He didn't kick the ball away against Fulham. He threw it like a maniac down the field. My reading of that incident was that MU were trying to take a quick free kick, Dowd blew up straight away to say they'd not taken it from the right place. Rooney caught the ball and threw the ball downfield in anger.

Rooney was asking for a booking and got it.

Of course plenty of players kick the ball away and get away with it. They usually do it on the side though and not as a blatant challenge to the referee in the manner that Rooney did.

Did you see Rooney's foul on Saturday? Can you offer any explanation as to why he wasn't booked for that?

Who else gets preferential treatment in the way that Rooney and Gerrard do?

Chelsea players are angels pal. Remember LGJM struggled to understand why the Terry story was all over the news a few months back. While he makes some good points his bias is laughable at times. FWIW I'm surprised LGJM is criticising the referee's of this country after their stella efforts for the Chelsea cause over the past couple of weeks.

A lot of the top players get preferential treatment because IMO a lot of referee's are star struck by them. It isn't only Gerrard and Rooney who get away with it on the field of play. In fact Rooney seems to get booked for things others don't. The Fulham incident he threw the ball aggressively to where the ref wanted the kick taken from. Yes it was aggressively thrown but it was to the correct area of the pitch and as such the referee could of easily used some common sense and kept him on the pitch.

Darren Fletcher's fiancee, the mother of his kids, is an ex-girlfriend of John O'Shea.

They were team mates when John O'Shea went out with her. They are still team mates.

Nothing is said.

John Terry screws the ex-girlfriend of an ex team mate and it's a national scandal and he's stripped of the captaincy of England because of it.

My struggling to understand why it was on the news is because I couldn't see how it made it to the news. Usually when a story breaks it's because the woman goes to the press and sells the story. The Tiger Woods story broke because his wife smashed his car up with a golf club and he drove into a tree. But what was the reason for Terry's story leaking?



I've gone through nearly all the incidents. In some, the Drogba hand ball, I acknowledge that we were totally lucky to get the calls we did. But against United as much went against us as went against United, but the story was how United had been robbed. Bolton handled the ball in their penalty area, but no mention of that. Kevin Davies blatantly "did" Mikel and got away with just a booking.



Half of the Man United players went into the crowd after Saturday's goal. That's a bookable offence. None of them got booked for it. I couldn't give a toss about that because I think the ref was right not to apply that petty little law. But Rooney's foul on Saturday was as blatant a yellow as you can get. How do you explain him not being booked for it?

Romania striker Adrian Mutu suspended for nine months news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 630157.stm 9 months for his second offence?

Romania striker Adrian Mutu suspended for nine months news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 630157.stm 9 months for his second offence?

"Kragl killed the leg of Gustafsson" on a barely-known video sharing website.

The ref just gave him a yellow card.

Cause he's Wayne Rooney. The best player in the country and a Manchester United player. Players of small clubs like Chelsea get treated differently as nobody gives a stuff about them. United get treated differently as they're all that is good in the football world. Now go watch your beloved captain, spit at tevez, pee in a nightclub. abuse americans on 9/11, park in a disabled bay, run over a security officer, sell tours of his clubs training facilities and goose his mates ex bird.

It made it to the news because some papparazzi who was following JT will of followed him to her place. Not really hard to figure out that one. JT tried to get it covered up and failed, hence why its out in the public domain. It is laughable to compare Fletcher and O'Shea to Terry and Bridge. For starters that is a proper relationship and not a seedy affair. Both players still playing for the Utd team tells me O'Shea was ok with this, Bridge clearly wasn't. The obvious one is that Terry was the England captain. Him being caught with his pants down is huge news and it's extremely naive to think otherwise.

I was thinking along the lines of the ref's valiant attempt to keep JT on the pitch against Spurs. The non-foul he commited on Defoe before the 1st goal was clearly a free kick and at least a yellow. He went 1 foul after he should of IMO. Thought it was quite funny how JT claimed to have won the ball on Bale. Pull the other one John. Also Mikel gave away a stone wall penatly IMO that wasn't given. The Bolton game sounds like the ref was poor all round. I only remember seeing the Drogba one and that looked stone wall.

Didn't the Man Utd players celebrate in front of the crowd? I thought the stewards prevented them from leaving the field of play though I stand to be corrected on this front. I honestly don't remember the Rooney challenge you are talking about. When did it take place? I missed the 1st half and start of the 2nd so may well have missed it.

Okay then. Care to list any of the sex scandals that have been revealed simply by papparazzi following stars? IMO that's not how it works. You cannot believe that major sections of the worlds press didn't know exactly what Tiger Woods was up to. They didn't print anything because there was no excuse to print anything. When his wife smashed up his car with a golf club, they had their excuse and wheeled out all their stories that they had filed for such a time.

No such event happened with Terry.



Bridge didn't know about it until it came out in the papers.

I agree that Terry's position as England captain, his higher profile and the manner of the affair makes it a bigger story, but the basis of the outrage - that a team mates ex is out of bounds, is exactly the same.



Terry definitely fouled Defoe. If the free kick had been given he'd have gone in the book. But Defoe only went down because he wasn't getting the ball. If Defoe was in a position to win the ball he'd have stayed on his feet. IMO that's what saved Terry from the booking in that case.



I agree.



I've looked at this very, very closely and I cannot see who played the ball out. For me either it was Mikel who tackled the ball or Bale played the ball out with the intention of going to ground to win a penalty. Bale was going away from goal, on the very edge of the penalty area and wouldn't have even reached the ball.

Just don't think it was anywhere near the stonewall pen you claim.



Did you see the Drogba one at the time, or after half time when the commentators were told about Coyle's complaints?

One Bolton player appealed at the time. The commentators never noticed it until they had it pointed out to them. Seeing as Sky absolutely love to show managers reactions during the game I believe Coyle and the Bolton bench had no clue it had happened at the time.



I don't know when it happened. I can't even remember how much of the game I watched.

The commentators though were basically nonplussed that he didn't get booked for it.

I love the fact someone who plays right back, is near the end of his career and has a rubbish tash can so easily wind up fans of opposition clubs. United players went nowhere the City fans in celebrating the goal or in celebrating after the final whistle. But even if they did who cares? Players should be able to give it out to fans as they take enough flak, much of it rightly deserved mind.

I'm pretty sure the Woods saga only really picked up when one of his mistresses came forward. The rumour was there but I assume Tiger succeeded where JT failed and manage to take out an injunction, when one of the mistresses broke her silence the whole story blew up.

The two Utd players seem to get along so I'm guessing Fletcher got his mates permission to take her out. Clearly JT fancied a bit on the side and just wanted to get his end away. I really don't think the two can be compared.

On the Mikel penalty, yes Bale is heading away from goal but Mikel would have to have some seriously dodgy shaped feet to have played that ball out at the angle it went out. Mikel definitely made contact with Bale and as such it is a penalty in my eyes.

I believe I saw the Drogba one on SSN after the game.

Saturday was a great day for us.

Such a sweet victory against City, went absolutely mental. The black eye I got from someone celebrating was worth it.

John Terry was the reason it got published. In his efforts to get the "super injunction" against those who had the info, he inadvertently attracted the attention of the rest of them which led to the widespread coverage. Also, the fact he is married and was supposedly best mates with Bridge added to the scandal.

Half empty Anfield.