Will Thomson Be Hounded Like Miko?

Well, if the treatment given to Hearts’ Saulius Mikoliunas after his blatant dive for Lithuania at Hampden earlier in the year is anything to go by, you’d have to imagine that Rangers’ Kevin Thomson
is about to become something of a marked man in the next few months…..or will he?

The Rangers midfielder was guilty of an equally obvious piece of ‘professionalism’ during the weekend’s Old Firm game, and this wasn’t made any better by the fact he feigned injury and left the field
for treatment to avoid a second booking either. It spoiled an otherwise excellent afternoon’s work for the former Hibee, who scored his side’s winning goal for a result that puts Rangers down as clear favourites to take the SPL title. But what is now in store for him after this incident I wonder?

Since his much-publicised indiscretion at Hampden, Hearts winger Mikoliunas has had to endure a hellish time of it from match officials, the media, opponents and supporters all over the country almost every time he’s taken to the pitch. Rarely is there a time when he doesn’t get booed whilst in possession of the ball and I’m yet to watch TV coverage of a Hearts match this season when the Hampden incident hasn’t been missed by the commentators in connection with his name. Referees have also predictably given his genuine claims for rough treatment a wide berth, clearly bowing to his reputation as a ‘diver’ instead of taking each incident on their own merits.

I hate cheating in football. For me it’s the single biggest problem in the game today and something that has slowly started bringing it down to the point where rules have been amended to seriously threaten football’s distinction as a ‘contact’ sport – it’s almost at the stage now where you simply cannot touch an opponent for fear of repercussions. For me a dive should be punished with a straight red card and wide condemnation for a sensible period of time until players start to get the message.

So while the treatment of Mikoliunas has been over the top in some cases, if this is the sort of thing that’s going to happen to anyone who is obviously guilty of such ‘simulation’ (as they like to call it), then perhaps it’s merely necessary to get our game back into something resembling its former self. If so then I’m all for it, no matter how harsh it may be on a particular individual – in Miko’s case I do feel that it has been as I honestly can’t say that the lad has been guilty of diving in any game I’ve seen him in since, but then perhaps it’s the backlash having the desired effect on him. It’s difficult to say.

As for Thomson, can he expect the same sort of hysteria coming down on him? He certainly should if there’s any consistency, but then this is the less than well-balanced world of Scottish football that we’re talking about, and given the fact that he plays for the team who are widely recognised to be the ‘establishment club’, I’d genuinely be surprised if he gets anything like a tough time. It’ll no doubt be swept under the carpet and dismissed as ‘just another one of those things in football’, which will be twisted but not altogether unexpected. I also expect the media to report on this accordingly in order to preserve their relationships with this particular club.

Have they got the brushes out already?!