Conroy wrote:
That I'm not denying and I've said he should have been punished. My argument is that it's far from the worst challenge ever and the likes of Pardew, Newcastle and Haidara coming out with comments such as they have (Haidara has thanked fans for support during gis injury hell) is making it even worse.
Whether he only takes a small amount of the ball or not he takes it and so imo it shows that that was his intention. He takes the man and should have been punished but if you read/listen to some comments you'd think he'd pulled off a Cantona style kung fu challenge.
Personally I could give a toss about the comments of Pardew and his assistant and what they've said since. It's only a few weeks ago that Newcastle beat us after they got away scot free when one of their players kicked Ba in the face and broke his nose. There was no sympathy for us there, no complaints at the ref missing the clear penalty. Later in the game there was no sympathy for Ashley Cole when he got booked for being grabbed around the throat by a Newcastle player. So as far as I'm concerned NUFC can go eff off.
But Pardew's version of events is a lot clearer than yours, Martinez's and that crazy fool that owns your club.
I don't care what his intention was. No one will ever know what his intention was and even McManaman probably doesn't know. But his actions were pretty similar to those of Roy Keane when he did AIH. Now, Keane has admitted that was intentional and pretty much planned for, and he got doubly punished for that disgusting play, but the fact that McManaman has managed a similar impact shows what a dreadful tackle it was. From most of the reports Hadaira will be back fairly soon, but only out of sheer luck because that challenge could have easily screwed up his knee for good. In fact it might still massively affect Hadaira's career. No one knows how his injury is going, least of all you when your excreting the nonsense that he simply bruised his shin.
And given the fact that this is 2013 and FIFA have pretty much had 5(?) years of clamping down on this ridiculous and reckless challenges and driving them out of the game it makes McManaman's challenge even worse.
I don't hold this against McManaman. It was a horrible challenge. He should have got a red. He should have got a 3 match ban. That should have been the end of it. McManaman is a young player just breaking into the first team. The Newcastle game was his first start. The massive nerves associated with making his first start in the PL probably contributed to the challenge.
But the response from you, Martinez and Whelan has been ridiculous. The more nonsense that comes out of Wigan the more I hope you get relegated. I could care less who goes down as long as QPR and Reading do. But with each stupid post you make defending the indefensible I'm beginning to start penciling you in as my third wish for relegation .
