In generating a constant stream of outrage, debate and engagement, much-reviled tech has become its own spectacle
“J
ust keep delaying,” Darren England tells the referee, Chris Kavanagh, at West Ham on Sunday afternoon. The title is on the line, possibly relegation too, and as replay after replay queues up on the tape machine, who could blame a humble video assistant for wanting to savour the moment?
To survey it from all the relevant angles, consider all contingencies. To feel the sensation of all that awesome power at his fingertips. They’re calling it the most important VAR review in Premier League history. Stuart Attwell, you’ll never sing that.
“Do you want to see it at full speed?” the replay operator asks him. Of course he does. You may as well ask a man whether he fancies an extra spoonful of grated parmesan on his carbonara. And so they watch Pablo’s foul on David Raya again. And again. And again. “Go back to the second angle you showed me,” England urges. “Give us a split screen. That one, and then the first angle.”
