Appealing decisions post-match

Unsurprisingly, there are some appeals taking place following the Chelsea v Aston Villa match yesterday in which, depending on who you talk to, there was a penalty given that wasn't (on Ballack), a free-kick given that wasn't (which Ballack scored from), and a second penalty given that wasn't (Cole's "handball"). Here's an idea...why don't we resolve some or all of these decisions at the time rather than wasting time afterwards. If, for example, the ball is found to have hit Cole in the chest, he may not be banned, but Chelsea don't get the extra 2 points back.

At what point is the appeals panel going to suggest that they could view the appeals at the time ensuring that decisions are correct and saving all this unecessary and unfair retrospective guff.

Allardyce plays dangerous game

I can't help feeling that you're playing a dangerous game if you walk into a new job and start telling the team that they aren't good enough as Sam Allardyce has done. He has 27 senior players to choose from, barring injury, so is he really saying that he can't find a match squad that he's happy with? Admittedly his preference, I'm sure, is to have bought the whole squad himself so that they are his own choices, but no manager is ever in that situation unless he first buys himself time with the current crop of players, like Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have done. By leaving Bolton he forfeited that, but it was his choice to go to a bigger club and, presumably, make more money.

I'm sure he came in with a brief to strengthen the squad, but he is under pressure and he's lashing out at the players, many of whom will have a say in his future - hardly the most sensible of moves. He needs to quietly manage those players he doesn't want out of the club, while bringing in some he does, but publicly slating them means that he won't get much out of them before they leave, and it doesn't exactly enhance their value in the transfer market.

English advantageous but not mandatory

I can only imagine that the job description for England manager doesn't ask for English to be mandatory as Capello's English is limited at best. How's he meant to motivate his players when he can't speak to them in their own language? Half-time team talks are going to be farcical!

He has a great record for sure, and he could still be very successful, but not being fluent in English, or even competent in English, is going to make his job very much harder. Good luck to him.