When you were a kid, you were always taught to say sorry when you did something wrong, so I suppose the parents of Manchester City's Ben Thatcher deserve some credit for the way they raised their son.
I mean, he did at least say sorry for smashing his elbow into Pedro Mendes' face, knocking him out and prompting him to have fit as he lay on the floor. Well he didn't actually say sorry, he wrote a letter, because Mendes was in hospital, but the thought was there I suppose.
However, somehow I doubt whether Mr and Mrs Thatcher are feeling very proud of their boy at the moment given the fact that he has just committed one of the worst fouls ever seen in the Premiership.
In fact, if it had happened on the street, the police would probably charge him with GBH, hand him a substantial fine and force him to do several hundered hours of community service as penance.
I wonder if Ben's parents were at the City of Manchester Stadium when he decided to launch his assualt on the Portsmouth midfielder ? If so, I wonder what they thought?
"Good game today Ben, helped keep a clean sheet and good work when you almost decapitated that Portuguese fella. That showed him, teach him to mess eh...."
No, I doubt very much whether that was what his parents said - at least I hope not - but the fact remains this was no isolated incident.
Sunderland fans will certainly remember him doing something remarkably similar to Nicky Summerbee when he played for Wimbledon back in 2000. Again, if the assualt had happened on the street and the attacker had previous convictions, a jail sentence would be likely.
The debate is raging about what should happen to Thatcher - apparently he's a nice lad off the pitch, helps old ladies across the road and everything. Then again, so did the Kray Twins, the problem was they were also psychopathic thugs who terrorised, maimed and killed when they weren't carrying their mum's shopping home.
Football rules state that a player cannot be punished twice for an offence which the referee saw during the game - Thatcher received a yellow card while arguing with Portsmouth players and accusing Mendes of play acting - but surely those rules must be broken in this case.
To swing an elbow in frustration is bad enough, to think about how you are going to make sure you hurt someone badly and then to go out and do it is another thing altogether.
Football fans can turn a blind eye to most indiscretions by their own players as long as they help the team, but I doubt there are any Manchester City fans defending Thatcher.
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