What I find odd is that the following factors are ALL being assumed with no evidence at all.
1. It was a deliberate stamp - Having looked at it a few times, it PROBABLY was.
2. Balotelli KNEW Parker's face was there - We have NO IDEA on this one, yet TONNES of people are just assuming he did. Bizarre.
3. His apology afterwards was fake - Again, we have NO IDEA whether it was or not.
You have to assume a LOT of unproven stuff.
1) Yep deliberate
2) It was a nasty spur of the moment action, the outcome was undoubtedly dangerous.
3) Players tend to apologies for themselves, trying to deflect any resulting punishment.
3. So....he shouldn't apologise? Confused what you are suggesting he SHOULD do then.
I'm not condoning the stamp at all. My point is, have we been this hard on EVERY SINGLE OTHER PLAYER WHO HAS STAMPED ONCE IN THEIR ENTIRE CAREER? I doubt it.
1. Agreed.
2. So, as agreed, NO idea that his head was there (which is one of the reasons people are upgrading this stamp, so to speak, into a worse offence)
3. So....he shouldn't apologise? Confused what you are suggesting he SHOULD do then.
I think BigGully means it was an empty apology, he was just saying the words so he can claim he apologised, rather than apologising because he was genuinely sorry.
And this proves my point that people are ASSUMING the apology was fake. Too many things are being assumed here.
I'm not condoning the stamp at all, I just think there's a bit of an overreaction on here, BASED on a number of ASSUMPTIONS, is all.
1. Agreed.
2. So, as agreed, NO idea that his head was there (which is one of the reasons people are upgrading this stamp, so to speak, into a worse offence)
3. So....he shouldn't apologise? Confused what you are suggesting he SHOULD do then.
We've all seen plenty of stamps in the past, but for me this one was elevated above the others as being far worse, because he was ramming his boot into the guys FACE. An inch or two either way and thats his studs going into Parkers eye socket.
Its only through sheer luck that Balotelli didn't do some very serious, permanent damage to Parker. He's a complete nutter - and not in a funny way any more.