In the midst of all the giddiness and joy among Arsenal fans at the prospect of a brand new, literally shiny, high profile manager taking over the reins of management from that wizened, grizzled old grand-dad we had all gotten used to, something just doesn’t ring true.
Don’t get me wrong. Although am a well known partisan for Arsene Wenger, I have nothing against Unai Emery and wholeheartedly welcome him to the club and truly wish for him all the success possible. He is young and handsome, a very telegenic face, around which the PR people at the club can only drool. Apparently, when unveiled to the media, he said all the right things which had the hacks in rapture as they pounded their keyboards, oiled their tongues for radio or were dabbed with makeup before video recording the usual clichéd segment for TV. Most of all he has a brilliant CV, starting in the boondocks of Spanish football taking a couple of clubs to promotion, excelling at Sevilla with 3 Europa League titles and, prior to Arsenal, managing one of the biggest-moneyed clubs in Europe ending with a quadruple of titles. Surely he is the perfect man for the job.
And that is what triggers my contrarian instinct. The script is just too perfectly written.
By the way, we all have a contrarian streak genetically coded into the deep reptilian recesses of our cranium, the one that tell us: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”. But too often, most of us get suckered by our emotions, based on narratives fomented by the mainstream media, and forget to listen to our brains, not our heart.
Something is “too good to be true” with the narrative we are now being sold. According to almost all the usual suspects Emery will save us from the washed-up, stupid, old fool who only managed an Invincible year as part of 3 league titles, 7 FA cups and kept us in the top-4 for 20 out of 22 years:
“Emery will get Arsenal more organised than they have been”. (BBC)
“What they will be getting is a coach who is fully committed and, in his approach to preparation, a startling break from what they have been used to. If Wenger’s twilight years at the club produced a team that often appeared under-coached, then the reign of Emery will be the exact opposite.” (Independent)
“Where Arsène Wenger’s teams may have descended into the painfully one-dimensional, Emery’s outlook is one of nuance and precision, which may well suit Arsenal’s developing team rather more than the entrenched, haughty collection of Parisian stars.” (Guardian)
Disorganized, Under-coached and One-dimensional
So less than two weeks after Wenger’s final game the football media takes off the gloves; no more of the hypocrisy, flattery and lofty odes to one of the greatest managers in English football. His teams, in their own words, were disorganized, under-coached and one-dimensional. Thus the need to hire Unai Emery who it is predicted will bring glory to north London, apparently the type experienced by Sevilla and PSG. Mark you Sevilla last won the Spanish league title in 1945-46 and PSG has not even made the Champions league final since gobbling up hundreds of millions of the best oil money the sheiks of Qatar could throw at the club over the past 7 years.
Apparently things were so bad under Wenger, Arsenal’s last trophy of worth was the FA cup as far back as May 2017. Moreover, things were so bad in the 17-18 season, they had a mere 14 home-wins, the second highest in the league.
This is the same media (as well as most bloggers and podcasters) who choose to ignore the fact that since 2005, Wenger has progressively been outspent by three clubs in the premier league. In fact one news media, in their effort to downplay the magnitude of the disparity, characterized Arsenal as the 3rd strongest club financially in England. In other words, this liar and misleader, was suggesting Arsene should be consistently averaging 3rd in the league because of the financial resources available.
Clearly the new manager, who is currently being feted and glad handled, is already being setup. He is expected to outperform Wenger’s average 4th place finish over the past 12 years at a time when United and Chelsea are desperate to make up the difference with City, there being a gap of 19 points between 1st and 2nd at the end of last season. Moreover as was reported in sputniknews.com, Abramovich recently had his Tier I visa held up by the UK government, a privilege to freely travel back and forth which is tied to volume of his investments in the country. It doesn’t take an expert to predict he will make another handy investment in Chelsea in the next transfer window to prove his bona-fides.
Why this elaborate set up?
Why are we being sold such a grand story of failure by Arsene, so much so that the club needs a savior, a metaphoric David to rescue Arsenal from the Philistines? Isn’t it amazing that in 2 years, Arsene moved from being the most powerful man at Arsenal to being a has-been. Be reminded that the 16-17 season started with great optimism, the club having acquired Mustafi, Xhaka and Lucas Perez to supplement the group who came 2nd to Leicester the prior year. But at the start of the season and Mertersacker, one of the cornerstones of the central defensive partnership, suffers a season-ending injury. The new Koscielny-Mustafi or Koscielny-Gabriel partnership is unable to replicate the level of the old-firm. In October, Santi Sazorla, the mastermind of prior year victories over United, City and Chelsea also suffers a season-ender. To this day the combined ‘expertiste’ of the media makes no connection between the injuries to two of Arsenal’s best players and the club coming 5th that season. Instead there is a massive blame-game on Wenger. When he was offered only a two year contract, it was self-evident his future was in doubt.
What is most striking is how this was the opening for the chief executive, Mr Gazidis, to seize power away from Mr. Wenger. In the summer of 2017 we are informed the CEO has moved his offices from Arsenal House to London Colney, the training ground. In relatively short order Mislintat becomes chief scout and Sanllehi as head of football relations. As a famous denizen of this blog tweeted there are now 5 people doing the job Wenger performed by himself.
But while the corporate office has grown bigger and surely more expensive, Arsenal suffered on the field with points lost not only due to player inconsistency (at least 8 first team players from 2016-17 are gone) but also from a pattern of poor and biased refereeing by the PGMO. If the CEO and his team were campaigning for VAR in the executive suites of the Premier League it was a “silence of the lambs”.
The Coup
What convinced me that the Emery appointment may be just one big show is a piece in the Guardian by one David Hynter which suggests he was ordered to do a PR piece on behalf of Mr Gazidis. They are quick to highlight the following:
- Gazidis is responsible for signing Ozil
- Gazidis is, first and foremost, a football lover.
- Gazidis has long advocated a management structure that does not rest on a single point or employee because, when it fails, there is the potential for the whole thing to collapse. He has wanted a broader coalition of talented specialists greater than the sum of its parts and, for so long, his efforts were frustrated by Wenger, to whom the club’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, was in thrall. Wenger had a hotline to Kroenke and he could shape or veto Gazidis’s ideas.
- Gazidis wanted a director of football but Wenger pushed his friend Dick Law into a position of executive-level authority.
- Gazidis wanted greater expertise in data and contracts and hired Hendrik Almstadt only for Wenger to say he did not want him.
- Gazidis oversaw the purchase of the data analytics company, StatDNA, but Wenger was not a fan.
Hynter concludes with a flourish:
“It was a meticulously orchestrated coup and Gazidis carried it off while showing all the respect in the world to Wenger, who has watched virtually all of his people leave the club. It has felt like a plot-line from Gomorrah, the Neapolitan mafia drama. Gazidis was not always the favourite to outlast Wenger. Now, his position looks stronger than ever.”
I could not have said it better than Mr Hynter. The evidence clearly points to a coup. He says it in triumph but I am disgusted by the lowball tactics that have been employed.
As an aside, while I arrived at a similar conclusion, by taking the available facts to their logical conclusion, because yours truly does not write for a big mainstream newspaper, I would be accused by the charlatans in the media (as well as the bloggers and podcasters) of being a conspiracy theorist for calling out Mr Gazidis for being Wenger’s Brutus.
Unfortunately, most coups fail because they are based on lies and the golpistas (Spanish) rule without the consent of the people. That is why I fear for Emery. He may think he is a big-time Charlie but he is just a chump in a giant con being played on Arsenal fans. The new manager will find the Premier League is made up of several merciless sharks; mainly the three clubs with giant financial teeth whom he cannot compete in the transfer market, the other big one being the PGMO whose job is to protect the big boys from being upset as the PL needs the external money to keep flowing.
I wish Emery all the best but the signs aren’t good. He is on 2 year plus one contract suggesting he is a placeholder, a short-term appointment. Does this mean Arsenal has ended its tradition of managers being long-term appointees with time to build a team that can compete for titles without busting the bank?
Am not predicting the future, but as much as most fans are optimistic that under his management it could get better for Arsenal, I am duty bound to warn my readers that odds are even and it could get worse. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Positively Arsenal 
Shotta, another enjoyable and superb article, thank you. However, I am more inclined to agree with Arsenal Andrew. I am sure the changes needed to be made. I also suggest the extent of the changes were necessary in order to have any chance of matching the brilliance of Wenger. They therefore may well be are a testament to how supberb Wenger was…
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Unai’s presser after that boondoggle against Broke Barca indicates that he has the right tools to deal with what may be heading his way.
Many people perhaps Ivan included just didn’t want to see someone they respect so much subjected to the abuse led by media who don’t like Arsenal’s business model (huge amount of evidence available to support this understanding). And that it’s just time a younger soul absorbed some of that abuse?
For understandable and yes sentimental reasons, for the best of reasons?
As you can all note following the gnashing of teeth from the same hungry mouths after “Allegri missed out” (that would be the Uzbeki’s consultants) that abuse directed towards AFC is not gonna end anytime soon. If Unai wins three cups and does well in the league over the next few years the same old hacks will still be giving more praise to the Tottenham manager (whoever it might be) etc. same old same old.
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For me if they don’t keep on Bould and Lehman or sneak Arteta out from under Peps nose to come inas a coach (I know it’s unlikely but I can dream!!) then it’ll be a worry and I’d have to agree with the sentiment in comments above such as from bnsb at 11.26.
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What lovely facilities. Never seen it before except in some pictures.
This is what Wenger helped us build.
I think we’ll get some more such videos and snippets now, which is how other clubs do it. Wenger was very protective about training. I suspect that might change a bit (THere’s video of Emery at PSG conducting training)
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Good to see inside of place like that. Looking good.
Bit dorky, but I like the thought of life and activity going on in the place at this point in time.
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i know mny of us are getting emosional because of our attatchment to the great man. personally i have been unable to comment as always as soon as i started to realise wenger’s era was coming to an end. but looking at the bright side, arsene might actually be the one to benefit from the change or be the one tht need the change the most. let be frank, wenger has become too loyal and tolerant of some of our players. that is understandable because of his human nature and the fact that he is of the breed that want the best for his players at the expence of his own success.
the players as well might need the little bit push beacause players that have come to join have been saying some of our players are too comfortable and relax. a player like iwobi who is from my country. i feel he has all the attribute to suppass his uncle jayjay but he is just content with passing the ball around. dele alli isnt a more gifted player in my opinion. lastly, we as well might be better for it. someone like me will really know what it is to suport arsenal and not necessarilly because of arsene.
the one thing i will never agree to is for someone to want to demean wenger or destroy his legacy or disturt facts about his archievement at arsenal. i will never agree and there will certainly be consequences.
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I’m not convinced by the coup argument. On its face, Gazidis is the CEO, so he wouldn’t need to launch a coup against the manager. But more to the point, this angle doesn’t jibe with the reports from Ornstein & Auclair that AW offered to walk away at the end of last season and was asked to stay on through the structural transition.
Instead, I think what we’re witnessing is an intense desire in many quarters to frame Arsenal Football Club as a never-ending soap opera. A place of petty dramas, personal agendas, transparent scheming. There may be an element of that, as there is in just about every organization, but to turn to it relentlessly as the only way to understand the club is shallow and, frankly, not interesting.
What does all the falderal matter anyway? Who follows sport for the boardroom politics? I often say to people who follow politics because “they’re like a sport” that they would be better off following an actual sport; the inverse is also true.
Roll on 14 July.
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If Tottenham can get 2 ‘Home grown’ under25 forwards and Martial for under £100 million, that will be a mystery that will need explaining.
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WWWB, perhaps part of a package involving Rose, Alderweirield?
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Mandy Dodd
Oh good point
Sounds like a good deal for them.
Arsenal might have started another trend
A Lot more swapps
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Gazidis was very quiet,didn’t defend Arsene Wenger at all .. If you are right, then Arsenal has another Levy,but all we can do is watch & wait .. A very good read ..
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I have seen a lot of people still be rankeld by the process that the club and Gazidis in particular have excersied in hiring Unai Emery.
Some of the fans seem annoyed they were not infromed of all the moves they club were making and the fact the ITK’s were sold an Ozil level dummy has driven them crazy.
I am hoping this is how things will carry on in the future.
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Following on from the recent VARs thread and conversation, and from the cricket yesterday:
Two calls by the on field umpire overruled by the third official with the aid of GPS and Hawkeye. One for each team. Both good refererals made by the on field teams, no drama, no nothing other then the start of a serious top level sporting contest.
Not sure why having a third official atvthe ground and not in Mike Riley’s back garden, why being professional is so far beyond the pgMOB (I think the P is meant to stand for professional? LOL?) but there it is.
Not sure why anyone would want to attempt and fail to defend such a useless pathetic organisation which can find money for pay offs but not for a simple system of third or even fourth officials (ohhhhh it’s a snooker!) which has less then zero credibility in the world of sport but people are certainly entitled to opinions.
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“Not sure why having a third official atvthe ground and not in Mike Riley’s back garden, why being professional is so far beyond the pgMOB (I think the P is meant to stand for professional? LOL?) but there it is.”
The VAR hub is at Stockley Park Fins, the PL TV hub with the VAR referee in contact via the match referees via their headset. The purpose of a single control room is to ensure the technology across the monitoring process is the same, rather than leaving each cub to set up its own arrangements. Cost is spread among all the clubs so there are no potential arguments about my VAR being bigger than your VAR.
That all seems quite sensible to me.
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“Not sure why anyone would want to attempt and fail to defend such a useless pathetic organisation which can find money for pay offs but not for a simple system of third or even fourth officials (ohhhhh it’s a snooker!) which has less then zero credibility in the world of sport but people are certainly entitled to opinions.”
Possibly because I think VAR is a good thing, albeit likely to take some time to bed in, and that the incessant negative commentary about everything to do with referees, match officials, the PGMO and VAR is a bit repetitive ?
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I wonder if Kos’s glasses at the training ground (Shard yesterday) have anything to do with our defensive record?
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I think there’s some evidence that I think VARs is a fmgood thing Andrew. Going back a decade on football forums on the internet.
To be clear:
I’m still not sure following your comments above why the official with the replay kit and equipment cannot be at the ground with his colleagues.
It just looks, you know like the chaps at Lords yesterday, a little bit bit more:
Professional.
Evidentially a Panoptican is not required in order to have a third (or fourth official) atvthe ground doing the same job.
Don’t like Panopticans myself. You don’t need to mimick a prison in order to back your officials. Unless they’re the kind of officials that belong in the slammer?
No. Not a professional solution. Not at all!
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Snooker is a great sport too.
Be nice to see the 4th officials do something. Like that dude in the 2006 WC final?
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The MCC aren’t perfect, but they deserve some big credit.
Riley and his bums make them look like NASA.
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Fins – Why do you think the decisions made using the video evidence is more accurate or fairer at Lords, because the equipment is located within the cricket ground, and would be different or inferior if the same process were taking place 10 miles way in a control room?
Surely the same pictures, snickometer, hawkeye etc is available to whoever is reviewing it so you would expect their decisions to be the same?
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I am pretty sure from various incidents ghat Kos wears contracts GF – his eyes often look a bit watery although I had assumed that he was on the edge of tears sometimes!!
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Andy
As Johan Cruyff and many others would agree the successful models being used in Field Hockey and Cricket these past decades would be better models and references for VARs in Ass.Football as opposed to this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
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VAR: A gun in the hand of a crook vs a gun in the hands of a honest man.
Anyone with commonsense knows there is a profound difference.
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But why – I suspect you’d be the first to demand an enquiry if there was any difference between the VAR equipment or the facilities for the reviewer available at the Etihad compared to the Emirates ? Having the process concentrated at Stockley Park reduces the risk of discrepancies that might creep in.
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Ivan Gazidis
If I am what I am hearing is true, he is a force to be reckoned with, this guy is a super operator in the classic Arsenal mould. He is on a mission it seems the Horse’s contacts were known and they were being fed HAAY!.
Ivan Gazidis or should we call you ‘The Godfaaada’ has arrived.
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Is there a “Field Hockey TV hub” or a “TV cricket hub” like Stockley Park anyway – If there is why did each sport decide against using them and that ground based VAR was superior?
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Andy
I haven’t demanded an enquiry anywhere ever for anything in my life.
Further: I don’t think there’s any need for an enquiry into Mike Riley. I assume that you saw the 50th game? Full video footage of the entire match is available if required.
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What has the 50th game to do with VAR equipment and reviewers being located at a central hub or in individual grounds !!
As the central hub at Stockley Park you say it is wrong and should be in the individual football grounds because Riley is corrupt
If it was in the individual football grounds you would be demanding it is relocated to a central hub because Riley is corrupt – and if not why not if Riley is this corrupt monster ?
You keep referring to field hockey and cricket with no evidence to follow up either way to suggest how the experience in either sport impacts on the central hub v individual grounds issue we are looking at in football ?
Shall we just leave it as we appear to be gong round and round in circles ?
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Dear Anicoll,
VAR is a good thing. The Premier league clubs have voted against it.
Pointing out the failings, and more concerningly the inconsistencies of the match officials is neither repetitive nor negative. That close to eight years ago the best official from England managed to yellow card the same player three times in a show-piece final is not a ringing endorsement. Not much improvement since then in my simple opinion.
I have no problem with decisions if they are applied consistently and fairly across all teams and throughout a season. Unfortunately this has demonstratably not been the case. The application and perhaps more interesting interpretation of the rules by most of the premier league officials has, and remains contentious. Why?
Players cheat relentlessly, the officials have a difficult task, there is no transparency from either the PGMOL or the Premier League.
I believe in giving the officials every bit of assistance to help them in their job. This is not happening. Highlighting the issues is not repetitive it becomes important in demonstrating a failed system. Transparency, explanations behind decisions, the explanation of the decision related to the actual rule, and of the rule should be standard. The misinterpretations of a cohort of ex-players all of who have cheated throughout their careers should be ignored.
Until these steps and VAR becomes a reality the ‘narrative” @Fins and “drama” will diminish the ability of the officials and ultimately the product. So we’ll be back for round 1200 in the next few years and still wondering why we’ve been shafted in the last match and it all sounds so familiar.
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Andrew
As with the recent parliamentary report into doping at Team Sky I am under no obligation to provide any evidence in order to support a preference for the sporting model that has been used to support officials in other sports for decades, over the model that resembles a penal colony.
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PL clubs did not “vote against it” – they voted to extend the periods during which it was trialed and further refinements carried out, including more training for referees and reviewers.
Now whether you think VAR requires another season of refinement and improvement I don’t know – I would however accept that there is a perfectly sane approach to want to get it as near 100% as possible before it is introduced to every PL game.
And let’s face VAR if it had been introduced prematurely and errors emerged then the ‘Riley is corrupt’ banners would have brandished just as fiercely.
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I take that to mean there is no central TV hub where reviews could take place in field hockey or cricket then Fins ?
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You can take what you like Andy it’s a free world!
I wrote above in relation to the P(rofessional)gmob:
“I’m still not sure following your comments above why the official with the replay kit and equipment cannot be at the ground with his colleagues (such as the 4th official).
It just looks, you know like the chaps at Lords yesterday, a little bit bit more:
Professional.”
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Other than saying Lords is more “professional” again you have not said why it is more “professional” – if they know “a little bit more” what is it they know ?
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Anicoll,
Thank you for the correction regarding the vote regarding VAR. Pardon my ignorance but “an extension of the trial period and further refinements, more training for referees and reviewers” is not a ringing endorsement of this technology. That’s what organisations do to quietly move things out to die in the wilderness.
Any introduction even a premature introduction in its current incarnation beats the pants out of what’s on display.
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Andrew
Why are you comparing facilities? You do understand that VARs equipment can get driven about the place in a truck! An antenna the size of the old Alexander Palace booster stuck onto the side of a club’s media centre would not be required!
Any electrician who has supplied anyone with a quote for building a ninety foot tower on the street outside a football stadium in order to create the infrastructure needed for VARs can safely be described as:
Unprofessional.
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Subject to what happens in the World Cup in Russia where VAR will undergo its first rigorous examination the PL’s caution may be shown to be excessive. If VAR fucks up in Russia, with technology failures as have happened elsewhere or controversy in spite of the application of scrutiny, perhaps the won’t be seen as so daft. Looking back goal line technology came in slowly but quickly became a fixture, and I see the PL was 2 years ahead of the Bundesliga on that. Scotland has never adopted it.
Unbelievable I know, but true.
Hindsight will inform.
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But on that topic:
That media centre at Lord’s is a pretty and nice building! If you don’t pull up the flooring and check out the messy plywood substructure (the bones) that was all built in a bit of a rush! Everyone has a budget and compromises must be made, but it’s the effort that counts.
And as a free standing separate structure it probably cost a fair bit less then the media centre at Wembley! (Just a joke! Though the figures are probably quite close. LOL!).
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Working today whilst istening to the broadcast from the Lord’s media centre. Free of any boring refereeing controversy. Or even any VARs conroversy.
Blimey.
Though i don’t know how Hawkeye calibrates for moisture in the wicket, I’m not sure I care as anything that helps improve a sport and the respect for the officials, to make their job easier, is welcome in my idiotic eyes.
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What’s that?
VARs affected by climatic conditions?
Crikey.
Now why would any crazy fool (or Professional organisation) want their officials at a ground in order that for them to make the best possible decisions?
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Entirely off topic but if you have 5 minutes have a look at two articulate, passionate characters arguing about football, morality, ambition, life itself – they clearly DO NOT LIKE ONE ANOTHER _ but even so;
Why on earth does this type of manager to manager conversation take place today ?
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VARs affected by climatic conditions?
Crikey.
Now why would any crazy fool (or Professional organisation) want their officials at a ground in order that for them to make the best possible decisions?
What “climatic conditions” affect VAR Fins ? I have never, ever heard of any ? What “climatic conditions” affect goal line technology – that goal line technology is actually is Hawkeye equipment ? Do tell !
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Well they have been using VARs on LBW calls for two decades Andy. I’d have hoped that after all this time that you’d picked up on that!
So: there’s no need for a third (or fourth!) offical to be at the ground in order to asses the conditions their colleagues are working under.
As such parameters have no impact on how an official may be officiating a game, or upion decisions that are made. On how you judge the players actions.
Glad we have cleared that up then! Took a while but we got there in the end.
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@fins @anicol
Amazing…learn 2 new words a day here…. panoptican and field hockey!
banned smiley.
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Interesting back and forth, though Andy’s view is constant as it is for Arsenal. Let the professionals get on with it because we don’t know as much as them.
While that’s true enough Andy, we do have examples from other sports as well and football is notoriously behind the curve here.
US sports have one ‘replay center’ like the VAR hub. So personally I don’t see why it has to be present at each ground. However, the replay center connects to the broadcast whenever it is called upon. The refs or umpires making the calls are named. And one representative (usually a retired ref working in the replay center) comes on and explains the call made (whether by the replay ref or by on field ref after review) along with the current rules and how they may have been changed recently.
And frankly, there must be different rules for broadcasters because commentators there while talking up the referees’ capability, have no qualms calling out some calls as just bad, or some rules as just stupid.
I don’t know specifically about Hawkeye or VAR, but the equipment will need some calibration for every match. Who does this in any sport, I don’t know.
Also Andy, this idea that we must get the technology 100% right is hogwash. Nothing is 100% correct. FIFA delayed Goal line tech because of this same nonsense. England pushed it only after they suffered in the World Cup. But, for a second let’s presume they too are corrupt, like FIFA are. Look at the amount of control they give up via goal line tech. It’s minimal. With HD cameras as their source of income, it will become a high profile incident if cameras caught the ball crossing the line but the ref didn’t give it (or vice versa) Having a goal mouth scramble is not something the ref can effectively ‘game manage’ anyway. So for giving up minimal control over game management, for which they’d be caught and called out for anyway, they introduce ‘tech’ and get to say they want to get the calls right.
Meanwhile for the rest of the game, they can call it any which way, say they never saw it or saw it at high speed etc, and the media covers for them. And refs carry the blame instead of the organisation holding them back. From technology, from talking to the media, except through their approved persons in the studio. And they do not tell the audience the correct rules, or give the audience video samples of correct and incorrect calls. Anyone who puts up these fouls (and horrible tackles) on the internet gets their content taken down for copyright infringement. Goals and skills you can show. But not this.
It may or may not be full of corrupt people, but it definitely is a system geared towards protecting anyone who may be corrupt.
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anicoll5
May 25, 2018 at 1:15 pm
You remember what it was like then football was so different it is really hard to get over to people who did not live throught it. This time gave us streets full of rubbish, regular strikes in the main industries in England .The pits in the the areas were the clubs are that these two managers worked for, these things coloured how they looked at each other and football life.
The smoke of a World War was still in their nostrels
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Shard
And apologies to lovers of the NFL but my favourite part of an American football game is when the head umpire broadcasts his decision (and explanation? You can tell I don’t watch that often!) to the entire stadium, and also the viewers.
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WWB
You could be describing Kiev in 2018.
Hopefully the football match tomorrow provides some escape and joy for the citizens of that city.
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I am not so much “let the professional get on with it as they know what they are doing” as “don’t immediately assume the worst of professionals as some of them might know what they are dong, and even if the don’t they may be trying to do their best” Shard
I agree football has been very slow off the technology marks and it is probably fair to identify Blatter as a rock against the forces of tech progress battered in vain for many years. Even Blatter though deserves some sympathy as his constituency was very much made up of poorer , developing football countries who had rather less interest in, and fewer resources to indulge in, high technology solutions. Hate him or love him during Blatter’s reign football marched to sports supremacy in continent after continent.
And finally………you mention getting VAR 100% and also US sports. The NFL introduced VAR in the mid 80s but dropped it in 1991 as it was deemed inadequate. It was not picked up again until 1999 and at after a long battle with sceptical fans and owners.
So to misquote Mrs May perhaps “No VAR is not better than Bad VAR”!!
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WWB Revie and Clough is that they we born and brought up within a mile of one another in Middlesborough – they had the same grit in their blood.
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