Treated like sh**, Sir Alex? You don't know what it feels like. 29th AUGUST 2011

TREATED LIKE SH**, SIR ALEX?
TRY PUTTING YOURSELF IN OUR SHOES.

So Sir Alex Chewing-Gum thinks that Manchester United have been treated like excrement by the FA. Well after three weeks of Premier League
existence I reckon we Norwich city fans are the ones asking questions about ill-treatment.
I wonder at what point a club becomes respected as 'belonging' in the top flight. On the evidence of what we've seen so far this season
it's to do with Premier League longevity and the attitude of referees (but I can't help thinking that the formula is complicated by money and what I
can only term managerial 'beef').
It used to be easy to know a top club. It was those with a history, a venerable old stadium (think Highbury, Roker Park, Maine Road, White Hart Lane)
 and a loyal, mainly working-class fan base. My childhood memories also suggest that the really top teams had instantly recognisable kits and at
least seven automatically recognisable names on their team sheets every week.
But today's Premier League is a completely different environment. Such teams as those of my boyhood belong to a bygone, misty age.
You might think it's just all about money.That's the common cry of the disgruntled fan, especially those of a certain vintage. The thrust of their
argument is that if you get yourself a Russian oligarch, a Thai businessman or a bored Arab Sheikh and don't care too much where they got their money from
you're on the road to success. The next step is to ensure that your starting line up is about as authentically British as paella, pizza or chilli con carne.
 Or maybe move to a new stadium, away from the streets that play home to your supporters and into an out-of-town, no-atmosphere warehouse without a roof.
Well my close observation of Norwich City's first three weeks as a Premier League club is leading me to a different conclusion. I have clearly identified
 the single most significant factor in measuring when a club has 'made it'. It's when the referees favour your team. When the 50/50s go your way.
 When your player commits two yellow card offences but stays on the pitch but your opponents get red cards for similar if not less serious challenges
and your team receives penalties for 'fouls' outside the box.
Had Ritchie De Laet's challenge at Wigan which resulted in a penalty taken place in the home penalty area at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge it would
 have been dismissed as a 'coming together' - the most recent addition to the pundits' lexicon (meaning - 'I don't know if it was a foul or not').
Leon Barnett's red card challenge on Stoke's Jonathan Walters was, firstly, outside the box and, secondly, the most glaring example of a 'coming together'
I've ever seen. Meanwhile John Ruddy's dive at the feet of Ramires at Stamford Bridge might well have been a penalty but the red card was harsh.
Can you even imagine the vitriol which would have been spewing forth from the camp of Sir Alex (whether directly from old Wrigley tonsils himself or not)
if those decisions had gone against Manchester United? Apoplexy wouldn't even get close to describing the mood.
And yet any surprise or disappointment expressed by Norwich fans or management at these decisions is quickly dismissed. On 'Match Of The Day' (where the level
of punditry has reached an alarmingly poor level) the 'experts'have shrugged and smirked, 'Norwich were perhaps a little unlucky.' On 6-0-6 Blackburn's
Jason Roberts dismissed the complaints of an articulate Norwich fan on this issue by saying that's the way it is for small clubs - when you go to such places
as Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge THAT'S WHAT YOU HAVE TO EXPECT.
So let's just check that. WHAT YOU HAVE TO EXPECT is corrupt, inept, incompetent officiating BECAUSE YOU'VE JUST GOT PROMOTED.
Now I've always regarded Norwich City as a bigger club than Wigan Athletic and certainly the equal of Stoke City. I don't think either Roberto Martinez
or Tony Pulis are quite as intimidating to referees as a Ferguson or a Wenger and yet successive referees offer these clubs more 'respect' than they afford
Norwich City.
Unless Paul Lambert can quickly learn the tricks of referee manipulation/intimidation it looks like we face a season of being 'a little unlucky' with officials
and only by surviving in the top flight for a few years (like Wigan and Stoke) will we 'earn the right' to be treated fairly, or perhaps that means unfairly
at the expense of some other more recently promoted team. Hmmm... this staying up business is a lot more complicated than it might seem.
Treated like sh**, Sir Alex? You haven't got a clue what it really feels like!