United fans need to take a step back.

The amount of omelettes who buy into the media image of modern day footballers is frightening.

Given the situation, stick is to be expected, but the media driven, false morale outrage is repugnant. I have read comments on here by kleenex holding united fans, and pubescent Arsenal supporters demanding he apologises for his handball.

It's laughable.

PPD

The fact that scores of journalists are still harping on about it (after nobody really cared about other handball-goals such as Lambert, Ba and Crouch) was bad enough, but that two-bob dolt Lawton from The Independent took the biscuit with his article about how Messi puts Suarez to shame and wouldn't resort to that.

That'd be Messi who replicated Maradona's Hand Of God and celebrated like a lunatic. Succinctly indicates how much of Suarez's reputation comes from the media giving everything he does the boogeyman treatment, when they wouldn't bat an eyelid when it's another player involved.

I remember when Messi did that; the overwhelming reaction seemed to be that he was a cheeky scamp (like Scholes when he careers feet-first into someone several days after the ball is gone).

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#Standard

Suarez has a reputation. That's why it happens. Such as Young with his diving. If Surarez can go without incident for a few months, or until the end of the season now, BR could come out and say how Suarez has changed or worked hard and so forth. He can still change his image as long as he tries to avoid controvosy. But it will take time.

I completely agree Poppin', I think Suarez could do with keeping his head down and trying his best not give the sharks in the media a scent of blood. That would be the best thing for him and then maybe the people who dislike him will actually see that beyond that he is a good footballer.

Standard is right doc.

Finally on this, wouldnt it be good for the media to write a 'fantastic Suarez' article and maybe then the sheep can start to see that too.

Yeah, he has a reputation, he probably deserves one.

But the reaction has been absolutely risible by anyone's standards. A handball that looks accidental is no cause for the lack of common sense and perspective that he has been subjected to in the past few days.

There's viewing an incident through the lens of a player's reputation, and then there are unjustified, nonsensical witch-hunts, one of which we've seen over the past few days.

Yes, Suarez has a reputation and what he does will always been blown up to generate hits and create headlines, Liverpool fans know this. If it was a dive or he'd play-acted to get someone sent off, you could probably understand a journalist saying "He's got history, he's a disgrace" or whatever. THAT would be a case of Suarez's reputation meaning he gets more flak for doing something that others would do. Others would get criticised (although not some English players), but Suarez would get it worse because he's the pantomime villain. It wouldn't exactly be right, but it would be mildly understandable.

But the fact that so many have taken an accidental handball, played it up as one of the most malevolent acts in the history of football, and moralised at length about Suarez as a person just isn't on. It can't be acceptable, surely, for respected journalists to take absolute leave of their senses and indulge in such misrepresentation on the back of Suarez's reputation.

That handball is different from diving, because it looked accidental, and it's not something that would cause a second thought about the moral fibre of another player (there have been a few incidents in the PL this season), seemingly until Suarez was involved. Now, we're being told that Suarez should apologize, he shouldn't have scored, he should have told the ref he handballed it, and because he didn't, he's a disgrace.

That's not overhyping an incident because of a player's reputation, it's a blatant double standard and it is also outright lying. It's not going harder on one player than you would another player, it's a complete misrepresentation of what happened and what's expected of players who benefit from handballs.

That's why Liverpool fans are up in arms. Suarez dived against Stoke and got pilloried, Phil Neville dived against Liverpool and it was a source of amusement for pundits. That's an example of one player being treated more harshly for the same crime because of his reputation. That's understandable even if it is hypocritical (after all, if diving is such a cancer on the game, it's a cancer when Neville does it too. It can't suddenly be viewed with a sort of affection). That's not an awfully big deal.

The Mansfield handball is different though, because practically everything that's been said about it - from what actually happened, to the moral standard that we expect from people in the same situation - has been a crock of utter büllshît, and the subsequent stuff written about Suarez has been incorrigible muck. You can forgive it from football fans, because they just clamour to have a pop at each other anyway.

You can even forgive the "CHEAT" headlines from the red-tops because that's their job. But when the delusion and misplaced moral outrage penetrates throughout the whole media, even intelligent football analysts, you have to wonder.

I agree with pretty much everything you wrote there, especially the comparison to Neville. Even if you switched Suarez for Gerrard in the current situation you would have heard almost nothing about it. Any footballer would have done the same in that situation, accidental or not really makes little difference. The referee missed it, it happens in exactly the same way the officials missed the goal against Everton. It's football, it happens. But next week is a new game, who knows, RvP might score in the same way and you can almost guarantee that those defending/justifying Suarez's actions this week, will show the other side. That is the nature of football fans.

you can almost guarantee that those defending/justifying Suarez's actions this week, will show the other side. That is the nature of football fans.
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If it's the same situation then I wont be moaning.

If he catches the ball and kisses it befroe rolling it in then I'll be peed off.

Doc i read everything you said and I agree. It's a complete over reaction to something that very nearly happened in the Bradford Villa game last night (both by an attacker and a defender).

Jav, I've noticed you've had the Xab-man back in your name, when'd that happen?

Xabi

Jav