Kitson got exactly what he deserved

There are, as you might expect at The Times, colleagues in this workplace who went to well-known schools with illustrious Old Boys. There were a couple of famous names who went to the school I attended, the most eminent being Tommy Smith, scorer of the decisive goal in the 1977 European Cup final and No7 in Times Online’s list of hard men that appeared last week. Frankly, the Anfield Iron should have topped the bill. Placing Smith so low can only lead the reader to the inescapable conclusion that the list was compiled by a jealous Evertonian.

I say this not to highlight the discursive nature of lists but to illustrate where I stand on physical contact in football. Not only am I decidedly ‘Old School’, I am from that old school, where a rugged approach was important on and off the pitch.

The way the game has developed over the past decade has been disappointing. Referees have clamped down on tackling so that challenges that would have had the crowd off their seats 20 years ago earn an early bath rather than a standing ovation. Players who win the ball get yellow cards instead of possession. Physical contact is healthy for the sport and, sadly, that’s been forgotten.

What isn’t healthy is the sort of tackle that puts a player in hospital. The sort of challenge that Dave Kitson inflicted on Patrice Evra at Old Trafford yesterday. It was rash, dangerous and brutal. Kitson got exactly what he deserved, which was a red card.

Kitson’s defence was interesting. “I can’t believe it was a straight red card and I’d implore Rob Styles to have a second look at it,” he said. “I know I caught him - I was trying so desperately to stop him clearing the ball up the pitch. Sometimes you are successful and sometimes you miss.

“The last words to me [before going on as substitute] were ‘show passion on the pitch, stop them playing and try to sneak a goal’. It’s a yellow card - but a straight red? I’m lost for words.”
He wasn’t the only one. The defence seems to boil down to this: I didn’t mean it guv. I was just letting them know I was here. Thankfully, Reading did not appeal against the decision.

Kitson didn’t mean to injure Evra — the Reading man had a long layoff last season with a ligament injury sustained after a tackle by Chris Riggott against Middlesbrough and it’s inconceivable that, 12 months on, he would deliberately be laying into a fellow professional. Yet, in this case, and in many others, intent is meaningless. It is a word that should be removed from the laws of the game. If you throw yourself into a challenge in a reckless manner, miss the ball and injure another player, then it should an automatic red card. Forget the semantics.

Most of us have played football - even if it’s only at schoolboy level. When I played, I never kicked a single person without meaning it or, more often, without caring whether I hurt them or not. It was the same logic and the same things whispered in my ear - even as a kid - as Kitson heard: “Let them know you’re there.” So, you fly into a tackle and, if you catch the man, it sends out a message.

Most of the time it’s just a little bang that unsettles the opponent. No harm done. Sometimes it ends up with the guilty party standing over a prone rival, shaking a head and saying: “I didn’t mean it.” Sometimes that prone rival has to have a plate inserted in his head as a result of the clash. Rare, I know, but the point is clear. Reading have previous. They may have been near the top of the Fair Play table overall, but they’re not shy of physical contact.

Again, in the Petr Cech case last season, it’s impossible to believe that Stephen Hunt meant to hurt the Chelsea goalkeeper. But it was early in the match, everyone was pumped up and running through challenges just to let the opposition know they were in a game.

Reckless can be as dangerous as nastiness. And if it is, it should be punished as severely.
And the other famous old boy from my school? According to a fellow pupil — whose nickname was John The Liar, so it may be a myth — it was a character called Tom Evans. Don’t know him? Well, he was co-writer of the classic pop song Without You. Which is the state a team should be in when their players make reckless challenges like Kitson’s.

Comments

[lord hungry easter bunny]

This is not very good.