Difficult to say really, Dave. Football is a physical game and there’s bound to be some level of contact somewhere, sometime. For me, it all boils down to intent.

If a tackle was made with intent to injure, then by all means it seems fair that the offender should be suspended for the same amount of time it takes injured fellow to recover. But how do you judge what’s intentional and what’s reckless/careless (slightly different for me) and what’s a complete accident?

Quite frankly Dave, although I agree that if a player has an intent to injure then he should be banned for an amazingly long time I suspect that this would not have a great affect on the game in itself. Would you really are all that much if you were being paid £40k a week to warm the stands? I’m sure I could cope personally.

Either way, the problem is the enforcement, how do you go about proving ’intent?’.

Not only that, there is no consistency — how Bellamy escaped with a warning after thumping a fan — and being photographed so doing is beyond me, the man has a history of violence and is seen in full view of the world being violent. This a week before Saha is red carded for raising his arm to a player (and carded rightly so). Bellamy should have been banned from football for life.

Football needs to impose bans, suspensions and fines which will actually have an impact.

Players need to protect themselves. I’m not one for advocating studs up or two footed challenges but tackles like the one by Pip is asking for self injury. Very honourable in some quarters but not much use to the team if you’re on the sick bed.

If you look at players like Zidane and Figo they have the dirty tackles to go along with they showboating skills. I blame Moyes for recruiting a set of dwarven midfielders though.

Did Martin Taylor deserve to be banned for 18 months for his unfortunate tackle on Eduardo?

Absolutely not.

So do you think Pienaar's international captain had intent to harm his county's best player on the build up to their World Cup? Or Kaboul really wanted to take Bily's head off or really wanted to win the ball? No, I didn’t think so. Nolan's challenge was horrendous and quite clear-cut but they are few and far between.

I take the view that football is a man's game and anything else added to it to make it less so shouldn’t be allowed. As an ex-player (shit level), if someone came in hard you’d think "ok like that is it" and match them.

Nolan should not have stepped back on to a football pitch before Victor Anichebe. Nolan's tackle was the worst tackle I have seen for as long as I remember. It was disgusting, it was deliberate and it could easily have ruined a young man’s career.

But I’m also looking forward to the spineless shithouse returning to Goodison Park to receive, what I expect to be, the worst reception ever for a visiting player at Goodison.

It is frankly obscene and absurd, by any fair or moral code, that players who perpetrate assaults like Nolan’s can be back playing with impunity after a game or 2. If indeed they get banned at all. Oh, and by the way, take a good lock at Etuhu’s hit on Phil Neville.

If I saw an Everton player do that I would be sick. This is not tribalism, it’s humanity and sport. When a big man like Etuhu goes through the player, with all the body strength of a professional sportsman, the results can be horrendous. And so it proved.

This is not part of the game. These shithouses know exactly what they are doing. I want them named & shamed and subject to punishment AT THE VERY LEAST in line with the length of absence suffered by the player they have assaulted.

The idea of Nolan "enjoying his football" whilst Anichebe still undergoes rehabilitation of a fucked-up knee disgusts me.

And for those apologists who excuse the end results of such assaults and deem them to be natural consequences of a manly contact sport, well, two things. Firstly, there is a code of conduct and responsibility written into every footballer's contract via the PFA, where they legally agree to play with due care and attention towards fellow pros. And secondly, we don’t see this kind of assault (because they are not really tackles) in other countries.

When a player does what Nolan did, he should not only be banned. By virtue of breaching his code of conduct with his club and with the PFA, and by not playing, his wages should be suspended (or reduced by a large amount) for the duration of his suspension.

As for Martin Taylor, it was viewed by most people as a completely freak accident. Had there been any obvious intent then, YES, he should have been banned for a very long time. There wasn’t and it was right that he wasn’t punished. Sometimes accidents do happen. I believe Martin Taylor has never been the same since that tackle. He seems to have more emotional baggage from it than Eduardo, probably because he’s a good guy.

In saying al of this, don’t forget two of our big injury hits were freak accidents with no opposing player involved. There was an excellent article on here a while back about the preventative training that goes on, especially in the US, to avert the onset of knee ligament damage. I think the writer (can’t recall who it was) even mused on the possibility that some of the training we were doing was not only ignorant of the preventative exercises that are now in use elsewhere, but may even have been contributing to our plight.

Footballers usually have strong & heavy upper and lower legs. That places an unusually high strain on the joint in the middle, the knee. Focusing on knee strengthening exercises seems a frightfully good idea. One assumes they do it already. Evidence suggests otherwise.

So, in summary, Nolan should be clasped in public stocks on Goodison Road and paint-balled to fuck at every home game.

Viva Alan Kirwin. Come the revolution...

Alan, that is one of the most sensible posts I have ever read by you buddy. Agree with every word written.

It’s the spineless FA that are to blame imo. Until they start dishing out proper punishments, horrible bastards like Nolan will continue to thrive at the expense of some other poor bastard's career.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re singled out or anything, but I KNOW (as much as I can know anything) that United DO get preferential treatment because cowardly refs are shit-scared of ’Srallex’ (and were equally scared of Mourinho when he was at Chelsea).

Of course United don’t get away with EVERYTHING, but they do play a percentage game (ie: argue the toss on everyfuckinthing knowing they’ll get a percentage).

On the Saturday just gone, Scholes should have gone for a handball.

He didn’t.

I believe had he been playing for us, he would have.

Paranoid?

Maybe..but having suffered Clive Thomas, Clattenberg, Collina etc et-bleedin-cetera, right or wrong, I believe it’s more than acceptable for Evertonians (as far as refs go) to be paranoid.

You are joking concerning the Etuhu tackle Alan? It was 2 players fully commited going for a 50-50 ball, but Neville came out of it with an injury, unlucky.

Fellaini last season, how many times did he get away with using his elbows on a player? It seems some of you have got another reason to think the whole of football is against poor old us.

Eugene, Add that poison dwarf Wiley to your list, I have lost count of the decisions that have gone against us with him in charge. We had three booked on Saturday, they had none. Pienaar was clinically fouled, and Bily Dean was near decapitated, and had his shirt ripped in the process. Wiley saw no reason to take action.

Thank god he retires this season, as the powers to be, extended his registration by twelve months. Good riddance.

To be fair to the Referee at last season’s match at Newcastle - he gave Nolan the striaight red card that his challenge deserved. He wasn’t one of my favourite players before that match, but I would hesisitate to suggest that he deliberately set out to put Victor out of the game. It was an extremely reckless challenge and given the extent of the injury caused to Anichebe I believe that an additional suspension of say 3 matches would have been justified.

I watched both our game v Portsmouth on TV and later on the Ipswich Town v Newcastle game. I was rather annoyed to hear the commentators refer to Fellaini as "one of last season’s serial offenders". Most if not all of his cards came from clumsy challenges. I can’t recall any opposing player suffering any injury.

I was equally annoyed at seeing Nolan’s reaction to an Ipswich challenge. I wonder if any other Evertonians watching that incident were thinking back to St James’ Park earlier this year... It seems that while Nolan likes to dish it out, it’s another matter when somebody else has a go at him.

Does anybody know what happened to the Birmingham City player Martin Taylor, involved in the Eduardo incident?Watching that on TV it seemed to me that he was basically done for pace. I don’t think he went into the challenge with any other attitude other than trying to win the ball. Unfortunately, Eduardo was badly injured and Taylor also suffered. It seems a great shame that, whilst there have been many players who have positively gloried in causing harm, e.g. Vinnie Jones, a guy like Taylor suffers as a result of what was really a misjudgement.

I hate Kevin Nolan for what he did. What a horrible person, the way he even had the nerve to try and con the referee after it into not sending him off. And the FA are disgusting for not charging Nolan with an additional punishment while Anichebe suffers for 9 months or so.

Is it just me or if one of the big four’s players was on the receiving end of such a challenge would all hell break loose and the offender would be punished more severely and have his name dragged through the dirt? Also, what I cannot understand is why Everton did not attempt to sue Newcastle for their player acting outside the playing culture of the sport.

Alan, I’m not an apologist but shit does happen. I did say Nolan's was clear-cut, and when it’s like that, additional action should be taken. What I’m not in favour of is extra rules being brought in diminishing contact between players,

I’m with Eugene and Norman on this one.

If Wiley had done what he should have done on Saturday - booked a few of the home players for persistent fouling - our players would have been afforded greater protection. As it was, his lack of action encouraged the kind of reckless challenges which led to Pienaar’s injury and almost cost Dini Bily an ear.

Refs get conned left right and centre, and our manager speaks out about it. And he will be telling our players not to try it. I doubt that every other club is run this way.

I don’t know if anyone has suggested this, but perhaps compensation should be paid by the perpetrator to the victim, as often happens when a personal injury claim is pursued through the civil courts. Intent doesn’t have to proven, negilgence will suffice, and Nolan was at least negligent!

I suppose Vic is still being paid his wages, but his inability to play for such a long period of time must have affected his future earnings potential.

Nolan is supended in the normal way under FA rules and regulations, but in addition is ordered to pay compensation to Vic for personal injury and loss of future earnings suffered as a result of his inability to play.

Not ideal, but something closer to natural justice than what has transpired in this particular case.

Alan Kirwin, I have disagreed with you many times but thank you for your post. You have expressed exactly what I wanted to say but with passion and eloquence. Nolan’s tackle was the equal of the tackle by Jimmy Case that ended Geoff Nulty’s career. Case was scum and so is Nolan.

Martin - you would think that the police should step in and apprehend some players for what they have done at times.

Unfortunately, this line of argument would soon lead to the end of football, boxing (ok), rugby (union ok, league perhaps not) and many other pursuits — F1 deliberate crashing? Horse racing, of course, as deliberate cruelty to animals.

Left with tennis (I detest Wimbledon fortnight) and Volleyball (which is a great sport to be involved in), Sky and the bookies would go broke.

OK, you’ve convinced me.

As a point of order, Kevin Nolan cannot enjoy his football because he does not play it. He is nothing more than an alehouse clogger — always has been and always will.

Vic was not too good last year but no player deserves to suffer such a deliberately inflicted injury — except perhaps Kevin Nolan.

I think Nolan should have been banned from playing professional football for the rest of his life. I have never seen a dirtier tackle than the one he gave to Vic. There’s absolutely no doubt about intention there, the man concentrated to jump with both his legs on our player’s leg! I mean even if the ball was there it’s still a savage tackle, but since it wasn’t I really can’t think of word ugly enough to describe that challenge. The only thing I was back at the time was STUNNED about how Victor’s leg wasn’t smashed into pieces!!!

In other cases (Arteta, Jags, Yak, Neville, Pienaar) I believe it was rather unintentional but I think that there simply must be some kind of fine that clubs must pay to other clubs when so seriously injuring their players! Otherwise clubs like Everton (with small squads) will suffer the most!

The challenges on Peinaar & Neville may not have been intentional but they were late, dangerous and have caused bad injuries; they deserve punishment.

In the AFL, they have a match review panel and they review each match to see what the umpires miss and what they give. There should be the same thing in the Premier League because there are too many bad challenges going unnoticed and causing injuries.

The challenge on Bily deserved at least a yellow as he was high with studs up, definition of a yellow card.

I can’t really agree with Alan on this one. Maybe I am naive, but I don’t think I can buy the idea that Nolan purposely set out to injure Anichebe. It was an awful tackle, but an awful tackle of a man who was:

1) trying to establish himself in his new team, fighting a relegation battle
2) Playing against a team he has always thought of as a big rival.

I Believe that these factors, coupled with the fact he lacks talent in the tackle anyway, contributed to him being over-zealous. You can’t excuse the tackle like I say, but that is my feeling.

On Etuhu, I think it is quite cut and dry. Neville made an error of judgement even going for it. I am sure I am not the only one who predicted trouble as soon as you saw him shapng up for that tackle. We want commitment, yes, but in that area of the pitch maybe Phil should have held back.

If you fling yourself into players like that, you are surely putting yourself in undue risk. I am not getting at Phil, he is a full-blooded player who is genuinely heart and soul into Everton; what he did was instinctive, but I am sure in hindsight he wouldn’t have attempted it now.

Mark, have a look at it again. Over zealous? So, you’re in a new team, you’re in a relegation battle, let's try and end someone’s career. Nolan’s challenge cannot be defended. I appreciate that you are trying to be open-minded but your post is nonsense.

Andy Crooks - so what you’re saying is in that split second before Kevin Nolan makes the challenge, the thought "I’m going to try and end this lad’s career" has gone through his head? You called Mark’s post nonsense?