Official 2012/13 Premier League thread

[Matt]

It wasn't though, was it?

[stokeriño]

Indeed. The FA's hand-washing refusal to address offences that were 'seen' or 'dealt with' by the referee during the match is a serious matter in its own right and one that needs reforming. But that doesn't mean that they view all or any of these referees' decisions as the most appropriate punishment to be applied to all cases hence - either by the FA's own logic or by that of common sense.

[Hobo]

It wasn't though, was it?

I was being facetious. Perhaps I should've indicated that with a ":shifty:"

[stokeriño]

SHIFTIES ARE VITAL!

...And broken, apparently.

[Nerf]

I think 10 games is too high. I'd probably give a 5 match ban at most for the offence itself, maybe 3 for being a repeat offender if that's the way they approach these things. But yeah, I won't split hairs over the difference between an 8 game ban and a 10 game ban. I do think it's been blown out of proportion and worse things happen in football on a semi-frequent basis, but meh. Only himself to blame etc etc.

At least it'll put most attractive destinations off ever wanting to take him away from us :/

I heard a theory the other day that it was an attempt by Suarez to force through a move without tarnishing his name with Liverpool fans, but I think it's more likely to be an FSG conspiracy to scare away potential suitors

[Ant]

If that is true, you wonder how far FSG would go to keep there man at Liverpool.

"OK Luis. The biting thing didn't work and we have had a £35m bid from Bayern and Real Madrid. How do you feel about stabbing someone?"

[brenchill]

2-1!

[MJB]

Wrong thread, brench.

[Hobo]

I think 10 games is too high. I'd probably give a 5 match ban at most for the offence itself, maybe 3 for being a repeat offender if that's the way they approach these things. But yeah, I won't split hairs over the difference between an 8 game ban and a 10 game ban. I do think it's been blown out of proportion and worse things happen in football on a semi-frequent basis, but meh. Only himself to blame etc etc.

At least it'll put most attractive destinations off ever wanting to take him away from us :/

I heard a theory the other day that it was an attempt by Suarez to force through a move without tarnishing his name with Liverpool fans, but I think it's more likely to be an FSG conspiracy to scare away potential suitors

John Henry is one of the lizard people!

[Gazz]

Why should they be considered?

The punishment is for the act, not an assessment of how swiftly his club's PR machine can shift itself in the aftermath.

(As for precedent, we know the FA is inconsistent as all hell. They want nothing to do with hideous bone crunchings and similar but lap it up the moment an 'unsympathetic' name ala Suarez or Terry pops up to grant them easy point-scoring with the tabloids.)

I think it should be considered because it shows he has been punished by the club and has shown remorse for his actions. Why should those not be considered?

Purely because I think it is interesting these other FA bans were being quoted in my twitter feed:

Joey Barton (12, violent conduct).

David Prutton (10, pushing a referee).

Luis Suarez (10, biting).

Paul Davis (9, breaking another players jaw).

Luis Suarez (8, racism).

John Terry (4, racism).

Callum McManaman (0, potentially ending a player's career and millions of pounds worth of earning potential)

[Cymbols]

How long was Eric Cantona banned for after the kung-fu kick?

[Gazz]

8 or 9 months I think.

[Nerf]

I think 10 games is too high. I'd probably give a 5 match ban at most for the offence itself, maybe 3 for being a repeat offender if that's the way they approach these things. But yeah, I won't split hairs over the difference between an 8 game ban and a 10 game ban. I do think it's been blown out of proportion and worse things happen in football on a semi-frequent basis, but meh. Only himself to blame etc etc.

At least it'll put most attractive destinations off ever wanting to take him away from us :/

I heard a theory the other day that it was an attempt by Suarez to force through a move without tarnishing his name with Liverpool fans, but I think it's more likely to be an FSG conspiracy to scare away potential suitors

John Henry is one of the lizard people!

Don't be stupid.

He was behind 9/11 though.

[Dynamite]

How long was Eric Cantona banned for after the kung-fu kick?

He got 8 months (end of January til the end of September). The circumstances were a quite a bit different though. To start with his went to court and he eventually ended up with 120 hours of community service (reduced from a prison sentence of two weeks I think). I think I saw someone argue here that with Suarez, the FA should have taken into account how Liverpool dealt with it? Well United suspended Cantona for four months until the end of the season right after it happened but the FA still gave him a 8 month ban from all football activities.

[brenchill]

Was Cantona even that good?

I know Utd fans love him, but is it more because of his character than what he actually did on the pitch? He never lead Utd to a CL medal and his goalscoring record wasn't great. Teddy Sheringham played in a similar role, in fact he was his replacement, and he won a hell of a lot more trophies and scored a lot more goals, yet I don't think Utd fans hold him in such high regard.

[Matt]

Didn't he have about a 1 in 2 goals to games ratio? I don't know if man utd would have had the same dominance of the premier league era had they not signed Cantona.... Cheers for that one wilko.

[Jimmy]

Aren't all the stories that Cantona's arrival, and consequent establishment in the squad, basically won them a couple of titles? I think you have to take into account that around the time Cantona was playing United weren't the historical figure they are now. By the time Sherringham was there, they'd already racked up a bunch of league titles, whereas Cantona was part of the time that won them their first in 26 years or whatever. I wasn't around, but from what I've seen and read; yes, he was that good.

[MDK]

Cantona was as amazing on the pitch as he was off it

[Dynamite]

Yeah Cantona was the catalyst for our success. Before he came, we were 8th in the league, were struggling to score and on a terrible run of form. By the end of the season, we had won the league for the first time in 26 years by a pretty big margin. You can't really understate his importance or the ability he had on the pitch to make stuff happen. He was the focal point of our team/attack. Sheringham was good but he wasn't the central figure that Cantona was. Teddy got the goal in the 99 final but even that season the Cole/Yorke partnership played a much bigger role in our success than him.

[Nerf]

So after leading the witch-hunt, the English media are now supporting the "victimized" Suarez. I didn't expect anything less.