Wilfried Zaha

The Watford mascot mocked Wilfried Zaha's diving and Sam Allardyce is (predictably) mad

Published Dec. 26, 2016 3:25 p.m. ET

Ryan Rosenblatt

Sam Allardyce has been out of management for three months. In that time, soccer has been in short supply of managers yelling about insignificant and/or amusing things. But he's back now and after his first match in charge of Crystal Palace, he got back in the game.

Palace winger Wilfried Zaha was booked during the match for diving, so after the final whistle, Watford mascot Harry the Hornet mocked him by diving out on the pitch. Zaha got mad and had to be restrained, then Allardyce got mad after the match.

“The Premier League and FA can look at that and do what they want to do,” said Allardyce. “That's up to Watford to sort that out really. It could have made the wrong reaction as we know. The mascot is out of order, isn't he? If someone is diving, they don't get that angry.”

First of all, the only people angry here are Zaha and Allardyce.

Second of all, he's a man dressed in a goofy looking hornet costume running around a stadium to entertain children. How can he be"out of order"? What's in order?

Watford manager Walter Mazzarri had a much more reasoned approach to the whole thing.

“Let's all laugh together about this," Mazzarri said. "Everything doesn't have to be a drama.”

Mazzarri is right, of course. But this is Allardyce, a man who got fired from England just months ago after a single match because he was caught directing people how to circumvent transfer rules and who likes yelling about everything. So with him, everything does have to be drama. Even a man in a goofy hornet costume diving on the ground.

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