Those readers who were acquainted with the Org in it's first incarnation 1999-2015, when it was open for anyone to comment without being a member, will perhaps fondly remember 'Clint'. Because it was an 'open' forum we would sometimes have well over 1000 people on line at any one time, consequently it was necessary to be inventive to prevent 'acute' swearing, the tool we used was a language convertor which enabled certain swear words to be 'converted' from the swear word to something more palatable, especially for younger viewers.
It doesn't take too much of a genius to work out the derivative of Clint, but some viewers still used to ask "who the hell is this guy Clint?" Well in our opinion yesterday's referee, Chris Kavanagh, was an out and out 'Clint' for the way he sent off Fabian Balbuena just as Hammers had built up a head of steam in their efforts to at least get a draw, the central defender's red card put the kibosh on the slim chance of attaining an equalizer.
Even the professional Hammers protagonist, Adrian Durham, was among a whole host of football pundits to weigh in on the decision to send off Fabian Balbuena during West Ham United’s 1-0 defeat by Chelsea yesterday. Durham usually does his best to 'Diss' West Ham, so his endorsement goes to show just how unjust the appalling decision was.
The standard of refereeing in the English game has become rather embarrassing, VAR was supposed to help, all it has done is given carte blanche to incompetence backed up by safety in numbers. Of course it didn't help matters that 'Lord' Oliv(i)er' was the referee operating the VAR, he obviously informed Chris Kavanagh that something had happened, and after all if he doesn't do anything to get people's attention during a game he feels that he has failed, he's another 'Clint'!.
"How that is clear and obvious I don’t know. These horrendous decisions, week in week out, are disgustingly inconstant and seem to always favour the so-called bigger clubs." Is what Durham tweeted just after the game
Adrian Durham
@talkSPORTDrive
A West Ham player was sent off for kicking a ball. That actually happened. VAR must go.
8:01 PM · Apr 24, 2021
The Red card will undoubtedly be overturned, but that doesn't compensate the club for having lost a key player in the vital closing moments of the game, it's not as if this is the first time it has happened to the Irons is it? Perhaps the 'septic six' have had a whip round in order to ensure their 'pet' officials award everything they can to help the 'special teams' reach the Champions League that they wanted to send down the river? Funny old game isn't it? But not so funny when your team is on the receiving end of rough justice, repeatedly.
We suppose there shouldn't really be any doubt as to why Hammers are repeatedly targeted, they stood, and still stand, on the brink of upsetting the Barclays Premier League hierarchy, a bunch of 'Clints' who will do anything to retain their fetid overindulgences. - Ed
Comments
Well I think he was a 'clint'
Well I think he was a 'clint' anyway!
Automaton
Thats what the refs are today....not allowed to think not to believe there own judgement just accept that someone watching a screen knows better than they do.....Yet another way that the "beautiful game" is being destroyed...by a whole bunch of Clints
Oh yes the resurgence of the
Oh yes the resurgence of the crappy clint in this case AKA the bastard in the black. If he's a referee, then I am Carol Vordermans gusset!!
I was all for VAR. It now
I was all for VAR. It now needs to be removed. How the hell supposedly intelligent professional referees can get so effing many decisions wrong when the evidence is right there on the screen is truly baffling, like Lord Lucan baffling. Dumb clints
deflects from the real situation
The problem with this issue is that we are talking (rightly) about another major incident in the match which in fairness had little bearing on the game, IMO.
The real issue for me is that Saturday highlighted the lack of investment in the squad. Moyes has done a great job this season on a very limited budget but the fact remains, as an example, we have no Striker, The Beast is doing a great job, even though he is a winger, but is VERY injury prone with no back up. We have no Plan B.
By comparison to Chavski, they made 5 changes to the team, had a wealth of talent on the bench and still manage to improve. We are looking "out of salts" at the moment, allowed them to out run us and put us to the sword. It took until 55 mins for us to have a shot on target and lay a glove on them.
Life on mars
I am reminded of the line in the David Bowie classic “ look at the law man beating up the wrong guy” whenever this debate surfaces. Yes it is very easy to have a go at the refs but they are only applying and enforcing what are a very suspect set of rules. It is the law makers need taking to task here. VAR was introduced to remove the doubt in matters of fact and to a large extent it has done that. We might not like some of the decisions but on offside VAR has been generally spot on. The problem comes in when we move out of the realm of fact and into opinion. For offside, goal decisions etc, you can use slow motion, freeze frame and the like but when it comes to opinion you cannot infer intent from a snapshot. Dangerous tackles penalty decisions involving contact should be viewed in real time. Only after you have determined that a foul HAS been committed, then should you slow down the action to determine point of impact.
You cannot use slow motion to determine whether a crime was committed.
Like it or not VAR is here to stay, the laws just need to catch up.
good point jozi
i think power and control should be given back to the referee and linesmen/women take var out of the game it has not served its purpose i admit that at 68yrs i am a bit old fashioned but through a season bad decisions evened them selves out and also were great discussions to have over a pint after the game .I was all for V.A.R at first but now i think it should be used only for late tackles and elbows to the head when the referee can not see them .I think V.A.R is the result of television pundits over watching and slowing things down in slow motion to undermine an officials decision that was made in real time