The non-Watford football thread

Certainly got the rub of the green from the officials..

Annoying thing is we are 12th and 7 points away from the bottom 3 even with this bad run.

Just think - 2/3 wins and we'd probably be safe already!

 

Am sort of glad to see Swansea's managerial replacement is something of a risky signing. Paul Clement, who's managerial record hasn't exactly set the world on fire.

Hopefully he'll keep Swansea in the bottom three for us...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38507682

Some people are just beyond belief.

Non-league footballer sacked by his club for making a stupid Twitter remark about Harry Arter yesterday...

 

Good riddiance to him and nice to see quick action taken by the club.

I never really understand why people make jokes on death - it's something we will all suffer from.

 

some kids think they are so clever until it bits them

 

Another soft Oliver penalty an the floodgates open...

 

Looks like being a long afternoon for Granada..

m.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/38496034

 

No wonder Paul Merson lost money in gambling..

http://www.independent.ie/sport/lef...-prediction-goes-horribly-wrong-35349344.html

 

Chelsea are about to recall defender Nathan Ake early from his season-long loan at Bournemouth, Eddie Howe says.

 

McConville's goal was superb against our friends from over the border:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38474608

 

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey is not impressed with the current state of refereeing standards in England.

"I think over the last five to six seasons since Keith Hackett retired from the general managers position I think it’s got steadily worse. I really do.

"We’ve got the likes of Mark Clattenburg who’s by far our best referee. Martin Atkinson, Michael Oliver, Anthony Taylor, Andre Marriner and of course Mike Dean I think they are up there but then that’s all we’ve got.

"I mean if you look at the top, top games you’ve got the likes of all the big derbies, all the big games you’ve got Man United and Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea, Chelsea and Arsenal, Arsenal and Tottenham and they can only be refereed by a certain amount of referees. Four or five referees because the PGMOL do not trust the other referees to take charge of those games."

I doubt that there is much to disagree with there, but it does rather sound as if a lot of games get refs who are lacking, and that is hardly fair.

 

There was a reference made to this in the programme for the Spurs v Villa game where they highlighted the lop-sided way the games are allocated - some referees on the PL list have taken charge of 17 Prem matches this season, while others have only done 5. I guess that those who have done fewer matches have been 4th official more, but the top referees also have their turns doing that. Shearer graciously said that although managers bleat about the number of games and recovery times, no-one (not even their governing body) acknowledge the amount that referees have to do and recent mistakes may simply be due to fatigue.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...tino-48-team-world-cup-fruition-a7517116.html

A 48 team World Cup...

Money-grabbing FIFA is exactly right - and of course club football will suffer for it in every country...

 

Scotland might have a chance to qualify!

 

Nah!!! There are only 16 extra places!

 

And only 3 more for European teams...

 

Doubt it - we couldn't even qualify for our own FA Cup...

 

They haven't announced a definite allocation of the additional places - I wonder how many they'll give to Oceania. Even if it's just 1 guaranteed place, it means that because the Australian FA threw their toys out of the pram and joined Asia, New Zealand are virtually guaranteed to be at every World Cup for the foreseeable future.

 

Steady on old bean - 'threw their toys out of the pram' is a bit steep. The Oceania group is fairly weak and offers little to no competition - Australia left to improve their game by playing regularly against the superior opposition in the Asian groups. As it stood at the time, the Oceania group winners had the stumbling block of having to qualify by beating a South American team over two legs. A tall order usually, given the obvious gulf in class.

Personally, I think they did the right thing - the national team has improved since they did.

 

I only remember that the British media focused on a comment about having a greater chance of qualifying for a World Cup with more places available to Asia, although I imagine that if I was to look at Australian media articles about the change, it would tally with your comment. I was more referring to neither country wants to give the other anything when it comes to sport.