by Andrew Crawshaw
I have had a request from one of our readers to add a ‘WALL OF SHAME’ to my referee previews showing exactly how bad it gets sometimes.
The referee reviews analyse all of the decisions made (or not made) by the referee and his team of assistants during the course of the game, notating them against the time the incident occurred. We then prepare summary statistics for each half and the game as a whole. These include both correct and incorrect decisions for and against each team.
We don’t expect the refereeing to be perfect, although historically we have found some games that were, (unfortunately not involving Arsenal) but you will all know by now that we regard a Weighted score of 70% as the absolute minimum that we expect to see from any referee in a professional football match.
Our scoring system is:-
| Key Decisions in the Match | Points |
| Advantage | 1 |
| Foul | 1 |
| Incorrect Corner | 1 |
| Incorrect Goal Kick | 1 |
| Incorrect Throw-in | 1 |
| Other (Ref Positioning, Injuries, Time Wasting, etc.) | 1 |
| Offside | 1 |
| Yellow Card | 2 |
| Red Card | 3 |
| Goal | 3 |
| Penalty | 3 |
For the purpose of this article here are links to all of the referee reviews before the Leicester game where the Weighted Score has been less than 50%. At this performance level we would all expect to do better simply tossing a coin to make a decision.
Without further ado then here is the Referee WALL OF SHAME
| Ref |
Game |
Weighted Score | Bias against teams h/a | Link to Ref Review | ||
| Craig Pawson | Stoke | v | Arsenal | 34 | 5/95 | Ref Review – Stoke v Arsenal |
| Lee Mason | Arsenal | v | Southampton | 34 | 80/20 | Ref Review Arsenal v Southampton |
| Mike Dean | Chelsea | v | Arsenal | 41 | 5/95 | Ref Review Chelsea v Arsenal |
| Martin Atkinson | Arsenal | v | Spurs | 41 | 82/18 | Ref Review Arsenal v Tottenham |
| Mark Clattenburg | West Brom | v | Arsenal | 42 | 9/91 | Ref Review West Brom v Arsenal |
| Anthony Taylor | Arsenal | v | Newcastle | 48 | 9/91 | Ref Review Arsenal v Newcastle |
| Jonathan Moss | Southampton | v | Arsenal | 49 | 22/78 | Ref Review Southampton v Arsenal |
Honorable Mentions go to Jonathan Moss and Anthony Taylor for their pathetic performances against Southampton and Newcastle respectively.
Mr Moss made no fewer than 6 wrong Important Decisions (second yellow card, red card, penalty and goal decisions) with three of Southampton’s four goals being wrongly awarded. I have not counted the referee as costing us points.
Mr Taylor surprisingly only made one wrong Important Decision, he was diabolical with his routine decision making though. We won the game despite the referee.
Runners up medals go to Mark Clattenburg, Martin Atkinson and Mike Dean for their roles in the West Brom, Spurs and Chelsea games
Mr Clattenburg made 5 wrong Important Decisions in the West Brom game and ensured that we lost rather than won that game
Mr Atkinson made 8 wrong Important Decisions in the Spurs game, failing to award 3 penalties to Arsenal and failing to send off Vertonghen (twice), Dier and Giroud. A game we drew rather than won.
Mr Dean was so bad that a petition against him got over 100,000 signatures – 9 wrong Important Decisions, all against Arsenal. A game where he decided that no matter what the cost Chelsea were to gain all three points.
The Winners (so far this season) are Lee Mason and Craig Pawson (with help from his fourth official Mike Dean) for their roles in the home game against Southampton and away game against Stoke. Both have the diabolically low score of just 34%. That is half of the minimum acceptable performance. In any normal field of employment both would be summarily dismissed. If they were doctors they would be killing two patients out of three.
Mr Mason made 6 wrong Important Decisions – Tadic should have been dismissed twice in Minute 56 or in Min 66. Arsenal should also have been awarded 4 penalties – Min 56 Tadic on Campbell, Min 60 Fonte on Giroud, Min 70 Fonte on Giroud and Min 71 Bertrand on Koscielny. Any one of those would have ensured an Arsenal win rather than a draw.
Mr Pawson (and Mr Dean in his ear) made 8 wrong Important Decisions – Stoke should have had players sent off on 6 occasions; Min 52 Wollscheid, Min 58 Shawcross, Min 62, 71, 80 and 90+1 Pieters. Arsenal should have been awarded a penalties in either Minute 51 0r Min 52 (both for fouls by Wollscheid). Again a game we should have won rather than drawn.
I am sure that I will be returning to this table sooner rather than later, I propose to do so as part of the normal ref Previews when additions need to be made. Let me know in the comments if you would like to see it as a weekly inclusion.
————-
Insult of the day (just in case you need one)
You go so much backward when you fight (All’s well that ends well)
You might also enjoy…
- Bob Wilson writes for Untold Arsenal: that most unforgettable of days
- And coming soon – an article by another Arsenal double hero – John Radford
And two more anniversaries
- 16 February 1955: Arthur Milton sold to Bristol City. A most relaxed, down to earth man he was the last of the twelve men ever to play international football and test cricket for England. He married the daughter of his landlady while at Arsenal.
- 16 February 1957: Bournemouth of Division 3 (south) managed by ex Arsenal man Freddie Cox, beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1. Aside from the League Cup and a friendly Bournemouth had to wait until 2015 to play Arsenal.
Might I add my own particular beef here – that a machine given out decisions at random would probably end up with a 50% accuracy rating. So a ref who gets below 50% is worse than someone who awarded decisions at random.
I wonder if the PGMO visits this site for the ref reviews, or do any refs?
Have you had or do you get any response from the FA or the refs ?. Do you send your findings to the appropriate “authorities”?.
Maybe we could ask the PGMO to post our reports on their website…er…oh…er…wait a minute… which website?
Andrew, just a thought and asking a lot here I know…any ideas about the relationship between earning a terrible score and (a) getting another of our games quite quickly and (b) ending up doing a lot of our games over a season?
My expectation is that a really good score will tend to lead to a long spell without another of our games and few games overall (after the good score at least) in the season as a whole.
Conversely, a bad score will more often than not lead to another of our games fairly quickly and many games over the course of the season.
I think we’re likely to see each of the seven above again at least once each (a doubler for one of them- Atkinson, Dean or Taylor if needs must- in the remaining games), probably with Swarbrick and the new, unconvincing parolee Roger East also appearing.
Meanwhile Oliver, Friend and Marrinner are the only three I have a level of trust in, with Bobby Maddely a possible (don’t recall anything dodgy and have a feeling he once scored very high), so I suspect we’ll be lucky for them to get a game between them from now till the end.
No surprise at all! Irrespective of games left, easiest run-in etc..the key for Arsenal is who is in charge. Shudders of disbelief that Mike Dean has been awarded the Hull game, but even more disturbing and what could turn out to be highly pivotal, the man who has been filmed celebrating twice against us – yes you’ve guessed it – Mike Dean, is actually going to be the ref v the stains at the lane!!!!!!!!! We stand NO CHANCE!
Rich,
If I may can I answer this as a preamble to the ref preview for the weekend. After all it is Dean and that part won’t take a lot of writing.
Andrew
Of course. ‘Look forward to it’ is the wrong term, but I’ll be reading with interest for sure.
It’s as if some of the referees had already decided the outcome of the match, before they took to the field. I’m sure this couldn’t happen, as they would root out any wrong-doers in football.
I know there is nobody involved in refereeing who would cast a blind eye on a professional foul committed against an Arsenal player when the score was nil-nil at the start of a match. Which I’m sure wouldn’t result in an end to a record-breaking unbeaten run.
I’m also certain that no current referees are or ever have worked with or for a betting company. I can say with equal certainty, that any referee who engaged in a business transaction with a football club owner would stop refereeing before doing so.
I can also be sure that no referee in the premiership favours one team over another to an extent that they would even make bad calls against their favoured teams rivals even when their team wasn’t involved in said match.
Our refs are that good!
We all know the statistics, laws and formulae that are used by Untold to compile the Ref reviews, but where are the similar components and data that PGMOB use?
Surely they have to publish that information else how does Mike Riley justify his claim that 96% of all decisions are correct?
I remember Sian Massey getting 96% once, but that was quite a while ago, and of course she has hardly been seen since. (Yes, I know, she took time out to have a baby but that doesn’t take 4 years).
Dean for the Hull game!
Time for a massive run of “unusual” betting so that the FA have to sit up and take notice. Perhaps the police too.
This man should simply not be allowed near an Arsenal game ever again!
Sian Massey (Sian Massey-Ellis) news. As near as I can tell, there isn’t any. The most recent news was Women’s World Cup related.
Well, in looking for that, I ran across other referees.
Maggie Farrelly in Ireland has officiated senior men.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/6898431/Meet-the-gorgeous-glamour-model-giving-it-all-up-to-become-a-football-referee.html
I can see where she could have some problems with people assuming she doesn’t know football, but I wish her luck. Even is she does support Chelsea.
Iceman,
I know the PGMO has send Dean twice in 3 weeks a few seasons ago to get us out of the FA cup and finish our last title chances but send him twice in 14 days might even be a bridge too far for the PGMO to sell to the newspapers. So I am rather sure we will not get Dean at the lane. Atkinson could be another one to make up for yesterday of course….
You left out “Kevin friend”(no friend of ours) I can assure you.check the stats..great idea by the way the weekly wall of shame.we all know who they are hey.by the way if “iceman”is correct & Mike “jasper carrot” dean has our match at the lane there had better be complete uproar.afc should be informed & if they sit on their hands & do nothing.get it into the media & statrt a campaign in plenty of time to actually do something about it.or we are most def shafted!
Gord,
last I heard re Sian Massey, she had a baby, no idea if she is back refereeing since then.
Our Juniors had a female referee a few weeks ago, I’ll try and find her name.
Rich,
I’ve looked at your question and the answer was even longer than I expected so I’m putting it up as a separate article.
Andrew, I had spent a bit of time mucking about Google News and Google. The latest news is 1.5 to 2 years old.
In what I put up, you will have to look up the Irish lass if you want her story. The link is about the girl from a different background looking to get into football, who likes Chelsea. The link is not about the Irish lass. I wish them both luck. There is no reason they can’t be referees.
I did see another blurb in the news about Gabriel being back in Brazil. I guess whatever he did to his hamstring is a little more serious. Hopefully he will be back soon. Nice to see articles about Cazorla and Wilshere in the news.
But what I really want, are articles like “Mike Riley 😈 dragged out of ___ building in shackles”, “Mike Dean announces retirement with immediate effect” and “UEFA 2016 Committee has dropped all English referees from the upcoming tournament”.
The MIKE DEAN factor
There is a respected Professor named Andy Field. He is not some random fan with a calculator – he specialises in complex, scientific studies.
As a scientist, he decided to analyse Arsenal results under Mike Dean using a scientific processes to establish the validity of claims that he influences Arsenal results. This is not basic mathematics, this is advanced stuff. The Bayes factor vs frequentist approaches, chi-squares and null/alternate hypotheses. (If you want to read his results in full, then here is the link. It is a good read and pretty interesting stuff and funny too): http://discoveringstatistics.blogspot.co.uk/
The standard win percentage ratios have always lead us to believe Mike Dean is somehow affecting our results. The Bayes Factor not only prove this beyond a reasonable doubt but demonstrate that Tony Attwood was right all along; we would get better results flipping a coin.
The BAYES Factor
Initially you take it that a Bayes factor of 1 suggests it is “equally likely that Mike Dean affects Arsenal’s results as it is that he doesn’t”. From then you plot the data.
Andy Field says: “Bayes Factors quantify the ratio of the probability of the data under the alternative hypothesis relative to the null. A value of 1, therefore, means that the observed data are equally probable under the null and alternative hypotheses, values below 1 suggest that the data are more probable under the null hypotheses relative to the alternative. Bayes factors provide information about the probability of the data under the null hypothesis (relative to the alternative) whereas significance tests provide no evidence at all about the status of the null hypothesis. Bayes Factors are pretty easy to do.
Andy goes on: “The resulting Bayes Factor of 34.05 is a lot bigger than 1. The fact it is bigger than 1 suggests that the probability of the data under the alternative hypothesis is 34 times greater than the probability of the data under the null. In other words, we should shift our prior beliefs towards the idea the Mike Dean is anti-Arsenal (sic) by a factor of about 34.
In terms of a basic premise that set out at 1:1 this is actually huge.
Overview
Using data between season 2005/6 to the end of 2015 Andy Field found the following:
Arsenal results with Dean:
W: 26.45%
D: 41.18%
L: 32.35
Arsenal results with other referees:
W:60.21%
D: 17.28%
L:22.51%
So it’s a scientific fact that Mike Dean causes a negative impact on our results.
Other singificant factors
1. Is it significant that Eduardo had his leg smashed by a thug 5 minutes into a game, with Dean refereeing? Could the opposition manager have known he was likely to let tackles go and therefore told his players to ‘get stuck in’?
2. Is it significant that Jack Wilshere had his ankle destroyed by a late Paddy McNair tackle when Dean was referee? Is it significant that Mike Dean did not even think that tackle worthy of a foul?
3. Is it significant that Mike Dean saw Diego Costa grabbing Koscielnys face and then barging him to the ground but did nothing, yet decided to send off Gabriel for something he did not see – and which was proven to be incorrect by TV? Gabriels card was rescinded and Costa was charged with violent conduct.
The Mike Dean factor – and why it needs to be recognised
The ‘Mike Dean’ factor will be a fact known by the professional gamblers and the betting syndicates, because it influences betting patterns based on probability. I would be surprised if the FA and PGMOL were not aware of his appalling record. Anyone who thinks appointing Mike Dean to an Arsenal game is a good idea, needs certifying. Mind you, I would prefer to stuff and mount Mike Riley (behave, you know what I mean!!) and use that as an example of how not to run a professional referees association.
It is an absolute joke, it’s not even subtle.
Gord,
Sarah Garratt refereed our U21 game away at West Brom on 12 Jan. Highlights are on the Arsenal player. A soft free kick by the linesman led to the West Brom goal. She awarded us an even softer penalty which was saved. Her positioning seemed good. Can’t say more from a 6 min highlights video.
If women referees and assistants become the norm, they should bring back Andy Gray and Richard Keyes for live games.
It would be hilarious.
If a wife beating, dogging, car plasterer can work for the state broadcaster, then what is the problem.
* * * *
I’m just surprised the BBC haven’t invited someone serving a life sentence for murder onto Match of The Day.
Linekar: “This week we’re doing our bit for society and Match of the Day have invited Knuckle-Duster Keith into the studio for his expert analysis. Keith’s just on temporary release from Manchester Prison to be with us”.
“Welcome Keith. What did you make of the tackle on Aaron Ramsey and his reaction?”
KDK: “Watcha Gary. Well I would smash Ramsey if he did that to me, absolutely smash him. He wouldnt do that again. Rolling around like a pussie and then grassing up that other bloke to the referee. I wouldnt have it Gary, thats just disrespectful, know what I mean?”
Linekar: “So you dont think the tackle deserved a reaction?”
KDK: “Tackle? What tackle? I tell you this Gary, if I had made that tackle he wouldnt be rolling around like a pussie, he’ld be bloody dead! In the nick, we hit each other with baseball bats, chair legs, anyfing we can get our ‘ands on. I hit someone with a concrete post once, he didn’t get back up anytime soon. Come to fink of it, he didn’t ever get up. A few studs aimed just below the knee is nothing. Anyway that lad what made the tackle is a luvely bloke. Got a luvely Mum to, luvly. I shared a cell with their old man, Cut-throat Charlie, now he wouldnt let Ramsey take liberties with him”.
Linkear: “Thanks Keith, I assume you already know Danny Murphy?”
It goes so well Knuckle Duster Keith gets invited onto the Adrian Durham Drivetime show.
Linekar “Danny Murphy does a great job, he’s a northern lad you know. My mate John Terry from the south is a softie so I’ve let him baby sit the missus”.
The question has been asked about whether we have engaged with PGMO. The answer is no, because they have no website. When the Wiki article on them was expanded to include a very moderate paragraph to the effect that their approach of having limited numbers of refs had been challenged, that element was taken down very quickly.
When Walter wrote a piece about video refs, having a gentle laugh at PGMO for doing nothing within 3 days the Telegraph carried a very pro-PGMO article about what they were doing. Actually nothing happened thereafter, but it was interesting timing.
We have some comments made which to protect sources we can’t reveal which suggest there is an awareness. And I think that there is incidental evidence that since we started publishing ref previews the previous day, giving the ref plenty of time to read it, there has been a change.
What we don’t have are the resources the Italian media used to tape conversations, but we do have the fact that the existence of only a tiny number of referees, meaning we get refs multiple time, meaning that if there were anything untoward it would be ever easier for the ref to influence matches, is a fact. And it is interesting that TV, radio and the press refuse to go anywhere near that point.
@Andrew,
The table looks good. Well you probably know my vote to include just the Wall of Shame table in each of the ref previews, and only expand further on new additions. The Wall of Shame will hopefully serve as an inspiration to future PGMO refs to not get on this list if they have any pride in their profession!
But with Mike Riley, you never know, he might use it as motivation for his team of refs to get on the list.
Tony.
I recall Mark Halseys book and some of the things he said. PGMO I believe tried to have it banned. He pretty much exposed some of the refs and Poll didn’t like it.
The fact Halsey admitted having a,text relationship with Fergie made me shudder. There in itself is proof that organisation is out of control. Refs texting managers and we wonder about some of the decisions they used to get!
I personally believe that once the truth comes out it is going to have severe ramifications.
Is the truth getting out there?
proudkev, your professor is echoed in the Metro..
http://metro.co.uk/2016/02/16/arsenal-fans-accept-their-fa-cup-run-is-over-after-mike-dean-is-appointed-ref-for-hull-match-5687860/?
The media can have an enormous field day at the PGMOL’s expense and to the benefit of football when it all comes out….
Andrew, an excellent presentation and I think all Untolders will be very grateful for the time and effort you have taken to prepare the data.
The evidence for something very unsavoury in the way the PGMO is treating Arsenal is every mounting. Some happy day Riley, the 7 refs tabled above and some others, including one or two from the FA and possibly some from the media (and perhaps even beyond) will be called to account for their actions – they will not get off scott-free.
Keep up thr good work.
I had a look at your stats blog Kev. I know of R, but I haven’t used it for anything other than a single trivial thing. It is just another thing on the TODO list.
Likewise, I haven’t gone down the Bayes path. I think Monte Carlo is more my style, especially things like bootstrap and jack knife (boot strap I’ve played with). Your friend’s (?) analysis is fine, except that I think it hinges on the “priors”. Maybe if he investigated what effects the priors are doing?
Most analytical people doing football, start with the assumption that scoring is Poisson. And it is something I’ve mentioned. If scoring was Poisson, the probability of scoring at any given interval should be a constant. It isn’t. The probably of scoring very early in the game is too low, and the scoring at the end of the first half is a b it high, and the scoring at the end of the game is quite a bit too high. But if you could remove those 3 or 4 minutes from a game, it is close to constant.
I think that at some point, a person has to go to some kind of real probability distribution, and not just use one of the canned ones that have all these nice analytical properties, tables, textbooks and so on.
But yes. I’ve felt for a long time that PGMO is crooked, not just Mike Dean. Proving it is more difficult.
Proud Kev, not only did Halsey have a text relationship with Fergie, Jose Mourinho paid for a holiday for Halsey and his wife. Ok, they were both recovering from cancer…..BUT!!!!
As for those refs mentioned in this article, I actually hope they are corrupt, because , difficult as their job as, they shouldn’t be in a job if they are that poor……probably any job. I strongly suspect one or two should be at her majesty’s pleasure, but that is another matter.
Suspect Dean will be very lenient on us this weekend….against Hull, only to do us at WHL , where he knows he will have the unconditional support of the majority of the crowd, the media, his peers, and of course, the AAA.
According to FIF, Clattenberg has been stood down for this weekend…..after handing Spurs a win against City
https://mobile.twitter.com/footballisfixed/status/699500677622530048
All well and good, but why do refs that do us never get stood down?
I suspect City, and possibly their lawyers had words should this information be correct.
Maybe Arsenal should try the same.
Thanks for doing this table, Andrew. These scores are a joke. You’re right, Mandy, with this level of competence they shouldn’t be in the job.
‘ When its uncomfortable , when its unpopular , even when its dangerous to speak the truth , its the precise time that truth be spoken .’
Rich
I’d say there’s a direct correlation to appearances with poor scores against us. For example, moss appears to have screwed us a few times this season and we’ve already seen a lot of him. I think if it weren’t for the Gabby fallout we might have seen dean more this season. Of course Andrew’s response might show otherwise, but unlikely I think.
Would love to write to these guys at the pigmob, if only I had an email address or something..in my personal capacity of course.
Great idea for inclusion; well done! If only the profile of these reviews could be raised further. Perhaps expanded to the blogs of other teams to conduct their own reviews (non biased of course). Perhaps then the pressure on PGMO will grow. Ultimately we are always going to struggle until video reviews arrive.
I must add that I have seldom seen such anger and heard so much noise rightly rolling down the stands to the officials (well not since Antony Taylor and Aston Villa a couple of years ago). Let’s keep up the loud protesting when poor decisions are made and time wasting tactics are used.
It was at WHL last season that the pgMOB representative first showed us their new cunning and subtle ‘Pushing Hands’ technique, where a spud player or two would be allowed to use two hands in the back of any AFC player but if an AFC player so much as breathed it was a yellow or pelanty:
pgMOB Rules Football. It is what it is.
We’ve seen shockers from young rising star Apprentice Taylor as well as others in favour of the tiny tots don’t worry pgMOB even though Untold can’t do reviews of all games anymore the stench created by some of Riley’s Crows is so strong that most who follow the game are aware of the favours for Tottenham especially as Uncle Boris is attempting to help his old chums raise some wonga (on interest of course!) in order to get the plebs to pay as much as possible for the Tinies new stadium.
No alarms and no surprises in seeing them where they are or seeing the petty plunditary seamless switch their gibberish generators from gushing over Leicester to hyping up Tottenham. Example? How about on that reputable organ 5Live on Monday Night Club one of their plundits saying that Tottenham have built their squad on the cheap! It’s an unreal level of propaganda no other word could really justifiably be used to describe such deliberate distortions but let’s be honest it is funny to see the tragicomic levels that these clowns (that is what they are) will drop to in order to keep on plugging the same old rubbish.
< Taylor for WHL
I’m “well late” getting to this article.
Thanks Andrew. It’s excellent. Comments are brilliant too.
Atkinson last season at WHL the pioneer of Riley’s cunning and original and subtle new technique and that was the reason why he was rewarded with the Home tie in N5 earlier this season and stank out the stadium as anyone watching that game or reading the ref review will be able to see.
It’s Riley’s originality, his cunning, his unpredictability (if you don’t read Andrew’s reviews 😉 ) that must have earnt him so many admirers in the world of Football. In cloudy opium pits far away, in plush offices full of projections of Ray Winstone saying “bet now”, with the great and the good (the likes of Scudamore and Risdale), wow: what a guy. I’m impressed.
Thanks Andrew.
Comments I made a little while ago seem to have dissapeared.
Excellent article and comments.
Mandy dodd
“All well and good, but why do refs that do us never get stood down?”
Because Mandy, according to there judges they never do ‘do us’.
And who are there judges? The media.
The reason that something was done about Clattenburg was because the media judged him to of had a stinker, and the penalty was the icing on a very big cake.
Where as Atkinson had a blinder and as we have heard all week, got every important decision correct. The penalty. Not booking Drinkwater. etc. etc.
Oh except for one of course, sending a Leicester player off. But I’m sure he’ll make up for that next time.
After such a great result and an exhilarating late winner, this week should of been fun, but to my mind it’s ended up being one of the most worrying weeks (Football and Arsenal wise) I have ever known.
The anti Arsenal tone and bias has gone to new levels. It is so blatant it is beyond belief. It really is a worry how the events of the last couple of weeks have been reported in the media.
One week Flamini is slaughtered for an admittedly poor, two footed lunge, that Walter showed was correctly punished by the Referee with a Yellow card. This being because, although ‘reckless’ in manner, it never at anytime put the opposing player in danger.
But never the less it was judged as such a heinous crime by some, that almost a week later Martin Samuel felt compelled to write an entire article about it, and how it shows Flamini to be the spawn of Satan himself.
Yet roll forward a week and a straight legged lunge that connects with Ramsey’s leg just bellow the knee, is deemed perfectly acceptable and not even worthy of a Yellow card. Not only that but it was such an impressive attempt at breaking a guys leg, without actually fouling him, that it’s induced shouts for Drinkwater to get an England call up.
Well I never. Not the first time that’s happened me thinks.
And not only that, but the brittle boned self harmer that is Ramsey should be ashamed of himself for trying to get the poor lad sent off !!
That win at the weekend really has upset a few people hasn’t it.
An article slagging off Flamini.
An article slagging off Pires.
I heard a talking head the other day say what a big influence the two Wenger subs had. Quite right I thought, time for a bit of praise.
More fool me.
Nope, that was just an excuse to wade in with….’because Wenger is well known for normally getting his substitutions so wrong’ !
Is he? First I’ve ever heard of it.
But then again apparently he’s crap at buying Goalkeepers, crap at buying centre halves, crap at closing out games, crap at tactics, dithers in the transfer market, injures his own players, rushes them back, had a dodgy pitch laid, does antiquated coaching methods, doesn’t do a plan B, always whinges, never sees it, is an arrogant, selfish, money grabbing, greedy liar.
Did I miss anything?
So why shouldn’t he be bad at making substations as well?
It would rather spoil the symmetry if he was actually good at something wouldn’t it?
You’ve got to wonder how we ever win a f***ing match !!!
To me the absolute worst, and most worrying of all this is how the media has somehow turned a very dangerous, potentially career ending assault into a mere aside, whilst at the same time, some how managing to cast the target of this assault, a guy that had his leg snapped in similar circumstances just a few years ago remember, into the guilty party.
I knew the media hated us. In fact I knew they hated us with a passion, but this is something else. This has gone way too far. This is overtly saying that attempting to break our players legs is a perfectly acceptable, and legitimate tactic. In fact it could even be the start of your England career.
I worry for our players safety I really do.
Jambug at 5:14 pm
Absolutely brilliant comments.
PS
We’ve had Flamini chastised for being a hooligan on the football field.
We’ve had Pires derided for being a serial diver.
Just google Rooney and Gerrard ‘bad tackles’ and ‘diving’.
Quite a lot to see you’ll notice.
Then try and find any Martin Samuels or Danny Mills articles slaughtering them.
And along side Samuels name he has emblazoned ‘Sports writer of the year’. Jeeeeeeez !!
Begs the question, just how f***ing bad are the others?