Premiership 2007/08

[therockbox]

Rob Styles is shit.

[therockbox]

Mascherano's crime of passion enrages old women of both sexes

Sunday March 30 2008

They changed the rules of engagement for football in England last week; it's a shame nobody bothered to inform the players.

The English FA have embarked on a commendable campaign to encourage players at all levels to respect referees. This, one imagines, works best on the local park, because there are times when it is hard to ask someone to respect Mike Riley.

There are currently a number of leagues in England undergoing a series of reforms on a ten-week trial basis. Among these is the directive that only the captain should approach the referee.

This may or may not be implemented next season at higher levels, but after Ashley Cole's refusal to accept his booking against Tottenham ten days ago, there was an outbreak of morality and, it seemed, a change in the rules.

But there was no rule change, only what an FA spokesman told me last week was "news management" in the wake of Ashley Cole's display of petulance for which, it now seems, Javier Mascherano will pay the price.

Javier Mascherano played as he always does last Sunday at Old Trafford, but, apparently, he needed to be aware that "in the current climate" that was no longer acceptable. How was he to know this? Presumably he had not spent the days preparing for the game sitting at home reading the Daily Mail, an arduous enough task for somebody with English as their first language, let alone their second or third.

In fact, even if Mascherano was eager to read Richard Littlejohn, it's unlikely that the bullshit-free environment in which Rafael Benitez likes to operate is overstocked with the Mail. Benitez' refusal to engage with the world of bullshit might have cost Liverpool as it was easy to predict the way some referees would react to the hysteria. But Roy Keane and Benitez are right, even if they won't always be happy in a world ruled by sanctimony.

Mascherano might have caught some of the Respect campaign on Sky Sports News, but while this fine channel is always, always on at football training grounds, in my experience, the sound is usually turned down. If Mascherano had glimpsed the shows of dissent, repeated on a loop, maybe he felt that this was something the authorities were now, for some cultural reason he had yet to understand, trying to encourage.

But he needed no encouragement. In the twee condemnations of Mascherano from, to borrow a phrase, "old women of both sexes", there was an absence of recognition that football remains a game that some of its practitioners are passionate about.

Thankfully, football still revolts against becoming a game ruled by the suburban values of those journalists who last week referred to Mascherano as a "nutcase" and decided that the behaviour of Ashley Cole and the Liverpool midfielder constituted "barbarism", an escalation of language which should leave them speechless, the only consolation when the rampaging hordes hit town, raping, pillaging and generally demonstrating how barbarism got its name.

Benitez, it was said last week in another example of shrill commentators losing command of their words, was defending the indefensible in making a case for Mascherano.

In fact, he was defending the very defensible. The actions of Mascherano at Old Trafford fall somewhere below the massacre at Srebrenica or the outrage at My Lai in the moral outrages of recent times.

In fact, his actions weren't even the most indefensible part of the day's proceedings. Far more worrying, and damaging to the game, was the tolerance shown by Steve Bennett for the calculated attempts by the Manchester United team to kick Fernando Torres out of the match, as they had kicked Arsenal out of it in 2004.

It was even simpler last Sunday as, in the continued absence of Steven Gerrard, distracted by his terminal self-obsession, United simply had to take care of Torres and Liverpool were neutralised. Even if they hadn't they still would have won, but Alex Ferguson is nothing if not thorough. When Torres complained to Bennett about it, remarkably, he was booked. Bennett, therefore, was giving the tacit encouragement of players to continue fouling one of the most exciting players in the league and the player who was being fouled was now one more post-hacking complaint away from a red card.

Mascherano, again paying the price for not taking the Mail and the other papers which had done most to highlight this campaign, wondered what was happening and was sent off, ensuring that Liverpool were heavily defeated in a game they were going to lose anyway.

But now they want to make an example out of him, something English football excels at. Conveniently, he is Argentinean so nobody complains if his words in defence of a team-mate see him labelled a "nutcase". They are now trying to compound the day's injustice with some more.

The sooner football introduces a law that says only the captain can talk to the referee the better. But the sooner officials start making tough calls for offside, adding on the correct injury-time and protecting the game's finest players from a sustained and unified battering, the better too.

Javier Mascherano is no nutcase. He is not part of the advancing army of barbarians threatening an English way of life, unless that English way of life is midfield play as represented by Frank Lampard. They changed the game he has played since a boy without telling him last week. And then they asked him to absorb these lessons during his biggest game of the season. Suddenly he was asked to behave as if driving through suburbia on a Sunday afternoon. Suddenly, he was told to mind his language and watch his step. They weren't the values that got him to Old Trafford. But they were ones that would drive anybody mad.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/mas...es-1332326.html

[Crybaby Bunting]

As soon as Tottenham scored I figured that's it. Newcastle have a habit of just packing their bags and leaving as soon as anything goes wrong in a match, this is the first time in ages I've seen them actually fight back and get a goal after conceeding for so long.

Get in!!!

Edit: 2-1 !!!!!

And to think I ever doubted you Geremi

Edited March 30, 2008 by The General

[Gazz]

As a typical Newcastle fan, I'd just like to announce that the revolution has begun and next season we will win everything, including some competitions we're not even entered into.

[alldaws1]

I blame CSAMH for saying it would be an easy win.

[Crybaby Bunting]

I leave for half an hour, come back expecting Newcastle to have lost this 6-2

It's Newcastle 4!!! I don't think we've scored this much for weeks >_>

[TheRossWalker]

As a typical Newcastle fan, I'd just like to announce that the revolution has begun and next season we will win everything, including some competitions we're not even entered into.

This is true.

Clearly, Newcastle are the new favourites for the European Championships. The fact that, as a club team, we can't even enter doesn't stop us, this is the KEEGAN REVOLUTION~!

[Crybaby Bunting]

What do you mean? There's 6 games left in this, easily enough time to win the premiership >_>

[brenchill]

The funny thing is I was chatting to a bolton supporter yesterday and it looks likely that England will win the fair play award, Bolton are currently at the top of the fair play rankings and would get a place in the Euro Cup next year. Would this be a first for a Championship team should they go down?

It would be a first for a relegated team, I think (I can only think of Ipswich who may have qualified through the fair play award and went down in the same season). Millwall were in the Championship and UEFA Cup after their FA Cup final appearance.

[IAceI]

Wins over Fulham and Spurs and Newcastle are the best team again.

So, we have back to back wins over a European chasing side, and a team until a couple of weeks ago were chasing Europe before they kinda fell away. Therefore, Sunderland are the best team in the world ever.

And Chopra is the best striker.

[Scott McFly]

Yeah I believe it happened previously to Ipswich, so if it happens to Bolton it would be the second time.

[Summers]

Masch deserved his red, I'm fed up of hearing otherwise.

[therockbox]

Yeah, way to spectacularly miss the point (Y)

[Summers]

That wasn't specifically aimed at you, I've just heard atleast eight people say he was wrongly dismissed in the last couple of days. I'm fed up of it now.

[therockbox]

The majority of Liverpool fans I've encountered don't have an issue with the sending off on it's own, they take issue with the fact that there's absolutely no consistency from referees (not to mention Steve Bennett being completely incapable of doing his job to an acceptable level). Even today in the derby there were at least a dozen of occasions where players argued with Howard Webb - fortunately Webb is the best referee in the league right now and knows how to control a game.

[britneyspearsisgod]

To be fair, he only got the red because of the previous yellow he picked up, so it was (in my view) a warranted yellow if anything. However, the timing and everything was very poor and screamed of appeasement from the refs to the FA and media who, as the article above, are declaring this a travesty of life when it's just emotions getting blown out of proportion.

[R.W.]

The funny thing is I was chatting to a bolton supporter yesterday and it looks likely that England will win the fair play award, Bolton are currently at the top of the fair play rankings and would get a place in the Euro Cup next year. Would this be a first for a Championship team should they go down?

It would be a first for a relegated team, I think (I can only think of Ipswich who may have qualified through the fair play award and went down in the same season). Millwall were in the Championship and UEFA Cup after their FA Cup final appearance.

Bolton were 17th in the fair play table at the start of March - what the hell changed?!!

[Pesci]

Yeah, I just looked and as of 3rd March it would appear that Man City are the team top, who haven't already qualified for Europe (or look likely to) that is.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Maybe I was confusing them with Derby or Fulham... regardless it's been ages since I read the article on fair play and europ >_<

[Hobo]

The majority of Liverpool fans I've encountered don't have an issue with the sending off on it's own, they take issue with the fact that there's absolutely no consistency from referees (not to mention Steve Bennett being completely incapable of doing his job to an acceptable level). Even today in the derby there were at least a dozen of occasions where players argued with Howard Webb - fortunately Webb is the best referee in the league right now and knows how to control a game.

Indeed. It was only a matter of time for him really against Utd, thought the circumstances in which Mascharano was sent off should not have arisen. Torres is booked for what? Getting lumps kicked out of him by two United players, getting up and saying that to Bennett who the books him? I fail to see how Torres could be considered eligible for a booking when he was fouled. Steve Bennett refereed that game terribly.