SkySports pundit Andy Gray thinks that modern football boots do not give footballers enough protection.
Former Wolves and Aston Villa striker Andy Gray, better known for his punditry on SkySports thinks that modern football boots do not offer enough protection for footballers.
During the Manchester United – Roma Champions League tie, Rio Ferdinand, wearing Nike Total 90 Laser football boots, had to have three stitches in his foot, caused when he kicked the sole of an opponents football boot. Camera’s showed blood that had seeped through the upper of the T90 Laser football boot, visible on the upper of Ferdinand’s football boot.
Andy Gray blamed the football boots, saying that modern football boots do not offer the protection footballers need.
Is Andy Gray correct?
Does he know anything about modern football boot technology?
at this point i would say, who cares the man just made an observation that know else bothered to pick up on. as usual nike will just be hyper defensive, saying theyve done loads of tests with wayne rooney and he somehow helped in the design process. we could do with a petition for nike/adidas and the rest of them to do something about it, because the endless debate is going nowhere. id love a pair of insoles for my adidas f50.7 to actually support my feet.
He’s usually wrong about EVERYTHING but this time he’s right, so many injurys are mainly down to less padding because they try to go for speed instead of the players safety.
Actually I would say it is not that the modern boots do not offer as much protection as the older boots but that the hard spikes do more damage then the softer rubber studs like the ones on e copas.
Back when I was playing High school and collage ball (in US) if you had any metal showing on the bottom of your boots you were not allowed to play. Look at the spikes on the soft ground predators those things look like teeth just waiting to sink into a leg on a missed time tackle. Sure they have great grip and the mud falls out but you could never wear those back in 1980 in NCAA competition.