Rewind to Germany 2006, and the “wink gate” furore between Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. For those readers either too young or living in caves at the time, “wink gate” surrounded Portuguese schemer Ronaldo cheekily winking at his bench after Rooney was dismissed for a stamp on Portugal’s Ricardo Carvalho.
Those were the halcyon days of England reaching World Cup quarter finals. Rooney was of course guilty for his actions, and deserved to be red carded – but there is no doubt that Ronaldo and his selfish actions influenced the referees’ judgement of the incident.
What will happen now? Was the main consensus at the time. With ten man England beaten and out of the tournament coupled with Rooney and Ronaldo both playing for Manchester United, the media had an absolute field day debating whether or not the two could play for the same club again, let alone whether or not Ronaldo the person could even set foot in England again without fear of the lynch mob.
Fast forward eight years, and we now find ourselves in the midst of the sorry fallout of another row involving arguably the best player currently plying his trade in the Premier League. No, Luis Suarez did not blatantly cheat against England. He didn’t get one of our lads sent off. On the contrary, he destroyed us on the field – half fit – on his own – and dropped us into the abyss of yet another World Cup flop.
So, to castigate him for England’s demise is not fair and incredibly inaccurate. To Suarez’s immense credit, he has risen from the ashes on these shores and incredibly redeemed himself in both the media and fans’ eyes in the aftermath of the previous bite, this victim of course being Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic. Such was the shock and uproar surrounding this horrendous and surprising attack last year, it would have seemed unfathomable for Suarez to then go on and scoop up various English Player Of The Year awards. Most notably, and ironically, the Football Writers Association Player Of The Year award, just twelve months later.
Some achievement, one must say.
Which is what makes the events of the last ten days so bizarre. Back to the aftermath of the World Cup in 2006, Ronaldo of course came back to England with his tail between his legs. He wanted out, but United wouldn’t sell him. He would get jeered pretty heavily, but for the most part just got on with the job in hand and went on to star for United for another three years.
Brilliantly man managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, Rooney and Ronaldo even became “good mates” again, kissed and made up, and this was a bad story with a happy ending. Ronaldo never received full redemption from most other English fans outside of Old Trafford, but like Suarez last season, it was respected that his football really did do the talking. This is the point where the parallels in these stories end though.
Whether or not he has endeavoured to engineer a move away from Liverpool will of course soon become evident, but the actions of Suarez in the last week have baffled and mystified us all. To slate the same English press who rewarded you so handsomely just three months ago is simply a suicidal move if you want to continue your career in England. Suarez was even reluctantly praised for his match winning show for Uruguay against England, that’s right – universally praised – by the same media who revered you.
So to then attack the media for “attacking” him seemed very odd, and very bitter. But we now know the reason for that rant: he was sowing the seeds for the beginning of the end of his career on these shores. It would be naïve to suppose that nobody is behind this – the probable candidate is the cash hungry agent of Suarez, but I would expect him to be a Barcelona player very soon.
Liverpool have been robbed of their star player through his own stupidity, and with the club on the cusp of a Champions League return can ill afford the scenario they now face – either a player on their books unable to either train or play until November, or the impossible job of replacing Suarez. £50 million doesn’t buy you a lot these days.
Here is yesterday’s apology, for what it’s worth:
“After several days of being home with my family, I have had the opportunity to regain my calm of and reflect about the reality of what occurred during the Italy-Uruguay match on 24 June, 2014. Independent from the fallout and the contradicting declarations that have surfaced during these past days, all of which have been without the intention of interfering with the good performance of my national team, the truth is that my colleague Giorgio Chiellini suffered the physical result of a bite in the collision he suffered with me.
For this: –
– I deeply regret what occurred
– I apologise to Giorgio Chiellini and the entire football family
– I vow to the public that there will never be another incident like it”
The sorry losers in this desperate situation are Liverpool, the Uruguyan FA and his “supporters”, who’s intelligence have been severely compromised by both the actions of Suarez, and his “apology”. For all of his ability, he has gone too far this time.
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Main Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
