Full article can be found on The Liverpool Way.
http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/blog/?p=192#more-192 Great perspective on the Cahill sending off. We'll see if the FA back up Riley on this one
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...Hairy Hands Keys was outdone in the shite talking stakes by an unlikely source - Liverpool Legend and ‘Highly Respected Pundit’ Alan Hansen.
Jocky needs to take a long hard look at himself today for his comments on Match of the Day. It was bad enough that they somehow managed to edit their ‘highlights’ to make the most one sided derby in decades seem like an even contest in which the only thing between the sides was the brilliance of Torres, but Hansen actually claimed that Arbeloa’s ankle tap on Cahill was more of a red card offence than the lunge on Xabi that earned the Aussie his walking papers.
Fuck off Jocky, that’s absolutely laughable. Arbeloa deserved his yellow, but Cahill retaliated and raised his arms. Where was his yellow? Riley tried to call him over to have a word, and he just ignored him. Seconds later he tried to ‘do’ Alonso, right in front of the ref. Just because he didn’t have two feet off the ground in a jump tackle doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been a red.
He didn’t go for the ball, he went in on Alonso’s shin with one leg, and then scissored him with the other leg and it could have resulted in a bad injury. Even so, Riley was probably going to give him the benefit of the doubt and yellow card him. He blew the whistle once, and Cahill continued to walk away. He blew it again, and called out ‘Tim’ but again, Cahill continued to walk away. A third time, still nothing. Cahill then turns around and tells Riley to ‘fuck off’.
Now ask yourself this, if you are a referee and a player reacts like this, what would you do? Before you answer that, let me throw this one in. You are the same referee who was made to look like an absolute twat by Ashley Cole, who did the exact same thing as Cahill, which prompted the whole ‘Respect’ campaign. Riley had a choice of issuing a yellow or red for the tackle. I honestly believe he was gong to give him a yellow, as he could have pulled out the red card immediately if he so chose. That’s usually how it works when a ref sees a bad tackle. Out come the red, off goes the player, no hanging around.