I'm sure Poch will do that, if he hasn't done so already. I just feel so disappointed the player let himself down on Monday, when he has had such a brilliant season.
It's not the first time Poch hasn't publicly criticised one of his players for that sort of behaviour. Last season he failed to condemn Verts for his heinous act of flinging his eyelid over Torres' thumb - because that version of events is somehow more believable to Chav fans than the thought that Torres deserved a red chard for gouging Verts in the eye. More seriously, Mason was certainly guilty of squaring up to opponents last season, most notably against Hull and Villa.
I'm also surprised that he's not used to it. He joined from League One. They didn't kick him all over the shop? Yacob's an experienced and sneaky wind-up merchant, but there's far worse in the Champions League. If Alli wants to prove himself at the top level, then he'll have to control himself far better than that.
I don't remember making any exceptionally negative comments. If I was a Spurs fan you'd have just read the comment and carried on but because I support Leicester you think I must have been wumming.
Yacob, for me, had an awful game and couldn't get close to influencing it. I know he put in a few slightly harder challenges than normal in the first 20 minutes or so but I don't think he did anything malicious or nasty. Alli just has a severely short fuse. You played a quite rigid game which was totally different to the interchanging, free flowing football you played at Stoke. You could have drawn a line from the penalty spot to the centre circle and I don't think Alli strayed about 10 yards from it all game. It was a bit strange, he definitely made Yacob's job easier. I know Alli is a fantastic footballer but some times with young players you have to say "It's not your day" and take him off.
Yacob didn't get involved in much actual football, but he basically distracted Alli. He was constantly digging at him off the ball and made a few dodgy fouls. He's like a South American Robbie Savage. He knows exactly what he can get away with. Alli got drawn into something that he should've ignored and now he'll pay the price. He stopped playing and started having a silly battle, which is exactly what Pulis wanted. His teams always have someone like that in it and it works well for him.
That's become part of the problem with modern football: managers are expected to tar and feather their players during their post match press conferences - even though these press conferences are where so much of the ****ehawkery comes from, be it Wenger saying he didn't see the latest in a long line of incidents or Moronho pointing the finger at the opposition and the referee so he can deny responsibility and/or cry conspiracy. The sensible thing to do would be for the manager to acknowledge the incident and move on, rather than getting drawn into a debate that will coincidentally cover a couple of days worth of content.
Just do what Cloughie would have done. Say you didn't see it live, will review and take the appropriate action as he saw fit, and that is that as far as the topic goes for today.
Pochettino did essentially do this, though. The problem is that the press don't go away now. Clough could fob them off and he wouldn't have to talk to them until the next game. The media don't drop things any more.
You made several negative comments on a Match thread that was very sensitive to us. And you didn't know you were doing anything wrong? Mate, you're either seriously naive, or a Wum hiding behind a moderator's tag!
Negative? What do you mean by that? I might have said that you weren't playing well or something like that but I don't remember being any more or less negative than anyone else.
Eh? What did I say that was negative so much so that it wound you up? Wasn't my intention, I always say it as I see it.
Cloughie never "fobbed off" interviewers. When he said the discussion was over, then an interviewer knew exactly what was coming if they were foolish enough to keep going.
I don't think that managers can get away with that any more, though. The last one that could was Ferguson and he did it by abusing his power. Anyone new trying that would get slaughtered by the press.
