Patrick Bamford should be ashamed of himself.
What he did in Leeds United’s match against Aston Villa on Sunday was 'A disgrace to football!' - Nottingham Forest academy graduate slammed for simulation. And the worst thing any player can do on a football pitch is cheat; you should never do that.
Bamford got a flick across the chest from Anwar El Ghazi and went down clutching his face. El Ghazi tried to get his body in front of him and brushed him aside, but Bamford went down like an actor.
'A disgrace to football!' - Nottingham Forest academy graduate slammed for simulation
It was embarrassing, and it got the Villa defender sent off.
I wouldn’t have expected that from Bamford at all. I didn’t see him as that kind of player when he was at Nottingham Forest.
But I hope he ends up getting a ban for it. It was so disgraceful, I’d suspend him for three matches.
The authorities need to start clamping down on that kind of thing, otherwise you’ll get players who think they can just keep getting away with it.
We could have done with VAR to help sort it all out at Elland Road.
But referees also have to get stronger and the Football Association have to get tougher. They are the ones who can stop things like that happening.
Every week you get managers and pundits complaining about referees, about decisions they have got wrong. There’s too much of that going on.
Refs have to wise up. Half of them don’t know what a foul is nowadays. You can get booked for brushing someone with your little finger, yet El Ghazi got sent off for that.
It’s not right.
