Guys, I understand that us lot have no other alternative to watch Serie A, but does anyone else feel that C5's coverage is somewhat of a missed oppurtunity and a let-down?
Firstly, Mark Chapman is pretty much a lifeless presenter. I dont miss James Richardson - on the contrary, its blinking hilarious watching him talking about the English Premier league, which he knows very little about - however, Mark Chapman is just your usual, run of the mill, bland presenter, with ZERO prior knowledge of the league. Lara is something to look at, obviously, but seriously, she shouldnt be there. She cannot answer anything thrown towards her most of the time, and her only purpose is to make the "italian" feel of the show feel awkward and embarassing, i.e, the reading out of the scores, is cringeworthy.
Tony Jones is, in my opinion, an excellent commentator. John Barnes on the other hand, well, no-one can argue that he is actually better then Joe Jordan, but still not a great option to have there.
The studio guests also leave a lot to be desired. It is quite apparant that C5 will make no effort to get anyone in except those handily based in England who played a little in Serie A. Cudicini, well that was understandable, but Lee Sharpe, I mean come on, he doesnt give a monkeys about what goes on in Serie A since he was only at Sampdoria for months. Future options? Tony Dorigo, (who should present in my opinion), David Platt obviously, Gazza, well, theres all sorts of options. I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Its ok, but nothing special. Although im grateful for the chance to see live Serie A, I dont like waiting till Saturday to see the highlights.
LOL you're right getting Laura to read out the scores is cringeworthy, she isnt really needed. There also doesnt seem to be much analysis of games and the highlights show is very brief.
Id love to see an hour long Sunday night highlights show like channel 4 used to do, but it wont happen
The show has a whole cardboard feel about it.No passion at all.One step less than wooden There should be more in depth features on the clubs,past games,past players and history and yes...even about the various fan groups. As for guests and presenters...well you only get what you pay for and as much as I'd love to hear the expert opinions of Dorigo and Platt in particular they are obviously too expensive. As the previous poster said a missed opportunity but its better than nothing.
By the way , I had a lenghty chat at City last year with David Platt who was doing radio commentary.He was very open,pleasent and said that the best player he had EVER played with anywherre was Roberto Mancini...
obviously the live football speaks for itself but everything else about this coverage is dreadful;its not to do with budgets a la eurosport,its just down to plain old laziness and ignorance.shockingly substandard
lol i was pretty gob smacked to see that C5 would hire presenters like mark and laura...marks just lifeless and as for laura she cant even string a sentence together..but oh well its the football im bothered about
i fink you lot are being rediculous and bein arogant and not satisfied like you lot are is the reason at the end of last year we had no football to watch bar setantas occasional highlightes. i fink 5 r given us brill coverage and i love it. the only weakness is john barnes and the fact we miss out on a few of the the 7.30 big match kik offs.which because of the security alerts at the big high risk games they have been moved back to 2oclock so that has help channel 5 as they are showing the likes of juve v roma, florence v juve games which would have been nite time games few years back. we should be fankful to channel 5 they took a risk after all the controvrsy surrounding calcio, plus the bad ratings on both eurosport and bravo and the large amount of money the italien fa wanted for the rights they wanted as much as spanish sell there to sky sports and five have no where near the funds of sky ports yet they still paid it well done five. people are moaning about the budget well if the ratings were really high and people appriciated it unlike u lot then they wud put more money in but there not going to risk going into debt over it. If they were making loads of money they wud put more in.Ur moaning about the highlites wel get ur facts rite channel 4 used to shoew them on a saturday morning until ratings went down and then they put them to sunday morning 1 oclock u cant b serious who would watch them then we would all miss them. and whilst i can understand disopint ment at lee sharpe being a guest who knows nothing but gabriel marcotti is the best guest eva so knowledgable and cudicini and di mateo gud guest.football italia stands its best chance on 5.the real sucess of channel 4 was convinence people wud flick though either before waiting for the prem games to kik off and watch it or those who dindt have sky wud love a bit of sunday footie .on sky on channels likem bravo eurosport people apart from the loyalist die hard fans had no idea it was on.and now beckham left spain calm the spanish boom down and we are no longer competing with them at 7.30 we are competing with no 1. people just notice on 5 coz u dnt think there ate tens of thousands of people who are desperite mad supporters hu want to watch italien footie like us.but they will if no other footie on and they stuble acroos it.coverage has been great how can u complain.weve had big games, midweek rounds on highlites unlike bravo showed and even the smaller teams av bin on.and by the way have a read of james richardsons collums in 4 4 2abwt italien footie es slagin it off now e jumped ship gud ridence. e says we cnt get any big stars and the budesliga attrects more but guily cicinho miccoli juan tristan cassano andrade tiago gygera r big stars to me.and even little clubs getin big players look at tavano going livorno. costinha going atalanta
Originally posted by edmos ultras: Ur moaning about the highlites wel get ur facts rite channel 4 used to shoew them on a saturday morning until ratings went down and then they put them to sunday morning 1 oclock u cant b serious who would watch them then we would all miss them.
I think you'll find channel 4 showed highlights on sundays AND saturdays...i wouldnt fancy your chances of finding anything though.
Buen norte, Honestly C5 coverage is aweful! I think everyone will agree it doesn't compare to C4's old format and presenter James Ricardson. Mark Chapman knows nothing about Italian football and just wants to try big up English football. I don't mind Lara, besides the obvious talents at least she knows something about Italian game and bonus Forza Milan! Gabrielle Marcotti is class the man knows his stuff. But on a personal note does anyone want to start up a petition to get rid of John Barnes? Man was a great player but THE WORST EVER COMMENATOR worse then Ron Akinson. All he ever says is O milan they are not that good I think if you run at them the cant live with it, yeah they rely on Kaka but they don't really have anything else, o theya re too old, etc etc but my fav lets start talking about Rooney and Ronaldo and how Aresenal and Man useless are great. He know's nothing of the Italian game and slags it off every 2 minutes its ANNOYING!
I agree with you Sal. If only they get rid of John Barnes; one moment he says "oh a boring run of play from so and so (most of the time Milan or Roma), and look at the brilliant skills of ... (most of the time Ibrahimovic or Trezeguet), and then he contradicts himself all the time. When will we see another commentator who is really REALLY interested in Italian football?
I really miss Channel 4's coverage of Football Italia but life goes on. I'm not too bothered by the build up or what the pundits have to say. I get most of my background info and comment online anyway so just watch it for the football.
I will agree that the commentators are painful to endure most of the time. I often just turn off and listen to commentary online. I don't speak Italian, but sounds so much better!
By the way guys, Richard of Portsmouth was amazing. I very much liked his comments - he certainly knows better than others FORZA MILAN for champions league
Mark Chapman - OK. I think he has a future at it if Ch 5 continue for a couple of years. I would expect him to gen up over the Summer on some Serie A history.
John Barnes - terrible. At least get someone in who actually LIKES Italian footie, instead of talking it down to the Premiership every week. Someone of real kwality would be nice.
Laura - sorry love, time's up, I tune in to watch the footie. Nodding every 30 seconds to whoever happens to be speaking does not an expert make. P.S. I can count up to 6 in Italian, can I read the scores next season please ?
On the whole, it was an OK year. But could be a lot better. Where did the mouth from Milan go ? At least he knew what he was talking about.
Oh, and if you get a satellite dish pointing at Hotbird, you can watch up to 4 games per weekend (italian commentary) from Rai Africa .....
