Jeff Stelling believes that technical areas in football should be removed, which would certainly please Mikel Arteta.

The Spaniard was booked during Arsenal's 2-0 win over Everton at the weekend for leaving the technical area.

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After the game, he revealed he has been collecting evidence against other Premier League managers.

This prompted a discussion on talkSPORT Breakfast between Stelling, Ally McCoist and Arsenal broadcaster Laura Kirk-Francis about technical areas.

Stelling said: "Get rid of technical areas because they are complete nonsense. Nobody abides by the rules, you rarely see a manager admonished for being outside of his technical area.

"What is the benefit of them? Get rid of them!"

Kirk-Francis added: "On average, they spend a quarter of the game outside of the technical area, so would you have them roaming?"

And McCoist believes it wouldn't make much difference.

He said: "They wouldn't anyway. They would generally stay in the vicinity of the dugout. That is where they'd be 95 or 96 per cent of the time.

"The one thing I took from Arteta's comments was that he was going to take a few down with him.

"He's got a few names on that list."

Kirk-Francis concluded: "He is much maligned for doing it, but he isn't the only one, and ultimately, isn't this a bit of a non-story?

"Let him get on with it."

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What did Arteta say?

In the second half with Arsenal winning, Arteta wandered out of his area one too many times and was shown a yellow card.

That was his second of the season, meaning one more would be a one-match touchline ban.

And in his post-match press conference when asked about it, he said: "I do have to be careful. I am going to put sensors there.

"There are other managers who have the record in the league - 36 times in ten minutes, they left their box - no yellows.

"I am clipping all of that, so I now have a massive storage of images.

"So, I am nowhere near the record, somebody else has the record, can you deal out 36 yellow cards in ten minutes? I don't know where we are going to be."

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Alternative methods

Arteta's claim might have some merit behind it due to a statistic revealed on air by Kirk-Francis.

She said: "According to the BBC, the manager who was outside of their technical area most last year was Unai Emery."

This led to a series of alternative and not even remotely serious options to stop managers leaving their technical areas.

Stelling first joked: "They should use barbed wire around the technical area. It would stop it."

McCoist chimed in while bursting into laughter: "I'd go a step further and put mines down. I'd make it a minefield."

And Kirk-Francis added: "What about a collar that one of those pets wear that gives them a little electric shock if they go too far away, so it would buzz if you go outside of your technical area.

As former Rangers manager, McCoist did admit that it is hard to stay in the technical area before suggesting another funny alternative.

"It is very difficult to stay inside your technical area. But I've played a golf course which had an electric fence around the green to stop the cows - so there you are.

"And it works, so that is something to think about."

Certainly, if they did decide to get rid of technical areas, many managers in the Premier League would be very relieved.