@ReverendGooner leads the congregation into the Feast of St Basil the Great
Well hello parishioners and welcome to 2018 hopefully a year full of promise and success for each and every one of you. I know I said I would not be back in the pulpit until mid-January but needs must & our Lord Gooner is a most severe task master & came to me in a vision telling me to write this 1st Psalm of 2018. Well actually id hit the communion wine a bit hard the night before and it dawned on me in my dishevelled and un-holy state to write about this topic. I guess we all sat there in total disbelief as that wretch of a referee Mike “Vlad The Impaler” Dean awarded West Brom a penalty for what can only be described as a decision which was ludicrous beyond belief. Not that I need remind you most learned of scholars but the rules for hand ball are very clear.
- the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
- the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
- the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an infringement
- touching the ball with an object held in the hand (clothing, shin guard, etc.) counts as an infringement
Regarding this incident Callum Chamber 1stly was very close to Kieran Gibbs when the ball was struck and had no chance of avoiding contact. The ball clearly moved towards the hand and not hand towards the ball and lastly his body was not in an unnatural position so what in god’s green earth was Mike Dean thinking as this clearly was not a penalty. When Petr Cech attempted to ask the Dean about the incident at the end of the game Dean said nothing and simply booked the goalkeeper even though Cech was clearly polite and respectful in his approach & manner. Furthermore, Cech whilst being interviewed states that Mike Dean had clearly gone against the latest FA directive on what constitutes handball in awarding the penalty but this this nothing new is it. Mike Dean has made a name for himself in football by making the game about him and his erroneous decisions rather than about the game itself. The issue here though is not about Mike Dean who many Arsenal fans rightly or wrongly believe is a cheat and openly tries to influence games with his decision making Its about the FA & the professional Referees Association’s (PGMOB) almost inquisition like vigour & secrecy in protecting itself & its officials from any comment or scrutiny even after a match official has had an absolute shocker of a game. Any manger. club official or player who dares to question the almost holy and divine right of the match official’s refusal to comment of clarify on a poor or wrong decision is immediately sanctioned without impunity.
Mike Riley the chief inquisitor rarely speaks publicly and even more rarely acknowledges that his match officials have fouled up & this all leads to allegations of corruption, favouritism or incompetence from the attending press and fans alike. His case has not been helped in recent times either with retired referees like Mark Halsey stating in his book that he used to chat to Sir Alex Ferguson on the phone prior to a game or Clattenburg’s recent tell all about looking the other way during an important Spurs match. Accusations that Howard Webb played favourites and was very anti Liverpool & who can ever forget Graham Poll’s 3 yellow cards at the World Cup. Whether the FA likes it or not the monster they have created in the EPL has too much money in it and more importantly too much money at stake. Those 2 points dropped or should I say robbed from Arsenal could mean the difference between top 4 & CL football and missing out on Europe altogether, the cost of that could be staggering in terms of both financial loss and competitions that they cannot play in. Referees should never be the reason why teams fail but all too often we are seeing more and more of it which is at the absolute detriment of the Premier League. In the Everton Utd match there was an identical incident to the Callum Chambers penalty and the referee just waved it away and played on. Where is the consistency from the FA & PGMOB? How can one referee adhere to the current directive yet Mike Dean basically do as he pleases. The FA have proven with the Kane & Ali incidents that they rule the game & the rules of the game at their discretion and they are the ones that need calling to account over the state of the refereeing standards in the PL and as for Mike Dean I’ll leave the last word to Garth Crooks and his famous rant. “It’s not about you Mike the game is not about you so just ref the game & stop seeking attention”.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks Gooner Rev for another pointed summary of the sins of the PGMO and the entire corrupt structure the Premier League has become. 13 years ago the PL and English football used Mike Riley to blatantly steal Game 50 from Arsenal Football Club and they have acted with impunity from then on.
My main concern post game is those who use these pages to complain that Arsenal played poorly vs WBA. In my opinion this is another example of “counterfactual” thinking that plays into the hands of the PGMO and its allies. With the players available to the boss, one real creative in midfield in the form of Jack Wilshere, the team worked hard to create chances and like most of the other top teams scored the one goal necessary to win the game.
@NorthBankNadim tweeted this 13 hours ago:
Arsenal fans: “don’t let Dean take away from the fact that we were shit. We should smash West Brom, top sides hammer them”.
Liverpool: 0-0
Spurs: 1-1
City: win by 1 goal
United: win by 1 goal
Arsenal: were also about to win by 1 goal
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With Mike Deans record against us, can only conclude either bias against the club or manager, corruption or both
Mike Dean should be removed from the game of football, as should his boss, but neither will be as what they are doing is looked upon favourably by someone in a position of power
With wengers words, basically attacking the English football establishment, I strongly suspect this treatment will continue until he departs.
That’s about eight points plus referees have cost Arsenal this year, and counting
Mike Dean was so blatant, even the media slated him.
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I am not saying I want it to happen by any stretch, but if, say Dyche or Howe managed this team, I suspect we wouldn’t be getting anything like this ref shite.
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I’m just disappointed, after seeing a tweet yesterday that I thought nailed it immaculately, but maybe not.
Someone was complaining their love for the game had been hit and they couldn’t invest in it emotionally any more because they knew the Deus Ex Machina could swoop in at any point.
Unfortunately, though pretty good, the term didn’t turn out to be as apposite as I thought it might be.
1 : a god introduced by means of a crane (see 1crane 3a) in ancient Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome
2 : a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty
The ‘apparently insoluble difficulty’ bit doesn’t fit, unless you get really cynical and change perspective.
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unfortunately it is all about Mike Dean.
and apparently a small collective of his colleagues who sit within Riley’s “circle of trust”.
And they know it.
Which is were Cech’s comments are a useful reference. They don’t give a rats arse what we think because the PL is the “richest league in the world”.
That is the record. That cannot be defended in spite of any noble gallant yet forlorn and wasted efforts (the “lamentable” performance of the predicted “theatre” in fulham jumps to mind).
Alas none of these crows are like the Dickie Birds of olde. Nope. Even in the Old Bird’s pomp there were enough Rotters doing the rounds for the authorities in that smaller sport to have no choice but to move forward, and this all occurred before the Cronje scandal (which didn’t happen in the mind of an insane idiot or simple Cheat like Hair – yep, he wasn’t insane, he was just a cheat).
Thing is:
People cheat in professional sport.
It happens.
To deny such is: odd.
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Nevermind the the match in West Brum. The performance from the first whistle at Stoke from the officials was disgusting. And just a leeetle bit obvious.
Nothing will be gained by pretending otherwise.
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The push into the pit Norwich Away.
It’s almost as if there is an identifiable and predictable pattern in Away games in recent seasons.
What was shocking about the trip to Stoke was that usually they wait until November before unveiling such a blatant fix.
As I said to Shotts after the Stoke game, given that screaming signal, top four this season would even top beating all the big spenders with a teenage midfield of Song, Denilson and The F Word.
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But that was Mossy at Carrow Road wasn’t it Fins – and look at the stats on Mossy refereeing Arsenal – highly unusual Im sure you’d agree, probably even Arsene would agree.
You’ll be telling me there is no corruption in football next !
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< think that CM combo came 4th and 3rd (2nd?) over clubs that were vastly outspending AFC at the time.
although I guess the overall standard in the league is higher now then several years ago? Of the players? albeit not the "tactics" from the serial bunglers on the merry go round. (What kind of chairman would employ Hughes after he arsed it up with an unlimited budget at City?)
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Yes it was Andrew.
He applied the rules of assoc. football in his one and only appearance in an association football challenge cup final (fortunately that’s one rule the “Theatre” lovin’ luvvies can’t ignore when they feel like it IBSF).
Then you would’ve recalled Tim’s account of his “efforts” in a friendly match a short time later. Lamentable indeed.
Not forgetting his inabilty to use a spray can of the magic stuff!
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Last time it was 2.86 ppg Fins – what a whistler
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Moss’ record in Arsenal games based on results is pure flattery. We won those games in spite of his best efforts to screw us over.
Good job on shining the light on this elephant Phil.
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An official who cannot call a simple foul nevermind a card when someone is pushed by two hands into a pit is no Friend of the Gunners.
It’s a shame that if AFC make the final this season and spank this seasons PL dominating champions that Mr.Friend won’t be on the field to appreciate the football, he’s already done a final.
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For those in doubt: Tim’s pitchside report on Moss, in a friendly, was a fair and comprehensive dismissal of this crow.
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We’re nothing if not fair.
Some of these officials should have a restraining order barring them from being within a mile of any venue hosting a professional sporting contest.
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< including, obviously, online poker contests.
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For those of you interested in useful data:
Untold spent a season or two reviewing all matches in the league using a pool of reviewers including former referees and yes not just AFC fans blimey! They even set up a special website. It’s all there. And unlike the poor ladies who wore the t-shirts from the wrong sponsors FUFA or the PL have not taken them to court.
There it is.
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It is not about opinion though is it though Fins, it about data …..
I mean to say – look at this week -the whiners and the whingers are already kicking off about Anthony Taylor refereeing the Chelsea game – how many of these mugs have actually looked at Taylor’s record in charge of games between Arsenal and Chelsea ?
The only points we have dropped in 3 seasons with Taylor in charge was in a draw at the Etihad.
Are you out there Shotts ?
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< using standardised metrics used to assess trainee referees.
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Yes Andrew.
One should not be selective about data.
> Using standard metrics that are used to assess referees.
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You can argue against that data if you desire but then you will find yourself arguing against people who have and do train and assess referees for the sport of association football.
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Plenty of data out there!
And some comprehensive stuff compiled using tried and tested methods that are still in practice and which are in fact used to train referees by my admittedly limited understanding.
No need to get lost in trying to argue against mean calculations.
My floor here is still standing up after a hundred years. We can indeed trust proven and reliable Method.
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I am here A5. I am struggling with data as Statto, my primary source, has been shuttered for good. There is no publicly available source with a history of PL penalty data and the refs making those decisions. I wonder why.
In contrast, transfer data is thrown around like candy.
Hmm.
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Cheating happens in sport.
E.g.: the 50th game.
A fixed game of football in the premier league.
You all saw it.
And yes, Mike Dean was not the referee that day either.
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I am not arguing about the data Fins – the data indicates that Moss is corrupt and/or grossly incompetent
As for arguing with people who train and assess referees I thought all referees in England were shite – why would I listen – particularly as all their analysis is from a post match arm chair and using slow motion and multiple camera angles ? What surprises me is how often referees get things right that I am sure they have got wrong at first sight.
Interesting point from the usually absurd Winter in the Times today as to whether both serious refereeing errors took place at the very end of games at a point when Moss and Dean were knackered and if that tiredness was a factor. Apart from the fact they are 20-30 years older than the players referees don’t get rotated in spite of games coming thick and fast over Christmas. Perhaps those training and assessing referees should run eight miles in the rain then get at their ‘assessing’.
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shotta
That data may be out there but it’s beyond my abilities to use it.
Interestingly, it was a big-time Liverpool fan with a day job which involves doing stats pieces for a betting company who put out those stats about Dean only awarding us a pen every 21 games, or whatever it was, a little while back.
Effectively, he just stumbled upon that and was very surprised by it. Followed him on twitter for a while afterwards and only recently quit because I’d had enough of all the liverpool talk. Absolutely not sort of guy who would entertain conspiracy or even strong bias talk.
There was a screenshot of how he dug into data and I had impression it was from publicly available tool. Not 100% sure though.
Anyway, it interested me that it took an accident,really, for a stat like that to emerge.
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There you go Shotts – all the PL refs, all seasons, all domestic, Euro and international games, all fixtures listed and penalties awarded, dates of birth, dates of debut, cards waved by game etc.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/schiedsrichter/wettbewerb/GB1
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Don’t you agree then, Anicoll, that it’s lamentable and pathetic not to have more refs available? To have failed for 15 years or so to get close to the number they set out as the appropriate one when the brave new world of professional refereeing was launched?
If the answers are, say, they have tried their best to improve the numbers, but candidates of sufficient quality just aren’t out there…given the dubious quality of those they do overuse, you have to wonder how bad the other geezers rejected are…and how with by far the richest domestic game there has ever been, and for many years, they just can’t improve this situation.
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Yes Andrew, I am interested in the facts, the info provided by the data. I have no interest in data-free speculation about the PGMO. They have a track record and there is a certain unerring pattern. One can ignore the facts for so long.
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I don’t think anyone ever wrote anywhere that al lreferess in england were shite.
in fact, the quotes are out there, people have been saying the opposite. repetetitively, and for quote some time now:
Why is there not an even spread of officials from England in the pgMOB including from the parts of the country that contain the most people, the most registered players, clubs and yes…refereees.
I really don’t mean to appear to be rude to someone who is clearly wiser and smarter then myself, but that was a disspointing comment.
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Lord Acton had it right although many Englishmen and others apply his warnings very selectively. “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The PGMO has wielded power absolutely and have no intention of giving up that power with the oncoming implementation of VAR. The battle to expose the PGMO as a corrupt unaccountable body has been partially won. The next campaign is to prevent them corrupting and weakening the role of VAR. We need clean, honest, unbiased application of the rules by referees in the PL, not game-management and outright cheating by those officiating. Thats the only way to prevent the PL becoming an outright farce like wrestling.
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excuse the typos.
Back to reviusing for my contract law exam woo hoo!
(Had some interesting comments back from some lecturers who were involved in some of the multiple lawsuits surrounding the FAs Wembley build…)
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–
“why would I listen – particularly as all their analysis is from a post match arm chair and using slow motion and multiple camera angles ?”
How on earth do you think trainee refs are assesed these days?
With the aid of a blindfold and a Ouija board?
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“Lamentable and pathetic” Rich ?
I have no idea why the number of PL referees is what it is, or how it is calculated, or how it should be calculated. If you have 20 teams and therefore 38 fixtures you have 380 games between early/mid August and mid May, or 9 months – roughly 42 games a month or 11 games a week.
Allowing one game per week per referee, which I think should be comfortable’, so I’d say about 15/16. Looking at the Tranfsmarket list there are just 18 which seems about right to me, although I accept the participation in some Cup/int games and as the largely pointless ‘4th official’ job skews the figures.
I am dubious as to whether increasing the number of refs would address the problems with quality or consistency of decision making, although it should assist in referees in better coping with fixture congestion as we have seen over the past few days.
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They seem to be managing ok with their refs (& VARs) in the National Hockey League down at places like East Grinstead.
Bearing i mind that football coaches work closely with hockey coaches, the contrast between the officails in hockey and ass.football in the UK is not a great reflection upon the football officials. That is not an opinion, it is an observation.
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Don’t know about numbers this year Anicoll but I’ve seen it gone over many times before. Typically there are a group of refs, 3-5 say, who make very few appearances in any season. Anything around 5 and below and they barely count in my opinion.
So ,effectively, I think it’s about 14 who do vast majority of games, with a much smaller group who are entrusted with vast majority of the big games.
it used to be easy to look on the premier league website but they cut out most of the ref details about a year back.
I expect the number at offset, 20-something (22 maybe) was chosen after a great deal of thought about optimum level.
Furthermore, after the last huge ref scandal in Italy, I’m told they successfully moved away from using a similar pool as we always have under pgmol to the larger one pgmol set out as the correct number originally. Apparently this has improved the standard a lot.
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Anyway, we’ll always be at loggerheads on it, I guess, though hopefully on friendly terms, as our minds are pretty set on very different beliefs, opinions, etc.
For me, I can just about keep it under control and then a costly stinker will set in motion a period like the one I’m still in, where it all explodes into life again. I’ll admit it is like a compulsion then to keep thinking about it and one I can’t control much. Not good, really.
Spare a thought for how the following therefore feels to me [banned something or other]
Games against Utd, City, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, Everton 2009-10 to Feb 17 2016
6 FULL SEASONS, ONE PARTIAL
72+8. (80 GAMES)
56 games covered by 5 refs
The 56 crew.
Dean 18 games. W3 D 6 L9
Utd p5: D1 L4
City p5: W1 D 3 L1
Chelsea p5 : D2 L3
Spurs p3 : W2 L1
[18 out of 80. However, excluding the Merseyside teams, who he has never reffed us against, the figure is 80 – 27 = 53 ; take away the 4 since he was temporarily put in the freezer after the chelsea debacle and it’s 18/49]
Atkinson 12 games W 2 D 3 L 7
City p2: W1 L1
Spurs P3: D2 L1
Everton p1: L1
Chelsea p3: L3
Pool p3: W1 L1 D1
Webb 9 games W6 D1 L 2
Utd p2: L2
L’pool p3: w3
Everton p3: w2 d1
Spurs p1: w1
Clattenberg 9 games W3 D2 L4
Utd p1: D1
Spurs P3 : W1 L2
Chelsea : p2 : W1 L1
City: p3 : W1 D1 L1
Oliver 8 games W1 D5 L2
Utd p1: L1
Spurs p2: W1 D1
Chelsea P1: D1
Everton p1 : D1
L’pool P3 : D2 L1
———————————
The remainder.
Marriner 6 games W3 D1 L2
Chelsea P3 : W 1 L2
City P1 : W1
Everton P1 : W1
Liv P1 : D1
Dowd 3 games: D1 L2
Utd P1 : D1
Spurs P1 : L1
City P1 : L1
Friend. 2 games: D2
Everton : P1 : D1
Liverpool: P1 : D1
Taylor 2 games : W2
Utd P1 W1
L’pool P1 W1
Foy 2 games :W1 L1
Utd P2 : W1 L1
Mason 3 games : W3
Everton p3: W3
Mike Jones 2 games : D2
Liv: P1: D1
City: P1 : D1
Mark Halsley 2 games
Liv: p1 W1
Everton P1 W1
Neil Swarbrick 1 game
Ev p1 : D1
Walton 1 game
Ev’ P1 : D1
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What’s the latest on Ozil, Alexis and Jack?
02 Jan 2018
It is a question that has dominated many of our press conferences this season, and Tuesday’s was no different.
So what is the latest on the contract talks with Mesut Ozil, Alexis and Jack Wilshere? This is what Arsene Wenger had to say:
on the progress of contract extensions…
The progress is, in our jobs sometimes one day you think you’ve made progress and the next day you move back again, so as long as something is not signed you don’t like to talk too much about it.
on the plan if Alexis, Ozil and Wilshere leave in the summer…
Well, how we will cope with that… first of all we have not lost them yet and secondly we will respond to that by bringing in players of top quality.
on whether any offers for Alexis or Ozil have been received…
We have not been contacted by anybody, no.
on whether he is confident of keeping them…
We try, but you know I answered that question many times. I think at the moment it is not to talk too much but to focus on tomorrow’s game.
on Wilshere wishing to sign a new contract…
I just answered that question, I want him to stay. I say I answered that question because as long as things are not signed you can say you are positive, negative or super positive, but when things are not signed you shut up and announce things when they are concrete, it’s simple as that.
on whether it will be beneficial for us to sell Alexis rather than leave on free…
Honestly, my focus is on tomorrow’s game. After that, this club has lost many, many big players and has always responded well. Massive players have left this club and the club will always be in a strong position [afterwards]. You want to keep your best players, yes.
on not being scared of losing Ozil, Alexis and Wilshere…
No. Because I want them to stay. Why should I be scared?
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/whats-latest-ozil-alexis-and-jack#UvtDwYkMZCOCF54L.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/whats-latest-ozil-alexis-and-jack#hKRZ4wtXFqFXCTlm.99
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On team news
At the moment our injury list is quite long because we lost Koalsinac, we lost Koscielny and we had already Monreal, Giroud, Ramsey and Ozil out.
The two who have a little chance (for Chelsea) are Ozil. He might have a test this morning but he hasn’t been out at all since Crystal Palace. And Koscielny, but yesterday the medical department were pessimistic on Koscielny.
Kolasicnac is out completely for at least two weeks. Koscielny is 30 per cent available, 70 per cent not.
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Wenger: It was very disappointing that it happened. What is more frustrating for me is it has happened many times this season. At Stoke, at Watford, at Man City, at West Brom – That is a concerning coincidence for me.
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Wenger on Dean: He saw what he wanted to see
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Interesting words from Wenger, and absolutely spot on.
He is going as close as he probably can to telling the world there is something very wrong with the refereeing his team are getting.
“he saw what he wanted to see”, basically, just another way of accusing this referee of bias, without using that word
I hope someone of wengers profile will put pressure on Riley, a man we never hear from, who , if wenger is to be believed, is presiding over falling refereeing standards , as well as bias against his own team
Wenger will eventually end up charged, the team will suffer, but this cannot continue to be swept under the carpet, Mike Dean has hopefully opened up a can of worms
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can’t see Wenger not getting charged for his comments today
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Not for todays comments, but suspect they will get something on him eventually, he is shining a very bright light on something they want kept under wraps.
Having said that, Wenger is very clever with words and timing.
Now, everyone knows there will be no English refs at the WC, not something the highly secretive, publicity shy Mike Riley would relish
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above- meant to say- not sure if he will be charged for todays comments
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one of the biggest condemnations of the PGMOL is that they insisted that no further action could be taken against a player if the Ref had already taken action, even if said action was later shown to be insufficient, so if a player gets a yellow when it should have been a red can not get the ban he deserves, a la alli and kane recently. What does that tell you about them, clearly that they insist that the ref can not be wrong (no wonder they claim themselves that they barely get a decision wrong, and almost zero “big decisions” wrong and they have their own assessors reports to prove this), Why are they against a player getting the correct punishment, anyone got good reason for it.
The PGMOL refuse to hire more refs, why.
we have the FA Cup starting this weekend, and all sorts of non PGMOL refs will be in charge of games involving BPL teams, even london and southern based refs and if recent years are anything to go by, they won’t be unable to do the job, but as Mike Hackett said a couple of years ago, Mike Riley will still not hire them for the PGMOL as he does not trust these refs to “game manage” they way he wants games managed.
I don’t expect VAR to make one iota of difference, just as the dive panel and the retrospective disciplinary panel have not made a difference as they clearly don’t actually have the will to make it word. To make these things work would be an admission that the “best league in the world” has problems in the first place. And they can’t be doing that.
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Bingo !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42542576
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mandy if Wenger not charged for his comments today they run the risk of some brave journo putting two and two together and writing an article saying AW not being charged shows that he is correct and that the PGMOL know it and the FA know it. And this might lead to a bigger look by journos at the whole thing
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ah anicol that is for what he said to them after the game, I expect another one for his comments today
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Wenger charged, meanwhile Mike Dean is scheduled to be 4th official for Man City v Watford tonight, and to be Ref for Spurs v West Ham
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