Many Happy Returns

The return of Ben Thatcher after a long period of suspension warranted by a sickeningly violent challenge on Portsmouth’s Pedro Mendes will doubtless have been welcomed by some Manchester City fans, but if his display against Newcastle United is anything to go by, there is as yet no reason to change the widely held view that Thatcher is the latest in a depressingly long tradition of stoutly built, intellectually challenged and thoroughly intimidating full backs with a hammer drill approach to both tackling and distribution.

He evidently claims to be a reformed character, yet there remains something sinister about him and he continues to give the powerful impression of a red card waiting to happen.