A CURRENT Premiership manager once told me that footballers were thick. He cited as an example the fact that the club had to keep his players' passports in the safe or risk pre-season planes taking off with three players and six members of staff.

I always thought this to be a sweeping generalisation. But I am becoming increasingly aghast at the number of players persisting in misconduct and receiving second yellow cards. Now I fully accept that if the ref sets his standard by harshly cautioning early on then somebody may be later dismissed in the crusade for consistency.

This is something we are continually working on as we are asked to be mindful not to resort to the "cheap" early ellow. However, when was the last time you heard a manager criticise a player for a chest high tackle having already been cautioned. When did an errant player last admit "I woz stupid guv!"

Last weekend I was cordially invited to a local enactment of World War Three. Every clash accompanied by a snarl, every meeting by an exchange of pleasantries. Before the half-hour two soldiers has been sanctioned for a mutual handbag attack. In the second half a soldier discovered new oaths with which to curs me.

Following the inevitable card he persisted finding previously undiscovered adjectives by which he judged my performance. Exit the battlefield. Before the peace process could begin he was followed by one of the previous combatants using said handbag to attack another opponent.

Somebody once asked if we learned from history. Some of us don't learn from what happened in the previous 10 minutes. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, "To receive one yellow card may be regarded as a misfortune, to receive two looks like carelessness."