Clive Tyldesley came out in defence of all things Beeb in his blog last week. In response to the criticism of the punditry and technology that accompanies the highlights on Match of the Day, he said that if the games are outdone, then there is something lacking in the sport itself. He may have a point, but it almost smacks of trying to be bad on purpose. Speaking of bad, Alan Shearer also got a mention.
The most famous forehead in in British football, managed to confuse David Villa and David Silva, which annoyed a lot of people. I personally believe that it was more a slip of the tongue than anything, and didn’t irk me in the way he recently managed to dismiss Hatem Ben Arfa after his impressive debut against Everton:
“No one really knows a great deal of him.”
I’m sorry Alan? What? No one, or you? Because you have done no research for your job, which is supposed to be offering nuggets of expert analysis that can only come from a career entrenched in the game, to enlighten us, the meagre armchair viewers and Sunday League players across the land. If only. Anybody who follows the Premier League and its goings on will have heard Ben Arfa’s name banded about to a whole host of clubs last summer; Newcastle, Everton, Spurs…We are talking about a French international who had previously been signed by Marseille for €11m, and was France’s young player of the year in 2008. Any basic internet search would have provided Shearer with that information, and undoubtedly a whole lot more.
When Birmingham wore their away kit this season, Shearer enlightened us with what goes on in that head (maybe all those headed goals really did take their toll?):
“It’s weird seeing Birmingham wear red, isn’t it?
No its not. When there is a clash of colours between two team competing against each other, the away side will wear their away kit. This phenomenon stretches even further than Birmingham, and even beyond football. In fact, virtually every team sport where coloured kits are worn, clubs will have at least two sets. Sometimes more. When Alan was still playing, and being partnered by Sir Les, that god awful maroon and navy hooped thing with the grandpa collar, well that was an away kit. Is that sort of comment really what we are expected to put up with?
I watch MOTD for the same reason that everyone else does, to see the highlights. If I can receive some sort of actual analysis, then I see it as a bonus. The programme is too dumbed down; ‘he’s good’ or ‘that was bad’ is neither analysis or a real opinion. Alan Shearer simply runs a commentary after the highlights have been aired, re-running us through whatever is on screen. When Alan Hansen tore into Theo Walcott after his Blackpool hat-trick, it split opinion, but at least it was an opinion in the first place.
Shearer has seemingly stumbled into his current role. It started out as an England opinion just after he had retired from international football when the MOTD team were covering England’s qualifying, and gradually got more and more time in the studio as his playing time diminished. Shearer is not getting a bad press, he’s getting a deserved reaction to the banal drivel that spills out of his mouth, devoid of any effort or substance.
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