Probably the worst job in professional football is being a manager or head coach, because retaining your job is dependent on one thing and one thing only, and that is results.

It doesn’t matter how successful you have been in the past, it’s what happens now that counts. Take Thomas Tuchel as an example. Not only did he win the Champions League, the Super Cup and the World Club Cup whilst at Chelsea, but losing a couple of Premier League games this season has resulted in the sack.

It is therefore quite understandable that when their team loses a match or two, they have to find a scapegoat, someone to blame. But does It always have to be the referee?

Managers claim to see incidents better than the referee, even though they are 50 or 60 yards away in the technical area, whereas the referee is probably about 15 yards from play.

Years ago it used to be called the ‘dugout’ and there was an old saying, ‘the dugout is the worst seat in the stadium’. Even though managers can now be elevated to stand one metre from the pitch, it still at the halfway line and this saying still runs true.

Steve Coppell, when managing Reading, used to watch the first half of home matches in the directors box. This was because he could see more of the game than from the technical area and use this information to plan for the second half, not to criticise the referee

All Referees do of course make mistakes, but so do players. It’s seldom however when a game is lost that the manager puts the blame on his players. I remember some years ago, former Reading Manager, Brendan Rogers, when managing Liverpool put the blame on the referee for a defeat, ignoring the fact that his highly rated strikers had missed three open goals.

One current manager, well known for blaming referees when losing matches is Steve Bruce. Now managing West Bromwich Albion, demoted from the Premier League last season, he was at it again last weekend.

He claimed that the referee had denied them an obvious penalty, which would have given them victory over Norwich City who were also relegated last season but are now well ahead of them in the Championship. His comments of course were completely biased and there is always the other point of view.

When Dean Smith, currently boss of Norwich was asked for his opinion on the incident and Bruce’s comments, said, ‘It wasn’t a penalty, well done to the referee’. But he was biased of course.

By Dick Sawdon Smith

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