World Cup pundits,the worst ever?

[ham_aka_stam]

JP Woody, what I was on about, was that your posts are made incredibly difficult to read because you refuse to put a space after your punctuation. I have only ever seen someone consistently do this once before, and that was a previous user here who has since been banned.

[Robbie 78]

Precisely, plus the fact once he put it on the table he got straight back on with the analysis, instead of laughing about it or whatever.

Adebayor & Desailly are good pundits imo, Davids is awful.

Look again,you will see him sneakly messing around with it while Shearer is talkiing.

[docklanders]

Look again,you will see him sneakly messing around with it while Shearer is talkiing.

What, put it on silent or turn it off?

[ATW]

The Beeb should have hired Stephen Craigan tbh. Much better than what's on offer

[Opto John]

Think Keown's stock is rising amongst a sea of crap so far. At least he makes an occasionally insightful point without resorting to abusing the referee, inane cliche or being condescending towards smaller nations.

[Duffman]

The main guy who does he commentary on football for Eurosport UK is good. He also does a bit of commentary on Channel 4. I haven't had Eurosport in a while so I'm not sure he still commentates on there

[Sons FC]

never liked Alan Green.

Hansen / Shearer / Dixon have been pretty reliable on BBC, and Seedorf has done a decent job as well. Would have liked to have seen the likes of Strachan and O'Neill giving some expert analysis, as they really know what they are talking about.

ITV have been pretty dire as usual, Townsend is their best but he is rubbish. But the guy that annoys me the most is Jim Beglin. He is alwatys saying things like "No way, that's not a penalty for me, no chance." He wasn't giving the penalty to you Beglin, so shut up! And then he goes and backtracks when the replays show it clearly was a penalty. Jim Beglin = Cock. He actually makes me wish the World Cup was on Sky and we had Andy Gray, formerly the most annoying commentary analyst on TV.

I'm with Kenco on Jim Beglin - he is hopeless. He has the knack of getting most calls wrong and then either backtracking or maintaining his original (wrong) call in the face of irrefutable replays.

He absolves players for almost everything (he is not alone in that - all the ex-players back the players regardless of culpability) and blames the officials for everything.

[glory utd]

Davids isn't too bad.

Dietmar Hamann is doing it for RTE. He's quite good. Better than Giles, Dunphy and the rest of the god awful analytical team at least.

[Kenco]

I'm with Kenco on Jim Beglin - he is hopeless. He has the knack of getting most calls wrong and then either backtracking or maintaining his original (wrong) call in the face of irrefutable replays.

He absolves players for almost everything (he is not alone in that - all the ex-players back the players regardless of culpability) and blames the officials for everything.

Beglin in the FA Cup final was insisting that the ball had crossed the line, even though replays showed it clearly hadn't. He still insisted it should have been a goal, as if his opinion is far more important than actual evidence. I hate that guy!

[JP Woody]

JP Woody, what I was on about, was that your posts are made incredibly difficult to read because you refuse to put a space after your punctuation. I have only ever seen someone consistently do this once before, and that was a previous user here who has since been banned.

I think your over reacting a little. Im sure my post's aren't that difficult to read.

What do you guy's think of Johnathan Pearce? Personally i like him but i keep expecting Shunt and Sir Killalot to motor out onto the pitch.

[Ruckus]

coverage has been brilliant here, ESPN really making an effort

[Steve01]

I can't take Davids seriously with those dodgy frames he is wearing! You would think he could afford something a bit cooler than looking like a 80's news reader.

ITV have been woeful but McCarthy is so boring so I guess he wins at being the worst at the tournament.

[JP Woody]

ITV have been woeful but McCarthy is so boring so I guess he wins at being the worst at the tournament.

No wonder Roy Keane wanted to kill him.

[jameswibbs]

out off a bad bunch david's is just rubbish and dont get me started on his spec's

[Katarian]

Seedorf was really good the one time I saw him. Klinsman did alright, but I have mainly been turning over at half/full time to avoid listening to the awful ones.

Green is knob, but I agree that 32 teams is too many. Cut down to 24 the generally awful group stage would be over quicker. It would punish "smaller" nations, but there are definately far too many European teams qualifying. Or you can change the group stages somehow to discourage the negativity, but I've no idea how you'd do it.

[Butts]

Mccarthy in this game saying the free kick should be retaken because Villa was only a yard away when they shot, that's because someone had already rolled the ball you absolute clown.

[Crazy_T]

seedorf is pretty good, ade is jokes, davids is too dull.

[JP Woody]

McCarthy seems to be having a go at the Switzerland team for trying to spoil the game and not allowing Spain to play. Talk about double standards,his teams have been doing that for years.

[knapp...]

the scottish commentator today on itv for the chile game is easily the worst i've heard so far. how he can justify getting paid for his job i'll never know. totally inept.

[Thandui]

The footballers are pretty good, ie Seedorf, Davids, Adebayor ect. but people like Andy Townsend. Gareth Southgate are soo annoying, especially Adrian CHiles, he knows nothing of football.

[gunner4eva]

The footballers are pretty good, ie Seedorf, Davids, Adebayor ect. but people like Andy Townsend. Gareth Southgate are soo annoying, especially Adrian CHiles, he knows nothing of football.

I like Chiles , no way is Davids a good pundit he is so lifeless and boring. He is just the most uninteresting person ive ever listened to i think.

[Chongtom]

Would like to see more of Seedorf rather than Adebayor.

Was quite liking Mark Lawrenson tonight. His poor humour actually makes me laugh plus i can just imagine him wearing shorts while he commentates

[deerokus]

Lawrenson is awful. I put on the 5 live commentary which had Moyes, who is much better and has good insight. Much like Martin Jol at the last Euros

[TomHAVFC]

Rather taken to Guy Mowbray, seems quite good.

[pouncer]

It's OK. I don't really like ITV, and I don't really find Desailly or Southgate that interesting. Lawrenson is awful. Can't really say much about Adebayor, although my infamous Adebayor imitation is really benefiting from his extended time on screen.

[Kenco]

The footballers are pretty good, ie Seedorf, Davids, Adebayor ect. but people like Andy Townsend. Gareth Southgate are soo annoying, especially Adrian CHiles, he knows nothing of football.

Are you saying that Townsend and Southgate weren't also footballers??

[Kenco]

Lawrenson and his awful puns, thumbs up from me.

[Robbie 78]

Motson is now a pundit I thought we had seen the back of this guy.

[Eblees]

Over here we have Arrigo Saachi, Jose Pekerman, Luis Aragones, Bebeto, Trevor Francis, Cesare Maldini, Lothar Matthäus, Nawaf Al-Temyat and Arsene Wenger. (Not all of them at the same time obviously )

Best thing is when Arrigo Saachi starts talking about tactics, he can go on and on and they all just listen quietly to what he says without interrupting.

[jameswibbs]

Edgar Davids is useless and them spec's

[aggressive minor]

Got to say Klinsmann is pretty good.

[Kenco]

Bring back Big Ron, ITV need him!

[why?]

In South Africa? I suppose the AWB could put him up.

[HOORAY HENRIK]

This says it all

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/sport/Tom-English-39The-level-of.6364084.jp

[nistelrooy_uk_10]

haha HH, was literally just about to post that article

It's spot on though really

I'm not typing it again, so these are my thoughts from the other thread about ITV summed up in a small paragraph:

ITV are just an embarrassing shambles from top to bottom really. From cutting to adverts during the England game and missing the goal, to the patronising commentary to any nation outside the top 20 nations in the world, to the sub-standard and amateur punditry. The world really would be a better place if all football coverage was taken from them altogether.

[deerokus]

Tom English is awesome

[nev147]

Over here we have Arrigo Saachi, Jose Pekerman, Luis Aragones, Bebeto, Trevor Francis, Cesare Maldini, Lothar Matthäus, Nawaf Al-Temyat and Arsene Wenger. (Not all of them at the same time obviously )

Best thing is when Arrigo Saachi starts talking about tactics, he can go on and on and they all just listen quietly to what he says without interrupting.

I'd take that line up!!! But what country and language would that be in? - as I can see a few different ones there.

Don't really know why people are talking about Allen Green in regards to a pundit becasue he is a commentator. And one person said Childes knows nothing about football! He's a presenter not a pundit!

I think people are overstating how bad the punditry has been. Yes I agree it's not been great - and at times it seems the pre game half an hour analysis somewhat stalls at times as they seems to have nothing to say or don't know what to say.

I mean people calling Jim Beglin a C**k - not sure what he's done to get that. He may nor be everyones cup of tea but I would hardly say he was a nasty person.

As someone said before - I really liked Strachan and O'Neil from previous tournaments - wish they were at this one! Not may will agree but I really liked Gavin Peacock - but he's unlikely to come back now.

But I feel the pundits should be more professional in terms of their homework. They see it as a paid holiday and talk about football. Take some of the lesser matches and some of the pundits don't seem to have a clue ( often they get researches to give them some help) they could barely name one player from the given team. And they don't really give us an insight into the game and rarley talk about tactics etc or anything insightfull just the usual drone. Take other sports and they seem to be real experts and know a lot more then the viewer and we can actually learn something.

I would suggest the coverage begins 15 minutes before kick off and not 30.

[nev147]

This says it all

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/sport/Tom-English-39The-level-of.6364084.jp

Could not agree more really.

[Robbie 78]

Garth Crooks was on earlier and a cold shiver went down my spine.

[Eblees]

I'd take that line up!!! But what country and language would that be in? - as I can see a few different ones there.

It's Al Jazeera Sport, mideastern channel based in Qatar. They have a translator for every language, so the translators translate whatever is being said in real time (You hear the translator's voice only). Really hard job but they do it really well.

[nistelrooy_uk_10]

Garth Crooks was on earlier and a cold shiver went down my spine.

I've only seen him once so far this world cup, thankfully. And he was being bombarded by African's, with a flag wrapped around him. Idiot.

[cool dude]

Lawro forever

[metlika]

The Beeb should have hired Stephen Craigan tbh. Much better than what's on offer

Oh please , Sportscene results is his level, no actually its above his level.

the scottish commentator today on itv for the chile game is easily the worst i've heard so far. how he can justify getting paid for his job i'll never know. totally inept.

Yep, thinks he is all that and if you disagree with him your are wrong and an idiot, pretty sure he said that on one of the satellite channels.

Utter cretin that he is, don't care if he is Scottish. He is the most dislikeable person for these jobs or any job (ran his own restaurant into the ground). Unfortunately we in Scotland get him for our Champions League matches as STV want to produce their own coverage of the same bloody match that ITV are showing, useless bunch or arses.

[PaulHartman71]

Mick McCarthy would claim a team is playing 4-4-2 even if they were down to 10 men ffs

[Robbie 78]

Lets look on the bright side,at least Jamie Redknapp hasn't been on.

Here are a few of his quotes where he uses the word "literally" wrongly.

1. “Alonso and Sissoko have been picked to literally sit in front of the back four.” on the Liverpool midfielders taking it easy for the Champions League game against Barcelona.

2. “Drogba literally destroyed Senderos today.” after the Carling Cup final.

3. “He’s literally left Ben Haim for dead there.” The post-match analysis of Liverpool v Chelsea,

4. “Evra’s literally left him for dead there.” commentating on the Community Shield.

5. “Centre forwards have the ability to make time stand still. And when Chopra got the ball, it literally did just that.”

6. “This new ball is going quicker than ever - it literally explodes off the player’s foot.”

7. “Alonso and Sissoko have been picked to literally sit in front of the back four.” Jamie Redknapp on the Liverpool midfielders taking it easy for the Champions League game against Barcelona.

8. ‘He’s literally turned him inside out.’

9. “That cross to Rooney was literally on a plate”

10. “Centre forwards have the ability to make time stand still. And when Chopra got the ball, it literally did just that.”

11. “He literally turns into a greyhound” Talking about Michael Owen

12. “That could literally kick start their season” - on Man City vs Chelsea

13. “Scholes has such a great footballing brain. He’ll see a picture in his head and literally paint it in front of you.”

14. “He had to cut back inside onto his left, because he literally hasn’t got a right foot”

15. “He literally chopped him in half in that challenge”

16. “The ball is literally glued to Messi’s boot”

17. “Messi literally sends people out of the stadium with his skill”

18. “Wayne Rooney literally destroyed Tottenham on his own.”

19. “Cissé literally has pace to burn”

20. “He literally turned on a sixpence”

21. “Gerrard has been amazing. He’s literally covered every blade of grass on the pitch”

22. “He’s literally sold the defender a dummy”

23. “Martin Jol’s head is literally on the chopping block.”

24. “The crowd behind the goal are literally going insane.”

[gaga_4_parma]

Over here we have Arrigo Saachi, Jose Pekerman, Luis Aragones, Bebeto, Trevor Francis, Cesare Maldini, Lothar Matthäus, Nawaf Al-Temyat and Arsene Wenger. (Not all of them at the same time obviously )

Best thing is when Arrigo Saachi starts talking about tactics, he can go on and on and they all just listen quietly to what he says without interrupting.

That is Arrigo...

[pouncer]

It's Al Jazeera Sport, mideastern channel based in Qatar. They have a translator for every language, so the translators translate whatever is being said in real time (You hear the translator's voice only). Really hard job but they do it really well.

Wow, what a job that must be.

[ham_aka_stam]

I'd take listening to some translator to hear punditry from those names.

Fantastic depth of knowledge there.

[Kenco]

I was about to praise BBC's signing of Roy Hodgson, until he kept suggesting France should play 2 up top against Algeria.

[Thandui]

Are you saying that Townsend and Southgate weren't also footballers??

Not at all, but tbh they were never class footballers unlike Davids and Desailly. Their understanding of the game is pretty poor.