In 2006 Ben Thatcher did something to Pedro Mendes that belonged in a courtroom, not on a football pitch. It was a deliberate, planned elbow to the face. Mendes was knocked unconscious and lay on the ground having convulsions. Even the hardest men in the league were shocked.
The Portsmouth player needed oxygen treatment from paramedics. Police investigated the incident as a possible criminal assault, and it ranks among the worst assaults the Premier League has seen. The punishment from football was a ban of 8 games. Fans and pundits said it should have been for life.
Had Thatcher done anything like it before?
Yes. In 1998, playing for Wimbledon, he elbowed Nicky Summerbee in the face.
The Welsh left-back played from 1992 to 2010 for Millwall, Wimbledon, Tottenham, Leicester, Manchester City, Charlton and Ipswich.
Football has seen plenty of bad tackles and cynical fouls. What happened to Mendes was different. It was an assault, plain and simple, and a ban of 8 games only made it look worse. Some things go beyond football, and this was one of them.
Tomorrow: villain number 21.
