Almost 20 years into his career as a manager, we finally appear to have reached peak Mark Hughes. Following Southampton’s Carabao Cup defeat on penalties at Leicester, he used his post-match interview to complain about a refereeing decision that had not gone his team’s way. In itself, that was not unusual – rarely a weekend goes by in which Hughes does not publicly lay blame for their many shortcomings at the door of officialdom. Long before Donald Trump developed a reputation for tediously ranting and raving about the perceived injustices repeatedly inflicted upon him by the Fake News Media, Hughes had earned one for railing similarly against referees.

Leicester prevail on penalties as Southampton rue controversial VAR call Read more

Yes, we have been here before … many times. But even by the standards of Hughes’s own serial bleating Tuesday night’s effort was a bit special. Two weeks ago, he had plenty to say after a Charlie Austin goal against Watford was chalked off for offside. Following the lead of his striker – whose eloquent post-match rant was brilliantly soundtracked with Blur’s Parklife by one Twitter wag – Hughes declared Premier League football to be in “the dark ages” and demanded the introduction of video assistant referee technology to ensure decisions are made correctly.

A fortnight later and apparently without a modicum of self-awareness, he stood before the cameras following a match in which VAR had been employed, only to bemoan the technology’s inability to help get things right.

His frustration is understandable, his hypocrisy less so. His team are struggling badly, barn doors in Hampshire have never had it so good and such is the level of speculation swirling around his future that the pitch for this article was met with a thumbs up, “if you think you can get it written before he’s sacked”. Nevertheless, like so many of his post-match grumbles, his two most recent don’t even stand up to particularly strong scrutiny.

Take the Watford game, where Austin’s goal was ruled out because Maya Yoshida was standing in an offside position when the striker fired past Ben Foster and wheeled away in celebration that would soon be curtailed.

Replays suggest that while Yoshida was undeniably standing in an offside position, whether he was interfering with play is open to unwinnable and extremely boring debate. It follows that if VAR had been available at, Simon Hooper might well have consulted his pitchside monitor and upheld his decision to disallow the goal.

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Different referees have understandably different readings of offside, a law that in certain situations – not least that one – leaves itself open to no end of interpretation. Contrary to what Hughes seems to emphatically believe, the presence of VAR may not necessarily have resulted in Southampton’s “winner” against Watford being allowed to stand. What it almost certainly would have resulted in was a Watford penalty for a ridiculously rash Ryan Bertrand challenge on Nathaniel Chalobah that went unpunished. Curiously, for reasons best known to themselves, neither Austin nor Hughes saw fit to mention that incident as they vented long into the wet and windy night.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mark Hughes watches on during Southampton’s draw against Watford. Photograph: Mark Kerton/PA

And so to Tuesday’s defeat, where Southampton were denied a late winner against Leicester for a Nathan Redmond handball in the buildup to a disallowed goal. Acquiescing to the howls of protest from assorted Leicester players, the referee, Roger East, signalled for VAR and after a brief consultation decided to rule out Steven Davies’s strike.

As decisions go, it seemed an extremely harsh one; Hughes’s frustration was understandable and not without justification. Or at least it would have been if he hadn’t been citing the introduction of technology as the solution to all refereeing shortcomings in his most recent post-match rant. Like offside, handball is another of football’s laws that often leaves itself open to interpretation and on this occasion the technology Hughes regards so highly failed to work in his side’s favour.

And therein lies the rub. Happy to complain about the absence of VAR when it is not used, only to pull a reverse-ferret and complain about its presence when it is, we are left to conclude that Southampton’s beleaguered manager isn’t even remotely interested in seeing referees make consistently correct decisions, but more keen on them making calls that consistently benefit his team.