Lack of discipline has cost us dearly so far. Here is one easy way to fix it. Some easy to follow steps. Any sensible ideas can be added to the list. At the end of the week, can I prevail upon our moderators to bring these to the attention of Tony Fernandes on his walk about next Saturday so that he can hear what we have to say? 1 Mark Hughes now needs to stamp his credibility with the players. He can't expect them to behave themselves if he cannot do so himself. His behaviour and overreaction towards Martin Jol was cringeworthy and inexcusable. Mumbling to the cameras that he might have misinterpreted Jol's behaviour as a patronising gesture is not good enough. He should be man enough to apologise personally to Jol and publicly as well. That will serve as a lesson to his players and teach them that nobody should feel safe. It will also earn him the respect he seems to lack at the moment and make it easier to get the malcontents onside. 2 The troublemakers who then apparently layed into each other while bonding in Portugal should be fined. If it was both parties to blame so be it. If one person caused the kerfuffle, he needs to be dealt with severely and kicked out at the end of the season. 3 I hear that he has made it clear that all players are playing for their future careers with us. He can add to this that anyone else getting sent off between now and the end of the season will be fined the maximum penalty available under the club's disciplinary rules. He certainly should not be paid at all for the length of any future suspension. 4 A failure to follow lawful and reasonable instructions is, under most well-drafted contracts of employment, an act of gross misconduct which jusitifies summary dismissal without notice. That would enable us to part company without paying them a penny more. 5 Football payers are human beings with rights not mindless morons. At least that is what I am led to believe. They have a right to free speech and so can tweet to their heart's delight. However any player who in future makes direct attacks or snide or derogatory comments about any of his colleagues or former managers by means of Twitter should be dealt with as above. Anything else?
Agree with all of that apart from 1. Hughes was right....Jol was about to give him a patronising pat and reacted accordingly.
Sorry, just read thread title and thought it might be something along the lines of those cards you see in phone boxes. My mistake. Legal Eagle, you are still thinking too much. Logical though your points are (except on Jol, who was clearly on a wind up and fully aware of the history in play), rigid enforcement of rules on a bunch of overpaid, undereducated tossers (apologies for over generalization, but having seen SWP make the same mistakes in nearly every game for 6 months, I think 'mindless moron' may be generous for some of these guys) is unlikely to work if the threat is the sack. Players are still essentially chattel, part of the clubs capital ( though in some cases on the debit rather than credit side) so sacking is tricky for the balance sheet. It worked in the olden pre Bosman days, but even then I would have thought positive team spirit would be a more powerful contribution to good results.....
1. But don't you see that's the old striker personality in him still, reacting to a jibe by an opponent! He hasn't grown out of it. And his lack of respect and mumbling is so characteristic of it. 2. I think the boys were just being boys on holiday. They were all wearing sandals on the beach, have had a few, and decided to go handbags, but it was all in good fun, the boys know. 3. Good luck with the fines! That's probably going to be laughed at by them all. They're already getting so much, it's going to squat. They're rather get red-carded and shut him up, probably. 4. That's not going to work either, as the players are ones he picked, with advice from his advisors, and there are Agents involved who diddle with contracts and image-rights and whatnot. 5. Well that's all well and good and nice and fluffy, but really - REALLY? Stepping aside from football - look at the hassle professional golfers go through for a misplaced Tweet here and there! And yet nothing really happens. They get to continue to play. It's all contractual, they're protected by agreements and such and can't be touched by us lay people. They're untouchable, almost, basically.
