waverider said:
Have to say the best entertainment I had in recent years is when Sparky, Vialli and Zola linked up and stuffed Arse's defence......even after the ref awarded the goal Adams still had his well practiced arm vertical in the air for an offside! There were a couple of shocks for Man U too!
I must say, I did like that Chelsea team, especially I was always a fan of Vialli even from his pre-Chelsea time.
Regarding Tony Adams: He used to be described as a Donkey, but in a way I did have respect for him, at least he was an honest type player compared to the current crop of schnorkelers...
And finally:
dago said:
your players might actually decide to play football
rather than one upmanship in cheating
First of all, lets look at the diving/cheating issue a bit deeper(just as a football fan):
There never used to be a real diving culture problem in the English game, it only started to appear once we got a lot of continental players in the PL. Before you start getting upset, I believe the introduction of those Chelsea players at the time was a good thing as the general quality of English football got improved by it. I myself hate cheating, and I don't like it when it happens, even if it is from my own team. The theatrics of some of the players in the continental leagues makes me want to puke. An example from our own league: Tal ben Hayyim - Rooney. The way he rolled, better be playing Macbeth on stage.
How about Porto in the CH league last year??? Falling over like flies.
Now more specificly the Arsewhinger team of syncronised divers:
Now there is a team which has fully adapted to the mentality of diving, cheating, whingeing and then accusing everybody else. Only during this season there were numerous incidents where there was clearcut diving. Especially at fault were Pirez, Cole and Vierira.
With Manchester, there was one infamous incident (Rooney) in the box where there was a diving accusation. Now - when a striker is in the box and the defender sticks out a leg, there is usually a problem. Michael Owen is a good example of a striker who has perfected the art of drawing fouls from defenders in the box at the lightest touch. Good for him. Defenders should be careful not to stick out knees and legs. The Rooney one probably was not completely cosher, I admit. But then he is young, I hope he learned from it.
The diving of Viera and Cole in the last game really upset me, because they were purely designed to get a player sent off, especially upsetting when not even in the 16 box.. What pisses me off is that they whinge about Rooney and Ruud, calling them cheaters and 2 minutes later they are doing it themselves in a most blatant way. Disgrace....
Then there are the examples of young Robben and young Ronaldo: They are one of the most fouled players because they are very very fast, and very hard to stop. Both of these did get down easy at times, but then again when you are running very fast it is easy to loose balance. I think both players have adjusted now and with Ronaldo at least it looks to me he is trying to stay longer on his feet than before (can't say about Robben as I did not watch that many Chelsea games).
Bringing in refs from outside of England will not be the answer, same as instant replays. I don't want to slow the game down. I would use instant replays only in very special cases, such as goals/balls over the line issues. Even in a stop and go game like American Football they don't use it other than 2 times for each team (maybe a system worth thinking about?). Every manager gets once every half the chance to "use" a replay for an incident.
Another option would be to have 2 more assistent refs behind each of the goals.
Third solution: The FA will give out yellow and red cards after the games for blatant dives. That will surely stop most of it.
Morhinio was saying after the Blackburn game that he admires the English game and the toughness of it, he was not whingeing too much about it. Well done mate, keep it like this!
I can imagine what the Arse whould have said....
But then again when you are 11 points clear you can be calm
