In The Spur Of The Moment

Week in, week out, match officials are criticised for giving a yellow card for this or a penalty for that, but how much do journalists really know about the laws of the game? Through most of this article I will be using Tottenham’s Champions League match against A.C Milan as an example. At this point I should mention I am a qualified referee. Technically the referee is always right, every law is based on, ‘The opinion of the referee’, so if a referee does not award a penalty for handball in the box, then (in the eyes of the law) there was no handball because in the opinion of the referee there was no handball. The referee, Stéphane Lannoy had a good game last night, as did the other five officials. Unfortunately a great game was plagued by bad sportsmanship, although Ibrahimovic was very reasonable about his goal being disallowed. The two most discussed parts of the game (Apart from the goal) are Flamini’s tackle on Corluka and Gattuso’s outburst. First Flamini’s tackle, many people would say he should have been shown a red card. However the referee did not. I think his view was slightly obstructed by another play so all he saw was the start of the tackle and Flamini winning the ball. The referee was correct to award the free kick as he could see how hard the impact of the tackle was. I do not want to put words in the referee’s mouth but I think he wanted to keep all 22 players on the field of play and he probably thought that Flamini was caught up in the spur of the moment, while the tackle was dangerous I think Flamini intended to play the ball. As far as Gattuso is concerned the referee did the best he could, he booked the Italian veteran for unsportsmanlike like conduct, which was again the right call. Gattuso’s first ‘attack’ on the Tottenham assistant manager was worthy of a red card but unfortunately Stéphane was dealing with other players at that moment in time, so as he did not see anything, there was nothing he could do. When the full time whistle blows the referee can no longer issue cards, unlike at halftime. But officials can file reports and then the F.A, FIFA, UEFA etc.. will investigate what happened and if they feel it necessary, sanction the person in question. Based on what happened at the end of the match I would assume Gattuso will receive an extra three-match ban. But at the end of the day only one persons opinion counts, the referee.
Written by Thomas Munson

McClaren Happy To Manage A Championship Club

Former England and Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren was recently sacked by the German club, Wolfsburg. The Englishman said in an interview with SkySportsNews, “At Wolfsburg it was hard, they wanted instant success, I prefer working for clubs who seek long term success.” While Steve McClaren has had great success at FC Twente and Middlesbrough his career is tainted slightly by his poor spell in charge of England, McClaren said his struggle in charge of England keeps him on his toes.

A move back to England could be on the cards after McClaren said that we was happy to come home and that he would be happy to manage a Championship club. Middlesbrough who at the start of this season were favourites to win the Championship are currently 20th and are in a relegation battle. McClaren achieved great success at Middlesbrough, under McClaren’s reign as manager of M‘Brough the club won it’s first major trophy (The League Cup) and qualified for the UEFA Cup, (Now known as the UEFA Europa League) the club also got it’s highest ever Premier League finish.

Will Steve McClaren be the man to turn round Middlesbrough’s ship or will he move to another club that he has not managed before? If Avram Grant fails to keep his job at the helm of West Ham United then maybe that is the type of club Steve would want to manage, in the long term the board and the fans expect great things but I am sure, at least for the first season or so, finishing in the top 15 would be more than enough. Which is just the kind of job McClaren said he wanted. But I am sure that McClaren will not be a free agent for much longer.
Written by Thomas Munson

Good Kop Bad Kop

Liverpool's majority shareholder, John Henry, has suggested Kenny Dalglish could be in charge of Liverpool on a permanent basis.

Dalglish was appointed as caretaker manager by the owners, Fenway Sports Group, to take charge until the end of the season. Kenny Dalglish has already made a big impact at the club and the manager’s experience going forward has given the strikers at the club a big confidence boost.

However, the new owners have also made an impact in their first transfer window, they took a punt selling Torres, but the owners reinvested the money from the transfer to buy two strikers. (Andy Carroll and Luis Suárez) A punt most people are happy with. The new strikers did not come cheap though, Liverpool had to break the club's transfer record to bring in Andy Carroll from Newcastle for £35m, and signing Luis Suárez for £22.8m was also an extravagant buy. The fans and the pundits would argue that the Liverpool squad is stronger than it was when the transfer window opened, and the club even managed to make a profit on transfers this January of about £10.2m

In an interview John Henry was asked how he felt about his decision to appoint Kenny Dalglish as caretaker manager, "In our case it was very fortunate, but we could not have made a better choice," Henry said. "I know he [Kenny Dalgish], for a long time now, has wanted to be in this position, so it's a great thing for the club, for Kenny and for us."

Henry suggested Liverpool might not build a new stadium, but instead redevelop Anfield. "The Kop is unrivalled," he said. "I was really surprised because we've heard so much about needing a new stadium. We were surprised at how beautiful Anfield was both viewing it as an empty stadium and then with the first game. It would be hard to replicate that feeling anywhere else."

Henry also explained why he sold one of Liverpool’s best players (Torres) "One of things that we talked about from the very beginning was how important it was that everyone was on the same page. No player is bigger than the club, we expect players to want to be here. If they don't want to be part of Liverpool Football Club then we should do everything we can to facilitate them going elsewhere." Strong words from a successful man, the fans of Liverpool have wanted a new stadium for some time now, the failure to build a new stadium is one of the reasons Hicks and Gillett became so unpopular with the fans, the fans will be hoping that this is not déjà vu. The new owners have a lot in common, they both are American, they both own American sports teams and they both promised a new stadium and backed out. Hopefully for Liverpool fans the only other thing they will share is Champions League football.
Written by Thomas Munson

Wenger Out-burst

Last night Arsene Wenger accused Chelsea of hypocrisy after questioning the logic of Roman Abramovich's extraordinary £76.5m spending in last months transfer window, despite the Russian owner claiming to support UEFA's policy of financial fair play. So far this season Chelsea have made a loss of around £140m which is £110m over the allowed loss as of 12/13 season. These new regulations only effect teams competing in the UEFA Champions League, the rules essentially mean that the maximum loss a club can make per season is £30m, making the major European leagues more competitive. Failure to meet regulations will result in expulsion from the UEFA Champions League. Arsene Wenger felt it was ironic that one day Roman Abramovich claimed he was more than happy with the financial fair play rules and within a month he spent £70m in one day. Clubs like Manchester City spend more in wages than they make in turnover on top of the £300m they have spent in the last three seasons. What is the point of spending big money like that when you will get banned from the Champions League anyway.

The English club that should benefit most from these new rules is Arsenal, who are one of two Premier League clubs that ran in profit last season, a £53m profit to be exact. Making profits like these is certainly going to help chip away at the debt of building the Emirates, which is UEFA’s goal. And a new era of football will begin.
Written by Thomas Munson

Andy Carroll, The Most Expensive Brit Of All Time

Andy Carroll has moved to Liverpool for £35m, which means he is the eighth most expensive player in the world and the most expensive Brit. The £35m fee puts Carroll up there with the likes of David Villa and Wayne Rooney. The ex Newcastle striker stated when interviewed, “I didn‘t want to go, I was pushed out, they wanted the money.” The England international has signed a deal worth £80,000 per-week. West Ham must have been distraught when they saw the £35m fee; after all, they did say that Carroll’s asking price of £1m in the summer of 2009 was unrealistic.

Questions have been asked about whether Carroll is worth the £35m paid for him, which is the equivalent of £1.7m per Premier League start for the young Englishman.

When asked Pardew insisted, “You don’t force anyone to do anything and we didn’t twist his arm to put in a transfer request or to get on that helicopter. He had a five-year contract here, a contract we said we would renew yesterday in the summer; but we wanted to renew it straight away and when he made it clear that he wanted to renew it now or he would to speak to Liverpool and that’s when the power shifted. We didn’t want to lose Andy yesterday and if Andy really wanted to stay he could’ve stayed, but he is not here. We don’t want bad feeling for Andy, he’s moved on and he’s moved to a big club, Liverpool are a good club and good luck to him. Nothing was mentioned to his representatives it terms of forcing him out. He indicated to me in my office that he wanted a new deal and if wasn’t going to get a new deal he wanted the option to move to Liverpool and I said you need to put that in writing Andy if your going to do that, and he did. One thing I said to Mike (Ashley) is that if this boy is going to go we have to reinvested the money in the squad.” The new Liverpool number nine has not started is Liverpool career in the best of circumstances, but Kenny knows a good player when he see’s one, and Carroll is just that.
Written by Thomas Munson