Yes, sympathise with Son but remember, he was the villain here..he didn’t mean to hurt Gomes, but he DID mean to foul him

AS much as you might sympathise with Heung-min Son for any psychological trauma he is suffering, it is worth remembering he was the villain of the piece at Goodison Park last Sunday.

Him and him alone.

The consequences of his foul – the type of foul you will see on many fields up and down the country this weekend – were freakish and they were consequences he could never have intended or imagined.

Hence his immediate distress and his obvious remorse.

But while Andre Gomes’ injury might have been a one-in-a-multitude occurrence, it was Son’s fault.

Despite any protests from Mauricio Pochettino and Son, it looked premeditated.

Premeditated to foul, not to injure, of course.

And if there had been no illegal challenge, there would have been no catastrophic ramification. Simple as that. Technically, Tottenham had a convincing argument that Son’s offence was only worth the original yellow card shown by referee Martin Atkinson.

Hence the rescinding of the subsequent red.

Morally, it does not feel right. Son escapes a ban while Gomes starts a long journey to recovery – a journey that will be arduous both in the physical and mental sense.

But coming away from Everton that night, what really struck me was how Pochettino made VAR as much of a central topic from the game as the grim fate that befell Gomes.

“It was unbelievable Son received the red card (above). I never complain about the VAR but please… we need to use it in the best way. It is going to change the spirit of football.”

And there you have it.

Whinging about VAR has become the ultimate distraction technique. What changes the spirit of football is not VAR. It might slightly alter the flow of football, but it will not alter the spirit.

What alters the spirit remains players who cynically foul, players who dive, players who try to con referees as a matter of course. Those referees have been swimming against a swelling tide of chicanery for years.

Now, when they get help, there are some – seemingly many – who want to strip it away from them simply because of implementation issues surrounding the new system.

Yes, those issues are significant. Forget VAR’S involvement or otherwise in the sad Son-gomes incident, the only reason it should have been talked about at Goodison last weekend was for the seemingly interminable wait for a conclusion to the Dele Alli handball incident. These are practical problems inevitable in its first season.

They might have been avoided with more common sense, while the continuing refusal to use pitchside monitors is utterly bizarre.

Decision-making in Stockley Park has to be accelerated, for sure, and, on a broader note, the offside rule might have to be examined in the future.

But managers are complaining more about VAR than they did about individual referees in seasons gone by.

Here is a wild stab. The best team will finish top of the Premier League, the worst team will finish bottom of the Premier League. Second-best second from top. Second-worst second from bottom. That’s my guess.

At least if managers continue to fuel the VAR debate, it will continue to distract from the crimes of their own players.

But those crimes remain the threat to the ‘spirit of football’… not VAR.

JAMES MADDISON retains his place in the England squad despite the heinous act of being in a casino on a Friday night after, earlier that week, going home ill. Good. It was hardly crime of the century and he is the sort of midfield lock-picker that Gareth Southgate needs to get the best out of.

ALWAYS knew Ronald Koeman was a superconfident type – even by Dutch standards – but a clause in his contract that allows him to leave the Holland job if Barcelona come calling? Now that’s the sort of self-belief we could all do with.