Have Premier League officials taken a winter course on sardonic humour?
Last week, we heard Everton captain Phil Jagielka claim that referee Martin Atkinson had mockingly told him that his defending “was brilliant,” after he complained about some decisions in the Toffees’ Capital One Cup defeat to Manchester City.
And now, it’s Kevin Friend who’s been accused of sarcasm as Norwich manager Alex Neil claims his questions were brushed off with an air of derision.
The Canaries fell to a 3-0 defeat at home to Spurs on Tuesday night and Neil wanted to know why the referee awarded a penalty for Sebastien Bassong’s foul on Dele Alli but failed to do the same for a similar challenge on Steven Naismith by Kevin Wimmer.
Neil said: “I asked Kevin about it after the game, but his response was sarcastic. He said: ‘Yeah, it’s my fault you’ve lost the game,’ which of course it wasn’t.
“We lost because Spurs played better than us. But those decisions didn’t help.
“I’m not one for complaining with referees. Sometimes you get the decisions, sometimes you don’t.
“But the penalty was as soft as I’ve seen. Nobody appeals and all of a sudden he points to the spot. I don’t think anyone was expecting it.
“The two have a coming together and the fact he sees that as a penalty is really disappointing.
“There were a lot of 50-50 decisions that we didn’t get. I’m not saying we lost the game because of those decisions.
“But it’s hard to take. We didn’t get our fair share.”
