Petr Cech needed surgery for depressed skull fracture.

Xavi6

thebaz wrote:

I implied he was trying to make a name by intimadation and being over keen ,bordering on stupid -- if you played competitive football youd know this is a common occurance at all levels

Yes I've played competitive football, at the top amateur level, and I've never seen someone deliberately slide knees first into a keeper's head 'to make a name for himself'. I agree he may have been eager in what was his first Premiership start but his legs clearly went from under him and the collision was accidental, no matter what sort of spin Mourinho wants to put on it.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

thebaz

Xavi6 wrote:

Yes I've played competitive football, at the top amateur level, and I've never seen someone deliberately slide knees first into a keeper's head 'to make a name for himself'. I agree he may have been eager in what was his first Premiership start but his legs clearly went from under him and the collision was accidental, no matter what sort of spin Mourinho wants to put on it.

Nor have i until Saturday, but i have seen many keepers get roughed up , and accept this was probably only a reckless challenge on behalf of Hunt .But at the end of the day this stupid challenge could have left Cech brain damaged , and he is not a weak man , and will probably blunt Hunts own career as well .
Put it like this , i dont think most players would have made the challenge .

Xavi6

thebaz wrote:

Put it like this , i dont think most players would have made the challenge .

I really don't think that the challenge was the problem, it was how his right leg went from under him. That could be down to excessive watering of the pitch or or the wrong footwear (Hunt was wearing mouldies), not a bad tackle.

sofireland

I agree with the last poster, it didn't look like a challenge to me, more he lost his footing

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

eirebhoy

ziggy67 wrote:

Just seen both incidents for the first time there and they both looked like accidents.

Of course it was an accident. A bit of common sense should be used and ask why a player would intentionally knee a keeper in the head in an incident like this after a minute of a game.

iregk

They were both accidental. I will just not understand why hunt didn't just jump over cech or pull up. You could see he wasn't winning the ball long before Cech even had it!!!!

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

MrJoeSoap

iregk wrote:

They were both accidental. I will just not understand why hunt didn't just jump over cech or pull up. You could see he wasn't winning the ball long before Cech even had it!!!!

So should José be punished for his comments?

http://www.unison.ie/sportsdesk/stories.php3?ca=12&si=1706731

NOBODY in England outside of Berkshire had heard of Stephen Hunt before Saturday. A bit-part player in the Reading Championship success, a jinky Irish winger deployed as a perpetual substitute, a dressing-room joker, an honest workaday pro.

Today, Hunt is in the dock charged with one of the most heinous crimes in the national game. His accuser, Jose Mourinho.

Chelsea beat Reading because of the will to win that Mourinho has infused in his players. The personal fortune spent on assembling their champion squad is unique, the personal conviction invested in motivating them is different again.

The same unshakable belief that won Chelsea three of their most difficult points of the Mourinho era found Hunt guilty of trying to hurt their goalkeeper, Petr Cech. No doubts, no arguments.

Never mind that television analysts as qualified as George Graham and Alan Shearer cleared Hunt of any wilful intent, never mind that the Reading player was chasing a loose ball in the opening minute of his full Premiership debut, never mind that none of the Chelsea players reacted strongly at the time, the manager's decision is final at Stamford Bridge.

Compared

He compared the challenge to Ben Thatcher's assault on Pedro Mendes in August, and expects the English Football Association to take action.

"Hunt clearly flexed his leg to catch Petr. He dropped his knee. When the keeper has the ball in his hands, what are you going to do? You are only going in there to hurt him." The court of Judge Jose is adjourned.

Hunt's challenge was not 'clearly' anything. It was as debatable as it proved dangerous. No amount of forensic camera angles could prove its intentions.

The player issued a brief statement professing his innocence. We should be grateful the incident occurred at a club as dignified as Reading, with a manager as fair-minded as Steve Coppell.

Despite a late touchline scuffle that led to Chelsea's fitness coach, Rui Faria, being dismissed to the tunnel, the condition of Cech and his replacement, Carlo Cudicini, was the prime concern for everyone. Both left the Madejski Stadium in ambulances. The seriousness of Cech's injuries matched the seriousness of his manager's allegations, but that does not determine Hunt's guilt or otherwise.

Two hospital cases and two red cards, it was a rumble of a match settled by a bizarre own goal and by the fact that Chelsea are prepared to get their hands dirty and dig out a result when they have to.

In the closing minutes, Didier Drogba was back in defence doing a veritable John Terry impersonation, while the captain pulled on a goalkeeper's journey and organised the final resistance to Reading's attempts to get something to show for their sterling efforts. Chelsea have spunk.

They were outnumbered for 20 minutes of the second half. John Obi Mikel was dismissed for a mindless second yellow card shortly after the hour.

Mutterings

For all Mourinho's mutterings, Reading suffered more at the hands of a messy display of refereeing by Mike Riley, who evened up the numbers by dismissing Andre Bikey. It was a soft free-kick award that produced the only goal, Frank Lampard's shot cannoning off two defenders on its zigzag path into the net.

Reading rocked the champions' foundations with the intensity of their display.

"An ordeal," said Mourinho. As Cudicini lay poleaxed by his mid-air collision with Ibrahima Sonko in the closing stages, Drogba headed off the line from Nicky Shorey. Goodness only knows what protests would have followed if he had not, because Riley had not stopped play at that moment.

"It felt like being in the middle of World War Three," said Joe Cole, on his seasonal Premiership bow after injury. "It's a horrible place for ball players because you don't get the ball down. But when you get the result, it's amazing because you feel like you've won the war."

In truth, the extent of the casualties was all that merited such comparisons. Reading have an excellent disciplinary record and a purposeful style, but Chelsea cultivate a siege mentality that suits their spirit and determination.

Waterford man Hunt's reputation is in danger of becoming a casualty of all that. Mourinho's rush to judge the Reading player was probably born out of the genuine depth of his concern for the health of Cech.

But then he went on to compare Hunt's indiscretion to Michael Essien's high challenge on Dietmar Hamann last season and Michael Ballack's recent stamp on Momo Sissoko, and demanded comparable retribution. "How can Hunt have a different situation? He must be punished like everybody else." Who says? (© Daily Telegraph, London)

eirebhoy

ziggy67 wrote:

You are right of course- if it happened later in the match it would be debatable

Of course the timing of the incident makes a difference. If it was the last minute of the match and Reading are 1-0 down then you could say it was pure frustration (which is pretty much what every intentional foul is down to).

thebaz

eirebhoy wrote:

Of course the timing of the incident makes a difference. If it was the last minute of the match and Reading are 1-0 down then you could say it was pure frustration (which is pretty much what every intentional foul is down to).

As stated previously i believe most intimadation of goalies occurs early in a game -- shake his confidence -- i'm not saying Hunt deliberatly set out to so in this case -- only he knows for sure

iregk

MrJoeSoap wrote:

So should José be punished for his comments?

Me personally I think no because that is how he saw the incident. I personally think it was an accident but nobody knows for sure if it was or if it was intentional. What if they did punish him and then Hunt says it was intentional. Do we offer an apology to Jose?

The truth is while some believe it was intentional, other believe it was accidental only one person knows for sure. So I think it would be wrong to punish someone for expressing their view of it! Far too much PC and censorship crap floating around football today.

MrJoeSoap

iregk wrote:

Me personally I think no because that is how he saw the incident. I personally think it was an accident but nobody knows for sure if it was or if it was intentional.

Well then how can José get away with saying it was intentional?

What if they did punish him and then Hunt says it was intentional. Do we offer an apology to Jose?

Hunt has said it wasn't intentional:

"I can guarantee that I did not attempt to injure Petr, and I am very upset that the collision has resulted in such a bad injury," he told Reading's official website.

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=422370&CPID=8&clid=108&lid=2&title=Contrite+Hunt+denies+Cech+intent

The truth is while some believe it was intentional, other believe it was accidental only one person knows for sure. So I think it would be wrong to punish someone for expressing their view of it! Far too much PC and censorship crap floating around football today.

It has nothing to do with PC. Its José Mourinho, currently the most outspoken manager in football, attempting to put a black mark on the copybook of a young footballer.

The Chelsea website is disgustingly partisan as ever.

http://www.chelseafc.com/article.asp?hlid=422300&title=Look+at+it+this+way+-+Save+our+goalkeepers&nav=news

I've never had a problem with Chelsea before but I really hope Barcelona stuff them now.

SCULLY

MrJoeSoap wrote:

The Chelsea website is disgustingly partisan as ever.

stop press..... official premiership club website is partisan

MrJoeSoap

SCULLY wrote:

stop press..... official premiership club website is partisan

The Chelsea one is notoriously ridiculous for being so, as regular Mediawatch readers will know.

Darando

Listen, intentional or not, we will never know, but he still should have jumped out of it. (however I get the feeling he didnt jump out because it was early and the old soften him up tactic.If you play ball then most people will be aware of teh manager sending out the troops with the "let them know early" ringing in their ears.

And before I get jumped on that doesnt mean i think he intentionally went to knee him in the head.

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Hunt has said it wasn't intentional:

If it was, he is hardly going to come out with "yes, I intentionally went to do him", now is he. So whatever Hunt says is kinda irrelevant in that respect.

I think alot of JM comments were also a heat of the moment - seeing both of your keepers getting stretched off will make you feel hard done by. The club will always stand by their manager in those respects.

Pepe LeFrits

MrJoeSoap wrote:

The Chelsea one is notoriously ridiculous for being so, as regular Mediawatch readers will know.

The Chelsea website is hilarious, you'd think that with their billions they'd be able to sign a decent webdesigner. Half the images on the site look like they've been saved in MS Paint with the compression set to max. The article by some hack on the front page illustrated with a series of incredibly low quality stills of the Cech-Hunt collision is particularly amusing in a tragic sort of way.

'Win a Chelsea shirt signed by midfield superstar Mikel Jon Obi'!

If it was any other team you'd think it was a parody.

iregk

Hahaha hillarious stuff here lads. Its quite funny to see the hatred of Chelsea has not only transcended everything football but now we are even having a go at the website design!!! Pure class that one.

Rollo Tamasi

you should get deducted marks for poor webdesign.

BaZmO*

iregk wrote:

Hahaha hillarious stuff here lads. Its quite funny to see the hatred of Chelsea has not only transcended everything football but now we are even having a go at the website design!!! Pure class that one.

Welcome to the world of being a Utd. fan.

iregk

Its quite funny Bazmo. Was having a chat in the boozer there a while back with two mates that are man u fans and as they were saying. All the stick, all the abuse your getting now is exactly what we got and get!!! So alls fair really...

BaZmO*

Yeah, just like Brown used to be the new Black, Blue has become the new Red.

wheres me jumpa

Yeah Chelsea have come full circle. No longer are they they breath of fresh air from a United/Arsenal title race. And a big part of this is their manager. If it wasnt for Jose this thread would not be 4 pages long. He is the ultimate in us vs them. All successful managers are guilty of it but he is taking it to a new level.

Had Chelsea won this game 4-0 and this incident occurred, Jose wouldnt be so vocal. But instead it was another dull performance from Chelsea, one they could so easily have lost and a player sent off, but all we are hearing about is the Cech incident, good deflection Jose.

BaZmO*

wheres me jumpa wrote:

Yeah Chelsea have come full circle. No longer are they they breath of fresh air from a United/Arsenal title race. And a big part of this is their manager. If it wasnt for Jose this thread would not be 4 pages long. He is the ultimate in us vs them. All successful managers are guilty of it but he is taking it to a new level.

Had Chelsea won this game 4-0 and this incident occurred, Jose wouldnt be so vocal. But instead it was another dull performance from Chelsea, one they could so easily have lost and a player sent off, but all we are hearing about is the Cech incident, good deflection Jose.

I know what you're saying about the deflection but in this case I think he does have a point, not necessarily to be blaming Hunt, but moreso the fact that he lost both his Keepers in one game (Arguabably the 2 best Keepers in the PL). That coupled with the fact that Cech will be missing for at least six months is reason enough to have a moan, but that's all it is, a moan!

Carcharodon

Has anyone else heard Drogba's statement, accused Hunt of doing it deliberately and said everyone hates us....out to get us or something :rolleyes:
Said Hunt (i think or some other player) was laughing about it when the keeper was being carried off.
Bold Words!!

Jivin Turkey

The only solution is to transfer ban Chelsea until 2012 and dock them 20 points a season.

iregk

hahaha and also make the last two titles null and void as well turkey.

MrJoeSoap

iregk wrote:

Hahaha hillarious stuff here lads. Its quite funny to see the hatred of Chelsea has not only transcended everything football but now we are even having a go at the website design!!! Pure class that one.

This has nothing to do with 'hatred of Chelsea' for me. I've supported Chelsea for the past few years, absolutely delighted they've stopped United from winning the title as plenty of my mates are United fans.

If you look back through my posts you'll find this.

This has to do with the fact that José Mourinho, and now Drogba, are making a mountain out of a molehill here, and are making Steven Hunt a victim in all of this. I believe even more firmly now that Hunt is a completely innocent party, having seen the replays on "You're on Sky Sports" last night its fairly clear that Cechs knee hits Hunts trailing leg and knocks him off balance.

Drop the "everybody hates us, we don't care" attitude, Mourinho and Drogba ought to be ashamed of what they are saying.

iregk

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Drop the "everybody hates us, we don't care" attitude, Mourinho and Drogba ought to be ashamed of what they are saying.

Firstly nobody was even replying to your post! What we were laughing at was pepe's post so get off the high horse.

Secondly, being a blues fan myself I honest couldn't care less if people hate us or not. Is that a crime, should I feel guilty now?

Anam

Just read this on the Chelsea site.

José Mourinho has thrown further light on the events following Petr Cech’s head injury at Reading and before his arrival at hospital.



Speaking on Tuesday afternoon after giving news of Cech’s improved condition, Mourinho stated:



‘My goalkeeper was 30 minutes in the dressing room waiting for an ambulance.



‘The ambulance couldn’t go in the direction of the dressing room. He [Cech] couldn’t leave the dressing room properly and had to go, with the injury he had, in a wheelchair in the lift.



‘He left the stadium 30 minutes after my doctor was calling for an urgent ambulance.



‘If my goalkeeper dies in that dressing room, or in that process, it is something English football has to think about.’



The Chelsea boss explained that the thought of what happened on Saturday evening leaves him emotional.



‘It looks like what I did against Liverpool with ‘shut-up’ is a nightmare,’ he said, referring to his finger-to-lip gesture during the 2005 Carling Cup Final.



‘It looks the player from Man City shows half of his arse for two seconds and it is a big nightmare.



‘But this is a real nightmare! I would like someone to tell me why in this situation my goalkeeper had to wait for 30 minutes for an ambulance.’



Pretty shocking.


Secondly,re mourinhos comments,whether or not he is right or wrong,what he has done is pretty clever,as someone mentioned before he's deflected attention from chelseas poor performance and he's also got all of the players geared up for Barca.

IMO,Hunt was reckless,its hard to say if there was intent but there was no way he was going to get the ball.Keepers need to be protected more,thats now 4 keepers that have been injured as a result of recklessness this season.

Carcharodon

Its a mans game, **** happens in physical and contact sport, he did not intentionaly try and give him a skull fracture :rolleyes:
Keepers get protected enough for gods sake, how many times have we seen them flap for balls and they get frees out for no reason,
I know that is a different situation but an outfield player has the right to go for the ball as much as the goalkeeper so whoever blames an honest hardworking player for an accident is an idiot in my opinion

growler

I know I look at these things through blue tinted glasses but the more I look at the Hunt incident the less I can understand why he didn't jump out of the way like almost any other player (bar Thatcher maybe) would do. I don't buy that Cech's leg caught him and caused him to fall into him, as far as I am concerned Hunt slid in with the intention of trying to let Cech know he was there, it was dangerous stupid play, and the timing with barca visiting tomorrow couldn't be worse.

BaZmO*

growler wrote:

I know I look at these things through blue tinted glasses

Yep.

therecklessone

Anam wrote:

Pretty shocking.

If you believe Mourinho.

But BBC Radio Five Live sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar reported on Tuesday that the local NHS Trust has disputed Chelsea's version of events.

"We understand from the ambulance trust it was Chelsea's doctor who asked for the ambulance to be called when he realised Cech's condition was perhaps more serious than may at first have been the assessment," Farquhar said.

"At 5.45pm it was decided that an ambulance should be called. It arrived at 5.52 - seven minutes after the call was made - and at 11 minutes past six he was in hospital.

"So 26 minutes after the call was made to the ambulance, he actually arrived in hospital."

Cech was taken off the pitch on a stretcher but transported to the ambulance in a wheelchair.

Mourinho criticised this but Farquhar said the ambulance trust claimed it was a Chelsea doctor who opted to use a wheelchair rathern than a stretcher.

He added: "The Chelsea doctor was offered a choice of two routes to take Cech away from the dressing room.

"He could either go on a stretcher in front of the crowd or put in a wheelchair and taken down in a lift.

"The Chelsea doctor made the decision as to how Petr Cech left the dressing room. He chose that he should go in a wheelchair and use the lift.

"They say there was no medical reason for him necessarily to have gone on a stretcher - that he would have been okay either way."

Source

Bateman

Can't believe there's a 5 pager on this. Hunt chose to leave his leg in. That's that. Of course he didn't mean to out someone in hospital, but he did chose to leave his leg in, instead of taking it out of the way.

MrJoeSoap

Reading Football Club would like to respond to comments made by Jose Mourinho regarding the treatment made available to Petr Cech at Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

Mr Mourinho has clearly implied that Reading Football Club did not have the proper medical arrangements in place to provide Petr Cech with the best possible treatment.

We feel it necessary to clearly set the record straight and provide the actual facts of the treatment received by the player.

Mr Mourinho stated: "My goalkeeper was 30 minutes in the dressing room after my doctor called for an urgent ambulance, and he had to go in a wheelchair in a lift.

"I'd like someone to tell me why my goalkeeper had to be for 30 minutes in a dressing room waiting for an ambulance."

This statement contains very serious factual inaccuracies.

The factual timeline of the afternoon's events were as follows:

17.16 The collision between Petr Cech and Stephen Hunt occurred and treatment was provided on the pitch.

17.21 Petr Cech was taken into the dressing room on a stretcher. Chelsea Football Club's medical staff were in charge of the treatment provided to Cech. At first, they decided that it was not necessary to call an ambulance.

17.40 Cech's condition deteriorated and the Chelsea doctor called for assistance which was immediately raised from the stadium medical control.

17.45 After a brief inspection of Cech, the paramedics called for an ambulance.

17.52 The ambulance arrived at the players' entrance.

18.04 The ambulance departed Madejski Stadium.

18.11 The ambulance arrived at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

Petr Cech was taken to the ambulance in a medical chair via a lift, but this was not a necessity. Another route to the ambulance could have been taken and was offered, which would have allowed Cech to remain on a stretcher (the same route used to take Carlo Cudicini to the ambulance later that afternoon), but Chelsea's medical staff decided against this.

For Gods sake José, give us a break.

TheMonster

Mourinho must be close to overstepping the mark and an FA charge. Did he not even think before that comment. The phone calls to emergency services are logged.

iregk

Well just looking at the timings there and thinking could this be a slight misunderstanding? Cech was injured for 30mins before an ambulance was called. From the moment he arrived in the dressing room to when the ambulance arrived was 30mins. Perhaps Jose wasn't aware that it took medical staff 29 mins to decide on calling for an ambulance.

Maybe he was under the assumption that it was called for straight away!

For me the real crook in all of this is the ref. The ever so lovable and endering Mike Riley! Why oh why when Cech was injured with a head injury did he order him off the pitch!!!!

MrJoeSoap

iregk wrote:

Well just looking at the timings there and thinking could this be a slight misunderstanding? Cech was injured for 30mins before an ambulance was called. From the moment he arrived in the dressing room to when the ambulance arrived was 30mins. Perhaps Jose wasn't aware that it took medical staff 29 mins to decide on calling for an ambulance.

José shouldn't be saying what he is saying at press conferences without the facts. He's giving Reading a bad name. I wonder is he trying to take the focus off the game tonight...

iregk wrote:

For me the real crook in all of this is the ref. The ever so lovable and endering Mike Riley! Why oh why when Cech was injured with a head injury did he order him off the pitch!!!!

I'm not having a go, and I didn't see the game as I was working, but did the camera's actually show Mike Riley ordering Cech off the pitch. They were talking about it on Sky on Monday and the presenter of "You're on Sky Sports" posed that question.

BaZmO*

iregk wrote:

Perhaps Jose wasn't aware that it took medical staff 29 mins to decide on calling for an ambulance.

Maybe he was under the assumption that it was called for straight away!

Well if that is the case, don't you think it was incredibly irresponsible of Mourinho to make such serious allegations without having all the facts.

‘If my goalkeeper dies in that dressing room, or in that process, it is something English football has to think about.’

That's a serious thing to say without having the right facts.

Anam

This article more or less sums up how I feel about the whole thing.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/oliverholt/


I wonder how/if Mourinho will respond to what Reading have now said.To be honest i cant imagine him mentioning this two days after Cechs injury unless he was sure he was right,he must have talked to the chelsea doctor.

iregk

BaZmO* wrote:

Well if that is the case, don't you think it was incredibly irresponsible of Mourinho to make such serious allegations without having all the facts.

Oh yeah I agree with you. If it was a case of they called it at 4 and it didn't arrive until 4:30 then yeah fair enough. In this case its obvious the ambulance was there pronto so it was wrong of him to come out and say it. All I was saying is maybe he was misinformed about the facts or got some timings wrong.

JoeSoap, on the cam you could actually see Riley doing that two handed thing refs do motioning a player to leave the pitch. In that case Riley broke all the rules of a ref. In any respect, does anyone else apart from me feel that all premiership grounds should have an ambulance already in the ground on stand by?

Carcharodon

Anam wrote:

This article more or less sums up how I feel about the whole thing.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/oliverholt/

I think that article is a load of sensationalised crap, breaking down what happened into that detailed manner, come on give us a break.
Hollywood tackle ?? slow footballing brain?? load of rubbish in my opinion.
We could say the same thing about every world class outfield player that received a late tackle if this is his argument.
Its a lot different in the actual heat of the moment, has he ever played football i wonder?
It was an accident and outragous he is singling out the young player for the keepers injuries, 99 times out of 100 nothing would of come of it.

astrofool

Perhaps it was those pesky Chelsea assistants misinforming José again *shakes fist*

Anam

Carcharodon wrote:

I think that article is a load of sensationalised crap, breaking down what happened into that detailed manner, come on give us a break.
Hollywood tackle ?? slow footballing brain?? load of rubbish in my opinion.
We could say the same thing about every world class outfield player that received a late tackle if this is his argument.
Its a lot different in the actual heat of the moment, has he ever played football i wonder?
It was an accident and outragous he is singling out the young player for the keepers injuries, 99 times out of 100 nothing would of come of it.

Firstly,the "young player" is 25,not exactly Cesc Fabregas.He should know better than to go in for a challenge like that,I could understand if it were a 50-50,but theres no way that this was.Cech had the ball,no doubt.

Secondly you've no idea if it was an accident,only Hunt can say that.Of course we can assume he didnt mean to put Cech in hospital with a fractured skull but you can say that he was reckless to go for the challenge in the first place,dropped knee or no dropped knee.

BaZmO*

iregk wrote:

Oh yeah I agree with you. If it was a case of they called it at 4 and it didn't arrive until 4:30 then yeah fair enough. In this case its obvious the ambulance was there pronto so it was wrong of him to come out and say it. All I was saying is maybe he was misinformed about the facts or got some timings wrong.

Well maybe we'll find out the truth in today's press conference before the Barca game. And maybe that's just it, all Jose will be talking about is this incident rather than the fact that Barca seem to be Chelsea's achilles heel. Diversion, Diversion, Diversion?

iregk wrote:

JoeSoap, on the cam you could actually see Riley doing that two handed thing refs do motioning a player to leave the pitch. In that case Riley broke all the rules of a ref. In any respect, does anyone else apart from me feel that all premiership grounds should have an ambulance already in the ground on stand by?

Personally I don't know whether or not Riley asked Cech to leave the pitch but one thing is for sure, he let the game play on for quite a while when Cudichini was sprawled out on the deck.

iregk wrote:

does anyone else apart from me feel that all premiership grounds should have an ambulance already in the ground on stand by?

Anywhere that you have up to 80,000 people gathered together at one event there should be an ambulance at the ready regardless of whether or not it is a football match or a pop concert. So yeah, I definitely agree with you on that.

MrJoeSoap

From the Reading fan-sites:

Congratulations to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for further elevation of his idiot status. Mourinho's latest bleatings to the press appear again to be so far from the truth it's impossible to take anything he says seriously. Early tonight Mourinho came up with the following stream of rubbish, when again discussing the Cech incident: "He left 30 minutes after my doctor called for an urgent ambulance. If my goalkeeper dies in that dressing room or in the process it is something English football has to think about. This is much more important than football. I would like someone to tell me why my goalkeeper was left in this situation." Where do you start with that? I guess the first place would be to explain that any delay in the ambulance was caused by the Chelsea team doctor who only arranged for the ambulance to be called when Cech's condition had deteriorated. There is no blame to be allocated, but, if there was then it rests with Chelsea. Then there's the outright sensationalist lie. The ambulance took seven minutes to arrive after the call was placed and not thirty. In fact, Cech was in hospital 26 minutes after Chelsea asked for the ambulance. These are just the facts reported by independent sources. Still, what do we expect from the man who accused Stephen Hunt of deliberately injuring Petr Cech - another pathetic lie. I hope both Reading Football Club and the NHS take this matter further. Mourinho is the kind of individual that English football would do well to be rid of. This whole episode makes Reading fans even more thankful that we have Steve Coppell is charge of our team - ensuring we continue to play fair and honest both on and off the pitch.

You have to wonder if the powers that be at Chelsea have any grip on reality after a string of ridiculous comments following Chelsea's narrow victory at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday. The visitors were unfortunate to have both goalkeepers stretchered off after two accidental collisions at either end of the game. Both incidents were clearly accidents, yet the Chelsea propaganda machine is in full swing to try and harm the good name of Reading Football Club. Who knows why? Perhaps simply ashamed by their club's performance after they were lucky to take a win following a game full of theatrical dives for the benefit of the referee? Chelsea manager Mourinho practically accused Hunt of trying to kill Cech, when replays show Hunt did his best to avoid the goalkeeper when rightly going for the ball. The Chelsea website features a bizarre article that compares Reading, winners of last season's Championship fair play award, to Wimbledon of the 1980s: "I thought he [Mourinho] was kind to Reading as well. Their game reminded me of the 1980s when English football hit an all time low, of lump and run, of challenge and challenge, of Wimbledon and Watford and… sorry, Steve Coppell, but of Crystal Palace." Anyone at the game would have seen two unfortunate accidents either side of Chelsea's continual attempts to cheat and intimidate the referee. Thankfully only Chelsea and certain tabloids are promoting such ridiculous comments. Bob Wilson was quick to set the record straight when speaking with the BBC: "I was sad to hear Jose's comments after the game. The first one looked bad because Hunt was trying to move his foot away from Cech but in doing so bent his knee towards his head. But keepers expect to get bumps and bruises, it's part of what we do. We don't want to be protected all the time." Reading's official website is much less sensational and simply underlines the facts: "We reiterate Steve Coppell and Stephen Hunt's post-match comments that there was absolutely no intent to injure Petr. We firmly believe that the collision was an unavoidable accident, a view which is supported virtually without exception by independent media observers." Every Reading fan will want to wish both Chelsea goalkeepers a quick recovery. In the meantime Mourinho and Chelsea FC should start working up their press release to apologise to Stephen Hunt - a fair and honest professional who doesn't deserve having his name dragged through the press like this.

As for Chelsea, they've created a "Get Well Soon Petr" page on the official site, which I'm sure nobody has a problem with. However, they seem to be leaving the comments unmoderated. I've only had to read the first one to get pissed off...

petr cech get well soon, felt like killing the reading guy who fouled on you. chelsea needs you and you are the best goalkepeer in the world and bope you always remain.

http://chelsea2.chelseafc.com/chat/books/cech/tributes_cech.shtml

Wonder if my message will get through...

thebaz

Carcharodon wrote:

Its a mans game, **** happens in physical and contact sport, he did not intentionaly try and give him a skull fracture :rolleyes:
Keepers get protected enough for gods sake, how many times have we seen them flap for balls and they get frees out for no reason,
I know that is a different situation but an outfield player has the right to go for the ball as much as the goalkeeper so whoever blames an honest hardworking player for an accident is an idiot in my opinion

Its a mans game , but there is a code - why did Hunt not jump ? he nearly killed Cech .Your right though Hunt is a journeyman, and the less we hear of him the better , along with that other idiot Thatcher .

MrJoeSoap

thebaz wrote:

Its a mans game , but there is a code - why did Hunt not jump ? he nearly killed Cech .Your right though Hunt is a journeyman, and the less we hear of him the better , along with that other idiot Thatcher .

What the ****? Journeyman? Three clubs in his career and he's a journeyman?

As for nearly killing Cech, get a grip. His foot was clipped by Cech's knee as he went past, it was clumsy at the worst.

Is this the first time you have heard of Steven Hunt? Comparing him with Ben Thatcher is bizarre.

Jose Mourinho has compared the challenge to Ben Thatcher's elbowing of Pedro Mendes at Manchester City but, for me, it is a completely false comparison. The Thatcher incident was so unacceptable because it was pre-meditated; you could have had 100 repetitions of the clash between Hunt and Cech and not seen the Chelsea goalkeeper being carried off with a depressed fracture of the skull.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/10/16/sfnhan16.xml

"Its Chelsea, not Hunt, who need to apologise"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=410841&in_page_id=1779&ct=5