Ridiculous
Spurs News 24/7I absolutely love how football is able bend the rules of hypocrisy and just make things up as it goes along, with all its followers (supporters, writers, pundits, managers) contradicting each other and themselves from one week to the next. Something that happened five minutes ago in football can be dismissed or ignored or forgotten about, replaced with something that happens five minutes later.
In the game against Chelsea, where do you even start? It was a wonderful example of how selective our beautiful game can be when punctured with moments of a more ugly nature.
I adore Andros Townsend. His fearless enthusiasm. He took a tumble during the game, turning away from Ashley Cole on the touch-line but then going down too easily with Lampard in the way. Got a yellow card for his misdemeanor, but you probably won't hear much about it again. Not that I'm attempting to judge his character on this single incident, but I do want to highlight that it's not something we like to see at Spurs - although if Andros progresses well for us, the attention will magnify every nuance of his play, much like the media did last season for Gareth Bale.
Then you had the incident with Fernando Torres, petulantly scratching Jan Vertonghen's face. Looked more like a botched up attempt of a Vulcan mind-meld. Should have been a red? On another day perhaps. The red he eventually got was most definitely not one, but then the lack of consistency runs parallel with most of the content we're treated to when watching any given clash. The ref gets a decision wrong, then puts it right by getting another decision wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right, although I still laughed when Torres made his way towards an early shower.
I laughed even louder after the game when Jose Mourinho morphed into heavily sedated deadpan version of Ian Holloway citing You Tube videos and 'ridiculous situations in football'. Using Mourinho Logic© Vertonghen should not have been playing against Chelsea after '...he left the Aston Villa striker naked' (in reference to Jan pulling down the shorts of Nicklas Helenius in a Carling Cup game). He then went on to say:
"Some foreign players when they come to England still keep their culture and it's a disgrace you do that to a person from your same job. I think it's a disgrace."
...a perfect illustration of bending the rules of hypocrisy.
The reference was regarding Jan's naughty (and it was naughty, much like Townsend's dive) reaction to the 50/50 challenge that saw Torres sent off.
I'm laughing again.
This illustrates perfectly how contradictory I am (as a supporter) for not condoning cheating but finding it agreeable when one of our players strikes down another with subtle revenge.
Jan getting the red card he might have wanted dished out to Torres for the earlier scratch-attack.
I'm laughing even louder now because of the memory of a certain Didier Drogba, a player that epitomised this supposedly abhorrent behaviour Vertonghen is guilty of, the same behaviour that Mourinho had not a single issue with when managing him. Let alone the fact Jose has history for pinching an ear of an opposing coach, on the touchline.
Which sees me concluding my laughter when looking back at the incident that birthed all the nonsense. A ghost foul that saw Vertonghen fall when chasing the ball with Torres, before he clashed with the Spaniard in that scratch slap incident.
Handbags.
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