Stop Messing About And Ban Him Permanently

So, the Ben Thatcher forearm smash on Portsmouth player Pedro Mendes has been the talking point of the last few days.

Referee Dermot Gallagher - who only gave Thatcher a yellow card - has been downgraded and is no longer a Premiership referee. Fair enough.

Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce, a man not known for mincing his words, has suspended Thatcher for the Arsenal game and launched an internal investigation. Good. You would expect no less.

The F.A, have, of course, charged the player with serious foul play. OK, but...

Harry Redknapp was quoted on Sky Sports News as saying "If he ever does something like this again...he should be kicked out of the game...you can't do things like that".

Right, well, here's the problem. Thatcher has already done something like this before. Only a few months ago. He left a player in hospital with a punctured lung on that occasion.

This was in a supposedly 'friendly' game against Shanghai on City's pre-season tour of China.

So, the Mendes incident already is Thatcher doing "something like this again".

Just kick him out of football and stop messing around making excuses and offering second chances when this was his second, even third or fourth chance.