NEILL AND CATTERMOLE DESERVE HANDCUFFS TOO

AFTER Lucas Neill broke Jamie Carragher's leg in September 2003, the Liverpool defender's mates were ready to dish out their own form of justice. Not to be commended.

But they were not alone in believing a three-game ban was scant punishment for putting Carragher on crutches.

However, Graeme Souness, Neill's manager at the time, disagreed with the thoughts of the scouse vigilantes.

"In no way is Lucas Neill a dirty player," said Souness. Of course not. The seven red cards and 99 yellows amassed during his Premier League career are all products of over-enthusiasm, I guess.

Doubtless there will be some apologists out there who still claim Neill is not a dirty player, even after Lee Cattermole's leg escaped a similar fate to Carragher's only by pure luck.

And some apologists who believe the very same Cattermole - two reds and 35 yellows in just over three years - is merely combative. And the chances are those apologists belong to one of two organisations. The League Managers' Association or the Professional Footballers' Association.

This week they got together to produce a whole series of recommendations about refereeing. Which is a bit like the criminal fraternity telling the Old Bill how to police the streets.

I have to confess that wading through 70 pages of this LMA/PFA report proved beyond me. Besides, we all know the conclusion. Referees are to blame for everything.

And to be honest, on the day this report dropped on to my doormat, I was too busy watching the members of these two self-important bodies trying to disable each other on a football field and undermining the officials off it.

But, of course, it is all Stuart Attwell's fault. It was Attwell who sent six studs into Cattermole's ankle with car-collision force. It was Attwell who assaulted Scott Parker with lunatic ferocity.

Now the young official made some poor decisions in that game. And he clearly has some way to go before he can be considered a top referee.

SCOTT UNDER THE COLLAR - Scott Parker (right) makes his feelings about Lee Cattermole (far left) clear

But to imply he single-handedly turned the players of Wigan and West Ham into a braying, violent mob - as many did - is nonsense.

Referees will always get decisions wrong. No matter how many suggestions from the PFA and LMA they follow.

But if the PFA and LMA are serious about improving standards amongst officialdom, they might first care to send a few recommendations to their own members.

Stop diving. Stop feigning injury. Stop hurling abuse at the ref. Stop committing career-threatening fouls. Stop cheating. There you go. Seventeen words rather than 70 pages.

Court

But the problem is that too many players and too many managers don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. And by whingeing about the standard of refereeing, they are diverting attention away from the real poison in the game. The poison put there by the likes of Neill and Cattermole.

Arsene Wenger knows what the real issues are in football, which is why he spoke so passionately about the violence we saw last week.

"Players who are 90 kilos and who run the 100 metres in 11 seconds . . . if they jump in, they can completely destroy a player."

Wenger himself contemplated taking Dan Smith to court after the Sunderland player's challenge broke Abou Diaby's leg in 2006. He might have been justified in doing so.

TALKED INTO TROUBLE - Ashley Cole makes a habit of dissent

Being on a professional football field does not give anyone the legal right to deliberately inflict injury and pain on someone. And unless players clean up their act, the law should do it for them.

A grim week was capped when Ashley Cole was pictured in a pair of police bracelets. But after the behaviour of Neill and Cattermole, Cole can count himself unlucky that he was the only footballer in handcuffs.

And by the way, Ashley Cole was arrested not for being drunk and disorderly on Thursday - he was arrested for dissent. His speciality.

He was arrested for treating police officers with the same contemptuous rudeness with which he treats referees.

Because like so many of his fellow pros, Cole believes footballing celebrity gives him the right to disrespect any form of authority.

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