Utd v villa

[RustyRef]

While I'm usually the first to pile in on Hackett (and am also someone who doesn't think Oliver has had a good season and isn't currently living up to his reputation), this is a disingenuous response. There were 10 games going on at the same time on Sunday, only 4 of which could (with even the most generous of readings) directly influence Newcastle's position.

And yet, we had Craig Pawson on Wolves v Brentford, Darren England on Liverpool v Palace, Kavanagh on the play-off final and not to mention a handful of other much more senior officials (Attwell, Tierney, Gillett, Bobby Madley) on various other VAR duties. Oliver could have taken any of those listed irrelevant matches and freed up Pawson/England/Kavanagh (or they could have used any of the more senior officials on VAR) for the United v Villa game. Even Rob Jones (who MO was VAR for) would have been a more experienced choice than Bramall with over 3x as many PL games - MO could have been in the middle for the match he VAR'd and Jones could have done this game.

Appreciate some may also have needed to be recused, but I've given you 8 other options for this middle. It was a deliberate gamble to put a less-senior official on a big-ish game and it backfired. I get that it's important to give up-and-coming officials opportunities to experience big games, but I would argue final day of the season isn't the time to take that risk.

I'm not disputing that Oliver could have refereed a game not impacting Champion's League qualification, and that might have freed up a more experienced referee to do the Man Utd vs Villa game. But that isn't what Hackett said, he said that Oliver should have been appointed to referee a big game, full quote below.

He added he was "surprised and disappointed" that Oliver was appointed VAR for Tottenham's defeat by Brighton and it was "difficult to understand" why he was not picked to referee "a big game" in Sunday's final round.

The only big games were those involving Champion's League qualification, everything else had been sewn up weeks before. As a Newcastle supporter he couldn't referee Fulham vs Man City, Man Utd vs Villa, Newcastle vs Everton, or Forest vs Chelsea. Which make's Hackett's comments laughable as there simply wasn't "a big game" that Oliver could referee. A so called refereeing expert suggesting that a Newcastle supporting referee should take charge of a game that could impact Newcastle's qualification chances shows just how little credibility his views have.

 

[GraemeS]

That is distinctly different to what you reported he said previously.

 

[RustyRef]

That is distinctly different to what you reported he said previously.

Err, no it isn't, for the avoidance of doubt this is what I said.

He also said that he was disappointed that Michel Oliver was VAR on a nothing game and should have been out refereeing

That strikes me as a pretty accurate summary of what he said. I might have missed out the big game bit, but that's just because there were no eligible games that needed the skills of arguably the top referee.

 

[Refollie]

I guess arguably in this instance Oliver should have refereed the playoff final given he couldn’t take any of the top PL matches

 

[Gabriel]

I would agree @Refollie but he only refereed it 2 years ago. Seems a bit unfair getting it twice that quickly. MO definitely shouldn't have been VAR on a nothing game though. That could have instead been used to give one of the (not already appointed) SG2 officials experience in the role.

 

[MarcusSFARef]

I would agree @Refollie but he only refereed it 2 years ago. Seems a bit unfair getting it twice that quickly. MO definitely shouldn't have been VAR on a nothing game though. That could have instead been used to give one of the (not already appointed) SG2 officials experience in the role.

That logic does make sense, and I agree that variety is important in final appointments. But Kavanagh was the referee for the 2021 EFL Championship play-off final and still got appointed to the 2025 version .

 

[RustyRef]

I guess arguably in this instance Oliver should have refereed the playoff final given he couldn’t take any of the top PL matches

I somehow don't think they would put Michael Oliver on a play off final involving Sunderland

They don't have a one final only rule like they do for the FA Cup Final, pretty Mike Dean refereed it three times, but equally it does need to be shared round a bit. And they certainly won't put a referee on a game involving the arch rivals of the team he supports.

I don't think they pull these appointments out of hats. If I was in charge would I have appointed a relatively inexperienced referee to such a big game? Probably not, but there's no doubt the top 3 were all ruled out (on the basis Taylor was always getting the vital game of the day).

 

[GraemeS]

Err, no it isn't, for the avoidance of doubt this is what I said.

He also said that he was disappointed that Michel Oliver was VAR on a nothing game and should have been out refereeing

That strikes me as a pretty accurate summary of what he said. I might have missed out the big game bit, but that's just because there were no eligible games that needed the skills of arguably the top referee.

Not refereeing at all =/= not refereeing a big game. Those are distinctly different.

Your original post implied Hackett was unhappy MO wasn't refereeing at all, and you were disagreeing with that. I think that would be a fair complaint, as he could easily have done any of the other 6 games that didn't affect Newcastle. Some of which might have freed up a more experienced ref for Utd v Villa, as I laid out previously.

When you then move the goalposts and actually quote Hackett correctly, then yes, it's foolish to not consider the fact MO can't do anything you would actually define as a "big game". Regardless, him being an idiot still doesn't change the overall point - there are multiple ways of re-jigging appointments to not put one of the least experienced avaliable officials on one of the 4 key games.

 

[Gabriel]

That logic does make sense, and I agree that variety is important in final appointments. But Kavanagh was the referee for the 2021 EFL Championship play-off final and still got appointed to the 2025 version .

Agree but 2021 was pretty much behind closed doors - not the same experience for the match official!

 

[Tealeaf]

I think we’re done. We’ve veered so far off on multiple tangents it’s time to put this out of its misery.