‘Ben Thatcher should get a 10-match ban, at least. His forearm smash on Pedro Mendes would get you arrested for GBH if you did it to someone in the street. The FA must be tough about this kind of thing.’ [Blog FC]
‘We talk about handballs not being given and dives being given as
penalties, and we fight so much about who is cheating and who is not. How about we tell our referees, first and foremost, to cut this sort of violence out of football?’ [Soccerlens]
‘We’re not sure which is more criminal, the elbow thrown by Manchester
City’s Ben Thatcher during yesterday’s match against Portsmouth or the
fact that Thatcher was only shown a yellow card for his forearm shiver
to the face of Pedro Mendes.’ [The Offside]
‘Special mention must be made for Ben Thatcher though. Poor
positioning and distribution was augmented by an attitude that bordered
on disinterested, but as I’ve read reports when I got back it seems his
challenge on Pedro Mendes was not merely clumsy and unnecessary, as I
thought at the time, but a deliberate one in which he led with his
elbow.’ [Bitter and Blue]
‘Thatcher’s body language screamed guilt – he has form for this sort of thuggery, don’t forget – yet he is likely to escape any footballing sanction. That is not just wrong, it is ridiculous.’ [Guardian Football Blog]
Here’s what Mendes himself thought of ‘that tackle’, which you can watch here.