Football commentary

[crazyg]

I said to my colleagues a few years ago when we were working away, that it didn't matter which teams were playing, the commentator would mention the rags on at least 2 or 3 occasions during the match. Naturally, out came the "biased City fan" jibes, but I said "just listen to the commentary".

After less than 2 minutes, Tyler (or substitute anyone from Sky or ITV) mentioned that one of the players once had a trial at OT, followed 4 minutes later that an opposition player was a rag fan when he was younger. From then on, it became a game to see how many times the rags were mentioned in a match not involving them - the record was 7 times! Amazingly, no ex - City players were never mentioned.

The standard of commentary, and punditry, is designed for the hard of thinking, and/or people who never leave their armchairs to go to a match. Also, but this is just my opinion, there seems to be a slight bit of bias towards certain teams who used to be successful when the Sky era began - perhaps we need to open a new thread on this point to sound out opinion.

 

[George Hannah]

.. Also, but this is just my opinion, there seems to be a slight bit of bias towards certain teams who used to be successful when the Sky era began - perhaps we need to open a new thread on this point to sound out opinion.

slight in the sense that WWII was a slight disagreement between us and Germany?

 

[nw42]

They don't make em like this any more, complete impartiality is a must for me..




Nice one Andy..

 

[MillionMilesAway]

I dont even know why you need to be told that the midfielder has passed to the forward etc, you can see it with your eyes. And i dont need to hear their opinions on things, show me the replay and il make up my own mind. If there was an option to mute the commentators i definitely would.

Or we could go the other end of the spectrum and have Martin Tyler & Co blasted live out of the tannoys at the Etihad during a match?

Any chance we can substitute cannons for tannoys there?

 

[dark 'n stormy]

I was thinking of starting a similar thread to this. I don't mind being told who a particulat player is or their age etc but I don't want to hear the opinions of Shearer, Owen, Savage etc telling me what went wrong and what should have happened. When you stand back and analyse it it beggars belief that the likes of Savage has the audacity to say what Aguero should and should not be doing. It's a bloody game, of course mistakes are made and things go wrong, that's usually why one team wins and the other looses. I even enjoyed JT's put down of Savage after being criticised by him.

There's a bit in last Friday's 'News Quiz' on radio 4 where one of the panel suggested that after listening to these football commentators there should be a new game show called 'What's he doing there' (I was on a long drive back from Dorset). It was along the lines .. Look at the goalie, 'what's he doing there' and the referee 'what's he doing there'.

Just about sums them up for me.

 

[Vienna_70]

Michael 'thick Scouse rag bastard' Owen does my head in every time he is co-commentator on BT; I cannot abide the absolute drivel he comes out with. His and Ian Darke's bias towards the rags last night was appalling. I was always under the impression that the commentators favoured the underdogs, but last night it couldn't have been more obvious that they were sucking rag cock all game and we turned over to watch Benidorm at 9:00, it was that bad.

 

[Malty]

They don't make em like this any more, complete impartiality is a must for me..




Nice one Andy..

Amazing.

 

[BigOscar]

It's a niche example but it sums them up perfectly for me. I was watching Benfica against Porto on BT Sport. With 10 minutes to go, Benfica take off their LB Eliseu and bring on Eduardo Salvio. The commentator then tells me that Salvio is an Argentinian LB and it's a like for like switch. They then notice that Salvio has gone to play RW and they are shocked. The two commentators then spend the next 5 minutes discussing how the manager has clearly made a mistake and has somehow put out the wrong instructions.

If they'd done even the most basic levels of research they would know that Salvio is a right winger and has never played leftback in his life, even a quick skim of wikipedia would have let them know this. He is not an obscure player, especially in the context of a Benfica game, it is not something that it's unreasonable to expect the commentators to know. Yet instead they are telling everyone that they know better than the manager and that the manager has made a mistake, even though they must know that they don't actually know what they are talking about? It's the arrogance and ignorance that is staggering. They haven't done the research, but are still willing to make confident claims about things and call out other people for making mistakes as if it what they are saying is fact, when it's complete bullshit.

 

[Phil1]

Haven't listened to any when watching City for a while. It's a much more enjoyable experience.

 

[MCFC1993]

Problem is a lot of them aren't football minded. UK commentators are the worse, couldn't pick apart a football game if they tried because they just don't understand it.

I always remember when a city fan rang up talksport once and one of the people on the show hadn't even heard of Yaya Toure or David Silva (before we signed them), despite one playing in a champions league final just a year before hand and the other having over 50 caps for Spain(the then European and World Champions)! I know they're not commentators but they're still talking about football on the biggest sports radio channel in the country. Here it is: