David Tanner’s Comments On Celtic, Penalties And VAR Are Contemptible Garbage.

Remember David Tanner? Don’t worry, most people don’t.

For a while, he was one of the anchors on Sky Sports Scotland. Then something happened. I can’t recall what it was. I can’t even recall if I ever knew what it was. But something did. Perhaps his bosses just sat down one day and said to each other “this guy, he’s not up to much, is he? He’s not really that great” and cut him there and then.

That sounds plausible, especially if you’ve seen his idiotic smirk on your screen.

Anyway, he was banging on the other day about Celtic and VAR and he suggested that VAR has acted as an equaliser because we are a big club and thus we intimidate referees. We hadn’t had a penalty given against us before it and that since it was introduced seven have been awarded. In his view, this is some kind of restorative justice.

We know what his football proclivities are, why is why no-one finds it curious that he doesn’t apply the same logic to the club across the city, and see what he comes up with.

Here’s a statistic that will bring this into some kind of focus. The Ibrox club hasn’t had a penalty given against them in the league this season. But let’s explore further. They haven’t had a penalty kick given against them in the league since January 2022. They haven’t had a red card against them in the league since August last year.

Do you know how many league games that penalty statistic takes in?

If they don’t concede one against Dundee Utd that will be 46 league matches … on the back of a similar run of 44 league games without conceding a penalty prior to this. And since they are playing at home we can definitely count out Utd getting one … the Ibrox club has not had a penalty awarded against them at Ibrox, in a league game, since September 2019.

Tanner doesn’t mention any of this.

If VAR was the great equaliser, wouldn’t we have seen them concede at least a couple by now? In fact what we’ve seen instead is a marked increase in awards in their favour, and some of the most diabolical decisions not to award penalties than any of us has witnessed in all our years of watching the game.

Tanner is a biased fool, and all he does in putting forward ignorant, stupid opinions like this is makes any sort of career renaissance ever more unlikely.

To be frank, even the BBC wouldn’t hire this halfwit, although if he had actually played at Ibrox he’d at least stand a chance.