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Commentators and Pundits You Can't Believe Weren't Fired Years Ago

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    Commentators and Pundits You Can't Believe Weren't Fired Years Ago

    Mention of Chris Waddle in another thread inspired this topic. Waddle fits simply by applying this logic: think of the basic job requirements of commentary or punditry and then assess your candidate against those requirements. The first that spring to mind would be:

    1. Clarity
    2. Noticing something you wouldn't have noticed yourself
    3. Tactical insight
    4. Insights into player psychology, being a former player himself.
    5. Communicating enjoyment of being at the game (if it's a good one) or at least a desire to be at the game

    #2
    6. Being able to pronounce the word 'penalty' correctly.

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      #3
      Virtually all of them. Eamon Dunphy managed to get away with contradictory nonsense for years before he got the shove.

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        #4
        Paul Merson. I mean it was funny for about a week when he couldn’t pronounce things but now, it’s tiresome and actually a bit excruciating.

        Graeme Souness. It’s always the black lads’ attitudes that he’s questioning, why no one has ever pulled him on it, I don’t know.

        Jamie Redknapp. He’s proper thick and just states the blindingly obvious.

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          #5
          Clinton Morrison in the Sky studio for midweek games brings nothing to the table other than his ongoing enjoyment of the massive tie knot. He appears like a kid who is there in detention.

          I appreciate there are plenty of others who also offer very little insight into what its like to have actually been involved in professional football, but he seems to annoy me the most for some reason.

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            #6
            I can get believe Tim Cahill ever got a second pundit job. He delivers his opinions like a stoner trying to speak in a brand new language and has all the charisma of a corpse in aspic.

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              #7
              I'd be happy to see the vast majority sacked, and I think top of the list would be Lawrenson for spending circa 25 years being a thoroughly irritating contrarian.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                Mention of Chris Waddle in another thread inspired this topic. Waddle fits simply by applying this logic: think of the basic job requirements of commentary or punditry and then assess your candidate against those requirements. The first that spring to mind would be:

                1. Clarity
                2. Noticing something you wouldn't have noticed yourself
                3. Tactical insight
                4. Insights into player psychology, being a former player himself.
                5. Communicating enjoyment of being at the game (if it's a good one) or at least a desire to be at the game
                I was watching the BBC's World Cup Rewind from 1998 last night and was genuinely shocked to find Waddle as the co-commentator even then. I had no idea he'd been a pundit for over twenty years.

                Agree with the earlier post about Lawrenson. There's something about that Lawro prediction thing with the celebs that really irks me.

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                  #9
                  Jim Beglin. I fucking hate him even more than that piggy eyed fuck Houghton. Alan Smith on Sky. That fuckin accent.

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                    #10
                    My wife hates the accent of Jamie Carragher and thinks it shouldn't be allowed on National TV

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                      #11
                      I assume we're all agreed on Robbie Savage?

                      Garth Crooks always sounds like he's trying to be really profound and that he's lecturing me.

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                        #12
                        "Sven, I can confirm that with that result, England are through to the next round"

                        Yes, because the rules of the FIFA World Cup only apply when Garth has said so.

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                          #13
                          I can kind of see why beglin is so perpetually negative, given what happened to him in his career, and Ronnie Whelan as well has a lot to be disappointed about, but what is ray houghton's problem? Every time he meets an Irish person they treat him like a god. Liverpool fans are pretty fond of him, villa fans love him. Stop being so fucking miserable ray, and try and think of something fucking constructive to say, if only for a change of pace

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                            #14
                            I fuckin hate his weegie meets golf course half posh English accent as well. The last 5 years or so of John Giles on telly was just embarrassing. Could play a drinking game around his use of Honesty of Effort.

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                              #15
                              Was a bit shit to find out Giles ended up a shill for Delaney as well.

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                                #16
                                I've actually met Ronnie Whelan and he seems to be an upbeat bloke. Maybe it's just football depresses him.

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                                  #17
                                  Not really a case of "can't believe he hasn't been fired" and more a case of "can't believe he got re-hired".

                                  Back in the 1980s Jock Brown was the main commentator for Scotsport on STV. A solicitor by trade, Celtic, under the ownership of wee Fergus McCann, surprised everyone including their own support when they appointed him General Manager in the mid-90s (from Day 1 they accused him of being a hun). His remit was to look after players contracts and talk to the media rather than have manager Wim Jensen talk to the press. A classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper, he suddenly had no time for his old colleagues and treated them like they were the shit on his shoe. His tenure at Celtic was just a constant, daily shit-fight between them - I think he even sued one newspaper whilst they counter-sued as the petty jealousies reached pathetic levels.

                                  The press would have a field day when lots of Celtic's star players, including Paulo di Canio, left under a cloud with Jock Brown always being made out as the scapegoat. Players and backroom staff would leak loads of stories to the press about how unhappy they were and ultimately he resigned a year later, with the likes of the Daily Record, Sun and The Herald all smugly documenting his demise.

                                  You would have thought there'd be no way back for him having not just burned a lot of bridges, but absolutely blown them to smithereens. However he's been back commentating on Scottish football for a few years now.

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                                    #18
                                    I've mentioned them before in other threads but I think it bears repeating: the insipid, miserablist contrarianism of Danny Mills and Chris Sutton almost makes me pine for the insipid, miserablist nihilism of Lawrenson.

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                                      #19
                                      I'd be happy if I never heard or saw any football analysis ever again. My mum was right all along, what is the point in all of this talking? Football has never been "fair" and words can't reverse time, no matter how vehemently expressed they are. It's just opinion for opinion's sake to reinforce the idea football is really dead important and nowadays the analysis itself becomes part of the twitter bantz melange. Thirty years ago we used to scoff at the likes of Elton Welsby but give me that mateyness any day of the week, and he only had the ten minutes before kick off.

                                      Commentators have started to feel like referees because I don't really notice the good ones. I remember particular lines that come with particular goals but the better commentators are generally unobtrusive. Unfortunately I seem to notice the irritating ones all the time with their shouting, their opinions and their tendency to place a full stop after every word in a sentence. These people have stopped me enjoying televised football. I try to watch the midweek European matches but I can't if it's the wrong commentator, I've tried to watch the EFL highlights programme but I can't and I remain unmoved if I miss Match of the Day. I suppose I should be annoyed by it all but I'm not. I can ignore it all.

                                      Having said all that I'd keep commentators because it's strange to watch a televised match without commentators.
                                      Last edited by Kowalski; 30-04-2020, 14:48.

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Kowalski View Post

                                        Having said all that I'd keep commentators because it's strange to watch a televised match without commentators.
                                        Options with ambient noise only are the best.

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                                          #21
                                          I recommend watching televised football in the Pig and Whistle on Shirley Road, just next to the four old guys who are always there. Within ten minutes of their expert analysis, you'll be pining for any one of the above

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                                            #22
                                            The only to watch televised football is with TV on mute & music cranked high.

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                                              #23
                                              I know it's probably just lockdown nostalgia but while watching a lot of old football on YouTube, I've really enjoyed the work of the likes of John Motson, Barry Davies and Brian Moore, commentators who I mocked at the time. I've even quite enjoyed watching Jimmy Hill pontificate on Match of the Day.

                                              I don't include Hugh Johns in this. I always thought he was great.

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                                                #24
                                                I've actually met Ronnie Whelan and he seems to be an upbeat bloke. Maybe it's just football depresses him.

                                                I think there must be a lot of things that annoy him. The first is People now have no idea how good he actually was. People back then had no idea how good he really was, and I don't know if he knows how good he was. I've been watching a lot of old football to fill in the yawning chasm, and the years have been very kind to Ronnie Whelan the player. If you could add an engine to him, he could slot into a modern midfield very easily. He was a very smooth player, always seemingly in the right position, always available for a pass, always aware of where he was going to move the ball to next, with a level of technical consistency that really stands out. Just a player who moved around making a lot of good decisions, a midfield Dennis Irwin I suppose. I suspect that he would have been extremely difficult to play against. He only got 53 caps for Ireland over 14 years. He got injured a couple of weeks before italia 90 and barely featured, though Jack Charlton didn't seem that keen on him. He would have been underrated as a player because the fashion back in the 80s was for the central midfielder who got in the box for flick ons,. not necessarily the one who could cover in front of the back four and keep the ball moving quickly, and enable you to play a much higher quality of football in possession of the ball. The big problem in his career was that Injury basically wiped him out at the age of 28. That must have been incredibly frustrating.

                                                Part of the reason that he's a terrible pundit is that I don't think he really appreciates how good he was, and that the things he took as normal, weren't actually that common. He gets annoyed when people make what he thinks to be simple basic mistakes, without realizing that these mistakes are so common place that perhaps they're not that basic. I remember my dad saying "You'd swear he never made a mistake himself" to which my answer was "He basically didn't." (You get a big chunk of this in the punditry of paul Scholes) It's the opposite of Dunning Kruger syndrome, the curse of knowledge.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by Kowalski View Post
                                                  I'd be happy if I never heard or saw any football analysis ever again. .
                                                  all most tv analysis is is jobs for the boys-I cant recall ever meeting anyone who enjoys the long periods between highlights on,say,MotD and many record the shows rather than watching them live so that they can fastforward through those bits.nice,extremely lucrative work if you can get it,i suppose.
                                                  particular pundits that annoy me-graham hunter who does stuff on la liga,utterly in love with his own voice

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