I'm gonna burn for this but just do what I did with God as a kid...hate them back As you can see, I am the perfect type to work with my psycho kids
If nothing else, can we finally put to bed any thoughts of Mark Clattenburg refereeing our bloody games? The man's been a pox on our existence for over a decade now and never seems to get things right in our fixtures. From Pedro Mendes' non-goal at Old Trafford, Nani's handball, the Sterling penalty at the Etihad to this, he never has a smooth game. His off-field balls-ups are as embarrassing as those he makes on the pitch, so can we avoid controversy and **** him off, please? I shouldn't expect an official to be absolutely **** every time, but it's even worse to be proven consistently right about it.
I would if I thought that it would help. Even my bloody namesake slagged him off for his weekend's antics. More than a little hypocritical of the old ****bag, of course, and largely wrong about everything, but at least he's consistent. Multiple replays in slow-mo at his leisure in retirement and he still can't get it right. Twat.
The thing that really gets me about recent events - Huth v Fellaini and Costa v Mousa - is that this has been building. Huth has been building up to this with his regular elbowing, wrestling, fouling from behind and other cheating. Has he been pulled up on it? Has he ****! Finally, he's so comfortable that he's going to get away with it, he starts pulling hair and rolling around the floor holding his face when he's been elbowed in the neck. Fellaini's nearly as bad. His elbows are launched opposition faces more often than he touches the ball. Then to Mr Diego Costa, his performances this season have been disgraceful at times. The gouging and scratching of Gabriel and others. The head stuck in and the mouthing of a bite against Gareth Barry. His intimidation of referees - see picture. It's so regular an occurrence that the lack of action taken against him is ridiculous. Is this how we want our game to be played? The FA needs to get its house in order and punish serious foul play retrospectively if referees won't do it. if the referee gets it wrong like so many have done wit these players, get it right afterwards. The ref booked Ben Thatcher for a very bad foul a few years back and ignored its normal mealy mouthed inactivity to ban him for an additional 6 games or something. They cited serious foul play. If they started doing it again it would stop within weeks and this is not what sport is meant to be about.
I find it quite bizarre that a Spurs fan can complain about us getting soft treatment when you should be looking at bans for about 4 of your players for your upcoming game.
I Think he's trying, in a way, to distinguish between serial offenders and those, like Dembele, who have no history of violent behaviour. Those mentioned are all serial offenders. Including Mr Huth...as for that twat, Costa, let's not even go there...
Repeat offences (there hasn't been one for Huth in his time here at Leicester) do not matter. If you do something worth banning then you should be banned. Simple. Neither Costa nor Hugh did anything worth a 3 game suspension last weekend.
They've both been given 3 match bans, confirmed half an hour ago. Huth apparently argued that his ban was 'clearly excessive', which is completely understandable given that he has been getting away with this style of defending for over a decade. I'm nervous about Mousa now though. I think the FA are going to use it to make a big statement prior to the end of the season and the Euros. 5-6 games is my prediction. 8-10 as some have suggested is far, far too excessive when you consider that Suarez got the same for racial abuse and biting an opponent.
Huth pulled Fellaini's hair. Hair that's on his head. That's a red card offence. Costa could have earned himself about 3 red cards against us. Not least for sticking his head in Vertonghen's face. That's without the flying elbows! Huth IS a serial offender. As is Costa, neither have been pulled up anywhere near as much as they should have been.
Some players are natural criminals.Others,like Dembele,are usually very quiet.But sometimes provocation can make even the Queen "lose it!".....and God knows what the Chelsea players were saying to the Spurs players during the game.We certainly know what they were saying BEFORE the game. I think we are going to dislike Chelsea more than Arsenal now and I never thought I'd live to see that! Haven't heard much from the Chelsea fans but a little too much from the Leicester dipsticks!
I can't speak for Costa or Ivanovic but I'd much rather be poked in the eye than nibbled on the arm. I expect them to throw the book at him with a 10 game ban. It's ridiculously bad behaviour and the FA need to act. Although if we are honest. If you get a three game ban for tugging on someone's hair then you shouldn't ever play again for eye gouging.
Credit where credit is due. That Huth has been a serial offender for so long and escaped severe punishment is a skill in itself. As of today, he will have to acquire a new "skill set" .
There's no way he will get 10 games. Firstly, as pictures have shown, the officials did see the incident, but did nothing. Why? Nobody has explained. Secondly, as has been pointed out, Dembele is not a serial offender. Lastly 10 games is what another notorious serial offender, Suarez, got. That was for biting after he'd already received a ban for racial abuse.
Given the rules around retrospective bans, in that they can only be applied if not seen during the game by officials (and therefore not included in the ref's match report), there is clear photographic evidence of the linesman standing a few feet away, staring right at them both and then apparently stepping in to break the pair up. This confirms that not only was the incident seen, the linesman decided to not act. From the FA - The FA has made a change to its policy regarding what constitutes a 'not seen' incident for the new season. From the start of the 2013-14 campaign, where the referee’s view of an incident has been completely obstructed and the assistant referees or fourth official are not in a position such that they could be expected to judge the challenge, based on factors such as their distance from or line of sight to an incident, The FA will be able to take retrospective action. If the linesman cannot be "expected to judge" standing 2 feet away, looking right at the incident then what place have they on the field? I hope we appeal any ban...
Grabbing someone by the throat, pulling their head, elbowing them twice or headbutting someone all aren't violent conduct, apparently! Huth did his usual, while Costa excelled himself. He could've gone about five times over, just for stuff on Vertonghen. The Belgian was no angel himself, mind. Successfully wound up the wind-up merchant, but Clattenburg ignored it all. And what would you give for repeatedly elbowing people or intentionally stepping one someone's chest when they're on the ground? please log in to view this image
Gotta click the play button: http://www.skysports.com/football/n...0aHFhMzE6maHg5wNs63ErMx8hIZzLv1&ootime=01m10s
As far as I could tell watching the game, the linesman was well positioned but wasn't looking at the time of Costa's initial provocation. Given the rare display of initiative we're now seeing with the Huth-Fellaini handbags, my guess would be that it isn't constituted as having been 'seen by an official' unless said official witnessed the entire incident from start to finish (within reason). Part of Dembele's defense will obviously be that he was provoked and hope that this mitigates his ban; if an official didn't see if/how he was indeed provoked, it makes sense that an independent inquiry has to look into it. Apparently the club had until 6.00pm this evening to respond. I would expect a ruling sometime tomorrow afternoon as the FA tends to get on with these things so that the clubs involved know well in advance who is or isn't available to them at the weekend. In other news, Fat Sam has a dig at us in his press conference.
Still think Dembele's got a reasonable argument that he didnt actually touch him. Does the FA not have to prove that contact was made ? That's difficult from the shots I've seen.
