He's also not very bright, although amazingly I've seen numerous claims to the contrary. I've never thought him in any way smart, but I've been living outside the UK ever since he started on talkSPORT so wondered if I might be missing something. To make that assessment, I've been monitoring for quite a while those clips that the station put out on social media to showcase what are presumably considered his more pertinent comments.
I'm glad to say I've been conclusively vindicated in my original view. His ability to construct any kind of reasoned argument is manifestly pitiable. However, even though being marginally more eloquent than the station's other pundits is really no kind of qualification, some people seem to regard him as well spoken, with an impressive vocabulary.
This notion is bollocks, as well, not least because when he tries to deploy what are big words by talkSPORT standards, he frequently misuses them. For instance, the last time I looked at one of those short videos of him making a point, he used 'patronage' as a verb. That's not indicative of someone who's articulate in any way (the word you were groping for ineffectually, Simon, was 'patronize', in the sense of being a regular customer). All this shows him up as someone who's trying desperately to look clever but is really an impostor, lacking any genuine intellectual prowess.
That's to say nothing of the fact that he's risibly proclaimed an expert in the off-field side of football when his credentials involve inept blundering to lead Crystal Palace into an insolvency event. Only in the British sports media could a demonstrable clown and weapons-grade **** like this be held up as a paragon of informed intelligence.
