Football stuff

Loads of things that caught my attentions today.

Firstly the "respect the ref" campaign.

Exhibit A:

The man to the right is David Elleray. This is a man that spent the whole of his career blatantly favouring Liverpool football club at every available opportunity. It's also worth noting that he made a living as a Geography teacher.







Exhibit B:

Graham Poll. This is a guy that managed the "3 card trick" at the world cup. He also showed an extensive bias towards the Arsenal through his career. He now makes a living as a rent a quote on various TV and radio shows. Wiki Link:







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Poll#Portsmouth_vs_Arsenal_.282007.29


Exhibit C:

Uriah Rennie. All I would say about this guy is that I was disconcerted to discover that he is allowed to be a magistrate. On the other hand his wiki page shows his a martial arts expert. I'll say no more as it would appear he could kick my head off and then put me in nick too.



What this all boils down to is that these guys have to do very little yet still consistently fuck it up. They then wonder why people get irate with them. Respect is earned, which brings me to:


Exhibit D



Nobody messed with the oustpan man. primarily because he hardly ever got things wrong and did his fucking job!





Anyway, I do think the whole idea of only cpatains being able to speak to the ref is a good idea. But there also needs to be some obligations on the referees not to be quiet so shit as they are now.

This leads me to today's footie focus on the BBC and the bile inducing sight of Martin "caveman" Keown trying to take the moral highground on this matter.

Which in turn brings me onto Tony Adams. Now I kinda like Adams. Granted he played for the Arsenal and that is a big mark against him. But from all i've heard (not all of which is widely known) he is a top bloke. One of those guys you loved to hate back in the day. Now clearly the prospect of an Arsenal love-in reunion with Keown at Pompey is a horrifying prospect and I understand Sky TV have already developed technology for the HD signal to automatically switch off whenever one of their camera's picks up Martin Keown's face. But the bigger problem is stress.

Stress, in the past, lead Tony Adams to this:








Which in turn lead to something like this:








Football management is a nasty game. It got Cloughie and he had no previous history, I hope Adams keeps a clear head and that Pompey go on a good run with him.

Speaking of Cloughie, Derby are playing Forest. The ideal time for some classic quotes:


"If God had intended for us to play football in the clouds he wouldn't have put grass on the ground."

"I'd ask him how he thinks it should be done, have a chat about it for twenty minutes and then decide I was right"

"They thought I was going to change it lock, stock and barrel. They were shrewd because that's exactly what I would have done" - on why he was rejected by the FA for the England job.

"I certainly wouldn't say I'm the best manager in the business, but I'm in the top one."

" This is a terrible day.....for Leeds United" - exiting Elland Road after being sacked after 44 days as manager.

But best of all:

"As far as I'm concerned you can throw all those medals you've won in the bin, because you won them all by cheating" - to the Leeds United players on his first day as manager.