Oh Danny Boy.

Afternoon all, I hope we are all well on this pretty cold Thursday afternoon. I was going to talk about the upcoming Europa League games involving English sides but something has come to my attention and I feel I need to have a view on it.


I read a little piece in The Times from the delightful Danny Mills who used "that" penalty from the other night where Lionel Messi passed his to Luis Suarez in order for him to complete his hat trick to remind everyone that he doesn't like Robert Pires. That was genius apparently from Barcelona but when Robert Pires and Thierry Henry messed it up all them years ago,  all of a sudden they are cheats and disrespectful to the opponents. Mr Mills clearly has an issue with Robert Pires because he said a while ago that Pires was the player who "brought diving into the English game and a habit of throwing himself to the ground."


I personally think the penalty from the Barca lads was a bit distasteful because they were 4-1 up and I thought to myself if Messi wanted his teammate to score then why not just let him take it in the first place? I do think it was a bit harsh but Messi is out of this world and if there is a player who I don't mind getting away with it then it would probably be him.


I don't disagree at all with Mills that Pires brought diving into the English game and I am not talking from an Arsenal fan but a football fan. It's like he is jealous of Pires, is it because he is better looking, played for a better team or just the fact Robert Pires was a million times the player Mills was? Who knows! I do find it quite strange that we, well I mean the media will constantly blame foreigners for diving or pretty much anything else because of course English players would never fall over and cheat or do anything. I mean you would never see the great Steven Gerrard fall over an invisible leg at Bramall Lane in order to win his side a penalty in the last minute would you? Neither would you see Wayne Rooney win penalties by just diving over numerous times.

I don't like diving and I think if a player just falls over when there no contact whatsoever then there should be some sort of punishment. I was at The Emirates a couple of seasons ago and Santi Cazorla won a penalty against West Brom and from where I was sat it looked like there was contact but there wasn't. I held my hands up once I saw it that it was a dive and it wasn't penalty. It just annoys me that when an English player goes down it's "clever play" to win a penalty. If you take Jamie Vardy's penalty against Arsenal last Sunday, I can totally see why the ref pointed to the spot because there was contact BUT on the replay it was Vardy who made contact with Nacho Monreal. I am not accusing Jamie Vardy of cheating because I am a massive fan of his but I don't think it was a penalty in the slightest.

I didn't like Danny Mills as a player,  I thought he was bang average footballer who run about kicking players up in the air and I don't really like his pundit skills either. I was meant to have a little piece on him but I got a little bit worked up.


I will be back tomorrow!

Cheers!