Don’t blame VAR. Blame ineptitude this time.

So there we have it. Definitive proof that football can never be black and white - and it’s pointless expecting VAR to make it so.

I’m nearly out of things to say about VAR - but not quite. I refer you to last week’s blog for much of it. No - to the first blog I ever wrote on the subject, getting on for years ago. I don’t like it. I won’t ever like it. But I accept that it’s here to stay. So - let’s use it correctly.

A big part of that being the case requires us to have competent officials. I’m afraid we don’t in the PL. This is also something I’ve argued almost to the point of exhaustion. As long as Mike Riley remains in his job we never will have.

Is there anybody on the planet that didn’t believe Harry Kane should’ve have been sent off? Other than Paul Tierney and the equally inept Chris Kavanagh. As Jurgen Klopp rightly said - btw, the more I hear the guy talk the more I like him - Kane’s challenge was a ‘leg breaker’. As it happened I was out of my seat shouting ‘red’. Replays weren’t needed - but Kavanagh had the luxury of viewing them all. What didn’t he see that the rest of us did? If neither Tierney nor Kavanagh didn’t believe that Kane should’ve been sent off then neither should ever referee a top flight game again. They’re incompetent. It’s as simple as that. They’re also a danger to professional footballers.

It’s their boss who should be held responsible. Why wasn’t Riley doing the rounds Monday morning apologising? Why does he always hide behind his patsies? He’s in charge. He should lead. He should take responsibility. It’s our game - not his. Not referees. OURS. They owe us. And if they can’t do the job - quit. Which is exactly what Riley should do.

He was a bad appointment by Richard Scudamore. Why? Because he is a weak man. He’s a ‘yes’ man and was more likely to do as he was told than his predecessor - the very principled Keith Hackett.

Hackett’s crime was not persuading Steve Bennett to overturn a second yellow that saw Tim Cahill sent off at City. You might remember - Cahill lifted his shirt above his head after scoring for Everton - didn’t take it off - but Bennett booked him. It was a second yellow so Cahill had to go. Scudamore didn’t like the decision and told Hackett to have a word. It was in the days when you could appeal a second yellow. Bennett refused to alter his decision.  He was stood down from the elite list and Hackett was eventually ‘retired’. Scudamore got his ‘yes’ man in Riley.

Back to Tottenham. Did you hear what Tierney told Klopp about as to why he didn’t give a pen when Jota was cleaned out? ‘He stopped running to draw the foul’ said Tierney. First - he didn’t. Second - so what if he had? It’s not for Tierney to judge ‘football’ matters. He’s there to apply the laws of the game. It was a pen.

I read this morning that Jamie Redknapp was screaming ‘get an opinion from VAR’. Oh Jamie. Still getting it wrong. That’s not how it works.

It makes me smile every time he says anything. As my old boss at Sky, Vic Wakeling, once said ‘if ever his brain and mouth engaged at the same time he might have something interesting to say’.

We were having a conversation about whether to retain Redknapp. Vic had decided not to renew his contract. I went to war with him - to the point where I thought I’d overdone it and cost myself my own job. Later that same day he text me the message ‘thank you for my bollocking’. He’d changed his mind. It didn’t stop Redknapp leaving a new deal unsigned for 5 months while he touted for work everywhere else - but eventually he put pen to paper.

When we initially signed him his agent told us ‘good luck’. I had no idea what he meant. I thought it was sour grapes because we’d poached him from the BBC. How right he was. It was a mistake. A huge mistake. Vic was also right.  If you listen to the K&G podcasts I’ll eventually get round to telling you how his dad almost had me and Andy in jail. True story.

One last thing on VAR. Surely it’s now impossible for Riley and co to resist my demand that we be allowed to hear the conversation at the monitor? Why not? What have they got to hide? Help us. Educate us. Or is it because refs are still being told what decision to make as they go to the monitor? No? Prove it. Let’s us listen. 

What a job Steve Copper is doing at Forest. He replaced Chris Hughton - a very good mate of mine - so I wasn’t too pleased initially. Neither was Ian Holloway on Quest’s FL programme. Goodness - he laced him - making the point that Cooper had only ever previously managed a club with ‘parachute payments and an £80,000/week centre forward’. Well - what do you think now Ian?

It’s one defeat in 15 and 30 points from those games. Forest are now seventh. What a run.

Regulars know there isn’t a manager in the country I’d rather have at Coventry than Mark Robins, but he’s just one of some really good guys in the Championship. Good luck to Tony Mowbray - another of the game’s gentlemen. I like Mark Warburton and what he’s doing at QPR, although I fear a lack of numbers will eventually cost them - and Coventry. Keep your eyes on Boro now that Chris Wilder is there. It’s a good league and ‘pure’.