So, a week without posting hey? ... please accept my apologies.I've returned to work this week after my enforced 'career break' - I can't tell you how happy I am to be back - and as I expected, it's been a busy week, and it'll continue to be busy for a while so my apologies in advance if posting is a little infrequent for a couple of weeks or so. Thanks.
Anyway, on to business. I've been disappointed by some of the comments I've heard and read recently from a football manager I admire and respect (and also from Rafa Benitez).
Firstly, Sir Alex Ferguson. As far as I'm concerned he's one of the great football men. Not just a great manager but also a man who knows and understands the 'culture' of football, understands how important it is to us ordinary folk, knows about the history and social significance of the game.
The recent Community Shield fixture between Manchester and Chelsea was overshadowed by a couple of incidents where players went to ground forcing the referee to consider whether the players in question were seriously injured. The referee stopped the game to allow treatment for Chelsea's Michael Ballack but didn't stop it later in the game for his own player Patrice Evra. In reality it appeared neither player was badly injured. To compound the problem, Chelsea scored within moments of the Evra incident.
After the game Sir Alex quite rightly bemoaned the lack of consistency from the match official and remarked - referring to Michael Ballack's exaggerated behaviour - that 'something needs to be done about these players' (not a direct quote but very, very similar).
Well, I agree totally. The obvious people to 'do something' are the managers themselves. In fact they are probably the only people who can affect this change. Every club - Sir Alex's included - has players who will exaggerate a fall or injury for the benefit of their team - to win a free kick, a penalty or get a player sent off.
Quite simply managers need to put their own house in order and make their players aware that this type of behaviour - and let's be honest it's cheating - is simply not acceptable.
Rafa Benitez is a curious man. His managerial record speaks for itself - at Valencia he won the league twice and the UEFA Cup once, at Liverpool he's won the FA Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup, whilst earlier in his managerial career he achieved promotion with Extremadura and Tenerife - and yet he doesn't really appear to get a huge amount of respect from the wider football community.
Why? I suspect it's because he complains too much. Not just after matches - we've come to expect managers to criticise referees, opponents and the football authorities following disappointing results - but in between as well. Last season we had the infamous 'fact' press conference where, referring to his prepared notes, he complained about Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson, suggesting amongst other things that they were favoured by the football authorities.
This week Benitez has taken his striker Fernando Torres to task, suggesting he should stop complaining and focus on his game. No, Really.
He may well have a point - Torres did spent a lot of last weekends game appealing to the referee - but what sort of example is the manager setting his player. It seems to be a case of 'do as I say, not as I do'. I suspect that if Mr Benitez led by example, his player would soon follow.
Be the change ...
I agree. I have tried, but have failed to like Benitez. Every Manager I've ever known of has been a hyprocrite. I think it's what makes them Managers.
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