Evening Standard...

The latest post by Prince H got me thinking, it usually does, and this time it turned my interest to the handling of the Tristan drunk driving issue. It also nicely serves as a vehicle for one of my hang-ups – double standards.

If you think double standards are when you've bought one too many tabloids, let me explain the concept.
When a player in the other team dives you hate it but when a player in your own team dives (yes, it happens!) you feel a need to take a look at all the replays to see if it was all that bad after all. If he really unmistakably did dive, you end up disliking it at the most. Recognize the feeling?
While I’m all wound up here I might as well get my other favourite “on the field example” of double standards off my chest:
With 2 minutes remaining and a team is trying to hang on to a result someone gets the ball down to the corner post were he fishes for a corner or a free kick or just tries to let the time run out.
I find this unbearable! When I saw this the first times, by Italian players incidentally, the only thing that held me from going berserk was the knowledge that it would be unthinkable in England…
Sit down, light a candle and some incense, maybe play your favourite whale songs on the stereo and look deep inside yourself to find out if you really think it is as annoying when West Ham players do it (yes they do, they do) as if Ronaldo does it when we are pushing for an equalizer?

OK, back to the issue of Tristans drunk driving. I have no doubt that this was known by the manager already right after it happened back on January 25th. For some reason this was not acted upon by the Club, as a matter of fact, this is yet to be commented on by any Club official as far as I know. Could it possibly be that as long as it wasn’t public knowledge the Club would wait to take actions? To be fair it could, I say could, be due to Tristan having waited until now to accepting the charges, but I sincerely doubt that.
When Carlton was in a similar situation (bar the crash) in September he was fined 2 weeks wages by the Club. The issue was, as far as I remember or find evidence of on the official site, only commented on in a post on another topic saying that he needed to focus on the football, or something.
If the managers talk about this kind of behavior as being unacceptable they should act like they think it is. How can they be taken seriously on issues like this if it’s not enforced in some way that hurts. Fined 2 weeks pay? Give me a break, no professional footballer in the PL but Matty Etherington would care! These guys should be cleaning the boots for the academy players for a month. Not to act in accordance with your statements is not good for any reputation, just ask Duxbury.
This could of course have been handled in an efficient but discrete way within the club without us knowing, and if so I apologize, but if it will stop at 2 weeks allowance to be taken away it's in no way acceptable.