Buzzin Grumpy

After watching a shocking display of thuggish aggression to a fellow professional footballer on Saturday night’s Match Of The Day TV programme I was stunned to hear Adrian Durham defend Wayne Rooney’s elbow assault on Wigan’s James McCarthy as some kind of self defence!

The video below clearly shows what happened.  As Wayne Rooney was running for the ball James McCarthy attempted to block his run by leaning into him and in the process gets a very nasty and intentional elbow in the face which could have left him with a broken nose or worse.  You can see both players are aware of their actions.

James McCarthy’s attempt to play the player and not the football is clear obstruction and would have led to a free-kick to Manchester United if the referee had actually seen the incident and Wayne Rooney not intentionally raised his elbow into the face of the oncoming player.

I am not interested in the ridiculous cries that Wayne Rooney and other footballers should behave themselves on and off the football pitch because they are role models for our children.  I simply believe Wayne Rooney acted with aggression and with intent to injury another person and this should be addressed.

If this incident had happened in the crowd or outside a football stadium and was witnessed by a policeman, the least that would have happened is the person involved would be questioned for his aggressive behaviour.  As it is, because the referee, Stuart Clattenburg,  apparently ‘dealt’ with the situation by awarding Wigan a free-kick, no further action will be taken by the English FA against Wayne Rooney.

Football is a highly charged and somewhat aggressive contact sport.  That is the reason I stopped playing even for fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to see a full-bloodied encounter where players get ‘stuck in’ and give 110% (or is the current going rate 120% now?) but what I don’t want to see is unchannelled aggression and daylight thuggery on or off a football pitch.