There have been plenty of controversial moments in the Premiership this season, but here are just a few you may remember...
26 Feb 2011 – With the scores level Wayne Rooney elbows James McCarthy at Wigan. United win 4-0
5th Feb 2011 – At 1-1 Gary Cahill is booked for diving at Spurs for what looked a clear penalty. Spurs win 2-1
23 Jan 2011 – At 0-0, WBA are awarded a free kick for a foul clearly in the box vs Blackburn. They lose 2-0
30 October 2010 - At 1-0 to Man United, Nani handballs but no free kick is awarded to Spurs. No free kick is awarded against Nani, allowing same player to take advantage of confusion to score into empty net
16 October 2010 – Late West Ham winner at Wolves ruled out for controversial handball.
The common denominator in this lot of course is the referee, Mark Clattenburg.
Now, regular readers of my match reports and blogs of the past will know that I have a lot of time for referees. They have an incredibly difficult job to do, and most do it honestly and pretty well. But Clattenburg...well as he yet again proved today, he is either incompetent or a liar.
He saw the Rooney incident apparently, but felt he dealt with it appropriately. Not even the most dyed-in-the-wool Man United fan could argue what Rooney did was worth a red card, although Fergie of course, a knight of the realm no less, seems to think it was ok. But Clattenburg is not prepared to admit he erred. He cannot bring himself to be shown as fallible. And that his is main problem, his own vanity.
Like in Politicians, vanity in referees is the worst possible trait. Look at Mark Clattenburg's perma-tan. Look at the way he teases his hair into asthetically pleasing angles before he takes to the field. Hair that, by the way, he has already had treatment on to cure balding.
Vanity means you think too much of yourself, and this means he cannot see his own mistakes...which is why he makes so many, as he has never learned. So is he simply incompetent...the evidence suggests so.
But many contend he is simply craven to the 'big' sides, blinded by being involved in the big games, desperate not to upset them so he is still centre stage when they play. The Rooney incident is the latest, but let's go back a little further.
When Emmanuel Adebayor's studs made contact with Robin Van Persie's cheek, Mark Clattenburg said he didn't see the incident, and if he had he would have dismissed the Manchester City striker.
Well, here is that incident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBBdG_Tfow
Mark Clattenburg is looking right at it. In reporting to the FA that he didn't see it, he is either admitting that he is useless, or not telling the truth. That in fact the governing body considers him one of the best there is is very very worrying.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Sunday, 27 February 2011
You're No Fun Any More
Watching Glossop North End yesterday, and then the aftermath at the match and online, I was reminded of the line repeated often in an episode of the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus - 'You're no fun anymore'.
Everything seems so tense at Surrey Street at the moment, on and off the pitch. On the fans side of the barriers there is a displeasure with results that bubbles under the surface based (I think) on a resentment that no Glossop manager has ever had it so good, and on the playing surface a lack of confidence is hampering decision making and leading to mistakes & defeats, perhaps based on the pressure that comes from the knowledge that the club has never had it so good. For all parties there is a frustration that a squad that looks to have all the right components in theory to comfortably finish in the top ten of the league continues to under-perform as a collective.
This malaise sees the club turning in ever decreasing circles. The players get more tense and play more poorly, the crowd gets more tense and angry, the players sense this and get more tense....etcetera, etcetera.
I think maybe it's time we took a step back and realised that football is supposed to be fun. We've been hamstrung by what Steve Young & Terry Hincks achieved in their first two seasons. It's time we lowered our expectations. And I mean fans, management, directors...everyone. Let's start having fun on Saturday afternoons again.
The Hillmen had been for years a rag tag outfit living hand to mouth and Chris Nicholson's only brief when he was in charge was to keep us in the division, and he achieved this with aplomb, improving the side each season.
The one thing his sides had, as did the sides in the Young era until recently, was an amazing team spirit. They wanted to play for Glossop and they gave everything they had. It often wasn't enough, but we accepted that and appreciated the effort warmly.
I'm not saying that the current side isn't trying because they patently are. I just think there is spark of team spirit missing. Players seem less willing to trust their team mates, and instead try and do something themselves. Of course, if that comes off, brilliant, but eight times from ten it will fail, and the opposition have the ball back.
How do you get that magic mix? Well that is the million dollar question*. Maybe the fans, directors, management and players just need to all go out and get pissed together? We can make a start by not being so angry with everyone; the referee, the players, the manager, the fans, and start enjoying ourselves. There is plenty going on off the pitch to be happy about and we know that the squad and the manager has the talent to mould a winning side - they've proved it. Maybe if we were all a little less uptight it might come naturally. And maybe, given recent events at Rossendale & Alsager we should be glad to have a club at all. Or as Python also said - 'Look on the Bright Side of Life'.
* - OK, so I can't get away with it so easily. We all have an opinion about how things on the pitch could be better and for what it's worth, which is probably not a lot, here's mine.
In 2008-09 we had a brilliant team playing 4-5-1. And all the time they were succeeding, we were thinking 'what if we had a proper big lad up front who was a natural goalscoring centre forward - how good would we be then?'. Now we've got one in Garry, we've not tried 4-5-1 and I'd give that a go.
But what do I know?
Everything seems so tense at Surrey Street at the moment, on and off the pitch. On the fans side of the barriers there is a displeasure with results that bubbles under the surface based (I think) on a resentment that no Glossop manager has ever had it so good, and on the playing surface a lack of confidence is hampering decision making and leading to mistakes & defeats, perhaps based on the pressure that comes from the knowledge that the club has never had it so good. For all parties there is a frustration that a squad that looks to have all the right components in theory to comfortably finish in the top ten of the league continues to under-perform as a collective.
This malaise sees the club turning in ever decreasing circles. The players get more tense and play more poorly, the crowd gets more tense and angry, the players sense this and get more tense....etcetera, etcetera.
I think maybe it's time we took a step back and realised that football is supposed to be fun. We've been hamstrung by what Steve Young & Terry Hincks achieved in their first two seasons. It's time we lowered our expectations. And I mean fans, management, directors...everyone. Let's start having fun on Saturday afternoons again.
The Hillmen had been for years a rag tag outfit living hand to mouth and Chris Nicholson's only brief when he was in charge was to keep us in the division, and he achieved this with aplomb, improving the side each season.
The one thing his sides had, as did the sides in the Young era until recently, was an amazing team spirit. They wanted to play for Glossop and they gave everything they had. It often wasn't enough, but we accepted that and appreciated the effort warmly.
I'm not saying that the current side isn't trying because they patently are. I just think there is spark of team spirit missing. Players seem less willing to trust their team mates, and instead try and do something themselves. Of course, if that comes off, brilliant, but eight times from ten it will fail, and the opposition have the ball back.
How do you get that magic mix? Well that is the million dollar question*. Maybe the fans, directors, management and players just need to all go out and get pissed together? We can make a start by not being so angry with everyone; the referee, the players, the manager, the fans, and start enjoying ourselves. There is plenty going on off the pitch to be happy about and we know that the squad and the manager has the talent to mould a winning side - they've proved it. Maybe if we were all a little less uptight it might come naturally. And maybe, given recent events at Rossendale & Alsager we should be glad to have a club at all. Or as Python also said - 'Look on the Bright Side of Life'.
* - OK, so I can't get away with it so easily. We all have an opinion about how things on the pitch could be better and for what it's worth, which is probably not a lot, here's mine.
In 2008-09 we had a brilliant team playing 4-5-1. And all the time they were succeeding, we were thinking 'what if we had a proper big lad up front who was a natural goalscoring centre forward - how good would we be then?'. Now we've got one in Garry, we've not tried 4-5-1 and I'd give that a go.
But what do I know?
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