MOTD 2015/16

[Russ aka Big Nose]

Shearer went straight through the batwing doors of the Last Chance Saloon and out the back wih the empies when he did those toe curlers for Barclays. With his wooden stereo Geordie relations in orgiasic footage of St James Park then ringing on the doorbell of  selected family friendly targets to give them free footie tickets.  All this while his erstwhile club was in turmoil and dropping like a stone. Shearer only survives as a pundi and a supposed football figure of significance because so much sport broadcasting, football in particular is in the hands of incompetents who do not see why sport should not be regarded as show business.

It could be down to clueless people involved in (sports) broadcasting.

I think a big part of it is that he is a 'legend'. Now that term gets over-used but his achievements were very special, however, I do not believe that makes him (or most of the others) either interesting to listen to or capable of offering insight or at least an interesting perspective.

Though a big part of it is that they are asked to give a decent and concise review of a game based on 5-10 minutes of edited highlights (unless it is the major game featured) and that is not possible whoever they are, hence they resort to clichés and praise someone for a goal or dissect a refereeing decision.

I would rather each game have an analyst - someone good at the job regardless of whether they ever achieved 'legend' status and they offered a view based on watching the whole game and some (sensible) use of the tools available now like pitch maps etc. That would give a greater feel for the game.

Endlessly re-running incidents related to refereeing decisions is very lazy in my view. Guess what, they get some right and get some wrong and it is not going to change.

p.s. I do like Pat Nevin on 5 Live whilst Steve Claridge is a buffoon who trots out football phrases and mentions systems like he is calling 'cliché bingo' and along with Gobby Cabbage is most likely to resort to the ex-pro line of "when you have played at this level you understand ..."

[Dave]

Pat Nevin seems to be quite good whenever I've heard him.

I like Pat Nevin too. You check out the interview with him on the guardian podcast thing?  Good stuff.

It was - did you listen to the Dean Windass one? That was very interesting listening.

[brian green]

In the final analysis it boils down to the ability of a pundit to use language well and to express views which are his/hers not to seek audience approval.  One who impresses me in both these regards is Owen Hargreaves while his BT colleague Michael Owen is an archetypal star-turned-critic whose broadcasting demeanour is the same as that on the field that we are so lucky to have him gracing our presence.

[Chris Jameson]

So the daughter of any footballer who's ever lived knows everything about football. That makes sense.

I did think you were deluded to think we'd beat Liverpool, I was clearly wrong, as people are.

I dare say being a football journalist and supporter means that Kelly Cates does know quite a lot about football, even if she is just a woman. I'm fairly certain you were well aware of the name of 'that stupid woman' but chose to call her that as another example of your ignorance.

What a bizarre thing to do. Why would I make something up? If I don't know the name, I don't know the name. Very odd.

I've no idea, why would you tell fellow Villa supporters they were deluded for thinking their team could win a football match against another team? Why infer that being a woman makes you less likely to be able to comment on or understand football? Kelly Cates has been presenting and commenting for a number of years and with google and what have you I just find it strange you don't know her name.

[stuart r]

For me Hazel Irvine is the best sports presenter on TV. She would be my pick to present Match of the Day. Claire Balding is good too but just seems to cover all the sports that I'm not interested in.

[rob_bridge]

For me Hazel Irvine is the best sports presenter on TV. She would be my pick to present Match of the Day. Claire Balding is good too but just seems to cover all the sports that I'm not interested in.

I get the feeling it wouldn't take too much effort for Claire Balding to be a good MOTD presenter. Her skills in gaining knowledge in other sports, especially several recent Olympics would probably put the 'names' to shame.

[Somniloquism]

Don't get me wrong about Shearer, I'm not saying he's good but he's better than terrible which is what he was!

I think somebody has told him to be more 'passionate' or 'engaged' or something. If I was Lineker I would just spend the whole time trolling him about his stupid clothes and shiny bald head. To see how much of it he would swallow

Although Lineker can't really do much as Shearer just has to throw back "Can you tell what it is yet?" in his face.

[mr underhill]

I must own up to a spectacular own goal on Bianca Westwood looking good without her kit on. All I can say is that there is someone on Redtube that looks just like her from behind.

[Pat McMahon]

Pat Nevin seems to be quite good whenever I've heard him.

I like Pat Nevin too. You check out the interview with him on the guardian podcast thing?  Good stuff.

It was - did you listen to the Dean Windass one? That was very interesting listening.

 I generally like Nevin as he is thoughtful and pretty eloquent. It was interesting hearing his theory about Lampard and Gerrard not gelling together for England being due to playing Beckham on the right. He thought that they would have worked if there was pace on the right to stretch opposing defences more. Sadly I didn't hear what he would have done with Scholes.

My only beef with Nevin is that he has become an apologist for Mourinho and avoids a direct answer to any question that is critical of him (eg "why did Mourinho flounce off and not shake Wenger's hand after the charity shield last week?")

[Chris Jameson]

Gabby Logan is an excellent presenter and seemingly very knowledgable about whatever she is presenting. The documentary she presented on the Bradford fire was brilliant and very harrowing.

[robbo1874]

Sarah Jones on Foxtel is pretty handy.

[Comrade Blitz]

Rebecca Lowe who does NBC sports coverage of the PL is excellent. She was on Setanta before I think.

Same cliches every week......blah blah blah...Manchess United.....Mancher City.....blah blah blah Robbie....blah blah blah Robbie.....

[richard moore]

For me Hazel Irvine is the best sports presenter on TV. She would be my pick to present Match of the Day. Claire Balding is good too but just seems to cover all the sports that I'm not interested in.

Oh no, no, no. Claire Balding is solely interested in promoting herself. She ruined the Winter Olympics for me by making it the Claire Balding show in which we saw more of her and the other presenters (who don't seem to be able to say anything but 'amazing') than we did of any of the sport. She'd make it into a chat show in which all you would see are the goals and her.

[SoccerHQ]

Although Bianca does have a bad side.

Bianca Westwood | Twitter
Twitter › beewestwood
2 hours ago
Well whaddaya know??!! Day made #COYI

I read somewhere she supported Millwall?!

[SoccerHQ]

Danny Murphy is quite good.

And so is Jenas, weirdly.

Murphy is good, just has a boring delivery.

Think Jenas states the obvious too much.