Football News: Review Of The Day 15th April 2018

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Review of the Day

Bury Players Blamed For Relegation By Manager

Bury manager Ryan Lowe has said that the players that he picked each week "need to take responsibility" for the club's relegation from League One. Lowe took over in October and the 39 year old is clearly an expert in passing the buck as he said: "I felt it doesn't mean enough to certain people. Am I surprised by it? Probably not. Gutted about it? Yes, 100%. not taking responsibility for that relegation. I've done everything I possibly can for the boys, given them everything they need - the sessions, the atmosphere and the training. I'm not saying I'm a masterstroke by any means, but the players from start to finish need to take responsibility for the relegation because they're the ones that play most weeks. There hasn't been one fight in my dressing room this season since I took over. Not one scrap. I probably had 10 or 15 in my career. It means you want to win. They're quick enough knocking on the door telling me they want to play, I've asked them to be quick enough knocking on my door now to say they want to go, but I bet you they don't." Odd how he can refuse to take responsibility then whine about the players not doing so! Maybe I am missing something, but is it not his job to instil passion and desire? Motivating the players is one of the key skills of a football manager I always thought.

Police Are Investigating Death Threats To Michael Oliver's Family

Michael Oliver was heavily criticised for awarding a last gasp penalty to Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter final match with Juventus but the aftermatch has gone way beyond mere criticism as idiots post his wife's mobile phone number on social media leading to abusive texts and threats made against them both. Lucy Oliver is also a qualified referee, in both the Women's Super League and men's non-league football and has had to have her phone number deactivated over the abuse. There are also complaints about people banging on the front door of the family home and shouting abuse through the letterbox. Lucy's Twitter account has also been the target of vile abuse telling her things like: "You have to die and that piece of shit of your husband". The situation has certainly not been helped by Gianluigi Buffon's very personal attacks on Michael Oliver and his refusal to back down from them. I do not remember him being so scathing of all those officials that helped his Juve team over the years. Perhaps Buffon should remember he is really not in a position to criticise officials after all those years he benefitted from their cheating and has never shown any guilt or shame for that, standing by the club when it was relegated over the cheating it did.

No Deal

Former Middlesbrough striker Marvin Emnes has been released by Turkish Super Lig club Akhisarspor.

Also in the Turkish Super Lig, Kasimpasa have released German midfielder Markus Neumayr.

Barca Set La Liga Record

They may have crashed out of the Champions League, but Barcelona are still cruising in the Spanish League. Saturday's 2-1 win over Valencia saw them close in on the title and set a new La Liga record in the process as it was their 39th consecutive league game without a loss. Real Sociedad had set the previous record of 38 in a row way back in 1980, before Sly Sports even invented football in England with the Premier League in 1992.

Pep Claims Prem Is More Important Than Champions League To Him

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has claimed that the Premier League title win is more important to him than the Champions League would have been, in a clear case of sour grapes. Guardiola said: "If you have now 87 points, five games left, it's because we did outstanding when people said it was a big failure what happened last week. They don't understand absolutely anything about football. The Champions League is seven games, you can win the Champions League but the league is every three days in the same month. I'm sorry but it's much more important what these guys have done the whole season." Obviously no one understand absolutely anything about football, as it seems to be a commonly held belief that losing matches to crash out of a competition is a failure. Thankfully we can all now learn from Pep that it is actually a success to not win the Champions League, which is lucky, as he does it pretty much every year.

And Finally

Alex Ferguson was well known for his hair dryers and discipline while in charge of Manchester United, with the story of him turning up to drag Ryan Giggs out of a party well known. However it was not the only time the Man Utd legend was a party pooper for his players. There was the time at the end of the 90s when a group of players decided to secretly throw a party in a private club. The players had booked a room there and all of them had sworn to secrecy so the team's coaching staff would not find out about it and tell the boss. The first players walked into the empty room only to find Fergie sat patiently waiting for them. He took their mobile phones off them and ordered them to sit down. When all the players had arrived, they had to endure a furious rant and then spent days being worked extra hard in training as punishment. The snitch turned out to be one of the players' mothers.

Written by Tris Burke April 15 2018 06:55:52