re: Liverpool FC 2012/13 Season Long Thread

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Meanwhile, Suarez's fellow Uruguayan Gus Poyet, the Brighton manager, has hit out at what he said was "hypocrisy" in the way the Liverpool player was treated.


Poyet, who has staunchly defended his compatriot in the past, said he believed Suarez was a victim of double standards, saying: "There are players who have done terrible things, apologised after two minutes and have been portrayed as a hero for apologising quickly.


"Luis Suarez apologises immediately and nobody believes the apology. It's sad. Are they living their personal lives by the same rules? I don't like that. There is plenty of hypocrisy in football now."


He said he believed the bite incident had been blown out of proportion, adding that it had done "no harm really" and that bad challenges were worse but seen differently.


"If a player goes over the top of the ball and tries to break a leg? That's good because we are strong and we like the tackle," Poyet explained. "That's where we are in England. I know where I am living, and I adapt and I live with it.


"Luis knows what he has done, he knows he shouldn't do it and it would be better for him, of course, not to have any more issues this year."


He said that, if he were the forward's manager, "I would take him with me somewhere else, to any other country" and added: "If everybody is against him, he will leave."

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Finally, I would like to finish by putting forward a thought from a footballer’s perspective about the incident.

The bite was shocking, no question, and everyone who has seen it was amazed. Yet was it worse than a challenge that could end someone’s career?

I know what it is like to have your leg broken by a reckless tackle. Lucas Neill cost me six months of my career in September 2003 when he played for Blackburn. Would I have preferred to have been bitten? Absolutely.

I suspect that Branislav Ivanovic, who has conducted himself with great credit in the aftermath, would agree.

You can get up and carry on after a skirmish. If someone shatters your leg, you wonder whether you will play again.

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