He’s going have a full head of hair by Christmas.
I thought Anthony Taylor was not a good ref and loved to get the cards out against us. But just thinking more widely about this, are there any refs that we do like? Or is the situation with refereeing so bad that all we have is varying degrees of dislike towards all of them?
FWIW I quite liked the Aussie ref. I can’t remember his name, which I suppose is how it should be, as they are not the stars of the show. But I do remember he was Australian. I don’t know if he had any of our games, but I do remember seeing some clips and I thought he did a good job in explaining the decision and being a fair leader and referee on the pitch.
Jarred Gillette. He was a international top listed ref when he moved to Liverpool to study at John Moores and declared himself a liverpool fan. When he belately got promoted to the Select Group (eligible for Prem games) after doing his time in the lower leagues he was with the restriction of not being allowed to be involved in our games because of his prior admission of being a fan
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That’s the fella. Thanks.
It’s a wider issue, but I’d like to think that someone can do their job, and do it well as a professional, regardless of what team they support as a fan.
If they showed that they could not, then at that point remove them. But removing them on the off chance that they would show bias seems wide of the mark to me.
On a related note, if we are going to be talking about what teams the refs support, then it’s a big issue. Let’s say a ref supports Man Utd so he doesn’t get Man Utd games. Does that solve it? Not at all. Because he can then referee Liverpool games, and as a Man Utd fan, there is an ingrained rivalry or potential bias, so it is unacceptable.
This sort of thinking might be applied across various clubs and sets of supporters. It can’t just be limited to not refereeing a team you support.
Then going beyond who a referee might support, where were they born? Because there are rivalries between different cities, and regions. And those rivalries could easily produce bias.
As could politics, world view, education, etc.
So I suppose I’m coming back to my main point. The underlying assumption should be that Premier League referees, having reached an elite level, should be able to do a job without bias, regardless of which two teams are playing each other.
If the possibility of bias is a real concern, then there are numerous other factors besides which team you support, or supported, that could come into play that would make assigning referees an impossible task.
It’s a good job for us Taylor supported Altrincham and Kavanagh supported Droylsden, that’s all I’m saying.
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Yeah declaring support for a small local club that doesn’t compete at the highest level seems to be a way around it - Jarred Gillette should have said he was an Everton fan
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I don’t mind Pawson, some will but I think he’s generally fair.
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Yeah, think he’s ok but just looks bewildered.
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We often get a new ref in the early stages of the cup matches, and they are usually fine. It’s when it gets to the bigger matches that the usual suspects turn up.
There was one last year, Farai Hallam? He seemed very good. Assertive rather than aggressive with players.
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