Pundits.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

There was an interesting moment on 5live with Chapman, Roberts et al on the Sunday when Sherwood got sacked. Inbetween spending ages discussing the nuances of a Manchester derby, with insight and research, they gave Villa a good 5-10 minutes I think.

At one point one of them, I think Jason Roberts, got stuck into Villa a bit - saying it was a place where you always went thinking 'a good twenty minutes and their fans will get on their back', easy away win etc. Without reflecting whether this was true of most clubs or not, they started reciting the same old pro-Sherwood clichés and expectation lines.

Then I think Roberts realised he'd gone a bit far, and started to big up Villa as a big club, obviously Chapman showed his disdain, and he said 'why are you making that face'. Chapman got all flustered about it.

I thought that in that moment the thin veil of respect came down and we saw what we all knew - the pundits and broadcasters, whether its the BBC, Sky or wherever, don't really give a toss about Villa and don't see us ever doing anything or being worth their time. We don't compete for airtime and don't merit journalists actually doing their job properly. In fact, since Sherwood left I don't think I've heard anyone say something I actually agree with or think makes sense regarding Villa.

I heard Roberts saying that about us and got really pissed off, knowing it was absolute bollux. It was just a clichéd story that you could apply to any club...and what followed was embarrassing broadcasting and again confirmed how narrow-minded and twattish these "experts" can be.
I can hardly believe how some of them make a living out of doing what they do.

[Stu]

Criticism of Sherwood has come from blogs written by fans from what I have seen. The mainstream narrative on Sky and the BBC is the one most people will hear though; not given enough time; had players sold from under him; replacements bought that he did not want and so on.

We had just lost 6 league games in a row over a pretty generous set of fixtures, showed no signs of improving and Tim was starting to throw players under the bus. He had to go - and my question to anyone saying that he wasn't given enough time after leading us to our worst ever start to a league campaign would be "Would you have him managing your team?"  I suspect I know the answer to that one.

[nodge]

I'm sure I heard Dion Dublin this morning when asked about Garde being inexperienced, he said something along the lines of "he's had some experience as Assistant Manager at Lyon".

[Dave Cooper please]

Who was the co-commentator on the Salford game last night?  It sounded suspiciously like either Jenas or Sinclair but I couldn't tell from the clip I saw.

Now I know it was a massive shock and what makes the cup but since when have the supposedly unbiased broadcasters been allowed to go shout 'yes get in' when a goal is scored?!

Ah, now, I have no problem with a co-commentator being biased, they are often associated with one club or the other anyway. As long as the main commentator is neutral then the pundit can say what he likes for me.

[PeterWithesShin]

I don't remember us complaining about bias when Clough was saying "we" and "us" in 1982.

Or the totally neutral commentating on this shoot-out.

[wince]

Be nice to have some good words said about the villa. Or some good football to warrant them

[CT]

Graeme Souness. Does he get paid to spout this utter nonsense?

[Deano's Mullet]

Souness never got over selling Dean saunders to us and then seeing him shaft the Liverpool defence straight away on his home debut

[PaulWinch again]

Pundits being nicely shamed.

[KevinGage]

There was an interesting moment on 5live with Chapman, Roberts et al on the Sunday when Sherwood got sacked. Inbetween spending ages discussing the nuances of a Manchester derby, with insight and research, they gave Villa a good 5-10 minutes I think.

At one point one of them, I think Jason Roberts, got stuck into Villa a bit - saying it was a place where you always went thinking 'a good twenty minutes and their fans will get on their back', easy away win etc. Without reflecting whether this was true of most clubs or not, they started reciting the same old pro-Sherwood clichés and expectation lines.

Then I think Roberts realised he'd gone a bit far, and started to big up Villa as a big club, obviously Chapman showed his disdain, and he said 'why are you making that face'. Chapman got all flustered about it.

'Chappers' needs choking. Fawning sycophant. You can tell he so desperately wants to be friends with the ex players.

Licence payer funded bilge.  He is a northern Tim Lovejoy. 

[mr underhill]

fuck I'd forgotten about him and that funny little bald man he pals up with in a studio kitchen. What a pair of tools.

[brontebilly]

jingoistic nonsense discussion on MOTD between the presenter and mainly Jenas on Arsenal's struggles today being down to the lack of English men on the team.

[Gareth]

The best bit of punditry typically was from Sir GT - basically said he didn't know much about Remi but he had asked around people who did know him and he was hopeful - research hey :-)

[kippaxvilla2]

"The manager has just been sacked when you've sold Benteke, sold Delph, lost Vlaar and nearly got relegated with those players, and you've brought in worse players and expect better results...I don't see how that's fair really."  Jermaine Jenas - 22nd October.

Last night on MOTD2 (paraphrasing).  'I have never seen such a transformation in a team's performance after one game of a new manager.'

It must be great getting paid for just saying whatever comes into your head at any given moment week to week.

[chrisw1]

I don't remember us complaining about bias when Clough was saying "we" and "us" in 1982.

Or the totally neutral commentating on this shoot-out.

Thank you for this.  Such a great night - one of my best ever at VP.  When Phil 'The King' King scored is was just fantastic.

Say what you want about BFR, but we played some great football under him.  I walways felt we were on the brink and Ellis just didn't have the guts to go the extra mile.  If he had, who knows where we could be now.