A bit like Battle of Britain Day? You know the one... people turn up in their thousands to watch a fly-over by a formation of old planes, and then listen to a marching band. It reminds them of when England used to be great.
Leaving aside Jason Cundy's opening description of Liverpool fans, does Mourinho have a point about there being far too many Liverpool connections in the media? [video=youtube;A3krAl_YdSU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3krAl_YdSU[/video]
Pat Nevin is one, Jose? Think there's a lot of Liverpool ones because they haven't got management jobs, and Liverpool had high profile British players - the sort the BBC always look to employ (say Hansen, Shearer, Lineker). They always have Glen Hoddle on 5 live, and he's ****ing terrible. Real problem is how few are decent pundits - I like Hansen, Nevin, Neville, Carra off the top of my head. Dida Hamann was okay last night. Surely Chelsea don't have many pundits because they haven't been successful for very long, and just haven't produced the right type of player to go into punditry? In 5 years time we could be sitting down on a Saturday to Lampard on MOTD... but Terry and Cole most likely won't be suitable. EDIT: Went onto the video (posted by a United account, obviously) and found a comment which surmises the issue: 'People pick pundits who are experienced at a high level. It just so happens that a lot of these people are ex Liverpool players because Liverpool were very successful in the last generation and produced many great British players. The generalisation this idiot makes about Liverpool fans is stupid and offensive. From a Newcastle fan '
Maybe I'm being unfair on Hoddle but he seems to suffer from the 'football doesn't exist outside of England ITV syndrome'?
Yoda, you have the nerve to slag off Hoddle's punditry when you have Lawro spouting his garbage at the licence-payer's expense!
Can't agree with that (and he's on Sky a lot). Very insightful pundit and not Spurs biased. He also counts as ex-Chelsea, Jose.
That might make sense if there were also loads of Everton, Man Utd or Arsenal pundits, depending on which era you're talking about. Liverpool appear to dominate in a way that isn't reflective of the equivalent period that these talking heads represent. The standard of some of them is appalling, too. I have no problem with Hansen, for example, as he clearly knows what he's talking about. The likes of John Barnes and Jim 'Partisan' Beglin make Alan Smith and Paul Merson sound articulate and considered, though. Jamie Carragher's sparring with Gary Neville might be entertaining, but there was a reason that he was the only player that required subtitles on Being: Liverpool. [video=youtube;nDaTTVR2JXY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDaTTVR2JXY[/video]
The worst ever pundit, ever, for me, was Ron Atkinson. God! That man was useless! How on earth he lasted as long as he did in management, I'll never know! When he wasn't stating the absolutely bleeding obvious, he'd simply get things completely wrong. "You know, Brian, I'm not sure that that wasn't on-side!" [Cue action-replay which clearly shows that the player was two or three years off-side] Not to mention his complete incompetence: "I quite like the look of that little black lad, Brian." [You mean Pele, Ron?] Ron's tactical insights were even worse that Jack Charltan's: "They've got to get the ball forward, Brian. Once they get the ball off the other side, that is." [**** me! Why didn't any of us ordinary pundits think of that one, Ron!]
Haha I don't think Carra's TOO bad... To be honest the jokes about him being hard to understand are worse than he is... But he's not the most comprehensible to those from outside of Liverpool. Luckily, I'm a jedi master; Coruscant is a hub of many different languages and accents.
The media constantly cream themselves over Liverpool and United, like when Spurs have 10 players missing injured it never gets a mention, but when United or Liverpool have 2 or 3 missing it makes headline news. Off the top of my head, former (and current) Mouser players currently masquerading as insightful pundits are.... Hansen Lawrensen Fowler McManaman Owen Redknapp Souness Carragher Thompson Barnes Mellor (more of a match reporter) Walsh Hamann Gerrard (occasional guest appearance) Houghton Beglin That is quite a list, have I forgotten anybody?.... Not to mention Mickey Quinn (not a former player but still a Mouser) and Dogger Stan polluting the airwaves on Talkshyte..
Saw a post on our board about this... Turns out there are quite a lot of Chelsea ones... Le Saux, Gullit and so on... Would copy and paste it for HIAG but it's late...
Even the Beeb seems to have joined the mouser love-in. Watching MOTD the other day and found Hansen, Shearer, etc replaced by Fowler and Hamann!....
Yet they still won't bring back Graeme Le Saux, and he was a pretty good pundit - and compared to the ****e they usually have on, he was a font of tactical knowledge and insight.
Carragher know his stuff though. I think him and Neville make a good team personally. We have a lot of ex players as pundits because they have actually won stuff which gives them an insight. Unfortunately Spurs players don't qualify for this job.
bowforfowler must be in the other 10% For the sake of balance, I'll also say... Gavin Peacock never won anything and he's a good pundit Lee Dixon and Martin Keown won loads and they're terrible pundits
