Matt Maher: Grumbling was the birth of VAR – will it now be the death of it?

“Can’t think of a more fitting end for VAR than death by managerial whinging, given that managerial whinging is the main reason we got saddled with VAR in the first place,” he wrote.

Hear, hear! Right back in the early days of VAR, this column noted how nauseating it was to hear managers who for so long banged the drum for the use of more technology, complain when that same technology now ruled against them.

Twomey’s words were in relation to the ongoing fallout from Darren England’s calamitous error in last Saturday’s Premier League match between Tottenham and Liverpool, a story which reached new levels of absurdity when Jurgen Klopp suggested the entire game should be replayed.

No-one can deny the Reds boss and his team were on the wrong end of an absolute howler. But replay the game? If that were to happen, then why not also expunge Wolves’ draw at Luton from the record and do it all over again? The phrase ‘can of worms’ doesn’t quite cut it.

The VAR errors at Kenilworth Road and Tottenham were extreme examples yet even in matches without glaring errors, video technology can dominate the post-match discussion. Both Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper and Brentford counterpart Thomas Frank spoke extensively about it following Sunday’s rather innocuous 1-1 draw.

It’s a debate with no possible conclusion. At the heart of the VAR issue is the fact no matter how much you refine it, so long as it is operated by humans it is never going to have the impact those who support its use believe it should. In the meantime, those who oppose it, including the majority of matchgoing supporters, will continue to oppose it. Ultimately, no-one is happy, except perhaps for those former referees who get paid by TV to try and explain the decisions.

Maybe the managerial grumbling which helped give birth to VAR really can now bring about its demise.