Laura Woods and Jamie O'Hara struggled to agree during a heated discussion about Aleksandar Mitrovic's conduct on Sunday.
Mitrovic was sent off during Fulham's 3-1 FA Cup loss to Manchester United after pushing and squaring up to referee Chris Kavanagh. While there is no debate over whether Mitrovic should have been dismissed, fans are split on the length of his ban. The Fulham striker and his manager Marco Silva have been charged by the FA for their conduct.
As it stands, Mitrovic will serve a three-match domestic suspension - yet the ban is likely to be extended due to the nature of Mitrovic's dismissal. Former Tottenham and talkSPORT pundit O'Hara hopes the striker's punishment will not be too severe.
Woods, who presents talkSPORT's breakfast show, is worried kids will emulate Mitrovic's push at grassroots level. She said on Monday, "There are youngsters watching that going: 'I’ll do that, that looks quite cool, we can do whatever we want to the referee'."
O'Hara insisted that doesn't happen because his 12-year-old son doesn't want to copy Mitrovic. Woods replied, "I’m sure your 12 year old is angelic. Perfectly angelic. But there are 12 year olds out there who aren’t... We heard from someone earlier on, that the kids on the pitches are covering their mouths, like the Premier League footballers do!"
But O'Hara disagreed. He argued, "Are we going to make an example of Mitrovic because he’s lost his rag on a football pitch? How many players have lost their rags over the years? Man United used to surround referees for fun, Arsenal do it this season. I don’t agree with what he’s done, but to talk about banning him for 10 games is outrageous."
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Woods agreed and said the idea of a 10-game ban made her "wince" when she heard it. Yet she also listed examples of previous suspensions, such as when Paolo Di Canio and David Prutton received 11-game and 10-game bans respectively for similar offences.
O'Hara replied, "Mitrovic has lost his rag. What he done was wrong. Don’t touch the referee - we all know that, don’t touch the referee. But the talk of 10 games is ridiculous! He’s made himself look a fool, he’s going to get fined by his club, the whole world is coming down on him, but the talk of 10 games is outrageous!"
Fellow talkSPORT pundit Dean Saunders then called for a 15-game ban before Woods added, "I agree with you [O'Hara], I feel like 10 games is a lot, I really do."
O'Hara then criticised the standard of refereeing in the Premier League. He said, "Don’t you think this problem has been coming with how bad the referees have been? And how bad VAR has been. This has been building up for some time.
"The players have had enough of how bad the officials have been. It’s starting to spill over, but the referees need to have a look at themselves as well. How many times have we said about the refereeing being shambolic? Every week! They are useless!"
Woods, in disbelief, replied, "That doesn’t mean you can push them! It doesn’t matter, there’s an official on the pitch, you do what he says. What I think is that the refs need to start using their cards more so players are scared to go near them. Start using those cards, they are in your pocket!"
Saunders then insisted referees can't "lose their authority" before O'Hara claimed they don't have any authority anyway due to the emergence of the video assistant referee (VAR).
Woods then asked, "Do you think that referees are going to get a bit more respect if they start to be tougher on people surrounding them on the pitch? Coming up to them and they use those cards and they see they don't have a second chance - you're off."
As O'Hara hesitated, Woods laughed, "You can agree with me." O'Hara eventually replied, "I think referees will get respect when they start making better decisions."
