J'accuse

Watched Match of the Day with the kids this morning. And, for all the immense pleasure and gratifying schadenfreude at watching Wayne Bridge's Man C demolish John Terry's Chelsea 2:4 thanks to four mistakes by the hapless latter and, believe me, the pleasure was immense and the schadenfreude gratifying, I wish to talk about something else - Aaron Ramsey's injury.

So, to all you Premiership managers I have a simple question. When preparing your team to play Arsenal at home, in winter, north of the A406, did you say to your players anything like: "You know Arsenal, they play nice, but they're soft. Football is a physical game. A men's game. So, go ahead, show them how it's done. Play them off the field"?

Now, Aaron Ramsey is no Dreyfus and I am, most definitely, not Émile Zola. But, I will say this, to any Premiership manager who said anything of the sort, and I imagine it is most of them, I blame you. I blame you for Eduardo's broken leg cutting through the skin of his calf and into the turf. I blame you for Ramsey's foot dangling from his shin. I blame you for all those near-misses when a player escaped with a mere 2-months on the sidelines.

Football is a men's game. Men who honour each other and their profession. Men who play for the love of the game and the joy of the fans. Not men who hurt each other so badly that children - like MBBS - should not be allowed to watch MOTD for fear of being traumatised.

And for you MGF N - 190km, or 19% done. 27.40km ahead of schedule.