Match of the Day vs The Premiership

People think Matt DC is American because he is always talking about his Spurs.

That was a funny goal last night. The Nun was particularly beatific after the match. I may start referring to Villa as 'we' for the duration of this good spell.

Meanwhile, in Smug Before The Fall news, I would like to point out that the last time Everton started a season 9-2-3 we won the title by 13 points with five games to spare. So this season is already shaping up to be a disappointment.

'Bottomless Gormless' - unreleased Kraftwerk classic.

PS: The film was a game of two halves.

He hearts Steed Malbranque

Blair would have Alex Ferguson in the Cabinet. He doesn't go to matches because people force him into executive boxes and make him talk about politics.

He looked terrified, and a bit either asleep, unsure, or waiting for prompting. He kept pausing and didn't sound at all convincing about anything.

I would like to see Motty on Question Time. No, seriously.

So does PJM. I would, too.

Blair was embarrassingly nervy and deferential, as he is in 'non-political' scenarios. Yet it cannot be said that his judgement of footy matters was altogether awry: as Alba and JtN point out, his judgements were oddly accurate.

Boyle is absolutely right to say that Blair looked terrified when they replayed the old radio interview. It was as though, having just made a claim, it was going to be undermined 30 seconds later, and we were about to see him lying outright on live TV, as it happened. It would have been so emblematic. And this is just Football Focus.

But it did not happen; the tape proved his innocence - which perhaps makes me wonder why he looked so scared.

On the whole, otherwise, he was fairly uncontroversial and unenlightening. Surely he could at least, for instance, have said that Supporters' Trusts are a good thing? But then, perhaps he doesn't think they are.

A terrific photo in the next day's paper showed him talking afterwards, not with Lawro and Manish (sp?) but with... Hansen... Lineker... and ... yes: the man who cut his political teeth on Dispatch Box: CROOKSY!

He said when he was first over in England on some job, he was working with Garth Crooks, who proved unable or unwilling to remember Greg's face, and instead introduced himself or asked Greg who he was over and over again.

The more times the better.

Arsehole.

Lineker continues to flourish imo - maybe it's taken for granted? but he's at the top of his game, the presenting game that is.

Apprently he was/is going to be on Breakfast this morning. We the viewers were invited to try and stump him with tricky questions about Leicester.

As you can see, I am already hard at work, so I couldn't watch it.

Lawrie Sanchez seemed an utter bastard to me - and believe it or not, that came as a surprise.

I heard Des on Parkinson yesterday, both of them saying TV critics are impotent, ie. don't matter. In a way, it was a relaxed, engaging meeting of two broadcasting greats - well, one great, with some geezer from Yorkshire. But in a way, also, it was two rich fellows chuckling over the complacency they can now get away with.

Just realized that the start of this thread directly coincided with the arrival of the TACTICS TRUCK. It's like finding a tablet of stone recording the parting of the Red Sea.

Steady Mike and I last night watched Tyldesley rather than BBC, if only cos, in Mike's spontaneously superb formulation, Guy Mowbray has third place play-off written all over him.

It's one thing not to be able to replace David Coleman or Barry Davies. But making Guy Mowbray your #1 commentator and giving him the World Cup Final?

I don't recall noticing Mowbray much, which is how I want it from my commentators frankly.

Is it me or does Hansen spoil MOTD2? He sits there like a fucking critic waiting for the others to do something wrong. The whole atmosphere is all wrong. It reminded me of that awful time he was on Frank Skinner's show and was giving it "Says something funny then! Come on Frank you're supposed to be funnier than that! MAKE US LAUGH FRANK!"
Arsehole.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, November 8, 2005 5:10 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Still true. The main problem for me is that the bbc studio is always full of unpleasant people who poison the atmosphere. You need no hansen, no shearer and no lawrenson before it becomes decent watching. ITV is almost always more pleasant now but the adverts are killer. I rarely bother with the punditry now, it's only worth it for the replays.

Guy Mowbray may not be a marquee name but he can't possibly be worse than Tyldesley can he? I get more than enough Clive over the course of the season as it is.

Apparently Alan Hansen is actually a pretty nice guy in real life, he's getting increasingly half-arsed when it comes to his hardman act. I can cope with either Hansen or Shearer on their own, together they're appalling. Here's hoping Shearer gets a job in management sometime soon.

Can't be doing with Lawro or Townsend at all, for entirely different reasons.

started watching bbc coverage last night but eventually had to switch to itv due to lawro's constant negative vibes complaining about a shit game. but then itv weren't much better. personally thought it was a good game.

Don't wish to wallow in the past, but this thread was really something in 2004-05. Perhaps it can be again...

From The Fiver the other day:

What's got eight arms, no spine and makes wild predictions about football matches without having a clue?

The Match of the Day panel.

Seemed to be some distinct bad vibes between Shearer and Hansen throughout the BBC's coverage, I think. Following his failure at the Lolcastle, it feels like Shearer realises punditry is his only career now, thinks he needs to make some kind of panel powergrab and has become even more boorish as a result.

The combination of Lineker - who, after all these years, still feels like a supply teacher who thinks he's still one of the kids - Shearer, Hansen and Dixon/Lawro is absolutely deadly. They really need a European/South American/Hodgson-style eminence grise to make them up their game.

I don't particularly warm to Lineker, but I have to admit he's a fine presenter and does a decent line in deadpan. There was one bit in the lead-up yesterday where Lineker was running through the Dutch penalty in the 74 final and pointed out the foul might have been outside the box "... but they didn't have technology in those days".

A couple of seconds later Shearer got it and bellowed "THEY DON'T HAVE IT NOW!!". He does this all the time, and it's starting to crack me up.

I realised how good Lineker was in 2006, when they had the likes of Ian Wright and Leonardo in the studio dropping enormous clangers and the thing kept threatening to spin out of control and Lineker would get things back on track with a knowing look to the audience. Leonardo talking about golden showers and Lineker going "well at least you all now know it's not scripted" was a classic.

Amid the torpor of 2010's panel, not so much.

BBC badly missed Martin O'Neill this time round.

Yeah Seedorf only partly made up for O'Neill's absence.