Tom English: 'If Gannon wants fairness on the pitch he's living in dreamland'

Published on Saturday 12 December 2009 20:16

JIM GANNON is only 41, but he's already packed a lot into his football life, an amount of controversy and a degree of success, a library full of cuttings that see him railing against one thing or another, taking umbrage with anybody and everybody on his road to Fir Park, where again the force of his indignation has put him in the headlines.

He's lashed out at referees and has dynamited Hugh Dallas at Hampden. Then he does a Greta Garbo and says he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, before changing his mind and talking about it plenty. Whinger or crusader? Take your pick.

To recap on his career so far: In 1993, the former Stoke striker, Mark Stein, clashed with Gannon, then playing for Stockport County, at the end of a match at the Victoria Ground. Stein, a black player, went to shake Gannon's hand and Gannon refused. Stein goaded him with the scoreline – 2-1 to Stoke – and Gannon responded with some choice language. Then Stein punched him in the gob. There was a melee and it all ended up in Shrewsbury Crown Court.

Gannon's lawyer said that, yes, his client had abused Stein verbally, calling him "a short, ugly, black, bean-headed twat", but argued that that was the language of the football park. The judge, Peter Northcote, fined Stein for the assault but accepted he had been subjected to extreme provocation.

Gannon spent ten successful years at Stockport, where he was a pillar of the first team. They rose from Fourth Division to First with him as a rock in the defence.

In 2000, he left the club in contentious circumstances. Stockport said it was by mutual consent, the player said it was anything but. Gannon went to a tribunal citing unfair dismissal, but it didn't end happily for him.

An uncompromising defender, he has proved no less categorical in his management life. He said last week, during this endless spat with Dallas over the standard of refereeing in the SPL, that he never had problems with refs when he managed in the League of Ireland and that the only time he complained about officials when he was manager of Stockport was because of over-zealous tackling from opponents that went unpunished by the whistler, as opposed to the gamut of tomfoolery he has seen in his short time at Motherwell boss.

That's a debatable point. It's true that Gannon had a row with Paul Lambert when the Scot was in charge of Wycombe. That was to do with the over-physicality of the Wycombe boys. Lambert's response amounted to something like: "Pot and Kettle, big man". Gannon's Stockport never lacked much in the way of bruisers.

Gannon hit out at Sky for not fixing the reception on his sports package, refusing to speak to them after games at one point. He castigated a referee called Iain Williamson for calling off a Stockport match in the midst of a monsoon. "He should have called it off earlier," he raged. "It was a farcical decision. And they want us to respect these amateurs!"

In late 2008 he claimed that refs had lied and conspired against Stockport. He accused Keith Woolmer of "incompetence" after Woolmer had waved away a Stockport penalty claim. "The referees are amateurs," he said. "They're car park attendants turning up at a professional game and trying to manage professionals." On another occasion, he remarked: "We are in a billion-pound industry and the games are being determined by amateurs."

Amateurs. Along with incompetence, it's one of his favourite words. The to and fro between Fir Park and Hampden has become a pantomime.

"I sent you two letters."

"They never arrived."

"Oh yes they did."

"Oh no they didn't."

Referees get a hard time in every league in every country in the planet. Gannon is being disingenuous when he says he only clashed with officials down south on account of rough-house play by opponents. It's a nonsense claim, about as daft as some of the decisions we see on a weekly basis by referees.

He wants accountability and that's fair enough. But shooting down the messenger – refs and even Dallas himself – is pointless.

If he wants rules to be changed then he should get himself on a plane and head to Sepp Blatter's place and persuade him to introduce video referees to football. Railing against the Craig Thomsons of this world will not bring about the improvements he wants. All it achieves is headlines and notoriety, but maybe that's part of the reason he's doing it. Maybe. He's certainly high-profile now.

And you can be sure that the next man who referees Motherwell will be mindful of Gannon's combustible personality and the things he might say about them should they get stuff wrong. Is there an element of intimidation going on here? Could be. Will it work? It might well.

If Gannon wants fairness on the football pitch he's living in dreamland. The game is so far removed from being fair, it's not true. He says refs are biased, which is a risible claim. It's the kind of paranoia he's displayed previously in his career. Until Blatter makes the changes that need to be made in football, then there's going to be human error upon human error from referees. They make mistakes. Gannon has made a few of them himself. He should understand, then, that nobody is perfect.

ON THE subject of the humble ref, there's this from that old warrior, John Lambie: "I wouldn't like to be a referee," he said in May, 2003. "I've tried to referee a game here with the first team and the second team and I felt like punching every one of them."

That quote is one of thousands from the newly published and immensely enjoyable Scottish Football Quotations 3 by Kenny MacDonald. Anybody who has left even the slightest impression on the game here is mentioned - and plenty more who haven't. Charles Manson and James Hanratty get a name-check. Deeply impressive stuff. And it makes sense. Really. The SPL can be murder, after all. If you're not chuckling from the first page then there's something wrong with you.