According to Bobby Robson, Laurent Robert and Andy Griffin were involved in a bust-up at the club's training ground on Friday.

Robson said: "There was a slight incident at the time which was subsequently cleared up on Friday evening at the team hotel in the presence of Alan Shearer."

"It took no more than five minutes to clear up and the players shook hands and the matter is now closed."

"To say that there has been bad blood between them for some time is a complete misinterpretation of the facts."

"I am taking no disciplinary action other than to accept an apology from both players after which was only a slight flare up similar to what occurs occasionally at most training grounds."

Seems to sustantiate the theory that Robert is deliberately not been passed the ball ???

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Answers

Sounds more like Andy gave him a hard tackle he didn't like - no sniggering at the back. Previously hasn't Robert said he was surprised how the training games are just as hard as the competitive ones?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

How on earth does it substantiate that? more likely it substantiates the rumour that Robert doesn't like the kicks he gets in training...he's even admitted himself that it's rougher than he likes....

What I want to know is...why was the presence of Alan Shearer at the apology so noteworthy? what's it got to do with him more than anyone else?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Alreet maybe I've added 2+2 and got 24 ! But I have been wondering in the last few games why on earth are they not passing to Robert when he has been in acres of free space.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Gav - 'cos he's the captain, probably. And it makes a statement about Shearer's position at the club...i.e. YBR's right hand man?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Al is the team's captain. This is what team captains in different sports often do, and as long as it does the trick, I fail to see anything odd or sinister about it. Quite the contrary in fact.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

I think it is more to do with the fact that he is French or the colour of his boots.

No one really passes it to Bellamy either, he is just quicker at getting to the long ball than the rest of the team!

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Gav, Shearer is the club and first team captain. It seems quite reasonable that his presence would add some "official" capacity to the proceedings (not to mention him being "well acquainted" with off-the-pitch fisticuffs - "Get up out of that gutter Gillespie".)

Kats, the probable reason Robert is being starved of the ball is 'cos for years, nee bu99er has been out on the left wing and they can't remember how to pass there - except Rob Lee who actually did feed a lot of balls to Robert when he's been playing. No doubt he can still remeber the strong smell of garlic coming from that area of the pitch.

Of course, the conspiracy theorists among us would say it's because Robert is an unpopular player and nobody wants to give him the ball. I hope that's not true and I prefer my version of matters ;-)

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

some clever pundit on the telly once explained the reason it wasn't working, for England I think.

The problem is basically that right footed players would like ot swing the ball to the left and left footed to the right. UNless you have two-footed players (and these are only £1m a year professionals for God's sake) then the will always be a natural instinct to pass one way or the other, and this is why a left footed and right footed pairing in central midfield is such a big plus.

In our case we have two out of Speed/Lee/Acuna, thay add their own complication to the problem in that they are crap and can't pass the ball 2 yards accurately never mind 20 or 30. In particular Lee and Acuna are short passers of the ball, and Speed is more inclined to do his job off the ball altogteher rather than get involved with passing.

There is no link at all between Speed/Lee/Acuna and the rest of the team. This manifests itself in lonley starved winger, in centre halves who believe they have to dribble out of defence, in Shearer standing in a 5 yard exclusion zone, and in Bellamy looking like the most mobile footballer we've had since Beardsley. If you look at other sides then their midfled actually do that pass-move-receive pass-pass-move stuff moving ever forward rather than our version which is pass-stand-run-stand-hide-stand-tackle-hide-run all in a backwards/sideway direction.

Pah, angry. Shoot them all.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

.....not to mention a LB who would be better off playing for the Falcons as he finds touch far more readily than his own player further up the park.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

You don't have left backs in 3-5-2 though do you ? `8¬))))))

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

An observation re Monsieur Robert: He's crap at beating his man.

There, I've said it, and I wait for an onslaught of fiesty replies.

Yes, he's got a terrific shot of him. Yes, he can whip in a fantastic cross. But I'm struggling to remember a time when he's skipped past a couple of defenders and done a Ginola. Speaking of which, he's similarly inept at tracking back at times.

Maybe this is why Griff thinks he's a nonce.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Apparently (according to Kieron in the Pink), Lolo is forever nutmegging Griff in training. Lolo had heard what a good FB Griff was and how he had kicked lumps out of, erm, I mean, kept Ginola quiet. Griff had heard that Lolo was a bit special. Round One went to Lolo who took pleasure in nutmegging Griff.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Dave, I distinctly remember lolo skipping past three spurs players then playing a great square ball along the top of the box which was quickly made a hash of.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

dave, the first thing robert did in a b and w was to dance past 3 players. genius isn't a machine.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Shame it isn't a machine Swift.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

I know he's just a ponsy frog, but doesn't he have a point ? These guys are worth a ton of money to the club, but only when they can perform on the pitch, so what's the point of hammering in to one of your own players in training just so they'll get a taste of the real thing, and run the risk of clobbering him to the extent he can't turn out ? They'll get enough of that in league games without needing to practise it.

Wouldn't surprise me if it's the main reason for all these 'training injuries' - at least in a league game, you're going to be more mentally prepared for being clobbered.

If fact, what benefit is there in even playing games during training sessions anyway ? Seems to me it would make more sense to practise things until they're second nature - breaking at speed, defending set pieces, ball control, shooting from distance, etc - without having to worry about having your legs chopped out from under you by one of your team-mates. Leave getting used to that sort of sh1t until Saturday afternoon.

Or is crippling your own players just part of what makes it a 'man's game' ?

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

i would think it would be far more useful to get A. Griffin to practice trapping the ball moving forwards 10 yards and spraying inch perfect cross field passes to a speedy world class winger (much the same way Becks and Giggs probably do) than trying to kill him every 10 minutes...

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001