Adrian Chiles brings you the coverage complaints thread

[sledger]

So irritating that the only way he can express excitement is to shout.

 

[sledger]

World Cup 2014: Farewell to the magic of the mic - Telegraph

Much of this article is standard Torygraph BBC bashing, and I don't agree with all that's said here, but it's hard to disagree with most of it. I thought the bits about Johnners and Tim Vickery were particularly spot on.

 

[sledger]

BBC News - World Cup: 'Wrong' Phil Neville gets fan abuse

 

[Uppercut]

World Cup 2014: Farewell to the magic of the mic - Telegraph

Much of this article is standard Torygraph BBC bashing, and I don't agree with all that's said here, but it's hard to disagree with most of it. I thought the bits about Johnners and Tim Vickery were particularly spot on.

Yeah Vickery as a pundit would be amazing, especially for the lesser-known South American teams. I suppose we should just be happy that they're employing him at all.

Apparently Shearer hates working with people that aren't ex-footballers because he thinks their opinions are worthless.

 

[Uppercut]

I love that there's now a "no commentary" option on the interactive service for BBC games. Previous generations could only dream of pressing a big red button and having Lawro shut up.

 

[sledger]

Yeah Vickery as a pundit would be amazing, especially for the lesser-known South American teams. I suppose we should just be happy that they're employing him at all.

Apparently Shearer hates working with people that aren't ex-footballers because he thinks their opinions are worthless.

Ha, that doesn't surprise me. Bloke's a self-righteous, smug bastard.

 

[Furball]

This is going to sound snobby as hell, but I think the reason we get **** pundits in this country is in part because we insist on drawing them from former high profile footballers, almost all of whom in this country are poorly educated and frankly, thick as ****.

You get the odd shining light like Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher who are pretty intelligent blokes, but for every one of them there's a Robbie Savage or Ian Wright or Paul Merson, who are thick as ****. The reason a lot of pundits lack any decent insight into the game is because they're not intelligent enough to have one.

 

[sledger]

This is going to sound snobby as hell, but I think the reason we get **** pundits in this country is in part because we insist on drawing them from former high profile footballers, almost all of whom in this country are poorly educated and frankly, thick as ****.

You get the odd shining light like Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher who are pretty intelligent blokes, but for every one of them there's a Robbie Savage or Ian Wright or Paul Merson, who are thick as ****. The reason a lot of pundits lack any decent insight into the game is because they're not intelligent enough to have one.

It probably does sound snobby, but I agree entirely.

That said, and this will sound really snobby, people like Merson, Savage and Wright probably appeal to plenty of average Joe football-watchers (who are also pretty dense), who see these cretins as "lad" types.

 

[Uppercut]

That said, and this will sound really snobby, people like Merson, Savage and Wright probably appeal to plenty of average Joe football-watchers (who are also pretty dense), who see these cretins as "lad" types.

In my experience, not really. Those types of football fans just aren't very positive about anything.

They churn out a rationalisation about having to appeal to casual viewers, but the real reason those guys have a job is because TV rights are sold exclusively, so there's no competition in punditry that would drive an increase in quality. I don't think anyone particularly likes them. It's not like you ever overhear tattooed chavs in the bar bigging up Andy Townsend.

 

[sledger]

I dunno. There are some "friends" on my Facebook who like to crow about how great Paul Merson is, and have had pictures taken with him etc...

 

[Cabinet96]

Yeah, I definitely think there's a case of it. Someone like Paul Merson definitely gets a bit of a love from some fans. Compare it to someone working in cricket like Ian Botham and it's completely different.

 

[Uppercut]

I haven't seen much of Merson.

But I think Townsend shows you can keep a football media job even when pretty much universally despised. So even if some people do think these guys are decent pundits, that's probably not why they're still there.

 

[Goughy]

As mentioned in the other thread, I am not sure if Cannavaro being a pundit is so bad it's good, or just bad. Don't mean to belittle his English speaking abilities, he can speak English a lot better than I can speak Italian for sure, but he was actually incomprehensible at some points during the show.

One comment after an article I read was along the lines of "Yeah, and he cant speak English. Comes over here and takes a job. How many of our former players get to work overseas?" Well as someone who has lived around the World, there are ****ing thousands! Whereever you are in the World you turn on TV and there is a Steve McMahon, Paul Parker, Michael Thomas or equivalent working the studio. The ignorance of what happens outside the UK is astounding but then again I should be above getting annoyed at comments on online articles.

 

[Uppercut]

My favourite example of this was when Ron Atkinson's "****ing lazy n*****" comment was only broadcast to the Middle East, and the Middle East then became the only place where he could still get a job.

They've got Richard Keys now too. Collecting pundits deemed too dickish for Britain.

 

[sledger]

My favourite example of this was when Ron Atkinson's "****ing lazy n*****" comment was only broadcast to the Middle East, and the Middle East then became the only place where he could still get a job.

They've got Richard Keys now too. Collecting pundits deemed too dickish for Britain.

Or too ****. I hear Michael Owen is working for Al Jazeera these days.

 

[GIMH]

Some of the better UK ones do overseas stuff out of their normal contracts too, eg Tyler (commentator not a pundit, but).

 

[sledger]

I used to really like Martin Tyler, but find him a bit grating these days. He's sort of become a pastiche of himself. Would still rate him as the best of the most prominent TV commentators though. Alan Parry and Rob Hawthorne are good as well.

 

[Cabinet96]

My favourite example of this was when Ron Atkinson's "****ing lazy n*****" comment was only broadcast to the Middle East, and the Middle East then became the only place where he could still get a job.

They've got Richard Keys now too. Collecting pundits deemed too dickish for Britain.

Yeah he and Gray do the Premier League for the middle east. You see them sometimes if you put on a stream on a Saturday afternoon.

 

[sledger]

"Never underestimate the power of dead balls".

urgh.

 

[marc71178]

Pearce still thinks they got the goal line technology wrong in the France game...