Sean Dyche mocked Harry Kane for going to ground in the manner he did for the Abdoulaye Doucoure red card incident against Everton.
There has been plenty of criticism levelled at Kane few days for the manner in which he went down after Doucoure put his arm in the striker’s face.
Danny Murphy accused the Tottenham man of ‘stitching up’ the Everton star and remarked that the England captain ’embarrassed himself’ (talkSPORT).
Jamie Carragher remarked on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football (as relayed by The Daily Mail) that while Doucoure deserved a red card, the England captain should have not hit the floor.
Dyche has now mocked Kane, joking that he thought the striker had snapped an eyelash.
The Everton boss said (via The Mail’s Dominic King): “I thought at one point he (Kane) might have snapped an eyelash, which would have been tragic.
“Abdoulaye certainly didn’t have to speak to the group to say anything.”
Dyche added that footballers are setting a bad example for kids by diving around every week, suggesting that there is an issue with the way rules are implemented.
He said: “The strange thing about football, the following of football, the rules and the governing bodies, is that on one night you have a player who, in theory, is very close to getting a broken ankle and nothing is said, and another gets a broken eyelash and it’s like the world is going to end.
“There is an undercurrent of fans who are like: ‘Oh come on, really?’ and just want to get on with the game, but everyone has become so precious. The rules are so precious, in society as well as football.
“It was a big drama over nothing, although I was worried when they concussion-tested him. I thought: ‘Wow, this could be a close one’.
“I think the in-house view of things is strange in football now. What do you think my teammates would have thought of me if I’d have done that in the mid-90s?
“They’d have laughed at me. But now they don’t. Millions of kids see footballers cheat every week, diving all over the place, and no one says a word.
“Someone gets flicked in the eyelash and it becomes a big situation. That’s just the way it is now.”
The former Burnley boss clarified that he does not consider what Kane did as cheating but he suggested that Lucas Moura’s foul on Michael Keane was much more dangerous.
The 51-year-old added: “I don’t regard that as cheating. It’s gamesmanship. But diving and stuff, going down when you haven’t been touched and self-kicking, that’s cheating. There’s a difference.
“They brought in a yellow card for diving. If I’m a centre-forward with a chance of getting a penalty or a yellow card, do you think that’s going to stop me going down? Of course, it’s not.
“I’m not talking about individuals here. I don’t think for one second that Moura meant it, but he could have hurt him.
“Equally, and this isn’t particularly about Harry Kane, if someone touches you in the face now, you go down.
“I know I joked about it but it is worrying to me when I see the physio concussion testing him after that. Really? Come on. And that’s not about being a football manager, it’s just being human.
“If lads go down in training here, I do tell them to get up. I have my own authentic standards.”
Spurs Web Opinion
There is a decent chance that Doucoure would not have been sent off had Kane stayed on his feet, which is why the striker was 100 per cent correct to go down.
The question must be put to the referees on why they do not give fouls, penalties or red cards for incidents where players do not go down as that is essentially the main root cause of this gamesmanship from players.