CYNICAL PGMOL CHANGE THE CONVERSATION (TRY)
DON DRAPER STRATEGY
There’s a famous line in Mad Men when Don Draper is advising Peggy on how to deal with a difficult situation.
"If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation."
The reaction from PGMOL yesterday, according to Darren Lewis, who was on Sky, was that they were going to double down on the decision being the correct one.
I actually can’t find the tweet because I think Sky Sports deleted it, which is a bit of a story on its own. But, the core message here that you need to understand.
Michael Oliver thought the MLS trip was serious foul play
VAR thought the trip was serious serious foul play
Howard Webb thought the trip was serious foul play
Instead of owning a generationally bad decision, they doubled down on it.
Despite what I said in the post yesterday - Arsenal’s PR decision via Arteta to not to attack the referee seems extremely sound.
Hopefully we don't need to (appeal the decision) and if we have to, there is a really good precedent, what happened with Bruno this season as well
Arteta could easily have made the post-match about him - but he focused on the absurdity of the decision. He didn’t give Howard Webb an option to talk about anything else today - which pushed PGMOL into a massive error.
I’m reading a book about Eleven Madison Park, one of the greatest restaurants in the world. One of the stories is about how a chef set the tone for running a restaurant with his staff.
"I want to run the best restaurant in the world. Every decision I make will be for that goal. Sometimes, that will upset you."
Howard Webb is paid to have a mindset like that. His mission should be to deliver the best possible outcomes for Premier League games. His job is to think about the product before the people, even if that sometimes means he has to make an example of someone who is clearly damaging the mission.
Webb’s response tells you that his primary objective, over anything else, even the absurd… is keeping his people happy and protected.
Mikel Arteta had to tell his close friend, Hector Bellerin, he wasn’t good enough to operate in his system when he became manager. That’s leadership at the highest level. Howard Webb, can’t bring himself to let his organization own a horrendous error the entire football world is disgusted by.
Does that sound like a leader with the courage to fix this problem?
After the disastrous PR blunder in the morning, PGMOL dialed up their PR guy and asked what they could do. Like any good PR guy, he channeled his Don Draper… they changed the conversation. I predicted it yesterday… they went for tone. Michael Oliver has had threats and the police are involved.
I hate social media abuse. No one should feel threatened for working in football. But the reality is, we know why this angle is in the ether. PGMOL wants to change the conversation because they know they can’t win in a low-ground battle against the facts.
The question now is, who is in cahoots with Howard Webb? Will the MSM pivot to talking about social media abuse and the responsibility fans have to not complain about injustice? Will Webb’s besties, Jamie Carrahger and Gary Neville, who have been very quiet about this, come to the rescue with ‘letter of the law’ support, or worse, pivot away from talking about the decision all together? We’re yet to see. But for me, the reaction of PGMOL is a grand opening for Arsenal and the Premier League to demand more from an organization that is underperforming and taking up a grotesque amount of airtime from the things we really care about… the actual football.
If you want to read deeper thoughts on PGMOL, check out my post from yesterday that seems to be quite popular.
Short one today because it’s late here. I sent out an email last night regarding a special offer I was giving to people who ask me if can buy just the writing part of the website. You can. Below is the offer. Remember, if you can’t afford it for whatever reason, just let me know, and I’ll sort you out (you do NOT need to tell me why, we’re all besties here).
Ok, that’s all I’ve got.
What are the chances that Oliver has refereed twice in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, and in both occasions, his VAR was Darren England? They are absolutely a hit team. The most loyal soldiers of their boss (Webb) sent to do the dirty job cause they are the best of the best. Their trips to the Middle East might have been a way to show their efforts are valued.
It might sound like I have my tinfoil hat on but in football, small margins matter so much. Last season we lost the title by 2 points. Had we won, say the game against Newcastle (it had to be Newcastle), when you are well aware of the goal they were given, we would have lifted the title. Just one game and the history of the PL changes and the future of clubs. Spread that into 4 or 5 games per season (the decisions we've already gotten against us this season), the swings of points are incredible. We should be ahead or on equal points with Liverpool at this stage really.
The decision to punish MLS with a red card, makes PGMOL either incompetent or corrupt, most probably both. They have too much power and zero accountability. They won't even admit their mistakes. They think they are untouchable and for a good reason, cause nothing is ever done to raise the quality of refereeing. It's the same old, same old. VAR has proven to make very little difference, just another way for refs to control the outcome as they see fit.
They can rewrite the view of MLS's foul all they like but Wolves player 2nd yellow foul was far worse and wasn't deemed serious foul play. Conveniently, this isn't even being mentioned. As for the online abuse. That's a side effect of society as whole and level of interest in the Premier league. By making fair unbiased calls would go a long way to addressing that.