Shearer9

You wasted time, electricity and energy with that post.

Remember when he told Clattenburg to send off Hibbert, I think, during the Merseyside derby. I find the fact that referees are willing to listen far more disgraceful than flopping around on the pitch.

I find it curious that football referees are so well known. Test and ODI cricket is the only other example I can think of where referees are very well known, and that people actually look at their assignments and follow referees, etc. Referees are anonymus in almost every other example I can think of, yet in the Premiership at least 5-10 referees are houshold names amongst football supporters. Referees should never be trotted out to explain decisions to the media, and in fact, I think the FA should attempt to downplay referees as characters themselves, by forbidding them from doing interviews, releasing books, etc until after they've retired.

I think the green-yellow-red thing is a bit farfetched, but the idea that the amount of suspension time a card will carry determined after the fact is interesting to me. Obviously, this could be used in favor of the big teams, but I think that sometimes referees are hesitant to book/send players off in semi-finals or if they're close to being suspended, or even giving a 2nd yellow instead of a red for a bad challenge if they've already been booked. I'd like to see that element taken away from the referee. And all disciplinary incidents, seen or not, punished or not, by the referee should be up for appeal/review by the governing bodies.

It's a lot easier to kick Greece and Denmark out of major tournaments than it is to kick Spain out. They always get a free pass on any controversies.

Intent shouldn't go into the punishment either way. People who say "Well, he should be punished harsher because he meant to break his leg" are just as wrong as people who say "He meant to make a good tackle, let him get away with it." Punish players for what they do, THAT'S IT. Cuts out any stupid ambiguity.

Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?

We figure highly in that list although getting to the winner would take some working out. I figure it would be between Smith and one of the Scum's signings.. Richardson or Gordon maybe. Aw hell, here's a list. Gerald Cid - Whatever they payed for him, it was too much. Released over the winter and back in France with Nice. Rolando Bianchi - 8.8m. Looked decent but slowed down. Failed to settle and went back to Italy. Probably not coming back. David Rozenhal - 3m. Similar story to Bianchi. At leats he cost less. Alan Smith - 6m. ARGH. David Nugent - 6m. Poster boy for overrated English "Talent." Barely plays and probably isn't going to in the future with Defoe and Baros around. Kieran Richardson - 5m. Wouldn't be worth 5m if he was healthy, certainly isn't worth 5m when he's crocked 75% of the time. Craig Gordon - 9m. Newly promoted team makes ambitious 9m signing.. On a goalie. You couldn't make it up. Good at times but very inconsistent, even dropped for Darren Ward at one point. Younes Kaboul - 7m. A Spurs fan once deadpanned to me that Kaboul reminded him a lot of Titus Bramble. Kieron Dyer- 6m. Ouch. Thanks for the six million. Craig Bellamy - 7.5m. Can probably still do the business but injury ridden. Unsure if there'll be a place in the West Ham squad for him once he's back. Torres should without a doubt be on the "best transfers" list btw. Torres, Jones, and Elano in for Woodgate, Muamba, and McFadden. Torres is on there...

You think Man city will drop that badly? Have to say though, on recent viewing of them, they have been poor for a while now, except them vs. united. I dont know if this is a blonde moment either, but I thought that was how european qualification was anyway. 1-5th automatically in europe. 6th depending on who wins the carling cup. 7th depending on fa cup finalists/winners. It's typical, they had the Sven boost from the beginning of the season (I think people forget how bad they were last year). Everton are the most solid of any chasing side. Same manager and same team together now for a few years, and Villa are just a few years behind basically being Everton. Liverpool have all the strife, so actually, it wouldn't surprise me to see them finish 6th and Villa 5th, I just think it won't happen. Blackburn also have that solidity, just not the money to make the jump.

Would be great to see Liverpool miss out on Europe. Doubt it'll happen like, but it looks like they've still got the CL as a distraction, so who knows. I think it'll finish 4. Everton 5. Liverpool 6. Villa 7. Blackburn 8. Tottenham

Fair enough. Rob Styles was awful though, they've just showed the Richards handballs again, both of which were pens for me. On the second one, where he reached over his head, and Styles was looking over to the 4th official, who was probably 50 yards away at that point. Clueless, as was letting Vassell rush out for that freekick.

Wow. Can't really see that as a red card, even if it is petulant and deliberate. Well played Everton though, much much better on the night, the wheels are coming off at City, I bet they'll miss out on Europe completely with Spurs winning the League Cup.

By the way 1878, what was Everton's starting midfield lining up like? Is this how they played? Was it something like --------Neville Osman-Carsley-Pienaar --------Cahill ?

That was like a penalty from 22 yards, scary for the goalkeeper.

Beye could go to centre defence though in place of Taylor as an alternative plan. Both options are viable and provide better passing as a much needed by product. At this point, that'd be worth a shot. Or maybe even Geremi in the centre, I dunno, but things are desperatley bad at this point, but there are still things to be tried.

They do have some really shit defenders though. Backline today was Murty, Cisse, Sonko, and Shorey. 3 of those are absolute shite, Shorey is OK, but it showed today.

The thing I don't understand about Reading is that they don't play like a team that's about to be relegated. There's not any sort of defensive nervousness, they come forward in droves to attack, they're not content to play for draws. I didn't think they were that bad, but then 20 games into the season I look up and they're in a relegation battle.

I changed my mind, Taylor was an idiot on that goal. Both he and Beye just watched Ronaldo run fron about 5 yards in front of them to go right between them and get behind them, and then Taylor turns and points like a twat. MARK THE FUCKING MAN YOU IDIOTS!!

That second goal has to be Barton's fault, and it just shows how valuable a player Carrick is to Man Utd and how good he could be for England.

There won't--and shouldn't--be a lifetime ban, but the punishment shouldn't be predicated on the intent of the offender. If they show the tackle to have been dangerous, he should be punished. Intent seems to be an issue for the FA. Didn't the dog wanker down the road get punished for stating in his biography he deliberately went after someone on the pitch? Sorry, I mean intent should be punished: if you go out on the pitch to hurt someone, you should get banned, but if someone gets hurt through a bad tackle--even if it wasn't malicious--they should also be punished. The tackle should get the punishment, not the aftermath. Why do you think players still get penalised for sliding in even if the player with the ball is able to jump over a lunging 2 footed tackle? In fact, I think there should be a disconnect when it comes to punishing players when an injury occurs. If you want to ban Taylor for 10 games, then fine, but also ban other players for the same period when they put in a tackle like this, even if there's no injury or the ref misses it. I still think there's a lack of acknowledgment here about how completely freak this injury was, even if the most malicious intent was behind it.

Yeah, there must be something else to it, Sky must have something else they can see from another angle. He did look really guilty though afterwards.

I watched the highlights of that Queensland-Newcastle game, and it looked far better than the MLS, two leagues which I think can be easily compared. The crowds were a lot better in Australia, and it looked really exciting, although I know that's just one game and it's just highlights. But I think I'd rather watch that than some of the tripe MLS peddles out.

WC 2002 really was a great tournament, it had everything, controversy, intrigue, underdogs, upsets, and ultimatley, beautiful football winning the day over the evil machine. WC 2006 was so dissapointing and pedestrian by those standards. http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41016000/jpg/_41016525_ashtonemp.jpg http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41016000/jpg/_41016497_mckenzie_emp.jpg http://cache4.gettyimages.com/xc/52608908.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19364A19ADEE617E8A87E0199F65E58F4B2A240DCA8EAFA1EA9 For some reason, that one always sticks out at me as well. Just watching that game slowly turn towards Norwich, realizing they had a chance with their lives on the line, and Rooney being at fault for both the goals, it was just great, really highly charged and emotional match.

When was this? they didnt have an attack all game. Reina could have stood in the kop and they wouldnt have scored. And Viera who came on (for a striker!?) and gave the ball to a Liverpool player everytime he got it. First time I'd seen Vieira play since he left Arsenal, he really was awful, probably the reason they lost, that and the loss of Cordoba.

He has http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Harper