Quote Originally Posted by Loony BoB View Post
Reports say there was nothing malicious in it, it was just bad timing in the tackle. From what I understand, there was more malice in most of the tackles made by Arsenal against Nani recently.

Nobody intends to injure like that and you shouldn't take it out on the tackler unless it was a tackle that should never have been made at all - eg. the player doesn't have the ball, or it involved a foot to the face, etc. etc. - You know, the ones where it's more abuse than tackle.
True for the most part, but Taylor's intent doesn't change the fact that the tackle caused a horrific injury that might well force Eduardo out of the sport for good. If you can't criticise a player for that, what can you criticise him for? Wenger's implication that Taylor should be banned for life is absurd, and I'd like to think it was just a remark made in the heat of the moment. But players should be suspended, reprimanded, and fined for dangerous challenges, malicious or not. A tackle like Taylor's might be described as clumsy, but if the result of his clumsiness is that some guy goes home with half a fibula, then you've got to call it gross incompetence, and that's perfectly reasonable grounds for severe disciplinary action as far as I'm concerned.

The only upside of this is that it's bound to see the FA inititate a proper crackdown on these sorts of challenges, which have been particularly prevelant this season. I wouldn't be surprised if they made an example out of Taylor and gave him an extended ban, and brought in harsher punishments for these sorts of tackles in the future. Without such action, I doubt it'll be very long before we see our next broken leg.

EDIT: I already used barcodes in an earlier post, and I thought I'd mix it up a bit. And while I can't say I was happy about Fernandalf's hat-trick, Aliadiere's bitch-slap sounds like it might be good for a giggle, so I suppose that's a very, very, very, very small consolation.