Being an 80's child and my formative football memories being in the late 80's and early 90's, it was George Graham's Arsenal team that became synonymous with offside. Nigel Winterburn, Steve Bould, Tony Adams and Lee Dixon would spend a lot of time on the training ground, practising the fine art of synchronously raising their arms in appeal.
~The only image I could find of this was copyrighted so click here to see what I grew up with~
Offside was simple in those days. You could be lying on the floor having had your head ripped off by Kayla the Eagle and if you were in an offside position by the corner flag, the linesman would put his flag up and a free kick would be given. No questions asked.
30 years later with countless rule changes, linesmen becoming "referees assistants" and the introduction of VAR, offside is as confusing as The Escherian Stairwell. But one thing that hasn't changed in all of this time, is players concentrating on appealing for offside, instead of concentrating upon doing their jobs defending.
In an era with VAR, these appeals are utterly pointless. So why do they do it? Is it purely the habit of a lifetime which they can't change? Like the appeal for a throw in as soon as you hoof the ball off the pitch with nobody within 40 yards of you? Should they stop doing it or should they continue, in preparation for a future playing lower league football? Or when VAR is finally abolished due to gross incompetence by the fuckwits in Stockley Park?
I don't know. Maybe continuing to appeal for offside isn't as stupid as I thought when I started writing this piece. But I do miss the simplicity of the rules in the 80's when screaming in a linesman's face helped him to make a decision.
It's kind of funny when you think about it. I don't know if their constant nagging bears any fruit.
Maybe it's a sign of frustration after missing out on a clear goal scoring opportunity. Either way, they might just want to zip it and focus on their jobs.
But VAR also complicates issues at times. For instance, Man City vs West Brom this season showed lines men are kind of ranked beneath VAR, after Cancelo scored following the lines man's flag.
Perhaps it's time for some changes.
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Oddly, I do think their nagging works - Alex Ferguson was the master of getting into a referee's head and getting decisions that other teams only dream of. Jose Mourinho has tried it but doesn't seem as good.
The frustration's an interesting one - I remember this Rooney goal against Newcastle and before Rooney's shot, he's running alongside the referee complaining to him, really angry and then gets on with his job -
I wish I knew the answer to offside and VAR, every time they change the rule it becomes more confusing. We've got idiots deciding what the rules should be that less competent idiots need to implement. We need fewer idiots 😂
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