Atlético Madrid defender has been suspended for 10 weeks but it is possible that he has done nothing or very little wrong
Eighteen years ago, shortly after Mick McCarthy had lost his job as the Republic of Ireland manager for the first time, some friends and I became privy to some inside information regarding the likely identity of his successor. It was so long ago I can’t remember how or where we learned the Football Association of Ireland mulling over a left-field appointment and ready to replace McCarthy with Philippe Troussier, a Parisian whose CV read more like that of a French foreign legion recruit than that of a jobbing manager.
A 20-year career that had begun in France had taken Troussier on footballing tours of duty to the Ivory Coast, South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Burkina Faso but now, we were assured, he was about to take over Ireland. Seeing him priced up at double-figure odds with the bookies, we piled on. It was the time to bet like men, to borrow and slightly mangle a phrase from the celebrated Observer racing correspondent Richard Baerlein. Or at the very least men of extremely limited financial means for whom winning several hundred quid would prompt scenes of unbridled jubilation.
Related: Kieran Trippier banned for 10 weeks for breaching FA's betting rules
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