I don't mean to sound racist here, but I get so bored of Scottish accents talking about football. Every football programme has a Scot as an analyst. Joe Jordan is the worst offender. He talks a lot, and he talks rubbish. And he does so in the most annoying voice on television*.

*Not strictly true, unless Graham Norton, Ainsley Harriot and Jamie Oliver have all been sacked.

I tend to be in the camp supporting the view of Italian football as dull, defensive and morally bankrupt, so I can't say I'm overly offended by dimwits on telly talking tripe about Italian football any more than I'm offended about dimwits talking tripe about English football.

I would, however, like to pick up Michael LV on a point of order. The idea that Marcotti doesn't appear on Sky has nothing to do with the limited intelligence of Sky's audience. Given that Sky's radio station, Talk Sport, has him on constantly and that Talk Radio is mostly hyperbolic drivel ("is Sven the worst England coach ever? X in the studio says yes and y says no, yawwwwwn"), the reasons that Sky don't have him on are obviously nothing to do with Marcotti's agllegedly superior analytical skills. Sky, like the BBC, generally prefers ex-players as pundits (Balague on Sky the exception). Also he's a little too rotund and displeasing to the eye for telly, but I've no doubt he'd be wheeled on by Sky if that station ever took leave of its senses and bought the rights to Italian football.

Marcotti's been on Sky Sports News in the past, but generally only when a British team is playing an Italian team in Europe.

quote:

Originally posted by MICHAEL_LA_VIOLA:
I don't mean to sound racist here, but I get so bored of Scottish accents talking about football. Every football programme has a Scot as an analyst.

I find Sky's Champion's League pre and post match shows the most boring of all, and there's quite often not a Scot in sight (Redknapp, Wilkins, Hoddle, Platt, Gullit etc...).

I think there may be a relatively high number of Scots on the other pre/post match shows because those shows generally feature English teams, and it might be thought that a Scot will be more objective about a good/bad/indifferent English team's performance than your typical spineless, whimpering English bummer (not that I mean to sound racist, of course)...

quote:

Originally posted by Sir George:
I tend to be in the camp supporting the view of Italian football as dull, defensive and morally bankrupt, so I can't say I'm overly offended by dimwits on telly talking tripe about Italian football any more than I'm offended about dimwits talking tripe about English football.

I would, however, like to pick up Michael LV on a point of order. The idea that Marcotti doesn't appear on Sky has nothing to do with the limited intelligence of Sky's audience. Given that Sky's radio station, Talk Sport, has him on constantly and that Talk Radio is mostly hyperbolic drivel ("is Sven the worst England coach ever? X in the studio says yes and y says no, yawwwwwn"), the reasons that Sky don't have him on are obviously nothing to do with Marcotti's agllegedly superior analytical skills. Sky, like the BBC, generally prefers ex-players as pundits (Balague on Sky the exception). Also he's a little too rotund and displeasing to the eye for telly, but I've no doubt he'd be wheeled on by Sky if that station ever took leave of its senses and bought the rights to Italian football.

I concur Talksport is the worst of the worst, I can't believe the dimwits and cliche spitting pr*ts they have on there. They actually never talk about football, its always refs, drink, drugs, gambling ... (nothing to expose their limited knowledge)
Maybe Marcotti can appear more intelligent on there because the people around him are so brainless.

Where are the good football analysts? I think even the best are boring and repetitive, although Marcotti is usually more considered. Alan Hansen is hyped as some sort of genius, but he doesn't come out with anything that's better than simple common sense. His real trick is to sound more objective than the other muppets about the English national team, but that's not difficult.

Is there anyone in the media who can actually provide meaningful insights?

Vincent Hanna used to, but rarely, if ever, about football.

I suppose the trick is to count your blessings. When you're too lazy to reach the remote control to press the mute button and are suffering some clichéed drivel from an ex-player, you should comfort yourself with the fact that it could be worse, it could be Garth Crooks. Unless it is Garth Crooks of course, but then if you can't summon the energy to turn Garth off, you're probably in need of some heavy-duty anti-depressants.

What astounds me is that Andy Gray appears to be regarded as some sort of oracle. Next to Martin Tyler I suppose even Garth might sound intelligent but, for all his idiotic comments on refereeing, Andy has never bothered to acquaint himself with the rules of the game.

Of course, football doesn't really lend itself to "analysis" or much in the way of interesting conversation and therein lies the problem. It's entertaining to watch, but at the end of the day, it's a game of two halfs and when the players cross that white line and the striker has nodded the ball unerringly into the net, there's not an awful lot more to say.

I followed Garth Crooks' career as a political analyst with great interest.

Hmm, this also brings me back to TV3's coverage of Milan Lyon.

After the match, Packie Bonner says to Mark Lawerenson "Mark, you look devestated". Mark "I know Packie, I just think Lyon had a great chance."

There's an incredible bias against Italian Football in England and English press for no reason.

Sky Sports naturally hate Italian Football. This is all down to the fact that Sky own the rights to La Liga. In fact, Sky on purpose no defer live coverage of La Liga matches to put them in direct opposition of Bravo's football italia matches to try to pull Bravo's ratings down.

This of course would all change in an instant if Beckham moved to Italy.

The bias really is incredible though.

Is it true though that the French and Germans still have pro Serie A views in the press ?

Incredible bullsh*t by Niall Quinn: http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1748777,00.html

I too hope Milan do Barca just to shut the English press up.

quote:

Originally posted by Niall123:
Sky Sports naturally hate Italian Football. This is all down to the fact that Sky own the rights to La Liga.

This of course would all change in an instant if Beckham moved to Italy.

I find it quite surprising that Sky Sports UK seem to dislike Serie A as much as they do, seeing as Sky Italia went great guns to get the rights to show live calcio.

Surely it would be very easy for Sky Sports UK to show Serie A, seeing as their sister company already own some of the rights?

As you say Niall (great name, by the way! ), we would have wall-to-wall Serie A coverage if a big name English player moved to Italy...

I've been told before (on this forum) that BSkyB and Sky Italia have absolutely no link, and just happen to be called the same thing.
Not sure if it's true...

I remember that discussion too Michael, but I thought we figured that they were both the same company seeing as Sky UK presumably wouldn't let another satellite TV channel use their name?

The logo/font is very similar too...

Murdoch owned News Corp International are the major shareholder in Sky Italia.

It was created 2 years ago. It's basically the old STREAM channel.

quote:

Originally posted by Niall123:
After the match, Packie Bonner says to Mark Lawerenson "Mark, you look devestated". Mark "I know Packie, I just think Lyon had a great chance."

Might be wrong here, but I don't think you can automatically say this is down to bais. It might be that it's just an underdog thing, I think a lot of people are like this. I'm Inter so I wanted Lyon to win, but I watched that game with a few people, who were not really interested in either team and they all said they wanted Lyon to win because they were playing well and before the game had largely been written off.

Fans all over Italy want Juve, Milan and Inter to lose every week, that can hardly be down to being anti Italian can it?

Tedious complaints about meeja bias against their club, football league etc etc is common to virtually every football chat forum. English commentators wet their pants about old man Maldini just as much as the next commentator. Seedorf is always introduced as the man who won the CL with 3 different clubs, rather than the has-been former international. Seeing Milan through rose-tinted specs if anything.

As for Lawro, he probably had £500 on Lyon to win. The odds were very good, given that they were obviously the better team and Milan's price more reflected their name than their current mediocre team. Even if not, quite what the crime is in supporting a small club with an exciting team against one of the richest 5 clubs in the world, heaven only knows!

What amazes me is how little it would take for many of these ex-players to do a bit of research so they at least sound like they know what they're talking about.

They have a set of stereotypes which they simply parrot endlessly. They don't seem to understand that a bit of background research, coupled with their own playing experiences and a bit of original thinking would actually make them stand out.

Gerry Armstrong is a case in point. I don't always agree with him, but he knows what he's talking about. That's why he keeps getting work.

He's not smarter than the others, he certainly wasn't a superstar player or a big name, he simply DOES HIS RESEARCH so that, when he sees Gilardino (for example) it's not as if he's seeing him for the very first time.

Why can't others be like that? Why can't they bother to do a bit of research?

I'll take Pleat, Jordan, Wilkins over the rest of the muppets because they generally have an idea of foreign football. The rest are simply embarassing and, in fact, Lawrenson and Quinn are two of the absolute worst.

It's not wonder that Andy Gray, Alan Hansen, Gab Marcoti and Guillem Balague look like geniuses compared to those guys.

Andy Gray wouldn't look like a genius compared to you zio.

quote:

Originally posted by Sir George:
Andy Gray wouldn't look like a genius compared to you zio.

why, thank you...

does that mean I'm Niall Quinn?

Uncle Niall? Why not?

Andy Gray irritates in many, many ways, but his comments about "linesman, or, as we should call them nowadays, assistant referees" do tempt me to reach for the mute button.