Are the stats relevant? Does running far mean you keep up with play?

Running far does not equal running fast.

Fuck off supporting Taggart and his bumbuddy chums

Are the stats relevant?

Fergie was right. He's a twat and would never have said it had the rags won. He has a point though imo.

I dunno mate. Maybe the stats could be wrong, but looking at the stats straight off, I can't see his point. I think the c-unit just needs to realise the c-units aren't gonna win every fucking game, so he needs to fuck off trying to make excuses

This is true. It's a shame he's so bitter and has made so many excuses that when he finally makes a valid point it's exremely difficult for anybody to take him seriously.

I suppose mate, but in the end i think the prick is being superficial and trying to find an excuse. All the female housemates are talking about wanting a boys sausage. this is extremely not good.

Pics?

How's little'un?

Proper ill. Can't keep food down or anything. Got him the third kit the other day He has more kits than me! Only 1 of the females is any good.

Are the stats relevant?

Fergie was right. He's a twat and would never have said it had the rags won. He has a point though imo.

Sir Alex Ferguson may have claimed Alan Wiley was unfit but the referee almost certainly covered as much ground as many Manchester United players on Saturday. Nobody involved in top-level refereeing would speak on the record today and Ferguson has been asked by the Football Association to explain his comments, which may lead to him being charged with improper conduct.

With the issue in effect sub judice the refereeing fraternity had been told to keep quiet but was privately seething at what most interpreted as an ageist attack by a manager of pensionable age who has long railed at colleagues being deemed past their "sell by dates".

When the distance Premier League referees ran in the course of a match was measured recently Wiley's median was recorded as 11.5km. That, coincidentally, was the average reading for elite officials with only two covering slightly greater distances and a few managing somewhat less.

But for Ferguson that is clearly not good enough. "It's an indictment of our game that we see referees from abroad who are as fit as butcher's dogs," he said. "We've got some good referees in our country who are fit. But he [Wiley] wasn't fit. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player; he was taking a rest. I think he's taking a rest, writing down the names on his card and taking 30 seconds for a booking, it's ridiculous."

Wiley is 49 and refereeing at this level due to European legislation introduced in 2006 which prevents employers forcing employees to resign on grounds of age. In 2008 Peter Walton, a top level referee and due to celebrate his 50th birthday on Saturday, used this piece of European law to stop the Professional Game Match Officials Board making him step down once he passed 48.

Whatever his age Wiley would not still be one of the 18-strong select group of referees blowing his whistle at England's leading clubs were he not extremely fit, as well as able. Like the footballers they are charged with controlling, our leading referees have their performances subjected to sometimes excruciatingly detailed analysis by Prozone and Wiley's stats are said to be impressive.

These days Premier League referees are full-time professionals earning salaries of between £60,000 and £70,000 a year and they devote large chunks of their week to follow personalised fitness programmes with the help of personal trainers. It is hard to cheat the system as once a week they must use heart monitors, which record their exercise output for the sports scientists overseeing them.

Officials are required to hurdle through several figurative hoops – the most nerve wracking of which is undoubtedly their annual fitness test.

First the candidates must complete six 40-metre sprints in a minimum of 6.2sec per sprint with a recovery time ofno more than 90 seconds between each run. Then they have to run 150m 20 times in swift succession in a maximum time of 30 seconds on each occasion. Again a 90 second ceiling is placed on the interval recovery periods.

Should a referee be injured for four weeks or more for any reason they must repeat the test again. They also face repeated mid-season fitness assessments. Quite apart from their running ability referees have their blood pressure and iron levels – which affect aerobic performance – monitored along with cholesterol levels and body fat ratios. Body fat content in excess of 20% is seriously frowned on.

The additional time to devote to working out as opposed to holding down a full-time job enables referees to remain fitter for longer. Allied to constant assessments which can see them discreetly dropped from the elite list, most officials typically tend to retire when niggling injuries and increased recovery times begin taking their toll.

Signficantly a 2008 survey by sports scientists in Leeds which measured the performances of 22 referees aged between 31 and 48 over four seasons found that the older refs - in the 43-48 bracket - on average covered marginally shorter distances and sprinted at fractionally lower intensity than their younger counterparts. Yet in terms of being close to both the ball and fouls there was absolutely no difference between young and old. Just like ageing footballers, it seems that older referees understand the benefits of economy of effort and fully taxing their brains rather than their legs.