Neil

A very crude way of looking at it, but I reckon if he is alright after a month or 2 (as opposed to >6 months which I think most reactions would have been along the lines of), then some of the pressure on the FA might ease. The tackle is just as bad, but the consequences are seemingly not what they could have been.

If I were him, I'd be more angry at myself for throwing away £450.

Trial by TV. It certainly took the elves at Sky numerous days to pick through the footage and decipher what was going on with this one.

Without these punishments existing, people will continue to perform the same crimes. This is relevant in football and in life. I think the kid knows he has done wrong and so does everyone else except Whelan and it wouldn't surprise me if martinez doesn't pick him for a couple of games anyway but it still won't help us. "You think the kid knows he has done wrong" This is based on what? The reassuring pat that he gave Haidara, having been told to by his team mate? Or the complete silence after the event? No apology from the player or the club, in fact they have done the complete opposite. Absolutely gutted they weren't all given a fucking harsh punishment even though it wouldn't have directly affected our results. The result is all that matters and banning him won't change the result. The result is not all that matters. What matters is a kid has produced one of the worst challenges seen in years, seriously injured a fellow professional to the point where it's unlikely he'll be seen on the pitch for many, many months (not to mention any permanent damage to his leg) and he has been given absolutely no punishment. It's an utterly absurd decision from an organisation which continues to outdo itself with flat-out incompetence and borderline lies. That matters.

Without these punishments existing, people will continue to perform the same crimes. This is relevant in football and in life. I think the kid knows he has done wrong and so does everyone else except Whelan and it wouldn't surprise me if martinez doesn't pick him for a couple of games anyway but it still won't help us. "You think the kid knows he has done wrong" This is based on what? The reassuring pat that he gave Haidara, having been told to by his team mate? Or the complete silence after the event? Or that his manager and chairman both said it wasn't a foul. Or maybe that the Football Association haven't punished him at all. Or, even, him committing a ridiculously bad challenge a couple of years ago. Almost sounds like the sort of person who'd do it again. It's an absolutely obscene decision yet not in the slightest bit of surprising.

http://sports.coral.co.uk/politics/uk/uk-politics/budget-2013-534668.html?market_set=ALL#market-5426048 ffs

Beat me to it. And people wonder why Anichebe likes scoring against you.

We always hear about whether tackles were malicious or not. "It was a bad challenge, but there wasn't any malice in it." What does it even mean? There are plenty of malicious challenges that are swept under the carpet, with excuses such as "well he didn't mean it." No, he might not have thought "I'm going to fuck up this lad's leg", but going in like he did, he showed a great deal of malice. He showed a blatant disregard towards the safety of a fellow professional, and it matters not one iota whether he's 18 or 38. I don't think many would expect Martinez - or most managers - to lay in to their player in an interview. But to defend him like he did was really disappointing, I for one thought he was a bit better than that. He was actively excusing him for it due to his inexperience, naivety, whatever you want to call it. To do that is an insult to Haidara, it's an insult to everyone's intelligence and quite frankly more than anything, it's a massive slap in the face to the laws of the game that, last time I checked, were supposed to be applied equally regardless of a player's age, club, personality or indeed any other factor other than the incident itself. The whole thing stinks to high hell and I think Martinez will have lost a few of his fans with that post-match interview. As for McManaman, well he's a marked man now and will have that tackle hanging over him for a while I think. He may well go out of his way to apologise to Haidara. That's all well and good, but perhaps he should have shown a similar level of care when he rammed his boot into his leg.

That's the key for me. Don't buy Halsey not seeing it, but even if that somehow was the case, what the fuck were the other officials doing it? They certainly weren't officiating. Just as much blame should be at their feet. Pathetic all round.

Also seen that Real Sociedad are 4th. Knew they were doing fairly well but not that well. Hope they get into Europe too. Actually, on that topic, are Malaga banned from Europe for the next 2/3 years? If so, what happens if they finish in a European qualification spot? Goes to the team below?

When was the last time a visiting team had more shots at goal than Barca?

Good to see David Villa back playing well and linking up with Messi so much. Still got a hell of a lot to offer at the very top level.

Been a very decent showing this from Rayo Vallecano. Had a right go at Barca while playing good football. Certainly deserved at least a goal.

That'll go down well.

Messi. Seriously man. 3-0.

Pretty much sums up my view. It's the inconsistency which really pisses me off. I get it, referees will sometimes make mistakes. But the sheer quantity of them and in particular how similar events are getting dealt with in entirely different ways is utterly ridiculous and not sustainable.

Villa 1-0. Brilliant work from Messi.

Ibra, man. Scores a penalty but it has to be retaken due to players encroaching. So he steps up again and decides to chip it. Obscenely casual.

Rayo are a tad liberal with their tackling.

Could see something like a 4-2 here. Porto only draw. Benfica with a chance to go 4 clear. If only we had some Benfica fans to give us all their thoughts on it.

I don't know what is malicious if that challenge wasn't. Daring to use his inexperience as an excuse is an insult to all concerned, as well as the laws of the game.

Signs in the last 10 minutes you were finding your feet. Looked all at sea for the first half an hour or so - partly understandable due to the somewhat chaotic nature of events. Desperately need to get Marveaux on the ball more.

The standard of refereeing? What standard? That implies a level of consistency is maintained to judge refs against. It's all completely gone to pot. If you can't spot the McManaman challenge today then what the hell is the point of a referee being there at all?

Fwiw, thought Jonas did a cracking job vs Anzhi.

I think their win over us a few weeks ago pretty much saved them. They were quietly, steadily getting dragged into it until then. Great first 15 or so games then they were just flat out shit for a while.