I’ve been thinking about what I want to put in my letter to Santa. I’m seriously considering asking for ‘not to have to write another piece for this magazine complaining about VAR’. Yes, I know the value of a good Christmas present.
However, if VAR remains in its current form, I suspect that I’ll have to make do with the regular gift of some brand-new socks and a disappointing return of points from our festive fixtures. Broadly speaking, as we know, VAR has been a shambles. I was an advocate of the system when it was first introduced to the Premier League – but my current anger towards it has been brewing for a while.
Earlier this year I wrote: ‘there’s barely a week that goes by these days without me tearing what little hair I have out, seeking an explanation of not only the decision that was just made, but also the whole concept of VAR in the first place’.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting – as I did before – that VAR has been purely created to deduct points from West Ham’s total, not least because we seem to be doing a perfectly good job of that ourselves. I’m saying that the application of the rules is still too inconsistent, and that this just makes a mockery of the fact that VAR was supposed to make things better.
What I will say though is that whilst I’m still unconvinced that it has improved the game, so far anyway, maybe there are some green shoots appearing – more on that later. First though, let’s look at our slightly fortuitous win against Manchester United.
To refresh your memory: in the final minutes, Matthijs de Ligt, the Manchester United defender, made contact with Danny Ings inside the box, but the referee David Coote waved play on. Then, Michael Oliver on VAR got involved and suggested that the referee go to the monitor, and after review Coote gave a penalty.
Bowen scores, we win 2-1, and the Reds go apoplectic with rage. Oh, and Ten Haag gets the sack the following day. At the time, I didn’t think it was a penalty. I thought it was more of a coming-together, and nothing I’ve seen has changed my mind – and I’m saying that as a West Ham fan.
Why did VAR feel the need to get involved at all? I thought that it had to be ‘clear and obvious’, and even the most die-hard Hammer must concede that this was neither of those two things. Even more interesting though, was the change in decision from the referee. I honestly thought he was going to stick with his decision, although we know that nine times out of ten, they will change their mind. I think the referee was undermined there.
Whilst I dislike Manchester United as much as any other West Ham fan, if the boot had been on the other foot, I know I would have been furious too. I don’t think we’ve been on the wrong end of really any VAR decisions this season – another excuse down the pan for our dodgy points return.
Indeed, the only other issue with VAR has been the sending-off of Kudus in the Tottenham away game, and to be frank, that wasn’t even an issue – he reacted and rightly got sent off, as well as a lengthy ban. This is backed up in the ‘Premier League Table without VAR “errors”’, where we slip a place to 15th with a whopping nine points. I don’t think that we have too much room to quibble, to be honest. Well, not yet.
If I was Ipswich Town, though, I might think differently. They’re the team who are the most hard-done by on that table – at least at the time of writing. They’ve had two penalties given against them due to VAR, and one penalty decision that was given for them, but was subsequently overturned, in the home game against Everton. They’re two points worse off than they should be, as a result.
And the best off? We reckon it’s a toss-up between Manchester City – a team that hardly needs any further help to be at the top of the tree – and Newcastle United, who are two points better off than they otherwise would be. None of that is particularly controversial, though, and perhaps this is the point. Yes, we’ve seen some debatable calls, but we haven’t been talking about them for weeks at a time afterwards, Manchester United match excepted.
The truth is that I don’t remember seeing too much in the way of major VAR clangers this season – certainly, we haven’t had the team completely mess up a decision in the way they did last season by miscommunicating and wrongly disallowing a Liverpool goal against Tottenham.
Could it be that the system is slowly but surely improving? Maybe VAR is beyond saving and people have made their mind up. But is it that controversial to say that it seems to have improved a bit this season, with the changes made during the summer? Obviously, I’m saying this a quarter of the way into the campaign and that might change. But come Christmas 2025, perhaps I can ask Santa for something else for a change. Maybe.
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