Getting opponents sent off or booked — is it right?

AS SOON as Watford’s Christian Kabasele was shown his first yellow card, Jason Tindall — Bournemouth’s assistant manager — strode up to the touchline. Once he had the attention of his strikers, Josh King and Callum Wilson, he did the card mime and tapped his temple with a finger. Regardless of his place in the spectrum between ‘Let’s run at him because he’ll be scared to tackle’ and ‘Let’s get him sent off’, his general message was clear. Smart thinking by Tindall. Good coaching, even, in this era of marginal gains, in a sport where it has never been so easy to be sent off. Yet, no more edifying than Tottenham’s carousel of advice for referee Mike Dean, much of it imparted with hands over mouths. Unlike Neil Warnock, once

an expert in this field. Let’s get fellow professionals booked and sent off. There used to be a code of honour, but football’s moral compass has long since gone west. Let’s grass them up. Let’s get more pressure on the referee. Let’s get sneaky and make a difficult job even harder. No wonder so many defenders would rather grapple than tackle. Leicester’s Wes Morgan tries to tackle and plays with aggression and off he went for the second time this season. Kabasele fell naively into the trap, sent off for the foul which helped Bournemouth go 2-0 up from a penalty and a splendid game became littered with pathetic diving and exaggeration. Spurs, too, got their way. Joe Ralls was dismissed, quite rightly as it happens. His agricultural swipe on Lucas Moura does not belong in football any more than this awful tactical pursuit of cards.