Guillem Balague: England's interpretation of the beautiful game is becoming increasingly ugly

Manchester City’s convincing victory over Cardiff City in the FA Cup and its aftermath go a long way to showing us just where England’s interpretation of the beautiful game currently stands and, in my eyes, it is not that pleasing.

Pep Guardiola is not the first coach to call for more protection for the players. Arsene Wenger has been banging that particular drum for a long time now and with due cause bearing in the career changing incidents that have occurred to some of his players in the past. And he has been right all along. Why did nobody want to listen?

Much of what used to define the English game – both in deed and attitude – is encapsulated by Joe Bennett’s crude assault on Leroy Sane and it is more luck that judgement that sees Leroy Sane facing time on the sidelines rather than a potential career threatening injury.

It reminded me of the Peter Kay commercial for John Smith’s beer where following a display of freestyle skills and keepie-uppies from other players, the comedian’s reaction to receiving the ball is to lump it out of the ground with an accompanying cry of “‘Ave it!!”

It also robbed the neutral of witnessing what was potentially one of the goals of the season and effectively changed the course of the game as Manchester City, with the game effectively won, concentrated in the second half on keeping possession and getting involved as little as possible.

It also told us much about the quality of refereeing in this country. Lee Mason clearly saw what happened although his decision to issue just a yellow card begs the question as to just what type of physical assault he would deem worthy of a straight red.

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His decision to issue just a yellow scuppered any chances of the FA taking any retrospective action against Bennett because any decision taken by the referee confirms he has seen the incident and it is considered dealt with. What it also did was give Bennett license to carry out a further assault and leave a ‘Welcome to English Football’ message on the 18-year-old Spanish substitute, Brahim Diaz, an action which saw him get a second yellow and his marching orders.

The shameful reaction of the Cardiff crowd who stood to applaud Bennett as he marched off is one of the most depressing things I have ever seen in football. Is that why you paid money to watch a game? Anything goes? I don’t expect boos from his own fans, but a silent departure would have been just enough. The clapping had not an ounce of awareness of what it was being endorsed.

But that is not English football anymore. It is just a part of it. One that does not want to die but one that I think we could do without. What followed was not pleasing either.

Neil Warnock’s reaction to Guardiola’s request for greater protection for the players – and, incidentally, ALL players, not just his and not just foreign – would have met with the approval of the mindless who had shortly before paid homage to Bennett.

“He’s in England, isn’t he?” (Wrong actually – he was in Wales, but never mind). He went on, “What do you expect? I suppose when you’re like that you want everything to be nice and pretty but you don’t get that in England. You get different challenges, don’t you?

He stopped short of inquiring whether or not this City side could do it on a Tuesday night on a frozen pitch in Stoke but the inference was there and the only thing you sensed was missing was Corporal Jones proclaiming from the ranks, “They don’t like it up ’em, Captain Mainwaring.”

It was yet another inaccurate pop at the unfounded notion held by many in this country that foreign imports are little more than cheating, diving, airy-fairy, arty-farty, ball-juggling, prima donna, powder puffs, who don’t like it when the going starts to get tough and fall over at the merest hint of a challenge.

Guardiola’s side are no angels. Far from it. Sergio Aguero’s dreadful tackle on David Luiz proved as much and Fernandinho is far from being a shrinking violet. But his assertion that ALL players need more protection still stands up.

We are however indebted to Mr Warnock for clarifying the situation. The fault, it seems, did not lie with Bennett at all. It was Sane’s fault apparently because he was just TOO quick. Now, if he had both the decency and common sense to play a little bit slower then these types of things wouldn’t happen to players like him because they then could be tackled fairly by pedestrian defenders. It beggars belief.

Bennett’s eventual sending off means he now faces a one match ban. We’ll come back to that in a minute.

He has of course issued the now standard ‘apology’. A kind of “Oops, sorry about that.” You know the sort of thing. “Mistimed it”, “No Malice”, “Hope it’s nothing serious” blah, blah blah.

The apology comes immediately after the media, both written and social, rounded on the defender accusing him of thuggery. Not before time.

We’ve been here before of course. Back in 2010 when Ryan Shawcross’s horror tackle Aaron Ramsey left the young Welshman with a broken leg and cast severe doubts over his career you couldn’t move for articles that left you wondering exactly who the injured party was.

An article in the Telegraph after the incident quoted Stoke teammates Rory Delap and Danny Pugh defending Shawcross.

“I know Ryan and he wouldn’t mean to do that. Ryan was in tears and he is not a lad who would go out to do that. He will be devastated and we will need to pick him up,” said Delap, before adding, “But our thoughts are with Aaron,” which must have come as an enormous consolation to the player as he lay in his hospital bed.

“Ryan’s a young lad, but he’s got a mature head, so he’ll be able to just concentrate on his game and get over this,” Pugh added. Presumably quicker than Ramsey would manage.

To this day Ramsey is still booed every time he plays at Stoke. Why? You tell me. Stoke fans should hang their heads in shame.

For Arsenal, it was a case of deja vu following an – if possible – even worse injury suffered by Eduardo in 2008 following a dreadful tackle from Martin Taylor that effectively finished his career at Arsenal, and many believe signalled the beginning of the decline to the Gunners’ season.

What we got, once again, was a host of articles starting with the customary apology, claims that there was no intention, the player was just too quick, no malice, that he wasn’t that type of player, that nobody goes out with the intention of hurting a fellow professional, etc etc etc.

Arsene Wenger didn’t quite see it like that and initially called for a life ban on the player, before retracting his comment. He did add however, “People will say he is not the type of guy who does that.”

“But it is like a guy who kills only once in his life. There is still a dead person.”

And finally back to the bans involved. Bennett’s assaults will earn him a one match ban. Back in 2008 Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo left him out of action for just three games. Shawcross was also hit with a three match ban before returning to the Stoke line up with claims that, “Whenever I play for Stoke I am 100% committed and that will be the same as ever when I next play.”

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The day before the Cardiff v Manchester City match, West Ham defender, Arthur Masuaku was sent off for spitting at the Wigan midfielder Nick Powell. He has been banned for six games.

Let’s be clear about this. Spitting at an opponent is disgusting. It is unquestionably a straight red card offence, but can we please get some kind of perspective here.

I have never heard of any player who has had his career shortened, seriously affected or terminated because he has been ‘gobbed’ on.

The footballing public and the media seem to be of the opinion that it is about as low as you can sink in the manly, beefy, testosterone charged world that is professional football. I think they are wrong; it isn’t.

And if you don’t believe me then ask the likes of Leroy Sane, Eduardo de Silva and Aaron Ramsey if, given a choice, which of the two options would they have plumped for.