Will the English ever bloody forgive Mr Pigeon? No

SteveJ

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(L-R Mr Pigeon...and Mr Pigeon)

Reading comments here & elsewhere about the recent Mr Pigeon documentary, I noticed a curious thing (though by no means a new thing, as this happens every single time Mr Pigeon is discussed):

Typical Quote said:
He may well be the greatest footballer in history, and I love watching his sublime play, and he gave me a million quid for free, and I married his sister, aaaannnnd his other goal in that WC match was soddin' amazing, BUT...I'll never forgive the sneaky Argie catshagger for The Handball. EVERYONE agrees that it was the Crime of the Century! The corpulent, junkie shortarse bastid with girly hair...
Now, when Thierry Henry played basketball against the Irish, every English person - including the deceased ones - laughed like twits and said "You lost. Stop crying, Paddy."; yet when it comes to Mr Pigeon's handball, then it's apparently completely different and he should be shot on sight and spat upon by all right-minded, sporting people (i.e. non-'Argies'). Not only is this hypocrisy, by now it's bloody boring - it's been years. So get over it, twits, and stop pronouncing 'Malvinas' wrongly too. So there.
 
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LVGSdive

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People cheat, player's cheat, its part of life. Its all about not getting caught and he didn't.
 

SteveJ

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Stop spoiling it, you two - you're supposed to be angry and unforgiving.
 

ghagua

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I have to be honest. I loved watching Maradona play. If England had played the entire game like they did the last half hour, they would have easily won the game. I know the heat and humidy played a part, but they sat back too much until it was too late.
 

The Boy

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Maradona = great play but ultimately will always be a goal stealing cnut
 

IRELANDUNITED

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I watched a bit of his movie that was on Channel 4 last night, I've recorded it so I'll watch the rest of it during the week - he was one tough son of a gun. Are the English actually still mad at him for the Hand of God? If I were English I'd be more mad at Peter Shilton for allowing Maradona out jump him. I've played competitive GAA since I was 8 years old and during that time I've always had the mentality to do whatever it takes to win, even if it means bending the rules sometime - it's up to the referee's to stop you. Henry used his hand against us in 2009 but I never really think about that when I hear his name, I just remember the outstanding player he was at Arsenal.
 

amolbhatia50k

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People cheat, player's cheat, its part of life. Its all about not getting caught and he didn't.
Disagree. It's about not cheating, surely. You would respect Lance Armstrong greatly had he not gotten caught?
 

FujiVice

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Coke head, woman beating, tax dodger. And he handled a ball or something.
 

Redcy

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For me greatest player of all time, I don't hate him, and I don't forgive him because he has not said he was sorry. I don't buy into the whole "anything goes until I'm caught", but thats because I am english maybe. Where do you draw the line, performance drugs, purposely injuring the opponents star player, trying to get a player sent off by faking injury, what is your line, because if you have any line you shouldn't.

For me a genius because of how he solo carried teams at times, more so than any other player I have seen down the years, including messi, ronaldo, etc.
 

FujiVice

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If I were English I'd be more mad at Peter Shilton for allowing Maradona out jump him.
He didnt out jump him. Shilton wasnt trying to out jump him. Its Shilton's ball to win, without a hand whacking it in the goal.
 

Redcy

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He didnt out jump him. Shilton wasnt trying to out jump him. Its Shilton's ball to win, without a hand whacking it in the goal.
Shilton jumps to punch the ball believing he had plenty of room to do so, he could not have expected Maradona to reach up and punch the ball
 

Snow

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One of the biggest twats in football history who threw away his career for cocaine and is now still taking poor saps to the cleaners based on achievements and reputations that were earned by cheating.
 

Web of Bissaka

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Maradone did whaat. Damn it you bloody good footballer with ridiculous dribbling ability to pass defenders, equipped with magnetic boots and sturdy shirt. Why do you need to resort to use the unnecessary move "Cheating Hand".... You're already that good! Damn it! And would be better if he behaves, alas.
 

RedRob

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Disagree. It's about not cheating, surely. You would respect Lance Armstrong greatly had he not gotten caught?
Controversial, but I respect him anyway. Bloke beat testicular cancer and still had the drive to get back to the top of the cycling world. That's far more bigger to me than him taking shortcuts to get there (because let's face it, who wasn't drug cheating in cycling in the early 2000s?).
 

InfiniteBoredom

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Out of curiosity since I never looked in depth into it, why wasn’t he retrospectively red carded after the match?
 

RUCK4444

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btw it's worth saying the hand of god wasn't in the 90th minute. The winning goal was this


:drool:
Controversial question... Does he score that goal in the modern game?

I’m not suggesting he doesn’t, just thinking aloud.

I think he would, the speed of the turn and commitment to the run still beats the more athletic players of today imo.

It’s an incredible goal.
 

Focusmate

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Im English. Feelings towards Maradona? Sort of respect him as one of the greatest players ever, sort of interested in his mad life - he has had a good time. But Yeah there’s a sort of a negativety - not only that goal when i was a little kid but he likes to be anti-English in a half serious half jokey way. My dislike of him is similar. Half serious half jokey.
Also, assuming the OP is Irish I have to laugh. Digging the English for holding grudges from ages ( 34 yrs) ago..... no irony or hypocrisy? I bet you cheer England on dont you??
 

Prometheus

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Controversial question... Does he score that goal in the modern game?

I’m not suggesting he doesn’t, just thinking aloud.

I think he would, the speed of the turn and commitment to the run still beats the more athletic players of today imo.

It’s an incredible goal.
I thought exactly the same when I saw the goal recently.

A lot of all old goals you think oh I think defenders now would put the tackle in/see that move coming/be stronger.

With this goal I went yep it would go exactly the same way as it did back then.
 

youngrell

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I’m not English and I’ve no feeling either way for that goal, but I think the guy is a grade A bellend anyway.

If it happened to be someone a bit more likeable, and not Argentinian, then English people would probably be over it by now. Mostly.
 

Classical Mechanic

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You have to be of a certain vintage to remember it. I was 4 when it happened so have no memory of it. I don't really think it's in the wider public consciousness anymore. Maradona was my favourite player as a kid and I cherished my Maradona Puma boots but he's gone down in my estimation over the years with his off field antics.
 

thepolice123

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The English defenders are the ones who need forgiveness for their pathetic defending. :lol::nervous:
 

Lay

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Always found the hate funny. I like Maradona so I don’t give a feck if he caught the ball and threw it in.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Controversial, but I respect him anyway. Bloke beat testicular cancer and still had the drive to get back to the top of the cycling world. That's far more bigger to me than him taking shortcuts to get there (because let's face it, who wasn't drug cheating in cycling in the early 2000s?).
Fair enough. But I respect people not respecting cheats/acts of cheating as well. If someone looks past Maradona's drugs and handball, good for them. But it's okay to hold it against him too. It's his own actions after all. In a way, society calling out bad decisions/cheats is important. It's why we laugh at Liverpool for the racist support. I know all acts aren't the same. Just discussing logic here
 

pacifictheme

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Was 2 when he did it but he's always come across as a massive cnut and generally a piece of shit.
 

2mufc0

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He's incredible, that second goal is the best goal of all time imo.
 

2mufc0

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Fair enough. But I respect people not respecting cheats/acts of cheating as well. If someone looks past Maradona's drugs and handball, good for them. But it's okay to hold it against him too. It's his own actions after all. In a way, society calling out bad decisions/cheats is important. It's why we laugh at Liverpool for the racist support. I know all acts aren't the same. Just discussing logic here
Pretty sure the type of drugs he took didn't help his performance in any way :lol:
 

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I heard he wore a juventus shirt once when he trained, so no. Never forgive!
 

Balu

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btw it's worth saying the hand of god wasn't in the 90th minute. The winning goal was this


:drool:
That goal never happens without the irregular first one though. It's just 4 minutes after the "hand of god", the English players were visibly shocked after the huge injustice moments earlier and Maradona took advantage of it. Obviously the history books don't care about it, because it's such an epic goal that diminishing its greatness truely sucks. Especially because it's the greatest moment of the greatest individual tournament performance in football history, but still, in my opinion both goals are tainted almost equally because both wouldn't happen if the referee had called the handball.
 

Lay

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Didn’t Lineker try to score with his hand in that’s game as well?
 

POF

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Maradona was my hero growing up. He's one of the reasons I fell in love with football. He was an outstanding footballer and dominated that world cup in a way I've never seen from another player.

Henry is on the other end of the spectrum. His arrogance epitomised that Arsenal team under Wenger and I couldn't stand him long before the handball.

So, Maradona's handball was all part of his charm and Henry should have all of his career achievements stricken from the record for being such a cheating cheater.
 

DVG7

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Im English. Feelings towards Maradona? Sort of respect him as one of the greatest players ever, sort of interested in his mad life - he has had a good time. But Yeah there’s a sort of a negativety - not only that goal when i was a little kid but he likes to be anti-English in a half serious half jokey way. My dislike of him is similar. Half serious half jokey.
Also, assuming the OP is Irish I have to laugh. Digging the English for holding grudges from ages ( 34 yrs) ago..... no irony or hypocrisy? I bet you cheer England on dont you??
pretty sure @SteveJ isn’t English, he’s from Toxteth
 

thepolice123

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True. It's shocking defending.
Watching the match I was more surprised by how slow the England players were. People said they should have chopped him down early, but I think only the player who even had a chance was Peter Reid and he was left eating dust and put in a half-arsed effort in tracking back. Terry Butcher completely had no chance. He was sidestepped and torched. The last man Terry Fenwich was already on yellow so no way he was going to foul him.