With the development and refinement of football, many roles and positions that have never existed before have emerged in recent years, such as the "hand-tossed coach" who made a name for himself with Liverpool. And this week, Nottingham Forest in the Premier League made a "groundbreaking" move, creating a new position for their team that is arguably unheard of: referee analyst. As for the specific person who will be appointed, old Premier League fans will not be unfamiliar at all - Mark Clattenburg, a former Premier League whistler. The 48-year-old did not become a refereeing executive like his colleague Webber, but instead got a job at a Premier League club.
As for the reason for Nottingham's creation of this strange position, it is widely believed that the team felt that they had received too many "incomprehensible" penalties. For example, in August last year, when Forest lost 3-2 at Manchester United, the team was "angry" at the performance of the referee team who officiated the game, and defender Joe Worrall was sent off in a straight red, but the decision seemed very reluctant. Then, in December, Nottingham lost 3-2 at home to Bournemouth, with defender Todd Boehly's two yellows and one red later deemed to be a wrong decision. Then, in January, Brentford striker Ivan Toney quietly moved the ball after the referee drew the line, which eventually led to Nottingham's free-kick being scored, which was also believed to be a penalty loss for Forest.
According to Nottingham boss Nuno Santo, he has yet to speak to Clattenburg face-to-face, but believes the new colleague's expertise can help the team: "I can accept that the referee doesn't see a problem, but now we have VAR and some of the problems are so obvious. My expectation for Mark is that he can point out 'why this is obvious.'" ”
Therefore, Nottingham hopes to borrow Clattenburg's professional refereeing experience to put himself on the side of "justice and justice", so as to put more pressure on the Premier League referee company when they are wronged, so as to achieve the goal of "don't fool us next time"? This may be one of the reasons, and Clattenburg did have some different judgments from the referee on duty. For example, in an op-ed to the Daily Mail a week ago, he said that Nottingham had lost 3-2 at home to Newcastle United and that the home side had been awarded a penalty.
There is also a view that the appointment of referee analysts is not just about analysing decisions, but also about the club's ability to better communicate with refereeing companies with the help of former Premier League whistles. To borrow the words of the Post, it is to "enhance understanding and exchange between the two sides". However, it is worth mentioning that although Clattenburg was a top referee in the Premier League back then, it has been 7 years since he left the Premier League. In 2017, he went to Saudi Arabia to "make money" and succeeded Webb as the referee head of the Saudi league. In 2022, he was once again appointed as the chairman of the Egyptian Referees Committee, but he only worked for less than half a year before stepping down. In addition to writing reviews for British newspapers, Clattenburg's most recent job has been to appear on entertainment shows – this year the BBC relaunched the sports entertainment show "Gladiator," in which Clattenburg was also a referee.