The fat one...

[ChrisBlade]

Martin Samuel is on another crusade, this time comparing Edin Hazard's ballboy love-in to an earlier similar case involving Matt Ritchie, then of Swindon, at Oxford last year. He blames the FA of making things up as they go along - rightly so in my eyes. He also whinges about how perfectly suitable precedents are ignored whenever it suits the FA's agenda to "always get their man".

Now, I would fully agree with the drift of the article if any other journalist in Britain had written it.

Bearing in mind, though, that the Premier League basically did exactly what Samuel complains about in the Tevez case - back then with a clear tendency "to let their man get off lightly" - and his well-documented apologist tendencies whenever the Hammers are involved, his article about hypocrisy in itself becomes a hypocritical exercise in revisionist history and being blind on one eye whenever it suits.

He himself is a great example of the things he complains about - proving that newspapers should never allow journalists to cover their favourite team or advise them to openly declare such interest and always admit to being "happily blinkered" whenever they cover controversies related to "their" team. It's the bending backwards that he always does - the trying to pretend that he has maintained a consistent logic in all such controversies that does him much more disjustice than one column back then would have done, had he chosen to admit "boy, were we lucky to get off. And yes, it stinks. But as it's my own club, allow me to be personally fine with that in this exceptional case, even though I am aware in my professional capacity that this ruling goes against many of the things I usually stand for."

I am fairly sure if he'd had the guts to do that, we may not have had the rather swish "rotund one" smilie on this forum... Can't stand the man!

Oh, and somewhat sadly, Kabba does not get a mention in this column. There's something new.

The full piece:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...harge-shows-FA-hypocrites--Martin-Samuel.html

 

[silverfox]

Thank god for that......I thought it was a thread about me!

 

[frijo]

I thought the fat tangerine Blade was on then.

 

[Selly]

Martin . It's the bending backwards that he always does - the trying to pretend that he has maintained a consistent logic in all such controversies that does him much more disjustice than one column back then would have done, had he chosen to admit "boy, were we lucky to get off. And yes, it stinks. But as it's my own club, allow me to be personally fine with that in this exceptional case, even though I am aware in my professional capacity that this ruling goes against many of the things I usually stand for."

I think he actually did admit the day after the ruling, or possibly the week are in his column (in The Times no less) that they were lucky to get away with it. And then he followed it with the "but let's move on now". Any other club would, I suspect, have been subject to a smear campaign.

But that's the only time. Every other article has been completely biased.

 

[dingledog]

Thank god for that......I thought it was a thread about me!

It is, just very well disguised and subtle, unlike you!!!