He sounded almost funereal last night, as City were scoring goals of breath taking quality. It does my head in. Much better commentary elsewhere, like this:
He’s a company man employed to do his paymaster’s bidding. In my opinion that is to identify the team with the largest fanbase, or in our case a team that might be perceived as unpopular with fans of other clubs with large fanbases, and to temper his narrative accordingly. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him greet any City goal against the rags, the dippers or the gooners, in anything other than monosyllabic, matter of fact, tones. It’s pretty much the approach BT Sport took to its CL coverage 2 years ago where they quite clearly set out there stall in the hope we would lose our games, on the basis that there would be more fans of our immediate rivals watching and hoping we’d lose than there would be City fans watching hoping we’d win.
As always money is the motivator.
The Agueroooooo moment notwithstanding, which was so dramatic that to have greeted it in his usual funereal tone would have left him looking foolish (not to mention the fact that it represented a shot at commentating immortality for him - his very own gift-wrapped “there’s people on the pitch” moment), he will never greet a City goal with a “Countinhooooooo”, “Martiaaaaaaal” or “Roooooooooney” type scream.
Against Arsenal his general rhetoric was fairly complimentary, but in terms of conveying a sense of excitement (or not, when it’s us putting the ball in the net), it was simply business as usual and indeed just business
