The first thing I'd point out about this is that Steve Bennett makes it completely plain that he doesn't like us. He never gives us anything. So why was it fair to have him refereeing the game if it's considered unfair to have Mike Riley refereeing it? The logic seems to be Steve Bennet > Mike Riley because he will be unfair to us. The second thing is that Mike Riley, I accept, went through a period a few seasons ago when he seemed to give us rather a lot of decisions. The last couple of seasons it has generally been the other way round. Looking through my old posts I came upon this report from the Chelsea - Man Utd game earlier this season, emphasis mine:EVERTON’s David Moyes has hinted that he – and other managers – think Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final ref Mike Riley is a Manchester United fan.
Riley is a late replacement at Wembley for Steve Bennett, who has withdrawn due to illness. But Moyes has cranked up the pressure ahead of the potentially explosive cup tie by suggesting the Yorkshire-born official may favour Sir Alex Ferguson's team.
Moyes said: “A member of the press asked me if Mike Riley is a Manchester United supporter - I think that is something you would need to bring up with the FA.
“It is something that one or two managers would have something to say about. "It is the FA’s appointment; it was originally supposed to be Steve Bennett.“If you (the press) are saying that Mike Riley is a Manchester United supporter, you would hope the FA would look at that.”
a point apiece was a fair result from a game which, while intriguing, never had much flow because of the officiousness of Mike Riley. He blew constantly, like a 1950s child playing at being a traffic policemen after finding a whistle in his Christmas stocking. It wasn't a dirty game, yet Riley flashed eight yellows - seven at United players, just the one at Chelsea blue - missed a blatant Ronaldo dive, and generally got more things wrong than right. He even blew for time early, to general confusion, having initially appeared to have given a foul against Rio Ferdinand, prompting the United defender to call him a "shit ref" as he walked off.And this referee is a problem for Everton?
On that game Rooney has a few comments to make:
And he has a few comments on the Porto game etc.:Rooney said: 'I always want Everton to do well. It's always a bit strange when I face them, because they're the club I supported growing up and then played for. There's always banter between me and the Everton fans, but it doesn't run too deep for me.
'Theirs is the result I still look out for first and I've said before that I'd love them to finish second in the Premier League to us. ...'All the stick I get makes me want to do better, but it doesn't bother me that much now.
'I'm not sure if I'd go to the final or not. I'm not sure where I'd sit. I might have to go in disguise!'
“We’re so close to glory now but just one defeat could shatter our dreams. We have to make sure we stay focused and prepare properly for the games we have left.“Over the last few weeks we’ve had some terrible results — but maybe that has helped by reminding us what we had to do, by getting back to basics and defending as a team.
“We showed that against Porto and in parts at Sunderland last weekend.”
let it not be forgotten that, at the height of the feuding, the rivalry was so bitter, so deep-rooted and utterly acrimonious, there were complaints from the Metropolitan Police and Government ministers. The FA wrote to both clubs demanding an official ceasefire. The League Managers' Association offered to mediate but eventually gave up on the idea, believing it would be impossible to bring them together.The change started when Jose Mourinho took over at Chelsea and formed his own rivalry with both men but Ferguson would still find time to criticise Wenger for lacking grace in defeat. It got under his skin that Wenger would never accept his invitation for a post-match drink at Old Trafford. Ferguson has his love of cinema and jazz and horses and wine and he resented the way Wenger was routinely described as "urbane" and "cosmopolitan" when the Frenchman would spend his free evenings watching tapes of old German matches and once freely admitted having no knowledge of central London, despite living in the capital since 1996.
Wenger speaks five languages and has a master's degree in economics and sociology from Strasbourg University. Yet Ferguson was never impressed. "Intelligence! They say he's an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages. I've got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages."
no matter what the next weeks have in store, even if Theo Walcott were to be dumped on the cinder track in the opening seconds of the first leg at Old Trafford on April 29, it would be hard to imagine that things could ever be quite as confrontational as they once were. At 67 and 59 respectively, Ferguson and Wenger are two of the English game’s elder statesmen these days and, while they have little in common on a personal level, they do have a shared philosophy that makes them feel like cavaliers in a game increasingly overrun by roundheads.While James Lawton in The Independent takes the opportunity to yabber on about how great Arsenal/Arsene are, with the odd bit of praise for us thrown in:
When Cristiano Ronaldo drove home his perfect strike against Porto, when he produced such dream-like timing and power for a goal which had more impact than any in Europe since Zinedine Zidane volleyed Real Madrid to victory in the Champions League final seven years ago, you were reminded of Ferguson's devotion to, and patience when dealing with, the greatest of individual talent.There's a bizarre piece in The Mirror by John Cross (which is dated yesterday, but I missed it, presumably because The Mirror's website is rubbish and has never updated with all the day's stories when I sit down to write this, and it's not like I do it that early. Sort it out) suggesting that Frank Lampard should be on the PFA shortlist at the expense of Ronaldo. Here's his "reasoning":
How on earth Frank Lampard has not made the shortlist of six is incredible. Absolutely incredible.
It is not just Lampard's part in Chelsea's epic eight-goal Champions League thriller with Liverpool on Tuesday night. [fairly obviously given it was announced before that game happened]
Lampard has been delivering exceptional performances all season long and has scored 18 goals from 46 starts.
That is a ratio better than one goal every three games from midfield which is an astonishing return, no matter that Lampard does it year after year.
But the one that gets me is Cristiano Ronaldo. All season long we've been berating him about his performances and how he's not been as good as last season.
Ronaldo scored an incredible goal for United to pull off a great win in Porto on Wednesday night. But, for me, Ronaldo has still not hit last season's incredible heights because his head was turned last summer by Real Madrid.
Frankly, I think he will go to Real Madrid this summer and it's as if he's already there from some of his performances.
He's not been at the races for much of the season. He's simply not performed consistently and has rarely lived up to his status as World and European Player of the Year.
Ronaldo has scored 21 goals but he's a forward who is expected to get in amongst the top scorers.
Compare that to Lampard's return and suddenly it doesn't look so impressive.
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