Source: FOOTYMAD
Nowt To Do With The Toon!
A look at what has made the headlines this week .... TOWNSEND MAKES AN ARSE OF HIMSELF! Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger criticised referee Martin Hansson for allowing the controversial goal which left his side trailing in their last-16 Champions League clash with Porto. But the quote of the week came from former Smoggy, Andy Townsend, the TV pundit who should sit at home and replay the video of the utter crap he talks on TV. Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, deputising for the injured Manuel Almunia, was caught out of position to gift Porto an early lead. Then he made the howler of all howlers ... by picking up a back-pass from team-mate Sol Campbell. Porto took the free-kick quickly and Falcao swept the ball into the net. Andy Townsend: "The referee told Fabianski to hand over the ball, and that is what he did! He should have thrown it away, that shows his inexperience. "I'm not cared what the referee said to him, he should have got rid of the ball." Yes, without experienced goalkeeper cover on the bench, a red card for the Fabianski was JUST what Arsenal needed at that stage! The fact of the matter - the referee got it right! It was a backpass, the goalkeeper picked it up, the rules state it is an indirect free-kick. There is nothing in the rules saying a player has to wait for the referee's whistle to take an indirect-free kick. BIG NEWS ... OR DO WE REALLY CARE? Lady Gaga may have stolen the show with a hat-trick of statuettes at the 30th Brit Awards last night but all eyes were on Cheryl Cole, who appeared without her wedding ring. Newcastle-born Cheryl, whose footballer husband Ashley is at the centre of lurid newspaper allegations, gave a slightly chaotic performance of her hit song Fight For This Love when she faced the crowds last night. It made the headlines on Tuesday, but do we really care? Appearing without a wedding ring? If she appeared without her knickers ... now that IS a story! THE MUPPETS FIGHT FOR THE SCRAPS! Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has ridiculed the idea of a play-off for the final Champions League place, claiming clubs "will be playing until the end of the century". And surely we all have to agree? Well, not quite ... the clubs who would benefit from it are sticking to their guns. I'm sure we all want to break up the Big Four - Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool - but isn't it best to do it over the season, rather than finishing seventh and claiming the right to the Champions League? Aston Villa and Spurs have approved the idea ... which suggests neither of them REALLY believe they will finish in the top four! Benitez is keen for the team which deserves to finish fourth to get the final spot and not complicate the season even further. "I have to agree with (Everton manager) David Moyes. "He said what would it mean for a team like Tottenham if they finish fourth and, after a fantastic season, have to play a team who finishes seventh maybe 20 points behind just to keep the competition alive? "To play three, maybe four fixtures, when you don't have time with international football - when will you play, how can you play these games and what does it mean for the team that finishes fourth? "Maybe we can do the same with the teams at the bottom of the table. If you finish fourth maybe you could play with the team who finished third from the bottom. "Then during the whole season we can play 50 games and we don't have to rest so that will be fantastic. "We can be in the office analysing the fixtures and creating different schedules and different things and the players will be injured. "If we continue playing games we will end up playing three games a week - which is fantastic for the television companies. "We are playing too much now. They were talking about the 39th game being played in Asia so if we now play the play-offs we will be playing until the end of the century." Mind you ... we should probably keep quiet about this, because Newcastle finished TENTH when we qualified for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup back in 1968 ... and we WON THE BUGGER" A THOUGHT FOR THE TRAVELLING FAN Wolves have been handed a £25,000 suspended fine for fielding a below-strength side in the clash with Manchester United at Old Trafford in December. Manager Mick McCarthy made 10 changes from the side which had triumphed 1-0 at Tottenham three days earlier. Wolves then responded by recalling nine of the players that had been in action at White Hart Lane for the next league game at home to fellow strugglers Burnley - and won 2-0. Personally, I believe (for once) the FA got this right ... although I would have slapped them with the fine, never mind suspending it. 4,000 Wolves fans made the trip that night and spend a lot of money supporting their team, only to see a team of reserves. The fact of the matter is, the ex-Mackem showed no respect for those supporters! If you have any feelings about these issues ... talk about it on our message board.
