Paying the Price?

Rumour has it the FA are going to agree an annual fee and set us up a direct debit so we can cut out all the hearings and just pay our fines in convenient monthly instalments.

Sound ridiculous? No more ridiculous than trying to deny Chelsea’s disciplinary record is getting out of hand. 6 reds and in excess of 50 yellow cards already this season, misconduct hearings becoming an all too familiar part of the schedule, not to mention keeping the FA in the black almost single-handedly, and how does Grant react? Bury his head in the sand like the majority of blues, having a touch of the ‘Wenger’s’ where eyesight’s concerned? Or maybe hold his hands up and admit the introduction of Ten Cate’s all-in wrestling in training is having a negative effect? Nope, he points the finger at other clubs.

This started after his first game in charge. Following a red card for John Obi Mikel, Grant stood by and watched half our players surround the ref like playground bullies while the captain attempted to instruct Dean in the correct way to brandish a card. Grant later declared his players had acted in a ‘sporting’ manner. I can only imagine his interpretation of ‘sporting’ is a little different to mine here, particularly when he was so quick to admonish the opposition for a similar, if less hands-on approach, stating “The red card we got against Manchester United was not only to do with the decision of the referee. Their players ran to the referee before us, maybe they are quicker, I don't know.” Either an attempt at wit or he genuinely believes we got a red simply for coming second in the new ‘race to the ref‘ competition. With Grant sadly, one truly can’t be sure.

Andre Marriner was another to receive an on-the-pitch interrogation following Essien’s dismissal against Derby County. Essien was hard done by, but quite apart from being the uglier face of football, this public ‘ganging up’ has never seen the ref put his card away and beg for forgiveness yet. Another fine and another FA warning. Time for Chelsea to start putting their house in order at this stage you might think? Not Grant, instead he puts together a “video dossier” of other teams misbehaving in an attempt to prove we’re being unfairly singled out.

This sense of injustice at the way the club are treated by the authorities wasn’t entirely upheld against Spurs, when Riley chose to all but disregard being subjected to the third degree following the fairly lenient booking of Cole, if not for the challenge itself then for the complete and utter arrogant disrespect shown immediately after. Cole’s subsequent apology promoted by Grant in a less than humble manner, apparently proof that we are football’s new paragons of virtue. Pointing the finger firmly away from his own players again, Grant said "Another player at Arsenal whose name I will not say, tackled our captain, who went to hospital and was out for two months and he did not apologise. We are still waiting for that. Other players have made worse tackles and not been red-carded." All very true but how exactly does it excuse our behaviour in the Spurs game?

Now I’m not suggesting we’re the only team with players harassing the ref, but the fact is, we do have one of the worst disciplinary records in the league. A throwback from Mourinho’s regime certainly, he instilled that ‘fight every step of the way’ mentality and didn’t exactly promote good relations with the boys at Soho Square. But if Mourinho fostered that attitude, then Grant’s clearly gone for full on adoption. Like his predecessor, Grant complains about the supposed bullying from referees but takes this to new extremes by coming out with statements such as “I think the team discipline is good. Not less than other teams, maybe more.”

Now I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I honestly can’t think of another team who repeats these offences with quite the same frequency as we do. I remember all too clearly Utd behaving in a similar way towards Andy D’Urso. The scenes that followed his decision to award Boro a penalty at OT were far from pretty and I remember saying something along the lines of “who the hell do they think they are?” Clearly Fergie felt pretty much the same way since he is reported to have ‘gone off his head at them’, considering it “ridiculous” behaviour. Hairdryers all round then! To my knowledge though, Utd have never behaved in quite the same way again and yet, they’re probably still judged on that incident 8 years later. A clear example of that old cliché: it’s much easier to earn a bad reputation than it is to lose it. These days, despite his own battles with officialdom, Fergie demands a more diplomatic stance from his players "We tell our players to shake the hand of the referee at the end of the game. Sometimes it's difficult but they have to do it.” Compare that to Grant’s perspective following the spectacle at OT - "Our players respect the referee. In this case I don't need to react because their behaviour was okay.” - and the root of the problem becomes clear. This arrogant attitude of being above the law may well be displayed at player level but it’s being condoned, and therefore reinforced, at management level. Thus, all the charges and fines in the world won’t make a blind bit of difference to how our players behave (just in case no-one had actually worked that one out by now) as long as Grant comes out with this sort of stuff - "The discipline at Chelsea has been very good since I've been here.”

It’s all very well for Grant, following Lampard’s recent tantrum, to say he likes passionate players and of course we all do to an extent, as long as they’re playing for us, but there’s a fine line between passion and disrespect - or a tightrope in Terry‘s case. Of course, the players themselves have a duty to self-regulate as far as their discipline is concerned but discipline also needs to be fostered at management level. When this doesn’t happen, then control is lost and that, in turn, is reflected in the outcome of certain games. So reinforcing conspiracy theories Mr Grant, is more likely to see us rewarded with ASBO‘s than trophies. It‘s time to stop the rot.