Vincent Kompany, bitter? Just a touch

It’s fair to say that Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany is still a bit miffed over the four game-ban he received after seeing red in the Manchester derby on Sunday.

The Belgian defender received widespread sympathy after the red card, which he was given for a two footed tackle on Nani, even though he won the ball and made no contact with the Manchester United winger.

Kompany’s appeal cut no dice with the FA, which was hardly surprising considering they took a similar approach to an appeal from Wolves midfielder Nenad Milijas after a similar incident in a game against Arsenal last month.

Rather than take his medicine and move on, however, Kompany today tweeted a link to a quite bitter rant about the incident on his Facebook page.

He said: “I appealed because I obviously completely disagreed with the interpretation of the officials on the day but that happens in football and we move on.

“I wonder though if we are now going to see an unprecedented wave of red cards on match days because we sanction "if's" and "maybe's"? Are we going to look back at video evidence for every single challenge that goes unnoticed by the officials, look at different scenarios and potential outcomes of what could have been considered a good tackle and then sanction it?”

He continued: “Players and managers are starting to expect more sending offs from referees and I think it's for the wrong reasons. My understanding is that English football prides itself on the hardness, the fairness and the tradition of its game.”

Kompany insisted that his opinions on the matter were entirely his own and not influenced by his manager or his club and that they were intentionally made after the appeal verdict so as not to influence the decision in any way.

He signed off on his rant by prophesising about the worrying future in football if decisions such as the ones made against him become the norm, saying: “If football fans decide I'm wrong in raising these concerns then I will have no problem in accepting the fact that times are changing again for our game.”

To see Kompany’s comments in full, click here.

We have a degree of sympathy for the man given the manner of his dismissal, but surely this little ‘State of the Game’ speech is a little much? Time to move on, Vincent.