To me there is a difference between a bit of light shithousing and diving/cheating. I like our players to mix it up but i never want to see any of them dive, cheat or harass referees.
Totally up to the player, we would have let his contract run down to get in that position and if the player got injured then they might not get a contract elsewhere. I would like to think a solution would have been found but club would have needed to pay him a significant signing fee to do so
Sunderloand
Short term strategy, fine when you’re the little team trying to shortcut upwards, terrible when you reach a new level and the quality/quantity of loans aren’t sustainable (as they found out in PL)
We didn’t buy him, the situation with him was very different, we weren’t negotiating with his club at the time, etc etc
And yes concerns were raised by many at the time
The biggest issue for me in that incident is that the ref doesnt need to make a decisionas the whistle goes AFTER the ball is in the net. There is a natural puase in the game so let VAR review, dont let the ref guess and then VAR back him up as