Clattenberg: "My game was to let Tottenham lose the title"

[djee]

Utterly stupid comments from him. Perhaps the biggest fallout from this will be the heightened level of scrutiny on referees. He has basically thrown his colleagues under the bus and left them exposed to allegations of bias/fixing. Imagine the next heated derby where the referee is minded to keep the game flowing and regard tough challenges as par for the course...

Clattenburg has done an incredible disservice to his profession and dragged the game into disrepute. Pathetic

 

[Dov67]

I have been saying for ages we have a problem with the officials in this country, either through incompetency, personal bias or corruption, take your pick.

Some will have people believe that the PL is uncorruptible and every official is 100% professional and comes into each game with a clear mind and no personal motivations, I think that's a load of bollocks and another example of people ignoring blatant examples of officials being unprofessional.

Note, that when I say "corruption" I do not mean refs being paid off specifically to throw games (although I do believe that exists in football) I am talking about how they allow outside influence or their own personal bias to dictate how they approach games which just ties back into what I have said before with how much influence the media has on this game.

The Leicester season and what their players were allowed to get away with made me suspicious, what has happened since and the recent performances of refs (not just in our games but in other PL games) have all but confirmed it to me.

This is why I think we desperately need video refs, Clattenburg is a prime example of a person with a position of influence in a game ignoring the rules and creating his own because of what is said outside of that game, if that isn't unprofessional and a clear indication that these refs do as they please rather than what the games laws state then I don't know what is.

Mike Dean for example, last few games he had seemed desperate to make sure people don't see him as a "spurs fan" I genuinely believe that.

That performance from Atkinson the other day was another blatant example of a ref doing what he wishes rather than following the laws of the game.

I think the problem is they are never held accountable and are protected to the point of being bulletproof, it's a joke, their only job should be to fairly officiate a game, all this personal bias shit and being told how they "even up" games should be shamed as unprofessional.

100% this. Been saying the same thing for 20 years!!

 

[Mr Pink]

No matter what his mindset was as the time, or what he thinks now with hindsight is completely fucking irrelevant.

He should never be making his private thoughts on the matter public now.

What an attention seeking prick. Honestly he should be severely reprimanded for this.

 

[Pellshek]

We threw away a 2 goal lead. Blaming Clattenburg despite this egotistical stance is pointless. He didn't lose his head, we did

First reply in the thread says all that needs to be said.

 

[wallyjakeman]

Not really surprised by this. His ego clearly can't take opinions saying he had a terrible game, so he has to make it look like it was part of his plan. Given how the Chelsea players were acting and talking leading up to the game, a referee with the balls to control the game was heavily needed. He failed miserably, and so did FA for selecting him to officiate.

 

[dagraham]

Not really surprised by this. His ego clearly can't take opinions saying he had a terrible game, so he has to make it look like it was part of his plan. Given how the Chelsea players were acting and talking leading up to the game, a referee with the balls to control the game was heavily needed. He failed miserably, and so did FA for selecting him to officiate.

Interesting point this, and something I imagine Fergie would have been selectively pointing out in the build up to the game had he been our manager at the time.

The guy was a master at that sort of stuff.

 

[nightgoat]

I've always wondered whether referees really do call it as they see it. Pretty clear they don't.

What right does Clattenburg have to put the safety of Chelsea players at risk? Some of our players had clearly lost their head that night. Somebody's career could have been ended just because he feared a few negative headlines. What a pathetic coward.

Makes me feel all the more concerned about the treatment - and lack of protection - given to Kane on Saturday.

The arrogant little cock has clearly never even given a moment's thought to the fact that the reason our players behaved the way they did in that game was solely because of his intentional dereliction of duty in allowing Costa to get away with a headbutt, allowing Terry to get away with an elbow, Ivanovic to get away with three bookable fouls in the space of about ten minutes and never once showing any interest in penalising Chelsea for what was a blatantly obvious tactic to try and wind our players up by kicking seven colours of shite out of them.

If he'd actually applied the laws of the game correctly in the opening half hour then he would never have had to worry about protecting his already shit-stained reputation.

 

[Wellspurs]

Should a ref be going into any match with some sort of a game plan???

Regardless of what went on that day...this last line just seems a bit...hmmmmmm.

I remember Graham Poll saying he could never give a penalty against Manu !!

"When I travelled to Old Trafford, I was well aware of the ‘Fergie factor’. If I gave a ‘soft’ decision against them or did not add enough time on, then I knew he would let me know, in no uncertain times, that I had erred.

"In the early days I must concede that probably affected me. The way I decided to cope with this was to raise my tolerance level where penalties were concerned."

 

[Danners9]

He should have done his job from the start of that match. The whole thing was ridiculous and he played a major part in letting it get that far. He showed absolutely no authority and let the players do whatever they wanted. Now he claims it was part of his plan? It was weakness and incompetence and now he's trying to spin it the other way.

 

[dagraham]

The arrogant little cock has clearly never even given a moment's thought to the fact that the reason our players behaved the way they did in that game was solely because of his intentional dereliction of duty in allowing Costa to get away with a headbutt, allowing Terry to get away with an elbow, Ivanovic to get away with three bookable fouls in the space of about ten minutes and never once showing any interest in penalising Chelsea for what was a blatantly obvious tactic to try and wind our players up by kicking seven colours of shite out of them.

If he'd actually applied the laws of the game correctly in the opening half hour then he would never have had to worry about protecting his already shit-stained reputation.

This thread must be like therapy for you mate .

Take a deep breath.

 

[sunnydelight786]

People still getting worked up over the LCFC win....

We were never winning that title as put simply we weren’t good enough. Whatever chance we had of winning it went with our usual capitulations when it really matters away at West Ham & Liverpool. Add to that our draw at home to AFC against 10 men that’s exactly where the title was lost.

Yes what MC has said today is not great but in his eyes he let the game flow. Isn’t that what you’re all crying out for all the time? On another day he could have easily sent off Rose & Lamela in the first half just like a few of the CFC boys. Bottom line is we were unable to hold onto a 2 goal lead and got drawn into a game that CFC wanted in the second half. Stop looking for excuses as we just weren’t good enough!!!

 

[WorcesterTHFC]

Interesting point this, and something I imagine Fergie would have been selectively pointing out in the build up to the game had he been our manager at the time.

The guy was a master at that sort of stuff.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Fergie nagged or bullied the FA into appointing the refs that Fergie wanted, rather than Fergie having to put up with whoever the FA appointed.

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

Mods - could we have a temporary relaxation on the ban of a certain word so we can all call Clattenburg what he is ?

 

[nightgoat]

One element which is being lost among this debate is his choice of language regarding his agenda.

I allowed them to self-destruct so all the media, all the people in the world went: ‘Tottenham lost the title’. If I sent three players off from Tottenham, what are the headlines? ‘Clattenburg cost Tottenham the title'.

Referees are often accused of costing teams individual matches, but very rarely entire league titles. But around that time there was a lot of suspicion from a lot of people (even Leicester fans) that referees were being increasingly generous to/lenient with Leicester for fear of being branded 'the referee who cost Leicester the fairy tale' (although some kept their heads in the sand because referees are infallible ).

That that description had seeped into Clattenburg's mindset does give huge weight to the suggestion that several referees were, consciously or subconsciously, favouring Leicester in matches towards the end of the season.

SSN just replayed their interview with him to follow up on the initial comments. Plenty of back-tracking on the predetermined gameplan, but still doesn't acknowledge that he should have sent off at least three, if not four Chelsea players. It's funny, he claims he was shit because he didn't want to be the centre of attention for influencing the game. Instead he still influenced the game and is now the centre of attention for being a shit bottlejob ref.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

It's funny, he claims he was shit because he didn't want to be the centre of attention for influencing the game..

That's just a metaphor for "I wasn't a strong enough person to deal with the potential media storm that would have followed such a prestitigous match, and I dealt with that by cowardice which I'm now trying to turn into a good story".

 

[aliyid]

Mods - could we have a temporary relaxation on the ban of a certain word so we can all call Clattenburg what he is ?

The ‘Tim Sherwood’ of the reffing world

This game didn’t lose us the title as it was never ours to lose, we just happened to be the only team to put up any kind of fight.

Personally I thank him as he allowed us to kick those scummy Chelsea players all over the park

 

[Snarfalicious]

Atleast he allowed us to watch Dier clatter three Chelsea players. The one on Fabregas(?) could easily have snapped both his legs

If we were going to "lose," at least we "lost" it that way. It was a terrible night, but looking back now, I think of the crunching tackles by Dier more so than us losing the title (I still feel like to say we lost the title with what Leicester had to do the following couple of matches is ridiculous, we really had no shot of catching them).

 

[Snarfalicious]

The ‘Tim Sherwood’ of the reffing world

This game didn’t lose us the title as it was never ours to lose, we just happened to be the only team to put up any kind of fight.

Personally I thank him as he allowed us to kick those scummy Chelsea players all over the park

That's like a red and a half; not even getting a yellow is awesome. Also, it's even better when you see where Mark Clattenberg is.

 

[NinjaTuna]

If we were going to "lose," at least we "lost" it that way. It was a terrible night, but looking back now, I think of the crunching tackles by Dier more so than us losing the title (I still feel like to say we lost the title with what Leicester had to do the following couple of matches is ridiculous, we really had no shot of catching them).

I remember going nuts at the telly, wanting them to try and nick a winner. I didn't appreciate what was happening because i was so disappointed we'd thrown away the lead

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

At least we showed spirit that night.