The old saying. Not that John Carver is all bad. He inherited a team that has skirted with the drop zone for six of the last eight games.

The situation wasn't helped when Gary Speed lived up to his name and never wasted a second about choosing club football or managing his national team, Wales.

Carver has been coy about whether or not he would like the caretaker job to be made permanent. He did, however, let slip after the defeat at the hands of Norwich City, say: "Let's just say I did want this job.

Our board might look at it and think he's won one and lost two. Can we give it to him?"

Again, the Sheffield board might consider the complaining that Carver has done about referees, instead of shrugging his shoulders, accepting that sometimes things just turn out that way, take responsibility for his team losing and working on putting things to rights! Like:

"Referee's go out there but if they have a bad day at the office then they might get demoted for a game and then they're back on the scene.

If we have one then we find ourselves out of work or in a relegation battle."

His biggest moan was about Phil Crossley who took charge as the Blades were thrashed by four goals to two by Norwich City.

"I'm livid," he said. "There we [sic] six decisions out there that change peoples' lives.

"I went out on the pitch to speak to the referee in a controlled manner and then did the same again after we'd come off. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about things in the next few days.

"For their first penalty (Grant) Holt has told Nick Montgomery that he had to go down and con the ref. That's great sportsmanship isn't it?

"For their second, everything happened so quickly that Kyle (Bartley) didn't even have time to put his hand to the ball. Their lad does the same up the other end, goes into the air like Superman, and it's not given. Ched (Evans) gets his collar tugged in the box, gets dragged down and it's not given. This has been a recurring theme for us for a long time now."

Norwich City manager Paul Lambert was a little sympathetic towards his counterpart.

"If the first (penalty) had been given against me then I'd be furious. I know how John will be feeling. I'd be feeling hard done by too."

However, how many times have such decisions been made against Norwich City over the course of the season? And how many times has a decision gone against the Canaries when the foul in the penalty area was as plain as the nose on the referee's face?

As hard as it is, at times, in the manner of refereeing decisons, it is a case of win today, lose tomorrow, or what comes around goes around.

Managers who blame referees are doing their players a disservice. The players will be feeling down and dissapointed. Instead of concentrating on correcting the errors that madw it look to the ref that an infringement took place he has the players giving everything up as a bad lot, believeing that they will never win a game again.

So, Mr Carver, don't be too disappointed to find yourself out of work shortly. The Sheffield board will want to take on a winner, not a moaner.

Photo: Action Images

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