RETROSPECTIVE BANS WOULD ERADICATE DIVING, SAYS DYCHE
LONDON: Stoke City’s Mark Hughes expressed concern about the future for British managers in the Premier League as he prepared for his 400th match in charge against Southampton this week.
“Sometimes experience is underplayed in the Premier League. New managers come in, bright new guys, and people get excited but a lot fall by the wayside,” the Welshman said.
“We (British managers) are dying out, I have to say, but that’s a lot to do with the owners of clubs. It’s a world league, not a British league.”
Hughes was the highest-ranked British manager in the Premier League at the end of last season after steering Stoke to ninth place.
In the current standings, the top seven teams are all managed by foreigners with Welshman Tony Pulis eighth at West Bromwich Albion and Hughes 11th.
Southampton, managed by Frenchman Claude Puel, are 10th.
Hughes, who joined Stoke in 2013 after stints at Queens Park Rangers, Fulham, Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers, said every week was a challenge but he had acquired invaluable experience along the way.
“I’ve been doing it for a long time now and that’s on top of my playing career as well so I’ve got a lot of experience.
“There’s not too much I haven’t seen but it never stops,” added the former Manchester United, Barcelona and Chelsea forward. “We have got two games coming up at home against teams that may be around us in the table and if we can take points it’s obviously going to help our case of being above them after 38 games.”
Champions Leicester City under Italian Claudio Ranieri are Stoke’s next visitors.– Reuters LONDON: Burnley manager Sean Dyche has called for retrospective bans to be introduced to stop players diving to win free kicks and penalties.
Hull City’s Robert Snodgrass won a spot-kick during the 3-3 Premier League draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday and said after the game that the penalty should never have been awarded.
“It’s got to a level now that it’s that theatrical that I’m surprised people don’t just start laughing. It’s gone too far. It’s ridiculous,” said Dyche.
“Introduce retrospective bans and it will be gone. Certain teams would have three or four players done immediately, from a warning in private to the manager, up to a three-game ban. It’s simple to officiate,” he added.
Dyche said if a panel was set up to hand out bans it would be defunct within six months because players would stop diving and West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis agreed.
“We have retrospective stuff on tackles and we should have retrospective decisions on people who dive and they should be banned for three games. That will soon stop it,” Pulis said. – Reuters