You stupid Stephen Hunt
Sunday, 15 October 06, 09:52 PM · Comments (17)
At first I thought Jose Mourinho was overreacting, and of course I knew immediately that his line about Petr Cech being "lucky" was the one the press would zero in on. Whether Mourinho knew, at the time of the interview, that Cech had a fractured skull I couldn't say. It was a good two hours after the collision, Cech was already in hospital, so it's not impossible Mourinho knew how serious the injury was - or at least how serious it was likely to be. Of course Mourinho is no stranger to giving a slanted view if he thinks it will help Chelsea (Frisk, Cole, Messi, the Fat Bloke who manages Liverpool), but we'd already beaten Reading, the points were ours. This wasn't game playing, Mourinho was simply furious at what he'd seen Stephen Hunt do.
To begin with I wasn't as angry as Mourinho, my initial reaction was that the challenge on Carlo Cudicini was worse. At first look I thought the guy had blatantly body checked our keeper, and had done so deliberately. Seeing the incident replayed it was clear the Reading player had his eyes shut and although he was careless it wasn't intentional - although why the cunt of a referee didn't stop play immediately I don't know. He waited for the threat to goal to be cleared before stopping play. Cunt. There is no other word to describe a man who makes that kind of decision. 'Oh look there's a player flat out, unconscious with a serious head injury, I'll just wait to see if Reading can score before I allow him to get attention.' It defies belief.
Then I looked at the Cech incident again and I could see why Mourinho was so angry. Whether Hunt intended to seriously injure Cech only he will know, but he will never admit it if he did and any other view is going to be subjective - clearly mine is both subjective and biased. However, I'm prepared to give the Reading player the benefit of the doubt, I don't think he intended to put Cech in hospital, or really cause him a serious injury. But I do most definitely think Hunt was reckless, intentionally reckless.
He was fired up, it was twenty seconds into the game, he thought 'I'll give that flash Chelsea bastard a little "Welcome to Reading"', not a knee to the head, but perhaps a foot left in, to rough him up a bit. Too late Hunt realised if he collided with Cech it was not going to be "Welcome to Reading", but more like "Welcome to Accident and Emergency". Why do I think that? Because the stupid little Hunt should have hurdled Cech; by staying on the ground he had to collide with Cech and he must have known that. A fair challenge to win the ball? Not in a million years. Never. He wanted to leave his foot in. Plain and simple.
It's like when some nutter drives a car way too fast, shoots a red light and injures a pedestrian. The driver didn't mean to do it but it was reckless and he should not have done it. Players give out these little "Welcomes" all the time, usually it's the burly centre half going through the back of the nippy striker - you'll often hear the commentators laughing about it. But the difference here is that there was no chance of not causing some kind of injury to Cech. It turned out to be a fractured skull, I think what was intended was more like a few bruises.
Then the utter cunt of a ref made Cech leave the pitch. Cech was practically unconscious, had taken a blow to the head hard enough to fracture his skull and the ref insisted he left the pitch. Unbelievable. The ref should be demoted to the Conference and Hunt should become rhyming slang. He intended to "do" Cech, not as badly as he did but, in my opinion, that is what flashed through his mind. I doubt the FA will do anything, it isn't a Ben Thatcher, it isn't conclusive enough for that. But it was most definitely reckless and even if Hunt escapes punishment he will know his adrenaline fuelled stupidity put a fellow professional in hospital with a fractured skull. I really hope the little Hunt plays in the return game at Stamford Bridge.
Meanwhile my thoughts are with Cech.
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I take issue with your comments and this article.
Dangerous play is acting in a way that endangers another player. Hence why Del Horno was sent from the field of play last season. He didn't intend the outcome, infact only a complete idiot would suggest he dilberately missed the ball and kicked that Barca muppet. However he should not have been in that situation and those are the rules. Well according to Andy " I hate Chelsea " Gray anyway.
There is no relevance to the intention of either player. Going in on a keeper in that way is dangerous play. Hunt was not trying to play the ball and had zero chance of getting it. The second challenge the guy again was not making any attempt to get the ball and also had zero chance of getting it. Both should of been booked at the very least and if playing for Chelsea or called Wayne Rooney banned for at least 6 games according to the new rules that seem to be being applied.
I agree that the Ref had a complete nightmare as the Reading player that was sent off was equally laughable it its complete and utter stupidity.
No doubt he is being congratulated by his employers for proving that money cannot by you a evenly contested football match yet again.
My thoughts are these.
As a player you are chllenging for a ball and your knee accidently strikes a fellow player hard on the side of the head.
Would you a) signal that you have caught your opponent and he may well be injured or
b) get away from the area as fast as you can without even stopping to see if hes ok.
My opinion is that the only reason you would opt for b) would be if you'd just done something you were not proud of and wanted to get away from "the scene of the crime" as quickly as possible.
Hunt went for option b). I don't believe he meant to put him in hospital either but he went in with reckless intent and was probably horrified by the impact and wanted to get away from what he had done as fast as possible.
Pretty much spot on, I'd say Blingo. Reckless yes - malicious, probably not. Only Hunt will know what his intention was. But the challenge looked to be of the type to shake a player up, to put doubt in his mind about coming for the ball in a similar situation. Most pundits have gone for the usual 'all part of the game' mantra, but hearing former players (Steve Claridge and Jamie Redknapp in particular) on the subject says it all for me - suggestion being that Hunt probably could have avoided the clash if he really wanted to.
Mourinho's reaction was fair enough and totally understandable in the circumstances - seeing both your keepers in such a state must be fairly upsetting, and given that he probably knew more about Cech's condition than most when he made the comments it is hardly surprising. It didn't stop TalkShite calling for a disrepute charge almost immediately though.
Be interesting to know who is in charge of the situation when an incident like that occurs. If Riley forced Cech to get off the pitch then he should be strung up: an incredibly dangerous thing to do given the nature of the injury. But in the circumstances, surely the medical team's word should take priority over that of the man in black? Surely they wouldn't have asked him to move?
The challenge on Cudicini arguably looked worse on first impressions - complete accident, without question but truly dreadful to see a player hit the pitch like that. Thankfully his stay in hospital was short, but I doubt we'll see him for a couple of weeks. Lord knows when Cech will return.
Not a great day, bar the result. Get well soon Petr.
The challenge on Cech was very reckless. Hunt deserved a red card. Now we don't have a first choice keeper for the Barca game.
Yeah, I'm with Blingo 100 per cent here (although maybe my language would be more temperate!) Hunt wasn't trying to put Cech in hospital - which is what makes all those Alan Shearer/typical ex-pro comments 'if he really wanted to hurt him, he'd have used his studs' so blindingly, point-missingly stupid - but he was trying to 'let him know he's there'. Probably thought he'd slide in and wind him or something, give Cech a shock. Shearer won't condemn that sort of behaviour because it's how he played, so can't admit that it can also lead to the sort of injury suffered by Cech.
As for Lee Dixon 'he didn't have control of the ball'. F*ck off you hideous Gooner c*nt. Oh dear, looks like I've caught Blingo's potty-mouth...
I am so upset about this incident.
The more I look at it the more I think Hunt dropped his knee into Cech's head - the angle from behind the goal is telling.
If they had collided side on as Kermit suggests then Cech would have hit Hunt's ankle.
But he didn't. Hunt had every opportunity to hurdle Cech but instead buckled his leg and smashed into Cech's temple with his knee-cap.
I do not believe that Hunt wanted to seriously injure Big Pete, but I do think he certainly wanted to "let him know he was there". The end result is that Big Pete is in hospital having just had an operation for a fractured skull, and as such i think Hunt should be punished.
The problem is the video evidence is not cut and dried, and only Hunt knew what he wanted to do.
However in my opinion it was not a 50-50 ball (70-30 at best - Petr had it well under control by the time Hunt hit him) and Cech has ended up in hospital with a very serious head injury. Enough said, as far as I am concerned.
Best of wishes Petr and Carlo - get well soon.
Riley should never referee a Premier Legaue game again
As for this Hilario chap, I'm already having nightmares at the red-top headlines come Thursday morning!
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If you watch the incident on tv you will see Hunt is going in a straight line and Cech hit him from the side ! Unlucky to be injured one of those things that happens every week both get up and noone says a thing .
I have to agree, the challenge on Cech was recklessly late and resulted in serious injury. If the tables had been reversed and a Chelsea player had committed the same foul on the Reading keeper, the howls ofoutrage in the press would have been deafening.