Yesterday afternoon a referee called Chris Kavanagh, from Ashton, Greater Manchester, put in the worst refereeing performance I have seen in over 60 years of watching football. He made poor decision after poor decision. The game turned on his sending off of Declan Rice around 50 minutes, for a second yellow card for delaying the restart of the game. I could give you my version of that, or there were some very well written drinks under the preview, especially by GSD. But instead I’m going to quote in full a piece written by a former senior referee, Keith Hackett, in the Daily Telegraph:
Sending off Rice was nonsense
The decision to send off Declan Rice was absolute nonsense
All Rice did was tap the ball and it barely went a yard! His insignificant actions had no material impact on the match and hardly slowed the game down, which was the explanation offered by the Premier League for the second yellow to be shown.
In the madness of this unfolding, I also do not understand how Brighton’s Joel Veltman escaped a card after hoofing ball, and Rice, after the Arsenal player had tapped it.
Veltman’s actions could easily have earned him a red card, and was a far more egregious act than that of Rice. A yellow should have been given to him as a minimum. The video assistant referee would have been well within their rights to intervene.
Common sense going out of refereeing
The farce at the Emirates is another prime example of common sense going out of refereeing. Chris Kavanagh was clearly focusing on the letter of the law, rather than using a feel for the game.
I get the feeling that the current crop of referees is too afraid to do anything that is not exactly by the book. We are losing that grey area of wiggle room that the top officials understand how to use to manage a game.
When I was refereeing, I always believed that if you were handing out a second yellow card, it needed to be at the level of an “orange” card. By that I mean, closer to a red than a yellow, given the implications it may have on the match.
Sympathy and common sense should be part of refereeing. I fear they are both lacking.
After all, football remains a form of entertainment, and that is being lost at the moment. Rice being sent off is a bad look for the Premier League and the sport”
Mikel Arteta commented, “I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be. In the first half there were two incidents and nothing happens. Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan, he turns around, he doesn’t see the player coming and he touches the ball. By law he (the referee) can make that call, but then by law he needs to make the next call, which is a red card (to Veltman) so we play 10 versus 10. This is what amazed me. At this level it is amazing”
Earlier in the game, Kavanagh had
- Failed to book Pedro for smashing the ball 50 yards after it had gone out of play.
- Failed to punish several Brighton players for violent conduct, including Martin Ødegaard being kicked hard on the knee.
- Failed to give a penalty against Lewis Dunk for preventing Ben White’s shot going in by means of his arm. He literally stopped the ball from going in the net. Kavanagh was also the ref who disallowed the goal for Bournemouth v Newcastle when the ball had hit a player’s shoulder.
Now there are many pundits (and a few Arsenal fans) who say that the failure to win the game was Arsenal’s fault. That after our superb first half goal from Kai Havertz and then the red card we “went into a red fog “ (Jonathan Northcroft, The Times). That our defence was at fault for the Brighton goal and that we missed two excellent chances to win the game. All that is true. But the impact of that awful decision to send off Rice dramatically changed the game (and removes Rice from the NLD after the interlull.
PGMOL are not fit for purpose. They are not accountable. In some cases they apply “the letter of the law” and others they “let the game flow”. In recent weeks we have seen the full choke hold by the Wolves player on Kai Havertz and the clothesline by Joelinton on the Bournemouth goalkeeper, an action which could have broken his neck and would have led to dismissal in all games from Rugby to NFL, go unpunished by a red card. They are risking serious injury to players (look at the way Saka and Odegaard are kicked to death each week) whilst parroting “letter of the law” but not even applying that consistently. Is there no way the Premier League clubs can call time on this jumped up, smug, officious, self-justifying Manchester boy’s club who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, and are ruining the Premier League?
Chris Kavanagh ruined my Saturday and probably my weekend. Thankfully we have two weeks off from it. Next weekend, I’m off to watch some cricket at the Oval.
Spot on C100. For me too, this was the worst performance by a referee in all my years of watching football. It was a staggeringly partial performance for the entire game. It was as though the referee had tilted the pitch in each half so we were constantly playing on a slope of Mont Ventoux-like degree. I am rapidly approaching the point of just stopping my involvement with Premier League football as I just can’t stand the utter lack of accountability these apparently professional referees have.
Cheers. C100.
And take. Bow, Keith Hackett. 100% agree. Glad this also highlights the shocking non-award of a card to Veltman too.
And obviously also 100% agree with you.
I’m off later today to watch some strange paralympics sports and forget about the football. Enjoy the cricket next weekend!
Perfect summary. Ruined my Saturday too and I’m still suffering from a football, not alcohol, hangover.
Thanks C100 for sharing your view, I think any reasonable person would agree it was a crazy decision. I haven’t bothered to read the reactions more widely as I can imagine the sort of rallying round crap that is being churned out by the establishment,
i agreed with Mikel too but to be honest I wasn’t amazed, I have no expectation of competence from the PGMOL. These days you have to hope you are on the right side of whatever stupid thing is done, unfortunately we rarely seem to be.
C100 – Strangely enough, Kavanagh was the referee who decided that there was nothing to see when Joelinton clotheslined the keeper last week. And he’s from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.
No doubt he enjoys paid trips to the Middle East in his role as an entirely impartial professional referee.
C100, I 100% agree with you. And more…. I usually not agree with the Untold blog if there is (not so) secret bias of the officials against the Arsenal but…. but when I count all the incidents went against us from the quickfire double yellow for Martinelli through the push on Gabi against the Barcodes and the Havertz handball against the Villain just name a few it’s is hard not to feel that there is more than mere incompetence within the PGMOL.
COYG
Well done Countryman. You’ve nailed that.
I was quite depressed about this yesterday. First, because we got shafted by refereeing not fit for purpose from a body not fit for purpose which is only getting worse.
But what made me sadder was what I saw of people’s reaction. 20 years ago, football fans would have stood together to say that the decision was bollocks and that’s not how we want the game refereed.
Now, probably due to social media, people just divide along club allegiance lines. As there are more people who don’t support Arsenal than ones who do, there is a swell of opinion that says this was the right decision. There’s something so much worse about a crap reffing decision when short-sighted, partisan fans are whipped up by a craven media to look the other way and puff themselves self-righteously while the game at the centre of all this is diluted to something meaningless and shallow.
Football used to be the most important of the unimportant things. But when people treat it with contempt, how can they even claim it is that?
It all left me feeling a hollowness about PL football that had nothing to do with us not winning a match. The whole endeavour is tainted, and despite people having more platform for their voices to be heard than ever before, they use it to abuse and wind each other up, whilst there remains no consistent pressure to bring accountability and oversight to the PGMOL, who may have shafted us this week, but will be shafting someone else next week.
And the week after that.
And the week after that.
Ad infinitum.
A superb piece, C100.
That piece of blatant fraud has ruined my weekend too and I haven’t yet seen the match though I have now seen the incident on Match of the Day. Having seen the outrage of sensible friends on social media I expected that Rice had stood right in front of the dead ball as so many players seem to routinely do these days and then kicked the ball away (indeed, I saw many Swansea and Baggies players do the former throughout an entertaining game without sanction). When I finally saw what actually happened, there was, as you have all also seen by now, markedly less offence by Rice than that now common act, the ball was thrown at him and then he sustained a kick to his leg. Laughable, simply laughable. The referee was a clown, but then many people observe that there’s often something sinister about a clown….
Were it not the referee who failed to flourish a red card for the assault on the Bournemouth keeper, I would regard that second yellow, like Hackett, as a piece of outrageous nitpicking by an obsessive little man. I suppose it could be crass stupidity but this is a man who has passed stringent examinations and assessments to take an extremely responsible role in the world’s greatest league (class this statement as my naive moment). However, I am afraid that it comes down to either:
a) failure to control his own prejudices (we all have them, even the righteous) and retain cold objectivity in making every decision even when his emotion makes him want to be partisan (i.e. be the consummate professional)
or,
b) quite simply, it’s old fashioned corruption; there’s a lot of money available to subtly influence officials or not so subtly, to just buy them; there are many places and situations in which that’s seen as OK.
“Oh no, he’s English! That couldn’t possibly happen!” you say?
Wake up and smell the coffee! Look at the accumulated evidence. These people are NOT clowns.
I had corresponded with C100 post match and appreciated how upset he was. His superb piece will at least let him get some angst out of his system. But an incompetent ref robbed us of two points and compounded this by Rice’s suspension from the NLD.
Kavanagh has been useless for years but this has been no impediment to his climbing the international refereeing ladder . During the Covid hiatus he sent off Nketiah incredibly harshly when we were schooling Leicester and we ended up drawing 1-1 . Sound familiar ?
I’ve always been much more concerned by some of our number about the distribution of referees in geographical terms . The preponderance in the North especially the North West is extraordinary. Seven London sides but no refs from anywhere near London .
The rules are also stupid and give licence to prats like Kavanagh to wreak havoc . The kick on Odegaard which was an out of control hack – and injured him- was far more serious than the honest attempt by Rice to tackle which was a foul…but a booking? I sit in the North Bank Upper and thought Veltman had been shown the red card for a hack. I really didn’t think Rice did anything wrong. VAR will save us I thought but on VAR was Andrew Madley ( Huddersfield ) who was the idiot who oversaw the farce at Newcastle last year .
My day was compounded by having to travel part of the way home with C115y fans on their way to Wet Spam . How arrogant they are and certain they will emerge unscathed from their charges .
As for the game I thought Havertz was superb , Partey erratic and Raya very good . But football took a back seat yesterday .
I’m at the Oval with C100 next week ( and on Tuesday ). Hopefully Kavanagh is not umpiring
Another former referee says Kavanagh got it wrong. Makes the MOTD pundits look stupid doesn’t it?
https://x.com/arsenal23wenger/status/1830189890958491769?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
It doesn’t take very much to realise that Lineker is f*cking stupid.
An alternative (well argued) view:
Good stuff, as ever, from Amy Lawrence (£):
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5736291/2024/09/01/arsenal-rice-red-card-referee-premier-league/
“A head-scratcher of a decision, a man disadvantage for almost a full half, an uncharacteristic error at the back, and the tension begins to squeeze. City can do that to their challengers even without playing.”
Bath
That geographical distribution chart of refs has been challenged on here and is a couple of years old but it does illustrate a point about how skewed ( screwed ) the refereeing power base is
Alex Ferguson had the predecessors of the PGMOL under his thumb ( in fact the man who founded it used to give United a penalty per game ) but there is a cost cartel of refs from the North
Imagine if all Test umpires came from India or Australia- would that be accepted ? The PGMOL is a flawed construct and it distorts the game
Excellent missive, C100.
It vexes me far too much to revisit. So, as a distraction:
Can we have a discussion about starting Martinelli v Trossard?
Tactically I think the better play is to start Martinelli. Let him harry defenders with his pace (and maybe nick a goal or two), and sub in Leo around 65/70 minutes.
Yesterday’s game showed Leo’s deficiencies when starting a game (not to mention his recent form against Brighton…I think their fans get to him). I just prefer him finishing games instead of starting them.
Thoughts?
MCMBD
Thanks c100 for your entirely fair evaluation of Kavanagh’s (non-) performance in yesterday’s game, and providing a starting point for PGMOL to offer him a (very small) severance package.
Lonestar
Undoubtedly some players are better coming off the bench and adjust to games quickly . I didn’t think Leo was bad yesterday but the whole game was consumed by the sending off and its aftermath .
I think Sterling may well become our starter on the left side of the attack . Gabi has enormous pace but needs a couple of goals to build confidence and Leo appears best used as an impact sub . It will be interesting to look at our left side when we settle on a left back and Merino is fit . Hopefully it will be as productive as our right flank . But I think Sterling will very possibly be a starter
The Mark Halsey piece C100 links to @10 encapsulates it best when he says referees at this level should not be sending players off for incidents like Rice/Veltman. Arguing over the letter-of-the-law technicalities of the incident is as futile as asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Good refereeing would have been a stern word to both players: to Veltman about gamesmanship and a reminder to Rice that he was already on a yellow card. Had that happened, I doubt anyone after the game would have said that Rice not being given a second yellow was the turning point that egregiously denied Brighton a point, even if they remembered the incident.
The PL needs to address the significant questions of PGMOL competence and consistency for the good of the game — or, in the PL’s language, its product. If the league’s clubs can import the best players and coaches, why is the league not importing the best referees from around the world? Also, how can the PL exert more accountability over the PGMOL? It has subcontracted match officiating to a private company. Having an independent refereeing organisation may be necessary for conflict-of-interest reasons. Yet, from the outside, the PL does not appear to require any performance standards of the PGMOL, nor does it have any formal mechanism for monitoring them or imposing penalties for falling short.
Reaction to the Rice/Veltman incident has been understandably tribal, but that doesn’t mean that, in the best traditions of this fine establishment, we shouldn’t also consider the questions that Amy Lawrence’s piece that Bath links to @13 raises: what does the team need to learn from Rice’s red in mentally adjusting immediately to playing with ten men and whether Arteta should have made his substitutions to restructure the rearguard sooner.
Neither should we forget how close we came to winning with ten men. If Raya parries the shot before the goal 10 degrees either way, Joao Pedro doesn’t have a clear knock-in; if Verbruggen doesn’t save from Havertz or Saka is half a yard forward, we go 2-1 up. Fine margins, and still 35 games to go.
TTG / LG
I thought Leo played ok too, started well enough but a lot of play was understandably focused on isolating Bukayo against the full back on the other side. I think Gabi M hasn’t produced enough and Leo deserved the starting spot yesterday.
Not sure I agree with Sterling ending up the starter on the left though, certainly not the Sterling of the last three seasons. It’s a fairly cheap gamble as it’s worked out – Chav stupidity is our gain – but it is a punt that he can still be effective and to me the odds are against him being worth a regular starting place. Hopefully I’m wrong and he knocks them in likes it’s 2019.
The Mirror (I know!) says Sterling turned down a £650,000-a-week offer from a Saudi club. The poor dear will have to rub along on the nearly £300,000 a week he will be getting from us and Boehly.
I can see Sterling starting 15-20 games this season, especially if we have deep runs in the Cup competitions, without becoming an automatic first name on the teamsheet.
On a more uplifting note, the Predictathon leaderboard for Match Week 3 has been posted.
A veritable swirl of change.
You know where to find it…
An snippet from the Grauniad of a few days ago that seems to have slipped below the radar:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/28/pgmol-cash-shortfall-referees-premier-league-talks-football
PGMOL is clearly in need of a few bungs (not legal advice!).
In the debate following Declan’s Red we didn’t discuss the quite obnoxious new Brighton manager …or was it just me who found him insufferable ?
TTG @23, fear not.
I’ve seen a number of observations in full agreement with my view that his press conference observations were consistent with him being a hypocritical, disingenuous reptile. Totally unacceptable justifications of a preposterous second yellow and ridiculous sophistry to justify the non award of a card to Pepe. A total slime ball. We have the measure of him now. I hope we smash his team at his place.
Re: The PGMOL article linked above by Ned, I think it’s worth highlighting these two paragraphs in the light of our discussions because the geographic diversity of PGMOL referees not to mention the racial and gender diversity which are also discussed as real problems that are recognized as such both inside and outside the organization, has not seen any significant upward budging of the needle:
“The geographic concentration of Premier League referees is also a cause for concern. In Select Group 1 Tim Robinson is the only referee from south of London and the Swindon fans Simon Hooper and Graham Scott are the only other referees from south of Birmingham.
With the exception of the Australian Jarred Gillett, the vast majority of the rest of the Premier League referees are from Yorkshire and the north-west. Although this has not created problems for match appointments there are concerns at PGMOL that the increased focus on who referees support could lead to issues.”
That is to say above that the lack of racial and gender diversity …
In a nutshell C100
I went for a very very long walk on Sunday morning, a tick over 4hrs there and back to be precise, with no stops along the way.
Glorious day,
First hour I vented all my frustrations over the events at the Ems on Saturday lunchtime.
Incompetent Ref ruining what could have been a very intriguing 2nd half against an obdurate Brighton side.
One mistake costs us the equalizer, then 2 great chances just not falling our way to win the game with 10 men, and what would have been a really brilliant 3 pts against the odds.
Finally the odious Brighton manager channeling his inner mini Mourinho to justify the Rice red card etc.
Once I had done that, the other three hours were really enjoyable.
Now having seen the highlights of Spuds implosion up North, and Utd’s comical attempts at pretending to to be an EPL team against Pool, I turned my thoughts to our first CL game, away at Atalanta after the Int’l break, prior to the big league game the following Sunday against City.
And I find we are the first victims of the new format, where games are spread across 3 midweek days instead of the usual 2 on Tues/Wed.
Whilst City are at home to Inter on the Wednesday, we have to play in Italy on the Thursday, giving us a 2 day turnaround to our trip to the Etihad.
I might have to go for another long walk.
A four hour walk eh Clive! That’s impressive and gives you lots of time to emote . The way the City game works is appalling. I thought we’d left Thursday night football behind . We do need a big squad to sustain that programme and it hasn’t started well with the injury to Merino and Rice’s suspension, We need Partey to recreate his best days but I fear his legs have gone . I hope the NLD can inspire him
Up the Gunners !
Brilliant, C100 – interesting and clearly intentional that you made no mention of any of the actual football – no point anyway as that was ruined by the referee.
So much money, hard work and emotion is invested in this sport by owners, managers, staff and fans alike. Too much for it to be destroyed by an unaccountable bunch of incompetents.
Kavanagh ruined the game and our Saturdays and weekends. Let’s hope that by next May he doesn’t turn out to have ruined our season.
Looking forward, later, to reading the whole lot of great looking drinks.
Superb piece by Mike McDonald. Up there with C100’s. We need to keep up the noise on Kavanagh:
Quite superb Bath@31
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I’m taking a contrarian view. Rice needs to be smarter. Don’t roll through a Stop Sign when there’s a patrol car on the corner. Why give the ref an excuse? Brighton were 100+ yards from our goal. He fouled their player, he was already on a yellow, our midfield was weakened due to injury to Ode and Partey not being the Partey of yore. Just walk away from the incident Declan. Yes the ref was on overly-officious prick but these types exist everywhere… don’t give them an opportunity to wield their power. To win the league we need to be almost perfect, every point is vital. We need to be clever, astute and situationally aware. I expect him to have a blinder vs Man C!
Up4GrabsNow!@35
We do contrarian views! That’s what keeps this site lively! A drink on the bar for you, even though, as was obvious from the above, I disagree!
Re: GS54, “I turned my thoughts to our first CL game, away at Atalanta after the Int’l break, prior to the big league game the following Sunday against City. And I find we are the first victims of the new format, where games are spread across 3 midweek days instead of the usual 2 on Tues/Wed. Whilst City are at home to Inter on the Wednesday, we have to play in Italy on the Thursday, giving us a 2 day turnaround to our trip to the Etihad.”
Thursday night CL away in Italy followed by Sunday lunchtime away at C115y in the league is a scheduling fiasco that only an evil wizard could make up.
But I’m sure there were pleasanter parts of your four hour walk than the moment when you came to that realisation, or at least I hope so.
@Up4GrabsNow!
I think Rice has already held his hands up but the players are only human and
there is a limit to how aware people can be – personally, I don’t think it’s reasonable to anticipate that level of nonsense from a referee.
I really do agree with you up4grabsnow. I wish Rice hadn’t done his little flick but in the heat of the moment I expect a lot of players would have done the same thing. My problem with all this is that we all know he would not have given a second yellow to any other team’s number 6 in the same circumstances. Please read Mike McDonalds article above for lots of other questions Kavanagh’s actions have raised. We’ll be watching him like a hawk from now on and I really do hope Arsenal have asked for a full transcript of his communications.
Bath@31: Thanks for the link. Trenchant post by McDonald.
U4GN@35: Your general point is fair. One of the things that Arteta drilled into the team early in his tenure was not to give away needless free kicks. In Rice’s defence, he was walking away from the spot where the foul was called when Veltman kicked the ball into the back of his legs. As OM alludes to @38, there is an understandable human instinct to re-engage in such circumstances. What would Kavanagh have done if, instead of tapping the ball sideways, Rice had played on with it on the assumption that the free kick had been taken?
Micah Richards agrees with us.
https://x.com/olipricebates/status/1830623163543138451?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
So Rice gets a yellow card for “delaying the game.” I wonder when the refs are going to start issuing yellow cards to the VAR when they spend 3 minutes reviewing a simple offsides.
ecg @42, 😂
Several people wanted my pieces on the Arsenal / Tottenham rivalry which I wrote during the summer to be shared with a wider audience . The Gooner print edition has asked to reproduce them over the season and the first edition is out this weekend . For those who are reluctant to read the Gooner , May I suggest you give it a try. It is a very positive and supportive fanzine nowadays and it’s a good read. This month’s edition has a number of tributes to Kevin Campbell and an exclusive interview with Jack Wilshere
C100@41
Micah explains it very eloquently and correctly .
But the football world is so tribal it doesn’t care about injustice and cynical cheats like Veltman. Rice misses the NLD. Spuds everywhere are ecstatic
TTG @ 28
I walk every day unless the weather is seriously inclement.
Generally 2 and a half hours through to a maximum of around 4, started in 2018 when
I had to give up long distance running after 25yrs of half, 3/4 and full marathons, due to the wear and tear from 2 metal rods inserted in a back operation in ’92.
The Op was a Laminectomy and a partial fusion, which Bath and Trev will be familiar with given their professions.
But i would recommend walking as a wonderful way to keep fit without too much stress or strain on the body.
The only thing that matters is to get the right footwear, once you have that, the world is your oyster.
The only motivator is yourself, and once you start you won’t want to stop.
Enjoy the cricket with C100 at the Oval, we seem to have unearthed 2 absolute gems in Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson, both of whom have already scored very impressive maiden centuries, and if we can keep Archer fit, he and Gus whose bowling has also been mightily impressive, will be a sight to behold Down Under in next years Ashes.
It’s been many a long year since we have been competitive in OZ, but next year could be the one where we exorcise a lot of demons.
Some Kavanagh data:
He has refed 19 of our league games. We won nine of those, drew five and lost five. Our win percentage in Kavanagh-refed games is 47%. Over the same period, our win percentage in games that he has not refed is 57%. The loss ratio is even-Stevens at 26%, but the draw ratio is 26% in Kavanagh-refed games against 18% in non-Kavanagh-refed games. In 14 of the 19 games, our opponents received fewer yellow cards than our players, although we lost three of the other five games, winning two. The overall totals are 38 yellows shown to Arsenal players and 33 to opponents.
He has never shown a second yellow to one of our opponents. Rice’s was the first he has given against us. Straight reds are level at one a piece. As far as I can see, he has never awarded us a penalty. He has given two to opponents: one scored, one missed. In terms of cards per game that he issues, we rank joint third highest recipient among current PL teams, with an average of 2.0, level with Wolves and behind Brighton (2.2) and Notts Forest (2.1). Those averages include Cup games; all the other numbers are just PL matches.
I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Thanks for the various links gents and for the research Ned.
Anyway, he takes a quick free kick and floats one towards the penalty spot…….
there was a player in the way but I nutted him and then stuck
the boot in as I heard that’s allowed these days
Sudden break in the game as it’s quite warm out and so I’ll take the
opportunity to post this piece from the vice-chair at Grimsby….
https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/sep/02/owners-may-show-same-loyalty-as-fans-if-they-faced-10-year-commitment-clause
Clotheslines a defender trying to intercept he pass from OM. It’s okay though as Kavanagh is the ref……
And hammers into the bottom left
Well in CER! No need to worry about VAR as they didn’t see a thing.
Brilliant. Jonathan Liew on Chelsea.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/sep/03/gnome-how-chelsea-transfer-dealings-inspired-my-new-venture?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
heh, well in CER. You could have kicked someone on the way too!
Good work, Clive @46. That’s some impressive distances!
I don’t walk anywhere near what you do, but after 375 consecutive days at >10k steps (16.8k on average in fact), my achille tells me I have to stop.
I have one more half-marathon to run (not a competitive one, I only did the one) to complete my 12 a year (a silly target I set myself, and in fact they were ‘at least HM, but distances ranging from that to 30k), which I plan to do on Saturday, and then I’ll give myself a few weeks’ rest for any sports or even dedicated walks. The thing is, before July last year, I had not run more than 5k at once for nearly 18 years.
The last month and a half has seen a fair amount of pain, and gone to the stage, when I’m in full running I can still more or less forget it, but now at rest I still feel it, and if I walk more than 4k even at slow pace it starts to be a struggle. I’ve eased off over the last 3 weeks (relatively…), even temporarily giving up on football, but I have to be reasonable as I can’t go on at the same rate without a rest. The heart may be healthy, but my joints/tendons say I’m not 20 or 30 or even 40…
Anyway, interlull ahoy, I was managing to forget about Saturday until I read this morning’s arseblog. Surprised it took so long to highlight that real red card situation, glad to see I was not the only one who thought the red was for Veltman when I first saw it. I couldn’t even work out why there was a yellow first, having no idea what Rice could have done wrong….
Clive @46 & Ollie @55, that’s very impressive of both of you and that’s from someone who gets breathless when bending over to tie my shoelaces. Thinks – “must buy slip-ons”.
Well in for the half-ton, CER.
Congratulations on a fine half century, CER.
And well done Clive and Ollie – can’t wait to be able to walk like that again, Clive, although long distance running never appealed to me. Don’t ignore that Achilles, Ollie – as a minimum ice and stretching until you get it properly treated. If it’s worse when you get up in the morning and then improved with movement, look to your calf muscles – gastrocnemius and soleus whose tendons form the Achilles and get them stretching asap.
OM@49: The most interesting snippets in that piece by one of Grimsby’s owners are the suggestions that Amanda Staveley could be sniffing around the neighbours. Is Saudi ownership coming to the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road?
C100@53: Jonathan Liew on top form.
Ollie@55: Take good care of yourself and consider adopting a Zone 2 training regime. This is not medical advice, but it does seem to minimise injury risk as the years pass.
C100 @53 – thanks, Jonathan Liew on top form 👏🏻👏🏻
Picking up on Arseblog’s discussion today of the Saudi bid for Trossard, the Dutch manager Ronald Koeman has said that 26-year-old Steve Bergwijn will not be considered for the national team, for which he has won 35 caps, following his move to the Saudi Pro-League. Koeman says that, at that age, players should still be thinking about their footballing, not financial goals.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/41105127/netherlands-boss-koeman-slams-bergwijn-saudi-transfer
C100
Liew is brilliant. Great analogy . We need a couple of gnomes- I wonder if he will pay us to put them in our garden! ..?
Clive,
I did 10,000 steps for two years but since my skirmish with the BigC last year I find fatigue a big challenge . But I’m building up to 10k eventually
Cheers Trev and Ned.
Yeah, I’ve started doing a bit of ice, and indeed calf stretchings.
And yes, I suppose I should discipline myself to Zone 2 training, I just have to convince myself that it’s the right thing (by all accounts it is) and forget that I might feel like I am sleep-running and doing little effort. Although I have to say that those series of 800m with walk recoveries between heats (rather than straight runs) that were part of my official training felt good and less boring and that is why I carried on doing many of them over the last few months!
Hope you’ll be able to do the walks soon again, Trev.
Good luck building it up to that target again too, TTG!
Anyway, Italy next week will definitely mean no sports for me then! 🙂
Two great articles, Matt and C100. Excellent reads.
Weird choice of photo in the Guardian article. With arms presumably hiding the Arsenal logo, my initial reaction was ‘why is Sterling wearing a Chelsea shirt there?’ until I reminded myself that they were only sponsored by Emirates in a different lifetime…
(Or maybe it was, for that reason, a very CLEVER choice of photo, now that I think of it….)
Ollie@64: I followed a Zone 2 programme to regain fitness after a lengthy enforced layoff. It was effective and, more importantly, injury-free. There was a lot of run-walk, run-walk at the beginning to stay in Zone 2, but within a couple of months, I was back to doing my old easy long-run pace continuously within it. So I’ve just kept with it. It is meant to be particularly good for those of us who have moved into the masters category (several decades ago!) as it is low stress on the body. If you are training for races, the key is 80% Zone 2 work and 20% threshold rate stuff like intervals and tempo runs. The other thing I like about Zone 2-based programmes is that sleep and rest are key components. Those are my two greatest running attributes…
Cheers Ned.
Interestingly, can’t remember if I mentioned it here, but after the actual Paris half-marathon in early March, I actually tried to do the distance three weeks later as a run/walk/run experiment (I think 3’30 run/30s walk all along), and to my surprise, on top of having a little less ache and fatigue at the end and the day after, and despite feeling I wasn’t really pushing, I only took 5 more minutes to run the distance (the course was easier, granted) than on race day.
Thanks for the tips and advice (I, on the other hand, am very much not a good sleeper, and not always that good at resting either).
Jonathan Liew on Chelsea is truly brilliant as stated and linked above by c100.
This doesn’t bode well for the court case against Abu Dhabi
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ckg54xkqnzlo
Was just reading that a few minutes ago, C100. I didn’t make that particular connection and don’t know if it is directly relevant, but yes, in terms of the PL getting its cases right, it’s not encouraging.
Although if I understood correctly from my too quick read, in this case, the basis of the decision is that because Leicester were in the Championship last season, the PL rules could not appy to that season?
C100@71
This could potentially be awful news and it would make the Premier League a laughing stock if it is established that they haven’t got the power to enforce their own rules . I am hoping that the key point is that Leicester were in the EFL when they were sanctioned and that is the point being upheld .
If the PL are exposed as unable to govern their own league I would expect mass resignations from the current board and maybe a restructuring of the competition under new management .
I would have hoped they would have sought legal counsel before charging C115y in the first place
Ollie@55
Wow my friend, that is serious dedication.
That’s a whole year without missing a day, through rain/hail or shine.
I salute you.
Make sure you take heed of Trev’s advice, as if you are fitness and health addicted like me, you don’t want to damage yourself to the point where it is too painful to do what you enjoy.
I mentioned the importance of footwear in my previous post, as I have never wore walking shoes.
When I had to stop running in 2018, I just started walking in my running shoes, and still do.
I wear the Asics gel Nimbus and swear by them, as I have a straight strike pattern,
I don’t Pronate or Supinate, and with the 2 rods in my back, the cushioning has always been perfect for me.
TTG @ 63
My best mate, even though he is a Hammers man, had your health issue 3 years ago, and it took him a good 12 months before he felt his normal self fitness wise.
He is back playing over 55’s football every week, and often comes on the 2 and a half hour walks with me .
So just keep plugging away and you will get there.
Trev @ 58
Hopefully your knee op isn’t too far away, and you can get back to exercising with the rest of us.
Another good mate of mine had a big knee op 5 yrs ago, and afterward it was like he had been reborn.
I often see him on my walks, and he looks as fit as a fiddle, and the knee is as good as new.
TTG@73: My reading of the appeal panel’s decision is that Leicester got off on a technicality because they were in the EFL when the charge was issued, and, under the letter of the PL’s law, they were thus outside the PL’s jurisdiction at that point. I don’t think that loophole will be available to City. More worryingly is the panel saying that the PL’s PSR rules “are, in relevant parts, far from well drafted”. I’m sure City’s lawyers have crawled over every syllable of them for loose wording that City can wriggle through.
Clive@74: You are a breath of optimism to uplift us all. A glass of Maurten’s 160 energy drink on the bar for you.
yeah, good point Ned@75, that bit caught my eyes too (and nearly made them go out of their orbits).
Cheers, Clive, firstly what Ned said @75 – always enjoy your posts and it’s great to see you’re doing so well ‘cos I remember when you were struggling a while back.
I’m also an Asics devotee – I wear the running shoes all the time, for work and walking as long as the weather’s not so wet that I need a proper walking shoe. Excellent support and if, unlike you, someone does pronate or supinate a lack of efficient arch support will cause havoc with the Achilles – and all lower leg mudcles.
Over time, hyper-pronation particularly, can cause the tibia to medially rotate which will pinch the spaces between the femoral and tibial condyles and damage the cartilages in the knee. It will also cause inflammation of the patellar tendon as it’s anchor point on the tibia is altered.
In short, as you said, good footwear is vital – as I said several years ago in a special article for Dave when everyone was wondering why our players at the time were suffering so many muscle injuries.
And thanks, Ollie 🤞🏻🤞🏻
Good substack from Henry Winter on the Leicester situation.
https://www.henrywinter.football/p/is-leicesters-cunning-win-is-good?utm_campaign=post&showWelcomeOnShare=true
>>>>>>>