SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Managerial merry-go-round has picked up momentum overnight with the much expected dismissal of Steven Gerrard by Aston Villa. This followed the defeat by newly-promoted yo-yo side,Fulham.

Interesting timing,what with the constant questions being asked of his Ibrox successor,Gio Van Bronckhurst. Maybe the Ibrox entity will fancy going back to the past-one of their favourite places,after all-and bringing him back to Glasgow? You can never second-guess this lot,can you? Let’s face it.anything is possible when you consider what has happened down in Westminster!

Meanwhile,back at the ranch,Celtic will continue to work in the present day. Even welcoming Scottish football into the 21^st Century,as it finally introduces VAR. We are a bit late to the party,but that is nothing new. We were the last major gootball association to ban the tackle from behind,even though we were and are a major component of IFAB,the game’s legislatory body. And even now,we have our own relaxed interpretation of that.

I get a feeling,somehow,that we will bring our own unique interpretation too to the concept of VAR. This should not come as a surprise,we have had decades of practice at such things. As far as I am aware,there has been no formal statement from our domestic refereeing bodies on the parameters of the system. No mention of how it will be used,under which circumstances it shall be applied,how far back in play any potential infringement of the laws can be deemed to have had a game-changing effect.

Of course,it has been a feature of the game elsewhere for a few years now-and its application still provides weekly doses of controversy all across the globe,even in those countries which are by now well-versed in its use. We need only go back to last weekend,to perhaps the biggest match-up in the English domestic calendar as Liverpool hosted Man City.

The PGMOL took the correct decision to put Anthony Taylor,one of its most experienced members in charge. He informed both sides prior to the match that his preferred approach to the next 90 minutes would be to let the game flow,that he would not be inclined to blow the whistle for minor infringements. This had a somewhat inevitable outcome as both sides decided to push the boundaries involved,see how far they could get before Taylor deemed that the line had been crossed.

It was a brave decision by the ref,and it had the outcome that he was hoping for. But not quite in the way he intended,as a game of football descended into a remake of Fight Club,where there are no rules. And wouldn’t you just know it? When VAR was required to review an “opening goal” by Man City,there it was-a clear infringement in an earlier phase of play which had been deemed at the time as play on by Taylor,in line with his consistent handling of the game at that point.

No matter,you might have made your decision at the time,but here’s how it works. No goal,free kick to Liverpool.

I await with bated breath such hard and fast application of VAR in Scotland. Though I suspect I’ll be waiting for some time. Our match against Hearts tomorrow will be refereed by Nick Walsh,and overseen by that arbiter of justice,Steven McLean. Each of whom has considerable history with our club,and not in a good way.

Each and every misinterpretation of the new technology will be casually explained by teething problems as we introduce it and officials familiarise themselves with the system. That such could have been so easily avoided will be ignored.

A system like VAR,let’s face it,is something that does not come cheap. It benefits from economies of scale,which means that it can be prohibitively expensive in smaller countries like Scotland. The domestic game could have saved itself some considerable amount of much-needed cash had it enquired of the possibility of outsourcing it to the much-more experienced PGMOL in England,or even to other similar organisations in,say,Germany or France.

It is to our credit,perhaps,that we think we can absorb this new technology and maybe prove that we can do it better than elsewhere,learn from their mistakes and show the rest of the world how it can be done. I doubt though that such thinking is actually part of the plan. We have seen this movie before.

<><><><><> 

Above article by BMCUWP