Hunt won’t change style
 By Graham Clifford
By now the football world is used to Jose Mourinho’s sensationalist
swipes at fellow managers and players but his personal attack on Reading
midfielder Stephen Hunt has left a particularly sour taste in the mouths
of Irish fans.
Speaking after the unfortunate collision between Chelsea goalkeeper Petr
Cech and Hunt last week which left the former with a fractured skull Mourinho
said Hunt was “laughing after the incident” and cynically
labelled the Waterford man a “hunter”.
He went on to say the tackle was “an act of violence” and
compared it to the horrific Ben Thatcher tackle on Pedro Mendes earlier
in the season. He added: “Hunt clearly flexed his leg to catch Petr.
He dropped his knee. He didn’t go with the foot to try to touch
the ball. He went with his knee at the keeper’s head. On every pitch,
every game, players jump over keepers.”
Subsequently the Football Association concluded that no action would be
taken against the 25-year-old Reading player as referee Mike Riley and
his officials had seen the incident at the Madjeski stadium and decided
the collision was accidental.
The saga which has arguably been perpetuated by Mourinho has deeply affected
Hunt.
He said: “I can guarantee that I did not attempt to injure Petr,
and I am very upset that the collision has resulted in such a bad injury.
When Petr slid in to collect the ball, our momentum meant that a collision
was unavoidable.
“I think the TV pictures show that the collision was a complete
accident and I’d like to think that my team-mates and opponents
throughout my career in football would say that I’m not the kind
of person to deliberately hurt an opponent. Serious injury is the worst
part of football and I feel terribly sorry for Petr. I have written to
him to wish him a full recovery.”
Ironically Hunt’s clash with Cech — who is now recovering
from serious surgery — has transformed him from being a player relatively
unknown outside his club to one of the most talked about players in the
top division.
Hunt joined Crystal Palace in 1998 as a trainee before moving across London
to join Brentford in 2001. After featuring in over 160 games for the Bees
in which he found the back of the net on 15 occasions he made his way
to Steve Coppell’s Reading on a Bosman in June of last year and
was instrumental in the side’s promotion to the Premiership alongside
fellow Irishmen Kevin Doyle and Shane Long.
Reacting to the comments made by Jose Mourinho Hunt hit back.
He said: “There will be more attention on me now. I won’t
change my game but maybe I have to be careful about how I go around tackling.
It won’t be a problem because I’m clever enough to deal with
any situations that might arise such as tackles that come my way in the
next couple of weeks because I think I’ll be a marked man, that
is bound to happen.”
Once the dust settles on this episode which must be regarded as tragic
given Cech’s terrible injury perhaps the football world and Irish
manager Stephen Staunton may well give Hunt the credit he deserves.
In a career regularly interrupted by injury the Reading winger is finally
playing in the top tier and will be crucial to his side’s hopes
of having a good season. As Hunt says himself he’s “clever
enough” to deal with the dark side of football. The same it seems
cannot be said for ‘the special one’.
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