As we sit on the cusp of another Premier League season, the folks at Google have released figures of all their football related searches from the past month. The team above represents the most-searched for Premier League stars on the web based on their positions.
As you can see, most of them have been involved in transfer deals or speculation. David James’ relatively-surprising spot in the side is probably helped by his occasional newspaper columns, and Steven Gerrard can attribute his first team place to his impossibly persuasive legal team.
The most searched team was Liverpool with 16 million hits, then followed Chelsea (13m), Arsenal (9.1m) and Manchester Utd (9m). Bolton were the least searched for side with 250,000 hits.
Understandably, the most popular WAG was Cheryl Cole, and Howard Webb was the referee who earned the most online enquires.
Referee laments his part in setting up Wolves goal
[Skip to 0.35 for the incident - apologies for the piss poor video quality]
Birmingham were knocked out of the FA Cup on Tuesday by Wolves, who received a little bit of help from referee Howard Webb in creating their second goal.
The Premier League and FIFA-listed official was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and managed to block a Radhi Jaidi pass, leading to a successful Wolves counter attack.
The ref, who has received stick from Sir Alex in the past for favouring Arsenal, has issued a statement admitting his fault:
“I am disappointed to have an influence on a goal like that. It is probably the lowest point of my professional refereeing career. I am disappointed and it is not what you want to be a part of at all. It is difficult because the ball comes at you with pace and you think you are in the best position, but then something like that happens and they break away and sod’s law says they go and score from it. You want the world to swallow you up at that moment. I have spoken to the management of Birmingham and they have been outstanding having accepted it and shown no animosity at all.”
Birmingham fans are obviously angry that their much-needed FA Cup run ended in such a fashion, but we think Webb deserves a pat on the back for his honesty and willingness to patch up his relationship with the midlands club.
Abilities of top flight officials called into question once again
Over the weekend, there were no less than three controversial performances from Premier League referees: firstly, Mark Hughes lambasted Mike Dean for dismissing three players at Eastlands and for “failing to show common sense”. Howard Webb had a disappointing game at the Emirates, dishing out completely unnecessary cards and failing to pick up on incidents that should have ended up in the book. And finally, Joe Kinnear took the subtle route of calling Martin Atkinson “Mickey Mouse” for failing to spot an Andy Johnson foul in the build up to Fulham’s match-winning penalty.
Of course, Kinnear and his ilk are happy to point out the professional mistakes of officials, but fail to offer any solutions to the problems (ie should we introduce video replays, better training, more pay etc).
So, is there a problem that needs to be addressed with the standard of refereeing in the top flight? Or are these contestable decisions an acceptable part of the game (and possibly even one that makes it more exciting)? Let us know with a vote and comment below…
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