Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has provided a dangerous assessment of the challenge which left Jeremie Frimpong crocked on the Fir Park turf yesterday.
Frimpong had to be taken off for the final 20 minutes of yesterday’s convincing 4-1 hammering of the Steelmen in North Lanarkshire. The result ensured that Celtic didn’t lose any ground on title rivals Rangers, who had a straight-forward home clash against Hamilton hours later.
But the injury to Frimpong overshadowed the importance and impressive nature of the result. Devante Cole’s ridiculous knee-high, studs-up challenge on the Celtic wing-back was a disgrace, and the fact he only got a booking for it left plenty of Hoops supporters seething post-match. You can view the incident for yourself below:
https://twitter.com/10inarow10nro/status/1325426962811252736
It was grim, yet Robinson showed a real lack of class when he was asked to describe his thoughts on the wreckless lunge by his centre-forward.
As quoted by the Daily Record, Robinson said: “No (it’s not a red card). He tries to win the ball. A red card is if there is malice in it – he tries to win the ball.
“If he caught him, he caught him, but there’s no malice in it.
“I know Devante Cole and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Devante make a tackle, so it would be hard to say there’s any kind of malice in it.”
A lack of both empathy and class from Robinson here
Before we go into the ethical aspects of Robinson’s comments, it’s important to note that he’s actually just plain wrong here.
The official IFAB rules on sendings off for this season states that a player should be sent off for either violent conduct or serious foul play (in amongst other things) The latter is considered “A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality” (IFAB Laws of the Game, Season 2020/21, Page 113).
It doesn’t say anything about whether there needs to be malice in it or not. Even that’s debatable when you look at the recklessness of the challenge by Cole in any case. But it’s irrelevant – it’s a red card regardless.
But then you have the moral side of Robinson’s comments. We didn’t really plan to go in hard on the Motherwell manager after we criticised his lack of grace in his summary of yesterday’s game, but the truth is these comments can’t just go ignored.
His defending of the challenge is extremely poor. First off, there’s no acknowledgement of the pain Frimpong is in or any well wishes that he’s in good condition. Robinson comes off here as if he doesn’t really care all that much. Not that that’s the case – but it’s how things look when you look at the language he’s chosen.
You then have the fact that he’s defending that type of challenge too. He could very easily have defended Cole’s character and simply said that it was one overzealous challenge. But he’s refusing to even do that. Instead, he wants to paint a picture that a challenge as brutal and dangerous as that is okay, so long as there’s no malice of course.
This is a dangerous train of thought for Robinson to let manifest around his dressing room, and sends out the wrong message to his and rival squads. He could and should’ve chosen his words better here.
In other news, the Celtic supporters were delighted with the performance of a star who’s consistently been written off this season.
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