Record Sport’s voice of the Rangers claims that Scottish football is once again in the gutter, but his former team is not to blame.
When Scottish football starts kicking itself to pieces, it might be difficult to know where to begin. After all, we’ve been here before.
But in the context of this prolonged dispute between Rangers and the SFA, that isn’t the case for once. It’s clear. Everything starts when Alistair Johnston punches the ball inside Celtic’s penalty box without provocation, and the awful choice is taken to act as though it never happened. But what transpired over the following nearly thirty minutes has now pushed the game in this country back to a boiled-down state, with my old club calling for explanations from the Hampden men in control.
To be absolutely clear, I do not hold them at anyway responsible. When it comes to VAR, our nation needs less secrecy and more transparency. However, during those perplexing thirty minutes at Celtic Park, we received the exact opposite. I think it’s clear that in a big match, the process failed at a crucial point.
To start with, I don’t hold it against Nick Walsh for failing to see the hand-ball in the first place. These things occur during intense combat, particularly in a fast-paced, furious Old Firm match. It is nearly difficult for the man in the center to see everything as it happens and make accurate calls about it all. He’s only a human.
However, it is evident that he thought Abdallah Sima had lost possession of the ball because he gave Celtic a goal kick, which allowed Joe Hart to tie the score. Which was all incorrect. There are no ambiguities in it. It comes down to black and white.
The entire purpose of VAR, as well as the reason the teams are footing the bill, is that that’s when the process is meant to start. Replays showed Willie Collum that the referee had made a glaring mistake because Johnston’s hand made the winning touch.
I really don’t know why he didn’t ask Walsh to come over to the monitor at that moment so he could examine it again and base his decision on replays that weren’t available to him at the time. If everything goes according to plan, the men at Clydesdale House run checks to determine if there was any offside or pushing or tugging during the instant build-up while the referee is at the screen.
Because of this, they would have realized that, just as John Lundstram was clipping the ball back into the area, Sima had strayed into an offside position. And in a matter of minutes, the entire affair would have been concluded.
If it were only six days later, we wouldn’t be squabbling over it here. There would have been no discussion over whether or not Johnston’s arm was moving “unnaturally” since it would have been finished and done with. Which, incidentally, it very certainly was.
At the time, I was yelling at my TV for a penalty. During the halftime break, Neil Lennon himself acknowledged that he would have been boiling if it hadn’t been placed by his side. And we are speaking of the former Celtic manager and captain!
But whether the call was right or wrong, it’s hard to believe that, fifteen minutes into the second half, the broadcasters were informed that Sima had been in an offside position all along.
Almost a boy…Earlier in the season, Declan Rice was playing for England versus Scotland at Hampden.
Declan was about to enter the game when they unexpectedly suffered an injury. Despite this, he stayed and joined the squad, and the rest is history. It’s just the way things are; the club isn’t to blame.
In the summer, Mikel Arteta, the head of Arsenal, paid £105 million to entice the action-packed midfield player from the Hammers to the Gunners across London.
The Hoops coach acknowledged the unsuccessful attempt while reiterating his goal of closing deals as soon as possible during the current transfer window.
“There is a lot of work going on in the background and I’m pretty sure that in this early period of the month, we can have some joy and get one or two in,” Rodgers continued in an interview with the BBC. It would be ideal to get them in [as soon as possible].
“Things that may have lasted for three or four months may disappear, and deals might be tricky. That is the constant difficulty.
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