Football managers slammed

Something is missing from the all points bulletin demanding English football authorities tighten discipline as a matter of extreme urgency, so quickly, indeed, that the conduct of Ashley Cole and Javier Mascherano will for ever be seen as steps into the gutter.

Absent is proper recognition of the core of the problem. It is the culture of denial and self-interest of managers and, by extension, their clubs. It is missing names on the charge sheets: names such as Avram Grant and Rafael Benitez.

It must be beyond doubt that a prime reason why Cole and Mascherano treat referees with such contempt is the certainty that they will pay no price where they live, where they draw their wages and where their careers are shaped and sustained.

From the moment he was booked in Sunday's game at Old Trafford, Maschereno directed a stream of obscenities at referee Steve Bennett. Yet later Benitez, his manager, painted the picture of a confused player whose only crime was to ask a question of the referee. Grant, Cole's manager, lauded his player's apology issued through the club and described him as a "role model".

But for whom but smart-arse street kids?

While it is all very well castigating Cole and Mascherano for their failures to behave not just as fabulously rewarded professionals, but minimally well-ordered members of adult society, why are Grant and Benitez granted the status of innocent accessories after the fact, who, presumably, do not pick and groom their players and tell them how to play and how to behave?

Maybe it is because something as basic as the concept of individual and collective responsibility is so far gone it is in need of a search party.

Benitez is a man of considerable personal charm. Plainly, he has values that he applies to his own life and that of his family - but, unfortunately, they were a thousand miles away when he faced the world with his version of events at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Instead of apologising for the shocking behaviour of one of his players - and promising some immediate and significant disciplinary action - he spoke of the referee's "overreaction". In this he received the influential support of Sky Sport's senior football analyst, Andy Gray, who blamed Bennett for "spoiling the match".

Now it is true Bennett has a reputation for heavy-handedly standing on his dignity, and doing it faster than a chapel deacon, but this isn't the point. Most intelligent professionals have always seen referees as not keepers of the game's wisdom, but problems to be negotiated in the heat of the action.

Mascherano displayed the negotiating skills of an inflamed warthog. It was evident, surely, from the back row of the stand that his eventual dismissal was a controversy waiting to happen. Benitez's wild gesturing as he rose from his seat, and the effort to restrain Mascherano, however resigned to failure, by Xabi Alonso, underlined the point before Bennett reached for a second yellow card.

In a well-ordered world you might have expected Benitez to have been at least as angry as he might have been if Mascherano, who had managed to play with his usual sharp edge while simultaneously submitting to a brainstorm, had made some monumental professional gaffe, say, needlessly handling the ball in his own penalty area or directing a back pass sweetly beyond the grasp of goalkeeper Pepe Reina.

But for some reason the kind of aberration committed on this occasion is consigned to another category, in this case overreaction by officials.

It is absurdly unprofessional. A pro's most basic obligation is to keep his head under any kind of circumstances. By looking for trouble, for abandoning self-control to such an extent, Mascherano effectively betrayed his team. He obliged them to face an entire half with only 10 men against the reigning champions, who were already a goal ahead.

But Benitez, at least publicly, directed his rage entirely towards the referee.

Unfortunately, modern football abounds with such moral acrobatics. Sir Alex Ferguson railed at the authorities when Eric Cantona was suspended for his kung fu attack on a Crystal Palace fan. It was the fan's fault. He also defended Rio Ferdinand against excessive official reaction when he failed to take a drugs test.

Arsene Wenger drew a veil over the facts when one of his players threw a piece of pizza at Ferguson - and he could not bring himself to criticise his players when they gathered like some unbridled street mob around Ruud van Nistelrooy when he missed a penalty.

Understandably enough, there is now talk of docking points for the crime of "disrespect". Enforcement would obviously be a nightmare of vying claims and self-justifications. Still, there is a certain powerful logic in the proposal. It addresses the problem that not so long ago was dealt with by great managers as a matter of course.

Brian Clough set up his own scale of fines for failures of discipline in the dressing room.

Sir Matt Busby had a famous phrase which he delivered with great scorn whenever one of his players crossed the line which defined correct professional behaviour. Once he delivered it when one of his players had been acting up on the training field. "That's not Manchester United," he said.

Doubtless it is relevant that in those days players were not earning a fortune, a new saloon car represented a peak of luxury and, if they believed they had inherited the world, it was only because they got to play football for a living.

Still, some things do not need to change. One is that referees should be able to do their work without receiving a non-stop barrage of obscene invective or, as Benitez might say, intense questioning.

However you rated his performance, it was clear that this was the fate of Steve Bennett. It was a fact confirmed by the most rudimentary lip-reading skills, which also gave us the critique of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, who told the referee: "You're taking the f...ing piss."

Who precisely is doing that to whom is now perhaps the key question. There should not, however, be too much doubt about where the interrogation should begin. It is in the offices of the managers who make the excuses because they see no wrong. - The Independent