Ref bosses ‘finally’ break silence and admit to ‘howler’ after Haaland Manchester derby winner | OneFootball

All manner of Premier League fallout to occupy the mind this Monday morning thanks to the Manchester derby and looming crises at both Tottenham and Liverpool.

There’s even a looming crisis for Sky Sports that is definitely real and exists.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t space for pretending something from nine years ago is news, or making bold predictions about Troy Parrott’s future.

Final countdown Impatient stuff from The Sun as ‘Ref bosses’ admit they might possibly have dropped a teensy wee b*llock by allowing Erling Haaland’s Manchester Derby winner to stand.

Finally? That Pro Ref statement is carried in a story The Sun published less than three hours after the final whistle at Old Trafford. Why not go the whole way and say Pro Ref have ‘broken their silence’?

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Currant Bun, we have Martin Lipton giving his own assessment of that apology.

Mediawatch is very old and permanently tired these days, but even we would baulk at describing half past nine as ‘late last night’. Sure, it’s far too late to put a film on, or to open another bottle, but still early enough to perhaps sneak in another episode of that show you’re enjoying despite it being very obviously trash.

Also, we’re pretty sure they didn’t call it a ‘howler’. Although we would welcome that kind of chat in the inevitable future apologies they have to issue.

Other things we would like to see in future Pro Ref apologies include the phrases ‘Listen, fair play, we proper f*cked that’ and ‘We deliberately got this decision wrong because it was necessary to do so in service of The Conspiracy’.

Singles in your area Just an elite piece of Daily Expressing from the Daily Express here.

You can argue among yourselves about the necessarily subjective nature of the claim Iraola was ‘angry’. We’d have gone for, at worst, miffed. Mildly dischuffed. A touch arsey. But you can go with angry if you want, although if that’s your benchmark you might be in for a shock if you ever watch a Hulk film.

But that Bradley Barcola bit? Absolutely not. Here’s what Iraola said, in quotes the Express themselves carry a looooooonnnnnggg way down that story, about Bradley Barcola after (and this is important) being asked a question specifically about Bradley Barcola.

So Iraola, angrily or otherwise, didn’t single out Barcola. A journalist did. Iraola answered that question in entirely reasonable fashion and then very specifically de-singled Barcola.

Sky’s the limit Mediawatch imagines it must be panic stations at Sky Sports right now due to an imminent and urgent crisis brought about by an acute pundit shortage.

The Mirror bring us the latest.

Sky Sports rocked to the core there, no doubt. But ‘another’ possible blow? What are the others? Well, the Mirror have that covered as well.

The ‘two other popular pundits’ line immediately makes us think of the ‘If you said Bleeding Gums Murphy and Dr Marvin Monroe, you are wrong – they were never popular’ gag from The Simpsons.

But you’re probably still mainly thinking about how the ‘possible Sky Sports blow’ of Gary Neville getting into Premier League management is in fact a fantasy that existed only in the mind of his friend and former team-mate Antonio Valencia until it was foolishly released via his mouth for money to a deadline for Ladbrokes.

We are also not above pointing out that of all Neville’s friends and former colleagues to come out and back his managerial credentials, it is very, very funny that it’s the one whose name is literally Valencia.

So yeah, sigh of relief at Sky Sports Towers there given this particular blow amounts to ‘My mate would still deffo be a good manager, actually’.

But what of the other pundits departing ‘down the line’? To no great surprise, ‘down the line’ is doing an awful lot of lifting here. One is Micah Richards, who has been very clear that he will be leaving punditry after the 2034 World Cup. Which is still eight years away, so probably not one to cause Sky or CBS or the BBC too much stress at this time.

The other? Roy Keane, because he once said on a podcast that he might go and live abroad at an unspecified point in the future.

The blows just keep on coming as Sky Sports endure this real-time beleaguering.

Bottle job It’s time for another game of the ever (*never, just like Bleeding Gums Murphy and Dr Marvin Monroe) popular missing words round with the Daily Express.

Those all-important words for which there was no headline room this time being ‘nine years ago, by an unidentified Manchester United staff member after Manchester City won a derby while Arteta was part of Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff’.

Admittedly makes it a bit Daily Mail in terms of length, but is at least not a total disingenuous p*ss-take.

Sick as a Parrott Troy Parrott’s eye-catching start to his Real Betis career and the ongoing despair that continues to engulf his former club Spurs are a combination almost impossible to resist. But we do think we all have to try a little harder with that resistance than football.london have managed here.

The ‘Tottenham summer cash boost’ is the £3.4m they trousered from a sell-on clause when he left AZ for Spain. Fair enough.

But what’s the ‘Huge… Premier League prediction made’? First of all, you’ll be excited and perhaps relieved to learn that said prediction comes from no less a soothsayer than erstwhile Reading and Wolves striker Kevin Doyle, so you know it’s gold.

And you will want to sit down for this. Because that huge Premier League prediction is that talented professional footballer Troy Parrott might one day return to England and play in the Premier League. Or, alternatively, he might not.

We’re not making this up, that genuinely is Doyle’s prediction. See for yourselves.

HUGE.