Ryan to sue?

[rhinoplod]

According to the Free Press, John Ryan has consulted a brief about the possibility of sueing over the tackle by Lewis Dunk and may do the same over Ryan Mason.

From the VSC AGM it was clear JR has a loathing for Dunk and clearly wants to let him know directly how he feels!

[DRFC-PERKINS]

Has this ever happened before? Did Barnsley do something similar with Hume?
I'm sure someone has tried to do something like this before in english football .

[Bristol Red Rover]

Good to hear, hope something comes of it.

Interesting though watching the Donny v Qpr game from the 80's and how strong the tackles/fouls were there without anyone getting injured. If Dunk was playing in that match I think he'd have walked.

[pigeonhole]

I think he'd have an excellent case.  The Lewis Dunk calamity was just plain assault.  Duncan Ferguson did time for an on pitch misdemeanour surely this constitutes the same thing.  It was pre-meditated assault, no question whatsoever.

[The L J Monk]

Bad tackles happen in football, deal with it.

This ongoing whinging and \"woe is me\" outlook arising from the Dunk tackle is getting pathetic.

[Pintolager]

I agree with TLJM on this. If Sharp's career was in severe jeopardy, then fair enough...and even then I think that would be down to Billy himself, but bad tackles do happen all the time without writs flying around all the time. I hope we are not entering a phase in football where this is going to be common place....as it just degrades the sport imo.

[DonnyNoel]

Something needs to be done to make players take more responsibility for their actions, as SOD mentioned after the Tranmere game footballers are all \"in it together\" and shouldn't be doing that to fellow professionals.

That said, I'm not sure this is the road to go down. Every challenge is different and sometimes players can get injured from fair tackles and sometimes players can walk away from shocking tackles unscathed. Surely the biggest factor in the guilt of a player is \"intent to harm\" and thats a really hard thing to prove when it comes to sports challenges. Its potentially a huge can of worms and who knows what road it could lead down. It was a complete accident in my eyes but look at the Stock/Fryatt incident - what if Leicester had sued and got lucky with the result.

What grounds would we sue under? That we could use the funds to sign a loan player? Wouldn't the case for the defence just argue we should have managed our squad balance better?

Off the top of my head previous cases have been:

Frank McAvennie vs Chris Kamara (McAvennie unsuccessfully sued Kamara)
Gordon Watson vs Huddersfield player (Gray? Ball?) think Watson won some damages?

Did Iain Durrant sue the Aberdeen player that put him out for 3 years?

[Viking Don]

I agree with TLJM on this. If Sharp's career was in severe jeopardy, then fair enough...and even then I think that would be down to Billy himself, but bad tackles do happen all the time without writs flying around all the time. I hope we are not entering a phase in football where this is going to be common place....as it just degrades the sport imo.

Agreement from me too mate, last thing we need is the bloody ambulance chasers getting their greedy hands on the game - it'd quickly become a non-contact sport.

Aren't Mansfield sueing Alfreton or someone over a pre-season game?

[Thinwhiteduke]

As JR said. If the refereee had stuck to the letter of the rules Dunk would have walked for that tackle.

Maybe we should be taking legal action against the referee for failing to apply the rules correctly?

Its a dangerous game thinking about threatening players with legal action for bad tackles....Id dread to think what would become of the game if this was to become commonplace.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Sorry John, I just don't agree with you on this, football is a contact sport and what happens on the pitch should stay there.  But, having said that, JR could kind of have a point.  If one of our employees damages another company's car they have to pay for it... Technically a football players is an asset just the same.

[MachoMadness]

It's a tough one, this, I see both sides. On the one hand you don't want to set a ball rolling whereby every clumsy tackle gets you sued and every match is watched by a pack of lawyers looking for some easy money. On the other, the Dunk assault was a f**king awful tackle and a deliberate attempt to whack one of our players. I don't buy this \"he's only young\" b*llocks, when you dive in from behind with both feet off the floor you know you're going to hurt someone. It's an assault that's cost us far more than 3 points in the long run so I can understand why JR is considering it.

I don't think anything will come of it though. It seems to me like JR just going for a bit of publicity as we go through a rough patch, as he's been known to do before.

[Sheepskin Stu]

Mr Ryan just can't help himself can he? A new low even by his standards.

[One_Matty_Lucas]

If JR goes ahead with this I will be pi55ed off, it could ruin football. I know thats strong words but it could. Everytime someone goes down injured they sue the bad tackler. Insurance premiums would have to go up. How do we put a value on this injury, what are the damages

Just plain stupid JR, as per Lingeriegate we just look like the amateur club we are.

[tommy toes]

It's entirely possible that Billy was targeted at half time for rough treatment.Who knows what went on in their dressing room. Brighton were being outplayed and needed something to change the game. It's strange that this happened early in the second half with us still on top. The tackle was not in a dangerous area of the pitch and Billy was facing away from the goal and hey presto a vicious nasty foul changes the couse of the match.

[One_Matty_Lucas]

What about Doolan on McPhail? Did we moan at all?

[Lewis Guys Dentist]

This is ridiculous. Tackles happen in football. Yeah it was a nasty one. But to try and sue him is down right outrageous.
Strange really. If this was any other team you'd all be like. WTF?
The tackle should of been dealt with on the pitch, it wasn't. Move on.
First we try getting games off because of injuries. Now where trying to sue a player for a nasty challenge. I've seen worse challenges on premiership players that haven't been dealt with and they didn't kick up a fuss.
What's next? Where not playing no more.

[GazLaz]

I love JR but this is embarrassing. Nearly as embarrasing as asking fans to put £50 towards a striker when his two mates are worth about half a billion quid.

[albie]

The trouble with this sort of response is that it keeps the bad feeling going, winds everyone up for the return game, and makes you look like a prat if you talk the talk then don't back it up.

Let it go, we just have to accept that the ref made the wrong call. If the FA can be persuaded to clamp down with clear instructions on tackles with both feet off the ground, then that is as much as we can hope for at this stage.

[not on facebook]

if rovers had drawn or beat brighton this thread would not be here now.

live with ffs.

[Snods Shinpad 2]

Wayne Thomas's over the ball maiming of Chopra last season that kept him out for months didn't get this much attention.

Dunk is a prat. Let's just make sure we beat them in the return game.

[mushRTID]

I agree totally with gazlaz.

[GM-MarkB]

Have to admit, I picked up the DFP this morning and cringed when I read the back page...

Don't they say the best Chairmen are seen and not heard :dry:

[RoversAlias]

That's pathetic...it's a football tackle. I'm tired of hearing Ryan and others moan about Dunk. The Twitter hate tirade he got after the game for example...it's just stupid. It was a bad tackle in a football game. They happen all the time. Sometimes players get injured from them, deal with it.

It seems the only reason we ever lose games is the officials and the injuries. It's all I hear...you can't put defeats solely down to these factors. Does it help? Of course not. Does it make it physically impossible to win football matches? Of course not.

[Jonathan]

I saw it in the Free Press this morning and I hope that's the last we ever see or hear of it.

It was an awful tackle and it's irritating that Dunk wasn't punished by the letter of the law with a red card, I sympathise with JR's plight as it's his big investment (Sharp) that has been put out of action for a significant amount of time, but for want of a better way of putting it, these things happen. Bad tackles occur in games allover the country every week, Dunk should have been sent off but even then it would have been little consolation for the consequence of the tackle.

All we can do now is make the best of it without Sharp and look forward to his return. No legal action - it's a daft idea in reaction to understandable frustration.

[PDX_Rover]

Agree with Jonathan - talking sense as usual- as are others.  

I think the tackle was awful and could easily have ended Billy's career.  I also think it was pre-meditated and Dunk was told to quieten the threat. It was a straight red IMO and the referee was perfectly positioned and bottled it.

Ironic that the delay the injury caused gave them the time to score the winner. Spurr should arguably have walked too but didn't. The difference in the aftermath is that his tackles didn't one of Brighton's most valuable asset crocked for 3 months.

All this talk of legal action just perpetuates the unpleasantness. If JR has a problem, then address it through the League.  Perhaps they should introduce a system whereby they able to give a retrospective red card and Dunk be banned for the return game.  That way other teams do not get an advantage.

However, I'd much prefer it if we do our talking on the pitch and beat them at our place, when I am sure Dunk will get a very warm welcome.

[Capmeister]

Ryan............master publicity merchant! True genius. Love O'Driscoll too. Mumbling on the radio so they can't hear. He should shout once they turn the sound right up. That'd make fat boy Bennett and Walker sit up and
listen! Faces only mothers could love them two!

[GM-MarkB]

Ryan............master publicity merchant! True genius. Love O'Driscoll too. Mumbling on the radio so they can't hear. He should shout once they turn the sound right up. That'd make fat boy Bennett and Walker sit up and
listen! Faces only mothers could love them two!

Sorry my friend I couldn't agree less...IMO that's the kind of publicity the club doesn't need

[Red wizard]

Plaese don't do it JR.

[King Barnes]

And if Peter Catt and the proper DFP sports team had been producing this week's edition of the Free Press, the story would have thoroughly checked, expanded upon and presented in a far less sensationalistic way with some kind of perspective and balance.

But hey, when you get kids, PR types and cut and paste to fill the pages while the journalists are on strike, this is what you get....

[graz126]

personally dont think anything that happens on a football pitch or any other physical sport should be brought in front of the courts. it isnt an assault its a mistimed rash challange for the ball. the only law that should cover this is the law of football and the ref failed to do so. when you have 22 players running around on a patch of grass things like this are bound to happen. its just unfortunate. i have seen much worse tackles go totally unpunished.