Bitter Grant Blames The Refs For His Failure… What’s He Talking About??
All United fans can happily acknowledge that Chelsea have surprised us this season in taking the title to the final day of the season. Whilst we have watched our team play the superior football, Chelsea racked up the points on a weekly basis, and were there to take advantage when we dropped silly points. Draws against Boro and Blackburn in the final month of the season could have cost us, but fortunately, we won when it mattered, which eventually saw us claiming the title by two points.
However today, Grant has blasted the referees in this country, claiming they have handed us points on too many occasions, namely the Chelsea game at Old Trafford earlier this season, his first game in charge of the blues.
“I think in our game against Manchester United at Old Trafford, the referee (Mike Dean) influenced the result for sure. We know that,” he rambled. “I think the red card for Mikel John Obi in that game should not have been a red card.”
I will forgive him for seeing the game through blue tinted specs, as I know all too well how biased I am capable of being. But Grant has certainly seemed to have forgotten some key moments in that 2-0 victory at Old Trafford.
1. Joe Cole vs Patrice Evra
17 minutes played. Evra bursts in to the Chelsea box only to be brought down by Joe Cole. As the last man, Cole should have been sent off and a penalty for United should have been awarded.
BBC: The home side were denied a penalty when a sliding Joe Cole appeared to make contact with Evra ahead of getting a touch on the ball
The Independent: Mike Dean failed to award a penalty to Manchester United for Joe Cole’s crude challenge on Patrice Evra on 17 minutes.
2. John Terry and the red card
After John Obi Mikel had been somewhat harshly sent off, John Terry took hold of Dean’s red card as it was shown. I certainly would complain if a United player was sent off in similar circumstances, particularly in such an important game, as a yellow card would have been a fairer decision. However, Mikel did go in with his studs, so a sending off wasn’t an entirely ridiculous decision (as United fans will remember Ronaldo being shown a red card on derby day for going in to a challenge showing his studs, despite not making any contact with the player). Regardless, that doesn’t warrant the Chelsea captain trying to take the red card out of the referee’s hand. No yellow card was given to Terry. When considering Wayne Rooney has been shown a second yellow for just sarcastically applauding a referee’s poor decision in the past, it takes the piss that Terry received no punishment for this.
3. Joe Cole vs Cristiano Ronaldo
73 minutes played. As Ronaldo bombs down the wing, Joe Cole slides in, making no attempt to go for the ball.
BBC: Joe Cole was fortunate to stay on the pitch for a lunge at Cristiano Ronaldo as Chelsea hoped to snatch an equaliser.
4. Chelsea’s Shots on Target0. Chelsea didn’t force Van der Sar in to making one save and managed just three shots that went off target. The worst, most heavily influenced referee in the World couldn’t have denied Chelsea getting a result at Old Trafford that day, as they did it all by themselves. How can a team that doesn’t have a single shot on target over a period of 90 minutes claim they were hard done by because of the referee?
Whilst Grant can complain about the Mikel sending off, there is no denying that Joe Cole made challenges worthy of 2 red cards but was shown just 1 yellow card and was allowed to stay on the field. There is no denying that the first of these challenges should have resulted in a United penalty with just 20 minutes played.
Bias in unavoidable when you’re heavily involved in a football club, but we should all try to avoid bias when it puts us in a position of looking bitter and deluded. Avram Grant should take note.
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he’s just bitter . although anyone would be , having come so close to winning the title . i think he’s just trying to distract the media before the final . fergie does that often before big games
yeh Scott leave the Toad to his pain. i just really hope that we gonna do the double, otherwise smth will be missing and I would really love to see the rent boys desperate and sad faces
I heard earlier that Avram Grant was also concerned about John Terry’s partially dislocated elbow sustained in the Bolton game - he was worried about how the former England captain would be able to perform his refereeing duties in Moscow next week…
What annoyed me most about Avram’s comments was that United would’ve won the league by the end of April if referees had been competent enough to do their job properly. The two stonewall penalties turned down at Boro, plus another at Blackburn meant the defeat at Chelsea would still see the gap at four points. Our win at home to West Ham would have then crowned us champions - being able to celebrate it in front of our home crowd… And that’s not to mention the tale of two penalties at the game at Stamford Bridge. I still can’t fathom the laws of obstruction in today’s game - I heard everyone shout from the rooftops about Scholes’ bodycheck at Wigan, but wouldn’t United be in two Cup Finals if it weren’t for the referee not seeing Ronaldo taken out Ice Hockey-style in the Portsmouth game… and Ballack’s hug on Ronaldo when he came on at Stamford Bridge was not done as a show of affection… I guess I’m just trying to make the point that, as the saying goes, decisions even themselves out over a season, so if you’re going to bring up some debatable refereeing decisions in one game, it should be also done for the others… Rant over.
haha @ Whiteside. It would be tough for Terry to grab a red card from a towering referee in his ‘condition’.
It was quite amusing to see how short lived the sporting yet obviously forced praised was after we beat them to the title. Terry and Grant were only thinking f themselves but had to say something positive about us.
Check out this site:
http://www.rightresult.net/
This shows how the Premier League table would look if the referees got all their decisions right.
Team-Points actual-Points if all decision were right:
1. Man Utd-87-91
2. Arsenal-86-83
3. Chelsea-85-79
Surprise, surprise! If all decisions had gone right, we would have got 4 more points taking us to 91, Arsenal would have finished 2nd and Chelsea would have got 6 points less and would have had to play the Champions League qualifiers next season. And we would have wrapped up the title at home against West Ham.
Erm…, what was that again Grant was taling about?
Also check out the Premier League Fair Play Table:
http://www.premierleague.com/page/FairPlayTable/0,,12306,00.html
United are 2nd, only behind Spurs, and gang of thugs are at 12. Actually quite an achievement for the gang of likes Terry and Drogba.
sounds like sour grapes from the toad to me.
just trying to lay the blame on others for not winning the league.
he’s trying to play mind games with the master of mind games SAF.
won’t work. infact I think he has fallen for the bait like Kevin Keegan and Arsene Wenger have done in the past.
I’m surprised Grant hasn’t mentioned the penalty that Chelsea won against Liverpool, as he was still connected to the club at the time.
Very poor from the Chavs I must say. Especially Joe Cole has come out saying Messi is a better player than Ronaldo, he obviously did not think that when he nearly cut him in two @ OO
They are playing a classless game and trying to defelect the fact that THEY are under pressure. Remember they have won nothing this year and we are champions so the the pressure is off us.
Its an old cliche but let our football do the talking, and show them who is the best team in the country.
CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!
Thanks for reminding what J.Cole did to Ronaldo in that game + add his clueless comments about how Messi showed over a period of 2!!! games who is the best player in the world at the moment.
You know how this makes You look like J.Cole ?
Like a little pathetic jealous cunt.
drogba-idiot
cole-idiot
cole-idiot
fat frank-idiot
makelele-idiot
carvalho-idiot
mikel-idiot
but i like the toad, an dontthink he said anything saf wouldnt av!
pathetic stuff form grant and co
come on untd shut these jokers up next wed