http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29682896 Gary Monk, nice bloke that he is (and I mean that genuinely. He is a nice bloke), has had the neck to accuse Stoke City's Victor Moses of "Cheating" by diving to get a penalty in yesterday's match between Swansea City and Stoke City. Firstly, it has to be said that his claim does have merit. Moses appeared to throw himself to the floor when touched with less force than a kitten's f art. Of course it was a dive. Of course Moses was attempting (successfully on this occasion) to con the referee. Welcome to football in the 21st Century, Gary. But to be so vehement in his criticism of Moses, referee Michael Oliver and just about anybody else he could think of blaming on the spur of the moment is little more than laughable. When the boot is on the other foot.... which at some point in the season it more than likely will be..... I'm guessing he will defend his own player to the hilt for doing exactly the same thing. Note Mark Hughes' comments post match. He stood in front of the cameras with his halo shining brightly and said - with a completely straight face - "He's (Monk) obviously upset. We have to come in here 20 minutes after the game to speak about what's gone on and sometimes you just have to bite your tongue and maybe that will come from experience." Yeah, right, Sparky. And you've never knocked a ref in your life, right..? Coming from Mark Hughes, that level of hypocrisy is staggering. We watch football in an age where players spend more time in training working on ways to connive, cheat and pressurise referees into making erroneous decisions in their favour, than they do on little things, like learning how to control a football competently, play the ball to another person wearing the same colour shirt, or even (now, get this....) working on how to kick the ball with their "wrong" foot. Football has become a set-piece game. Free kicks and penalties are everything. Obtaining them is paramount and in doing so, everything is considered fair game. There is no "cheating" in the modern game. Pragmatism rules. Fans have become completely one-eyed. The same Stoke fans who only a few minutes before had been whistling, booing and calling Michael Oliver every name under the sun, and a few more besides, for having the temerity to give a penalty against their team when Ryan Shawcross physically wrestled Wilfrid Bony to the ground at a corner, were wildly applauding and cheering the same man for, what appears to me, a craven act of "evening up" by giving Stoke their spot kick. All of a sudden, Michael Oliver's a "fine official" again in their eyes. I can understand Gary Monk being upset. His team lost a game in which they were the better footballing side. But hey, nobody ever said football was just. It happens. Did Victor Moses "cheat"..? Of course he did. Will a Swansea player do exactly the same thing in a similar situation on another day? You betcha. I don't like it, and I wish it wasn't so, but it is and the only thing Gary Monk has achieved with his outburst is to make himself look a fool. His indignation looks false and would be glaringly exposed in, say, three months time if a post match interviewer had the balls to say something like: "Well, today Gary, your bloke took a blatant dive. Are you going to criticise him for it like you threw your hissy fit back in October when Moses went down like a sack of spuds?" Methinks Gary Monk would have very little to say, either than or he'll have "not seen the incident". And then he'll never speak to that interviewer ever again. Which is why the question will never be asked. In the same week that there was great criticism over the price of watching football, we've seen just what you get for your money. And that's priceless.
Hmmmm..... not so much a rant as a reasonable and accurate assessment of the situation. Obviously the forum members agree with me as nobody has disagreed or challenged any of the points I made. That is pleasing.
It's full of so much bollocks it's not worth challenging. Oh and while I'm at it, maybe you'd like to know that Monk fines any of our players if they dive and has told them they'd be dropped the next game.
We'll await an instance of that occurring with interest. We'll also await an instance of him publicly criticising one of his players for gaining an advantage for his team by dubious means. Time will tell.
The fact that you have no examples of him acting differently should tell you something. I applaud Monk. As a fan you can live with getting beat if you are second best (well kinda) but being cheated of a result is hard to deal with. I can still remember how I felt when Mendes put the ball 3 yards over the Utd goal-line and it wasn't given, or Carrick being given a penalty against Gomes where the ball was clearly played first, sparking a comeback from 3-0. In both cases cheated by the ref, not the player, but these hurt more than the stuffings we've had over the years.
This problem would go away if the PL introduced retrospective bans for cheating. If Moses now had a 3 game ban he might think about doing it again.
Not at clubs like Chelsea or Man City where they can afford to have a player missing for three games. I think a blatant dive (clearly no contact at all) should be a minimum ten game ban and add five games for each additional offence (ten game on first offence, fifteen games for second offence, twenty games on third offence, etc). Diving would very quickly stop! The punishment needs to be a deterrent!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/cheat-row-swansea-boss-garry-monk-4475939 This is why he hasn't had to do it in games.
Monk does seem a pretty straight fella but I agree that we'll see what his reaction is when he has to defend a dodgy decision against his team.
I can't even begin to tell you how much bollocks I am calling on that article. What about Ball boys who time waste by keeping the ball and not throwing it back in to play so the club can reach a League cup final, do they get fined too?
Well it is the first time I have mentioned it in 2 years. But the point is.....All clubs do unsportly things to try give themselves an edge in the game. Everyone has started doing it because there is everything to gain and nothing to lose from attempting it, except the odd Yellow card for simulation (which refs dont give out nearly enough). Not sure what Monk thinks will happen by playing the innocent man, no doubt HIS team will also employ diving, time wasting and other unscrupulous methods. He claims to fine them for doing that, but I bet that would "remain behind closed doors", meaning he can claim it happens when I very much doubt it does, especially in training!!
