Gary Neville has praised Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou after his comments on refereeing in the Premier League.
Ange Postecoglou has impressed Gary Neville with his view on refereeing after Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-1 defeat to Chelsea.
We are not sure that Stockley Park has ever been so busy with Tottenham and Chelsea serving up a frankly chaotic encounter.
From disallowed goals to penalty shouts, potential red cards and eventual red cards, this game was incident-packed.
Tottenham ended up losing 4-1 having plated more than 40 minutes with 10 men, but Postecoglou didn’t want to blame referees.
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou comments on refereeing
Postecoglou did pick up a booking, but he claims that was for leaving his technical area rather than berating referees.
The Australian probably had few complaints; both Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie were lucky to escape red cards before eventually being given their marching orders.
Postecoglou was then quoted by Sky Sports as saying that he thinks Premier League managers should focus on managing rather than trying to referee games themselves.
The Spurs boss wants more respect for referees but feels that managers will always attempt to bend rules for their benefit.
Postecoglou believes it’s becoming increasingly difficult for referees to officiate games because VAR is diminishing their authority, seemingly calling for referees to have more power over technically.
“Premier League managers should just manage their football clubs. I’ve never and I never will talk to referees about the rules of the game. I was taught that you grow up and you respect the officials,” said Postecoglou. “Now, managers look for ways to bend the rules. Tell me what the rule is, and I guarantee you will have a room full of managers processing ‘how can I get around this’. What I want are the best officials always being upskilled to officiate the game but it’s so hard for referees to officiate these days. Their authority is constantly getting diminished. I grew up afraid of referees like they were policemen. I’m old school, I’m from a bygone era,” he added.
Gary Neville reacts to Ange Postecoglou comments
Postecoglou’s comments come just days after Mikel Arteta branded the officiating in Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at Newcastle ‘disgraceful’.
VAR and the standard of officiating has been a hot topic this season and Postecoglou has now been praised for his comments.
Gary Neville has taken to Twitter this morning to call Postecoglou’s comments ‘class’, seemingly supporting the idea of respect for referees.
Neville has been critical of Arteta’s reaction over the weekend, so Arsenal fans won’t exactly be impressed with him praising Postecoglou.
The conversation around refereeing is so strong right now and we can imagine many top-flight managers would get rid of VAR if they could – Postecoglou included.
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