Should referees be allowed to call players by their first names?

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

As referee Howard Webb (pictured above) beckoned over to Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard in the fractious game at the Emirates yesterday, he called him “Steven” – because yes, that’s right, that’s his name.

But would he have shown the same familiarity to let’s say Arsenal right-back Bacary Sagna if he was requesting his attention. “Bacary! Bacary!” I think not.

A simple note perhaps, but one that raises the issue of inconsistency in refereeing.

In March this year, when the FA were amidst yet another of their ineffective ‘Respect the Ref’ campaigns, Chelsea and England left-back Ashley Cole turned his back on referee Mike Riley as he called over to him “Ashley!” after a heavy challenge on Tottenham’s Alan Hutton.

I remember Mike Riley sounding so meak as he repeated his name, and then finally producing a yellow card which was widely viewed as lenient for a dangerous, studs-up tackle.

Calling out of surnames in army fashion – irrespective of a player’s nationality - could perhaps be a more authoritative and consistent way of communicating with players.

At least this way Mr Webb might show some consistency to one area of his refereeing.

Sam Allardyce is back, but is this a positive appointment for the Premier League?

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

The return of Sam Allardyce (pictured above) to the Premiership after almost a year’s absence was hardly a shocking one. Rather it carried a sinking feeling of inevitability.

Allardyce was a dismal manager at Newcastle United. Securing just two points out of a possible six from bottom of the table Wigan and Derby, spelt the end of the Toon Army’s patience.

He’d been unable to produce the attacking football they crave. Managing Bolton Wanderers is far different to managing a club with lofty ambitions and an expectation that they should get there fast.

He failed, but then so many others have done before him and the media and the Premier League were unlikely to judge their ‘Big Sam’ too harshly for too long.

No, sure enough, a year on, another club has called upon his robust approach to combat the early signs of a relegation bound season.

Blackburn Rovers will now stay up

And it is highly likely that Blackburn Rovers will now stay up. Allardyce was drafted in by the Blackburn Rovers chairman John Williams because of his experience of keeping Bolton Wanderers up in two successive tough seasons in the early years of the millennium.

That bottom of the table dog-fight, is where Big Sam excels. Digging in, and digging deep. Certainly admirable in one way, and definitely necessary to some teams that will never have the resources to be high flyers.

But should Sam Allardyce’s style be a blue print for the English game?

Gary Speed, Kevin Davies and Kevin Nolan were all integral players to Sam Allardyce’s outfit at Bolton. Their physical, determined and sometimes undeniably thuggish approach made the Reebok Stadium an unwelcoming place for any visiting team.

Many pundits and journalists often saw Arsenal’s inability to play their football there – quick, flowing and nimble, a sign that they lacked that physical edge to win an English title.

By all means be physical, a team like Bolton is never going to beat Arsenal at their own game. But be lawful, stick to the rules, do not kick, elbow, fowl to get a result.

There was no doubt that Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish set his pack out with a definite mentality to stop Arsenal when they played them in February this year.

That game was shrouded by an infamous tackle from a Birmingham player Martin Taylor on Arsenal striker Eduardo. His leg was broken and he has been recovering ever since.

Clearly Alex McLeish never intended for his players to go in that hard. But the tackle exemplifies the mentality of a team that was sure to be fighting relegation come May, and was desperate to take points off the then Premier League leaders.

But then looking at the newcomers to the Premier League now, the more robust teams like Stoke and Hull, are faring considerably better than the well-intended but ultimately light-weight West Bromwich Albion.

Get points in any way we can

On his appointment, Sam Allardyce reflected that it was important to get points in any way that they can. Understandably a team’s survival in the league is paramount to their fans and club.

But if this means the end to inteligient, nimble, daring football in the Premiership, as the world’s most talented look to leagues where they’ll be better protected, then the quality of the English game will surely suffer.

What is a rescuing strike?

Since when was a winning goal in the sixteenth minute of a game, a rescuing strike?  

Yes, a goal in injury time could rescue crucial points for a team, like let's say, Manchester United's Vidic's 92nd minute tap in against Sunderland at the weekend.

But surprise surprise, Times Online decided to use the word 'rescue' in an Arsenal headline, perhaps feeling it would be less credible for a Manchester United side to be needing saving. 

Lack of biting edge

Both Arsenal's home game against Wigan and Manchester United's against Sunderland finished 1-0 and showed signs of a lack of biting edge.  

And yet Times journalist, Brian Granville at the Emirates Stadium, selected the more derogatory of headlines in:  "Adebayor strikes to rescue sluggish Arsenal" compared to Jonathan Northcroft's more positive slant for Manchester United in "Nemanja Vidic keeps United on track".

Arsenal needed a win to follow-up on their victory at Chelsea last weekend and regain some consistency and confidence.  But United too looked until the dying minute, that they were to produce a third goalless draw in five games.  

Both sides were culpable for missing chances - Arsenal's Denilson and Adebayor both hit the post and van Persie shot wide on a few occasions.  United's Berbatov headed high from six yards out.  

Northcroft himself said that United "so nearly paid for a tired, uninspired performance" and yet it is Arsenal that is described as "sluggish" as they missed chances to cement their lead.

Surely both teams could be deemed a little sluggish, but now back on track. 

Roy Keane stands down as Sunderland manager

Ex-Manchester United captain, Roy Keane (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

After a hundred games in charge, Roy Keane resigns as Sunderland manager.

Following a 4-1 drumming at home to Bolton Wanderers last weekend, and five defeats out of the last six games, Keane’s resignation feels inevitable.

In his 27 months in charge, Keane saw the club promoted from the Championship and saw off relegation from the Premiership last season.

That is no easy feat.

Particularly when you consider that Sunderland was his first managerial job.

At 37, he was the youngest Premiership manager, and heralded as one for the future, and yet London radio station, talkSPORT, were questioning today if he would ever return to management.

Where did it all go wrong?

Given his inspiring and combative performances as a former Manchester United captain, people expected him to transfer this approach to his players when he became manager.

And when Sunderland won the Championship title in 2007, Keane’s winning mentality certainly looked like it was rubbing off.

Run out of ideas

But this season, Keane seems to have run out of ideas.

Highly supportive chairman Niall Quinn invested heavily in the squad in the summer, bringing in experienced, able Premiership players like Steed Malbranque from Tottenham Hotspur and Anton Ferdinand from West Ham.

More of a surprise than Keane’s resignation today, is that ‘Mr Motivator’ hasn’t been able to get more out of his talented squad.

Nyron Nosworthy is a powerful defender that can make life hard for the best of attacking players.

The rather weighty midfielder Andy Reid - often dropped this season – has great passing vision and movement and makes things happen in the midfield.

And Pascal Chimbonda – despite inconsistencies – did put in some impressive performances for Spurs at right-back and I would have thought a disciplinarian like Keane might have able to keep him under control.

Kenwyne Jones

Sunderland’s opening part of the season was undoubtedly hampered by the injury to their brilliant centre forward – Kenwyne Jones.

Certainly Keane’s best purchase as manager from Southampton for 6m, any of the top four would be lucky to have his pace and assists.

Roy Keane is a proud man, and therefore it is unsurprising that he resigned if as he himself said, he felt he’d taken the club as far he could.

Timing wise, a fixture against his old boss Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford this weekend, seemed a good one to miss given the club’s current decline.

Hopefully the pundits are wrong in thinking he might not return to management. His honesty will be missed.

Have Arsenal resurrected their title hopes in their win over Chelsea?

Robin van Persie’s two strikes in three minutes in the second half certainly will have boosted the young Arsenal side’s morale.

But the reality is, a team’s winning mentality should not just be seen against the top sides in the Premiership but in every single game they face.

Wins against ‘la crème de la crème’ of the league – Manchester United and Chelsea, are impressive, but the North London side have lost to more predictably easier opposition, like Premiership newcomers Hull and Stoke.

Why has Arsenal lost those games?

• Wrong mentality.

Manager Arsene Wenger summed this up in his post-match interview this afternoon:

"It’s part of the learning process…that you need to understand that in every
game you need to be in that kind of state of mind”.

Whether they always perform to the best of their ability is another matter but Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool will always play to win and be the best irrespective of how lowly the opposition maybe.

And that’s what it takes to win consecutive matches in the Premiership, something Arsenal have struggled to do this season.

Any team will always want to beat a top four side, claim that victory and slice of history. It seems West Ham’s goalkeeper Robert Green consistently plays the ‘game of his life’ against Arsenal every season because he wants to beat them, but it is also down to Arsenal’s attack to make life difficult for him.

• Arsenal lost a winner in Mathieu Flamini – who sadly departed on a free transfer to AC Milan over the summer.

The way Flamini prepared himself on the pitch before a game was quite telling of his committed approach. He would jump up and down on the spot and do windmills with his arms, revving himself up to be ‘the running man’ in the side.

Flamini would run at players, not allowing them any time on the ball, and would put in a challenge and break up play.

No other Arsenal player can really do that, and subsequently opposing midfielders float around and run through the midfield unchecked and expose Arsenal’s already vulnerable defence.

Flamini’s replacements - Denilson and Alexandre Song rarely put in an effective challenge.

• The loss of Belarusian midfielder Alexander Hleb to Barcelona has also affected the Gunners’s ability to retain the ball and start attacks.

Granted Hleb never scored goals like his replacement – Samir Nasri – but he got stuck in, could keep the ball for hours through his skill and trickery, and was far more consistent in his performances compared to the one-hit wonder Nasri is proving to be.

Arsene Wenger is unlikely to bolster his team’s title credentials with any purchases in January, believing to the end, in his youthful side.

But by then, the title is likely to be all but out of sight.

Lord Mawhinney’s call for more home grown players

Mawhinney hopes Football League clubs produce more home grown players like English international Theo Walcott (image courtesy of PL Hee)

The Times has announced today that the Football League chairman, Lord Mawhinney plans to introduce the “Home Grown Players” rule in a bid to groom more England players.

The rule would mean that clubs have to have at least four members of their match-day squads who qualify as domestic players.

To qualify as a domestic player, the player has to have been registered in England for three seasons before their 21st birthday.

Genuine need for an English quota

The fact that there is a genuine need for an English quota to be introduced into the football leagues – the Championship, League One and League Two – illustrates how widespread the issue of foreign player recruitment has become.

The clubs in the three lower leagues do spend £30 million a year, however, on developing home grown talent.

And to great effect. As Mawhinney points out:

"Fourteen of the 23-man England squad that beat Germany in Berlin last week were
developed by youth development programmes at Football League clubs".

And with this extra impetus, we should see more special players like Ashley Young (from Watford), Theo Walcott (Swindon Town and Southampton) and Micah Richards (Oldham Athletic) coming through the ranks and breaking into the England senior side.

Aaron Lennon's dominance fails to cement England regularity

Aaron Lennon

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Aaron Lennon played with pace and persistence against Blackburn Rovers today and deservedly won man of the match for his efforts.

The 21-year-old midfielder raced round the Blackburn fullback Martin Olsson with ease, and the humiliation was such, that the defender was sent off six minutes from half-time as he was booked for his second, cynical challenge on Lennon.

Pundits have often heralded Lennon’s pace but criticised his lack of end product, but in this game he was able to provide both. Beating Olsson on the right for the umpteenth time and laying off a simple ball to the Russian striker Roman Pavluychenko to finish smartly.

Lennon also tested ex-Tottenham keeper Paul Robinson several times as he quickly darted about the midfield cleverly making space for himself.

The young midfielder’s impact coming off the bench against Chelsea a few weekends ago, suggests that he might be finding some consistency to his game under Spurs manager Harry Redknapp.

Not a shoe-in for England

But until he secures this consistency, puts in at least five impressive displays, it would seem far too premature for England manager, Fabio Capello, to answer Harry’s call that his player should be a shoe-in for England.

Two impressive performances do not earn you a call-up.

Kevin Nolan can play well against Arsenal one week, rough up the French elite and get a pat on the back from The Times writer Tony Cascarino and he certainly won’t earn that golden phone call.

When Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor got his first cap against Germany last week, he had strung together some compelling performances for his club throughout the last couple of Premier league seasons.

Agbonlahor’s team-mate, Ashley Young has only just received his first call-up to the senior side too after shining at Villa for some time.

Granted Capello took a chance on 19-year-old Theo Walcott after only just breaking into the Arsenal first eleven this season.

But when he was given this chance away to Croatia in September – like Lennon was given under ex-England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson– he took it, becoming England's youngest ever hat-trick scorer at 19 years 178 days.

Lennon has yet to impress on the international stage.

But if he is able to frequently re-produce these exciting performances, indeed then, he would be a real asset to England.