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talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan | talkSPORT - YouTube
Simon Jordan is not buying Liam Rosenior’s bizarre post-match comments after Newcastle United bear Chelsea.
Simon Jordan has slammed Chelsea’s “performative” pre-match ritual against Newcastle United.
A bizarre situation saw Blues players surround referee Paul Tierney before kick-off. As the Chelsea team huddled for a final rallying call, the ref stood awkwardly on the centre circle.
This strange situation did not go unnoticed by Newcastle fans on social media. Journalists also took note, with Blues boss Liam Rosenior pouring fuel on the fire at his post-match press conference.
What Liam Rosenior said about Chelsea incident
In comments that have made headlines around the world, Rosenior claimed Chelsea players surrounded the ref to “respect” the ball. Not even the most ardent, rose-tinted Blues fan could vouch for him there…
"I'm disappointed,” Rosenior said. “There's more focus and emphasis on the things that don't matter. I'm going to make it really clear. I want to protect my players.
“I'm respectful to the game. My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership. That is not my decision. That was a decision between the leadership group and the team. There is nothing that they're doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition."
Simon Jordan slams Chelsea ritual
Speaking to talkSPORT, former Crystal Palace owner Jordan was far from impressed. He suggested Chelsea may have been trying to get inside the referee’s head.
“It is all performative,” he said. “I mean, the idea that you can't say something to one another in the dressing room when you haven't already patted one another on the back and exchanged your views about what you're going to do, and you need to do that in full glare of the media, is performative.
“It is exactly that. It hardly reduced the outcome, did it? Because they lost the game. They've done all that in the dressing room. Of course, it's performative. Why the referee didn't step out? Maybe he felt he was ceding authority. Maybe he thought that, ultimately, the player shouldn't be doing that in the first place.
“He'd (Tierney) already mentioned before the game he didn't like the idea that they (Chelsea) were going to do this. Perhaps him being in the space first, if he stepped out of that, was ceding authority to the players and setting the wrong tone for the game. Maybe that was his thinking.
“I can't explain the thinking behind what Liam said (about respecting the ball). Maybe he was conflating the lack of disrespect that people are suggesting the gesture does with some far-fangled idea that they were respecting the ball like some mythical object.”
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Keith Hackett not impressed
“I don’t think this was funny,” former Premier League ref and ex-PGMOL chief Keith Hackett told Football Insider. “I think it undermined the match official publicly, with the game being transmitted around the world. I was disappointed by Tierney’s reaction. He appeared to be caught by surprise, but he shouldn’t have been because he’s been around for a long time.
“My reaction would have been to get the yellow card out, issuing that to the captain. It seemed a little pre-planned by Chelsea. It was unacceptable. I hope that the PGMOL doesn’t see this as an incident to smile about. It’s something they should take up with Chelsea. It comes under the banner of misconduct.”
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