Good afternoon.
The boy Bale is undoubtedly going through what you might call a rebirth. No longer content with being what he obviously believes to be an admittedly lightening fast one trick pony who owns the left wing, his transition into a more central, Ronaldoesque figure is almost complete.
All we are waiting for is for the fine tuning if you like. The balance between him being an as effective team player and a regular goalscorer. The signs after only 7 games in are generally encouraging.
But then there’s the diving.
There are a number of issues here. The first is that he never used to dive. I never had the privilege of watching Didier Drogba prior to his shift at Second Hand Fridge so for the entirety of the time I watched him play in the Premier League he was a rotten, cheating diver.
The next is that cheats don’t prosper. That may make me sound like some Victorian school teacher but hear me out. When footballers hang up their boots and all they are left with is some money in the bank, some memories and their reputation.
Jimmy Greaves: Prolific barely describes his goalscoring. Reputation? Can be a bit prickly. Gary Lineker: Top notch player. Reputation? Housewife’s choice. Sol Campbell: One of the finest centre backs of the last 20 years. Reputation? Lots of people wouldn’t save him if he was drowning.
Gareth Bale needs to seriously sit down with someone he listens to and watch tapes of him simulating and decide …to stop it. And I think I know what Bale might say if you could get him to speak candidly about the subject.
While there are players like Charlie Adam in circulation and you have referees who fail to see every unlawful attack then it’s only right that you [the victim] do what you can to protect yourself from and try to stamp out these unfair and potentially dangerous challenges.
But this is naive. The reality is that until effective technology comes in the referee will miss things. The game is so fast and athletic now that in the thick of it the odd kick or worse will literally be quicker than the human eye.
Diving isn’t the answer. Is it? For every free kick he dubiously wins a small piece of his credibility is chipped away. Or am I missing something?
Luis Suarez this weekend plumbed new depths to the extent that he actually made a laughing stock of himself. The ‘cry wolf routine’ is so exhausted with Suarez now that an opponent could whip out a baseball bat, thump him over the head with it and most referees would jog past the concussed Uruguayan, waving ‘get up’.
Bale must stop diving.
“The ‘cry wolf routine’ is so exhausted with Suarez now that an opponent could whip out a baseball bat, thump him over the head with it and most referees would jog past the concussed Uruguayan, waving ‘get up’.”
Or just take the Robert Huth approach and stamp on the fucker’s chest.
indeed. it is amazing with Suarez’s behaviour over the past years that someone hasn’t corrected his overbite for him
Evra wanted to but SAF said no
Yeah but to be fair Evra is French so if SAF had given him the green light he would have shit himself anyway!!
In Greaves time the pace and the ferocity of tackles were not the same.
Bale was getting injured a lot because he goes a 1000%. So what would happen he would fly down the wing at full pelt and some arsehole wood stick the boot in and most of the time we would get a free kick of the offender would get a yellow card and Bale would hobble off.
Then Bale got clever.He now uses it to his advantage.Yes sometimes it works against him but now players will think twice before going in.
Bale is flying again possibly because of that hesitancy in the defender.
The more I watch it the funnier it becomes
It’s a cunning ploy by Bale. If the defender thinks he might dive he will be distracted for 1 sec and Bale will be past as quick as you like
But seriously folks. Sometimes Bale just takes avoiding action if he thinks he’s going to be pole axed. Which to be fair to him has happened on the odd occasion.
Jumping out of the way is completely different to diving Steveo
There’s a difference with going down when touched / contact is felt, to blatant diving.
The first is in my opinion working the rules to your advantage. Gamesmanship at worst.
The latter is cheating and there is no place for it at the Lane or anywhere in my opinion.
Bale tried to cheat. Gary B, you’re wrong son he dived. Anyone that’s ever played the game should recognise that.
I agree with your stance on cheating and I don’t particularly like gamemanship. It’s just in this case I don’t believe Bale was seeking to gain any advantage, just trying to avoid a potentially dangerous challenge.
When players dummy a shot, most defenders will flinch backwards and bring up their arms to protect their face, this was both players at full tilt, almost like watching a train wreck.
Guzman, to his credit, pulled out at the last minute, but it had the effect of selling Bale a dummy. Another keeper might have panicked and gone through with it.
I just think Bale wont last long if he doesn’t see potentially dangerous challenges coming, but I do hate diving and feigning injury.
Daveeed, he didn’t try to cheat – Did you see him rolling on the floor or waving imaginary cards at the ref? I think he was genuinely stunned that Villa’s keeper thought that a Sunday morning park football tactic was appropriate on a Premier League pitch.