the knee seems to have emerged unscathed.

Petr Cech might be in a bit of a state but Hunt and his knee are doing just fine. Sighs of relief all round.

http://www.cfcnet.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19995

[Ian Royal]

that is even more outrageous than anything Mourinho has said!

Unbelievable. I wouldn't expect that sort of media biased outside of Chelsea, even then I'd be shocked.

[The Surgeon of Crowthorne]

That Mirror article is the most ridiculous thing I've read in a long time.

So, now all players are supposed to think for themselves "hey that player coming towards me with the ball has just won the world cup, there's no point in me tackling him, I may as well just let him get on with it & score a great goal".

[bobby m's syrup]

Holt is being deliberately provocative, stoking a debate that will run and run...and sell newspapers. If he's such a great journalist, what is he doing writing for a rag like the Mirror?

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

Great article that sums the situation up perfectly.

[Silver Fox]

I used to quite like Oliver Holt when he was on Jimmy HIll's show but that article is awful. The suggestion that Hunt should pull out of a challenge because there's no way that Peter Cech will mishandle on a slippery surface that was partly to blame for the incident is absolute nonsense. Does he not remember when Barthez (much shitter than Cech I know) fumbled the ball against Arsenal in the rain and Henry scored? Perhaps Thierry should have strolled back to the halfway line then?

What a kunter

[Gordons Cumming]

I just hope all this publicity doesn't undermine Reading's great start to the seaon and affect our future games.

I am now an official member of the "I hate Chelsea" club.

I've seen and heard them for myself and it sounds and looks as bad as everyone said.

Come on Barcelona.

[SpaceCruiser]

Mirror are tossers.