As if there wasn’t enough of a media storm surrounding Gareth Bale at the moment after his absence from the Team GB Olympic squad, the player has again been thrust into yet another public slugging match. This time though, it may be the other party coming under heavy criticism after Bale was left struggling to be fit for the start of the upcoming domestic campaign at the hands of a reckless Charlie Adam tackle, in what was supposed to be a pre-season friendly in both teams’ current US Tours.
The game itself finished fairly uneventfully but it will be the antics of Adam that will be best remembered. Cutting Bale down from behind making very little attempt to play the ball, the events in Baltimore added a new chapter to what appears to be Charlie Adams number one goal of injuring Bale whenever the opportunity presents itself. This of course isn’t the first time we’ve seen this aggressive behaviour toward our flying winger after Adam put Bale out for 3 months two seasons ago when playing for Blackpool. That tackle was much worse than what Saturday night seen but that is still no excuse for Adams’ unacceptable behaviour. The question I want to focus on today is what should and what ultimately will happen as a result of the horror tackle?
Personally I believe Adam should be made accountable for his actions and punished in some way by one of our regulating bodies; or all of them! It’s very easy to sweep this sort of behaviour under the carpet and forget it ever happened, but that is not easy to do when one of your best players has been put out of action for the beginning of the new season. The silence has yet to be broken from Tottenham on the extent of Bales’ condition, but if he has sustained an injury surely Adam must be punished for his actions? The argument that the game was a pre-season friendly and not a competitive match will doubtless be raised by the Scouse hypocrites if steps are taken to punish Adam for his crimes, but I don’t see that that should have anything to do with it. Competitive game or not Charlie Adam acted recklessly and cynically endangered the fitness of another professional; the fact that the game was supposed to be a “friendly” actually makes it worse!
What I think ultimately will happen though is absolutely nothing. Voices on the Liverpool side will starting crying again about how all their players are singled out and treated unfairly and the FA will sit back and do nothing, too scared of rocking the boat after the storm surrounding the punishment of another of Liverpool’s dirty players last season. Failure to take action is just as bad as the crime itself for me and I’ll finish by posing this question; if Wayne Rooney and not Gareth Bale was taken out and injured by Charlie Adam during a pre season friendly, would the reaction of the governing bodies in punishing the accused be any different? I think we all know the answer to that one.
Come On You Spurs.
By Craig Harrison
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