The Kraken

That was supposed to be the sentiment yes, many years ago. In truth it probably never happened, before VAR I’d suggest linos were more inclined to stick their flag up rather than keep it down when in doubt.

If it’s the same video as I’ve seen it certainly looks dodgy but also it does not show the position of the striker and the defender at the point the ball is kicked. I still think it’s a monumentally tight call. In real time and even the freeze frame I thought it was offside. Var lines are very close, that extra video puts a different slant on it but is entirely inconclusive on its own.

Steve Cooper would be a brilliant appointment. Ergo, it won’t happen.

I wonder how far we are from having offsides be as quick and accurate as GLT. They’ve already demoed semi autonomous offside systems in the WC and it seemed to speed things up a bit. Getting an onside/offside decision with 5 seconds would go a long way to sorting it IMO. The tech might be a way off though.

Why is that better? If we’re having to go to VAR anyway, what difference do lines make? I don’t understand the logic, it’s either offside or it isn’t and once you’ve gone to VAR you may as well make it as accurate as you can.

If we’re going to have VAR then it’s best off sticking to things like offside and ball out of play. A bit like GLT. Fouls are very opinion based and I really don’t like decisions being re-refereed in game time. I also dont like big mistakes being made, but I refer to my earlier point, it’s extremely difficult once you have VAR to have a benchmark of what is a clear and obvious error. The genue is out of the bottle though, so all we can hope for is better officials to do a better job.

But what is the benchmark of clear and obvious? 10cm? 30cm? A metre? Once you introduce a “factual” system like VAR it’s pretty difficult to add in benefit of the doubt and “clear and obvious”. Something is either shown to be offside, or it isn’t.

The lines for tv are just illustrative and made bigger, the lines used in the studio are supposedly much thinner and “more accurate”. I still wouldn’t trust our VAR officials as far as I could throw them. There was a reason none of them made the World Cup, bloody hopeless.

I seem to recall that they increased the margin of error from this season, they made the lines bigger so that it’s not as marginal as it was. The problem with VAR is that once you introduce it as a supposedly factual system, you eliminate the notion of benefit of the doubt in favour of the attacker. And besides, people often say that they’d prefer to see decisions like today not given, but if it’s your own side it gets given against and it looks “factually” as if its probably offside, you’re probably going to be asking why. I’m just glad we don’t have it in the championship. But I still remember that Wembley final and the shocker of a decision to award offside, I’d have liked VAR then. TBF for the decision today I was a bit surprised the lines got drawn so close, from the freeze frame I thought it was offside by a little bit.

So pretty much double standards is what you're suggesting. White British queen, one of the most famous white queens in history: just an actor playing a role. Black human rights activist, one of the most famous black rights activist in history: not just an actor playing a role, it would be ridiculous for a white person to do so. Seems a very blurred and very confused line there of what is and isn't acceptable.

Not exactly the best example to use. Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji, born in England to an English mother and ann Indian father. He has also openly admitted that he suntanned himself heavily to more “look the part” for filming Gandhi.

You’re right. That really is horrible to say.

Genuinely couldn’t give a fuck. Actually, that’s a lie. If we don’t go up this season then having a derby next season is massively preferable to me to not having one.

It was a bit more than that, from memory: “This is your captain speaking, we have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We’re doing our damnedest to get them started again. I trust you’re not too distressed.”

Yes, exactly the same. You’ll get a row and “seat” number plus a seat behind you which is folded up.