Saturday, February 23, 2008

We're Not Kidding When We Warn You

It's almost Theisman-esque, although not quite Cisse-esque (Warning: also gruesome). But after the jump is a picture of Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva and a picture of what used to be his ankle.





The challenge from Birmingham City's Martin Taylor didn't look that vicious in real time, but the look on Eduardo's teammates' faces (particularly Cesc Fabregas) immeditately told the story of how bad da Silva was hurt.

A furious Arsene Wegner declared Taylor should never play football again. That's probably a bit harsh, as again, in real time it didn't look intentionally vicious. But it's a pretty grim reminder, especially to casual soccer fans, who look at people sliding into each other then scream, "Get up you pansy."

These are big, fast, strong men, who are wearing very little protection on their bodies. A couple of cleats at the ankle, and it could be the end of what seems like an extremely promising career.

[Update: After a couple of hours to sit with this, it actually seems worse. And maybe Wenger was right. Live, the challenge didn't look too vicious, but that was one angle, from a distance. These two pics here and here tell kind of a different story. In one Taylor looks like he's aiming for Eduardo's shin and in the second, he looks pretty self-satisfied with his handiwork. So fuck that guy. And the FA should come down harsh on him and manager Alex McLeish, who clearly thinks the only way to compete with Arsenal is through rough play and cheap shots.]

13 comments:

Jacob said...

I agree that the foul itself does not look bad at normal speed, but, oh God, that's a horrific injury.

Precious Roy said...

I sort of see Wenger's larger point in that, the way to slow down Arsenal is to be physical and take players out to disrupt their rhythm, so like he said, he saw this coming.

Lifetime ban ain't happening, but shit, maybe Taylor should sit out as long as Eduardo is out.

Tuffy said...

Next in the series: A picture of Tuffy and what used to be his lunch. yikes.

In the Guardian, they described the injury in detail and then bitched about the "apparently fragile mentality" that Arsenal is always in.

"I'm not going to stop punching your puppy in the head until you stop crying, Billy. Are you going to be a cry baby still? Are you?"

Eladio said...

In real time, I was shocked he got a red. Looking at the pictures, I don't know how they won't give him a multi-game ban.

No one has brought up Clichy's penalty. First, what the fuck was he doing when he let the ball bounce away? Did he think that he had help on the edge of the box? But he definitely got more ball than leg, though (again on first look) it totally looked like a penalty to me.

And I think Taylor might be right up there with Robbie Fowler for biggest wanker award.

Unknown said...

I really hope this doesn't end his career. Poor Eduardo. Screw Taylor...he better get a multi-game ban!

The Fan's Attic said...

a straight red is an automatic 3-game ban. he'll definitely get more, but probably doesn't deserve more than a 6-8 game ban.

Football Transfer said...

a red card is not enough for Martin Taylor, agree ?

Eladio said...

Arseblogger is saying that the 3-game automatic suspension for a straight red is the most Taylor can get. I could have sworn the FA can review and add/retract games from that auto 3. But I think he would know more than I.

http://arseblog.com/WP/2008/02/24/eduardos-injury-must-bring-about-change-birmingham-thoughts/

Flash said...

As a croatian I see this as an try< to put one of our best player out of the game for the european championship.

The NY Kid said...

Has Nibbles invaded us? I already posted this, but...

"A charge of Misconduct (as defined in and) pursuant to Rule E3 of the Rules of The Association may be brought against a Player in relation to an incident,
notwithstanding that the same incident has been dealt with pursuant to this Memorandum."

So it sounds like the FA may impose further bans on top of the 3-match suspension.

badly drawn boykins said...

eladio - I can't find a cite for it, but the idea is that if a referee sees an incident and takes action, then the FA can overturn, but not add additional sanctions.

Now, if there was another incident that the referee didn't see or otherwise take action on, *then* the FA could attach an additional ban, but that wouldn't apply in this case.

Unknown said...

Yeah, we're not done with this topic. There will be a couple of posts tomorrow about it, along with some more thoughts regarding shocking injuries.

Anonymous said...

I agree that the foul itself does not look bad at normal speed, but, oh God, that's a horrific injury.