SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Watching Match of the Day on Monday night was a revelation for those of us who like to get our footballing fix via more agricultural methods,as regularly displayed north of the border. In six matches-exactly the same as a round of fixtures in the the SPL-not one of the twelve teams went out with the intention of parking the bus,or of simply playing for a draw.

None were fazed by the prospect of playing against sides in a far higher position in the table,nor with their own lowly position in it. Admittedly,the prospect of “place money”, where clubs are rewarded in accordance with their league position at the end of the season,might have had something to do with it. But that surely works both ways,as playing for a point while hoping for a lucky breakaway might pay bigger dividends than playing an open,expansive game against quality opposition? Hmmmm,discuss!

We had the likes of West Ham away to leaders Arsenal. No backs to the wall from the unfairly maligned David Moyes,whose only fault has been his bravery in taking over a clapped-out Man Utd from Fergie.  Nope,he went out there and took the game to Arsenal. Even went in at half time a goal up. Now,admittedly his side hardly got a kick in the second half-but that was down to the sheer relentless attacking prowess of Arsenal,who have been a revelation this season.

Brentford at home to fourth placed Spurs? No worries about only one win in their last seven,they stormed into a two goal lead. It could and should have been more,but for some wasteful efforts by Toney’s partner’s striking efforts. Banjoes and coo’s arses sprung to mind watching him. Spurs didn’t give up either,drawing level and counting themselves unfortunate not to take all three points. 

Wolves,only two wins all season and a new manager playing away at fellow strugglers Everton? Here,perhaps,was the only example of two teams low on confidence-yet each went for the win for the whole ninety minutes. Either could have snatched a late winner,as there were chances galore. Wolves it was who got it–and you could tell what it meant to them! 

Leicester found themselves two down very early on at home to Newcastle-who ended the day in second place. No thought of damage limitation here,they worked hard throughout to claw it back. Newcastle were simply too good for them on the day,and played some excellent football. The goal from Almeiron was a peach. 

A south coast derby between Southampton and Brighton was perhaps the biggest mismatch of them all,Brighton coasting to victory. But the home side persevered up front-and with that defence,I don’t blame them-and got a goal along with a fair few other chances. 

But the best performance was probably from Liverpool at Villa. Liverpool sprayed some wonderful passes all over the pitch,destroying any defensive plan Villa might have had. Their players were not restricted to their “own” areas of the pitch either,witness the first-time assist from the right by Andy Robertson. Liverpool looked unplayable-yet Villa had more than enough chances to win,with Bailey and McGinn probably the worst offenders. 

Overall,an excellent way to round off the last 80 minutes of the bank holiday. But what has it got to do with Celtic,you will rightly ask? Well,VAR down south has been getting pelters for some time now. Rightly so,too. They have had a couple of seasons now to get it right,but there have been inconsistencies,and many instances where the checks take too long. Up in Scotland,we are blessed with referees who acquired the skills to do all those things with their new toy almost from the start-!-but it has clearly been a source of some irritation for a while in England. 

The new refereeing boss and head of PGMOL is Howard Webb. He and his team have clearly spent the weeks of the World Cup break wisely,investigating the problem from basic principles. 

“It is designed to work,and it does work. So why isn’t it working?”

Webb,himself a top referee,seems to have come up with the answer. We know that VAR will only be used for decisions involving penalties,red cards,offside and goals. And that will not,cannot,change. But,and I quote…

“Only those incidents which jump out at you will be looked into.”

So,have we seen the last days of Spirograph and 3D offside decisions based on a player’s armpit hair? A penalty decision resting on whether a player touched the ball with a fingernail,etc? There were a few contentious ones on Monday alone,and each time the referee went with what should have been seen in real time,rather than from an obscure camera angle. Some of them might have been wrong,and certainly would have been judged differently before. But even the more obvious ones,like Mitrovic heading onto his own arm in the build-up to the second goal,were actually correct on the proper application of the laws.

So there it is. Scottish referees spent their time refining the system to their own interpretation up here,and all the time the answer was only a phone call away. I look forward to a manager in Scotland highlighting a dodgy VAR call by comparing it to how exactly the same system is used in England. Because I doubt that even the SFA can find an excuse to refer that manager to the disciplinary board for bringing the game into disrepute.

Meanwhile,the Celtic board are stuck replaying their Greatest Hits and hoping that enough of the support either don’t know or don’t care about their impotence,or are resigned themselves to being unable to force change. Whether that change is from the club-or other wronged clubs-or the SFA is irrelevant when nothing is ever going to change anyway. Some,of course,will never give up the attempt,so the board rely on the weight of numbers or of people voting with their feet,attending the games to support the team even as they curse the board we are stuck with.

And their greatest hit of all is the perennial evergreen of relaying their feelings behind the scenes-the “B” side presumably some dirge about working through the normal channels. 

All the behind the scenes bollocks has been proven to be a complete failure. “Usual channels of communication”,etc,plays right into their hands. Get the demand for improvement and EQUAL officiating for all,right across the board,fired off,and RELEASE IT FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION. 

So what if certain mainstream and other off the wall media outlets will pull us up for it,ridicule it in their time-honoured way? They do that anyway,whether we speak out or not. The last time anything like this was tried by a high-ranking official at the club was Dr John Reid,in 2008. The SFA shit a brick,the media set their pit bulls loose. Reid CGAF,these were minnows compared to the sharks he was used to swatting aside. 

The days of us being forced to sit at the back of the bus are over,he declared. And they bloody would have been too,if the board hadn’t shit a brick anaw. Reid was unceremoniously resigned. Not only were they a bunch of spineless basterts who weren’t up for a fight,preferring the status quo-but unbeknown to us,Operation Save Our Huns was just about to kick in. 

And in their futile attempt to do just that,they nearly destroyed the club they are so proud to represent,and handsomely paid so to do. If they ignore the repercussions of VAR,they are rerunning that very operation. Because with the usual avenues of financial chicanery now effectively closed to them,the referees are their last hope. And they will continue to answer that masonic distress signal unless someone does something about it.

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Above article by BMCUWP