I want to talk a little about VAR today, particularly the application in the Euro’s right now, but before I do that, let’s spare a thought and metaphorically pour out a little liquor for Kieran Tierney’s Euro2024 campaign, which basically died last night as he was stretchered off for another injury sustained in a career that has been blighted by them both domestically and internally.

He’s such a good guy, he’s a very good player and by all accounts last season he apparently did well for Real Sociedad. I’m sure had he stayed fit for the whole season they might have made an offer to keep him and I’m sure Arsenal wouldn’t have been too harsh on the fee either, but herein lies the challenge with KT and herein lies our challenge too, because we aren’t going to get any kind of cash for a player who just cannot stay fit. I only switched on the TV as he was being stretchered off, so I don’t know the extent of the injury, but I’ve seen a few people talk about a hamstring. If that’s the case it’ll be three weeks at least and by then the tournament will be essentially over. You would have thought Scotland’s campaign would have been too, to be honest.

So it’s a bitter pill to swallow for him, a bitter one to swallow for us too, because in a summer where eye’s are on Edu and the transfer team to sort out the outgoings for cash as much as the incomings, this is going to have to take some real super-slick used car salesman-style techniques to get this little Scottish number off the lot.

As for us, well, we’re looking at how to improve the squad and last night I jumped on the Arsenal Opinion Podcast with my ol’ mate Johnny Cochrane to talk about building the perfect ‘Super Soldier’-esque Arsenal player. We talked other things as well so if you want to have a listen you can do it on the AOP feed here.

We did a bit of a ‘pod swap’ and Johnny is going to jump on the Same Old Arsenal podcast tonight for our summer series (more at the bottom) so it’ll be good to get his ‘hot takes’ on signings and exits this summer for The Arsenal.

But as I was saying at the top of the pod, I wanted to talk VAR and the application of it at the Euro’s. One more shameless plug before I get to my points though, as Amanda had Keith Hackett on the show last night with Alan Smith and if you want to have a listen you can do so here. An always interesting chat and good to get Smudger and an ex-professional ref on their for their views.

As for me, I think what the Euro’s has shown us this summer is that VAR – when applied correctly and used in the hands of competent officials – can improve the overall experience as well as the integrity of the game. I watched the Portugal game the other night and the goal that Portugal had disallowed for Ronaldo’s header on to the post was done and dusted within seconds. There was no lengthy delay, the semi-automated technology kicked in and we were up and running in no time at all. From next season the Premier League will be implementing this technology and so the hope is that it will not delay offside calls as lines are meticulously drawn. We’ll also get less of the nonsense from the likes of Erik Ten Haag, who bleated on all season about the goal they didn’t get at The Emirates. Mate, the computer ‘said no’, just accept it and move on.

It does make you wonder just why it took so long to introduce in to the English game though, right? I mean, this technology has been going on for a couple of years now and it’s proven to be quite good for things like offside, so why is it only now being introduced? Well, we all know the answer to that and it’s because of the old boys network that exists at the PGMOL. Semi-automated technology might reduced the need to have so many bang average referees getting decisions catastrophically wrong in studios and with the technicians and TV screens right in front of them, so they wouldn’t want that. Jobs for the boys, don’t you know?

We all know referees have a tough job as it is, but when you have a closed shop that for so many years has gone at lengths to protect itself from scrutiny and shield it’s collective of mainly North West based employees from criticism, it’s hard not to look at the PGMOL and not think that they probably deliberately held out as long as they could before being forced in to accepting the use of this kind of technology. Hopefully it helps them to do their jobs better and we have less shambolic decisions like the ones at St James Park or in the game between The Scum and Liverpool last season. There will always be an element of subjectiveness to things like penalty calls, etc, but in places like offside you really should be making the most of what’s available to give you the best possible chance of reaching the right decision when it’s clearly black and white.

I could rant all day about VAR but it feels a little like p*ssing in to the wind, so I’ll hold my tongue for today, hope you have a good Thursday and bid you all adieu for another one.

If you fancy listening to myself, Johnny and Merv Dinnen on the Same Old Arsenal podcast talking about their choices for ‘one in, one out, one bangs’ for next season, you can catch us tonight at 7.30pm here.

Catch you all tomorrow.