Monday's B*ll*x
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 7:46 amMORE TIRED BOLLOX
Roberto Mancini says tired Manchester City need more players
Injuries and full schedule take their toll - Wigan waste good scoring opportunities
Roberto Mancini was smiling when he said it, but he was willing to admit that what Manchester City need at the moment is a bigger squad. While City may be a byword throughout the league for lavish spending and a comfortable surplus of quality players, their manager pointed to a threadbare performance against the Premier League's bottom club as evidence that injuries and a demanding schedule are taking their toll on a tired team.
"Every other team has 20 or 22 players to choose from and you need that if you are playing every three days," Mancini said. "We only have 15 or 16 at present. When we recover all our players it will not be a problem, but since January we have been unlucky with niggling injuries and now we have just lost Kolo [Touré]."
The defender has been suspended after testing positive for a specified substance and faces a ban of up to two years. "He's an important player and this is a difficult moment for the team. When we could change four or five players per game we could play twice a week and play well but now we have players who need a rest. All we are doing at the moment is playing and recovering, but at least we have Nigel de Jong back and Adam Johnson could be fit again soon."
While City's predicament is unlikely to attract widespread sympathy, Mancini could be right about the team finding themselves in a difficult moment. The Europa League demands a trip to Kiev on Thursday, just about the last thing a team in need of a rest would fancy, and after the return leg the next league fixture is Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A home FA Cup tie against Reading on Sunday ought to provide some respite, though City will only arrive back in the country in the small hours of Friday morning and on the evidence of their efforts against Wigan no one will be taking anything for granted.
It is no exaggeration to suggest Wigan might have taken all three points, and in that event City could not have complained. With better finishing, Roberto Martínez's side could have won the game in the last five minutes alone, though if Wigan had better finishers they would not be propping up the table. Hugo Rodallega and the debutant Conor Sammon were the wasters of gift-wrapped opportunities in the closing moments, and considering Antolin Alcaraz struck a post and James McCarthy passed up an open invitation to give his side a first-half lead there could be little argument that the visitors created more than Mancini's players, in addition to playing some of the most enterprising football.
City got lucky when the normally reliable Ali al-Habsi allowed David Silva's tame first-half shot to slip through his fingers and trickle between his legs, though in the context of the way Arsenal dropped two home points on the same afternoon luck is not something to be sniffed at. At least City had the gumption to settle for the points and a flat performance, instead of taking risks trying to be entertaining. Wigan actually were quite entertaining, refreshingly so, but like a few other managers in the past few days Mancini needs to accept that goals win matches and refereeing decisions are a secondary consideration.
Carlos Tevez was unusually quiet and Mario Balotelli all but disappeared after a promising start, but with Edin Dzeko on the bench City have strikers who are capable of finding the net. Unless Wigan can find some quickly, their Premier League days could soon be coming to an end.
Kolo Toure gave a slim excuse which carries little weight in the sporting world
In sport, every failed drugs test has its official apologist, whether it is the Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Zapatero, for the cyclist Alberto Contador, or the equally august Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, jumping to the defence of his former player Kolo Toure.
Wenger explained Toure's A sample by claiming the defender had merely taken slimming pills belonging to his wife, while Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini went so far as to dedicate Saturday's win over Wigan Athletic to the former club captain, describing him as a fantastic man and a serious professional.
He may be both. Equally, he may be a rotten drug cheat. We just don't know. And we'll never know. Men like the sprinter Dwain Chambers, who confessed to systematic cheating, are rare. Most positive tests are followed by a litany of excuses based on protestations of ignorance (I took a cold cure, I didn't know there was anything in it), wide-eyed innocence (it must have got contaminated at the lab, I've never take a drug in my life) or the bizarre (the steak did it, which was Contador's excuse).
Sidelined: Kolo Toure may protest his innocence, but it is unlikely to save him from a lengthy ban
In football, beyond failures for recreational use, the thought that a player might take stimulants to enhance performance is dismissed in an instant. Yet think about it. This is a sport in which cheating is endemic. Players dive to gain an advantage, or to get an opponent in trouble.
They even appeal falsely for something as insignificant as a halfway line throw-in. A penalty given against Blackburn Rovers at Fulham is disputed, not because there was no offence but because if that type of foul is penalised there would be 10 penalties per game.
So why does it then follow that the moment they leave the field the same players adhere to a rigid code that is not present in athletics, cycling or American team sports.
Baseball had a huge drugs problem driven by the financial rewards for being a big-hitting star player. So why should football be any different? Why would a player not cheat in an attempt to preserve his performance level and lucrative rewards? Why would a club not be tempted that way, too?
One thinks of Juventus and its training-ground pharmacy described in evidence to an official investigation as being comparable to the facility at a small to medium-sized hospital.
A hearing in October 2002 heard that Juventus had 281 medicines on site, three-quarters of which were prescription only. At least five of the anti-inflammatory drugs held contained banned substances.
'Either the players were always sick or they took drugs without justification and going beyond the therapeutic field to improve performances,' said Professor Gianmartino Benzi, a pharmacological expert from the University of Pavia. 'To discover such a quantity was strange and amazing to us.'
Juventus's club doctor Riccardo Agricola was found guilty of sporting fraud and was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, although he did not serve this as a Turin appeals court found it could not apply the sporting fraud law in the instance of drug use at a club. Still, it shows what can happen.
Toure's mistaken use of a diet pill sounds innocent enough, except that the reason some diet pills are banned is because they contain energy-producing chemicals - which is why they were popular with recreational users as a form of speed, known as black bombers or purple hearts - and can also be a diuretic. Anything that flushes fluids from the body can be used as a masking agent to dispose of traces of other drugs. For a sportsman, the motive for taking a simple diet pill may not be as wholly blameless as it sounds.
Either way, any footballer will have listened to enough lectures and warnings on carelessly ingested supplements to know that pills should not be used without first taking advice from a club medic.
Even if Toure acted unwittingly, to accept his explanation opens the door for other, nefarious, users who will cite his precedent. That is why the World Anti-Doping Agency insists athletes have strict liability for the findings of a positive test. Foolishness is an explanation; it is not mitigation.
What is remarkable is that it is so immediately advanced by those within the game as the only possible reason for wrong-doing. Toure, we are told, may have been worried about meeting Manchester City's strict fitness regime and, struggling with his weight, took one of his wife's diet pills without considering the consequences.
Yet, how about this alternative scenario? Toure was worried about meeting Manchester City's strict fitness regime and, with a place in the first-team and lucrative contract to protect, chanced taking an illegal substance as a way of keeping weight off or improving performance? Either circumstance is possible. We just don't know and probably never will for certain.
Equally, we cannot say whether Rio Ferdinand left the Manchester United training ground because he was forgetful or had something to hide, or whether Christine Ohuruogu skipped three drugs test because she was a silly old scatterbrain or a dedicated cheat.
All we can say is that to presume innocence, to believe the apologists' insistence that one of the richest sports and some of its richest sportsmen could not possibly be motivated to cheat flies in the face of the evidence at football grounds every week: which is that the end justifies the means.
Always.
Silva: We're getting better
David Silva has warned Manchester City's top-four rivals there is much more to come from the Blues.
City closed to within seven points of leaders United thanks to their 1-0 win over Wigan on Saturday.
Now they can forget about their pursuit of a Champions League place for a couple of weeks as they attempt to secure a passage into the Europa League quarter-finals by beating Dynamo Kiev and reach their first FA Cup semi-final in 30 years by overcoming Reading next Sunday.
It is not a bad position for a club who always appear to be on the brink of a crisis, the latest coming because of Kolo Toure's failed drugs test.
And Silva is confident City are only taking the first steps on the path to glory.
"There is a lot more to come," said the Spain international.
"It is difficult because it has been a lot of people's first season here. It is hard to gel and come together as a unit in that short space of time.
"But we have proved we are becoming more of a proper side and the more we play together the better we will become."
Silva certainly has no intention of choosing which competition he would prefer to win.
Given the squad that will be at Roberto Mancini's disposal when everyone is fit, the former Valencia man sees no reason to.
"Let's hope we can get both," he said.
"We are in a good league position now and still alive in the two cup competitions.
"Let's hope we can keep doing this and stay in the top four and at least guarantee the Champions League next season."
Like most of his team-mates, Silva has been given a couple of days off to recharge his batteries after an arduous few weeks ahead of the flight to the Ukraine.
It means there will be more focus on Toure, who must decide whether to have his B sample tested, or merely put together a defence of mitigation against the drugs test that could land him with a two-year ban.
Although it is not certain Toure will be at Carrington, manager Mancini has made it clear the Ivorian would be welcome at training.
City officials have clarified the situation and have been informed there is no reason for Toure not to attend.
Whether the 29-year-old actually takes up the offer depends upon other factors, including the potential for meetings with his legal team.
However, Toure's attendance at Eastlands on Saturday is seen as a good sign at a time when the player's mental state has been described as "not good" by Mancini.
"It is a bad moment for him," added the City boss.
"Kolo is a fantastic man and a fantastic player. He doesn't deserve to have this problem," added Mancini, who confirmed he had not spoken to Yaya Toure before selecting him to play against Wigan.
"This problem is not only for Yaya because it is his brother. It is for all of us."
Referee Clattenburg giving serious thought to quitting after week of controversy
Mark Clattenburg’s fellow Premier League referees are rallying round him in the belief his deliberations about quitting football are ‘no idle threat’.
Clattenburg was discontented about the isolation felt by match officials even before he was embroiled in the Wayne Rooney elbowing storm — a furore followed by more controversy on Saturday.
The Tyneside official came under fire for his contentious award of a late match-winning penalty to Fulham against Blackburn and suggestions of another missed elbow incident.
A refereeing source told Sportsmail: ‘I don’t think this is an idle threat. Mark has not been happy for some time. His senior refereeing colleagues have been talking to him and encouraging him to carry on.
‘We’re talking here about a referee who has bags of courage and is refereeing very well. For instance, Pierluigi Collina is known to rate him very highly.
‘The game can’t afford to lose someone of Mark’s ability and standing.’
Clattenburg was unavailable for comment but is known to be soul searching about his future.
There is unhappiness among referees about the disciplinary procedures that prevent them correcting a mistake through the FA when a decision is proved to be wrong.
Such was the furore over the FA not acting retrospectively against Rooney for his elbow on Wigan’s James McCarthy nine days ago that there was surprise within refereeing circles that Clattenburg was not shielded from further scrutiny at the weekend.
WAG OF THE DAY
OTHER BOLLOX
Bayern Munich are in the race for Aston Villa's England star Ashley Young, 25, and are set to make a summer swoop for the forward if he fails to agree a new contract with the Midlands club. Daily Mirror
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has joined the chase for 17-year-old Argentine Juan Jose Vea Murguia after the River Plate attacking midfielder decided he wants to come to England. Daily Mirror
Chelsea will make a £40m bid for Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, 21, this summer as the Stamford Bridge outfit look to lower the average age of their squad.caughtoffside.com
Liverpool's director of football Damien Comolli is interested in pursuing a deal to sign Barcelona's 23-year-old Spanish winger Jeffren Suarez. caughtoffside.com
Blackburn owners Venky's are likely to give manager Steve Kean at least one more game to halt his side's slide toward the relegation zone. Rovers have taken one point from a possible 15. the Sun
Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has hailed Chelsea striker Fernando Torres as one of the world's best players but doubts even he is worth the £50m the Blues paid Liverpool to secure his services. Daily Mirror
Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba could be given the chance to revive his Chelsea career against Blackpool on Monday night after being a substitute in three of their last four matches. Daily Mail
West Ham striker Carlton Cole believes his side can still finish in the Premier League top 10 this season, despite being in the relegation zone for most of the current campaign. Talksport
Meanwhile, West Ham manager Avram Grant has criticised Stoke for their attempts to hijack his move for striker Demba Ba, who has scored his four goals in three Premier League starts since arriving from Hoffenheim. Stoke were set to sign the 25-year-old in January but he failed a medical because of a long-standing knee injury. Daily Mail
Referee Mark Clattenburg is giving serious thought to quitting football following a week of controversy where he failed to send off Wayne Rooney after the Manchester United man appeared to elbow Wigan's James McCarthy and awarded Fulham a controversial late penalty in their 3-2 win over Blackburn on Saturday. Daily Mail
Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier has blamed the zonal marking system he inherited from former manager Martin O'Neill for his side's defeat against Bolton and claims he will not be able to fix the leaky defence until the end of the season. Daily Mirror
OWN GOALS AND GAFFE COMIC RELIEF BOLLOX
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9415796.stm
Roberto Mancini says tired Manchester City need more players
Injuries and full schedule take their toll - Wigan waste good scoring opportunities
Roberto Mancini was smiling when he said it, but he was willing to admit that what Manchester City need at the moment is a bigger squad. While City may be a byword throughout the league for lavish spending and a comfortable surplus of quality players, their manager pointed to a threadbare performance against the Premier League's bottom club as evidence that injuries and a demanding schedule are taking their toll on a tired team.
"Every other team has 20 or 22 players to choose from and you need that if you are playing every three days," Mancini said. "We only have 15 or 16 at present. When we recover all our players it will not be a problem, but since January we have been unlucky with niggling injuries and now we have just lost Kolo [Touré]."
The defender has been suspended after testing positive for a specified substance and faces a ban of up to two years. "He's an important player and this is a difficult moment for the team. When we could change four or five players per game we could play twice a week and play well but now we have players who need a rest. All we are doing at the moment is playing and recovering, but at least we have Nigel de Jong back and Adam Johnson could be fit again soon."
While City's predicament is unlikely to attract widespread sympathy, Mancini could be right about the team finding themselves in a difficult moment. The Europa League demands a trip to Kiev on Thursday, just about the last thing a team in need of a rest would fancy, and after the return leg the next league fixture is Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A home FA Cup tie against Reading on Sunday ought to provide some respite, though City will only arrive back in the country in the small hours of Friday morning and on the evidence of their efforts against Wigan no one will be taking anything for granted.
It is no exaggeration to suggest Wigan might have taken all three points, and in that event City could not have complained. With better finishing, Roberto Martínez's side could have won the game in the last five minutes alone, though if Wigan had better finishers they would not be propping up the table. Hugo Rodallega and the debutant Conor Sammon were the wasters of gift-wrapped opportunities in the closing moments, and considering Antolin Alcaraz struck a post and James McCarthy passed up an open invitation to give his side a first-half lead there could be little argument that the visitors created more than Mancini's players, in addition to playing some of the most enterprising football.
City got lucky when the normally reliable Ali al-Habsi allowed David Silva's tame first-half shot to slip through his fingers and trickle between his legs, though in the context of the way Arsenal dropped two home points on the same afternoon luck is not something to be sniffed at. At least City had the gumption to settle for the points and a flat performance, instead of taking risks trying to be entertaining. Wigan actually were quite entertaining, refreshingly so, but like a few other managers in the past few days Mancini needs to accept that goals win matches and refereeing decisions are a secondary consideration.
Carlos Tevez was unusually quiet and Mario Balotelli all but disappeared after a promising start, but with Edin Dzeko on the bench City have strikers who are capable of finding the net. Unless Wigan can find some quickly, their Premier League days could soon be coming to an end.
Kolo Toure gave a slim excuse which carries little weight in the sporting world
In sport, every failed drugs test has its official apologist, whether it is the Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Zapatero, for the cyclist Alberto Contador, or the equally august Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, jumping to the defence of his former player Kolo Toure.
Wenger explained Toure's A sample by claiming the defender had merely taken slimming pills belonging to his wife, while Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini went so far as to dedicate Saturday's win over Wigan Athletic to the former club captain, describing him as a fantastic man and a serious professional.
He may be both. Equally, he may be a rotten drug cheat. We just don't know. And we'll never know. Men like the sprinter Dwain Chambers, who confessed to systematic cheating, are rare. Most positive tests are followed by a litany of excuses based on protestations of ignorance (I took a cold cure, I didn't know there was anything in it), wide-eyed innocence (it must have got contaminated at the lab, I've never take a drug in my life) or the bizarre (the steak did it, which was Contador's excuse).
Sidelined: Kolo Toure may protest his innocence, but it is unlikely to save him from a lengthy ban
In football, beyond failures for recreational use, the thought that a player might take stimulants to enhance performance is dismissed in an instant. Yet think about it. This is a sport in which cheating is endemic. Players dive to gain an advantage, or to get an opponent in trouble.
They even appeal falsely for something as insignificant as a halfway line throw-in. A penalty given against Blackburn Rovers at Fulham is disputed, not because there was no offence but because if that type of foul is penalised there would be 10 penalties per game.
So why does it then follow that the moment they leave the field the same players adhere to a rigid code that is not present in athletics, cycling or American team sports.
Baseball had a huge drugs problem driven by the financial rewards for being a big-hitting star player. So why should football be any different? Why would a player not cheat in an attempt to preserve his performance level and lucrative rewards? Why would a club not be tempted that way, too?
One thinks of Juventus and its training-ground pharmacy described in evidence to an official investigation as being comparable to the facility at a small to medium-sized hospital.
A hearing in October 2002 heard that Juventus had 281 medicines on site, three-quarters of which were prescription only. At least five of the anti-inflammatory drugs held contained banned substances.
'Either the players were always sick or they took drugs without justification and going beyond the therapeutic field to improve performances,' said Professor Gianmartino Benzi, a pharmacological expert from the University of Pavia. 'To discover such a quantity was strange and amazing to us.'
Juventus's club doctor Riccardo Agricola was found guilty of sporting fraud and was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, although he did not serve this as a Turin appeals court found it could not apply the sporting fraud law in the instance of drug use at a club. Still, it shows what can happen.
Toure's mistaken use of a diet pill sounds innocent enough, except that the reason some diet pills are banned is because they contain energy-producing chemicals - which is why they were popular with recreational users as a form of speed, known as black bombers or purple hearts - and can also be a diuretic. Anything that flushes fluids from the body can be used as a masking agent to dispose of traces of other drugs. For a sportsman, the motive for taking a simple diet pill may not be as wholly blameless as it sounds.
Either way, any footballer will have listened to enough lectures and warnings on carelessly ingested supplements to know that pills should not be used without first taking advice from a club medic.
Even if Toure acted unwittingly, to accept his explanation opens the door for other, nefarious, users who will cite his precedent. That is why the World Anti-Doping Agency insists athletes have strict liability for the findings of a positive test. Foolishness is an explanation; it is not mitigation.
What is remarkable is that it is so immediately advanced by those within the game as the only possible reason for wrong-doing. Toure, we are told, may have been worried about meeting Manchester City's strict fitness regime and, struggling with his weight, took one of his wife's diet pills without considering the consequences.
Yet, how about this alternative scenario? Toure was worried about meeting Manchester City's strict fitness regime and, with a place in the first-team and lucrative contract to protect, chanced taking an illegal substance as a way of keeping weight off or improving performance? Either circumstance is possible. We just don't know and probably never will for certain.
Equally, we cannot say whether Rio Ferdinand left the Manchester United training ground because he was forgetful or had something to hide, or whether Christine Ohuruogu skipped three drugs test because she was a silly old scatterbrain or a dedicated cheat.
All we can say is that to presume innocence, to believe the apologists' insistence that one of the richest sports and some of its richest sportsmen could not possibly be motivated to cheat flies in the face of the evidence at football grounds every week: which is that the end justifies the means.
Always.
Silva: We're getting better
David Silva has warned Manchester City's top-four rivals there is much more to come from the Blues.
City closed to within seven points of leaders United thanks to their 1-0 win over Wigan on Saturday.
Now they can forget about their pursuit of a Champions League place for a couple of weeks as they attempt to secure a passage into the Europa League quarter-finals by beating Dynamo Kiev and reach their first FA Cup semi-final in 30 years by overcoming Reading next Sunday.
It is not a bad position for a club who always appear to be on the brink of a crisis, the latest coming because of Kolo Toure's failed drugs test.
And Silva is confident City are only taking the first steps on the path to glory.
"There is a lot more to come," said the Spain international.
"It is difficult because it has been a lot of people's first season here. It is hard to gel and come together as a unit in that short space of time.
"But we have proved we are becoming more of a proper side and the more we play together the better we will become."
Silva certainly has no intention of choosing which competition he would prefer to win.
Given the squad that will be at Roberto Mancini's disposal when everyone is fit, the former Valencia man sees no reason to.
"Let's hope we can get both," he said.
"We are in a good league position now and still alive in the two cup competitions.
"Let's hope we can keep doing this and stay in the top four and at least guarantee the Champions League next season."
Like most of his team-mates, Silva has been given a couple of days off to recharge his batteries after an arduous few weeks ahead of the flight to the Ukraine.
It means there will be more focus on Toure, who must decide whether to have his B sample tested, or merely put together a defence of mitigation against the drugs test that could land him with a two-year ban.
Although it is not certain Toure will be at Carrington, manager Mancini has made it clear the Ivorian would be welcome at training.
City officials have clarified the situation and have been informed there is no reason for Toure not to attend.
Whether the 29-year-old actually takes up the offer depends upon other factors, including the potential for meetings with his legal team.
However, Toure's attendance at Eastlands on Saturday is seen as a good sign at a time when the player's mental state has been described as "not good" by Mancini.
"It is a bad moment for him," added the City boss.
"Kolo is a fantastic man and a fantastic player. He doesn't deserve to have this problem," added Mancini, who confirmed he had not spoken to Yaya Toure before selecting him to play against Wigan.
"This problem is not only for Yaya because it is his brother. It is for all of us."
Referee Clattenburg giving serious thought to quitting after week of controversy
Mark Clattenburg’s fellow Premier League referees are rallying round him in the belief his deliberations about quitting football are ‘no idle threat’.
Clattenburg was discontented about the isolation felt by match officials even before he was embroiled in the Wayne Rooney elbowing storm — a furore followed by more controversy on Saturday.
The Tyneside official came under fire for his contentious award of a late match-winning penalty to Fulham against Blackburn and suggestions of another missed elbow incident.
A refereeing source told Sportsmail: ‘I don’t think this is an idle threat. Mark has not been happy for some time. His senior refereeing colleagues have been talking to him and encouraging him to carry on.
‘We’re talking here about a referee who has bags of courage and is refereeing very well. For instance, Pierluigi Collina is known to rate him very highly.
‘The game can’t afford to lose someone of Mark’s ability and standing.’
Clattenburg was unavailable for comment but is known to be soul searching about his future.
There is unhappiness among referees about the disciplinary procedures that prevent them correcting a mistake through the FA when a decision is proved to be wrong.
Such was the furore over the FA not acting retrospectively against Rooney for his elbow on Wigan’s James McCarthy nine days ago that there was surprise within refereeing circles that Clattenburg was not shielded from further scrutiny at the weekend.
WAG OF THE DAY
OTHER BOLLOX
Bayern Munich are in the race for Aston Villa's England star Ashley Young, 25, and are set to make a summer swoop for the forward if he fails to agree a new contract with the Midlands club. Daily Mirror
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has joined the chase for 17-year-old Argentine Juan Jose Vea Murguia after the River Plate attacking midfielder decided he wants to come to England. Daily Mirror
Chelsea will make a £40m bid for Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, 21, this summer as the Stamford Bridge outfit look to lower the average age of their squad.caughtoffside.com
Liverpool's director of football Damien Comolli is interested in pursuing a deal to sign Barcelona's 23-year-old Spanish winger Jeffren Suarez. caughtoffside.com
Blackburn owners Venky's are likely to give manager Steve Kean at least one more game to halt his side's slide toward the relegation zone. Rovers have taken one point from a possible 15. the Sun
Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has hailed Chelsea striker Fernando Torres as one of the world's best players but doubts even he is worth the £50m the Blues paid Liverpool to secure his services. Daily Mirror
Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba could be given the chance to revive his Chelsea career against Blackpool on Monday night after being a substitute in three of their last four matches. Daily Mail
West Ham striker Carlton Cole believes his side can still finish in the Premier League top 10 this season, despite being in the relegation zone for most of the current campaign. Talksport
Meanwhile, West Ham manager Avram Grant has criticised Stoke for their attempts to hijack his move for striker Demba Ba, who has scored his four goals in three Premier League starts since arriving from Hoffenheim. Stoke were set to sign the 25-year-old in January but he failed a medical because of a long-standing knee injury. Daily Mail
Referee Mark Clattenburg is giving serious thought to quitting football following a week of controversy where he failed to send off Wayne Rooney after the Manchester United man appeared to elbow Wigan's James McCarthy and awarded Fulham a controversial late penalty in their 3-2 win over Blackburn on Saturday. Daily Mail
Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier has blamed the zonal marking system he inherited from former manager Martin O'Neill for his side's defeat against Bolton and claims he will not be able to fix the leaky defence until the end of the season. Daily Mirror
OWN GOALS AND GAFFE COMIC RELIEF BOLLOX
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9415796.stm