Respect for officials missing in Chelsea rant

Sure did mate, and didnt Chelsea play some breathtaking football ;) Better than their Champions League tripe ;)

sledgeross, you always did have a lovely way with words *sniff* poetry of the finest order! Talking of which, did you see Chelsea beat Arsenal 4-1 away from home this morning?

Essiens goal was good mate, but one stool doesnt make a crap ;)

By the way, Sledgeross, I refer you to the article I posted a link to above in which an actual, fair dinkum pommy describest the actual, fair dinkum pommy CHelsea fans feelings on the matter: "There is an aching gap between those who cover football and those who follow it. In the pub where I was watching there was a sense of disappointment that Ballack did not end his sensational off‑the-ball run with the full Zidane. Had he done so he would have been hailed as a hero even as he walked from the pitch after the inevitable – although with referee Tom Henning Ovrebo nothing is certain – red card. Whatever else it would certainly have made for a sensational chalkboard. Equally, if Drogba had approached Ovrebo and started slapping him on each cheek while saying "Who's the Daddy?" the admiration of the pub would have been unbounded. As it was he limited himself to "a fucking disgrace", which everyone agreed was putting things rather mildly. Anyone brought up watching football in the 70s could not help but be struck by the absence of a pitch invasion. Then a touch-and-go offside decision might spark a charge; what would have been the effect of the failure to award four stone-cold penalties was never discovered because such a situation never arose. On a lucky day a ref might survive one such decision, in his dreams two, never three."

Sledgeross, "unimaginative and dour"??? Did you even notice Essien's goal? If I tried a left footed volley of that breathtaking audacity, I would need the imagination of HG Wells and Lewis Carrol, with the flexibility of Gumby and the athletecism of rolled into one! Not too many dour faces in the crowd when that one went in, I assure you! When the Chelsea players die and go to heaven, they will be the ones called on to teach the angels how to play football. Saint Zola and Saint Clarke are already practicing at West Ham.

Slippery, I even agree with you sometimes, but you are just sounding like a pro-Chelsea "expletive". Abidals sending off was initiated by Anelka donning the scuba gear and going down quicker than a (insert rugby league groupie joke here). You hold up Chelsea as some sort of utopian football team, like they had a divine right to progress. They didnt. Im not saying Barca were necessarily any better, but Chelseas were unimaginative and dour. Yes, Chelsea in retrospect were hard done by, and should have had at least one penalty, but thats sport, refs and linesmen make mistakes, especially when there are two teams who have players who tend to carry on a bit. There are plenty of people under more pressure who dont act like petulent children whne things dont go there way, and to try to justify or vaidate it demeans not only the game, but sport in general. You know something is wrong when you speak to actual, fair dinkum pommy CHelsea fans who thing theyw ere absolutely robbed, but also find the pleyers reactions abhorrant.

Am I the only one who thought the ref had a good game :-)

Tom, if they had physically attacked the referee we wouldn't be debating their actions. Case closed.

Dario, not being up to the current high school lingo, I was forced to turn to a dictionary to understand your last post, which seemed to be some sort of, well, the only way to put it is, insult. Apparently, in geek language, a "fanboy" is "a term used to describe any man who is devoted to a single subject in an emotional or fanatical manner, or to a single point of view within that subject, often to the point where it is considered an obsession... [in the] areas of TV shows; movies; music; anime; comic books; cars; furries; video game consoles, video games and MMORPGs; and computer operating systems, hardware and software." They slipped that badboy in the dictionary way back last year, so it appears I am hideously out of date with the current English language. Wow, you sure burned me with that one. Except that I'm not really obsessive about any of those things, I mean, I like cars, but only so I don't have to walk the eighty K's I travel each way to work every day. Fantastic things for that reason alone. As for the rest, I'm not entirely confident I know what a MMORPG is, or a "furry" for that matter. Maybe you can enlighten me, since you are obviously dwelling in some sort of futuristic cyberworld, lingo-wise. Sadly, it doesn't apply to football, we actually use the term "fan". Simpler, less vowels, more economical of letters: fan. Yes - guilty as charged. As for being oversensitive, well having read the above, you may be right. Then again, just to do your head in, I give you full permission to quote me out of context. Now, where were we after that unnecessary personal sidetrack? Ah yes, football. Discuss.

Chelsea are fine by me. I have no problem with them. Or at least I didn't til now. Slippery, you live up to your name remarkably well by refusing to acknowledge whether or not you think Ballack or Drogba were physically threatening the referee. Thats the issue. Not swear words. And what on earth do the fans have to do with it? They're not paid professionals. They're not on the pitch with the referee.

Agree on Ben Of PP's post. Slippery Jim said "By the way, Ben of Phnom Penh, it is not like people in general society deal with all events in every day life stoicly, my neighbours recently had a huge fight at 2 am about (of all things) easter eggs. It ended with the lady of the house smashing the gent’s windshield on his ute". No SJ stoicism is not the way for everybody,but for international footballers whose behaviour is seen instantly by millions throughout the world,including impressionable child footballers it is. As well a touch of dignity wouldn't go astray. They have a responsibility being in the world "goldfishbowl" to behave in the manner of an adult role model,not display behaviour more befitting a 2 year old. Let not the misty oneye of a Chelsea supporter glaze over & overlook what occurred.

I have pretty much avoided getting involved as SJ has had enough on his plate. But going by the amount of hot air genrerated by this issue - You would think 1) Drogba, Ballack et al had committed the most heinous crime in history. I am sick and tired of pundits and everybody else going on about players responsiblity for the game. The whole issue is going to blow over. Football will keep being football. Humainty will always be flawed. What do people want - a team of emotionless automatons to take the field? This was Hiddink take on Drogba and his future at the club. Hiddink suggested his post-match reaction would “not be an influence” on his long-term future, though he added: “That’s not up to me, to be honest. Certainly he can learn something from the likes of Frank Lampard and the way he reacted, swapping shirts with [Andrés] Iniesta. Frank also felt this injustice, but you could not change things at the end. You calm down and congratulate your opponents. Didier can learn something from that. He over-reacted. In the heat of the game, I can understand his emotions, but there must always be a level of dignity.” Well said Guus, but because footballers like most the rest of humanity are flawed that level of dignity is not always reached. I'd be more concerned about man's capacity to commit torture than about the petulant display of a footballer after a game. In the end it made for great theatre just like the video I posted earlier. Humans are a ridiculous species - this should be celebrated!

Whats even worse is the oversensitve fanboy

Anyway, it's probably time for me to let it go until next season, at least we have the FA Cup to look forward to. I just hate the whole Chelsea-hater brigade that worm their way out of the woodwork every time they have a chance, with the usual non-football mudslinging and rhetoric, and look the other way when Chelsea put on a great display, which is most of the time. It smacks of tall-poppy syndrome and small-mindedness for mine.

Slipppery - we'll if I'd been given white chocalate instead of dark chocolate .........

Tom, you really are a delicate flower if you are intimidated by someone pointing at you. Both the ref and Ballack were running with arms out - at least Ballack had the self control not to go the 'full Zidane'. Drogba was not looking at the ref or addressing him, or calling him anything. He simply said it was a "F***** disgrace". Not the ref, the outcome of the match, or perhaps his performance. Could have been the cameramans hairstyle for all we know. Obviously wasn't specific enough to be a personal attack on the ref. And how on earth is that worse than calling a ref, directly, to his face, a F***** C***???? Drogba was quite mild, in the circumstances, really, probably because he was, already in his bedtime slippers. I'll let you in on a secret: every match, you will find the fans sing and chant all sorts of obscene swear-filled lyrics. If you listen carefully on the TV, you will hear them. Not nice, sure. Part of football, definately. always has been and will always be. No cause to send someone to the big house, as some rabid moralisers have been hysterically espousing.

SJim Your writing skill far outweighs your reading skill. Prize money should be irrelevant in regards to level/quality of officiating Money spent on players etc does not = deserving of better officating I'm allergic to cake. Please don't quote me out of context. 'There is not such thing as unfootball or antifootball' - People who give a damn about this game beyond the success of their fav teams would disagree. Arachic rule systems, open to manipulation and no longer relevant to the demands of the modern game impede the spirit of football.

SJ, when Ballack ran after the ref, and when Drogba tried to get right in his face at the end of the game, pointed at him and called him what he called him, my view was that those two players were trying to physically intimidate the ref. Now, that is worse than calling a ref an effing c. And its wrong anywhere in any circumstances. But 99% of people can deal with the frustrations of sport or even of everyday life without going mental. I think the profile of these players and, yes, the amount of money they're paid should mean we can expect them to be in that 99%. By the way, that was another excellent post by Ben of PP.

Sledgeross, I don't know why you think Anelka dived or what it has to do with anything, or the bloke down the street. The fact is, Chelsea were relying on getting into a scoring position, to take shots from within the penalty area, yet Barcelona's only way to stop them was to illegally foul them. It takes skill, technique, quality, and tactics to get into a scoring position in the box, and when the opposition team illegally stops the goalscoring opportunity, it is wrong. That is why it is called a penalty. The fact that none were given does in fact show that Chelsea. although more than good enough, were in fact robbed by an official. Barcelona could only capitalise on a scrappy defensive lapse in the third minute of injury time. Hope that clears it up for you.

Ha Ha Vicentin and Gabriel . . . missed that one :) Its the professor’s "boring British" spell checker . . .