Postecoglou lets rip at VAR AGAIN as infamous Celtic 'gymnastics' rant echoes (2025)

Postecoglou has made it no secret he's unhappy with the tech

Ange Postecoglou has once again unloaded on VAR after it took five minutes to make a decision on a Tottenham goal – only to rule it out for offside.

The Spurs boss hasn't hidden his displeasure with how the tech has been deployed in the Premier League this season, but it's not a new bee in his bonnet by any stretch of the imagination.

Going back to his time at Celtic, the boss frequently voiced concerns about it – after a 2-2 derby draw with Rangers in 2023, he raged that 'mental gymnastics' were being used to justify a decision not to award his team a penalty for handball by Connor Goldson.

It wasn't quite as fuming this time but after Lucas Bergvall saw one chalked off for a marginal offside after a five-minute delay during their 3-1 win over Southampton, Postecoglou said: "If you told me a few years ago that we would be spending five minutes during a football game standing around I would never have believed you.

"But everyone loves it, everyone wants it, everyone is delighted by it and it is working so well and we're getting all the decisions right.

“They draw those lines, is anyone convinced by those? This is not a slight on anyone as I don't think it favours us or not favours us but the fact we're waiting five minutes... I really don’t think that’s what technology was brought in for.

“But it's gone too far down the road for anyone to claw it back. We used to allow the assistants to make those decisions and we all accepted it.”

The Australian recently said he is rapidly falling out of love with football due to the technology's perceived over-involvement in the game.

But it's been a long-running gripe of his, stretching back to his first experiences of VAR while in Glasgow with the Hoops.

Speaking after a 2-2 draw in January 2023, in which Rangers defender Goldson appeared to block a Carl Starfelt strike with his hands, Postecoglou delivered one of his most memorable interviews ever.

He said: "I have seen people doing all sorts of mental gymnastics trying to show why it's not a penalty, which probably suggests it is. If it wasn't, it would be a simple explanation.

"I don't think it is just confined to us as a club, there are other clubs in the same boat. It's just really confusing now for players to know what they can or can't do because it seems to change depending on who's in charge - because there is zero consistency.

"In 25 years of coaching or managing I have always abided by the referee's decision. You would be hard-pressed to find me really criticising any referee, because I have always believed they even themselves out. They are human beings, they make mistakes, we make mistakes, players make mistakes.

"But when I look at the introduction of VAR and the decisions that have gone against us, there is zero chance that's going to even up between now and the end of the year, because it's remarkable we have had at least three major decisions go against us.

"You can just say it comes down to interpretation or whatever people want to say but I guarantee if that game had finished 2-2 and it was Rangers that were denied that decision, the talk this week would be how that was a title-defining decision.

"The fact it wasn't because we still got a result doesn't mean we should ignore it, because a team could get relegated on a decision like that."