He WAS offside.
The rule is you don't become ACTIVE in the offside until you touch the ball.
even in the old rules- you were never offside when the defender played the ball. yeah the linesman would flag back then, but the ref would allow play to go- IF the Defender played the ball, not the attacker.
i've been talking about when simpson played the ball in.
though he is standing in an offside position, He cant be penalised for offside, if the defender plays the ball first.