Wishing Newcastle's Ben Arfa a speedy recovery after another bad one…

 ‘Kick Kicking out of Football’

We fans have seen our very own players get singled out for bad tackles, week in week out and it still continues.

Sunday we saw a dreadful case of this on Diaby by Essien, still today I don’t know how he was able to carry on. I thought his ankle was broken and he was due for another trip to the scanner. He was ok, he got ‘lucky’.

One player who didn’t get so lucky over the weekend was Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa – he was on the receiving end of a bad tackle by Nigel De Jong of Manchester City. His leg is broken and I doubt he will play another game this season. What makes it more shocking, if that’s possible, no free kick, no yellow card, certainly no red card either! No, De Jong walked away a free man, Hatem Ben Arfa didn’t, his only next step will be when he leaves hospital and with the aid of crutches and his leg in plaster!!

No doubt all the fans and staff form the City Club of Manchester will say things like this about De Jong:

‘He’s not a dirty player’

‘He wouldn’t have done that on purpose’

‘He is really upset by the injury caused to the player’

‘He’s a great lad really, he was unlucky’…

‘I didn’t think it was a rash challenge. There was no malice in it’.

Well, that’s all well and good, but I don’t buy it….

What about his chest-high tackle on Spain’s Xabi Alonso during the World Cup?

What about when he broke the leg of USA’s Stuart Holden in a World Cup warm-up match.

The boss of the Holland side isn’t happy either – he plans to have a word in the ear of De Jong but will that do any good? I doubt it.

Another manager, Jan Everse of Sparta Rotterdam believes De Jong needs to see a shrink to sort out his attitude and finally, a Sports pundit in Holland, Hugo Vorst believes “De Jong is a criminal who needs to be dragged out of football.”

Well, maybe it’s about time some of these tackles were looked at a bit more seriously, not every tackle is just down to ‘bad timing’ is it…

De Jong has history, a history that every now and again repeats itself a bit like the person that beats his/her partner. The first time they do it they get away with it as ‘its a mistake’ – five years down the line, he/she is in hospital, hanging on in there for life….

One day De Jong could very well finish a player’s career with yet another bad tackle. We saw Roy Keane end Alfie Hailand’s career back in 2001 –   I pray that never happens again, certainly not right now to Hatem Ben Arfa, not for him, for his club and for his fans….

Here’s just a few of De Jong’s ‘mistimed’ tackles – Viewing not recommended for the faint hearted!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2q9V3b9zik

I’ve just read that De Jong has been dropped from the Dutch Squad following this incident!! 

We have lost Eduardo, been without Ramsey for a long time and time after time we see our own and other players fall victim to unnecessary over the top tackles. It has to stop, and NOW!!

It’s time to kick kicking and bad tackles out of the beautiful game……

26 thoughts on “Wishing Newcastle's Ben Arfa a speedy recovery after another bad one…

  1. Vanmoulds says:

    Get well soon Ben Arfa, quality player to watch on MOTD.
    well done dutch football for dropping him, city should loan him to stoke.

  2. Andrea says:

    I was shocked to hear that Ben arfa broken his leg sorry the sad news its like Abou Diaby who shortly was going too with a foolish footballer essien (Chelsea)who is after money not even friendship but with God he will recover quickly . an arsenal fan from Uganda kampala. God bless you all

  3. charybdis1966 says:

    Rico, contrast that with the attitude of our antideluvian FA – they give Shawcross an England call up after assualting Rambo and leaving him with a double leg break.
    Guess which country is going to win a world cup first?

  4. rico says:

    chary, shocking isn’t it, the FA and other clubs should look to follow the dutch camp. one of whom says he should be dragged off as a criminal….

  5. Red Arse says:

    Morning Rico,

    And guess what? The ref and his assistants did not see it.

    Oh yeah, of course they didn’t! Nor did they bottle it!

    Disgusting!

  6. rico says:

    Morning RA, i don’t get how De Jong didn’t see red either, he’s a bad player, just looking at the you tube clip says it all really….

  7. Slarth - NUFC Fan. says:

    I think most people want it kicked out of the game, except those who have these players in there side. The refs are clueless, the FA does sweet FA. Hell, even the Dutch are saying that we play by different rules to them as they can’t understand how no one gets punished!! If these players keep at it though, they’ll break a leg of the likes of Cattermole, Henry, De Jong etc. Then they’ll be moaning.

  8. Red Arse says:

    Rico,

    It’s not so much he is a bad player, he is simply a nasty little thug who just seems to keep getting away with it.

    I wonder what Fat sam, Pubis et al will say when one of their players is on the receiving end.

  9. rico says:

    Morning Slarth, good to see you here,

    I would just rather the bad boys get dealt with, and severely. The FA are toothless!!

    Only the day that Gerrard, Rooney or similar are on the receiving end will then stop and take action… can’t have the precious England boys being bullied!!

  10. T-buzz says:

    De Jong is best suited competing on UFC or Rugby Union as he seems to have the build and mentality for that kind of sport. 10 out of 10 to the Dutch Manager for excluding him from the squad but what also concerns me is that his club manager hasnt done the same. It will be interesting to hear what Mancini’s comments will be if the same thing happened to Tevez or Adam Johnson (not that I wish it cos they are a joy to watch play) or any of Pulis’, Mick McCarthy’s or Alladyke’s players.

  11. JJDeede says:

    I agree with the sentiments of the article wholeheartedly. The refs have much to answer for, but managers who promote, condone or excuse such tackles should be put out of the game too. But I disagree with T-buzz about Rugby Union – a noble game. Prohibited dangerous forms of tackling, eg spear tackles, are severely punished… sinbins red cards and long suspensions are the punishments, and they use retrospective video evidence… this last thing is now essential if skilful players are to thrive in the EPL and the thugs are to get their comeuppance. I think we all want that. Or should.

  12. Stef says:

    Morning all, re De Jong remember the WC finale he should of have had red card back then in any other game there would of been no doubt but Web didn’t want to ruin the finale.
    BTW I wanted Holland to win but after the foul I almost couldn’t care less.
    About SB game I didn’t had a chance to make comment I think we had a good game and the scoreline at the end of the game was flattering for the home side.
    I don’t know about the Diaby roll maybe AW tried to something similar with Song (or not). Song had a wonder goal and that was great, but Diaby looked more comfortable upfront.

    Ben Arfa I wish him swift recovery

  13. T-buzz says:

    Stef, everyone remembers his assault on Alonso in the finals, if he went any higher he would have taken Alonso’s head off. What baffles me sometimes is after theyve made these horrendous tackles and are penalised, they have this look on their faces like theyve done nothing wrong!

    Thats just evil! 🙁

  14. Stef says:

    HI T
    me thinks Until Some1 chopped of a players head ala kung fu style De Jong. It was a horrendous tackle(more likely an assault) he should of been dropped back then he could of singlehandedly make Spain champions.

    It’s pouring rain here more rain then London 😀

  15. K-TR7 says:

    Im incensed by pundits saying the chavs ‘let us have the ball’.WTF?If anyone has watched them this season is they like to dominate possession but when they met us they couldn’t compete with us as we are miles ahead of them in this aspect.if that was the case why didn’t they just stay infront of cech during kickoff?mikel is so clueless to say that they are better than us in this aspect.when they come to the Emirates they should try to outplay us…we’ll thrash them no doubt.we pressed them high up the pitch and since they ain’t no good at passing around pressure they hoofed it up to drogba hoping for the best.wilkins admitted they couldn’t get the ball off us and deep down he knows we bossed them like no other team except barça has at the bridge.

  16. K-TR7 says:

    Cesc has informed us via twitter that he has returned to training.two weeks of it and he will be in top shape for b’ham.now if anyone can get updates of rvp and theo…

  17. Red Arse says:

    Spookily quiet.

    Sshh, the bloggers are asleep!

    Nite, nite little ones (and big ones, of course). 🙂

  18. Red Arse says:

    I’m back, because I can boogie, boogie woogy, i can boogie all night long.

    No one to bug me, buggy bug me and I like to boogie all night long ….. where’s the Rico, Rico dico, she can boogie all night long, so i had better bug off, buggy bug off while I boogie all night looooooong ……… i c …

Leave your comment.

Discover more from Highbury House

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading