He might be one of the most entertaining and refreshingly honest players in football, but sometimes Stephen Hunt would probably be better off keeping things to himself.
The livewire Irish international is set to get a ban from the FA after suggesting that he and his Wolves teammates should be doing all within their power to get opposition players sent off.
Hunt was speaking in the aftermath of Wolves’ commendable 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates on Monday, during which Nenad Milijas was sent off following a tackle on Mikel Arteta, a decision which Hunt feels was helped by the inflammatory reaction of the Arsenal players.
“Sometimes the reactions of the players are clever, they help the referee to get the player sent off,” Hunt told The Express.
“We have been done in the past – like with Jonathan Woodgate (against Stoke) for instance.
“We should have been surrounding the referee to get him sent off. Every team does it, so we don’t do it and get punished. Maybe we should start doing it,” he added.
Judging by how players crowd around a referee and often flash imaginary cards in their direction during matches, Hunt’s sentiments are probably shared by a high percentage of players, but very few would admit to it in public.
Given that Alex Song could have also seen red for a tackle on Hunt during the same game, his comments were obviously highly charged, but whether the FA will take that into account when reviewing what he had to say remains to be seen.
Maybe these particular comments were ill-advised but what you see with Hunt is what you get. Controversial maybe, but never, ever boring.
