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Top managers should stop moaning and groaning
Do you ever get fed up with the histrionics of football at the top level of the game because, quite frankly, I do?
I admit that I have a bee in my bonnet about the fact that there are so many foreign players in English (and Welsh!) clubs which is bound to down-grade our national teams as well as taking so much cash out of the game – but now there are managers who have to make an excuse every time that there is a goal scored against their side, which inevitably is the ref’s or assistant’s fault.
It sums up where we are going when one looks at Newcastle United, a club steeped in tradition and with a host of hard-core supporters who deserve so much better than their recent treatment where they have got rid of Kevin Keegan, who is a bit of a whinger anyway, and replaced him with a real ‘star’ like Joe Kinnear, whose main claim to fame is the fact that he managed the ‘Crazy Gang’ at Wimbledon.
Foul-mouthed rants
He has already let slip a host of foul-mouthed rants at the national press, who deliberately wind him up with tricky questions that he hasn’t the nous to answer – and said that players he respects are ‘characters’ like Joey Barton (prison and suspension for assaults off the field in practice and a late at night attack!) Alex Ferguson is another manager who gives players the ‘hair-drier’ treatment and refuses to talk to the BBC because he felt they criticized him and so he gives them the cold shoulder. How childish is that?
Moaner Rafa and the ‘Special One’
I used to support Liverpool but their manager, Rafa Benitez, keeps buying no-hopers and is another who always grumbles about everything, which is not in his favour. I have to let myself down a little and admit that I actually used to enjoy the ‘Special One’ because I used to chuckle, despite myself, about Jose Maurinho’s lunatic ravings on TV. Fortunately, there are a couple of foreign managers who we are spared having to listen to their rants – because we can’t understand what they are saying!
There was one recent exception, however, when Mark Hughes, now boss at Manchester City and with the chance to spend millions from another wealthy foreign owner (now there’s another thing that winds me up!) saw his team surrender a two-goal interval lead against Liverpool to lose 3-2 with a goal in the 92nd minute, had a key player red-carded and vital points lost. When questioned afterwards he just said that Liverpool are a great side and you mustn’t let them come back at you after being two goals ahead. Well done Sparky. Perhaps it’s because he’s Welsh and not Scottish!
Local managers set the tone
One of the problems of this managerial nonsense is that local football managers will see it happening on telly and ape their fellows at the top – although the trend here seems to be in the opposite direction. Benno Jones (Monkton Swifts) and Gary Dawes (Hakin United) have even been known to smile at refs this season and although Bernie Armstrong (Goodwick United) still has a fair bit to say the officials turn a deaf ear because they know he doesn’t really mean it.
Steve Batty is still vociferous but looks so young that officials know it is the enthusiasm of youth, whilst Derek Roberts (Haverfordwest County) and Chrissie Lloyd (Pennar Robins) are others who treat officials with something like respect.
Perhaps the top managers ought to be made to come to Pembrokeshire to take a leaf out of local managers’ books so that we could at least watch ‘Match of the Day’ again without turning down the sound!
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