He's clearly still trying to save Leeds, by screwing up the plans of all the other relegation contenders!
Unlike some, I don't believe it was a natural reaction to being grabbed by Robinson, his elbow was way too high for that. On the other hand Robertson is a dirty, mouthy, troublemaker and Hatzidakis missed an opportunity to spark the little **** out. If he is to be punished it should be for not doing a proper job.
If you're suddenly grabbed and you try to shrug them off then your elbow will naturally go upwards. I guess only the AR will only truly know if he meant it or not but to me, it's a perfectly natural reaction to being grabbed suddenly.
If he had swung his arm round at a level height in an attempt to stop Robinson from holding him, then I would totally agree with you. But it looks more like an aggressive movement to me. But whatever was in his mind, I hope he is not charged but I think he will be. I know I shouldn't be condoning what I see as an aggressive act from an official but for them having to face abuse from players like Robertson nearly every game, I have some sympathy. I'm trying to convince myself that the PGMOL would look into any incident such as this but I can't help thinking because it's Liverpool and therefore everything gets special attention, their reaction is more concerted. I'm probably wrong on that but the ideal outcome would be that they investigate Hatzidakis, exonerate him and then give Robertson an extended suspension for touching an official. Then buy some popcorn.
Something like this was bound to happen eventually. The inaction of the FA regarding players surrounding officials is inexcusable. It all started to escalate when Fernandes gave the AR a little push in the Liverpool v Man United match a month or so ago. Nothing was done at the time and then Mitrovic and Silva completely lost it a couple of weeks later and then finally an official made contact with a player.
If I was a supporter of any of the sides above Leicester, the thought of Marsch replacing Rodgers wouldn't have worried me too much. The thought of Smith replacing Rodgers wouldn't worry me at all.
One thing I will say is that we're in a much better position to go down then Leicester are. They had virtually no money to spend in January and last summer and that's with the PL TV money. SR have made mistakes and plenty of them, but one thing they can't be accused of is not investing in the club.
The Mitrovic incident was a gift to the FA. They could show everyone how they won't tolerate abuse by players and it's only Fulham, so no damage done to the teams that really matter. When you see the Man Utd players regularly surrounding the ref trying to intimidate him (admittedly not physically abusing him) and going unpunished, (at least on the pitch), you have to question the FA's integrity. Even if laws are brought in you have to wonder for how long will they be implemented before they get dropped. When was the last time a player was retrospectively suspended for gaining an advantage by simulation? Or ten extra yards added to a free kick for verbal abuse? As far as I can remember, their introduction was well received yet they haven't been seen since. Are they still in effect?
They're also really not helped by the contract situation of their squad. Unless renewed, Tielemens, Evans, Bertrand, Mendy, Amartey and Soyuncu are all leaving for nothing this summer (and Tete's loan will come to an end). Meanwhile, Maddison, Ndidi, Iheanacho, Vardy, Praet, Thomas, Vestergaard, and Smithies are all out of contract next summer. Now sure, that's a lot of dead wood removed from their wage bill. But it massively hurts them in relation to what they could recoup in transfer fees, and what players they could be left with next season if they go down. That's more than half of their squad out of contract in the next 16 months. No transfer fee for Tielemens. A massively reduced transfer fee for Maddison. It might not be an exaggeration to say that just from those two alone, they'll be losing £100m+ in total sale fees as compared to their true values. Whereas in our case, it's only really Salisu who presents such a problem. We have very few players out of contract this summer or next, and most of them we'll be fine with losing. And our squad is big enough to cope with a few sales over the summer.
That doesn't mean it's an infinite pot of money though, they've spent money this season which means most likely we won't have very much to spend at all for our first year in the Championship. Who knows? They may even try and recoup as much money as possible, and **** off. I don't think we should be making predictions about SR when everything they've done so far is completely and utterly mental.
I did hear rumours that our January spending was "borrowed" from the summer budget. That went well, so not sure how much that will leave us this summer.
Intrigued by the amount of people in the replies/quote tweets who seemingly believe businessmen buy Premier League football clubs with lump sums, paid in cash. Of course it was bought using a loan and a three-year repayment period isn’t crazy either. Wonder how many bothered to read the story, rather than the headline/tweet: - Club not at financial risk - Loan is not secured against the club - Solak has already responded to The Times to clarify that it is his loan - This is commonplace with the vast majority of takeovers because of the sums involved
