Cole isn’t just late, the ball isn’t even in play when he makes contact with the Mexican – the idea that this is a mis-timed challenge where he genuinely went for the ball, which is the excuse the likes of Ryan Shawcross usually reach for, is not a defence the Chelsea man can take.
Which makes it so perplexing why just a yellow card was handed out, thus ensuring Cole pretty much was treated the way someone would for taking their shirt off celebrating a goal. The United forward could have been seriously injured at worst, and at best he has been left with a knock which could leave him out for a couple of weeks.
This is the absurdity of English football; launch into a malicious, probably pre meditated attack on another individual disguised as a tackle, putting their chances of playing for the remainder of the season in the lap of the gods, and the worst that will happen is a yellow card. Or, as in the unfortunate case of former Arsenal forward Eduardo, if your leg is broken, then the perpetrator will get a red card.
This is the madness which has to stop; referees are far too lenient on recklessness. On Sunday, Charlie Adam was sent off for two yellow card offences. He didn’t do anything particularly malicious, but he committed two fouls which were worthy of a yellow, and the referee rightly brought out the red card after the second offence. This was a referee not bowing to the silly unwritten rule that 11 men should be kept on both sides at all times unless unavoidable. Leniency went out of the window, and the rules were applied as they were meant to be, with consistency. Usually when a team is reduced to 10 men in such circumstances, other players think they can then get away with similar transgressions – the referee won’t punish the same team again with another red card, surely? Not in English football?
In Liverpool’s case, he did, dismissing Martin Skrtel for two bad challenges, and rightly so. Yet neither Skrtel or Adam did anything even half as bad as Ashley Cole, yet faced a far worse punishment.
Clearly complete consistency on each and every case is impossible to achieve; referees are not, and we do not want them to be, robots. But they must all adhere to the same standards, principles and rules. A high and reckless challenge like Coles should always, regardless of the injury caused to the opponent, or even if there is none, be met with a red card.
English football has this curious love of the player who commits the kind of foul Cole was guilty of over the player who is fouled. In this case the committed Cole against the skilful foreigner Hernandez, the classic British bulldog vs Foreign fancy dan clash. It’s time for England to grow up as a football nation and say enough is enough to those who would rather destroy than create. Tackles such as Coles are intolerable, and now is time for the Premier League and English football to wake up to that.
