Arsenal are considering legal action against Dan Smith, the 19-year-old Sunderland defender who has left Abou Diaby facing at least six months out with a fractured ankle and ruptured ankle ligaments after hitting him with a dangerous tackle on Monday.
The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger yesterday described Smith's challenge as one of "wicked stupidity" and said: "If you do that to a guy in the street you go to jail."
Wenger did not call for Smith to face that penalty but said he wanted "justice" for a tackle he believes was made with intent to harm, an accusation strenuously denied by Smith.
Wenger is furious that the referee, Dermot Gallagher, showed only a yellow card and, in the hope of opening the way for Smith to be banned, called on the official to acknowledge that he misjudged the challenge, but the Football Association said Fifa did not allow it to take retrospective disciplinary action.
That means Arsenal will have to go through the courts if they are intent on making Smith pay. "The guy who harms you in life has to be punished," said Wenger, who wants Smith to be banned for as long as Diaby is injured. Whether or not he carries through his threat of legal action, he surely hopes this will send a strong message.
"I am very upset and very disappointed with the tackle," he said. "Having watched it again I just feel I will not leave this case there because there was bad intention in the tackle. There was only one intention in this tackle - to hurt the player - and it's a career-threatening tackle. I will take legal advice to see how far I can go."
Sunderland were trailing 3-0 when Smith launched into Diaby. The French midfielder has had surgery and is not expected to play for six to nine months. Wenger said the FA should ban Smith and he questioned refereeing interpretations, comparing Monday's incident with last week's involving West Ham's Hayden Mullins and Liverpool's Luis Garcia.
"Mullins and Garcia just pushed a little bit each other and they get a red card, but you can kill the career of someone and get a yellow one," he said. Of course the FA should do something. Gallagher should come out and say: 'Listen, I have misjudged this tackle.' He doesn't say a word. I find it appalling."
The governing body argues that its hands are tied. It had a system that allowed referees to recommend cards be upgraded or downgraded after they had reviewed incidents.
At the start of the season Jermaine Jenas had a red card downgraded, but Fifa intervened when a yellow card shown to Chelsea's Michael Essien for a tackle on Bolton's Tal Ben Haim was set to be upgraded. "We were informed by Fifa earlier this season that we could not continue with this system," an FA spokesman said. Smith has apologised for the tackle.
Alex Ferguson is to ask Nike to review the Total 90 Supremacy football boot which Wayne Rooney was wearing for the first time in a competitive match when he broke his metatarsal last Saturday in order to determine whether the shoe played any part in the severity of the injury.
While the club's medical staff and Rooney have exonerated Nike of any blame, Ferguson is keen for the sportswear manufacturers to scrutinise the boot's performance again.
Sven-Goran Eriksson is prepared to go to any lengths to keep Rooney in his World Cup plans. His patience would even stretch as far as a recovery date of July 9th for the forward's injury. On that day the final of the tournament will be played in Berlin. Why would the England manager do that? "To win the final," he said.
It is no part of Eriksson's duties to assume his side will have returned home before that issue can arise.
His tenacious hope that Rooney will take part keeps on being tainted, however, by realism. The England team doctor Leif Sward will travel today for talks with his Manchester United counterpart Mike Stone but Eriksson is not expecting any great encouragement, even if the club says the attacker could resume training in six weeks. "Miracles happen in life now and then," said the manager, giving a frank indication of the odds against Rooney.
The player will remain in Manchester until he is fit, whether, as Eriksson put it, "that is before, during or after the World Cup". Good news for Eriksson, however, is that Ashley Cole will be fresh and in perfect shape for the World Cup after returning this week from a long-term absence. Cole is set to begin Arsenal's game at Manchester City tonight, giving him his first start since October.
Arsenal take on City without Emmanuel Adebayor (sinus infection) and the rested Gael Clichy and Dennis Bergkamp.
