Tony Pulis has refused to ‘dignify’ Dave Kitson’s allegations that he deliberately wound up his payers against Arsenal in what is a classic non-denial denial.

Arsenal's Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey is stretchered from the field during the English Premier League football match between Stoke City and Arsenal at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, central midlands, England on February 27, 2010. AFP PHOTO/Paul Ellis
Arsenal’s Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey is stretchered from the field during the English Premier League football match between Stoke City and Arsenal at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, central midlands, England on February 27, 2010. AFP PHOTO/Paul Ellis

Tony Pulis is not a stupid man but in his response to Dave Kitson’s allegations he has given himself away.

Not once does he bring himself to offer a denial of any sort. Instead, he deflects the question, attacking its validity rather than the substance of the issue at hand.

It is a non-denial denial at its finest.

if you miss the ball you f****** well make sure you take someone out. You put the keeper through the net and into the stand behind. If you miss the ball you make sure you take someone with you

In case you missed it, Kitson said, “I heard the crack of Ramsey’s leg from the bench. I heard the screaming. And the build-up to the game contributed to this moment.

“Stoke manager Tony Pulis absolutely despised Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, hated the way he played. While Wenger hated the way Stoke played. They were the direct opposite of each other in football terms.

Stoke City's English striker Dave Kitson celebrates scoring during the English Premier League football match between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City at The Reebok Stadium in Bolton, north-west England, on September 19, 2009. AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS
Stoke City’s English striker Dave Kitson celebrates scoring during the English Premier League football match between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City at The Reebok Stadium in Bolton, north-west England, on September 19, 2009. AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS

“They used to have little snipes at each other in the media. All week I had never seen a manager so desperate to win a game of football, it was bordering on out of control.

“In training, I remember doing the set-piece routine from corners.

“Shawcross and Abdoulaye Faye were preparing to play as central defenders, one of them would go across the near post. And I just remember us practising it over and over again, the corner coming in and Pulis screaming: ‘Ryan go across the f****** front — if you miss the ball you f****** well make sure you take someone out.

“’You put the keeper through the net and into the stand behind. If you miss the ball you make sure you take someone with you.’

“Like every other game he was telling us to turn them and get at them and all the usual stuff managers say.

“But that particular game it was very much ‘lads, don’t forget, be aggressive in the tackle, dominate your man.’ That was the message.

“It started that sort of feeling where it began to bubble within the players through the course of the week. Until finally it got to match day. The changing room was full of aggression and I remember the team talk more than anything.

“I remember Pulis pacing up and down shouting random things — this bundle of nervous energy blurting random swear words, trying to burn off his own nervous energy.

“And, of course, the upshot of all of that energy was that we went over the top and it cost Ramsey a year of his career.

“It seemed to me that was as a direct result of players reacting to their manager’s over-enthusiasm and buying into that whole thing and carrying out his instructions and crossing the line.”

STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 27:  Aaron Ramsey of Arsenal lies seriously injured following a challenge by Ryan Shawcross of Stoke City during the Barclays Premier League match between Stoke City and Arsenal at The Britannia Stadium on February 27, 2010 in Stoke on Trent, England.  (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 27: Aaron Ramsey of Arsenal lies seriously injured following a challenge by Ryan Shawcross of Stoke City during the Barclays Premier League match between Stoke City and Arsenal at The Britannia Stadium on February 27, 2010 in Stoke on Trent, England. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

There is absolutely no reason for Kitson to make any of this up.

Arsenal don’t play Stoke since they were relegated so it wasn’t as if the topic came up as part of a match discussion. Pulis, on the other hand, has every reason to be evasive and that’s exactly what he was.

“Football is a physical game, but we’ve had one player sent off this season and that was for pulling somebody’s shirt,” said Pulis when he was finally asked about Kitson’s comments recently.

“We’ve not had anyone sent off for bad tackles or violent conduct this season. If you look at my record, I’ve had more than 1,000 games [as a manager] and if you look at the stats, none of my teams were the dirtiest in the division. We didn’t have the most yellow or red cards.”

Anyone who watched Stoke under Pulis will know that red and yellow stats mean absolutely nothing. Pulis evokes them here as the last refuge of the guilty.

“As for the accusation I would tell my players to deliberately try and injure someone, I won’t dignify that question with an answer, that is just a ridiculous statement.”

See. No denial. Classic evasion.

181215 daily telegraph tony pulis
Daily Telegraph 15 December 2018

Don’t believe me? Then believe the internet; “A non-denial denial is a statement that, at first hearing, seems a direct, clear-cut and unambiguous denial of some alleged accusation, but on carefully parsing turns out not to be a denial at all, and is thus not explicitly untruthful if the allegation is in fact correct.”

Kitson even said that Pulis didn’t order his players to injure Arsenal players, nobody is saying he was that stupid. But everybody knew what he wanted and the results were clear on the pitch.

“Teams are a direct reflection of their manager,” Kitson added. “Without exception. We never sat in the dressing room and said ‘we are going to injure that player.’ It’s more ‘don’t give them time, get in their faces, if the ball is there to be won go and f****** win it’.

Pulis can spout his non-denial denial ‘til the Orcs come home, but we all know.

He knows too.