Luis Suarez: Punish him for that bite but don't go over the top

 

The FA will doubtless throw the book at Luis Suarez for biting Branislav Ivanovic, but Ralph Ellis argues they should also keep a sense of perspective.

 

Kick him out of the club right now. In fact there's no place in the Premier League for that sort of thing. Even his manager refused to defend what he did. He's a  serial offender, after all. Ban him for the rest of the season, and then ship him out.

 

Oh, you thought I was talking about Luis Suarez? Sorry, I meant Steve Sidwell. Should have made it more clear, I suppose. But then I'd have thought everybody would be  equally horrified by his X-rated over the top lunge at Mikel Arteta.

 

And there we probably have the issue over how we look at discipline in English football. Sidwell, just 12 minutes into his first game after serving a three-match ban  for a horrible tackle on QPR's Armand Traore, stretched recklessly into Arteta with his studs showing with a challenge that could break a leg, and nobody has made too  much fuss. He got a red card, and that's that.

 

Now I've interviewed Sidwell several times, chatted with him on and off the record, and he's a smashing lad who wouldn't want to harm anybody. I'm sure he didn't mean  it. But in a way that makes it worse. When Andy Carroll hurls himself into David De Gea with little thought for his opponent's safety we applaud it as the act of an  "old fashioned English centre forward" (although Alex Ferguson didn't subscribe to that view!). When Suarez takes a nip at the arm of Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic we  throw up our arms in horror.

 

Now I'm not saying for a moment that Suarez shouldn't be punished, and punished severely, for what he did. Liverpool deserve praise for reacting correctly, and  quickly, making it clear to their top scoring star that they won't tolerate such behaviour. And the FA will doubtless be leaping into action today to charge him as  soon as they can, following up swiftly with a ban which means his season is over.

 

Tame the Beast

 

Liverpool's issue is to tame the beast in Suarez. He has a brilliant side - his performance in every other respect against Chelsea was sublime - but he has a dark side  too. Even Anfield legend Phil Thompson called on Twitter for a ten-game ban insisting the club is bigger than any one person. Yet neither the club, nor the Premier  League, will be served by giving up on him beyond that.

 

In the short-term they will all suffer. Liverpool's last chance of finishing in the top six has probably gone, and despite getting the last minute equaliser Suarez  himself has gone from 1.41 favourite to 3.4 to win the Golden Boot as a result of his likely suspension.

 

But he's not the first player to do something utterly stupid. Plenty of people insisted Manchester United should sack Eric Cantona for his Kung-Fu kick on a fan, but  instead they brought him back to their team as a far more stable character who had learned from what happened. Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney both sparked horror by  swearing into cameras. Both went on playing for Chelsea and Manchester United respectively.

 

With no European football next season, Brendan Rodgers already had enough problems trying to keep the man Steven Gerrard describes as "the best I've ever played with".  Real Madrid want him and they won't be the only major club hoping this episode will make it easier to take him away.

 

Ban him, punish him, talk to him and make him understand the need to control his dark side. But don't go over the top. It's bad enough that Steve Sidwell does that.

 

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