Rodri's deluded theory that referees are bent and discriminating against Man City is the dangerous fantasy of a loser. He should suck up the fact Arsenal might be better. The FA must slap him with a l

In an interview after Manchester City’s draw with Spurs on Sunday, a game that City threw away, a result that left them six points adrift of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League, Rodri talks about a series of decisions that have gone against his team and says ‘it is not possible’.

He talks about the decisions and he alleges they are not rationally explicable. He comes up with other explanations and one explanation in particular. In the process of divorcing himself from reality, he hints the English game is corrupt.

The best players do that sometimes because they cannot accept their own fallibility. Rodri says that ‘people don’t want us to win’ and then he begins to burn with the self-righteous indignation of the entitled player who wants to blame anyone but himself.

Rodri does not seem quite as exercised about the fact that he was allowed to stay on the field despite committing two offences that were both distinctly bookable, only one of which earned him a yellow card. He does not mention corruption in that decision in his post-match ravings. ‘I’m guessing Rodri doesn’t do irony,’ Ally McCoist said on talkSport on Monday morning.

No, he doesn’t. In fact, Rodri is just getting warmed up. He cannot accept that it is starting to look as if his team might not be good enough to beat Arsenal to the title this season and so his arrogance is searching for another explanation.

He thinks he is getting to the heart of the conspiracy against Manchester City. He says it is because ‘we won too much’ that everybody is against his team and that City’s chance of victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, when they blew a 2-0 half-time lead, was sabotaged.

Really? Because City won too much? If he actually believes that, why did the referees not mobilise against City after they had won two titles in a row in 2022? Or after they had won three titles in a row in 2023?

Surely, officials would have done everything they could to stop City setting a new record by winning four titles in succession for the first time in English football history the season before last? But that didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because that iteration of Manchester City was a brilliant team and it was the best team.

It didn’t happen because the idea that officials discriminate against one team in English football is the fantasy of the loser.

Then Rodri gets to it. Then he gets to the bit he is longing to say. And he thinks he’s being clever by not saying it overtly. Actually, he is just making himself look like a dangerous fool making dangerous insinuations.

‘The referee has to be neutral,’ Rodri says. The obvious inference is that the referee is not neutral. ‘It’s not fair,’ Rodri says, ‘it’s not fair because we work so hard.’

Maybe it’s time that Rodri understands what’s not fair. What’s not fair is being one of the leaders of a team that drops points in a contest it should have put out of sight, and deciding to abrogate all responsibility by blaming his team’s failings on referee Robert Jones and VAR officials who made a contentious decision.

What’s not fair is a player of Rodri’s standing, a Ballon d’Or winner, one of the best players in the game, making dark hints that English football is corrupt because Manchester City have only won one league game in the last six.

What’s not fair is saying, as Rodri did, that you respect referees and you never speak about referees and then speaking about referees in the worst possible way. What’s not fair is saying you respect referees ‘massively’ and then throwing them under a massive double decker bus.

What’s not fair is raising the temperature against referees even higher. What’s not fair is making their jobs and their lives even more difficult. What’s not fair is inflaming the mood of fans in an age where conspiracy theories already gain more traction than they should.

What’s not fair is increasing the chances that officials will be threatened, or attacked, for making honest decisions.

And, by the way, before Rodri starts hinting about conspiracies, he ought to remember that many supporters of rival teams have convinced themselves that some English referees have been compromised by being paid to referee in Abu Dhabi, where City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour, is a prominent member of the ruling family.

Look, Rodri and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola are entitled to be upset about the decision not to rule out Dominic Solanke’s first goal for Spurs, scored in the 53rd minute.

Solanke appeared to foul Marc Guehi as he got the final touch to the ball but the referee allowed it and VAR did not overrule him.

I thought it was a foul. I thought the goal should have been disallowed. But opinion was split. On Match of the Day, Danny Murphy and Troy Deeney, both excellent analysts, said they agreed with the referee’s decision.

People interpret incidents on the pitch in different ways. It was ever thus. It was not an outlandish decision. It did not provoke universal outrage. It was certainly not enough to warrant a suggestion there is corruption in the English game.

Let me mention one other thing: midway through the first half, City’s Abdukodir Khusanov made a late tackle on Conor Gallagher and caught him on the top of the foot. He got nowhere near the ball and Gallagher was sent sprawling to the ground.

Khusanov wagged his finger furiously at referee Robert Jones to suggest that there had been no contact and that Gallagher was trying to deceive him. Replays showed clearly that it was an obvious foul. Attempts at that kind of deception are not peculiar to City but it was a small episode that showed how difficult a referee’s job has become.

If Rodri can’t suck it up, if he can’t accept that the reason City didn’t beat Spurs lies at their own door, then he should keep his counsel instead of throwing dirt at officials who are an easy target, in order to divert attention from his team’s inconsistencies.

It is not Robert Jones’ fault that Arsenal have a deeper squad than City. It is not Robert Jones’ fault that Rodri is still struggling to regain his form after a long injury lay-off.

And it will not be Robert Jones’ fault if the FA slap Rodri with the long ban he deserves for making unsubstantiated claims about the neutrality of referees.

Newcastle's mascot snub a sorry sign of the times

Newcastle may have the richest owners in the Premier League but it appears that all the money in the world cannot buy their players a bit of class.

The saddest image of the weekend was the club’s young mascot being left on her own before kick-off at Anfield on Saturday evening. As Virgil van Dijk entered into an impromptu kick-about with the Liverpool mascots in their penalty area, Newcastle’s mascot stood forlornly by herself as the players sprinted away and ignored her.

Newcastle have vowed to make amends to her but the image will remain as another symbol of the distance that has grown between ordinary fans and the players they cheer and idolise.

I've found the best way to watch Blackpool!

I fulfilled my dream of visiting each of the current grounds of the 92 clubs in the top four divisions of the English pyramid last season but I did squeeze in a new stadium experience last week.

The night before Stockport County’s League One game at Blackpool, I stayed at the Blackpool FC Stadium Hotel and woke up to a view of the pitch at Bloomfield Road.

I’d checked out by lunchtime on the day of the game but if I had been intending to watch the match from my room, there would have been a problem. Residents are, apparently, required by law to draw their curtains when a match is in progress or face a £2,500 fine.

Blackpool are a lovely club with a wonderful history but the way they’re playing at the moment, hiding behind the curtains might be a welcome relief for their supporters.

Click here to read article