Everton: Chris Sutton reacts to Sean Dyche comments after Harry Kane is mocked over incident in draw with Tottenham
Chris Sutton has applauded Sean Dyche over the Everton manager’s dismissive reaction to Harry Kane following the draw with Tottenham.
The England captain went to the ground clutching his face when Abdoulaye Doucouré had reacted to a challenge after the whistle during the 1-1 draw at Goodison Park on Monday (3 April), with the Toffees midfielder shown a straight red card for a hand to the face.
Kane has subsequently drawn significant criticism for over-acting to ensure his opponent was sent off, and Dyche sarcastically mocked the damage done to the Spurs man in his Thursday (6 April) press conference while pushing back against gamesmanship in football, saying: “Someone gets flicked in the eyelash and it becomes a big situation. That’s just the way it is now.”
“And that’s not about being a football manager; it’s just being human. If lads go down in training I do tell them to get up. I have my own authentic standards.”
Sutton weighed in on his personal Twitter account to give his seal of approval to the Everton boss’ comments, writing: “Sport on from Sean Dyche…”.
Nonsense behaviour
Kane is far from the first player to pretend he is badly hurt when he simply isn’t, and he certainly won’t be the last.
Officials bear some responsibility for apparently basing their decisions so often on the reaction to an incident rather than the incident itself.
And when the stakes are so high in top level football there is always an incentive to bend the rules if it gives you advantage.
But despite all that mitigation it is objectively embarrassing to watch players put so much effort into acting when they are on the pitch, and all the more so when it tends to work.
Tottenham fans will feel like it is their star man that is being piled on over this, but he is a world-wide star and the captain of England so it is inevitable that he draws more attention than most.
Some will argue that it is just part of the game now, and unfortunately that is true, but if more adopted Dyche’s stance of stamping out of his own team in training it wouldn’t be.
And for all it may be understandable in certain situations it inevitably means there is doubt and suspicion when players are genuinely seriously hurt, so all round it would be a positive to have cut out.