NFR - Stan Collymore and Talksport

[Tempest]

Appreciate most presenters say stuff to irritate and generate phone calls however caught a bit of Stan talking about diving in football this evening, he genuinely seemed passionate about how the game is failing and is now effectively a non contact sport.

Comments from people like Michael Owen saying I felt contact so I'm entitled to go down, well no, no you're not, contact isn't a foul, contact is part and parcel of football, or at least used to be.

As a kid I loved getting stuck in, hard in to tackles and that should still be part of the game. If you look at stats over 90 minutes and the amount of tackles made is a tiny amount, we need this back in the game, players jumping in two footed with studs showing like Rafael at the weekend, yep, send them off, but we need to remove diving, simulation, exaggeration from the game and get back to the days where midfield generals got stuck in, won the ball back and started attacks.

And no, getting stuck in hard and fair doesn't break legs, doesn't snap ligaments - pulling out of tackles gets you injured. And those bookings for winning a ball basically fairly but in an overly aggressive manner? Jog on. Football, hard tackles (but fair) and aggression go hand in hand. Skill isn't just curling one in from 25 yards, its tackling, riding tackles, holding someone off to get in on goal.

Time to get our game back.

And yes, Suarez dived!

[Jamie88]

Absolutely, it drives most football fans insane, all this diving. And yet why do we still see it happen every match again and again? Drives me insane!

I'm with you on the whole 'contact' thing as well, seriously pisses me off when I hear pundits every week talking about how there was the sliiiightest bit of contact therefore they are 'entitled' to go down as you said. Absolute madness.

I think we are losing our touch of reality with some of the 'fouls' that are accepted these days.

[leonffc]

Collymore divides opinion but I've always found him articulate and he seems to research all his topics well before going on. Its fair to say I liked him.

BUT, my brother in law recently played in an FA charity 'football foundation' 5 aside competition. Jack Wilshire put his team in (they are good mates) and he said that the Chelsea boys came down for the day after training, were really nice to everyone, particularly Cahill and Cole. Other pros and ex pros went out their way to make the 'normal' players feel welcome. As did SKY sports personalities and other media faces.
Then he met Collymores team in the semi's. Absolute nasty peice of work who was just insulting them saying how shite they were. Anyway, they beat Collymores mob on pens (and eventually won it) much to Stans disgust who turned his anger on his own team.

Its fair to say I now think he's a knob!

[leonffc]

.... and back on topic, I totally agree. Now most of the pundits are saying that if there is contact he is entitled to go down, what sort of message does this send out to kids? I thought it was a contact sport!!

It is ruining our game. And Sunderland adopting this tactic last week certainly ruined that game for me!!
But Karagounis is doing my head in with his theatrics too.

[Tonywa]

.... and back on topic, I totally agree. Now most of the pundits are saying that if there is contact he is entitled to go down, what sort of message does this send out to kids? I thought it was a contact sport!!

It is ruining our game. And Sunderland adopting this tactic last week certainly ruined that game for me!!
But Karagounis is doing my head in with his theatrics too.

Boa Morte used to drive me mad as well with his blatant cheating.

[leonffc]

.... and back on topic, I totally agree. Now most of the pundits are saying that if there is contact he is entitled to go down, what sort of message does this send out to kids? I thought it was a contact sport!!

It is ruining our game. And Sunderland adopting this tactic last week certainly ruined that game for me!!
But Karagounis is doing my head in with his theatrics too.

Boa Morte used to drive me mad as well with his blatant cheating.

Pantsil Vs. Stoke  fp.gif

[Admin]

.... and back on topic, I totally agree. Now most of the pundits are saying that if there is contact he is entitled to go down, what sort of message does this send out to kids? I thought it was a contact sport!!

It is ruining our game. And Sunderland adopting this tactic last week certainly ruined that game for me!!
But Karagounis is doing my head in with his theatrics too.

Boa Morte used to drive me mad as well with his blatant cheating.

Pantsil Vs. Stoke  fp.gif

That was embarrassing, I was embarrassed to be a Fulham fan that day.

[Lighthouse]

One of the reasons I used to love football was the tackling. I still remember going to Turf Moor and watching Fred Callaghan slide in to a Burnley forward in the area and winning the ball. He became my favourite Fulham player. Nowadays I don't know what a fair tackle is anymore. It is not about winning the ball,it is not about hard but fair anymore. It is about who can cheat the best. Once one player got away with it, they all started including Fulham players.

Spoils the game for me and another reason why I watch less of it than I used to.

[Nick Bateman]

I honestly believe the powers-that-be have introduced this over-refereeing agenda to control matches more and help their favoured clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal, etc) to win.  I didn't see Probert give a free-kick when Sanga "halved" Kacaniklic as he was bearing down on goal!?!

[Craven Mad]

Hate diving. The recent Sunderland game epitomised why I hate it, and why it is so unfair. Off the back of that game Adam Johnson is being touted by the media as an Engalnd prospect, when he should really be seen for the cheat he is.

I don't blame the refs during the game (I often, at full speed, think a foul has been committed), but there needs to be post-match reviews of incidents, with fines/match bans for those caught diving; with the exception of those who, during the game, admit to the transgression.

That'd encourage more honesty, and take the pressure off the refs (who I think get too much stick for diving).

Finally, it's nothing about being bitter about other teams' diving against us, I equally hate when Kaca, Kara etc dives and wins a pen for us - no pride.

[ron]

Changing "Entitled to go down" to "Required to stand up" would give us back our game of old, and introduce a lot more thrills as well, instead of a stream of meticulously set-up free kicks, following dives after powder-puff tackles.

Bobby Keetch must be turning in his grave.

[Twig]

Hate diving and absolutely agree that hard, fair challenges shoud be part of the game.  My other bete noir is constant shirt pulling and wresting in the box for corners, does my head in.

[dartfordwhite]

I always believe that if you get the ball first, it's a fair tackle (obviously tackles from behind and 2-footers not included). If a defender steers the ball off it's course then it shouldn't matter if the attacker goes down or not. But you can also see it from the  referee's perspective. I've seen refs try and let games go a bit, have a flowing game and keep stoppages to a minimum but more often than not they get absolutely bollocked by the crowd who automatically think that if their player goes down, it's a foul. As someone pointed out above, this sort of thing started/happens at the bigger clubs and unless they stop complaining or the FA put their foot down on diving, it'll no doubt get worse.

Can't believe that quote from Owen saying he went down if he felt contact. I'd always point to Messi if anyone thinks that way. He gets fouled 4-5 times on a run, stays up and still puts the ball in the back of the net by the end of it.

[leonffc]

I got clipped once (probably about 16 years ago now) whilst running at the keeper in the box, I stayed on my feet but another tackle came in and the ref gave me a corner. I didn't appeal for anything but as we were getting set the ref actually said;
"if you had gone down there I'd have given you a penalty"

Me; "What about the 3 second rule for pulling it back?"

Ref; "you've got a corner, what more do you want"

[Holders]

For all the flak he got, the bloke who would try to stay on his feet even when fouled in the area was ....Ruiz.