Players jeopardise European spot, integrity in the north east
Amid all the Manchester Utd celebrations, Birmingham rioting, John Terry arms and Paul Jewell bitching, Man City’s suspicious loss at the Riverside has been flying a under the radar. At the time of writing, Sven-Goran Eriksson is still waiting to receive his £5m pay-off hear of his future at Manchester City, and is uncertain if he will be joining his side on their impending Eastern tour.
It’s no secret that the players are unhappy about the Swede’s looming P45, and accusing a side of throwing a game is a very strong charge, but is it possible that they engineered this highly unlikely end to the season? Consider the following:
* Previously, Middlesbrough hadn’t scored more than two goals in a game all season.
* This is only the fourth occasion in Premier League history when a team has scored eight or more in a game - the others being Newcastle/ Sheffield Wednesday (8-0; 99/00), Manchester United/ Nottingham Forest (8-1; 98/99) and Manchester Utd/ Ipswich (9-0; 94/95).
* On each of those occasions the team that won were higher in the league table.
* Sven Goran Eriksson’s side hadn’t lost three straight league games all season previously.
* Manchester City’s record defeat was a 1-9 defeat to Everton way back in 1906 and this was Middlesbrough’s record top-flight win.
* City started the day with a clear lead in the Fair Play League which would see them qualify for Europe and yet received their first red card of 2008.
* Richard Dunne had also gone 15 games without a booking, a very long time for a centre-back, before yesterday’s red, which was only his second in just under four years.
Tomorrow, the Premier League bigwigs will meet to decide the Fair Play representatives in the UEFA cup - a decision that would have been much more straight forward without Dunne’s sending off and Jihai’s booking.
So was this whole debacle the simply the result of Middlesbrough’s awesome firing power, or rather the players’ attempt to send a poignant message upstairs?
Comments below, please.
15 responses so far
1 Brian Fantana // May 12, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Defintely stinks of something
2 The Fan's Attic // May 12, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I don’t know if this could have turned out any better for Fulhamerica. We wrote about this possibility on Saturday.
http://unprofessionalfoul.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-might-be-one-of-funnier-things.html
3 Ron // May 12, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Like the deflections were planned? I don’t think so.
We were just crap & that’s all there is to it. Our defence has been well iffy without the Richards / Dunne partnership and with Dunne going off it left us wide open. Thank God we weren’t playing Man U - they would have scored 15.
4 Dan // May 12, 2008 at 3:50 pm
As if you could possibly say Dunne’s red card offence was deliberate…. stick to writing for the national enquirer and searching for those little green men….
5 Richard, Withington // May 12, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Ha ha ha ha ha. Not being funny but you are seriously giving our players too much credit in terms of intelligence.
The fact is simple, this is city. Screwing up oppotunities is our speciality. Dunne had the usual one game a season complete cock up.
Unfotuantely for us it was the most important game of the season.
6 john // May 12, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Petrov was sent off earlier in the season, so your article isn’t strictly accurate.
7 Kurt // May 12, 2008 at 6:03 pm
John, he said first red card of 2008, not first red card of the season. It’s still accurate.
8 Kurt // May 12, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Never mind, it was in February. John, you’re right.
9 Gibbi // May 12, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Bollocks. Your talking bollocks. Absolute rubbish I’m afraid
10 Alex X. // May 12, 2008 at 11:09 pm
If they didn’t throw it, they they were collectively poisoned or something, because they weren’t even pretending to try and stop them. I doubt it was an organized premeditated thing, but they were not trying to win the game at all, and looked all to happy to let them score at will. Is that “throwing” it? Dunno.
11 Wigan Blue // May 13, 2008 at 7:21 am
Think we definitely saw a demonstration both on and off the pitch. I would definitely like to know exactly what happened at half time against Fulham when we were 2-0 up. Since then we have let in 12 goals in 2.5 matches. Wasn’t Thaksin there? Did he say something to the team?
Not that it makes a great deal of difference, but the official UEFA web site unequivocally states that the fair play is decided only on matches played between 1st May 2007 and 30th April 2008, so the Boro game definitely doesn’t count. Sorry Fulham!
12 Bash // May 13, 2008 at 9:35 am
The fair play league runs between those dates only for the national league entries. The premier leagues fair play entrant comes from all 38 games. There fore it was on the criteria that you mention that ENGLAND got the fair play place it is now down to the premier leagues fair play table as to which club gets it. At least know what your talking about before you spout off. To be honest I dont think we deserve Europe after weekends debacle.
13 MightyBlue // May 13, 2008 at 10:49 am
FROM TRUE CITY FAN THAT HAS BEEN CRYING OUT FOR THE WHOLE SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON FOR SVEN TO BE AXED.
Any City fan that says Dunne’s red card was warrented is a Traitor to Dunne & a Traitor to City just like being a Traitor for supporting Sven because your scared getting rid of Sven will bring bad luck.
Dunne did not foul anyone, The striker in question was in on goal YES, the strikers heal clipped Dunnes shin as Dunne was behind, Dunne lost balance & fell & thus doing a domino effect on the Striker.
Conclusion: Freekick, Penalty, whatever just get on with it but Red Card, pffff the Ref should be axed never to referee ever again.
On that note whos these Coppers who pounced on a City fan, i say the police deserved what they got for abusing their power.
PRO THAKSIN FOR ASLONG AS IT TAKES
ANTI SVEN
14 Raindazed // May 13, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Nonsense. They may not have given 100% but nobody can dispute several of boro’s goals were very good. Isaakson tried hard and made some saves but really had no chance with the goals. It sends a message alright - we were crap and need to improve. That does not help Sven at all….
15 Wigan Blue // May 13, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Bash
Stop being a plonker. Here’s the web page:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/news/kind=1/newsid=656527.html
Here’s the rule:
Overall, it is based on all UEFA competition matches played, at club and national-team levels, from 1 May 2007 to 30 April 2008.
If the FA or Premier League try to change those goalposts, Thaksin will sue them blind. Not a Thaksin fan, but if the FA try to rob us of another place in Europe (as they did when they insisted on the non-champions, and non top-four Liverpool getting into the Champions League at the expense of City (who got no backing from the FA whatsoever), then I’d say - “Go for it Frankie boy”.