I was reading a story yesterday that caused me a bit of a dilemma. You see, I like to think I have pretty strong principles and when it comes to football I tend to voice pretty strong opinions on those principles (I know, for those who visit this blog regularly, that’ll come as a surprise, lol).
And yet, when I read a story relating to a certain Chelsea player yesterday, I found those principles compromised.
I’ll explain. 19-year-old Chelsea defender, Slobodan Rajkovic (currently on loan at Eredivisie side Twente), has just received a year’s ban from all competitions. It appears that during the Olympics, the Serbian was given a red card in the group phase match against Argentina. Clearly the youngster disagreed strongly with the ref’s decision and is subsequently alleged to have lost his head and spat in the ref’s face.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have never, and will never think it’s alright for any player to spit at anyone on the pitch – it’s completely unprofessional, not to mention totally disrespectful, and disgusting. When John Terry was accused of doing the same thing to Tevez in the Champions League final, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to see the video just in case he had actually done it. Not that I think JT’s an angel – far from it sometimes – but more because I knew it would be impossible to regard him as a worthy captain of Chelsea if he’d stoop to that level. Fortunately though, the video didn’t show anything you could call indisputable evidence, and any charges against him appeared to agree with that, so I wasn’t forced to dwell on it.
Anyway, back to Rajkovic, and the reason for my dilemma. When I first read it, my first reaction was “serves him right the disgusting little toe-rag.” Then reading on, I learnt that the Serbian FA plan to oppose the ban and that Twente and Chelsea are going to support their decision. According to the Serbian FA, the view is that “He made a mistake, but this punishment is totally ridiculous. It’s denying him the possibility to do his job if they decide to go ahead with this (ban).”
So, by this time I’m right up on my soap-box. “It’s his behaviour that was totally ridiculous. Why should he have the possibility to do his job if that’s the sort of thing he’s going to do?” I’m shouting – all at the laptop obviously. But then, while I’m still ranting on with all the reasons Chelsea should just get rid of him and have no more to do with a player like this, I had a little read up on him, firstly because if I’m honest I hadn’t even heard of him and secondly because I was curious why they hadn’t immediately disassociated themselves from a teenager with the potential to bring this sort of shame on the club.
Now for the choker – this kid seems to have real potential, such potential in fact that having begun his career with OFK Beograd, he was included in the first team at the tender age of 15, and his reputation grew to such an extent, that by the time he was 16 and in his second season, Chelsea paid an astonishing £3.8million for him. He stayed at OFK Beograd on loan until the end of the 2006/07 season, following which he was loaned to PSV Eindhoven as part of the deal which saw Alex come our way. This summer, Chelsea declined to send him back to PSV when asked although allowed Steve McClaren’s FC Twente to take him on loan for the season. And then he went off to the Olympics………
And here’s where my principles come unstuck a bit because whilst I really have no intention of ever defending a Chelsea player for spitting – no matter what level they might play at – if you look at the ban itself, you’d have to say a year seems pretty harsh. Whilst I appreciate with all the ‘Respect The Ref’ stuff right now it couldn’t have come at a worse time, if you look at some other bans as a comparison, it does seem a little excessive. Even Adrian Mutu, for example, only got 7 months and he tested positive for using cocaine. So for a start, is the length of ban even in keeping with the offence? I honestly don’t know.
Then on to the question of whether a club like Chelsea should even keep him on the books, and whilst my (principled) heart says I really don’t want player’s like this associated with the club, my head says would they be cutting off their very expensive nose to spite their face if that’s what they chose to do? He’s 19, he’s most definitely got lessons to learn and as disgusting as his behaviour is alleged to have been, can they afford to kick him out, only for another big club (who aren’t as bothered by his actions) pick him up and have him defend – a little too well – against us? What if he fulfils all that potential? What if, like Adrian Mutu, he goes on to make you think ‘what if he’d been given a second chance at Chelsea?’ Again, it’s not a question I’ve been able to, or even particularly want to answer because it goes against the grain.
Now, the hot-headed defender denies the allegations and plans to plead his innocence via an appeal. However, the fact that the Serbian FA have already inadvertently suggested “He made a mistake”, doesn’t bode well for him really.
So what should Chelsea do?
Blue is the colour
