Pundit Richard Keys has slammed Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson after his incident with assistant referee Constantine Hatzidakis during the game against Arsenal on Sunday.
Writing for his blog, the former Sky Sports journalist suggested the Scotsman is to blame for what happened, and that the linesman shouldn’t face any further punishment.
“We’ll maybe never know exactly what happened at half-time when Robertson and assistant Hatzidakis clashed,” said Keys.
“The pictures aren’t good for the lino, but I hope he escapes censure – just as Bruno Fernandes did on that very same ground.
“I said then that Fernandes should’ve been charged. The FA rightly threw the book at Mitrovic, but a week or two before that incident at OT they let Fernandes off after he laid hands on an assistant. See. These things come back to bite you.
“As Robertson approached Hatzikakis perhaps the assistant was concerned about his safety? He’d have every right to be. What an irony that Liverpool last week paid the FA another £75,000 for failing to control their players during the recent game against City. That was after a combined £60,000 with Everton following the derby. In total PL clubs have been fined £1.3m for ref abuse this season – Arsenal have contributed £185,000.
“It’s got to stop. Robertson had no right to confront the assistant at half-time. I don’t agree with Roy Keane often, but he was right when he said Robertson behaved ‘like a baby’.”
Keys slams Robertson for incident
Sadly, this sort of response keeps being made by well-known figures within the industry.
As Key mentioned, Roy Keane described 28-year-old Robertson as a “big baby”.
“He grabs the linesman first,” he said on Sky Sports. “Robertson should be more worried about his defending. Just get on with the game.”
Perhaps more worryingly, former Premier League referees Keith Hackett and Mark Clattenburg condemned the reaction – giving mitigating factors which may have led to the clash.
At this point, we question whether the lack of seriousness given to the incident has been due to a Liverpool player being on the receiving end – especially the £160,000-a-week Scotland captain.
If it was Harry Kane, for example, we’d expect a completely different reaction.