Taylors Tackle & Roy Keane

Taylors "tackle" on Eduardo. Late, clumsy, demonstrating the gulf in class between him (decent player, competent, good at his job, but never an international or a "big four" player) and Eduardo (quick feet, quick thinking, international, potentially world class player) - the Arsenal player was too quick and fleet of foot for him, its dreadful that his career might be on the line now as a "reward" for him being such a superior player, but thats how its looking this morning.

Would I still want Taylor at Norwich? Yes. If he had "gone in hard", feet up, studs showing-no, of course not. I do wonder about how he will be seen in the game now, how fans and other players will regard him, will he become a target for both?

I read a players autobiography (MIGHT have been Perry Groves) when he said that Kevin Muscat was probably the "most hated man in football" -said he was deliberatley nasty, cynical, hard-and that other players hated him for it, the tackles, the mock innocence. He added that 'genuine' so-called hard men had more respect as they played the game, yes, they went in hard, but they took the ball & no-one had a problem with that.

I remember playing once when one of my mates hit me like a tank, I went flying, hit the ground hard, and felt it for a few days afterwards, but I couldn't, wouldn't stand up and thump him back, because it was a bloody good tackle, though it hurt like hell!

Yet if some little sod nicks at your ankle as you go past him, well....

Keane, of course, publicly wrote in his autobiography that he went in on Alfie Haaland with the intention to hurt him, it wasn't football, it was personal. At the time, people thought that Keanes tackle was the one that ended Haalands career, it turns out that it wasn't, but he wanted to hurt him, deliberately attempted it and succeeded.

Yet he remains a folk hero to many and is cited as a possible future Man Utd manager! He rode the storm, Taylor will as well, Hunt, who hurt Cech last season, did also.

Luckily, incidents like that yesterday are rare, at least at the top level-Dave Busst is a memory still, Alan Smith had his leg turned inside out-or so it seemed-for Man Utd last year, but he's playing again. Hope Eduardo returns and that Taylor feels able to compete and play again. But he might need a change of scene to do so.

Posted By: Martin Peters, Feb 24, 10:28:44