Player do injure other players

He recalled a player trying to deliberately injure him and either cleverly or mistakenly got his name wrong, Jenkinson instead of Stoke City defender Andy Wilkinson. He picked up a shinbone injury in the 90th minute ahead of extra-time.

“That injury, I remember it. Jenkinson (he got the name wrong, it was Wilkinson) assaulted me. Yes, he injured me on purpose. I was absent for a while (three weeks). Unfortunately, injuries are part of a footballer’s life. I’ve already had a few, but I can’t complain.”
There is plenty of history of Stoke City injuring Spurs players and putting them out of action for weeks, Charlie Adams seemed to target Gareth Bale and target an injury he had caused before even going so far as to tackle him on an old injury he himself has caused while he wasn't even on the pitch!

Paulinho received the same treatment at White Hart Lane and how the assault on the touchline at the Britania Stadium a couple of years back didn't result in a sending off is anyones guess. It is amazing what thug players can get away with, fine if you were brought up in my era and know what a hard tackle is, but not in the modern game.

It was a Stoke City tactic under Tony Pulis to rough sides up. To be polite some of the tackles were, er, mistimed. I recall Ron 'Chopper' Harris being told to take Eddie Gray, the talented dribbling Leeds United left winger, out of the game. Chopper made sure he did, he took the man, accidentally, of course, missed the ball by a mile and Eddie Gray was no more a threat in that Cup Final.

Strong tackles are fine, strong tackles to deliberately try and injure another player are not and if people think some players don't try to injure other players on purpose then they are lying to themselves. It happens.

There are countlss tackles that look bad but they aren't. Players dive over tackles, players dive and feign injury all the time, a mere touch and some are unable to stand on their own two feet. We even have the situation where you are not allowed to block the ball incase the other players foot kicks you in his follow through. Players get booked for it which is just nuts.

Referees like to give booking for nothing, the problem is they then back themselves into a corner and often when a foul is committed that deserves a booking they don't give one. A foul is a foul wherever it is committed, a shirt pull in the centre of the field is no different than a shirt pull inside the box, yet one is a booking, the other isn't even a free kick. Why? because referees don't have the bottle.

They know they will get surrounded by hounding players and choose the easy option, I didn't see it, even if they are looking directly at it. There should be movement at the highest level to give the referees protection so they can make the big decisions without being hounded by players, bring in the rugby union 10 yard rule. Only the captain talks to a referee, the rest of the players have to retreat 10 yards. The solution is simple, the implementation of it seemingly impossible for our football authorities.

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