"What United should do is to appeal against Boumsong's one-match ban and plead that it is increased to three games"
It's a joke but no one is laughing
Mar 20 2006
By Alan Oliver, The Evening Chronicle
Newcastle United central defender Jean Alain Boumsong is now the biggest joke in football.
And not far behind the fumbling Frenchman is Graeme Souness who, in his wisdom, paid his former club Rangers £8.5m to bring the hapless defender to St James' Park.
And Sky Television avoided being the third biggest joke in football when, after two performances in front of the cameras in the space of four days, they gave Souness a miss yesterday.
Watching Souness squirm when asked about Boumsong would have been some telly, although he would have found an excuse or blamed someone else when quizzed on his track record at St James'.
It's not just that Souness paid Rangers £8.5m for a player the men from Ibrox picked up on a free transfer from Auxerre less than a year before-hand, but if he sees out his five-year contract then the Boumsong deal will have cost around £20m.
What Boumsong cost United yesterday was the chance to beat Liverpool after he:
N FAILED to cut out Kromkamp's cross and allowed Peter Crouch to nod Liverpool in front after 10 minutes . . .
OT:David MoyesOn Wed, 15 Mar 2006 07:55:11 GMT, Just a Liverpudlian wrote in alt.sports.soccer.everton: Thst wasn't his "logical conclusion" at all. It was bullpoo written by you because you din't like...
N MISSED a great headed chance in first-half injury time when United could easily have gone in at the interval at 2-2 . . .
N MISKICKED yet again and conceded a penalty which saw Liverpool wrap it all up just seven minutes into the second half and reduce his side to 10 men.
No wonder the Liverpool fans were chanting Souness' name in the first half.
But Boumsong has been missing crosses, missing headers at the other end and miskicking all season, and you have got to feel sorry for Glenn Roeder who has been left with such a donkey at the heart of his defence.
What United should do is to appeal against Boumsong's one-match ban and plead that it is increased to three games.
Certainly Chelsea will miss another red-card victim from yesterday, William Gallas, at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night a heck of a lot more than United will miss Boumsong.
In fact, United played better with 10 men after Boumsong had been sent off, and it's a fair bet Titus Bramble wasn't too upset on Friday when he suffered a reaction to his hamstring injury and spoilt Roeder's plans to recall him alongside the French international.
French international? All United can do is pray that Boumsong has a great World Cup in Germany and they can sell him on the back of it.
For there is no way United can burden a new manager with such a hopeless player at the heart of his defence.
Mike Riley had as bad a game as it is possible for a referee to have, but he was right to brandish his red card at Boumsong and effectively end the match as a contest.
In his 17 months in charge, United never came back to win a Premiership match after going behind under Souness, but they had a chance of doing this under Roeder and should actually have gone in at the interval level if Boumsong had not put that header wide.
United could moan that had it fallen to Alan Shearer the outcome of the game could well have been different. But really United can have few complaints at the result as they never really got to grips with Liverpool playing wing-backs so effectively, especially as for the second week in a row Scott Parker and Emre were second best in midfield.
Funnily enough, United's best player was Nobby Solano once the little Peruvian was asked to play as a wing-back himself after Boumsong's red card, but once again there were far too many men who had another off day.
VERDICT: Liverpool were easily the better team, but Boumsong made it even easier for them.
