Villa, despite their youngsters, are a sinking ship IMO. Would be the step in the wrong direction.

Players challenge refs week in/out and it's been that way ever since I first watched football so it's hardly likely to change.

What Babel did was silly and was deliberately calling a ref a cheat, at least players challenging the ref are done in the heat of a game.

Bent has handed in a transfer request, so isnt happy with something.

Managers question refereeing decisions after the game, does that mean they insinuate cheating? If the manager finds a decision so blatantly wrong, what else are they suggesting when they openly question decisions after games?

The FA are stupidly pedantic with the things they come out with. I remember Rafa getting charged for taking his glasses off and slamming them on the table post game, because the FA seen it as some sort of visual code for the referee being blind. Yet managers come out after every game and say things like "you all seen how bad it was", "I won't talk about it as you can all clearly make your own assumptions", they all question decisions and disagree with decisions. I just can't understand why Babel retweeting a picture has to be taken further, yet a player absolutely disgracing the sport, setting the complete wrong example and absolutely belittling a referee on the field gets absolute nothing done to it. What's the excuse? It's always happened? Everybody else does it? So that makes it alright, then?

As for the Rafael decision, you see them yellow carded so often. It's alright saying 'he couldn't do anything else', but that's why some players do it, intently accidental, they still stop the opposition's move at a good moment, but it comes across as an accident and doesn't deserve a booking. He should have been off for his first challenge if Webb's rulebook is anything to go by, so for him to go so late on, you should be grateful.

No. He was injured quite a lot under Rafa, but still played regularly when fit, other than the time when Carra and Skrtel forged a great partnership together.

He signed a new contract not so long ago when Benitez was here, the wanting to go stuff was just his agent trying to get him a new contract.

Depends how you look at Agger and who you play him next to. He isn't a 'beast', he's not like Vidic, he's elegant, good on the ball and plays tidily defensively. He's got a fair amount of pace when he gets going and he has as much ability as any centre half in the league. I like him, he's always been solid for us when he's played, but, like a lot of Liverpool players over the years, he's been thrown into media stereotypes as being average and whatever. Much like players like Aurelio, Crouch and Arbeloa were, whilst it's taken the media years to cotton on to Reina actually being the dog's nuts.

translate.google.com/translate?h ... ogle.co.uk I await Balague to announce his latest scoop...

translate.google.com/translate?h ... ogle.co.uk I await Balague to announce his latest scoop...

Fck me, if that was the case the whinging poncey spaniard Torres would never play. All he does is moan at the ref and Carragher.

Managers get asked direct questions so respond accordingly and often get into trouble if they go too far with their views.

'Absolutely disgracing the sport' have a word with yourself mate, he shouted at the ref, it happens every week yet you only seem to be getting upset as it's Rooney!! Does not make it right but footballers have always abused refs, why is Rooney so special? Go back 30 years it was happening and probably will another 30 years. Do Liverpool players not do this and if so why don;t you react so strongly when they do?

It was not a yellow card to me and his first was a yellow not a red, imo.

There's a difference. I don't agree with dissent at all, but squaring up to the referee and screaming absurdities at him goes way below any proverbial belt, especially when the decision didn't affect Rooney in any way. He had no reason to be involved.

Redknapp said of Rafael's sending off 'it was 'harsh', likened it to Mary Decker and Zola Budd, hardly makes it sound like the most sinister, nailed on red card of the season does it? Possibly why the players were a tad pi$$ed off, along with the fact that crouch made a very similar challenge to the one that earned Da Silva his first booking, but went unpunished.

Never seen the Crouch challenge.

If Rafael's second yellow challenge was made on a breakaway against the last man, it would have been a straight red. He could argue it was an accident and he couldn't have done much else, but these accidental collisions happen all too often, to the point where I feel that it's done intentionally. Watch Rafael, he didn't have to run across the Spurs player, he could have run straight down the line and gone shoulder to shoulder with him, but the way he runs across the players make me think he knew what he was doing, whilst the result of that was stopping Spurs breaking into a dangerous position, thus resulting in a yellow card, IMO.