It’s not football anymore.
A cry from the stand that felt appropriate on a few levels.
On the one hand, this struggling Wolves side are a long way off the standards they set earlier in the season. Besides a brief resurgence in the second half, inspired by the introductions of Cunha and Traore, it was a pretty abhorrent display that should have yielded a heavier scoreline for the visitors.
The only reason that wasn’t the case was another impressive display from Sa, whose upturn in form has unfortunately coincided with a decline in that of his outfield peers.
While the two disallowed goals would indicate a tight game, the truth is that a solid but unspectacular Bournemouth team never needed to get out of second gear to get the job done.
There is, of course, a bigger issue to address.
Stuart Atwell’s comically bad decision to chalk off Hwang’s equaliser has to go down as one of the worst of the season.
If that’s a foul by Cunha, then we may as well take up another sport. While a disingenuous apology from the PGMOL will doubtlessly be forthcoming, it’ll do nothing to dispel the notion that VAR and its administrators are prejudiced against the Premier League’s lesser lights.
Nottingham Forest copped a lot of flak for their post-game tweet on Sunday but, when you quieten the noise made by Sky Sports’ chief propagandists, would you disagree with anything they said?
They, like us and a fair few other teams, have been subjected to a litany of bad decisions all season and are paying the price for it.
In any other line of work, such ineptitude would be addressed but the powers that be in the self-proclaimed ‘best league in the world’ are either too stubborn or corrupt to backtrack on the rancid state of play they have enforced.
What this means for the beautiful game’s long-term future remains to be seen, but I, like many of you I suspect, can’t wait for a break from it.
You’ve summed it up perfectly Ben.
Bournemouth were miles clear but again we’re left talking about crap decisions.
You can slow down that Cunha incident and make an argument for a foul, as you could with about a hundred similar moments that happen in a game of football, but that’s not what VAR is supposed to do. On top of that you get the inconsistency. You see the video ref failing to intervene in three incidents in Everton Forest or for the clearest foul you’ll ever see by Gabriel in Arsenal’s win over Chelsea and yet the eye in the sky is there again to deny us for a seemingly innocuous infraction. It can’t go on like this.
Reffing aside, I kind of saw this performance coming so I’m not too angry. Bournemouth are in a better moment than us and have that consistency and cohesion that takes teams on a level. We haven’t been there for a month or two so it was always likely they’d have the upper hand. Fair play to them.
Sa was superb again and we’ll struggle to find a better keeper if we end up trying to replace him in the summer.
But other than the goalkeeper I’m struggling to think of a single player that had a good game. Maybe Toti in the sense that he’s consistent in his level and always committed, but none of the others did enough.
Hopefully we can put something together to see off Luton and get some respite from a predictably awful end to a decent season.
I think it’s time to stop playing ‘live’ football.
I think we should stick with the fixture list, then, 120mins or so after the designated kick-off time, a re-constituted ‘pools panel’, hidden in a secret bunker somewhere inside the M25, could announce all the results.
Think of the fun.
We could still have Match of the Day but it would only need to show referees checking their earpieces as they were updated. Of course, this could be inter-cut with Pep complaining about how many games his primadonnas are having to play and the occasional footage of Bruno Fernandes rolling on the floor holding his face would give us all a laugh.
Football as it should be?
Sums it all up really Ben, when post match discussions are now based around VAR and people sat hundreds of miles away telling the bloke on the ground, who should be responsible, to stop the game and have another look. Football is now all about TV drama and sofa fans. I’ve said it before but the 6 hour round trip is no longer fun or I relish. I really don’t know where the game will end up. Perhaps if I moved to Korea the club might appreciate my support more too.
KTF (though this morning that is darn hard tbh)
It’s interesting that Bruno Lage takes a certain amount of stick among Wolves fans, yet this season is going to fall short of his in terms of the points tally.
Sure, the injury crisis has severely hampered us but it’s sad to see how this season has ended with a whimper. There’s nothing to say we’ll win another game, particularly with Palace flying now.
They all looked either knackered or disinterested out there last night. A bit of both in some cases I suspect. It appears everyone, players and fans, is just waiting for the season to end.
And it’s a real shame from where we were earlier in the season, a thriving and exciting team everyone was buzzing about. The GON is the messiah talk has gone a bit quieter. At the end of it all, we’ll just about beat the points tally from last season, the worst of this stint in the PL.
There’s no point me addressing VAR, it’s all already been said. We probably wouldn’t have deserved the point anyway. A cracking header from Hwang, the deadly finisher who was otherwise dreadful. The Hwang paradox in a nutshell.
its not even a close comparison.
Look at the squad Lage had and how non competitive the prem was then
Also, remove VAR, and we are 12 points better off?
We have survived, that was the goal, now we build – VAR needs fixing.
What I do know is we were still fighting for the Champions League in April, so things weren’t as bad as some people choose to remember.
Of course we’ve had an injury crisis and I’d like to think we’d be doing much better with a full-strength team. But personally I don’t think it excuses that performance last night. Once Cunha was on, it was only Neto (perennially injured anyway) and Dawson missing from our best XI.
We’ve lost points to VAR, so have most teams. Perhaps we’ve lost a few more than others.
we could be 12 points further up the table, if VAR ITSELF was not in operation this season.
Thats the sad thing.
Also, it is the highest scoring 38 games in history, over 1000 goals, shows how competitive, this season has been,
Next season will be the real tell. Because it will not be as close for the entire season, and we need to figure out to make sure we stay out the mess.
The worse case scenario we lose, Gomez and Neto.
Best case, we keep everyone and reinforce, and really push for europe, Who knows, all i do know is, VAR are to blame a lot for tarnishing this season for us.
Rich It seems to me that every time that GON tries to play with a back four we are doomed.
Last night from the get-go we looked very porous at the back. Santiago showed again that he is far short of premier league quality, and Kilman is far effective when played in a back three.
Thus he initiative was with Bournemouth immediately. who took full advantage.
Actually most of the points dropped have been through VAR NOT interfering eg Man U ,Luton ,Sheff Utd ,Newcastle ! It should have of course !
If Santiago Bueno is the accomplished premier league defender we need then I’m a Dutchman!
Just keep your finger out of that dyke!
Our team is so quiet . We miss the Coady vocal motivation .Kilman is not a captain ,not a leader.
For the third season in a row we are failing miserably on the run in due to lack of numbers. Schoolboys on the bench from mid March onwards now seems to be part of Shi’s approach to staying the right side of FFP; meanwhile 3 of his “flagship signings” (sicknote Kalajdzic, wantaway Guedes and Glasgow’s joke of the month Fabio) all look to be on their way back to haunt us for another expensive season next time of subsidised loans out. Conversely the one who apparently wasn’t good enough and could have been bought for £20m (Vitinha) is now regularly star of the show at PSG.
It’s not so much that you aren’t spending the money Jeff, you’re just not very good at it.
oh dear.
That’s why we are in a 7th successive premier league season. Credit where credit is due PJB. You can’t resist every week can you.
VAR has ruined the premier league.
We could have been 5-2 up and that decision would still have ruined that particular game for me. Its gut wrenching to see a moment of quality, then have it dragged through the mud by a non-event that can only be witnessed in slow motion.
I am finding myself anxious before watching a Wolves game, because i know i will be devastated and angry if there is a ‘VAR Event’, then i am left feeling bitter for the rest of the day and a good portion of the next day. I am really wondering why i put myself through this.
Football’s a joke… ok, the Cherries were a better side and deserved the points, but it’s the referees that are making football totally unenjoyable.
It’s these characters that are the divas of the game, not the players.
Don’t they just love chucking spanner’s in the works?!
Hmphffth! 🙁
I’m not too worried by the result. Our key players are running on fumes and if you want to see if they care or not then just take a look a the bodies lying around the way the end.
Sometimes you can have a stinker and a with one moment of magic you can get something you don’t really deserve but that’s all part and parcel of the game. The overriding factor of this game is of course the ineptitude of the officials.
I don’t for one moment subscribe to the “they’re all corrupt “ voices. What they are is as confused as we are about what their job is due to the continuous tweaking of the rules and the far from clear messages they are given.
In any other business management would have got to the bottom of what the problems are but there’s no financial necessity to do this in football.
The simple question is, should be VAR be getting involved in onfield situations where subjectivity comes into play?
Re-refereeing the game in slo-mo is no solution for a fast moving sport.
To show there’s no bias I also thought the second VAR goal investigation was a nonsense as there really was no doubt it was offside and just served to slow the game down – and if I’m being pedantic give Bournemouth time to reorganise.
Until they sort this easily sortable nonsense out it really isn’t football any more!
The thing that upsets me with VAR is the lack of consistency. If the goals we conceded in the past were checked for failing arms and pushing, then ruled out, then fine, i could live with yesterday’s decision (i am looking at MGW).
They apply a different set of standards for each game. If they had the same guy in that remote room for every game played, sure. But that is impossible, so the whole concept of VAR being applied equally is a none starter. Different people in that room will see different things or make different recommendations on different days. Unless they are just drawing lines on screen, the premise is flawed. How is it better than just relying on the ref in the first place?
I wonder if ChatGPT knows how to operate VAR.
unfortunately, the “running on fumes” does not cut it when you are on 20k+ a week.
you should be able to play 7 days a week, and you should want to play 14 times a week.
My thoughts too wfil
Arsenal played I Europe, came to us a couple of days later, beat us, then a couple of days later stuffed Chelsea 5-0
Tired , do me a favour, our season finished when we were done at home by Coventry, since then, we have been on the beach so to speak!
What rubbish WfiL.
If you drive a car worth 100k and it runs out of fuel, it goes at the same speed as a 5k car with no fuel.
Effort’s not the issue here, it’s injuries, squad size and fatigue.
It is all to obvious – the injuries have caught up with us with far too small a squad of ‘real’ 1st team players. They are now tired, being played out of position and carrying injuries.
GO’N can do no more. The season is now effectively over.
However that first half last night was appalling and the worst performance all season, but for Sa we were 4-0 down. I have no idae what Sarabio was doing, and clearly Gomes had run out of steam.
A better 2nd half when Cunha + Boubacare offerrf fresh legs, and the travesty of fecking VAR.
The problem as I see it with Var is its now referring the game and not the Ref him self. When Var came in they said it was for certain things its not there to run the game but that is what’s happening. Why does the ref go to the screen and always goes with Var why can’t he use his own judgement. Plus why is everything slowed down why not run it at the proper speed.
In the classic SF tale by the genius that was Douglas Adams, Deep Thought was a supernatural-computer programmed to calculate the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
That’s what we need now. A super brain in to which is fed every possible combination of events leading up to every goal scored.
It then comes up, instantaneously, with the decision. Goal? or no goal?
Then we would have no reason to complain because the result would be consistent, no matter who the teams are, whether they are in the top 6, or favourites of the particular VAR official.
The poor suckers watching the game wouldn’t have to wait 5 minutes for a wrong decision to come from a team of idiots sitting in front of a screen miles away.
Unfortunately, what we have now is the equivalent of Marvin the paranoid android, who spent most of the time complaining about a pain in the diodes down his left side.
Ironically, due to being asked the wrong ultimate question, Deep Thought eventually came up with the answer ’42’.
A load of nonsense, a bit like the answers that VAR comes up with now.
Just one less than the number of points we have accumulated so far this season.
And about 13 less than the number of points we should have had.
“I’m So Depressed!”
How much more of this VAR ineptitude are you all willing to take? There’s no point moaning about it on blogs with other, equally frustrated, bloggers. It’s just preaching to the converted. You need to start making some noise at the games. Time to start protesting has long since passed hasn’t it?
How much more of this VAR ineptitude are you all willing to take? There’s no point moaning about it on blogs with other, equally frustrated, bloggers. It’s just preaching to the converted. You need to start making some noise at the games. Time to start protesting has long since passed hasn’t it?
Wow what a game!
Got up at 2-30 am to watch it and I noticed something really interesting in that 100 odd minutes,
Ait has two dots over his name which is unusual.
……….. that’s it really
Studious as ever Marney ..
At least when it was over you got into bed .. some of us had an hours drive home.. and the nightmares about VAR ..
Hi twix
Wifey would laff at someone calling me studious but I get your point,
I know, all the poor peeps having to sit through that and still hours of traffic and travel- I take my hat off to them all .
Utmw
The inconsistency of referees in the olden days was frustrating but somehow more palatable because they are only human.
Technology-based inconsistency therefore renders the whole VAR project pretty pointless UNLESS of course it satisfies a separate agenda.
Anyone ?
Our team is so quiet . We miss the Coady vocal motivation .Kilman is not a captain ,not a leader.
I make it a minimum of 9 points we have lost to clearly incorrect VAR decisions this season. We are the only club in the Premier League that hasn’t had a refereeing decision overturned by VAR. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories and think it’s how the referees are told to use it that’s the issue. Friends who watch the European leagues tell me there are far fewer issues with VAR in those countries.
I don’t go to games any more as the whole point of it – the ecstatic release of joy when your team scores – has been destroyed as you can never celebrate unconditionally any more. So why bother?
I can cope with one or two bad decisions a season, but not every three games.
I actually don’t mind losing – I’ve been a Wolves fan for over 50 years so I’m used to it! – but losing because of a clearly incorrect VAR decision is a new form of torture that I find increasingly difficult to take.
The only option is to disengage and just check the score at the end of the match, and avoid getting sucked into VAR stuff. Which is, when you think about it, a bit depressing.
Some of the best moments of my life, as sad as it may sound to some, have revolved around football. When my dad, god bless him, took me to Molineux for the first time when I was 8, I fell in love with the game, and Wolves in particular. When he passed on, I continued to go with my Grandad, before I got to the age where I went with my best mates. Going with my younger brother for the first time was another special moment. The floodlit games under the lights, the familiar walk under the subway and the smell of the stale cigs, the pre-game nerves at 10 to 3, watching the club you love, alongside family and great, lifelong mates, where for 90 minutes you’re transported to another world outside the boring, humdrum depression that is life. I’ve got great memories that will last me forever.
27 years later and this Saturday will be my last ever game. The absolute cancer that is VAR has finally killed the sport I love and I just can’t do it anymore. This is nothing to do with losing matches, I’ve seen enough crap performances over the years alongside the great and good. Goals being disallowed for stupid reasons, not being able to fully celebrate anymore because some clown in an office 50 miles away has seen an inch of a stud offside. It’s chipped and chipped away for the last few years, but last night was the final straw. This isn’t the game I grew up watching, and it breaks my heart.
I often think what it must be like for young kids trying to get into football now. If all this had been around when I was 8, I would never have got the bug, never in a million years. Depressing to think how many groups of mates will miss out on the experiences I had, following my club all over the country, from Luton to Leeds, from Nottingham to Norwich.
VAR has killed the game I love, and I’m finally done.
I said the same thing, although far less eloquently, on the blog after the West Ham debacle. Fully sympathise with your heartfelt cry of pain and will be joining you in your absence next season unless they scrap the whole damn thing.
The VAR issue has been well covered but after a restless night reliving the match I came to the conclusion that we’ve been sussed. Sitting in the North Bank end of the Steve Bull, we supporters were permanently twisted to our left as all the first half action was going on towards the South Bank. Over and over again the ball was rotated, Sa, Kilman, Bueno, Toti, Kilman, Semedo, Bueno , Sa etc. Then it went long to no one in particular and Bournemouth mounted another attack. Have you noticed how busy Sa has become recently? It’s not a coincidence. How much time did Wolves spend in the final third ? Less than 10%, How many touches in the attacking box ? Single figures at best. The second half was only slightly better.
West Ham sussed it – Wolves only play in their own half, get amongst them and you’ll get the rewards. Arsenal did, Bournemouth did, Luton will try because they have to, Man City and Liverpool will because they always do and Palace will have watched and learned by May 11th.
Wolves spent big to avoid relegation under JLo, then sold big to avoid relegation through FFP, so we’ve avoided relegation two seasons running and that’s some comfort
but GoN deserves a fair crack at building something better than that.
I agree that the amount of time we spend funnelling the ball between the defensive line and Jose Sa is concerning (and boring). Also we are not that good at it when compared to, say, Brighton. You only need to make a couple of mistakes each match and the opposition will punish you. Partly due to not having a No 9 who can receive the ball and hold up play or a ball-carrying midfielder like Matheus Nunes. It’s a good point and one that Gary O’Neil will hopefully have noticed.
Well said BG. Of course Gary not only wants but desperately needs serious backing in this summer window. Let’s see if he gets it. If not I see a repeat of Lopetegui’s departure. And who could blame him. Ever since the (imo wrong) marginalisation of Nuno Shi has run the club like his own possession. Like all before you Jeff you and your masters are only custodians of OUR football club. Your record since you took sole charge is far from impressive. Or more bluntly since Laurie Dalrymple’s departure the club has lost all the good work in Fosun’s early years and and on your watch gone to hell in a handcart.
Give your head a wobble PJB.
Look at the last 7 years compared to the previous 30 and then reassess.
Same as my reply to COD Prawny, You’re setting the bar too low. We’re better than just survival – or should be.
That’s why we are in a 7th successive premier league season. Credit where credit is due PJB. You can’t resist every week can you.
Glad we don’t all have your limited aspirations for the club COD. Avoiding relegation is not where we should be setting the bar. Which is where you come from every week. We are bigger and better than the yo yo clubs and 19 years in the wilderness is not what we should expect. Outside the manufactured “big 6” we should have expectations in the current scenario to be at the next level not fighting for PL survival, Your weekly PPG even alludes to be being outside the bottom 3. That’s for the Burnleys, Ipswiches and WBA’s – here today gone tomorrow.
Try taking a look at the demography of WWFC’s support base;. One city club drawing support not only locally from the Black Country, but Staffordshire, Shropshire, Hereford &Worcs. plus some. Very few clubs outside the cartel can match our potential.
Raise the bar!
There are currently 7 teams who were not even in the same ballpark as financially. Then we’re in another batch of probably 7 clubs with similar financial clout to ourselves so logic would say a position somewhere between 8th and 14th is where we belong.
It’s no accident the teams with the financial muscle are at the top.
Even If you look at clubs with the highest wage bills it looks remarkably like the league table.
On that measure we’re actually punching.
Prawny
Think we’re saying the thing here. I just can’t relate to COD’s contention that avoiding relegation is “success “. In the current loaded dice structure success is probably a decent top half finish but we shouldn’t be considering East Anglian and South Coast clubs as our equals because we are still The Mighty Wolves in comparison.
The “off the ball” incident where Cunha swung his arm around and caught Justin Kluivert in the face was clearly a foul not noticed by the referee as the play had moved on down the right flank and the excellent cross was headed home by Hwang. Kluivert to his credit did not fall to the ground and theatrically roll around as some payers do but got on with the game as the flailing arm after the ball had gone may have been accidental. For once VAR gave The Cherries a correct decision (very rare in our case also). In our last home game against Man Utd, we had TWO VAR decisions go against us, one for a soft penalty for an iffy hand ball and one penalty not given to us for a clear foul in the box. Wolves like The Cherries rarely seem to get the “rub of the green” against the “Big 6”. As for the red card Kerkez (our left back) received, I thought that was a bit harsh but clearly a yellow and the pundits on MOTD thought it harsh also. Perhaps it will be a 10 minute sin bin if that ruling is ever implemented.
On the balance of play and the number of chances that The Cherries had, we deserved to win the game but my nails are much shorter due to the last part of the game when we were down to 10 men. Good luck for the rest of the season to GON and your team. UTC.
Cheers decayed
It’s the forensic stuff that does my head in though, I mean , cuhna was being impeded, so he threw his arm back , we will see many more similar situations this weekend without any punishment and that’s what annoys fans.
We are still waiting for our first howler to go our way so forgive us sounding almost paranoid.
You are right though, we were getting hammered for a good hour and you deserved the win so good luck to you.
I believe you have spent decent money so get ready for the ‘establishment’ clipping your wings one way or another, they can’t have you upsetting the natural order?
Good luck
Utw