By Tom Bason
September 29 2010

Bobby Zamora. Antonio Valencia. Adlene Guedioura. What do these three men have in common?

Ask any Wolves fan and they will tell you the answer straight away.  Ask the average football fan on the street and they’ll know Valencia and Zamora recently suffered serious injuries, but will also ask “who’s the Guedioura bloke?”  He’s a Wolves player, and on Sunday he was involved in a challenge that resulted in a broken leg for the Algerian International that could leave him side-lined for the rest of the season.

Let me give you another three names- Karl Henry, Kirk Broadfoot and Steve Sidwell.  The world and his dog knows Karl Henry as a dangerous and vicious sorry excuse for a footballer. It was his tackle on Zamora had left the Fulham striker with a broken leg.  May I also add that it was a fair challenge?  He won the ball, the referee indicated play on.  Even Mark Hughes, Fulham’s manager, did not feel that there was any malice or that Henry had deliberately set out to harm Zamora.  Yet, coming back from Craven Cottage, I heard calls for Henry to be banned from football, that he’s a thug who doesn’t deserve to be playing. The majority of the callers had not seen the challenge, and those that had had seen it just once, from their angle in the ground.

Kirk Broadfoot.  Rangers defender, four caps for Scotland.  He was the man involved (in the loosest sense of the word) in Antonio Valencia’s horrific injury.  This was totally innocuous, no blame whatsoever was attached to Broadfoot, and I am not trying to do so now.  Yet Broadfoot’s name was barely mentioned in the reports following the game.  This is fair enough, he did nothing wrong.  So why should Henry have had to have suffered?  At the time, Wolves, and Henry in particular were the media’s whipping boys following the ‘bullying’ of Joey Barton the previous week.  It’s well worth noting that of the seven tackles on Barton that Match of the Day picked up, two of them were by the well-known hard men and ankle breakers Matt Jarvis and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

And finally we’re left with Guedioura and Sidwell.  Please bear in mind that I sit in the South Bank, at the other end of the stadium to where the event took place and do not have Sky so I was relying on radio, Match of the Day2 and newspaper coverage to fill the gaps that my eyes couldn’t at the time.  This was the only one that resulted in a free kick.  In fact, Sidwell was cautioned for the tackle.  He missed the ball, he got Guedioura’s leg.  I don’t believe that there was any malice in it, but it was a nasty mistimed tackle that could have ended a fellow players’ season in September.  I watched MOTD2 with interest, but there was no mention of it, and very little in the written press.  Even Sidwell’s subsequent apology was largely ignored or stuck in the pages where no one looks.  I’m not going to lie, this has really annoyed me.  Henry makes a fair challenge and is vilified.  Sidwell commits a foul and gets off largely scot-free.  Virtually every report on the game calls it a ‘challenge’ from Sidwell.  No-one mentions that another ref might have sent him off.

Maybe this is indicative of the English media.  A newly capped English player gets injured by public enemy number one, it’s big news.  An Algerian international that no one in this country had heard of 12 months ago gets injured by a player that everyone else had forgotten exists- it’s not news worthy, especially on a weekend where all of the big-three fail to win.  Who cares that Guedioura might miss the rest of the season when there’s the big breaking news that Wayne Rooney will miss a fairly meaningless Champions League trip to Valencia?  I’m not stupid enough to expect the media to treat Wolves in the same way that Manchester United and Chelsea are, but a little bit of fairness wouldn’t go amiss.

Also follow me on Blogger and 6-0-6

One Rule For Us....

Discussion started by Wolves , 29/09/2010 13:43

Wolves
29/09/2010 13:43

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report

wolverina
29/09/2010 14:10

Couldn't agree more - in fact, I think it should be taken further. If the player was yellow-carded, it must have been considered a serious misdemeanour; probably should have been a "red". Karl Henry wasn't booked, so it was not seen as a bad foul, yet he's had terrible publicity, when, frankly, it was the way Zamora fell that caused his injury.

It takes a real determination to break someone's tibia - the main lower leg bone. Sidwell should be exposed as the thug he clearly is.

Reply Quote Report

toomb
29/09/2010 15:36

Henry's wasn't even a freekick never mind a caution. That's what annoys me the most- he got hung out to dry for doing nothing wrong at all



toomb's twitter

Reply Quote Report

Stourport Wolf
29/09/2010 16:25

Absolutely spot on there Toomb. Henry's hard man image seems to have started at Arsenal last season when Rosicky was rolling around in an exagerated way to get Henry a straight red for what was at worst a yellow.

Butr its not just the media that are treating us differently to other clubs its the officials as well.

The ref & linesman on Sunday also let Albrighton off the hook for a challenge on Ward that was so late the ref apparently didnt even see it but it was right under the linesmans nose. Then there was the late lunge was Ashley Young on Kevin Doyle when Doyle cleared from the near post, not to mention to leniency showed to Warnock. All of these should have been yellows and chances are that if it was the other way around a Wolves player would have been given a card for each of these offences.

Reply Quote Report

johnwolf
29/09/2010 23:35

I was at in the North Bank and heard the crack when Sidwell tackled Adlene, I think it was malicious on a couple of things - after he had made the tackle he glanced back, shrugged his shoulders and walked away, at no time did he go to see if Adlene was ok either when he was on the ground or on the stretcher, why did it take him so long to find out how he was and to say he didn't mean to hurt Adlene and then it was only through the press? when Henry hurt Zamora he went over straight away to see if he was ok and then phoned him the next day to talk to him - not through the press, a personel phone call.
Warnock should have gone, Young should have been booked and other vile players who were going in stud up, thank god none connected becaue we could have seen more than one of our players stretchered off - the ref bottled it - again!

Reply Quote Report

wolfy wolf wolf
30/09/2010 14:20

steve sidwell is ginger AND ugly, filled with rage all the time., poor Addy didnt stand a chance

if i was on the management team at wolves id push this to the moon and no matter what, it is double standards that this doesnt get mentioned but 7 stiff challenges on Joey Barton get their own montage on MotD !!!

Reply Quote Report

oldngold
02/10/2010 14:58

I'm afraid that Henry absolutely ridiculous challenge on Gomez today, which effectively guaranteed we would lose a crucial 6-pointer will only amplify the Henry is a thug message.

Basically we are the team neutrals now want to see relegated and right now I think we favourites fo relegation!

Reply Quote Report

Ivybridge Wolf
02/10/2010 15:46

Oldgold - you are absolutely right. Anybody who watches Wolves (other than the media frenzied highlights .... or read about us in the rags) knows we are not 'a dirty side' ... however if you throw enough mud it will stick.

Henry's challenge today was the worst of the season (by a Wolves player) by a country mile. Deserved to go but drags our name through the media mire once again. As captain he needs to take full responsibility for the defeat and the further bad mouthing we will get. He also IMO needs to consider his position as captain.

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net