A bad record for managers on the move
Some people have told me that I've always been a lucky so and so and perhaps over the years I have, however it appears that certain individuals are not so lucky whenever we have tangled.
I've written many times in this column about the pressures in modern day football and as most of you may have seen, it reared its head again the other Saturday when Chelsea entertained Blackburn.
I was on duty at the game as fourth official and had taken up my position between the two teams’ benches.
Jose Mouriniho, the then Chelsea manager, had just witnessed a ‘goal’ being chalked off by an assistant’s decision.
He was rather upset but remained reasonably calm until a computer monitor was produced that showed the decision to be wrong.
He immediately demanded that I should see the replay, even though, as fourth man I have no jurisdiction over such matters, and when I refused, he threw the monitor down in disgust.
Such behaviour cannot be tolerated and I advised him that if he continued he would see the remainder of the game high up in the stands from row Z!
The resulting publicity (much of which was posted upon the walls of my local) clearly showed a manager under pressure and with it building after not winning it was no surprise when he left the club early last week.
I seem to have a bit of a track record with managers venting their anger at me one minute and then leaving their club the next.
Jacques Santini, when manager of Spurs, called me a clown in the national press after a game against Man Utd and then resigned a few days later.
Then only last season Paul Jewell had a public spat with me on the final day of the season and then left Wigan the day after!
Still I’m looking forward to a few weeks of not upsetting people starting on Saturday when I try to maintain order on the Sunderland /Blackburn game – surely Mr Keane is safe?
