ITV football coverage: Urge To Kill Rising

yeah Ailsa, I was watching on Granada (albeit not in NW England - long story) and they managed to cut back to the football just as the winger was about to cross. Still, it was remarkably inept.

I'm pretty sure this was an accident. They wouldn't have deliberately scheduled an ad break for 2mins before the final whistle.

Apparently there's two centres of broadcasting in the UK, one in Leeds and one in London, hence the two different streams.

I'm pretty sure this was an accident. They wouldn't have deliberately scheduled an ad break for 2mins before the final whistle.

Credit crunch, advertising revenue drying up, Carol Thatcher etc

I was watching on Granada (albeit not in NW England - long story) and they managed to cut back to the football just as the winger was about to cross.

Ah, right - so most Everton fans saw the goal and most Liverpool fans didn't. Sorted.

*high five*

The BBC did a similar thing during the epic Aberdeen vs Celtic match the other day that made it to 12 penalties a piece. Earlier on we'd had to switch from BBC1 to BBC2 for something, then in the middle of the (admittedly very very long) penalty shootout they switched back to BBC1 without warning! Thankfully we were watching at home, and could quickly change the channel, but I bet there was a lot of pubs having to do some quick channel changing to avoid riots.

An ITV spokesman said investigations were under way as to the cause and it was too early to say if the weather was to blame.

ba ha.

CraigG, how much of that Celtic game did you watch without being able to tell the difference between Aberdeen and Dundee Utd :-)

That was totally different as they did warn that they were switching channels for the news (it's not that unusual for over-running matches to jump between channels, they'd done it in the last round when Partick took Rangers to extra time as well). Unscheduled ad breaks in the middle of a game is a whole different kettle of fish.

I think with the semi-final they switch channels twice and didn't warn anyone the second time, which was in the middle of the shoot-out.

Ah, OK.

Andy Townsend thinks that Dawson is better than Gallas, Palacios is better than Song, Bale better than Nasri, Lennon better than Theo and Defoe better than Arshavin. And this guy gets paid to write and talk about football. I'll give him Gomes over Almunia though. This guy can go eat a fucking dick.

Dawson, Gallas- Haven't seen enough of Gallas to say. Dawson plays more, and is our third choice centre back. He's been good (often great) this season, but is always one step from disaster. Meh- I'll probably agree with you here.

Palacios is a better DM than Song, but then I don't think Song's a DM.

Bale is more useful/productive than Nasri, I think- certainly on the left.

Lennon is better than Theo.

Defoe seems to be a lot more useful than Arshavin, who I've heard a huge amount of complaints about from Arsenal fans this past season.

Gomes is better than Almunia.

Townsend can indeed eat a fucking dick- even aged 9 I always thought he was shit for Ireland and he's a shit commentator/pundit.

His 'tactics truck' was the single most embarrassing thing I have seen on sports-related tv.

Townsend is terrible but I gotta say, Arsenal-tinted glasses are on full display there, Sam

I should maybe underline that I'm willing to debate all of those except for lennon and gomes, but there's no way that even a majority of them are clear cut arsenal wins.

really the article is just toss though.

but while i'm winding sam-

woodgate or king vs vermaelen (esp king, ceterus paribus) debatable

at lm, modric > either bale or nasri

no room for thudd- deeply uneasy about this, but not moving fabregas even on challopday

thudd vs rosicky imo

no wait

diaby

thudd >>>>>>>>>> diaby

sorted

and oh yeah corluka sagna also debatable. i'd go for corluka myself.

so what i'm saying is that, depending on formation, we'd have fabregas, clichy, van persie and maybe vermaelen

and wenger. i would take wenger- that's kinda U&K

forgetting kranjcar, he's a classy & beautiful guy

bale >>> clichy

I think Townsend is right on the majority of those.

Arsh's unwillingness to perform for most of this season has been heart-breaking, frankly, but I wouldn't say Defoe is "better". "More useful" might well have been les mots just tbh.

   gomes
sagna woodgate vermaelen bale
         song
     nasri fabregas
lennon             arshavin    
       van persie

that wd be for a super attacking team
shitty basis for an article tho really

totally replacing song with palacios and nasri with modric in that team fwiw

i'm not claiming bale > clichy at LB tbh, bale still very ropey in defence.

xp 'timely piece' but yeah shitty article i think we're all agreed.

xp nasri for modric for sure

and clichy ISN'T ropey in defence?

Top flight full backs aren't supposed to be able to defend in the 21st century

apparently

sort of shitty that the manchester derby is so poor that i'm scribbling formations comprising of two other also-rans

hahaha nice

clichy's defensive ropiness- twine

bale's defensive ropiness- frayed string

my bad i forgot modric.

          Gomes

Sagna Corluka Verm Clichy

         Song wtf darragh even you have spent the past 6 months saying Palacios has been shit while Song is more important to Arsenal than Cesc these days

     Cesc                 Modric

Nasri                         Arshavin, sure he can annoy but he's still fucking! Arshavin

            van Persie

Subs: Szchzchzhzchzhchy, Gallas, Eboue, THUDD, Krancjar, Theo, Defoe.

Manager: The one who wouldn't get them all arrested for tax dodging and stealing Cassius Clay's pills, he needs 'em more, ya know.

palacios having a shit 6 months is just gonna have to be allowed, tbh. he's still the best defensive midfielder we've had in....years, and tbh i've only been following spurs since 1993 or so, but imo I have to go back at least that far.

i like song. he's not a defensive midfielder! i'm not saying palacios > song in this, but picking an 11 then fabregas is unquestioned, and in the interests of actually balancing a midfield then it's wilson all day.

king, dawson, woodgate and prob bassong all stronger at centre half than corluka- sorry, but sagna dropped.

nasri on right ahead of lennon? nope.

arshavin on left I'll allow, as i will van persie lone striker.

ok, how are negotiations going?

How is Song not a defensive midfielder? I don't get this. Is this because he can also *shock horror* pass the ball?

Also Lennon cannot do this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tx-R5jxpr4

Also Corluka must be a better defender than 2 retired hacks and Dawson. He's just classier than Gallas and Bassong. Plus I'm working on the matter that you need a tall handsome man in defence these days to succeed, also known as the Gerald Pique Principle.

no, it's because he can't tackle and doesn't really sit back.

iirc, retired hacks make cf in your team.

The FA Cup's on ITV now is it? No wonder I haven't been able to find it all weekend. As for your question, all of them are too bland to inspire hatred.

― Ismael Klata, Sunday, January 4, 2009 3:49 PM (1 year ago)

How did I ever think this? SB'ed self.

tbh i think i'd take bendtner&crouch over defoe&pav&keane&broken-ed

tbh wtf

'good w/ his feet' + fabregas a winning combo?

Adrian Chiles to anchor this summer's World Cup coverage, then disappear to the same island Des Lynam went to.

ITV's World Cup coverage will include pundits such as Patrick Vieira and Francois Pienaar joining new anchor Adrian Chiles, a new James Corden show and a "dual screen" link-up with ITV.com.

The broadcaster, which will air 32 live games from the event in high definition for the first time, will field a presenting lineup including Vieira, Marcel Desailly, Kevin Keegan and Edgar Davids.

ITV has also signed Pienaar, who captained South Africa to their Rugby World Cup win in 1995, to join the presenting team for the opening ceremony and the first match between South Africa and Mexico on 11 June.

Lead presenting duties will fall to Chiles, who signed with ITV last month following a rapid exit from the BBC after it emerged that Chris Evans was to replace him on Friday nights on The One Show, with Matt Smith to present some games and highlights programmes.

Not that Matt Smith, surely?

Francois Pienaar

A friggin' Rugby player, fuck right off