Premier League Nonsense

My biggest gripe with video evidence is when would it be used? Just for goal line incidents or for other stuff as well?

Can you imagine if there had been video replays available at Anfield the other week when Liverpool played Tottenham. I would have been a very unhappy bunny indeed. Defoe's goal would have stood and there's some that wouldn't not have given the late penalty.

Rio Ferdinand would be in the dock for his handbags with that Hull player the other day. On a side note, why no hue and cry over that? Perhaps had it been Gallas he would already be doing bird.

Football at the moment, for all its sins is fair. The guys who play in the Premier League follow the same rules as the guys who play in the Rushmoor Sunday League and everyone still blames the ref when they lose. Keep it that way.

Interrupted sports is an American thing and they can, like Michael Bolton and Fox News, keep it. Imagine watching a game at Old Trafford or Anfield. they'll be appealling everything including if they lose the toss. 3pm kick offs won't finish till the next day.

One argument could be that there would be a limit on the number of appeals. There used to be a limit on the number of substitutes as well, remember? One. Then three, then five then seven.

Clubs and leagues will soon start tweaking for no other reason than they can and it will be the fan who suffers. Woops, sorry. That don't wash anymore. The TV companies won't like it. Who am I kidding? Of course they will. This appeal against a handball is brought to you by Blah Blah Blah Roofing and Tiling from the High Street. Call Ted for a quote.

I'm not against change per se. But how can something like video evidence be introduced fairly and equitably across the board. And I can't see a way.

In fact to show you how open minded I am why not just have a fourth official watching the game on TV monitors. When he sees the ref or lino err then he can just yell down the two way radio oi ref, you dropped a bollock on that one son.

Trouble is with thousands of fans yelling the same thing he won't know who to listen to.

...but the Lone Ranger tells him to find his own horse!

Sorry, couldn't resist it. Never mind, the season starts now. In Singapore, Vietnam and also Anfield.

But seriously in what other line of work can you be fired and still get a healthy pay off? Football has lost of sense of reality.

Hi ho Silver...

Once again we are subject to a gnashing of teeth as the media, fuelled by inane callers to inane phone in shows and anonymous posters on anonymous message boards decide to attack the Arsenal one more time.

Not for Eduardo 'diving' this time. No, this time William Gallas is deemed the offender for his tackle on Bolton's Davies. The player lay on the ground, the ref, who usually has the final say on these things, waves play on and Arsenal scored.

First rule of football Bolton. Play to the fucking whistle.

Bolton! It just seems so sweet that Bolton Wanderes are complaining about what they percieve to be a bad challenge. The Angels of the north west who have given the world Kevin Davies. Mr Elbow himself.

The challenge was nothing. Nothing worse than you see in most games but Owen Coyle, perhaps sensing a bandwagon to jump on, isn't letting it rest. He's calling it assault! Say the man who picks Kevin Davies.

You can't blame the Wanderers fans for clutching at the slimmest of straws. They haven't seen football up there since Frank Worthington over 30 years ago. Now they just see aerial ping pong and hope for some high challenges to get their jollies.

Bolton lost a two goal lead. That is the nuts and bolts of Wednesday night. Coyle is just hoping to keep the headlines going to take attention off his side who lost a two goal lead. Fine. That's his job. There is no need for the media to dance to his tune.

What about when Denilson got clobbered against Everton the other week. Didn't hear Wenger whining too much then.

But hey...same old Arsenal, always cheating.

I've not really been following the Manchester United saga with that much interest, mainly because I never knew leverage was a verb.

But whatever is happening it is just a sad indicment of how money men have taken over the world of football as much as they control everything else we do and have done since the days of the East India Company.

Who owns Portsmouth these days and after all the takeovers why are players' salaries late? What the rubber duck is going on at Liverpool where Gilette and Hicks have to be the worse double act since Cannon and Ball.

That's England for you. Any Johnny Foreigner turns up promising to have the keys to the pot of gold that lies at the end of a rainbow and we are doing up our shoelaces, offering our butts for further penetration.

Of course not all foreign takeovers are bad, Aston Villa seem to be doing just fine and dandy for now, and of course not all English takeovers are good as Newcastle fans would tell you.

Farsighted United fans said before the Glazer takeover this was to be avoided at all costs and no one listened. Well, no one with any money or influence.

How will the Chelsea and Manchester City sagas end?

For United what needs to be done is not sending letters asking Sir Alex Ferguson to resign, relying on his union leader past to get bolshie. What is needed is for fans to boycott games. Let Old Trafford become the Madam Tussauds of the north, reliant only on foreign tourists from Malaysia and Singapore whose only attachment is a red shirt and a guaranteed trophy.

No doubt fans will say 'but I haven't missed a game since before Muncih 58' but if their club's future is at stake the time is now to act and stay away. 'Cos money men only understand one thing and when they see that dry up they turn chicken and bolt faster than Bolt doing 100 metres.

So these people who bought Portsmouth and Notts County. I'm assuming they passed a fit and proper test? I'm assuming the people who carry out these tests actually met the buggers and checked them out?

'Cos if they didn't then they should be walking the streets looking for work.

And in future anyone wanting to buy a bloody football club in the UK should have to pay a deposit to the FA so that when this kind of shit happens next then working people are not left high and dry.

PS who does own Portsmouth these days? I've quite lost count...

As the likes of Tottenham and Manchester City look overseas for the manager that will turn their fortunes around just where has the local talent gone? A generation ago the British Isles had a surplus of top managers steeped in the traditions of our game but, as the foreigners have come in, they seem to have receded. A bit like on the pitch it seems we just can’t get the mix right off it. Perhaps a look at the past greats could help guide us to what to look for today.

We’ll start with Sir Matt Busby. Arguably the man who put the glamour into Old Trafford, he was born in a mining community in North Lanarkshire, near Glasgow. During his years with the Red Devils they became the first English team to win the European Cup as well as winning five First Division titles and two FA Cups. His impact was so great that United nearly imploded upon his departure with George Best playing the errant superstar and the club itself getting relegated. He reigned supreme at Old Trafford for an incredible 24 years which saw United become a world name long before TV spread the word.

The first man to bring the European Cup to the UK was Jock Stein a year before Sir Matt did in 1967. Stein was manager of Glasgow Celtic for 13 years winning the Scottish title 11 times, the Scottish Cup 11 times and the League Cup six times. Intriguingly he was also born near Glasgow, in Burnbank.

Bill Shankly ruled Anfield for 15 years and while his trophy return of just six in that time (three titles, two FA Cups and one Cup Winners’ Cup) was meagre it will be argued his legacy lies in the dynasty that he left behind him. He was undoubtedly the man who made Liverpool and the Kop famous around the world and without Shankly there would have been no Paisley and co. Oddly enough he too was born near Glasgow!

We’re beginning to see a trend here. Successful clubs are those that give managers time to manage. It also helps if the manager was born in and around Glasgow. Sir Alex Ferguson, George Graham and Kenny Dalglish come from the same mould. For Graham, 8 years as a player installed the traditions and values of the club that he was later to manager for 9 mostly successful years. Similarly Kenny Dalglish played for Liverpool for eight years before going on to manage them for a further 6. Sir Alex of course needs no introduction.

One other manager is worth a mention. Walter Smith took over at Glasgow Rangers in 1991 and in his eight seasons at the helm he won the Scottish Premier League seven times, the Scottish Cup three times and the League Cup four times. It goes without saying he was born in Glasgow.

It’s also worth pointing out that when Stein and Graham went to manage elsewhere they never achieved the success that Celtic and Arsenal enjoyed while it is fair to say Dalglish succeeded at Blackburn because of Jack Walker’s millions. His time at Newcastle and Celtic are best forgotten. And when Walter Smith headed to Everton he didn’t cover himself in too much glory either.

The only current manager who comes close to fitting the mould is Everton’s David Moyes. I say close because in his five years at Goodison Park the Glasgow born Moyes has yet to win any silverware. A couple of trophies and he will be the most sought after manager in the country.

(First appeared on www.espnstar.com)

Consider these two scenarios.

A strker goes down under a challenge in the penalty area and the ref gives a penalty.

A striker stumbles over outside the box, stumbles into the box and claims a penalty.

Which was is cheating? it's obvious. The second one. Yet the first one featured Eduardo against Celtic, had the Scottish whining which got the media on the case which got UEFA sticking their beak in. Eduardo was widely slagged off as a cheat despite the fact that the ref clearly explained at half time he had seen contact. And at no time did the Arsenal striker actually appeal.

The second happened in the FA Cup tie between Manchester United and Leeds United. Michael Owen, short on pace these days, falls outside the box, crawls into the area and appeals. The ref, quite rightly, waves play on. Yet Owen deliberately fell and deliberately called for a penalty.

When I was growing up I was always under the impression that acting dishonestly is cheating. Have things changed? If we had video evidence would Owen recieve a punishment based on his intent?