StokeFan wrote:Va-Va-Voom wrote:StokeFan wrote:
I've never considered porker much of a diver, but you don't get more blatant than that.
Let's be honest, you had some luck before that as well didn't you? I seem to remember Pires getting a last minute penalty against Portsmouth (was it?) after a cheeky dive which got a point? Always important to put things in perspective.
Funny that, you harp on about Wilshere and Cazorla going down easily but "never considered" Rooney a diver? Lol, he's been using the arched back, flailing armed technique his entire career (dived for a penalty recently against Preston in the Cup) but I guess his antics flew under your radar seeing as he isn't an Arsenal player; or maybe his faux "hard man" act just pulled the wool over your eyes.
BTW Pires' penalty against Portsmouth came in the 37th minute, not the last.
Don't get your point anyway, every team in the history of football has players that have dived; going by your logic no fans should ever again complain about diving seeing as their own team has done the same sometime before.
What if a team dived for a penalty against Stoke next season and then someone tried to justify it because Moses dived against Swansea earlier this season?
Would be pretty asinine, wouldn't it?
Well, I'm a Stoke fan. I've been to every Stoke Man Utd, home and away, since we were promoted. I've seen cynical divers in the Man Utd team, such as Ronaldo, Tevez and Berbatov. More recently, Van Persie was showing his form by diving quite a lot in the game against us last season when they lost. I've seen Rooney in all these games (well those he played) and I can't remember him diving. That doesn't mean he's not a diver, that means I haven't observed him doing it against Stoke. His dive against you in the video I quoted was about as cynical as it gets though.
Wilshere and Caazorla have both played Stoke in recent fixtures and Wilshere in particular spent a lot of time diving around. He seems to have a knack of running into trouble then throwing himself to the floor when he's lost the ball. Maybe he's just trying to do too much or whatever, but as far as it goes, he was diving for me. I observed it, so I naturally remember it. Nothing to do with it being Arsenal... I mean do you seriously think I bloody like Man Utd? Give me a break. Cazorla was not as cynical as Wilshere, but I remember him taking a dive against us in the 1-0 defeat against us with not many minutes remaining, just stuck in my mind. If Rooney does the same the next time we play them, you can be sure as hell I'd be calling him a diver too. It's not a conspiracy mate...
Sorry for the stat fail on the Pires penalty. Not an Arsenal fan, so don't remember these things quite as well as you, but I do remember he dived.
I'm not sure I agree with your next assertion though. Every team in the history of football has had divers? Are you really sure about that? Diving is on the whole, a fairly new concept although it's first real exposure was probably Francis Lee doing it back in the 70's. There have been one or two players through the ages who dived, Lee, Klinsmann, Maradona etc. Diving as a mainstream concept took off in the 90's. I don't blame the foreign influx of players solely, that's too easy an excuse. I do blame the fact that other football leagues have a far less physical game which meant players tended to go down under less contact. This has manifested into the current form of diving which is no contact at all. It also doesn't mean I have to embrace it. If you choose to embrace it, then I assume you stood out the abuse given to Man Utd after the shambolic FA Cup tie against yourselves... thought not.
Let's be honest here, I take your point about it being asinine, but you can't be hypocritical. You can't stand there and justify diving from your Invincibles and then call blue murder against Man Utd when they dive against you. You're either for it, or you're against it. I'm against it. I hate it. It's an unpleasant cancer that's ruining football, along with FA and FIFA corruption. If you're for it, then you should be congratulatory in Man Utd's performance preventing your 50th unbeaten game. If you're against it, you should be willing to consider the fact that the run wouldn't have lasted without diving in previous games.
It's a horrible paradox my friend....