Stoke City's Ryan Shawcross: Care to Think About This Poor Lad?

For Ryan Shawcross, the Manchester United academy product who has made a name for himself at Stoke City, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010 could well have been one of the best days of his life.

Not only did he get the chance to play against Arsenal, but he was also called up by Fabio Capello to the England squad for the first time in his life.

He has worked hard all season and has finally got the recognition he, and everyone else, knows he deserves.

Being called up by one of the greatest managers in World Football to represent your country is a feeling like no other.

That Saturday could well have been Ryan Shawcross' day; the best day of his life. The one day he stood up and told the world he had arrived in World Football—not just as a Premier League player, but as a full international football player in his own right.

Instead, he has been vilified by Arsenal fans and football fans in general across the world.

In that match against Arsenal at the Britannia Stadium, he saw an opportunity to get the ball. A chance to win the ball, start an attack, and quite possibly go on to score a historic goal for his team in a massively important fixture.

However, tragedy struck at both ends when poor Ryan Shawcross mistimed his attempt to get that ball.

He missed that ball he was aiming for, and turn round to see the consequence of what it meant; he had accidentally caught his opponent.

This opponent being a certain Wales star named Aaron Ramsey, who laid on the pitch writhing in pure agony as he so desperately awaited some vital medical attention.

Then it sunk home. Referee Peter Walton gave him a red card, but much worse and far more importantly, Shawcross had unintentionally threatened the career of a fellow professional.

He received vicious words from the Arsenal players, his own teammates looked at him with disdain at what he had done, the away fans were booing him, the home fans were shocked. And the two managers couldn't believe what they were seeing.

It appeared everyone in the world hated him at that specific moment in time.

After the game, he was vilified for being a sadistic monster who intentionally goes in for reckless challenges with the only desire being to really injure the player.

Fans flocked in their thousands to give their two cents on the matter. Ryan Shawcross is a cheat. He's a dirty, reckless player. He's a villain. He isn't worthy of being a footballer, let alone a Premier League one.

It was meant to be one of the best days of his life, but it perhaps turned into one of the worst.

On a day where Fabio Capello gave him the greatest honour a football player could have, he was lured in by the virulent prize of winning the ball from the opponent, and was forced to pay the deadly consequences.