Postecoglou ‘absolutely right’ as he’s spotted in ‘ludicrous’ pitch-side incident
Ange Postecoglou has never shied away from making his feelings transparent, even if he feels he is going against the grain.
The heavily-scrutinised Tottenham Hotspur boss prepares for part one of a tie likely to go towards dictating his long-term fate in North London, when they take on Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday (10 April).
Spurs dodged a banana skin when they relegated Southampton from the Premier League with a 3-1 win on Sunday (6 April), though for the second game running, VAR controversy came to the fore – something on which the Australian has always been thoroughly outspoken.
Postecoglou believes he is ‘lone wolf’ in anti-VAR campaign
Postecoglou needed Sunday’s win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium more than any would have let on, despite Spurs’ complete lack of opportunity in what remains of the Premier League this season.
While it all hinges on the two coming Thursdays – and if the test is passed then another two Thursdays deeper into the season – Postecoglou remains fighting a running battle in the domestic league – with VAR.
The Tottenham head coach has made no illusions of his strong distaste for the technology – the execution of which has in no uncertain terms often been butchered by England’s top officials – and claimed he would be unsurprised if the game’s elite level introduced ‘AI referees’ in due time.
Postecoglou firstly dished out a controversial celebration for an eventually disallowed goal from Pape Sarr at Chelsea (3 April) after a VAR review.
Then he acted with apathetic – and, honestly, understandable – sarcasm as his side were held throughout a six-minute check to eventually chalk off Lucas Bergvall’s apparent goal against Saints three days later.
The Sun’s Dave Kidd (8 April, pg 49) has commented that Postecoglou is not the lone activist against VAR he claims to be, and that many supporters are fully on his side.
“Postecoglou claims he is a lone voice in demanding the scrapping of VAR – but there are hundreds of thousands of match-going fans who make him absolutely right,” Kidd said.
“Ange resorted to ridicule [against Southampton], spending some of a six-minute VAR delay by miming the toss of a coin and a game of ‘rock, paper, scissors’.”
Tottenham must also deal with VAR in Europa League – and that matters more
Unfortunately for Postecoglou, VAR is also present throughout each tier of the UEFA club competitions, including the Europa League.
This means we could be in for a fiery controversy should his Tottenham side crash out of the last tournament with any impact for them this season by a sketchy video review call. It would be the final lantern left lit, extinguished the way the head coach hates the most – likely alongside his employment.
And there lies the issue which makes Postecoglou absolutely spot on, for all his flaws in delivering it. VAR was introduced to demonstrate the ‘clear and obvious’, but is now being hammered into every crevice of the game at every opportunity. As most of us always knew it would.
Postecoglou has not always covered himself in glory across his time at Tottenham, or even within the past week. But his public views on VAR are something to be admired when we are all supposed to merely submit.