da spicy bet： Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted he once thought of instructing his players to see red in order for them to be suspended from less significant contests.
da luck： After Real Madrid pair Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos were dismissed during their Champions League victory at Ajax this week, the Spanish giants have been charged by UEFA with improper conduct.
Real's head coach, Jose Mourinho, allegedly passed messages to the duo, who were both cautioned, to pick up second yellows so they would miss the dead rubber against Auxerre and be available for their last-16 showdown.
Wenger confirmed he once considering asking his players to do the same, but concedes such action would be inappropriate.
"You never say that it doesn't cross your mind, and you have to be completely honest about it," he said."But when you see how it looks on television, I must say, what happened there is the best demonstration to think, 'Never do that again'.
"For yourself as well, never envisage to do that because it looks, frankly, horrible.
"It crosses your mind if two games later you play the biggest game of the season and you have a meaningless game just after and the players can be suspended.
"It's a pity to see that from a big club. You can call it what you want, but it's not what you want to see on a football pitch. It's always the same: on a football pitch, you want to respect people who pay money to watch a football game.
"What they want is to watch football, not to watch these kinds of things. If it's Arsenal or Real Madrid, or anybody else, you don't want to accept that."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email