To all intents and purposes Fernando Torres has admitted the error of his ways, in unleashing a typical ‘forward‘s tackle‘ on Mark Gower, yet the appraisal he gave in a contrite post-match statement says more about his honesty than it does about that of many others involved in the incident. The snippet of particular interest to me is as follows:-

"Obviously I didn't want to do anything bad against the other player. I tried to take away my legs, but I arrived late to the ball and I kicked him a little bit. It's a pity and I'm really disappointed for that. It's the first time I have received a red card in the Premier League and I hope it's the last one. It was really disappointing, especially because the team had to play with 10 men for a long time."

What is it about the interpretation of ‘intent’ in football that makes it so different from the perception of it in any other walk of life? Of course, the strict legal definition was at one time ’to have malice aforethought’ rather than any mere ‘intention to do‘, but nowadays you also have to loiter with it to be in the wrong and hang around in a public place or business where ‘one has no particular or legal purpose‘ in mind. Not so, apparently, on the football field, where a player’s loitering is fine, even if it does put him one small step away from being substituted, but by contrast his intent has to be displayed at every turn and the greater the extent of it the more universally regarded as a genuine hard man you become, as in the case of archetypal ’doers’ such as Gennaro Gattuso and Roy Keane.

So, we can gather from this clear distinction that intent is a good and valued thing, but loitering with it is not. Indeed, anyone who has seen Messrs Gattuso and Keane in action will also be aware that, where ‘intent’ is concerned, there is a line you can cross that turns certain use of it into a straight red card offence for serious foul play and this usually involves the transference of intent into action and injury to others. How many times you can act in this way in a game before you get the said red card is another matter entirely, but in the majority of cases a referee tends to give benefit of doubt first, as with a Paul Scholes mistimed effort, a warning second, a yellow card third, a second yellow fourth and, unless the level of seriousness is completely beyond the pale from the word go and not a Paul Scholes effort, the dreaded straight red last.

Now on to Torres and to what, before seeing the misdemeanour, I had assumed to be the type of tackle/action/offence that instantly transcends the bounds of fair play and a legitimate, but hard and crunching, tackle, also the clumsy (albeit just a ’foot in’) tackle worthy of warning and so on and so forth through the usual referee labyrinthine safeguards and then right smack-bang into ’Christ, that’s a bad one’ territory. Indeed, my worst fears for Mark Gower were confirmed by Paul Merson on Sky who, at first sight, deemed the tackle to be bad and one that could have ’snapped his leg in two’ - a sharp intake of breath from everybody in an aghast studio, only eased by Jeff Stelling’s reassessment after another [unseen-by-viewers] replay and his pronouncement that the offence was no more than ’a controversial tackle with only minimal contact.’

Praise be, then, that no lasting damage was done, but nonetheless no saving of Fernando’s hide…away with him to the dressing room on the end of [what I was beginning to think must be] a characteristically hasty and judgemental red card from Mike Dean. Oh dear, there I go again, showing my true colours without, at that point in time, even seeing the evidence of intent. Nevertheless, if you think about it for any length of time longer than Mike Dean did, it is bound to be like this whenever ‘intent’ rears its ugly, or aggressive, or up-for-it, or admirably hard-working, head - little wonder it‘s difficult to gauge, as Glenn Hoddle might say, which player‘s head is actually on when he goes for the ball. Not that seeing the incident is that much of a help in the crazy world of intent-based football offence, because ‘intent’, unlike a lazy loiter or the coming back from an offside position, is there for all to see [or miss in the case of a Phil Dowd assistant] as opposed to being something you can only speculate on. Then again, if you did speculate on it, I’m sure most right-minded individuals would give Torres more leniency than Dean did, or at the very least a little more consideration time-wise before brandishing a red card.

Truth be told, some referees should own up to making their own particular kind of statement of intent when, for instance, they decide arbitrarily to issue an early yellow card, or, if you’re Howard Webb, premeditate their distribution to suit the occasion, scattering them like confetti late-on at the big game weddings when no harm can be done. Thinking back, the ‘ceremonial’ free kick was Graham Poll’s intentional and somewhat self-indulgent gift to football, as was Mike Riley’s avowed intent to award umpteen penalties to United at Old Trafford. Fast forward to Saturday and there was an awful lot of self-indulgent intent going on that could be linked directly to the tackle on Gower as well. Torres was intent on winning the ball and being seen making the effort; Gower was intent on making the most of the situation by rolling around as if seriously hurt; Dean was intent on applying instant red card retribution and not partial yellow card clemency; Merson was intent on being a drama queen and AVB was intent on not getting involved with refereeing decisions on consecutive weekends.

….and me? I’m intent on stirring it because Phil Dowd and his assistants, bless their cotton socks, didn’t have a Premiership game to officiate at the weekend. Why? Well, maybe it was a Professional Game Match Official statement of intent, delivered under cover of Media darkness as a punishment when it turned out to be a good time to bury some bad officiating. Then again, quite frankly, when you’re dealing with intentions, who really knows?

Lets give the guy a break...He do very well very soon....We are getting the play correct that will put him up there soon....His foul was really him showing how much he wants to work hard and play hard for us..Yep his sending off doesnt help but he will learn from it..He has been as frustrated as us with his results..This time next year he ll be a hero..Sorry this is out of context with your thread...I just had to say it

Edited September 27, 201113 yr by brimstone

Two studs up and it's a red card. But it's clear Torres wasn't being malicious. Carragher routinely slides in with more intent and the results are far worse and he usually ends up with a yellow. He's just more experienced in disguising the tackle. Torres being a forward was just clumsy. Is it fair he goes off and misses 3 games while Carragher gets away with murder? No. But that's football for you. Torres needs to learn to be more clever and tackle more cynically I suppose.

Torres had a running dialogue with Dean throughout the first half and I'm sure that played into the decision. It was clear Dean was annoyed with Torres.

As I said he is the first bloke ever to receive a straight red for attempted tackle. If anything he touched him with his hand as he went past.

Besides the fact it wasn't a red the thing that annoys me most, is people thought it oddly charming that Paul Scholes routinely put in those challenges for 15 years and apparently Torres is malicious.

In my honest opinion it was a straight red. As soon as i saw it i knew it was gonna be a red. Doesnt matter if he connected or not, its still a very dangerous tackle. I know Carragher for example did a number of those in his career and got away with it, but its still a justifiable red.

But thats the thing with dirty players, people get used to their antics so there are double standards. Carragher, Lucio, Pepe . . . those players will get away with stuff like that.

I reckon dodojojo might be right in terms of him being in Dean's face all first half. That eventually comes back to bite you.

The referee of this game obviously deemed there to be intent here, for once he saw the television pictures, the player in question was handed a 3 game ban, just like Torres.

Make up your own mind ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9AfwVuttS4