" It's not right..and grown men should really know better"...slightly patronising. Suggests that everything is perfect. Shows lack of basic understanding of the game I would suggest.
From the invention of the game fierce rivalry, tribal, sometimes outright hatred is evident. The idea that a ref is above all that is just not true. 95% or even more the refs have 100% integrity but saying or claiming that there's never a chink in their perceived impartiality is naive.
It's not about refs decisions, it's the reaction to them, from everyone involved. Seeing pundits and ex players tear into refs in general and VAR in particular was hypocritical. Most of them spent their entire careers treating refs as opponents, trying to con cheat and dive week in week out. Now they act like they're some sort of moral authority on the lotg, when they're talking about the subject they know nothing about.
We know that when people see that reaction, it eventually shows up at grass roots level, where vulnerable refs and officials have no protection available and no VAR to rescue them. It's the kind of response that sees Mike Dean at 50 years old, have to take time out to protect his family after receiving threats for giving a red card. It's the kind of response that sees Taylor and his family attacked in airports, and it's the kind of response that sees Anders Frisk retire in mid season. That's just the professionals, let alone the amateurs. It's wrong.
Darren England isn't the best ref in the league, but he knows how to say "Check Complete". Unfortunately last weekend, he accidentally said it too early, and we've all seen the consequences.
As you know I am not a big VAR fan. As I have said before, it is well intentioned, but flawed. In the days when I went to the match, there would always be incidents where the wrong call was made, but we trusted that the judgement had been made in good faith...if we gained from it great..if we suffered by it...then obviously not. There was no choice but to move on, those incidents were quickly forgotten, whereas now these calls are pontificated over for days/weeks. There was a phase: These things balance out over a season....because that's what did happen...in fact still does.
I totally agree with a few of your points, especially about the cryptic, mildly menacing club statement which for me served no purpose.
One thing you might want to consider: The linesman put his flag up, we agree this was a monumental error. The technology giving us the proof, although anyone, and everyone could see in real time it wasn't even that close. I suspect (though we'll never know for sure) that the linesman thought Diaz was onside throughout the whole move ( which explains him not flagging immediately). I think he put his flag up BECAUSE he knew VAR would check it, just in case he got it wrong...essentially referring the decision to VAR, falsely believing they couldn't get it wrong.
My point being, if there was no option for VAR to review it he wouldn't have raised his flag. VAR has become a sort of get out of jail card.
It's not a card, it's a safety net. The refs are instructed to ref games as if there's no VAR, and they all pride themselves on their correct decisions without needing outside assistance. Then it's available to them if needed in limited scenarios.
We didn't see refs as making decisions in good faith. People told them not to ref their teams matches. Howard Webb and Mike Riley are still reminded to this day, for going to the toilet and giving mancs penalties, regardless of justification. When a European ref did the right thing over there and sent a manc off years ago, one of their fans called 999 to complain about it, because he argued it was an "emergency". Now, despite being all UEFA match officials, despite their years of experience, and all the times they've given decisions our way, suddenly where Kavanagh, Tierney and Taylor are from is a problem, that's before they even turn up, let alone blow a whistle.
Telling me that wrong decisions balance themselves out, is no use to me. Even if it's true, decisions balancing themselves out in games where we're already 4-0 up with 5 minutes left and don't need it, is no consolation if the previous error is the difference between winning a trophy or not.
What happened at the weekend is not going to happen again. It will slow VAR decisions down further, and then you'll get Bawler from Brighton and Whiner from Wolverhampton crying that it's killing the game for him. It's not killing the game, it's seeing justice done, so regardless what kind of club you are or where you stand in the table, you only get the decisions you deserve. And if it takes 5 minutes to get to the right decision, that's fine, I have the patience and I'll sit there quietly and wait as long as it takes. I paid whatever I paid to watch this game, so give me the right decision and we can argue the toss later. We saw what happened last weekend when the wrong decision was given. That will never and should never be allowed to balance itself out.
I spent most of the 20 years before VAR arrived, thoroughly disgusted that we lost at the toilet every year, due to strong penalty appeals turned down and other unjust decisions against us. I could list them all off, but believe me I never ever ever want us to return to that rotten dump without VAR available, let alone anywhere else.