An unapologetic rant!!

I couldn’t bear to do a post match article after that shambles the other night. Thankfully we had an excellent article in the bank from Matty to keep us ticking over as I knew my article would just be an expletive riddled rant but having just heard the VAR audio, I can’t contain it anymore. If you’re easily offended, best stop reading now…

Right, what the actual fuck!! I’ve seen some shocking decisions in my time but Saturday rewrote the book on shocking decisions. I’ve never been one that’s bought into conspiracies that refs favour certain teams or are out to get us. All fans feel like that so we can’t all be right and I’ve always felt it was just incompetence, as opposed to bias or corruption but my god if that game didn’t put that belief to the test.

First things first, the two red cards. The Jones one, anyone who’s ever had as much as a kickabout in the street with their mates could see what’s happened there. He’s gone to win the ball and he HAS however ball was wet, slippy and rolling away from him. Simple physics meant Curtis momentum caused his foot to slip over the top of the ball and make contact with the player. It’s simple physics, complete accident and absolutely nothing he could have done to prevent it. The initial call by the ref was to give a yellow and you could see by Curtis reaction to that, he felt even that was harsh. VAR gets involved unnecessarily in my opinion but here’s where it gets interesting. Rather than show the ref the incident in real time first and then slowed down as they usually do, they show the ref a still image of Curtis studs making contact with his opponents leg. They held the still image for a number of seconds, as if to ingrain the image in the referees head and followed it up with a super slow motion replay. Not once was it shown in real time and we all know how much worse everything looks when slowed down and at that point the red was inevitable.

As for Jota, he got two yellows without making contact with the player once! Not deliberate contact anyway. Granted the second one was a silly challenge having just been booked but it was still a dive. The first yellow though was an absolute joke!! Bissouma tripped himself up, Jota was just running along, made no attempt to tackle or impede whatsoever. VAR can’t intervene in yellows though and you can appeal a red but not a yellow that’s led to a red? Another ludicrous rule in the game.

The real whopper though is the Diaz goal. A beautiful goal, perfectly played pass, perfectly timed run and superb finish. The lino puts his flag up, fair enough I can see why he could’ve thought it was offside and that’s what we’ve got VAR. for. I’ve just finished listening to the audio of it and what a fuckin bunch of bumbling buffoons. The ironic thing is they actually got to the decision it was onside quickly and with minimal fuss, it should’ve been a perfect example of VAR being good for the game and how it SHOULD work. Instead it was a complete fuckin shambles.

The second Spurs put the ball down to take their free kick, why weren’t the VAR officials straight in the ear of the ref saying what’s going on? What the fuck were they watching at that time, the bloody Ryder Cup? All backslapping each other on a decision well made, while the game restarts and then there’s nothing they can do about it? Just stop the bloody game!! Sure it might have been a mild embarrassment for them but it wouldn’t be the absolute shitstorm it’s since turned into. It’s not only changed the momentum of the game, it completely turned it on its head.

We’re a team that’s missed out on the league title by a single point not once but TWICE in recent years! One directly because if a ridiculous VAR decision as well, City’s non penalty for the handball at Everton. These things don’t even themselves out, they have a DIRECT impact on the outcomes of seasons, managers jobs etc etc.

Before VAR I could accept human error. Linesman’s got it wrong, ref missed a handball or whatever. It was frustrating yes but you could see how it could happen with the game going so quickly. THAT is what you call human error. What we saw on Saturday was gross incompetence of the highest level. The kind of incompetence if translated to my line of work would lead to a gas explosion levelling a block of flats. It’s un-fuckin-believable and heads should roll. The fact they were in the UAE refereeing 48 hours earlier just compounds the situation.

I could go on and on but I won’t. If we miss out on something major like the title or a top four place by a point or two this season however, I hope the club look at all legal comebacks, get their fancy lawyers in and take these clowns to task. The whole PGMOL isn’t fit for purpose, they admit to not knowing the rules of the game and covering for their mates. What other line of work would an apology be enough for this level of incompetence and dishonesty?

Right that’s enough, or I’ll be st this all night. Sack the fuckin lot of em!! Walk on!