It is not about Arsenal, Wenger, intent or Shawcross

The whole broken leg incident has unleashed the moronic side of English football commentary. Paul Parker was duly put in his place by user comments after his shockingly stupid article on Eurosport. Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail is the only person that managed to see the big picture about protecting players – all players, not just Arsenal players.

Meanwhile there is outpouring of support for Shawcross whom I am NOT going to criticise because this is not about him. However, you would think from reading the news that Shawcross is the principal victim of what happened on Saturday. And you will also find in newspapers all kinds of former footballer and users who talk about this in terms of Wenger's comments and personality, in terms of Arsenal and how Arsenal players also commit fouls. That is the small picture. Surely an incident like this (a repeat incident that has not only affected Arsenal but also affected many football clubs) should spark a debate about stopping this from happening rather than cheap shots and clinging to allegiances.

If we discuss what happens in terms of Arsenal or Wenger or Showcross then it leads nowhere. In fact, it is leading nowhere right now. What we should do (Obama style) is find our common ground. The common ground, I assume, for everyone who loves football is that serious injury and multiple fractures should not be simply accepted as an inevitable side effect of football. Running over pedestrians is not simply accepted as inevitable side effect of car ownership. We work hard to make sure it doesn't happen. We have rules and we try to improve those rules all the time. The common ground is that we should protect players from this.

A drunk driver quite likely has no intention to kill. But as soon as he steps behind the wheel, he has no control over what might happen. If you tackle at high speed with a raised leg, you have no control over what might happen. Such a tackle is what leads to broken legs and serious injury. In my view, intent, mistiming or winning the ball don't come into it. You should simply put these tackles under the dangerous tackles list, just like tackles from behind and send people off for doing it whether they get the ball or not. Just like you get punished for drink driving whether you kill somebody or not.

Chiellini got his tackle against van Persie absolutely right. But van Persie sustained serious injury. Why? Because it was high and at high speed. Those tackles cause injury and break legs even when you get them right and they should be dealt with like tackles from behind which football decided to deal with because they caused serious injury when contact was made. Today, in theory, if you tackle at high speed from behind and win the ball, you can still get sent off. That is a good rule.

Intent or malice is irrelevant to this argument. Players can be stopped from doing dangerous things if the penalty for it is high. Take the case of penalties. There is no way Shawcross would have made that tackle in the penalty box. Players know what they are doing, they can be stopped from doing stupid things that result in unintended consequences. In the penalty box, a player will refrain from a tackle that he doubts he can make because the cost of that tackle is a penalty. He owns the risk of making that tackle.

Outside the penalty box, a player will make a dangerous tackle where he is not sure he can win the ball because he doesn't own the risk. The risk is to another player. In a frontal tackle even when it is high and at high speed, he only risks a yellow card so it's no problem. The real risk (a broken leg or serious injury) is somebody else's. Surely that is not right. It is not right that a player would do something that has a high risk to a fellow professional's career but would be so careful when the risk is a penalty. You may not agree depending how heartless you are but I think a player's health and future is more important that a penalty.

Players put incredible risks on each other for very little gain on a grand context. Liam Ridgewell who has gone on to commit other serious tackles put Walcott out with a knee injury and it could have been much worse had Theo been just a fraction into another stride. That tackle was about warning Theo against running at him. The risk Ridgewell took outside the penalty box was nothing. He didn't even get a card for it. But the risk he placed on Theo was huge. Theo was out for more than a month. Surely we can all agree that it is not acceptable.

We must protect all players. Ex-footballers and commentators who use this as an opportunity to have their swing at Arsenal or Wenger are way off mark. You can have a problem with Arsenal or Wenger but if you love football, it must be important to make sure that we see Rooney and Fabregas playing. That Ramsey and Pienaar are playing, that Shawcross and Martin Taylor are on the pitch. They suffer all kinds of silly injuries that they cannot help already as it is. It is unnecessary to add avoidable serious injuries to that list. We want them playing.

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