Stop making pathetic excuses otherwise we'll never get rid of diving

There aren't many things which get my goat more in the beautiful game than diving.

Two years ago, FIFA's Vice President Jim Boyce described diving as a 'cancer' within football. It has also been labelled as 'a dark art' and 'a blight on the game'. Call it what you will, it's cheating - end of.

And, sadly, it's never been more prevalent in English football than it is now.

Wayne Rooney diving against Preston
Photo: BBC Sport

And once again it was in the headlines this week after Wayne Rooney 'won' a penalty for Manchester United in their FA Cup tie against Preston on Monday through simulation.

But what really irked me about the incident, wasn't the fact that Rooney dived, but some of the pathetic excuses that have been wielded out to defend his dive.

The most notable of which came from England manager Roy Hodgson who denied that his captain dived and instead claimed that Rooney was instead taking 'evasive action'. I don't think I've heard anything more absurd in my life.  Surely evasive action means getting out of the way, not falling to the floor? I think it's really shameful that the coach of the England national team should go on national television and hide from the truth and give a half-arsed excuse to defend his captain. Roy Hodgson could've made a real statement that night by saying "we at the FA have a respect campaign which has been set up to stamp out cheating and we don't want any of our players diving." 

But the whole thing reeks of hypocrisy too. I bet if we see a Spanish player or an Italian player diving in a game against England at next year's European Championships we won't see Hodgson describing it as 'evasive action', will we?

Pundits Roy Hodgson, Kevin Kilbane and Phil Neville discussing the dive after the game
Photo: BBC Sport

In his column in this Daily Mail this week former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher argued that Wayne Rooney shouldn't be criticised for his diving as 'all players cheat'. I'm sorry, since when has that ever been a reasonable excuse for someone doing something wrong? Absolutely ridiculous. If ex-pros like Jamie Carragher want to see a much fairer game, then they need to stop trying to defend players who cheat. 

So please let's stop these pathetic excuses before diving becomes an irremovable part of our game.

Manchester United are just as bad as they were under David Moyes last season

Now before I receive a tonne of abuse from United fans, just hear me out. Yes your team may be four places ahead of where they were this time last season, but have they actually improved since Van Gaal took over in the summer?

Louis Van Gaal and David Moyes
Photo: 3 Sports

They are only six points better off where they were at this stage last year which I think is pretty poor considering the huge amount of money Van Gaal has spent on players to improve his side.

I believe that David Moyes was out of his depth managing Manchester United last season. He made some really poor decisions and he never really stamped his authority on the club. But look at the strength of the teams he had to compete with though: Manchester City who were ripping teams apart 5 or 6 nil on a regular basis, Liverpool who were playing some of the best football this league has ever seen, Chelsea who were solid as a rock and Arsenal who led the league for 128 days. But this season, none of the big boys bar Chelsea have been anywhere near as good as they were last term and yet United, with a £150m spending spree in the summer, are still way off challenging for the title.

In his column in The Independent this week, former United midfielder Paul Scholes described his former club's football as 'miserable'. And you'd struggle to find a United fan who would disagree with him. Their sides' football has been slow, predictable and unimaginative and they are arguably as boring on the eye as they were last season.

Louis Van Gaal and Angel Di Maria
Photo: The Japan Times

And a lot of the blame has to be put on the manager's shoulders. The best player this country has produced in the last decade, Wayne Rooney, is being wasted in midfield. Angel Di Maria, one of the best wingers in world football, is being played as a centre forward and Phil Jones, a centre back, is taking the corners. It's an absolute shambles.

With the departures of Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra in the summer, Manchester United have no, what you would call, 'world class' defenders anymore. And yet, despite the heavy spend in the transfer window, they still haven't addressed their defensive frailties. Instead Van Gaal decided to spend £6 million on Radamel Falcao, a striker no less, for just one season!

United fans who see improvement under the new regime are kidding themselves.