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      in Soccer

      Harry Redknapp: James Maddison one of my two favourite Prem players… in ANY other country he’d be on plane to World Cup

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      ASSUMING the hospitals aren’t full of broken England players, we are entering a big week for Gareth Southgate.The Three Lions manager names his 26-man squad for the World Cup on Thursday.
      James Maddison has been in exceptional form for some time now and Harry Redknapp is a big fanCredit: Reuters
      Maddison’s only England cap came back in 2019Credit: AFP or licensors
      Right now, it’s a wonder he will fill the team coach with so many players going down injured – such a dilemma for managers of both clubs and country.
      It’s natural that players with World Cup hopes will have the tournament on their minds, even though their only concern is the next Premier League match – and rightly so.
      Trying to pick a squad is almost as exhausting as a training session in the Qatar heat.
      England seem blessed in some positions but recent fitness issues leave Southgate down to the bare bones in others.
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      Defence is a nightmare in particular. I was so sorry to see Ben Chilwell become the latest casualty, with his hamstring injury playing for Chelsea, and I wish him a speedy recovery.
      As a manager, I always loved exciting, attacking players who can do the unexpected. Footballers with a touch of the artist within.
      It’s why I am such a huge fan of James Maddison. Him and Jack Grealish are two of my favourite midfielders.
      But Maddison, in particular, I feel especially sorry for. He is playing well in a struggling team this season at Leicester.
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      Six league strikes tells you he still has his eye for a goal and his drive for the team is impressive.
      In any other country, a player like Maddison would be on the plane to the World Cup without a moment’s hesitation.
      He is a clever player but, unfortunately for him, there are a lot of them around at present.
      Grealish, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Mason Mount – not all exactly the same, but all players who can unlock opposition teams.
      Given the nature of international football these days and maybe a little to do with the conditions despite air-conditioned stadiums – there will be a lot of tight games.
      Grealish, Maddison and the others will be needed more than ever to make a breakthrough.
      Up front we are in good shape. Harry Kane, barring a disaster, is clearly the leader of the dressing room. In terms of out-and-out strikers I’d also take Ivan Toney and Callum Wilson.
      Wilson, I know, had his injury problems but he is in great form at the moment.
      Sun Columnist Redknapp would love Maddison to go to the World CupCredit: PA
      Redknapp has been massively impressed by Jude Bellingham captaining Dortmund and 19Credit: Getty
      Sure, it’s a gamble taking him and he hasn’t played for England for three years. But at every tournament there seems to be a surprise player who comes from nowhere into the reckoning.
      Putting him and Brentford’s Toney alongside Kane would be the perfect trio to choose from. All three are experienced penalty-takers, too.
      With those close games coming, it would be an asset for Southgate to be able to bring on three experienced penalty-takers. Instead of having to rely on rookies such as Jadon Sancho and Saka to cope with that pressure like they did last summer at the Euro 2020 final.
      In midfield, I am such a fan of Jude Bellingham. To be captain of Borussia Dortmund at 19 tells you a lot of what this boy is about.
      What a few weeks this lad could have. I am so looking forward to seeing his maturity up against the best in the world.
      The rest of the midfield picks itself but I would take James Ward-Prowse. What a club player he is. A proper midfielder, as I would say. A great all-rounder who should be at a top-six club.
      In defence, we are so short it’s a case of every man standing coming along.
      By the way, I can’t understand the debate about Trent Alexander-Arnold. He can look vulnerable to a ball inside him, or to balls at the back post. But it’s nothing that 20 minutes extra a day wouldn’t solve.
      At Portsmouth I had similar issues with Glen Johnson. He relied so much on pace that his positioning sometimes went out of kilter.
      Alexander-Arnold is just the same — but reset him and he can be a huge asset to the squad.

      MEMORIES OF RONNIE
      Hereford fans paid tribute to Ronnie Radford ahead of their FA Cup first round tieCredit: PA
      IT was so sad to hear about the passing of Ronnie Radford this week.
      His stunning goal against Newcastle in the 1972 FA Cup should be cherished forever as an iconic moment in the competition.
      That was the third round of course and, in the fourth, West Ham went to Edgar Street fearing another upset. I was playing for the Hammers at the time.
      We drew 0-0 there and the replay would make for a great quiz question. Due to an energy crisis, much like today’s, the replay was not under the lights in midweek but played on a Monday lunchtime to save us putting on the floodlights at Upton Park.
      There was also a three-day week in operation at the time so more than 42,000 people squeezed into Upton Park and on the roof of the flats behind the old North Bank. What an image that was.
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      Geoff Hurst had little time for the romance of the Cup — sticking a hat-trick past Hereford.
      But what a performance from Ronnie and the Hereford lads. God bless. More

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      in Soccer

      Troy Deeney: Injuries are part of the game. Players won’t be going easy before World Cup – in the Prem that’s impossible

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      INJURIES and bad luck are a part of elite sport.I heard on talkSPORT people were debating whether we should stop the last round of Premier League games to protect players going to the World Cup.
      Chelsea left-back Ben Chilwell is the latest England player facing World Cup woe after injury, but the string of bad luck is nothing sinisterCredit: Alamy
      Enngland skipper Harry Kane has promised to keep giving his all for Spurs despite the World Cup being just three weeks awayCredit: Getty
      Come on, really?
      There will be players who miss out on FA Cup or Champions League finals, NBA stars or those in the NFL who miss out, too.
      It is about being fit at the right time and being in form, and it is untimely but England have had a spurt of injuries.
      But if this was any normal season, players would be getting injured now anyway, with fixtures coming thick and fast and the previous campaign taking a toll.
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      I remember Declan Rice saying he played 68 games last season and now he is playing week in, week out.
      But the law of averages suggests that if you aren’t given a proper rest, you will probably get injured.
      It is just the demand of being one of the biggest players in your position.
      Ben Chilwell was injured last year, too, so it isn’t anything new for him to be sidelined — it is just unfortunate.
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      Harry Kane said he will not take a backwards step in these last few games, and that’s how it should be. At that level, if you are off it by five per cent, it shows.
      If you’re thinking a player can just potter about in a Prem game, not put too many tackles in and avoid any chance of getting injured, you’re wrong. It is impossible.
      If Rice decides not go into a tackle properly, do you think West Ham fans will say, ‘Ah, it’s okay, he is saving himself for England’. Absolutely not.
      You are either at it or not.
      Harry Kane said he will not take a backwards step in these last few games, and that’s how it should be. At that level, if you are off it by five per cent, it shows.Troy Deeney
      If David Moyes or any boss sees that, they will go, ‘Nah, that ain’t happening. You think you’re too good for us?’
      There is also the other angle. If you pull out of tackles to avoid injury in the Prem,  then  get selected but don’t play a minute at the World Cup, the first thing your manager is going to say is, ‘Are you going to play properly this week?’
      Let’s say a player goes further and tells his manager, ‘I’m not going to play in the last weekend of games’, he may still get injured in the week leading up to the World Cup. What do we blame then? The training?
      Playing for the national team is the biggest honour you can have. But it only comes from the hard work you put in with your club, so I don’t think you can change who you are.
      I’ve seen players go off to international duty and nothing changed in their personality the two or three weeks before it.
      We also need to come away from this notion we’re the only nation losing players to injury — with Timo Werner being the most recent for Germany.
      If Neymar or Lionel Messi miss out, will we be reacting in the same way? No, we will be thinking we have a chance here to win, so we have to take the rough with the smooth.
      Gareth Southgate has a valid reason, if the current injury doubts miss out, to suggest this will not be his strongest England squad. But I don’t think we can have many excuses. Our depth is ridiculous. We have a wonderful squad regardless.
      If Kane goes down, the people coming in are not world class yet — but only because they haven’t had their chance.
      With Chilwell out, Brentford’s Rico Henry would do really well.
      If Kyle Walker and Reece James don’t make it, you are “only” left with Kieran Trippier and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
      If Kane goes down, the people coming in are not world class yet — but only because they haven’t had their chance.
      We went to World Cups with Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe as back-ups, who weren’t considered world class, and I didn’t hear many complaints.
      We are creating excuses and a narrative as to why we can’t win the World Cup — or go far in Qatar. For once, let’s not build that safety net.

      CALL UP CALLUM AND SPOT-KICK KING IVAN
      In-form Newcastle striker Callum Wilson deserves to go to QatarCredit: Getty
      CALLUM WILSON has been injured in the past but now he has hit great form and is flying, and now you’re arguing he shouldn’t miss out on Qatar.
      Right now, it seems it is either Wilson or Ivan Toney. In my opinion, I don’t think Ivan goes.
      That isn’t my personal choice as I think he should, but I could see a scenario where Gareth Southgate picks just one out-and-out striker to be a replacement for Harry Kane, and then pick a wide player to cover that area like Marcus Rashford.
      For me, Gareth should take both Wilson and Toney. They are two completely different sorts of players.
      Read More on The Sun
      If we get to a situation like we did in the Euros final, you need a proven penalty taker. That’s what history has shown us, in high pressure moments to win games, so why wouldn’t you take him?
      Even if he doesn’t play but comes on purely to do the business from 12 yards, we need someone who regularly takes them, rather than a player who takes them well in training. More

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      in Soccer

      Karren Brady: Prem is simply best league in the world… but spectacle will be ruined if we don’t curb ‘Big Six’ spending

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      ENGLAND stand at fourth, unsteadily I must add, among the favourites for the World Cup in Qatar.They have a chance of recording their second Hallelujah in 72 years but for all Gareth Southgate’s soft-spoken commitment, I won’t bet more than a few of the King’s newly-minted bob on it.
      Cautious Gareth Southgate is unlikely to see his England side enjoy another long tournament runCredit: PA
      It appears the team is on a gentle downward curve, perhaps because too many of the squad that did so well in the European Championship last year have slipped into exhausted form or spent too many hours in the treatment room.
      Or maybe because there is so little break between the Prem ending mid-season and the tournament starting that players who are carrying injuries cannot travel.
      Why, oh why did Fifa give Qatar the World Cup? Well… we know why, don’t we?
      But despite all the issues, it seems the team doesn’t sing any more.
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      Southgate is a cautious manager and he has more reasons to be so than at any time in his six-year tenure.
      Things don’t knit so tidily these days. For one reason or another, Harry Maguire, Kalvin Phillips, Kyle Walker, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford are below their best, not surprising in the case of Phillips because injury has limited him since he joined Manchester City.
      His knotty aggression would be badly missed.
      Some little miracle will have to work for England even to reach the semi-finals, which the bookies suggest they should. Football coming home? More like partying in Rio or Paris, I’d guess.
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      So our fans will have to be satisfied with the Premier League, the lucky dogs. I say that because their likely disappointments of Doha will soon be no more than regrets at what (just) might have been, once the Prem returns.
      Yes, it’s true that I love the competition. Not all of it, what with VAR, with players littering the pitch because something hurts a little and with handball rules no one can quite understand.
      Even with those reasons — and fill in the space for half-dozen others — English football is unbeatable entertainment. It’s simply the best league in the world.
      Rich men and Hollywood stars have discovered this, so have oil sheikhs and Americans.
      Man City and the rest of the Prem’s Big Six will run away from the rest unless spending is curbedCredit: Reuters
      Oil-financed football is not completely my favourite for the future of the top-level game because vast money is beginning to warp it.
      Buy a club, grab the best manager going and suddenly your team — lucky old you — are among the leaders.
      It happened to Manchester City, who appointed the best boss on earth, Pep Guardiola, and garlanded him with almost anything he wanted.
      This is not jealousy in Claret and Blue writing, instead of grumbling, the tut-titters, I feel we ought to be cheering all of the Premier League teams along. The Government could learn from the way the Prem is conducted. It proves that a trickle-down policy can work.
      Whether the EFL like it or not, a heap of money is already being passed through English football and, guess what, it works.
      The Championship is a first-class competition with the seventh-highest attendance figure in the game.
      Buy a club, grab the best manager going and suddenly your team — lucky old you — are among the leaders.Karren Brady
      But while the EFL are fixated about the cliff edge from the 20th professional club in the country and the rest, there is already a bigger drop forming in the Prem, between sixth and the rest.
      The Uefa Champions League money, which pays out an average of £60million, looks set to grow by 50 per cent.
      This doesn’t even take into account the additional revenue these clubs earn from sponsorship, retail and so on. The sponsorship revenue of Liverpool is greater than the entire turnover of Aston Villa.
      The result is that it’s getting harder and harder to compete with the spending power of the top six and the gap is growing.
      It should come as no surprise that half of the top ten highest-paid players in the Premier League play for Man City.
      And the best-paid player in the Prem – Cristiano Ronaldo (£27m a year) – earned £9m more than the ENTIRE TURNOVER of Nottingham Forest last year (£18m).
      It’s bonkers when you look at it like that.
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      Our game thrives on competition, so maybe there should be some calls for addressing this problem – improved control of the amount Premier clubs spend on transfers, either levelling up or down.
      Otherwise the top six will never be challenged in the league, something I guess they wanted to achieve with their disastrous closed shop European Super League farce. More

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      in Soccer

      Dave Kidd: Qatar just isn’t a ‘proper’ World Cup… they’re supposed to be about fun but this will be as dry as a desert

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      WHITE rabbits, white rabbits — pinch, punch, it’s the first day of World Cup month.So is everybody excited? No? Me neither.
      Nobody has caught World Cup fever yetCredit: AFP
      Fans are supposed to sink beers in sun-drenched fan parks during a World Cup, it won’t be the same this timeCredit: Getty
      Just 19 days to go until the greatest sporting show on Earth and the absence of World Cup fever is striking.
      If anybody is truly up for the tournament in Qatar, then I haven’t met them.
      Many of the reasons are well-rehearsed — the corruption of the voting process, the human-rights abuses of the Qatari regime, the deaths of thousands of migrant workers involved in the construction of  stadiums, the fact that LGBT people and unmarried couples are unwelcome.
      Then there’s the unsuitability of a tiny nation hosting such a huge event — the lack of affordable hotel rooms, as well as £15 pints — if you can find a beer at all.
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      But even if you’re fortunate enough not to be going to Qatar, there is a marked lack of enthusiasm.
      This weekend, I attended two Premier League matches and heard many supporters groaning about the imposition of a seven-week break in the middle of the domestic season.
      That was aside from the depressing sight of Bukayo Saka hobbling out of Arsenal’s victory over Nottingham Forest, giving England a World Cup scare — a reminder that the crammed schedule means many players finding relatively minor injuries robbing them of career-defining moments.
      Physically and mentally, players are struggling to be ready for what should be the pinnacle of the sport.
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      For supporters, too, summers are for major tournaments and winters are for the regular matchday rituals of watching your football club home and away.
      Nobody wants a World Cup shoehorned into November and December.
      And remember this, when Fifa’s sleaze-ridden bosses voted for Qatar it was sold under the lie of a summer tournament.
      I’ve been lucky enough to cover five World Cups — and have considered these tournaments not just as career highlights but also as life-affirming experiences.
      I’ve looked forward to every previous tournament but not this one. Nor is any other journalist I’ve spoken to.
      Of course, none of us want or expect you to play us sympathetic tunes on tiny violins.
      But several supporters I know who have regularly attended World Cups and European Championships — to  follow England and also to enjoy matches as neutrals — have never even considered going to Qatar.
      Too expensive, too joyless, just not a ‘proper’ World Cup at all.
      And those who would have been watching from the UK anyway, will not be able to enjoy all the usual communal beer-garden rituals, as the temperatures plunge. Aside from the magnitude of the actual sport, attending a World Cup usually feels like you’re part of a global melting pot, a carnival of humanity.
      Too expensive, too joyless, just not a ‘proper’ World Cup at all.Dave Kidd on Qatar 2022
      It’s bloody good fun. While I’ve covered some extraordinary matches at those five tournaments, football is only part of the experience.
      My first World Cup was spent in South Korea, based in the party district of Itaewon — the scene of the horrific tragedy which saw 154 people crushed to death this weekend.
      Back in 2002, that was a hedonistic place, supporters from dozens of nations thrown together for a month-long fiesta.
      Not least because the host nation was gripped by mania as their team enjoyed a shock run to the semi-finals.
      South Korea’s matches still rank as the noisiest I’ve ever attended.
      The street parties which followed, the most ecstatic.
      And in the southern port city of Busan, we drank until dawn and ate octopus curry in a fish market in an attempt to sober up. This was the life.
      Four years later, there were Munich’s beer gardens in a blazing-hot German summer, as England’s WAGs stole the show up in Baden-Baden.
      In 2010, the first African World Cup, visits to Soweto and the glories of Cape Town (where Fabio Capello’s England stank the place out).
      Then in 2014, it was kickabouts on Copacabana beach in Rio, as the home of the ‘Beautiful Game’ played host and England went out in five days.
      Just be glad that you’re not going.Dave Kidd
      And Russia. Despite its dreadful leader, what a wonderful nation.
      St Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities on Earth.
      Moscow, with its grand architecture, even the subway stations like art galleries. In unsung Nizhny Novgorod, there was craft ale and congas and karaoke.
      And nobody who went to Russia in 2018 will ever forget the Peruvians — determined to make the most of their nation having qualified for the first time since 1982.
      You simply could not move for Peruvians, in every street and every bar, in every host city — and long after Peru had been knocked out.
      Qatar will bring none of those joys. Of course, corruption and human-rights issues will rightly grab most of the negative headlines.
      But one of the worst things about this World Cup will be the lack of freedom to have authentic, impromptu, unrestrained fun.
      Just be glad that you’re not going.

      EMERY QUERY
      UNAI EMERY snubbed Newcastle last season only to accept the less-appetising job of managing Aston Villa.
      Some of that had to do with timing — Emery’s Villarreal were enjoying a run to the Champions League semi-finals last term.
      But still, for a  manager with such a fine European pedigree — winning four Europa Leagues at Sevilla and Villarreal — to accept a job where there is  little hope of even  qualifying for Europe seems strange.
      With Newcastle having turned England’s Big Six into a Big Seven, it will take a minor miracle for Emery’s Villa to even qualify for the Europa Conference League during the length of his three-and-a-half-year contract at Villa Park.

      KLOPP KOPS IT
      Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool reign is now officially on the slideCredit: Reuters
      WHEN Liverpool were beaten by struggling Leeds, it was their first Premier League defeat in front of an Anfield crowd since April 2017.
      Jurgen Klopp’s men have played in three European Cup finals in the 5½ years since.
      Given that home advantage ceased to exist during the pandemic behind-closed-doors era, when Liverpool lost six in a row at Anfield, that stat is a meaningful one.
      But having failed to win an away match in the league this season and with their Kop fortress having now been stormed, Klopp’s glorious Liverpool reign is officially on the slide.

      WILL A THRILL
      EDDIE HOWE’S salvage job on the Premier League careers of Joelinton and Miguel Almiron has rightly been lauded.
      But perhaps even more remarkable is Marco Silva’s ability to revive a 34-year-old Willian.
      The Brazilian looked like an overweight has-been at Arsenal a couple of years ago but is now dominating top-flight matches for Fulham.

      ALL GREEK TO ME
      I WAS fascinated to hear, when England faced Greece in the Rugby League World Cup, that the sport had, until recently, been banned by the Greek government with players having to stage clandestine matches at midnight under fear of arrest.
      Apparently this occurred because of political wranglings over the governing body.
      Which is a shame, because I’d hoped for a Greek president with an irrational hatred of Eddie Waring’s commentary who had outlawed rugby league on a bizarre personal whim.

      THERE was plenty of noise around Graham Potter replacing Gareth Southgate as England manager before he left Brighton for Chelsea.
      Southgate may not be fashionable right now.
      But, unlike Potter, he doesn’t think Three Lions ace Raheem Sterling is a wing-back.
      Read More on The Sun
      THE week’s least surprising comment? A PR email which read: ‘Sam Allardyce: I’d back myself to win the World Cup with this England squad’.
      Because whatever Big Sam failed to achieve in management, it was never down to a lack of self-belief or an ability to blow his own trumpet. More

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      in Motorsport

      Ben Hunt: Max Verstappen’s total dominance in record-breaking F1 season shows Red Bull star is no ‘cost-cap champion’

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      MAX VERSTAPPEN’S 14th win of the season set a new Formula One record for most victories in a year.It also takes his tally to 34, putting him sixth in the list of GP winners — just seven shy of Ayrton Senna fifth-place mark.
      Max Verstappen broke the record for most wins in a season in a year of total dominanceCredit: Rex
      Verstappen celebrated the achievement on the podium alongside Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez in MexicoCredit: Splash
      He has also broken the record for most points in a single season, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2019.
      And he has single-handedly helped Red Bull stop Mercedes’ most dominant run in F1 history when it comes to the constructors’ championship.
      That’s all rather good for Red Bull, but incredibly disappointing for F1’s motorsport director Ross Brawn, who introduced new rules this season to level the playing field.
      Red Bull have won 16 of this year’s 20 races, and we still have two more to go in Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi.
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      Verstappen says he doesn’t care about statistics and I remember Hamilton saying the same in the past.
      He said: “It is just an incredible season for the team. I never thought I’d be able to win 14 races in a year.
      “I was never really interested in stats. I just live in the moment. I just try to do the best I can every weekend.
      “That for me is the most important — that I go home and can say I maximised everything.”
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      Quite surprisingly, given his achievements, the magnitude has been lost in a row over the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP and the cost-cap row.
      He has been hammered on social media and dubbed ‘cost-cap champion’ plus the bitter fallout with Sky F1 and subsequent boycott over pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz’s comments.
      Red Bull team principal Christian Horner feels that Verstappen’s performances this year have gone unnoticed.
      He said: “What we’re seeing this year with Max, we are witnessing something very special.
      “I sometimes think his achievements don’t receive the plaudits they should.
      “He has won the most Grand Prix in a year, within 20 races, and two sprint races — and he’s not won all of them from pole.
      “He has had to fight and race for a lot of those victories.
      “It is an absolutely outstanding year, from a driver who is absolutely at the top of his game.
      “The level of consistency is incredible.”
      It is difficult to disagree but surely it is only a matter of time before he finally gets that recognition, especially if he keeps on breaking records.
      LANDO FAN RAP
      LANDO NORRIS wants a crackdown on punters in the exclusive area during Grand Prix weekends.
      In Mexico, Max Verstappen was soaked in beer and Pierre Gasly had his bag rummaged through.
      Norris said: “If people are aggressive and grab you all of the time, biff them out.
      “I love having the fans in here, especially when it’s kids. Kids are kids, that’s cool.
      “It’s more the older people. There’s just not as much respect for personal space as there should be.”
      ALL TYRED OUT
      IT has come to something when Ferrari are offering Mercedes race strategy advice.
      The Italian team are now famous for their bungled calls on tyre choices and pitstops.
      Yet Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto reckoned Mercedes got it wrong for a second race in a row.
      He said: “They maybe have lost the last race by not choosing the right tyres.
      “So I think it’s not only down to us somehow to make different choices or making mistakes.”
      GHASTLY FOR GASLY
      PIERRE GASLY will walk a seven-month disciplinary tightrope if he is to avoid a one-race ban.
      The Frenchman, who joins Alpine next season, had a penalty point added to his licence for an incident with Lance Stroll, meaning he has collected five in a month.
      Two more points before May next year would see the AlphaTauri driver cop a ban.
      HEDWORTH A HERO
      MY hero of the weekend was Alice Hedworth, Red Bull communications manager who looked after Sergio Perez’s media commitments in his home GP.
      Mexican Perez, the country’s most popular sports star, was mobbed at every turn with poor Alice dragged along in the melee — quite literally — with his 15 security guards!
      Formula One 2022Everything you need to know about F1 this season

      HONDA OFF MARC
      MARC MARQUEZ says Honda are already running late with their Moto GP title challenger for 2023.
      The Spaniard, 29, said: “We are delayed and Honda know we’re in delay, so we will have one chance.
      “I hope to test something interesting in Valencia because what you try in Malaysia in February is the bike you will race.”

      FORMULA E will beat F1 by being the first to race in South Africa next year.
      The all-electric series will visit Cape Town in its 17-race schedule in 2023.
      It also kept Africa as part of the tour after dropping the Marrakesh ePrix.
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      THE Mexican Grand Prix was the 20th race this season and there are two left.
      There will be 24 races in 2023 so it was good to hear Toto Wolff say F1 plans on enforcing a two-week winter break to help ease extra pressure on staff. More

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      in Soccer

      No excuse for Klopp or Conte’s recent antics but refs must improve communication and take accountability for decisions

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      THERE needs to be a watershed moment with referees in football.Officials are trying their best and they don’t deserve to be screamed and shouted at like Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte have done.
      Klopp raged at the assistant referee during Liverpool’s win over Manchester CityCredit: Getty
      Conte was sent off at the end of Tottenham’s clash with Sporting on WednesdayCredit: Reuters
      I can’t sit on my high horse about it because I am one of the worst for having a go.
      And I don’t think a referee can get it right every time. I really don’t.But the key thing is communication.
      As a player or a manager, you need to feel heard. Right now, there simply isn’t enough of that.
      A lack of communication. A lack of clarity.
      READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
      There is no excuse for what Klopp and Conte did, but that’s where it stems from, especially in recent weeks.
      If referees were made to take proper accountability for a controversial decision, get in front of a camera for one or two minutes and explain their thinking, the dynamic would completely change. I honestly believe that.
      You see it at the end of games, refs standing in the centre circle telling players and managers to go away and leave them alone.
      That isn’t helping anything.
      Most read in Football
      They shouldn’t be bombarded by an interviewer post-match for every small incident and every foul.
      That would be ridiculous. It needs to be done in the right way.
      There are normally one or two big decisions in a match.
      Refs should get about 15 minutes in their room at the stadium after the final whistle to review some TV footage.
      Then, they can get asked, ‘Why didn’t you give that as a penalty?’ or ‘explain why you felt that was a handball’. No pointing the finger, just a discussion.
      It sounds like such a small thing, but for managers and players, the public watching looking for clarification, it changes everything.
      I don’t think it will happen but why not? I understand we want to protect officials.
      Refs need to be accountable.
      There needs to be a greater understanding of what goes on in their minds and how they react to being in a potentially season-defining moment.
      Should they be scrutinised in the same way as a manager or player?
      Of course not, but they shouldn’t be able to just walk out the back door and say nothing.
      Why can’t they go in front of the press and explain a decision?
      It would literally be two or three questions maximum and that is it.
      Clubs do referee reports after games. Why can’t we also publish those?
      It is not about saying the referee is bad but highlighting things that went wrong and taking accountability.
      Until we can ask those questions and get the answers up front, without any cloaks and dagger, you are going to have this weird space where refs are all interpreting the same law differently without being called out on it, and that’s what causes arguments.
      When I was at the Euros last summer, the VAR was top drawer. We all thought, ‘Here we go, we are getting somewhere’.
      I don’t remember too many games in that competition when VAR was ever mentioned or was contentious.
      What is happening now is that we always try to evolve, we always try to do something weird and wonderful. Each year there are five or six different law changes.
      For example, the interpretation of the handball law from last year to this year is completely different.
      Goals that were disallowed last season would stand this season.
      If you walked up to any player, in the Premier League or the EFL, and asked them to write down what the handball law was, no one would get it right. That’s a worry in itself.
      The letter of the law to the interpretation is completely different and that is where the frustration comes from.
      In the Championship, I do feel there is less anger at an official and less anger in general, without VAR.
      You can have your frustration purely with a ref. It is his decision.
      The enjoyment I am having is that it is not stop-start every two minutes.
      There are loads of set-pieces, corners and fouls in this league.
      They would be reviewing every action every two or three minutes with VAR and games would be two hours long.
      The conversations are also a bit better with refs in the Championship.
      In the Premier League, I felt there was more ego.
      The meetings with referees during pre-season can be very productive.
      You get to meet them in a non-pressurised situation and they get to see you having more of a laugh and a joke.
      Read More on The Sun
      At the start, officials are like players — they are very high energy, enthusiastic, making promises they are going to be better than the year before.
      Ultimately though, when the games start, they are trying to do their best and our job is to win. More

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      Fifa deserves all the flak it gets over Qatar 2022 call but it’s too late now to address horrified activists’ complaints

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      IT was as inevitable as Erling Haaland scoring lots of goals that there would be demands for action against the World Cup in Qatar.Don’t say Fifa bosses didn’t ask for it, because they did.
      No less than 650 men are believed to have died constructing stadiumsCredit: AFP
      Horrified activists began campaigns for change after it was announced Qatar would host the World CupCredit: Reuters
      The moment the highly questionable executive committee voted for Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, horrified activists began campaigns for change.
      There was plenty to campaign about, too. Russian sport is riddled with drugs crime and Vladimir Putin’s policies are accelerating towards tyranny.
      After questions about where exactly Qatar is, it also became clear oil money was its lifeblood and that its rulers cared as much about stadium workers’ welfare as women’s rights. So, not much at all.
      No less than 650 men are believed to have died constructing stadiums.
      READ MORE ON WORLD CUP
      And although worldwide protests have helped improve pay and conditions, we still have the feeling foreign brickies in the Arab state were ranked just above slaves.
      With the World Cup three weeks away, it is probably too late to do much about the latest challenges — but it is surely right to air them.
      Such is the anger at Putin’s war on Ukraine, that a side issue concerning Iran’s sale of bomb-charged drones to Russia has angered protesters to the point of demanding the replacement of the Islamic republic’s team with Ukraine.
      For all sorts of reasons, this isn’t going to happen.
      Most read in Football
      Much as many people may see it as justice, it would be an open goal to barring many countries from numerous international competitions.
      The idea of a World Cup of the Innocents might be fun for those nations without fault, although my guess is such total purity does not exist anywhere or in anyone.
      Iceland might edge in on the basis of lowest crime rate, although not judging by the number of wicked whodunits on TV recently.
      An Iceland v Tonga final may not be a big attraction…
      Sadly, Ukraine will have to concentrate on matters closer to home.
      I have more sympathy with the bid to oust Iran, through the shocking treatment of protesters who refuse to accept their government’s refusal to do anything about the brutal murder, in police custody, of Mahsa Amini for taking off her hijab.
      Many since — including women and children — have been killed demanding women’s rights.
      Again, barring the Iran team would be widely applauded. But I am far from sure that it would further those demands.
      There is a scant record of boycott success in sport.
      Olympic boycotts haven’t worked and, realistically, the only one that did was against apartheid, which was started by England’s cancellation of the 1968-69 cricket Test series against South Africa.
      One promise we can make is that boycott campaigns will continue to flourish.
      Protesters have found it hard to impress themselves on football but I fear it won’t be too long before the green movement, for one, concentrates on the biggest sport there is.
      We should be careful how we treat people who want change for the better.
      Improving human rights has to be one of those.
      Read More on The Sun
      Racism and undervaluing women are the most blatant and, I’m afraid, many politicians are slow in acting to improve these.
      Football is huge across the world and has the muscle to boot their reluctance over the grandstand.
      The decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has always been deemed controversialCredit: AFP
      A worker walking at the Caravan City, an ongoing project to host fans during the Qatar 2022 Fifa World CupCredit: AFP More

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      Dave Kidd: Newcastle are coming for the Premier League ‘Big Six’… it’s just a shame it took these owners to achieve it

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      RAINBOW laces and captain’s armbands sure did look pretty as Saudi-funded Newcastle United stormed into the Premier League’s top four and turned the Big Six into the Big Seven.Having reached the Champions League places, Eddie Howe’s men will soon head off to the land of their paymasters for a training camp during the World Cup break.
      Premier League captains wore rainbow coloured armbands throughout the Premier league this weekendCredit: Getty
      A nation where homosexuality is illegal but a nation which has been allowed to buy one of England’s biggest football clubs.
      All while the Premier League preaches inclusivity with colourful empty gestures.
      With the Bigg Market now twinned with Chop Chop Square in downtown Riyadh, perhaps some of the Toon Army will venture out to Saudi Arabia to see their heroes this winter.
      Never mind the Blaydon Races, they’ll be ganning along the Scotswood Road, to see the public beheadings.
      READ MORE ON FOOTBALL
      Us snowflakes in the wokerati (although I’m not actually a tofu man myself) feel uncomfortable about barbaric regimes capable of dismembering journalists, but we might as well go and bark at the moon.
      Because Newcastle fans don’t give a stuff and nor do the Premier League hierarchy, as they whistle along to ‘I Can Sing A Rainbow’, blissfully unaware of their own absurdity.
      Trying to argue morals in the moral vacuum of England’s top flight is senseless.
      Vladimir Putin’s mate, Roman Abramovich, started all this at Chelsea 20 years ago — not that we could call him Putin’s mate until this year because his lawyers were too expensive.
      Most read in Football
      And ever since such dangerous dodgepots arrived, this type of Saudi takeover was the obvious endgame.
      It probably can’t get any worse than the Saudis, as the Taliban don’t have a pot to piddle in and probably couldn’t afford to buy a Premier League club even if they formed a consortium with Colombian drug barons, Somali pirates and Iranian Ayatollahs.
      But let’s not entirely rule out that possibility.
      It shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, though, to feel outrage about Newcastle’s ownership while admiring the work of Howe, and recruitment chief Dan Ashworth, and enjoying the increased competition at the top end of the table.
      When Jurgen Klopp moaned about Liverpool’s inability to compete with clubs funded by nation states, he almost certainly wasn’t being xenophobic, as has been insinuated by Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City.
      It probably can’t get any worse than the Saudis, as the Taliban don’t have a pot to piddle in.Dave Kidd
      The Anfield boss was, though, speaking out of self-interest and panic.
      Weirdly, mid-table Liverpool are the only team to beat Newcastle and the only team to beat City this season.
      Ironically, Klopp’s team have barely managed to beat any Premier League club who aren’t owned by a nation state.
      But Liverpool are scared of Newcastle. So too are Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United.
      Next season three of those five clubs may miss out on Champions League football.
      The season after next, when that competition is expanded and revamped, England may get a fifth team but, still, it is becoming an even stiffer task for any club owned by poor old-fashioned American billionaires to win any silverware.
      It might not seem fair but neither was it fair on Newcastle to have an owner as joyless as Mike Ashley for more than a decade.
      Now, Howe’s Newcastle are looking brilliant and they’ve only just begun.
      Eddie Howe’s Toon squad are in fantastic form as the Magpies continue to fly up the table
      They’re doing all this with Dan Burn at left-back — and just wait until they start signing ready-made world-class players. Howe’s Newcastle team might not finish in the top four this term — and if they did manage it, they would certainly be ahead of schedule.
      But Sunday’s 2-1 win at Tottenham, a fourth victory in five games, was hugely symbolic — as an electrical storm raged and Spurs, along with the rest of the old guard, imagined themselves standing at the gates of Hell.
      Ashworth’s recruitment has been astute and Howe has improved players immeasurably.
      As Howe argued, in response to Klopp’s recent comments, there are financial fair play measures in place — the kind that might stop an incompetent Emir from breaking into the elite.
      Klopp wouldn’t sound so defeatist if Newcastle were filthy rich and brainless.
      But if you’re really good at what you do and you’re completely minted — like Newcastle — then those restrictions won’t keep you out for very long.
      An invigorated Newcastle is good for English football. Theirs is a vibrant city, fanatical about its club, which had been in the doldrums for too long.
      It is just a shame they couldn’t have achieved all this with a slightly less murderous ownership.
      Still, at least there were ‘bespoke rainbow ball plinths’ at Premier League games, last weekend and next. So all together now: “Red and yellow and pink and green…”
      CONTAIN YOURSELF
      QATAR is a nation with an abysmal human rights record, they won the right to stage the World Cup because of rampant Fifa corruption and thousands of migrant workers died building the venues.
      But the last World Cup was held in Putin’s Russia and it was still a decent spectacle. Because Russia is big and it has hotels and infrastructure.
      Many supporters weird enough to actually want to travel to Qatar will end up sleeping in containers in newly-built shanty towns.
      Because Qatar isn’t big enough and it doesn’t have enough hotels and infrastructure. That’s going to be the biggest problem of all next month. Can’t wait.
      STEVIE’S STRIKERS
      ASTON VILLA were thrashed 3-0 at Fulham, then sacked Steven Gerrard, then stuffed Brentford 4-0.
      So the natural conclusion was that Villa’s players had ‘downed tools’ on Gerrard.
      And maybe, subconsciously, some of them did.
      But after Gerrard had humiliated his popular skipper Tyrone Mings by stripping him of the captaincy and publicly criticising him, who could really blame them?

      MASON MOUNT has been named ‘England’s most eligible bachelor’ by Tatler magazine.
      I fear a new reality TV period costume drama coming on. Stamford Bridgerton, anyone?

      LIVERPOOL keeper Alisson made a brilliant assist for Mo Salah against Manchester City this month and City’s Ederson did likewise against Brighton on Saturday.
      Only one of these Brazilians can start at the World Cup, with Alisson No 1.
      Maybe Ederson can feature as a deep-lying playmaker?

      LEICESTER had just five shots on target in back-to-back wins over Leeds and Wolves, yet scored six goals.
      Well done to boss Brendan Rodgers on reinventing himself and dragging the Foxes out of the relegation zone.
      Even Tony Pulis was never as efficiently minimalist as this.
      Read More on The Sun
      I TELL you what the heavyweight boxing division really needs — Tyson Fury battering a 38-year-old Derek Chisora for the third time, at a football stadium without a roof on a cold December night.
      Said absolutely no one ever. More