At the time Martin Taylor, a footballer with questionable ability, claimed that there was no malice in his challenge on one time Arsenal man Eduardo and everyone looked at him with a mixture of disgust and bemusement. Luckily Eduardo is fine and dandy now, scored in midweek for Croatia.
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Very sad individuals indeed.
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A month ago, Arsenal’s season took a turn for the worse at St Andrews. Not only did they draw the match 2-2 after leading until the final minute of the game, it also marked the end of Eduardo’s season after an ugly challenge from Martin Taylor broke the Croatian’s leg. While the striker continues to hobble around on crutches, the Birmingham defender has now served his three-match ban, with the Daily Mirror reporting that he may return to the team to face Manchester City on Saturday.
“Martin is ready fitness-wise – he’s only played one reserve game but I’ve got to consider whether bringing him back strengthens the team.
“Will my team selection be affected by the fall-out of what happened against Arsenal? Of course it will. If I thought it was a problem I would have to consider it.
“If he was tentative at all, I would consider it but I don’t really see any signs of it. He was okay in the reserve game and maybe he needs another one for us to then make some other judgement.
“Martin is in contention, as are Queudrue and Schmitz. We have choices there and need to find the right formula.”
Indeed, it must be a worry for the Birmingham manager that Taylor might initially be reluctant to challenge an opposition player for fear of causing him injury. Let’s also hope that the player isn’t given too hard a time by opposing supporters, there have been many similar bad challenges this season and it would be wrong to make him a scapegoat simply because his foul resulted in a horrific injury.
Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva says that he is ready to forgive his culprit Martin Taylor for wrecking his season and Euro 2008 hopes. But he does admit that he has received no apology from Taylor at all so far.
The Brazilian born Croatian international striker says:
Apology? There has been no apology. How can I accept an apology if I haven’t seem him or spoken to him?
I think he came to the hospital, but I did not see him. My wife told me that he came to see me while I was having the operation and someone pointed out Taylor to her at the hospital.
Maybe he was there when I was unconscious but I certainly did not see him that day. But if he comes to me now then I will accept an apology. I am a son of God so I will accept an apology.
Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg in a Premiership clash between Birmingham City and Arsenal and since then there has been death threats thrown at the Taylor. There have also been a plethora of news reports that Taylor had apologized to Eduardo but those reports have now been proved to be futile.
We reported yesterday that Cesc Fabregas is unhappy with the fact that Martin Taylor will only serve a three-match ban, while team-mate Eduardo sits on the sidelines for months on end. Sky Sports now report that Birmingham owner David Gold is far from happy with the comments made by the Arsenal midfielder, continuing to fuel the debate over the defender’s challenge.
He said: “Fabregas has got this wrong and I will stand by Martin through thick and thin over this. It may be his opinion but I would ask him to listen to the majority of voices who have been, in the main, supportive of Taylor.
“It wasn’t a malicious tackle, Martin is incapable of such vengeance. Look at the body language.
“Why is Fabregas still talking about this three weeks after the event? I don’t deny that Martin has to take responsibility but he (Fabregas) is talking about there being intent.
“Is he saying he thinks Martin went into the tackle to deliberately hurt Eduardo? If he is then it’s outrageous and it does the player, his football club and football no favours at all.
“This could have happened to anybody and let’s hope Fabregas is not involved in something similar one day where he accidentally injures a player.
“It’s time to get off Martin’s back and that includes Fabregas and people like Sepp Blatter. They don’t know Martin Taylor. I do and I know it was an out-and-out accident with absolutely no meanness of spirit – but he is being demonised.
“This is an ill-informed judgment by Fabregas and it does not stand up because it is ‘guess-timation’ on his part.”
It’s been claimed in some quarters that the Spaniard was asked repeatedly for a comment regarding the Taylor challenge and so perhaps there’s been an over-reaction on Gold’s part to try and defend his player. The incident certainly appears to have had a negative impact on Arsenal’s season since, with their lead at the top of the Premier League no more.
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Yes, it was a shocking challenge and Martin Taylor probably deserved to be banned for much longer than three matches for his foul on Eduardo a handful of weeks ago. However, the crime has been committed, the punishment has been issued and there’s no need for Cesc Fabregas to start raking the matter up again – what’s he trying to achieve? Sky Sports report that the Spaniard continues to feel a burning sense of injustice regarding the token three-match ban issued to the Birmingham defender when he should really concentrate on doing what’s he’s paid for.
“Of course I blame him,” he stated. “He did it and he knows why he did it.
“Of course he is not going to say he did it on purpose, he will never say that.
“But a very good player is injured for a year and the player who committed the tackle is suspended for three little games. It is very, very unfair.”
While nobody can argue that Taylor’s challenge was nothing short of disgraceful, there have been many similar challenges in the Premier League this season – it’s just that the consequences have not been as devastating. It’s also fair to say that had this happened to a smaller club rather than Arsenal, we’d be hearing a lot less about it in the media.
Arsenal supporters already think that Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor is a thug after he broke the Gunners’ striker Eduardo Da Silva’s leg last month. Now it has emerged that he is a liar too.
The Croatian international striker Da Silva says that Taylor paid him no visit to the hospital and denies that Taylor apologized to him there. Eduardo da Silva says:
The media were too much involved in my situation. I badly needed some peace to gather myself.
All the papers wrote that Taylor paid me a visit and apologised. I have to stress that didn’t happen, it is made up.
My interview in the press is also made up. It didn’t happen either.
Seems like Taylor made that whole thing up and we all thought that he was such a kind man! Shame on him. Fie! Fie!
Good news for Arsenal and especially for their shattered striker Eduardo da Silva. The Brazilian born Croatian international striker was hit by a career-threatening broken leg injury at the weekend when Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor crashed into him in the third minute of the Premiership fixture between the two sides and it was expected that he would miss out of football for at least a year.
But now it has been confirmed that Da Silva will be back playing football this year, possibly in the middle of next season. A statement on the club’s official website said that Da Silva will recover full fitness after 9 months and reads:
The club can confirm that following the incident during Saturday’s match at Birmingham City, Eduardo has fractured his left fibula and sustained an open dislocation of his ankle joint in the same leg.
He was immediately taken to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham where he underwent surgery on Saturday evening. The operation was successful and Eduardo was transferred to a London-based hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier today (Monday, 25th February), the orthopaedic surgeon and Arsenal medical staff assessed the extent of the damage and possible time-scale for a full recovery.
All being well, Eduardo will have his leg in plaster and using crutches for the next six to eight weeks. After that time, partial weight-bearing exercises will be scheduled into a slow rehabilitation process.
It is hoped that Eduardo will be running again in six months’ time and making a full recovery after nine months.
At least the highly rated striker will be playing football from the middle of next season. Too bad that the Gunners wouldn’t have the luxury of playing him this season.
Sky Sports quotes Arsenal’s Brazilian-born striker Eduardo da Silva as telling the Brazilian newspaper Globoesporte that Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor deliberately hit him hard during the two side’s clash in the English Premier League match on Saturday.
Da Silva broke his left leg in the aftermath of the challenge that earned Taylor a straight red card but the Crotian international shall miss the Euro 2008 finals as well half of next season. Da Silva hits out at Taylor in this fashion:
Taylor was malicious with what he did. I don’t remember well what happened and I don’t want to see the action on television or in the papers. But what I know is that what he did was on purpose. I want to get through this terrible moment as soon as possible. I only remember when I fell to the ground and saw my foot all twisted, then I don’t remember anything else. Now the only thing that I want to have in mind is to get recovered in the best way possible.
Maybe Taylor did go with more than usual enthusiasm but certainly the Birmingham player didn’t mean to break Da Silva’s leg or render him unable to play football for 9 or so months.
Croatian national team coach Slaven Bilic has expressed his agony and frustration at losing his star striker Eduardo da Silva for the Euro 2008 finals. The Brazilian born Croatian international striker is out for 9 months with a horrible ankle injury that he sustained during Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Birmingham City in the Premiership on Saturday when Birmingham’s Martin Taylor rammed into him like a breakaway express train with no driver.
Bilic admits that Da Silva will be severely missed by Croatia in Austria and Switzerland in the summer and says:
I was totally shocked. I have known him for many years and know that he was growing better as a player as I was growing better as a manager.
I love him like a son as he is such a great guy, he is such a great player, one of the best I have met in my life.
For it to happen now when he was starting to adapt to Arsenal and waiting for the European Championship, is terrible.
We are talking two or three times a day, because I know, no, I can imagine, what he is going through.
He is one of the guys who whenever you ask him ‘How are you?’ every time he says ‘OK’, that he does not feel pain now. He is going to stay in the London hospital for a couple of days and then return home.
He is a tough guy, he says he will fight. He came to Croatia from another continent, to a country he had never heard of. He of course did not know the language, when he was 17/18 in Croatia.
He is ready to fight. He is mentally unbelievably strong and I know he will be back stronger than when he was injured.
We will all miss the highly rated striker at the Euro 2008 finals in the summer and wish him best of luck for his swift recovery.
The Mirror reports that Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor has received death threats from Croatian fans over the Eduardo incident.
Taylor’s truly horrible challenge on Eduardo Da Silva during Birmingham’s Premiership fixture against Arsenal on Saturday broke the Brazilian born Croatian international striker’s legs. The player will now be out for about 9 months implying that he shall miss the Euro 2008 finals for Crotia in the summer.
Birmingham manager Alex Mcleish meanwhile has supported his player over the whole affair and says that Taylor needs to be sympathised with and not vilified. He says:
We are disappointed for Eduardo and we also have to rally round Martin Taylor because he is mentally shattered by the whole experience.
Psychologically he could be damaged from this as well and it is ridiculous he has had death threats.
I think there are some crazy people in the world but he has also had a lot of support from people up and down the country which has certainly helped.
We will give him a couple of days off and he will get on with his life again.
Martin was horrified.
There wasn’t a protest from the big man in terms of the red card as he certainly saw the damage he had done to Eduardo and I could tell immediately by his face.
I don’t think the tackle itself merited a red because it was mis-timed, almost like a trip, but I don’t know if he could have played on anyway.
It wasn’t a dirty challenge, it wasn’t malicious and Martin has to make these challenges again. He has to move on.
Indeed these death threats and vilification of Taylor is a shame and must not be tolerated. But somehow these things are almost inevitable in football.
Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor has denied that he deliberately broke Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva’s leg during the two club’s match at St. Andrew’s in the English Premier League on Saturday. Immediately to the incident which renedered the Croatian striker with a broken leg and possibly a out-for-the-rest-of-the-season news, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger called for a life ban for Taylor.
But the Birmingham player insists that he didn’t mean any malice when he went for the challenge. Birmingham have released a statement which reads:
The club are saddened that such a fantastic game of football has been marred by a serious injury sustained to Arsenal player Eduardo.
But Martin Taylor is adamant there was no malicious intent in the tackle and he is deeply upset by the extent of Eduardo’s injury.
Having reviewed the incident, this (no malicious intent) is clearly the case.
The club and Martin Taylor would like to send their very best wishes to the player for a speedy recovery.
Yet the FA needs to investigate the incident and maybe impose a 3-game ban on Taylor.
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