Referees have a tough job. They can’t be expected to get everything right. They need video technology.
Whatever.
The Premier League officials are supposedly the best in the world. Errors might happen, but they seem to happen too much.
But then again, it can’t be easy to effectively referee 90 minutes of football if you’ve got Craig Bellamy constantly on your case.
According to former ref Howard Webb, our former Welsh wizard was the most difficult player to officiate in the league (Echo).
“I think the Premier League player who gave me the most grief would be Craig Bellamy,” he said.
“I struggled to gain a rapport with Craig. Again, being balanced, [he was] a great footballer and he might be a lovely kid away from the game, but on the pitch he was always quick with an opinion and didn’t want to listen to yours so much and I found it quite difficult to gain a rapport.”
Amazingly, he went on claim that players like Joey Barton and Robbie Savage were better than Bellamy on the pitch. We’re pretty sure Craig wouldn’t appreciate those remarks!
“There are other players who you think might fall into that category. Players like Joey Barton and Robbie Savage who wore their heart on their sleeve but would actually enter into dialogue and I found that quite healthy and I was happy to referee those types of characters.”
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Webb he one of the most disliked figures on Merseyside after a number of shocking refereeing performances against us. Most notable was awarding United a penalty inside the first minute at Old Trafford in 2011 – a game in which Gerrard was also given a red card.