Cook's Touchline Ban | Vital Football

Cook's Touchline Ban

I think Cook goes over the top, constantly shouting and arguing with refs.
But on this occasion,I could completely understand his anger and frustration,as that ref Langford for the Boro game was one of the most incompetent refs I've ever seen.(Along with Heilbron who reffed the 99 play off game at Maine Road).
However this touchline ban could be a blessing in disguise as proved the case against West Brom.
I find it odd though,as to why the ref seemingly has not faced any repercussions for his horrendous display!He reffed the QPR v Stoke game on the Saturday.
 
You are my sunshine said:
I think Cook goes over the top, constantly shouting and arguing with refs.
But on this occasion,I could completely understand his anger and frustration,as that ref Langford for the Boro game was one of the most incompetent refs I've ever seen.(Along with Heilbron who reffed the 99 play off game at Maine Road).
However this touchline ban could be a blessing in disguise as proved the case against West Brom.
I find it odd though,as to why the ref seemingly has not faced any repercussions for his horrendous display!He reffed the QPR v Stoke game on the Saturday.
Click to expand...

Because nobody wants to ref anymore it seems, so my only justification as to why they are rarely, if ever punished is because they don't want to lose referees. So, to me, the FA and EFL go way over the top with protecting them against any sort of criticism whatsoever, if players, managers can get houndings for their performances, so should they.
 
FrancosLoveChild said:
Because nobody wants to ref anymore it seems, so my only justification as to why they are rarely, if ever punished is because they don't want to lose referees. So, to me, the FA and EFL go way over the top with protecting them against any sort of criticism whatsoever, if players, managers can get houndings for their performances, so should they.
Click to expand...
And even the ref who did get binned for "alledged" houndings is back next season 🤣
 
Refs do have a tough job,no doubt about that.But IMO that ref went beyond the boundaries of incompetent and in that particular instance should be held accountable for his performance.Hopefully he has faced repercussions behind the scenes and we just haven't heard about it.
 
Scholes controls said:
When he is constantly arguing with the 4th offical gets on my tits he needs concentrate with what is happening in front of him
Click to expand...
I believe he does this to deflect from the fact that he is unable to see clearly, never mind react to what is going on in front of him.
The recent Preston game was a classic example of this. It took 55 mins of a game for "someone" to persuade him to change things when all but 🤡 could see what was wrong 10mins in.
 
I don't disagree that we've had some bloody awful referees, but...

1. Chicken and egg question: have they been terrible just because they're terrible and/or biased so Cook then losses his sh*t with them, or are they terrible and/or biased because Cook lost his sh*t with them?

I appreciate as professionals they shouldn't let their personal feelings affect their judgement, but in the real world, if you don't like someone, you don't do them any favours... Referees are human, and if you keep pissing them off, they're still going to develop a bias against you, even if not consciously so

2. In the last game, Cook got a yellow after 5 minutes, after nothing happened. There hasn't been an incident that warranted him protesting, so why the hell did he start running his gob? He must know that's not going to win any friends...

That suggests to me that he's just having a go constantly even when there's nothing of any significance to have a go about, which is only going to annoy officials. What does he think he'll gain for us by doing that? I can't think of any good thing that can come from pissing the officials off... Especially when there's no reason (yet?) to do so.


I think Cook being on the touchline is just doing even more harm to our cause. He tips scales of marginal decisions against us, and in such a competitive league with such close margins involved in winning and losing, surely even the slightest bias from officials, conscious or unconscious, is going to be damaging to us. Surely Cook can see that and should wins his neck in.
 
The_Pon said:
I don't disagree that we've had some bloody awful referees, but...

1. Chicken and egg question: have they been terrible just because they're terrible and/or biased so Cook then losses his sh*t with them, or are they terrible and/or biased because Cook lost his sh*t with them?

I appreciate as professionals they shouldn't let their personal feelings affect their judgement, but in the real world, if you don't like someone, you don't do them any favours... Referees are human, and if you keep pissing them off, they're still going to develop a bias against you, even if not consciously so

2. In the last game, Cook got a yellow after 5 minutes, after nothing happened. There hasn't been an incident that warranted him protesting, so why the hell did he start running his gob? He must know that's not going to win any friends...

That suggests to me that he's just having a go constantly even when there's nothing of any significance to have a go about, which is only going to annoy officials. What does he think he'll gain for us by doing that? I can't think of any good thing that can come from pissing the officials off... Especially when there's no reason (yet?) to do so.


I think Cook being on the touchline is just doing even more harm to our cause. He tips scales of marginal decisions against us, and in such a competitive league with such close margins involved in winning and losing, surely even the slightest bias from officials, conscious or unconscious, is going to be damaging to us. Surely Cook can see that and should wins his neck in.
Click to expand...
Sense there.
 
The ref was actually pretty decent today. Not perfect: two penalties turned down, one for us (handball) and one for Millwall (Byrne's foul given on the edge of the box looked to be just in the box to me), that probably should've been given in reality, but otherwise the ref was pretty good, and those decisions balanced out, so no harm done. He never let things get out of hand, only blew up when there was an actual need to, dealt with situations calmly and decisively to prevent things escalating. A pretty solid refereeing performance and credit should be given where it's due.

Referees are human. They will make mistakes and I have no problem with that, so long as every bad decision doesn't always go the same way, as happened in the previous game. Not asking for perfection from referees, because that would be unreasonable, but fairness and non-bias is a fair demand from a professional ref. That said, when our manager constantly barracks them and their assistants from the touchline, gets in their faces and uses offensive language, then how the hell are they supposed to not be affected, even if it's only subconscious? In any of our jobs, we'd not give any benefit of any doubt to someone who was a dick to us the entire time, and why would we expect referees to be any different?
 
You are my sunshine said:
Refs do have a tough job,no doubt about that.But IMO that ref went beyond the boundaries of incompetent and in that particular instance should be held accountable for his performance.Hopefully he has faced repercussions behind the scenes and we just haven't heard about it.
Click to expand...

Refs at that level get assessed at every single game. It used to be someone in the stands but now it's all reviewed afterwards I believe by people who watch it back and then give feedback & if what Cook has said is correct then it's been acknowledged that he had a stinker & they would have gone through it wihh him exactly where he went wrong
Marks are then given for each game
I didn't see the Boro game bar some brief highlights but the stinker he is supposed to have had could have been his first poor mark all season - we all have off days - hence why he was on the QPR game rather than at Morecambe
If his marks are consistently poor then come the season's end he'll get demoted
I don't think it serves any purpose publicly hanging a ref out to dry when they've had a crap day
 
🤡 post match is very insightful "we didn't have an extra cb to bring on" - as it's worked so successfully before you absolute tool.
Proof beyond doubt that this idiot just cannot learn from prior mistakes.
In a must win game can you imagine the response from the fans if he had actually replaced Pilkington with a cb ?
 
Mighty Bongsmon said:
And no ref is ever deliberately biased they have good and bad days like everyone
Click to expand...

Deliberately, perhaps not. Subconsciously, perhaps so.

A lot of decisions are subjective, I accept that. However in Bonnie Langford’s case after giving a foul then a decision to not then give a red was just rank incompetence. No other explanation for it.

I question the professional ability of these people to be honest. I watched the PL highlights last night and even with the benefit of technology the var officials still made horrendous errors in 4 of the 6 games yesterday that defied logic of what was presented in front of them. There is zero excuse in these instances, zero. None whatsoever, How do you explain these errors?

Personally I’m dead against var, it takes far too much away from the game and you still have the same incompetent officials making the same errors so is utterly pointless. Referees should get a basic salary and anything above that appearance and performance based. It should focus their minds. Also given the money in the UK game they should be bringing in more competent officials from other countries in my opinion to raise the standard.
 
Not often I agree with you MiW, but I am certainly with you on bringing in referees from abroad. Most of the officials I see in overseas leagues are at least consistent in their approach and decision making, they maybe differ from my opinion but give the same decisions to both teams equally.

There is no way that Langford could be said to be consistent given the foul on Moore and the Dunkley sending off.
 
Made in Wigan said:
Deliberately, perhaps not. Subconsciously, perhaps so.

A lot of decisions are subjective, I accept that. However in Bonnie Langford’s case after giving a foul then a decision to not then give a red was just rank incompetence. No other explanation for it.

I question the professional ability of these people to be honest. I watched the PL highlights last night and even with the benefit of technology the var officials still made horrendous errors in 4 of the 6 games yesterday that defied logic of what was presented in front of them. There is zero excuse in these instances, zero. None whatsoever, How do you explain these errors?

Personally I’m dead against var, it takes far too much away from the game and you still have the same incompetent officials making the same errors so is utterly pointless. Referees should get a basic salary and anything above that appearance and performance based. It should focus their minds. Also given the money in the UK game they should be bringing in more competent officials from other countries in my opinion to raise the standard.
Click to expand...

You kind of agree with me in your second paragraph - the decision you talk about (giving the foul on Moore & then not sending off the offender) was just incompetent. There was no bias in it, conscious or otherwise - for whatever reason he just got it badly wrong

As for the decisions you mention yesterday - I had MOTD on in the background this morning so wasn't paying full attention but of the ones that I saw, they got the challenge from the Spurs guy on the Chelsea player wrong. I don't think it was an intentional stamp as the Spurs guy was already committing to getting the ball but Chelsea player got in there quicker & as he was coming under him its caused that contact as he brought his foot down. Intentional or not though it was a dangerous challenge so he should have gone - why they didn't decide that at the time I have no idea (although I believe they've since admitted that they got it wrong)

The 2 supposed controversial ones in the Burnley v Bournemouth game were both correct decisions. Top of the arm can be handball & the new law states that it can't be a goal if there's been contact with the arm/hand regardless of whether there was any intent. I think the law is stupid but it is what it is. The other one where Bournemouth originally ended up going up the other end was an intentional handball so again correct decision

I think the one they did get wrong was in the Leicester game when De Bruyne handled it. For me it was a deliberate movement of his arm (admittedly to stop him getting smashed in the face by the ball) & it was away from his natural silhouette - I have no idea why they didn't give it
This decision then looked even worse when VAR gave City a penalty in the 2nd half when the guy turned his back on the ball & it struck his arm as that was in a natural movement & with no intent. A penalty was still the correct decision as his arm wasn't in its natural silhouette but when whoever was in charge of the VAR hadn't given the earlier one, to give that one just made the earlier decision not to award Leicester a penalty look even worse

I can't remember any others to be honest but like I said I wasn't paying that much attention - Like I said earlier though its errors & not bias
Should they be making them? Everyone does - the best players in the world still make mistakes but the're still the best players in the world just like the best refs in the country will still make mistakes
A lot of the time though much of what people think is the ref being biased or incompetent is caused by a lack of knowledge on the part of others about the laws of the game (not saying that in your case in the examples we've spoken about but I've done it myself) & bias for a person's own team or dislike of another team
 
That Burnley - Bournemouth one (where Bournemouth had scored) was completely out of order.

If there'd been no goal, play would have continued, and there would have been no going back to the handball in the Bounemouth box.

Why the hell don't they just use it for the key reason for why it was supposedly introduced ........ to eliminate clear and obvious errors !

.
 
Cant stand VAR.
I would rather we lost and/ or won to the occasional ref error than the stop / start of the game that the attending fan has to put up whilst decisions are constantly reviewed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.