Wayne Rooney could have been sent off yesterday, and the press have decided that the FA will not be able to ignore the issue.
Patrick Vieira throws himself to the ground in a blatant attempt to get a fellow player dismissed and there is a collective 'Gallic' shrug of the shoulders across Fleet Street. Wayne Rooney pushes Ben Haim and the same correspondents are up in arms.
The comments of The Sun and the Daily Mirror are typical. Hiding their poison by twisting the words of Sam Allardyce the two red tops lead the 'Rooney should be banned' calls. The Sun even rakes over other games to back up claims that Rooney is always going to be a problem:
'Bolton boss Sam Allardyce insisted the fiery England star should have been sent off for pushing defender Tal Ben Haim in the face,' screams Neil Custis in The Sun.
Given the circumstances Sam Allardyce's analysis was fairly balanced, condemning his own player for hitting the deck too easily and stating accurately that if the ref HAD seen the incident then the rules dictate that Rooney did have to walk:
This is what Allardyce actually said: "He went down rather too easily but there is no getting away from the fact that Rooney pushed him in the face. If the referee had seen it he would have sent him off so he is pretty lucky to get away with it. If you look at it from Alex’s point of view it is a bit of play-acting. But he has put his hand in his face and pushed him."
Understandably Ferguson did indeed have a different view:
"I have seen the incident again on the monitor and it is embarrassing. Deary, deary me, he should be embarrassed about that. It was absolutely nothing. This sort of thing is creeping into our game."