This in my view should be a seminal moment in the VAR saga. These two are getting very close to all but calling for VAR's removal. And to Simon's credit he's nearly done a complete 180 on his assessment of VAR. In the early days he was staunchly pro-VAR but he admits here that he's starting to see how problematic this is, particularly in the stadium.
But he explains, quite rightly that this is not the way football is supposed to be adjudicated, and that's the main point that needs to be brought to the forefront. It's absolutely mad that you have a group of people in a studio determining outcomes of matches in real-time.
Towards the end of the segment, Simon talks about something incredibly important, and it means more coming from him who clearly could not see these problems in the early days of VAR, and really until recently, when he talks about how the football powers that be are unwilling to admit that sport and human beings are imperfect. He stresses the need to "get on with it", as in don't over think it, don't put hurdles in the way of how this is supposed to work. Don't stop football from functioning normally anymore.
Although these two are getting close and closer to all but calling for VAR to be sacked, they still aren't quite there, but they're close. And I think this reluctance to "go all the way" despite him clearly seeing how problematic this is is the biggest challenge we face.
We all collectively need to break free from this mental barrier when it comes to VAR. understanding that were done with it and we no longer can even entertain further attempts to try to make this work. It has to go, it's run its course. Football has been harmed greatly from it and there needs to be an urgency to get this out.
It is never going to work, VAR is always going to be a nuisance no matter how it changes. The only way to bring us back to normal football is to end this failed experiment and actually take the steps to return us to the classic Beautiful game that we care about. There's no excuse at this point in the offseason for steps not to be taken to have this removed from the sport. And it has to start somewhere. The Premier League can make a stand and make it very clear that VAR has no place in football and that it must be taken out, firmly and with confidence in the desire of the sport being restored to its natural state, how its supposed to work, for the benefit of all.