Football pundits

crunchman

ChuckManual said:

The best thing about the BBC's coverage of the World Cup or the Euros is that there's nearly always a Red Button option that does away with the commentary and just leaves you with the stadium noise.

@ChuckManual that's useful to know thanks.

scrumhalf

They're almost all awful.

Robbie Savage: "How do you know? Did you play the game professionally? How many caps did you win?".
Ian Wright: Gives the English language a far greater kicking than any opponent.
Danny Mills: Everything is terrible, we're all doomed.
Alan Green: There was an article in either the Times or Telegraph a few years ago the gist of which was that nobody would voluntarily work with him.
Phil Neville: He may be Gary's brother but he hasn't got his charm, good looks or knowledge.
Rio Ferdinand: Oh please, oh please.
Jamie Redknapp. Is he paid by the word? If he was paid by the sensible word he'd starve.

Philly_Q

Pat Nevin's really good as a co-commentator on 5 Live.  Chris Waddle's alright, and Lawro can be quite funny.  And I like Chris Sutton just because he's outspoken and cantankerous.

I can never make up my mind about Robbie Savage, I really like him on the show he does with Freddie Flintoff and Matthew Syed.  But on 606 he can be an idiot and he sometimes gets quite aggressive with callers.  I think he's basically not intelligent enough to understand what people are on about half the time.

axisus

I find Robbie Savage quite entertaining to be honest. More interesting than a lot of the 'beige' pundits.

kin

I think Danny Higginbotham is quite good, decent analysis of tactics.
Cannot stand Alan Green or the other fella on five live.

ThePrettyDamned

Commentary is bollocks.

At uni, we'd mute the telly and put some music on - you can see that player has just dived, you don't need a commentator to verify that. 

ESBlonde

It should be said that I'm not a football fan, I have done plenty of Sunday mornings in the snow/wind/rain as both my sons played as youths and the youngest got picked up by a city youth squad which required an hours drive each way at least once a week to train and a couple of European away weekends for games/experience. Oldest son is currently in and out of the first squad for another local town but has been driving himself there for years. Youngest now plays pool at county level.
So I've seen a lot of football! The Pundits are a symptom of the modern commercial game. TV money has skewed the top team finances out of all proportion and the Pundits are part of what is served up to justify that coverage. Most of what is on tv is so far removed from 'the beautiful game' as to be selected highlights. Just think how much football is filmed each week compared to how much gets screened. Someone has to narrate the whole thing and try to remain interesting without jarring the audience (who can all do better). The formula seems to have settled on a presenter and a small squad of former players/managers who offer thier opinions to camera. Everyone gets paid a good chunk of change, rinse and repeat.
What am i even doing in a football thread....Jeez.

Lestratcaster

axisus said:

I find Robbie Savage quite entertaining to be honest. More interesting than a lot of the 'beige' pundits.

Couldn't stand him as a player but actually has some personality and character as a pundit to be fair.

Gary Neville also know's what he's on about as well. 

Snap

Lawro - overlooked him. I like him, he can be very funny and piss taking.

Robbie Savage - the sort of player you don't like unless he's playing for your side. Horrible.
I listened to him muller some halfwit who phoned in to 606 demanding the sacking of Mark Hughes cos Stoke weren't playing the "Stoke way" anymore. That whole "insert team, way" thing is bobbins anyway, which was Savage's point.

What do we think about Sky's Soccer Saturday then? Best thing on that is Chris Kamara. Unwitting comedy genius.

Rocker

Apologies for the slight thread hijack but sport itself has somewhat died for me.  I have always been a sports fan but lately I notice that I don't care much what happens on the field of play.  Even the results of my #1 team Everton, my #2 team Liverpool or my #3 team Scunthorpe United have little if any effect on me anymore.

Thinking about it, I feel a few things have caused this situation.

F1 racing = a high speed parade with almost no overtaking or what would be reasonably described as 'racing'

Drug use in sport and the complete failure of sporting bodies to do anything about it.  Bizarrely drug usage is allowed for certain medical conditions like asthma.  It is remarkable how many top athletes 'suffer' from asthma and avail of the drug which, apparently, is performance enhancing.

It is getting harder and harder to 'believe' in what you see on the sports field.  Professional cycling has long been discredited as has sprinting and power field sports.  Yet top athletes, even discredited athletes, fill stadiums so the authorities find way around the rules to allow discredited athletes compete.

It has always unsettled me just how easily an athlete or sports person can change their nationality.  Live for a few years in a country and you can then represent that country at the Olympic games.  In the world of Rugby Union, C.J. Stander is a perfect example.  I don't know the guy, he is likely a gentleman, but he is from South Africa.  Yet he plays international rugby for Ireland and got selected and played for the GB&I Lions.  I have no problem with him playing his rugby in Ireland but his playing for Ireland is distorting the actual level of player on the Irish team.  And limiting the opportunities for Irish born players to represent Ireland.  It would appear that this practice is widespread, the French soccer team has Algerians on it.

One positive feature of Rugby is the usage of video replays to determine foul play and scores.  The crowd can go home after a game knowing that 'his foot was in touch before touching down' so the try was not awarded.  The crowd understand that the referee and his officials cannot see everything but the use of technology reveals all.  It is worth the few seconds holdup to get the decision right.  Football is reluctant to use this technology even though it is in use in Rugby.  The system that football is trialing appears to be something of a joke considering what is available.  Football is blighted by stupid rules: a player removing his shirt in celebration of scoring a goal is penalized with a yellow card.  Daft.  Yet a player diving in the penalty area and deception of the referee gets away scott free most of the time.

Thinking about it, it is not a surprise that sport has died for me.  The wonder is that it took so long for this to happen.

axisus

Snap said:

What do we think about Sky's Soccer Saturday then? Best thing on that is Chris Kamara. Unwitting comedy genius.

Ha ha! I love that clip where he missed the sending off! He's a right laugh!

cruxiform

Snap said:

What do we think about Sky's Soccer Saturday then? Best thing on that is Chris Kamara. Unwitting comedy genius.

https://youtu.be/H8gKmQ6Hrro

Never gets old

Nitefly

No mention of the female ones, e.g. Jacqui Oatley, Juliette Ferrington, etc.?

I think quite often they're better because they feel they have to try harder, in what is clearly a male-dominated arena.

Nunogilberto

I can't abide the shirt and chino wearing twats. If I watch MOTD I normally mute the volume after the highlights so I don't have to listen to the manager's interview, and the following half an hour of tedious analysis of throw ins.

duotone

Snap said:

What do we think about Sky's Soccer Saturday then? Best thing on that is Chris Kamara. Unwitting comedy genius.

Superb, Will be an impossible task replacing Jeff Stelling.

ronnyb

Bring back Brian Clough he'd have cleaned the floor with all of them.

Niallseroreilly

Keano is quite entertaining