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Did Wayne Rooney elbow McCarthy accidentally?
Blow to the face is yet another blow for United fans fed up with Shrek
Unfaithful, unpopular - but certainly not underpaid - Wayne Rooney has infuriated his own fans - and Wigan's - with a tackle which many thought should have been a sending-off matter.
As United were beating Wigan four-nil yesterday, Rooney elbowed striker James McCarthy in the face.
Referee Mark Clattenburg gave him the benefit of the doubt, awarding a free kick – meaning the United player is unlikely to face further sanctions over the incident, which manager Alex Ferguson claimed was an "accident" – but no red card.
To many Wigan fans, the incident looked callous, clearly intended and typically unpleasant. And some United fans weren't pleased either – to them, it was just the latest in a long line of grievances against Rooney.
Rooney has scored just six times this season in 18 league appearances, a modest tally set alongside those of his team-mates. Dimitar Berbatov's total for the season so far is a staggering 18, including three hat-tricks.
Javier Hernandez and Luis Nani have nine goals apiece – and even the venerable Ryan Giggs, more than a decade Rooney's senior, has put a couple away.
United pay Rooney a reputed £250,000 a week to put it in the back of the net, as he did 26 times last season in the Premier League. So some fans are beginning to ask whether the Shrek-a-like is really worth it any more.
Part of the reason for Rooney's lacklustre performance may be the off-pitch distraction of the near-collapse of his marriage last year after it emerged he had slept with prostitutes (again). Rooney clung on to the put-upon Coleen – but only just.
In November, he was forced to apologise to United fans for a drawn-out transfer debacle in which he accused his club of a lack of ambition before finally making a U-turn and signing a five-year deal.
But Rooney still has one supporter: Ferguson. Sir Alex said yesterday the incident was "nothing", adding: "Because it's Rooney, people will raise a campaign to get him hung by Tuesday or electrocuted or something like that.
"It's unbelievable. People will try and get him up before the FA because that's what they always do in these situations when it's Wayne Rooney.
"The incident was nothing. Referee Mark Clattenburg saw it and said it was an accident, there's nothing to it." ·
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A bizarre incident. What I saw was that James McCarthy looked round to see Rooney trotting across the pitch to pass him, and McCarthy deliberately moved across Rooney's path as Rooney was quite close. So while Rooney could have avoided McCarthy, and did not need to move his arm so high, it looked as though Rooney was "fending off" McCarthy as much as striking him. So the umpire could reasonably have let it go as a foul --- or not.
I am pretty much ambivalent about Rooney but there is no way that was an accidental incident, the MoTD video was very clear and he could have easily avoided it. But having said that, we can't analyse these incidents after the game and apply sanctions if the game does not introduce live video technology. The risk is that the live and spontaneous and exciting nature of football would change. It's all down to the two teams and 4 officials down on the ground. That's it. Mistakes will happen. Corruption will happen. Get over it, move on and enjoy it!
Unless - or until - we get technology which will instantaneously inform the officials on the field, we must (however reluctantly) accept the decisions of the referee on the day. It appears to be the unanimous view that the officials at Wembley were wrong and that Wojciech Szczesny should have been given a straight red within two minutes - but where are the screams of outrage and demands for an FA inquiry?