Mad Jens – Don`t Mess With Keepers

Jens Lehmann is calling for goalkeepers to receive greater protection and respect after the events at Reading this weekend.

Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini were both carried off, and join fellow Premiership custodians Shay Given and Mark Schwarzer on the injured list.

‘First of all let me say that I hope both Carlo Cudicini and Petr Cech recover quickly, when it happened I really felt sorry for both keepers. It made me really, really angry too. We’re here two days later and I’m still upset because it happened to Schwarzer and Shay Given. Now it’s happened to Peter Cech and Carlo Cudicini. All of them are great keepers, very brave, they never went to challenge or harm the striker but all four of them got knocked out due to ‘clumsy’ challenges.

‘This word clumsy makes me really angry as well because these stupid pundits on TV they say sometimes ‘it’s clumsy’ and ‘it’s a man’s game’. Yes it is a man’s game but what you have to consider as well is these men have children and wives and their children don’t want to see their fathers end up with lifelong damage, driven around in a wheelchair or not being able to work anymore.

‘I have never injured a player in my life and I really want to retain this record because I respect my opponents. But now if they want to have a go at me then I will have to change my game because there is no protection from the referees.

Regular watchers of the crazy one will not believe he will necessarily be changing his game if he reacts to unwanted attention in coming matches. Ironically Jens should be between the posts at Reading this coming weekend. I doubt the Reading players will be relishing a fifty-fifty challenge with Germany`s number one on Sunday!

Article submitted by FatOldDave.