English punditry is absolutely abismal...

[choda]

I just wanted to know if anybody has noticed how bad the TV coverage has gotten in England?

I know it might be hard when you've nothing else to compare it to, but we do in Ireland.

Now, I'm not saying this out of some kind of patriotism or something because on a whole the British channels are miles better than our channels and we steal most of your programs etc. BUT our football coverage and punditry is a million times better than yours.

In fact the punditry in Ireland during the CL and the WC is almost as entralling as the football, it is fantastic. I personally thought the beeb were shocking and ITV... well... did they actually cover the world cup? And sky during the season are so plastic and hyped it makes me ponder the nature of reality.

We've got a great anchorman called Bill O'Herlighy. He pretends to be stupid at times but he's dynamite, he asks all the real hard jouanlistic questions, and he wants the truth. And then we've got Eamon Dunphy, John Giles and Liam Brady, who provide insightful and disarmingly honest analysis and discussion.

They had Graham Souness over during the WC aswell, and he was actually good too. It has a lot to do with the whole way that they actually set out the program. I'd say the producer right through are excellent really.

They spent the whole world cup slating England, slating Sven, slating his systems and slating Beckham... and rightly so. England were shocking, but the Beeb were still not getting anywhere near the hardcore issues.

Souness even commented on air that working with the RTE team had been a real eye opener for him, they couldn't believe what was going on over on the beeb. At one point they were actually taking the piss out of the beeb on air.

It was after a Garth Crooks interview with Sven which they picked up, where Crooks the pompous idiot commented to Sven that his 4-5-1 had really worked! It cut back to the RTE studio and they were pissing themselves. They were saying, 'these are ex-pros, what the hell are they watching?'

By the way they are just as honest and insightful when it comes to our team aswell. Dunphy was famously banned from talking to Jack Charlton because he repeatedly said the style of play was an insult to a very good collection of players. And he was right, we had a super team that time, full of players playing with Liverpool, ManU and other top clubs.

Anyway, just want to know what my fellow yids think and I thought you might find that interesting.

[Gregzy]

Wish I could watch televised football on the emarald isle. But let's not forget that the IFA are not going to perssuring the relevant pundits into being "Sypathetic" or "Even-handed" to the England side....and (no disrepsct meant to any Irishman here or otherwise) I don't doubt that many Irish football fans would have thought that Sven's team deserved all that was coming to them. If I hadn't been English I'd have LOVED to have seen that team lose..

Why must our broadcasting institutions be so bloody generous to authority...?

[choda]

Wish I could watch televised football on the emarald isle. But let's not forget that the IFA are not going to perssuring the relevant pundits into being "Sypathetic" or "Even-handed" to the England side....and (no disrepsct meant to any Irishman here or otherwise) I don't doubt that many Irish football fans would have thought that Sven's team deserved all that was coming to them. If I hadn't been English I'd have LOVED to have seen that team lose..

Why must our broadcasting institutions be so bloody generous to authority...?

Well yea, that's what I'm saying. But don't forget that they are brilliant when it comes to talking about our side aswell.

Our WC qualifying campaign and particularly the last two games under Brian Kerr were a shambles, and I can assure you they didn't hold back.

As I've said though, honestly sometimes you'd be watching them ripping into Chelsea or whoever and be thinking to yourself, 'this is the best football coverage in the world, it couldn't be better than this.' They even have big rows in the studio sometimes.

They are dedicated to the game and to real journalism.

Dunphy and Giles, who are great mates even fell out for a while over Roy Keane at the last WC.

[singapore spur]

agree about most english commentary and analysis where national teams are involved.
with premiership games they just show bias to their own particular favourite teams .
what pisses me off most is when one of their "pet " teams looses they dont give credit where its due

[Houdini logic]

Correct, so in summary;
It's ****ing shite.

[highlander]

i think the premiership stuff on sky is quite good. on 'the last word' andy gray is really good and cuts down on the arse-licking. i do have 1 problem with the origionalpost on this thread and that is that it said Graeme Souness was good. piss that, he cannot comment on a game without moaning about injuries and other such bollocks he tried on to keep his job with the barcode's. he's a useless, boring, sour mug

[choda]

i think the premiership stuff on sky is quite good. on 'the last word' andy gray is really good and cuts down on the arse-licking. i do have 1 problem with the origionalpost on this thread and that is that it said Graeme Souness was good. piss that, he cannot comment on a game without moaning about injuries and other such bollocks he tried on to keep his job with the barcode's. he's a useless, boring, sour mug

I said he was actually good when he was over here... which surprised the hell out of everyone, including me. Because you're right, as Newcastle manager he was pathetic and always blaming injuries.

He surprisingly actually does have a fairly good knowledge of the game, it's just that some of his management skills are obviously shite, and then he starts whinging. Maybe he trains the players too hard for example, he's always getting hamstring and strain injuries. Decent pundit doesn't always mean decent manager.

Andy Gray talks so much all round cock that I listen to anything he says anymore, good or bad, through a strained ear. He's mr. sky, and to me that is a massive football insult.

His commentry style also makes me want to introduce him to a crowbar. Him and his buddy Martin Tyler spend the whole game shouting, 'Shut the **** up', if the football is boring, exciting or mind blowing it will speak for itself... act naturally and stop trying to up the excitement and hype at every opportunity. Listen to old tapes of the great Barry Davies, and learn how to commentate with quality and charm.

I'd love to see Gordon Strachen over here, he'd be brilliant. Him, Dunphy, and John Giles for me are the most intelligent fooball pundits on tv by a long way. Of course even he is fairly rubbish on the BBC... get him over to the RTE, so he can show his talent.

[spurs61]

Andy Gray is a football thug, what he knew about football died along with standing terraces. The man is a 1970's throwback from the days when you could bundle the 'keeper over the line for a perfectly legitimate goal. In fact I belive Andy has copyrights on this particular method of scoring.

I cannot find a sinhle commentator I can actually listen to without shouting at the TV/radio, except for Stuart Hall who is just nuts!

[country cock]

What pissed me off about the world cup coverage on sky, was they sent Richard Keys and Andy gray out to Germany on a jolly when they weren't even showing live games. A waste of time and subscribers money.

[spurs61]

Frankly, the further away Andy Gray is, the better.

[Welsh Spur]

The technology available to Andy Gray has gone to his head, he's with Sky and he thinks he's the man. Don't get me wrong, Sky is awesome, but Andy Gray is a ******.