De Jong rather surprisingly avoided any sanction from referee Martin Atkinson for the tackle in which Newcastle striker Hatem Ben Arfa suffered a double leg-break at Manchester City last Sunday.
Yet the Dutch midfielder has still been widely condemned, including back home in Holland, where national team boss Bert van Marwijk took the unusual step of omitting De Jong from his squad to face Moldova and Sweden in two important Euro 2012 qualifiers over the coming days.
Without entirely exonerating De Jong, English players' union chief Taylor does feel Van Marwijk's decision was probably influenced by the huge amount of negative publicity Holland attracted for their combative approach to the World Cup final with Spain.
Most observers felt the Dutch completely spoiled the showpiece and led to referee Howard Webb showing 14 yellow cards, plus a red, and later admitting he should have sent De Jong off for a chest-high, studs-first challenge on Xabi Alonso.
"There was a lot of criticism for the way Holland approached the final," said Taylor.
"Maybe it was a tactical approach and the only way they could come to terms with a very skilful Spanish side.
"There is nothing wrong with getting into people's faces, harassing them and intimidating them as long as it is within the rules.
"According to the referee on Sunday, the tackle that caused the broken leg was not a foul. Other people will have other opinions.
"Nigel is a very committed player. He goes in strongly in a physical contact sport.
"However, you also have a duty of care to your fellow professionals."
De Jong's fellow Dutchman Theo van Seggelen, the general secretary of global players' union FIFPro, believes the midfielder will actually benefit from his short enforced break.
"It is a difficult time for Nigel," said Van Seggelen.
"I don't believe there is a player in the world - and we have 50,000 members - who would deliberately try to injure someone else. That would not be acceptable.
"But maybe it is good that for a couple of days he can think about the fact he is not playing.
"It is good for him to think about the way he plays and work out whether he should be a little bit more careful in future.
"I hope he learns something."
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gis a job
"De Jong rather surprisingly avoided any sanction........" Could this have been because he did nothing wrong?
Bias still showing in another case of 'jumping on the bandwagon'.
Why "rather surprisingly"?
Is it the slow news fortnight that manages to produce seven stories about DeJong in four days?
Why is the story anonymous? (I think we can guess why).
Incidentally Taylor of the Players' Union can hardly absolve DeJong of all blame as he also represents Ben Arfa.
All the other arguments raised by this story have been well rehearsed and presented in all the other postings.
It's all reminiscent of a dead horse and the flogging thereof.
Can you run a story presenting fans with the opportunity of having their say on the unimaginative (and some would say prejudiced) hacks at the MEN?
"De Jong rather surprisingly avoided any sanction from referee Martin Atkinson for the tackle in which Newcastle striker Hatem Ben Arfa suffered a double leg-break at Manchester City last Sunday."
That's because it was a fair tackle, you muppet.
"I don't believe there is a player in the world - and we have 50,000 members - who would deliberately try to injure someone else. That would not be acceptable.
...except Roy Keane, who deliberately injured a fellow professional, Theo.
De Jong rather surprisingly avoided any sanction from referee Martin Atkinson for the tackle in which Newcastle striker Hatem Ben Arfa suffered a double leg-break at Manchester City last Sunday.
Is this the MUEN agenda wagon rolling again??? Why did he rather surprisingly avoid a card? THEIR WAS NO ONE AROUND ME THAT THOUGHT IT WAS A FOUL, END OF..........................
He's just not that sort of player!
"De Jong rather surprisingly avoided any sanction from referee Martin Atkinson for the tackle in which Newcastle striker Hatem Ben Arfa suffered a double leg-break at Manchester City last Sunday"
what? so in the eyes of the great unknown journalist (or excuse for one) that writes for the MUEN (please step forward and take a bow Brennan) Nigel is guilty is he?. Guilty of what? the referee never blew for a foul, there was no excitement amongst the players or crowd, just an unfortunate injury from a fair but robust tackle. Scum journalsits like you make me sick, you havent even got the courtesy to reveal who you are - Coward.
the last time there was all this media frenzy about a tackle it was booby moore on pele. Both were excellent tackles but i think bobby's just shades it.
Only another 6 stories to come out of this lads.Please try and bear up.
It's a slow news week with no Premiership matches to discuss.
The Media will move on soon.
Don't change a thing Nige, apart from your shooting...
In this years World Cup the Dutch did something that no one expected,they decided that to have any earthly chance of beating Spain in the final (who,to be fair weren't that good themselves,in yet another generally poor tournament) they would have to adopt the methods of Sam Allardyce's Bolton and Pulis's Stoke. This display was greeted with universal criticism and derision,Johan Cruyff their best player of all time was probably the Dutch teams
biggest critic.Add all this up and it's pretty easy to see exactly where Marwijk is coming from.It's a classic case of scapegoating,and the Dutch coach should be ashamed of himself,because it isn't going to work. His team are well below the standard expected of a Dutch international team,and it is all going on during his watch.
Why "rather surprisingly"? Why cant the MUEN write a real story for once!
'De Jong rather surprisingly avoided any sanction from referee Martin Atkinson for the tackle in which Newcastle striker Hatem Ben Arfa suffered a double leg-break at Manchester City last Sunday.'
Errr, there was nothing 'surprising' about it. As Stuart Brennan so eloquently put it in last night's edition of this paper, it was a perfectly good tackle.
"De Jong rather surprisingly avoided any sanction from referee Martin Atkinson"
Sorry, but I was there, and the only surprise was that Ben Arfa was injured in an utterly routine, non-belligerent challenge. Read what the Newcastle assistant manager said about it, and stop following the agenda of the national papers/radio who are desperate for any negative story they can find about City - unless you have an agenda too?
Who wrote this rubbish, and why haven't they put their name on it?
In a small way, sport echoes life itself.
So many people are ready to push their agendas, to unpack their prejudices, and to make themselves into judge and jury. Amidst all of this is one man, a really good footballer, who happens to have been involved in a series of incidents, none of which was clearly a malicious act. Even the Alonso incident involves De Jong, chasing the ball and aiming for it rather than deliberately attacking the man, as is portrayed.
It takes almost no effort to say this. It takes almost no effort to be fair. Why won't the MEN take a balanced view?
We wont ever let yoos get above us right,because Fergeh dont tell us lies ,weve got 95 million quid to play with in the transfer market.And just wait until dered knights bye our club ,Weve never had dirty players like DE JONG either ,they just mistimed tackles int that right keano and buchan.You CITY are so bitter to us ,were going to win everything again like last year.
At the time of the incident, not one person (apart from Ben Arfa) knew that anything was wrong. If he had got up and carried on, not one single word about the tacle would have been said. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury and all hell has broken loose because of it. Not only is Ben Arfa unlucky, so is NDJ who, like all of us, see hundreds of similar tackles made every week and 99.9% of them have no effect on the other player. There is too much empasis on the injury, such as the Edwardo and Ramsey incidents, and not on the actual tackle itself for example, Keane, Scholes and Henry.
No name on this article - becasue it was written by a Stretford reporter on the Stretford Times. Mr. Brennan's recent supporting article in respect of de Johng was the first "pro" City report for a long time. This player has been unjustifiably "hung out to dry." Yes, he deserved a red card for his tackle in the WC Final, but the ref was right in not even blowing for a foul last Sunday. In addition, the assistant ref - in a very good position to see the incident - did not flag. I was close to where it happened and nobody around me commneted, apart from sympathy with the player injured.
Blimey bring back Eric Thornton!
Sir Alex Ferguson should be saying to Paul Scholes after his reckless challenges which by the way are far worse than De Jongs "you should be a little more careful in the future Paul and let it be a lesson to you"
I cannot believe the treatment Nigel is getting over a challenge we all see almost every week in our game.Unfortunately some of our weaker officials will now penalise the lad for nothing now and that is wrong....Eh another part of the agenda against City Hey?
YAAAAAAWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNN
In an attempt to grab the headlines, hear that Lou Marcari's chippy have cleaned the windows again!
Yes Nigel has learnt that he was playing International Football for a sham of a country and an abysmal and nasty piece of work, The International manager.
Credit to Andy Gray, who has written today that retrospective punishment is not merited because the tackle was legal, there was no malice aforethought, and it was an unfortunate injury, not a criminal act.