| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in 20:36 - Feb 25 with 10342 views | fournil |
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am deeply puzzled as to why yourselves, Match of the Day pundits and now the FA continue to dance to the agenda set by Jose Mourinho and Chelsea Football Club.
in todays front page article (Angry Chelsea want rule change etc)you give the oxygen of publicity to Chelsea’s opinions about the above incident with no counter arguments.
You write that Chelsea are left ‘appalled’ by the decision to reduce the Matic suspension by only one game.
'The club are incensed by Ashley Barnes’ tackle’
'reacting to a challenge by the Burnley forward’
‘a bare minimum gesture . . . might have left the midfielder with broken leg’
‘universal condemnation of the reckless challenge’
‘unjustly punished . . . . to a career-threatening tackle’
‘protect players from dangerous challenges’
‘Mourinho, who has been scathing in his criticism of barnes’
Let it be said,
Barnes neither tackled nor challenged Matic.
He played a pass cleanly to a colleague and his right foot followed through to connected with Matic’s leg which was in fact ‘late’ coming in on Barnes.
This was potentially, a horrific accident, not a tackle or a challenge.
Noone responded to the incident at the time, except, indisputably, Matic ran ten metres to push Barnes to the ground, violently in the back.
He received a red card.
He then continued to fight to get at other players or the referee rather than leave the pitch.
(meanwhile Ivanovich took the red card from the referee’s hand, constituting a red card in itself)
This is an automatic three match ban.
Mourinho, on Match of the Day, said he doesn’t speak about such things (though he did for 23 minutes on Sunday) but cites certain minutes during the match that were crucial he claimed, which the pundits then debate for the rest of the analysis.
This of course, deflects debate as to why his £400,000,000 team failed to beat lowly Burnley, and why the ‘Ginger Mourinho’ somehow out-thought the ‘Chosen One’ who is not slow to feed his own myth.
Or, why his players simulate injury and scream abuse when not award fouls,
Or, FAIL, to throw the ball back to the burnley goalkeeper after Heaton had rolled the ball into touch so that Mee could receive attention on the floor in front of him.The Chelsea players ignored the tradition of sportsmanship that prevails, but used the throw-in to remount their attack near the Burnley goal.
And now, I read, that the PGMOL at Cobham sent a deputation to Mourinho to discuss the incident and build bridges!
Relations in the meeting were strained!
In other words Mourinho was still behaving as though it is he who controls the FA, the referees, the media.
Your report says Mourinho has been scathing in his criticism of Barnes.
I wonder what Ashley Barnes thinks of Mourinho?
We won’t find out will we?
Mourinho wasn’t scathing, in fact he refused pointedly, to name Barnes, saying he ‘wasn’t fit to be called a player’.
I find that deeply offensive.
‘Universal condemnation of the reckless challenge?’
Really?
How would that be monitored?
Certainly Chelsea’s histrionics have lightened Matic’s just suspension, to the disgust of parts of the football world:
Robbie Fowler, for one considers it to be an ‘absolute shambles, should have got a game extra for such a frivolous appeal’.
And finally, if you want a measured, dignified, statesmanlike response to the whole matter, read Sean Dyche in an interview for the Lancashire Telegraph.
Now, THAT’S the way to behave.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Bolton
(I was there) |  | | |  |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 15:39 - Feb 27 with 1516 views | Juzzie |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 11:25 - Feb 27 by simmo |
So the fact he's fouled more than anyone else all season is just coincidence? |
But that's the reason Barton gets repuation bookings which we get pi$$ed off about. Sure, he's no saint but at least 2 or 3 of his 7 consecutive were never bookings and by all accounts how no Hull player got booked last week I'll never know. |  | | |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 15:45 - Feb 27 with 1511 views | Juzzie |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 14:40 - Feb 27 by whittocksRs |
The way Barnes shirks off after the tackle is all the proof you need he meant to do it. I don't think Matic should be sent off for a reaction like that — same way I don't think Routledge should have been sent off after Henry's tackle — but the law is the law and the law says it's a red. Both men should have gone. |
"The way Barnes shirks off after the tackle is all the proof...." No it's not. We have no idea what's going on in his mind, how he's reacting to it etc. He could just be thinking nothing of it rather than "if I walk quietly away maybe no one will notice".
We can't put words/actions into other people mouths/minds. | | | |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 16:14 - Feb 27 with 1476 views | whittocksRs |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 15:45 - Feb 27 by Juzzie |
"The way Barnes shirks off after the tackle is all the proof...." No it's not. We have no idea what's going on in his mind, how he's reacting to it etc. He could just be thinking nothing of it rather than "if I walk quietly away maybe no one will notice".
We can't put words/actions into other people mouths/minds. |
When you're guilty you get away from something sharpish - don't need to be a body language specialist to work that out. I'm certainly no fan of Chelsea but you gotta call a spade a spade. Barnes is a dirty fcker. | | | |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 16:49 - Feb 27 with 1461 views | TW_R |
| Burnley mates letter to Guardian - re Chelsea love in on 13:48 - Feb 27 by simmo |
We're seeing very different things there. That's a straight red for me. |
Me too. Deliberately went way too high over the ball and his left leg came up studs first too. He deliberately studded the back of Ivanovic's leg too.
There's a reason why Atkinson has been "rested" this weekend. Shocking reffing!! |  | | |
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