I’ve had time to think about the tackle by Dan Smith on Abou Diaby, who we now know is out for at least 9 months – a devastating time out for a young, promising player who really looked to have got into his stride at Arsenal.
I think it’s pretty clear that Dan Smith had no intention of getting the ball – various pictures and downloads over the internet can prove that, and I think everyone agrees that a yellow card for such a reckless, horrific and career-threatening tackle is totally ridiculous.
When I first saw the tackle on Sky Sports, I kept hearing co-commentator Brian Marwood defending the Sunderland player saying things like “he was going for the ball..” or “he didn’t mean to hurt him…”.
My first reaction was that it was a disgusting tackle, if indeed you can call it a tackle.
The reaction from the Arsenal players after the incident was spot on, with Toure, Fabregas, Henry et al showing their dismay at the whole situation, rightly condemning Smith for his pathetic and cowardly attempt to ‘win the ball’.
And apparently Dan Smith has had only a few professional appearances, of which his first he received a red card.
Not bad going for a thug.
The problem is that the tackle was totally uncalled for, it was at the end of the game when the match was well out of reach so the only explanation is that Smith was frustrated and obviously wanted to hurt Diaby.
Now the promising midfielder is out of the Champions League Final, out of action for 9 months and is going to have a hell of a time regaining the same form he had.
At the beginning of the game you felt sorry for Sunderland because of their situation, but afterwards after numerous dangerous tackles you just felt that this bunch of thugs can go f*ck themselves – as Henry said, are these guys actually playing football here?
Toure spoke out and said he could see it coming, which was sad. I was surprised that Henry and Fabregas came out for the second half – you thought that Wenger would rest them and you knew how Sunderland were playing that they could injure one of our players.
Unfortunately that happened to Diaby.
We’ve all heard about Arsenal threatening legal action over the tackle. They are right to look into it but it probably won’t get them anywhere – but it does highlight the problem of insufficient punishments to clearly reckless behaviour.
It does seem that the media in particular are glossing over this horrific incident – is this because Diaby isn’t English? I’m sure more people would kick off if Dan Smith injured Rooney in the same manner. In fact, if Smith did that to Rooney I am certain he would be booted out of the country!
You can be sure The Sun and similar newspapers would have Dan Smith’s picture on the front page behind bars with a headline: ‘This Man Ruined Englands World Cup Dreams…’
Because the challenge by Paulo Ferreira on Rooney was innocuous you cannot place blame on the Chelsea full-back. But you can guarantee if Ferreira had any blame for the injury, he would be public enemy number one.
No question.
But because they can’t blame anyone now they’re blaming the actual boots, which is a whole other arguement…
And if this happened to John Terry? You can be sure Chelsea fans would put pressure on Dan Smith like they did to Anders Frisk, to the extent where he had to retire because of death threats.
Am I condoning such behavour from fans? Of course not.
But I feel Mr Daniel Smith has got off very, very lightly.
And that’s an under-statement.
Spot on – if that tackle had ended Rooney’s world cup there would be uproar. Diaby is only a French U21 player and of no consequence to England, the English, Sky Sports or the print media. The big news is the focus on Wenger taking legal action as opposed to the nature of the tackle itself.
Spot on.
The FA must react to protect the game. The bandit on the media have to take a responsibility for keeping taking about getting hard / getting physical against Arsenal & bla bla. That kind of comment from the cunt on Sky SP is a disgrace.
very good article…
Smith’s apology was fairly galling as well – “if there was contact”
Dan Smith, Kevin Ball & Sunderland AFC and their fans think this is all a fuss about nothing. They think we’re full of whinging foreigners and it was just a late challenge, end of story. I was there, it was coming, some clown called Leadbetter clattered into Toure I think it was not long before THE challenge. Then we have Smith claiming “if I did catch him”, what sort of cowardly response is that. It’s claimed that he’s apologised, not to Diaby he hasn’t. At the time he got out there a quick as he could being such a cowardly bottler. If it was unintentional why not face the player and show genuine concern rather than fleeing the scene of the crime. I for one hope that AFC DO pursue this careless idiot and call him to account for his actions. Kevin Ball was famed for this sort of challenge so are we surprised that he’s dismissing all the fuss.
This from a club that’s enjoyed Arsenal’s favour with the loan of Justin Hoyte for the season. What have Sunderland ever done for Arsenal?
I’m so pissed off about all this and feel great sadness for Diaby.
Dan Smith (who’s own brother retired after a bad injury from Vinnie Jones playing for Sunderland) should not be allowed to play and endanger other professionals. He may have wanted to show passion but I prefer to see great flowing football rather than some “no prisoner’s” type of challenge that some Northern fans in particular seem to revel in.
I might just have to pop down the Sunderland Training Ground and have a word in his shell-like.
Marwood and Alan Smith did us no good with their comments about ‘there was nothing malicious in that tackle’. that has formed the opinion of every person watching, whether they be Press, FA, or other football fans (even Arsenal fans). So they tried to sweep it under the carpet, only giving the ‘Wenger wanting to sue’ story space in the papers, and not really looking at the tackle again.
That same tackle by an Arsenal player on another player (particularly English) would have been all over the back pages for a week…this is the life of an Arsenal fan.
Smudger and Marwood don’t give two hoots for Arsenal Football Club or their fans! They show that with great regularity.
I now regret going to Smudger’s testimonial.
I cant stand Brian Marwood when he commentates on Arsenal. He isnt as obviously anti-Arsenal as Andy Gray but every time he commentates I feel like watching the game in mute.
Diaby is out, who else can cover this position in the squad??? Sebastien Larson? Is he up to it?? Song isn`t…
cant remember the exact words but it went like this:
” i mean look at all those arsenal players shaking their head at poor young Dan Smith , i mean he s a young lad…and you see fabregas and eboue shaking their head at him,no need for that…i mean some players especially at arsenal think they dont have a right to be tackled…i mean you are allowed to tackle in football…”
this was five live take on diaby ; cant remember the exact words but it went like this:
” i mean look at all those arsenal players shaking their head at poor young Dan Smith , i mean he s a young lad…and you see fabregas and eboue shaking their head at him,no need for that…i mean some players especially at arsenal think they dont have a right to be tackled…i mean you are allowed to tackle in football…”
If that’s what 5Live said then that’s an absolute disgrace. I think the reputation gained from the above average quota of red cards over the years has done the club no favours at all. I know a lot of them were for f-all, but it’s left it’s mark. So now if something happens against the team, they’re expected to accept it.
I’m sorry, but nobody can accept a challenge like that of Smith’s. Even the usually mild mannered TH14 expressed such a view.
AW is trying to make a point, as he feels the club, the players and he himself are being victimised for trying to play the game in a way no other team does.
as for Marwood, Smith, Gray et al, I don’t think that they’re particularly biased against The Arse, it’s just that we seem to remember what they say about our team, whereas if it was a game with two other teams, we’re not really as interested.
This stament is very bad to all foot lovers and supporters. it seems all foreign players in england should start geting warried by the refs in England b’se it appears that they will not protect them and to me this is going to kill the football in England .Now imagine a player want to end another players carrier and the ref just give only a yellow card saying that the insidance was 50/50.
To me this is a massege to all foreign players ,they should start to be aware of the English players ,b’se them are are treated differently from them
Arsenal FC shoukd ban Brian Marwood from Higbury/ Emirates Stadium for life.
jj Says:
May 4th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Spot on, jj . The ref in England is blow the standard. I heard many foreigners commentators say so.
Marwood is a disgrace and I am ashamed that he ever had anything to do with Arsenal. The points about Diaby’s injury have been covered on here already but nobody has mentioned Marwood’s comments regarding Lehmann.
There was an incident where Lehmann got into some argy bargy with some red-striped chimpanzee, that followed a lunge by the Sunderland player into Lehmann, with his elbow straight into his chin. The goon then tried to wrestle Lehmann to the ground and Marwood’s comments were: ” Lehmann needs to get rid of that part of his game. He seems to think that nobody can challenge him. He must understand that, in this country IT IS LEGITIMATE FOR A PLAYER TO ATTACK THE GOALKEEPER!” No kidding. He said it is legitimate for a player to ATTACK the goalkeeper. Unbelievable!
We hear so much from Gordon Frickin’ Taylor when there is a chance to have a go at foreigners taking over the game, it is a pity that he hasn’t come out to condemn Smith for that horror tackle. I guess it is not going to happen, as it was an English boy who maimed a French boy. The football authorities seem to have their priorities all wrong to me.
I apologise for my earlier comments. Andy Gray was a right twat last night. Comments about RvP and Mad Jens, were far too frequent.
Great win and a great performance from TH14, just when it was needed.
Come on you Goons!
Well it looks like Diaby has truly been forgotten about now.
Whereas in the media it’s still all about Rooney ‘will he, won’t he make the world cup’ and the appointment of possibily the worst ever England manager – Steve McLaren.
Sven Mk II? You bet it is!
dan is a complete cock.
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