Imagine one day in the future it came out that they were paying refs off. And like Sir Jimmy Savile - everyone's was too scared to blow the whistle. Lets face it, no one believed it when they said Armstrong was doping....
I love the way he keeps his ear piece in even when he's only a few inches away from his commander in chief.
Clattenburg is a good ref in poor form. You really can't blame him for the offside just as you can't blame Taylor yesterday. As for the foul/dive, the contact was minimal, he gets one chance to see it from one angle etc etc. it's an incredibly tough job.
Ferguson's comments after the game about Torres were vomit inducing. How hypocritical can you get? God how I hate that scottish pr1ck.
I think Football fans can accept that the Top 6, mainly United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and City get more favourable decisions than the rest but United are on a different level altogether than those other 5. Most football fans can take being outplayed but not many can take being cheated. I can only think of the Bolton v QPR game last season in a game that could have seen QPR relegated. Often when a team has a man deficit or two, refs would try and even it out, but even 9 v 11 decisions still consistently went in favour of United. Rooney not getting a 2nd yellow for shirt pulling Ramires and then an offside goal that was even more offside than Arteta's yesterday conveniently not being given.
Man U I don't think so. If we are talking doping my bet is on The Scum, there's history there that goes back to Italy and Vialli who transformed physically in less than a year at Juventus. 1982 WC team was doped to the eyeballs, they tried again '90 but it misfired badly. Vialli again...
Spooky - I texted virtually the same observation to my brother who's a Man U fan and he wouldn't have a bar of! Made the same point about Rooney. They must be paying the officials. For a short period of play Chelsea had given up - just after the 3-2 winner - at the kick off David Luiz just kicked the ball high in the air as if to say why bother.
Not disputing that. Just shocking refereeing. I walked out of Loftus Road after Swansea and Reading and knew that was the case. I'm happy to lament a poor performance or a better opponent. But when there's shocking inconsistencies and obvious mistakes it feels wrong. Time for technology. Much like the LBW decisions in cricket - when DRS is used the best team always wins. And there's then no dispute over the umpiring.
Hes the one who said Utd should get pens when their players go down without contact as they were just trying to avoid a foul. The most biased, hypocritical bloke in football.
Thats the way I see it too and PL teams always get the decisions over smaller clubs in the FA cup too. I can hardly ever think of a time Utd are hard done by and if they are, its back page headlines for several days. If its QPR, its 1 minute talking on MOTD. I thought Torres was a dive even though he was barely touched but I also thought Youngs was a dive too. He made sure there was contact as he knew it would be a red card.
Back to my original proposition - pressure applied to the officials - but is it all stick? I'm convinced there's some carrot in there too.
Have a soft spot for Clattenberg since he was the ref when we beat Wednesday to gain promotion to Div 1, as was then. Not good game yesterday. Having said that, since Hillsborough on 8.5.2004, he has not been a great friend of QPR!
The refs are never appointed if AF has had a go at them for making a mistake. Also note how many times Howard Webb gets a big game at OT and that guarantees a red card or pen in Utds favour. There is something going on AF can almost hand pick the refs he wants, the ones biased to Utd.
Torres should've been sent off in the first half anyway. Chelsea could've had Mikel and Luiz both sent off for 2nd yellows in the 2nd half but the ref knew there was no way he could do anything more against you e.g that yellow card to Valencia for diving was ridiculous
Same goes for our game last year, they should have had another player sent off and Cole should have been sent off right on the final whistle but the ref bottled it and blew for full time. They were just daring the ref to send them off.
