So Who Do You Believe?

On the left the left back with too much to say for himself, a man whose autobiography soared to number 3,500 in the Amazon book chart and who said Arsenal were taking the piss for offering him a mere £90,000 a week to abuse Christiano Ronaldo twice a season. On the right the man who can't count, is self-promoting and is the referee who if he was an ice cream would order an extra flake to stick in himself before eating.

Cashley said "I'm not going to moan again, but once again we scored a goal that was fine - I've seen it on T.V." He went on, obviously too rich and thick to see the irony in his previous sentence, "Poll said to Frank Lampard:You need to get it in check and you need discipline and all that.' Cole then added, not wishing to moan of course, "If you have a ref like that then you know it's not worth playing the game because you know you're going to get a hard time."

Now before Sarnia jumps up and down waving her Gin and Tonic in the air this is not an anti-Chelsea rant. Two very obvious things come of this, firstly Graham Poll like all officials this season is wired-up so that the assessor in the stands can hear what's going on, so if Mr Cole is right and Mr Poll did say that it will have been noted. More importantly what a bloody cheek the referee has of trying to maintain discipline on the field.

This sort of thing makes my blood boil regardless of what team he plays for, if you watch Rugby, of either code, the first thing that strikes you is the respect for the referee and how decisions however bad are accepted and if the referee asks the pack to stop wheeling or keep things in check in a line out they do. Why is it that footballers think it is beneath them to actually be told to behave? If players are getting out of line the referee has every right to step in and have a word, usually with the captain, in fact Law 5 allows him to do so - the thing is a lot of footballers, managers and pundits have never heard of most of the laws that govern Football, unlike their counterparts in Rugby and Graham Poll hasn't checked them lately either because John Terry couldn't have been fouling Ledley King prior to the ball completing one full revoloution of itself at the corner - to disallow a goal because of a foul before play has been restarted is nonsense.

Poll is a fussy referee but he's no worse than Mike Riley (actually nobody could be worse than Mike Riley - if he's refereeing a West Ham game I watch from behind the sofa), professional footballers really do need to take some responsibility for their actions.

Football really didn't do itself any favours on Sunday, two cracking games overshadowed firstly by Arsene 'I didn't see anything' Wenger managing to see a tackle on Hleb (which sounds like somebody clearing phlegm from their throat rather than a name) through the legs of a dozen players and then taking exception to Matty's tackle leading up to the goal after which he took exception to AP's celebrations. Incidentally why can't Arsene celebrate properly, all this Franco-Germanic pumping of you arms at nipple height looks frankly embarassing. And then Spuds finally beating Chelsea at Three Point Lane was spoilt by, well Spuds beating Chelsea.