“I’ve never seen anything like it” - James Tarkowski on Michael Keane’s dismissal

Corrupt bastards.

You could see the lad's head move backwards, there was no need to do it at all, there was no danger. It was a stupid thing to do.

I'm not having that we are being picked on or the refs are bent or the Premier League don't like us, that's just losers nonsense.

It's just making excuses for another piss poor performance against a bottom 3 team. We are conceding goals galore and we create fuck-all at the other end.

After all, he doesn't know what he is talking about as the expert has seen it in slow motion on the TV and knows better than anyone.

But it doesn't take away the fact their player should've been sent off for that nasty tackle from behind on Armstrong.

Irrespective of Tarkowski's comments, how on earth can pulling a pony tail be classified as dangerous?

Only in the mind of the grossly incompetent Chris Kavanagh who typically has been recently rewarded with promotion to the elite (sic) panel of Uefa referees.

I don't think anyone in the stadium, including Wolves fans, had any idea why play was stopped for this incident.

After sitting in the cold for two successive matches to witness Moyes's inept team selection and game management, this was the last straw.

Sly, cynical and sinister... and you could probably throw in another dozen adjectives to describe some of the decisions that have gone against Everton over the years courtesy of Kavanagh.

VAR is the culprit here as the ref is too early in his career to have the balls to overrule Kavanagh.

He tells us he has never seen anything like it before. That's because he hasn't. Neither has anybody else. And please don't give the Cucurella incident. This was an aerial duel.

This is one of those "Niasse moments" were an Everton player is sent off for something nobody else has ever been sent off for and nobody ever will again.

Why does it happen to us? Because we accept it. Instead of being outraged. We have many within our camp agreeing with this cretinous decision.

Anyone who has played the game knows that aerial duels nearly always involve tussling, pulling, grabbing, pushing and wrestling. It's nigh-on impossible not to have an arm, a neck, a shoulder, or a shirt grabbed. When you have two athletes wrestling for a high ball, one of them will either grab or be grabbed. Often, it is six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Keane definitely made a grab for something but the suggestion that, in the middle of a physically contested battle in the air, he took a look at a ponytail and made a conscious decision to grab it, is just absurd. If the guy's hair wasn't in the way, he would have grabbed his shirt and nobody would have even called for a foul.

There was no attempt to stop the Wolves boy jumping. Nor was there a serious yank of the head to stop him heading it. It was a grab when both players were on the way down.

While other clubs would be screaming their outrage and demanding Kavanagh never get near another game again, we sit here shrugging our shoulders, saying the twat was right.

Violent conduct??? My big fat hairy arse!!!

Remember the phantom penalty the VAR spotted when Keane stood on the Brighton player's foot? If that was any of the big boys, they would be moaning like mad.

Dyche had a go last week about his game v Man City. He wouldn't have said that whilst with us.

Lampard was the last manager to speak out and that got him a fine.

And as you say, people on here are agreeing with some of decisions against us. We aren't the only club on the end of it. Wolves had a torrid time last season and put a motion forward to reject VAR. At that point, the other 14 clubs should have backed them to get rid of it but instead not one club backed them.

A proper 2 fingers up to the fans of all clubs, selling themselves out for the TV money and not protecting the integrity of the game.

Last week, regarding the Liverpool offside goal, a former ref advised there is a 5 cm tolerance in the Premier League for offside! Who the hell knew that? And when does that get applied and to whom?

The game is as bent as a dog's back leg.

I thought exactly the same about the young ref.

In this instance, regardless of seniority, if the VAR instructs them to go to the screen, whatever the decision is will get over-ruled.

If he didn't change his mind, he would get marked down, and similar to the clapping incident.

Has a ref ever stuck to their original decision? There must be a couple, probably against a lower team.

As for the red, Edward #7, that's on Kavanagh, not the young ref. As Tony #6 says, there is no way in the world that a kid in his second Premier League game who has been called to the monitor is going to tell a Uefa elite referee (Kavanagh was just promoted) to shove it, that it wasn't "violent" enough and he's not gonna give a red card.

Furthermore, the kid wasn't intimidated by Grealish's celebrity and gave the self-absorbed dickhead exactly what he had coming. I thought he did an excellent job.

How the fuck do they measure that? Micrometers at the ready

From my seat, the Wolves striker did not appeal and reacted to the ball still in play. It was only when the ball went out of play and ref stopped the throw-in did the striker say something to the ref. Hardly violent conduct.

If you think that's violent conduct, how would you describe any form of physical contact in the game?

The Wolves player squaring up to Rohl during injury time? Hwang's rake on Armstrong. Both of their centre-backs must have gone down feigning injury at least 6 times during the game. Where any of those violent conduct?

The game has gone as a physical contest but is classed as clever when a player dives to earn an advantage. Pretty sad reflection of the modern game.

I blame you Yanks for all this VAR shite!

The ref could and should have done what his much more experienced colleague who was advising him from the VAR room did the other week when Van Dijk did something similar to what Jack Grealish did last night. But I think, after sending Keane off, the power had already gone straight to his head.

People will disagree, but I can see it slowly happening to certain clubs in the near future.

He looked like he wanted to be noticed to me, like a young Clattenberg who was everything I thought a ref shouldn't be. He gave a needless yellow card to a wolves player in the first period after a decision was questioned.

There's reffing and theres managing a game. He wasnt particularly good at either.

Still, the furore over the cards shouldn't mask the fact that anyone with eyes could see we needed to change something after 5/10 mins of the restart. Even the Wolves manager said he expected more intensity from us.

Whether it was tired players, a change in system, fresh legs etc is a point for debate. But it is the managers job to recognise that and DO something. Not just sit there with Alan Irvine gormlessly looking at an ipad like Waldorf and Statler.

Its not good enough. 2 points thrown away needlessly.

As for the hair pull I have looked at the replay. Keane definitely grabbed a handful as they were going up and pulled it down as he was leaning in to head the ball.

It’s a pity because he scored a brilliant goal - he picked his spot, and was unlucky not to get a second with a terrific header. Not only that, and much to my surprise and many others, he has been our best defender this season.

Maybe I am just old fashioned but a footballer grabbing another man’s hair? I think it’s indefensible violent conduct or not. Or maybe the game has changed so much that anything goes if you can get away with it.

Pulling players back by the arm because they have gone past you, fouling a player on the break in their half because the worst you will get is a yellow, and grabbing players round the chest in the box so they can’t even move let alone jump for a header. It is cynical and has gotten out of hand.

This Keane card really has provided a smokescreen for some. Right Moyes? Right Tarkowski?

I have deep respect for Keane, but Tarwkoski's gamesmanship cuts no ice with me.

'He's gone to challenge for the ball and the hair is where his hand is to put his hand in his back. - here's no intention to pull the hair'.

The ball is on the way. Keane jumps. His left hand is on Tolu's left arm. His right hand is pulling Tolu's hair in the middle of his back. Keane put his had there not on what remained of the right side of Tolu's back.

Reverse things Tarkowski. Not ' the hair is where his hand is', but 'the hand is where his hair is'. 'No intention' or in Davey's word, it was not 'deliberate'. Keane knew what he was doing - minute 3.08 tells me all that I need to know:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGm6BG1cGS0

Now, whether it was a red is another matter altogether. But Keane gave noted bloodsucker Chris Kavanagh the opportunity to impose himself on a novice referee and there was only going to be one outcome. Keane was at the least fucking stupid and I can see why some believe that he did deliberately pull Tolu's hair.

The 3.08 freeze-frame can look like deliberate pulling rather than - what? - Keane steadying himself, doing what defenders do.

As Tony @ 6 said, once Kavanagh in the VAR booth intervened then the pressure on a young referee was immense.

VAR as currently used is too intrusive and interventionist; it disempowers the referee and puts too big a spotlight on physical challenges like these. For a start, the VAR team should not be talking real-time when the ball is in play.

They should intervene on offside and penalty incidents only. It should be up to the referee to invite them to look at other incidents he/she wants a second opinion on.

Nope. Looked all over every website and have'nt seen anyone say he tried to prevent him heading the ball. This debate is best left to the people who witnessed the incident rather than those who picked it up when trading nasty gossip with like minded people two days later

The referee sent him off for violent conduct. Not because he won the ball unfairly. Although I do appreciate how that would be seen as violent conduct down the baggy.

Paul

Couldnt agree more. Been calling for Tarkowski to be dropped for weeks. He's been doing it for two seasons and people have been buying it. I even wrote after the Brentford game on here that the more mistakes he makes. The greater the call for Keane to be dropped

Not an option for 3 games, but O'Brien/Keane in the middle, Tarkowski on the bench. We might disagree about the hair-gate episode Darren, but Keane has been more reliable than JT and scores.

Keane gets so much flak. Eve his courage to reveal his mental health issues was berated. Now I think he was dumb v Brentford, but overall he's a more solid option than Tarkowski, except when O'Brien was shifted to the middle at Forest.

Perhaps the key thig here is not JK or MK in the middle but shit tall Jake there?

I think people have their favourites, Some are even biased due to the players nationality, but despite my ancestry I will not be viewing O'Brien through green tinted glasses. We've had enough of that shite for with Seamus.

O'Brien has been poor this season. Sometimes very poor. The claim that he is playing out of position will only carry so much water. Playing out of position may not get the best out of a player, but it doesnt make him repeatedly lose concentration, or his man, It doesnt make him give the ball away repeatedly. It doesnt make him stop/start like he did for the Wolves goal (unforgivable). It doesnt make you think you are a volleyball player and it certainly doesnt exonerate you from running up a charge sheet like your team mates.

As you say. The decision will make itself fot the next three games and I would like to think a JOB/Tarkowski partnership can tighten up a very poor defence. Although those who think JOB will drag Tarkowski up the pitch are totally deluding themselves.

Moyes has a reputation for his great defence. A decent amount of clean sheets would support that perception, but anybody who watches this team regularly knows how easily it capitulates when the opponents smell blood.

Our defenders have been way short of the adequate this season. Age. speed. Players out of position and poor tactics can all be used as excuses. The simple fact is they have all individually been gash.