For a player to have called Paul Tierney the c-word three times would have been bad enough; for a coach such as Steven Reid to have done it is far worse. Reid and the other Nottingham Forest coaches are leaders — they set the tone for the way their players behave. The message he was sending to Forest’s players was: this is how you treat officials when they make decisions you don’t agree with.
I am not refereeing in the Premier League any more but from afar, it seems to me that players are becoming more abusive towards officials. I suspect this is partly because of VAR. Before it came, it felt that people largely accepted referees would make mistakes, just as players and coaches
