Have we finally reached peak cynicism? I know there are plenty of yellow and red cards left to be given but we must be running out of creative ways for players to receive them. PSG midfielder Marco Veratti was booked for this particularly ridiculous pull-back of a runaway Bastia player last night, which only leaves about 17 more new ways for players to pick up a card.
Bear in mind that the Parisians have an unassailable lead in Ligue 1 of almost 20 points so it is not as if this was a must win game. Regardless, Veratti deemed it necessary to not only pull down his opponent but to allow himself to dragged as if on a sleigh too.
We presume that L'Equipe's beret-wearing versions of Joe Brolly and Pat Spillane have side-by-side columns in this morning's paper torching Laurent Blanc for breeding a team to play with such cynicism. In fairness to Blanc, Veratti is Italian... and they do have a history with this sort of thing.
Giorgio Chiellini!
That handball from last year's Champions League quarter-final between Juventus and Monaco is perhaps the most beautiful act of fouling in the history of an already beautiful game.
Leave it to the Italians to take something dirty and ugly and elevate it. Have you ever seen one of their gangsters? You can be sure they look closer to Andrea Pirlo than King Nidge or Tony Soprano.
And speaking of our favourite GAA pundits, how does Veratti's pull-down rank against Sean Cavanagh's act of skulduggery that produced possibly the most bombastic rant in GAA history?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FRTilzJ084
