Too fat to play football

Last updated : 21 October 2014 By Tony Scholes

Harry Redknapp is the manager under pressure at QPR. He's the one that seemingly has more coaches than we have players and has that many players he would probably struggle to count them.

But he certainly knows about one of his players and was only too keen to talk about him this weekend even before he'd reached his car, let alone opened the window.

The player in question is Moroccan Adel Taarabt. Asked about him, and why he wasn't playing, Redknapp snapped. "Adel Taarabt is three stone overweight and unfit to play for Queens Park Rangers."

Now that's interesting. On 5th October, just two weeks earlier, the same manager had played the same player in a Premier League game at West Ham. He must have been fit enough then so has he put on around 42 pounds in weight in three weeks? I suppose he can afford the food given that Harry told us he earns between £60,000 and £70,000 per week.

Taarabt, needless to say, has responded claiming he's no different than when he was playing in Milan last year. But he did say: "I don't like the food at the training ground, but eat healthily like every other player. Simple."

As for QPR, they remain behind us after losing 3-2 at home against Liverpool. It was a game where Liverpool frankly deserved nothing, so poor were they, but they got more than a few helping hands with both Richard Dunne and Steven Caulker scoring own goals, Caulker's coming in that dramatic finale when five goals were scored.

Dunne has become the first player to score ten Premier League own goals, but where was Rio Ferdinand, the big summer signing? Left out apparently and, according to news sources, QPR are not impressed and looking to dump him in January. That might help pay for another four or five coaches.

Southampton was the place to be as a visiting fan on Saturday if only because you are entitled to a refund. I've just checked on Google maps and it was a 658 mile round trip to Southampton and back from Sunderland, Saturday's visitors.

That's an expensive day out, coupled with the cost of a ticket, but at least they got eight goals to see. I think the Mackems might have preferred it if some of them had been in their favour but at least two of their players found the net, even if it was their own.

Apparently Southampton had started the better side. That was until Santiago Vergini scored the best own goal so far this season. It was an outstanding finish that any striker would be delighted with.

Goalkeeper Vito Mannone, who, on the day, made Frank Petter Kval look good, has recommended that the players refund the 2,500 fans who made the trip.

Don't get too excited just yet Sunderland fans. Editor of fanzine A Love Supreme has suggested it might all be too complicated and perhaps just the ticket money should be reimbursed.

And I was at West Brom in the 1960s. I've not had any refund yet but there again I can't remember our goalkeeper Harry Thomson, who had a similar afternoon, offering it.

I watched the last of the weekend games last night as Manchester United scored late to get a point from a 2-2 draw against West Brom at the Hawthorns.

Incredibly, Louis van Gaal was disappointed with the scoreline and said: "I'm disappointed because we played our best match of the season and the result is not good enough."

That's the best they've played? I wasn't impressed and thought they were very fortunate to get anything. I don't think their executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was either. Sat next to Sir Bobby Charlton he appeared to be swearing angrily at the performance.

So, with eight games played, us and QPR are down at the bottom, now three points below Newcastle. At the other end of the table, Chelsea (who beat Crystal Palace) remain five points clear of Man City for whom Sergio Aguero scored all four goals against Spurs which included scoring two of the three penalties he took.

There were four penalties in that game, given by Jon Moss. Dermot Gallagher said two were correct, one was incorrect and one was unfortunate, a more polite way of saying he got another one wrong.

Swansea boss Garry Monk wasn't quite so polite over Michael Oliver's award of a penalty to Stoke against his team. It is a shocking decision, no doubt, but Monk will probably be in some trouble for calling Victor Moses, who went down very easily, a cheat.

Some things never change, he's called Mark Hughes. He was the only person in the ground who didn't see Ryan Shawcross wrestle Wifried Bony to the ground for Swansea's penalty and he was the only person in the ground who thought Moses had been fouled.

It was Marvellous Matchday at the Britannia, all arranged following the recent BBC film Marvellous about their former kit manager Neil 'Nello' Baldwin. It's still on the iPlayer for the rest of this week. I'd recommend you watching it if you haven't seen in.

He was presented to the crowd on Sunday after being granted the Freedom of the City of Stoke-on-Trent, along with his hero Gordon Banks. There's only one Neil Baldwin.

The weekend results and stats are below along with the leading goalscorers, each club's disciplinary record and the next fixtures.

The Results
ARSENAL 2 HULL 2 MANCHESTER CITY 4 TOTTENHAM 1
BURNLEY 1 WEST HAM 3 NEWCASTLE 1 LEICESTER 0
CRYSTAL PALACE 1 CHELSEA 2 SOUTHAMPTON 8 SUNDERLAND 0
EVERTON 3 ASTON VILLA 0  
Sunday 19th October
QPR 2 LIVERPOOL 3 STOKE 2 SWANSEA 1
Monday 20th October
WEST BROM 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 2  

 

The Stats
Biggest Win SOUTHAMPTON 8-0 v SUNDERLAND (home)
Total Goals Scored 40 (26 home - 14 away)
Player Scoring Most Goals

4 - SERGIO AGUERO, MANCHESTER CITY (v TOTTENHAM)

Highest Attendance 60,004 - ARSENAL v HULL
Lowest Attendance 18,069 - QPR v LIVERPOOL
Total Yellow Cards 35
Total Red Cards 3
Most Cards in a Game CRYSTAL PALACE v CHELSEA (3Y 2R) Ref: CRAIG PAWSON
QPR v LIVERPOOL (5Y) Ref: PHIL DOWD
STOKE v SWANSEA (5Y) Ref: MICHAEL OLIVER

 

Leading Goalscorers (League Only)
9 SERGIO AGUERO (MANCHESTER CITY) - includes 2 penalties
DIEGO COSTA (CHELSEA)
6 SAIDO BERAHINO (WEST BROM) - includes 2 penalties
GRAZIANO PELLE (SOUTHAMPTON)
5 LEONARDO ULLOA (LEICESTER) - includes 1 penalty
4 NACAR CHADLI (TOTTENHAM)
PAPISS CISSE (NEWCASTLE)
MOHAMED DIAME (HULL)
NIKICA JELAVIC (HULL)
STEVEN NAISMITH (EVERTON)
DIAFRA SAKHO (WEST HAM)
3 FRAIZER CAMPBELL (CRYSTAL PALACE)
ANGEL DI MARIA (MANCHESTER UNITED)
NATHAN DYER (SWANSEA)
MOHAMED DIAME (HULL)
ABEL HERNADEZ (HULL)
ROMELU LUKAKU (EVERTON)
WAYNE ROONEY (MANCHESTER UNITED)
ALEXIS SANCHEZ (ARSENAL)
MORGAN SCHNEIDERLIN (SOUTHAMPTON)
RAHEEM STERLING (LIVERPOOL)

 

Hat Tricks
 Date Player & Game
13/09/14 3: DIEGO COSTA - CHELSEA v SWANSEA (home)
18/10/14 4: SERGIO AGUERO - MANCHESTER CITY v TOTTENHAM (home)

 

Disciplinary Record (League and Cup)
Club Y R Y R Club Y R Y R
  League   Total   League  Total 
ARSENAL 21 0 23 0 MANCHESTER UNITED 15 2 16 2
ASTON VILLA 14 0 14 0 NEWCASTLE 14 1 17 2
BURNLEY 12 0 12 0 QPR 10 0 12 0
CHELSEA 15 1 15 1 SOUTHAMPTON 12 0 18 0
CRYSTAL PALACE 15 2 15 2 STOKE 20 0 24 0
EVERTON 14 0 15 0 SUNDERLAND 18 0 22 0
HULL 15 1 16 1 SWANSEA 15 2 18 2
LEICESTER 13 0 14 0 TOTTENHAM 13 2 13 2
LIVERPOOL 16 0 17 0 WEST BROM 15 0 16 0
MANCHESTER CITY 20 1 21 1 WEST HAM 18 1 18 1

 

The Next Fixtures
Saturday 25th October
LIVERPOOL v HULL SWANSEA v LEICESTER (17:30)
SOUTHAMPTON v STOKE WEST BROM v CRYSTAL PALACE
SUNDERLAND v ARSENAL WEST HAM v MANCHESTER CITY (12:45)
Sunday 26th October
BURNLEY v EVERTON (13:30) TOTTENHAM v NEWCASTLE (13:30)
MANCHESTER UNITED v CHELSEA (16:00)  
Monday 27th October
QPR v ASTON VILLA (20:00)