From Football Unlimited:
Di Canio, who went predictably nuts after scoring, has been equally effusive in his dealings with the media. He says he will now only leave Upton Park if the club "kick my ass away". And as for being a "bottler": "You could see how scared I was every time I got the ball and I was lucky to score because I was trying to kick the ball far away and it went in the net," he told the West Ham website. "Next time I will try to get an injury because I don't want to come to Old Trafford, I'm very scared."

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Answers

The benefit of a good man manager is there for all to see. Take a bow, Harry Redknapp.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Aye, he's a Canny Lad underneath. Just took 'appy 'arry to put 'im right. Waddyareckon he could do with Stanley Colleywobble and Pierre van Haddit? Interesting thought. And what w/could YBR do?

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Not sure Screach. With real 'likely lads' like PVH and Collywobbles it would worry me that BR is two generations different to them in age, and I'm not sure he would fully relate to guys who would have no respect for him either as a mentor or a father figure.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Haven't seen this raised anywhere, apologies if it has.

If Di Canio had stuck the ball in the net and the ref HAD blown for offside, would DiCanio have been booked for kicking the ball away/time wasting ? It would have been difficult for him to argue otherwise, there were plenty of people trying to explain to him that he was off side.

And, then {for LR's benefit :0)} does this similarly mean Barthez rather than being seen as an idiot, did he really deserve a booking for attempting to cheat ? I didn't watch it live, but it looked to me to be very like a "Leave It" type call ?

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Dunno mac - anything's possible these days. Durkin is one of the better Refs around, and I hope he would have had the sense not to book him.
It certainly was rather curious, and did to me smack of Barthes 'daring' the Referee not to give PdC offside - that is certainly their style. As it turned out, he looked a right plonker by not playing to the whistle.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

It's an interesting question Mac, especially the one about Barthez - should he have been booked? I would say he was cheating although he could claim perfectly well to have been appealing. I suppose it's just a wake up call to always play to the whistle - and as you point out - if you don't hear the damned thing then you'll be booked. A bit messy this one - ruleswise.

Still - not a problem at OT - you can hear the munching on the prawn sandwiches during the games there, never mind the ref's whistle. :-)

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

Well, its just nice to see Manure caught by their usual gamesmanship.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2001

(1) Where in the rules does it say "you shall not stand still with yer arm in the air at anytime". Cheating my starboard bollock!

(2) Every team indulges Screach...gamesmanship's been around fer donks.

Jonno....what total CAK!!

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Substitute Sounder fer Screach in the above :)

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

I'm glad yuo clarified that LR. Don't want cause for a bust up, eh? When you next around midweek for a beer?

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

LR

As it happens I don't have a copy of the rules to hand just now. I'm certain that there is something there that enables a player to be penalised for falsely calling a name or some such thing to get a player to leave the ball, as Macbeth notes above. Barthez' action clearly comes in the same category.

It's manifestly cheating if his intention was to get Di Canio to stop play. As you are no doubt aware, I'm not a hypocrite and would say that if it was our goalkeeper who had done it. If you read this morning's Express, ex World Cup Ref Clive Thomas agrees it was cheating and FA Referees officer Phillip Don agrees also, saying that the goal was punishment enough. "To administer any penalty on the GK the ref would have had to stop the game and that would only have favoured the defending team"

It's something I've not seen before and the FA would do well to clarify the issue.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Jonno, there is a rule I used to play as a kid in Scotland..and that rule was 'sound obstruction'...like yelling "leave it", without a name.....but then again yer all giving Fabien shite for not playing to the whistle....so if Fabs HAD said ANYTHING, and D-C had stopped, it would have been tough.

BTW...CLIVE THOMAS!!!.....he's a has-been. I take little notice of them. He's like The Doc.....a hasbeen.

BTW....I'b SURE claiming for a throw-in or corner when you KNOW it's not yours, can be classed as cheating also....using criteia set by you.....and IGNORD by the footballing world.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

Screach...we start our CL campaign this month sometime...that's the next mid-week game. I'll call ya.

Andy

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

>>>>>>He's like The Doc.....a hasbeen

What a pathetic attempt at a put-down. A has been? Like Bobby Charlton, Dennis Law, Nobby Stiles etc? Better a "has been" than a "never was" LR

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

You don't see my point. Tommy Doc. is ALWAYS making statements about United that are in general CAK, just because he used to be our manager. George Best does the same.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001