As long as football is played, managers' blood pressure will rise...

It’s been an interesting few days for people such as Neil Warnock, with regards the Carlos Tevez affair.

Neil is not always the most popular, with his forthright statements.

His teams never seem to lose a game, it’s always the referee who costs them.

He is certainly never one to hold back.

I remember him as a young player – he was a winger who used to kick the full back first.

People have asked me if I think it’s right that he and the affected Sheffield United players put in a claim against West Ham?

I have to say ‘Yes’ without knowing too much detail.

If they were on a bonus to stay in the Premiership and their club has been compensated for the Tevez deal, which cost them their place in the league, then someone, maybe not Sheffield United – and therefore West Ham – should compensate them.

Particularly the professional players who, let’s face it, have got a short life in the game – and the word ‘professional’ does mean being paid.

So with Neil it will be certainly be a case of watching this space.

Steve Coppell at Reading celebrated his 1,000th game as a manager with an important away win at Doncaster.

I remember when he started managing, he was only a 29-year-old and, admittedly, he says looking back that he hadn’t got a clue and some days he would have preferred to go straight to prison than the training ground.

It is nice he is joining me in the 1,000-game gang, although people like myself weren’t all league games.

Mine included five or six years at international level, but, regardless, it is still a good figure to have against your name.

I was more than interested in the goings on at the Emirates after Arsenal squeezed through into the semi-final of the FA Cup against Hull City.

It was undoubtedly an offside goal that cost Hull a replay.

Had that been flagged, it would have given them a better opportunity to play at Wembley in the semis, bringing in much-needed cash to the much smaller club.

Apart from the alleged Cesc Fabregas spitting incident, I could well understand Phil Brown talking about the big club getting the benefit of the doubt – not of course that there was any doubt in most eyes, except those of Arsene Wenger.

Great man though he is, and highly intelligent, I think he would have been better saying he didn’t see the goal properly, rather than trying to justify the man being offside because the goalkeeper touched the ball first.

It was obvious the man was in an offside position when the initial pass was made.

My memory of a similar case was, ironically, against Arsenal, way back around the early 1980s when Saints were doing well in both cups.

We actually got towards the final stages of the league cup and had to play on a Saturday, when we had also drawn Arsenal in the sixth round of the FA Cup.

The league cup tie took priority and I was then hoping to have the Arsenal tie on the Wednesday at The Dell.

But, surprisingly, we were made to play on the Monday night.

We earned a draw but lost the replay.

I said at the time, if it had been the other way around, I was sure Arsenal would have got their way and had the game on the Wednesday.

Not only did Phil Brown see his blood pressure rise on Tuesday, he could also be visiting the FA again on a charge to accompany the one he has already just been fined for, when he had a touchline argument with Joe Kinnear at Newcastle.

Since then, Joe of course has suffered another heart attack and, if Phil isn’t careful, he may do likewise.