There has again been so much talk about diving and video technology, but for me it is just media hysteria, it really is and it gets to me – the constant debating about diving is what is ruining football, not the diving.
People moan so much about the referees, but just because you are not getting the run of the ball, that is football – referees cannot do a job that a camera can, it is ridiculous to me.
Referees are not going out onto the pitch to cheat or deliberately get things wrong, it is swings and roundabouts as we always said, some days you get the decision, others you don’t.
“It is swings and roundabouts as we always said, some days you get the decision, others you don’t”
And calling for players to be banned, I don’t feel the need for retrospective action – all these guys who are commenting and talking, the ones who used to play the game– did they never do anything like that? Did they never dive or do something illegal on the pitch? Of course they did.
This is part of the game, it always has been and always will be.
The beautiful thing about this game, is the fact you can go down the pub and argue, debate about everything about the game – why do you want to take that away?
Video technology, you can’t bring it in for debatable decisions – just get on with it, you have the referee and if sometimes you get something, fair play to you – but another game you won’t. People are relying on the referee to make a mistake.
Almost every player in that situation, like Marcus Rashford or Leroy Sane at the weekend, would do the same – of course they would, they just might not admit it.
But we have all this debate about the technology but this game is not cricket or tennis, or rugby – it is 90 minutes, bang and we are done….are we going to get to the point where we go on for over 100 minutes because of this – we need to just get on with it, we really do.