Robert Pires brought diving into the English game

duffer

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According to Danny Mills.

‘I spent many years playing against him as a right-back, for Leeds United and Manchester City, and we had what might be called a fractious relationship.

‘I will always remember him as the player who, in my view, really brought diving into the English game; his habit of throwing himself to the ground without any provocation always infuriated me.’

http://metro.co.uk/2016/02/16/arsen...gues-dive-culture-claims-danny-mills-5686484/

Well, did he?
 
no, people were clipping their own heels shortly after the first football was kicked.
 
You usually get this spiel from old pros who claim their generation all played by the rules but diving was around in England long before the Premier League started
 
Robert Pires - Arsenal 2000 to 2006

Michael Owen - 1998



I'm not being thick right? Pires joined Arsenal in 2000 and Owen dived in 98?
 
Bloody foreigns. Can't trust them. They killed the passion and hard men era too, don't you know? :rolleyes:
 
Ah, those pesky foreigners. Too bad they can't play football the right way, like the great Danny Mills.
 
Let's start a petition to recognise him as the first diver in English football and find out what's what.
 
Klinsmann was the one who made it popular, but I remember seeing footage of a little blonde fella in a sky blue shirt from the 70s doing some outrageous dives in the penalty box.
 
That's the same diving-related hubris that Gerrard comes out with. Total bollocks of course.
 
Didn't Francis Lee have a talent for diving?
Talent? The man was a cnut. Used to be known as Lee Won Pen by the press and a bigger cheat never played the game in those days.

Francis-Lee-lying-on-the--008.jpg
 
Danny boy has never really recovered from the regular roasting he used to get from Thierry, Bobby and co.

 
Was he here pre-Klinnsmann?

Klinsmann was the one who made it popular, but I remember seeing footage of a little blonde fella in a sky blue shirt from the 70s doing some outrageous dives in the penalty box.

Klinsmann wasn't a serial diver in England. He had a bad reputation for it when he arrived which is why he broke the ice in his first press conference by asking where the nearest diving school was and did the famous diving celebration after his first goal in England.
 
David Ginola was a master of clipping his own heels. Always the fecking French.
 
Danny Mills in being a crude, Little Englander shock. I seem to remember hearing a story that the Germans were really unhappy with Denis Law's repeated diving in a friendly in the 60s. Add to that the likes of Lee and Dalglish who are famous for it. It still seems mad that Ronaldinho got sent off for a bad tackle on Danny Mills in a World Cup quarter final.
 
Talent? The man was a cnut. Used to be known as Lee Won Pen by the press and a bigger cheat never played the game in those days.

Francis-Lee-lying-on-the--008.jpg

That he did.

Mind you, I remember Best diving a time or two as well, usually as a message to the ref after half a dozen uncalled fouls.

A few years later Rodney Marsh used to dive and laugh about it after the match. I don't even think he bothered to pretend that he got caught by the trailling foot, or was pushed off-balance or whatever. He seemed to think it was all part of the game. I don't even remember him being called on it.