RTE Panel

[Charlie Darwin]

To be fair, Giles has never proclaimed himself to be an expert student of world football. His ability has always been in the fact he can analyse what's in front of him brilliantly, which I always thought would make him more suited to being a co-commentator but maybe he doesn't like the cold weather.

[Fixer82]

He used to do the odd match with George if I remember correctly. But it's been a while

[Stuttgart88]

Giles as co-commentator came up with one of my all time favourite commentary quotes. In the era before coloured boots were common AC Milan striker Marco Simone wore white boots in a CL match where Milan was wearing their all white away kit.

"He looks like he's making his Holy Communion George".

[DeLorean]

I like that Giles isn't that knowledgeable. It's kind of what he brings to the table if you pardon that horrendous expression. Past performances and reputations are pretty much redundant in his analysis of teams like PSG. Plus, he doesn't let on that he knows more than he actually does, like the "Spanish Soccer student" to his left.

They were fierce proud of TOD's interview with Jose. "Ah Tony's great", said Bill. Reminded me of this...

https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash4/211043_206809219339254_7297200_n.jpg

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Jose Moronho.

[geysir]

If Giles just sticks to what he sees in the match then fine, but last Wednesday Bill asked Giles to expand on an "extraordinary" bit of insight, that he expressed off-camera, into why Torres is not scoring goals. Giles sagely proceeded to explain why Torres has become Torres, with Bill exclaiming "extraordinary" under his breath after every phrase.
The theory that Giles put forward re Torres has been doing the rounds for 2 years, I assume Giles overheard it (by accident) on one occasion, forgot about it, later it popped out of his head and he thought he owned it.
Overall, the rte pundits and presenter show is desperately low standard fare, once you have Bill and Dunphy involved.

[DeLorean]

I'd have looked at that a different way. I'd say Giles had just said it off camera as no big deal, and something pretty obvious to everybody bar Bill. However, Bill thought it was profound and beautiful, so he got John to share this incredible insight with the world.

[geysir]

I'd have looked at that a different way. I'd say Giles had just said it off camera as no big deal, and something pretty obvious to everybody bar Bill. However, Bill thought it was profound and beautiful, so he got John to share this incredible insight with the world.

That's why I named Bill (and Dunphy) as the main characters who bring the show down.

[DeLorean]

Yeah but I presumed you were implying that Giles was quite eager to proceed with his acclaimed theory. I thought he was half embarrassed being put on the spot with a fairly basic (but now glorified) concept.

[geysir]

Yeah but I presumed you were implying that Giles was quite eager to proceed with his acclaimed theory. I thought he was half embarrassed being put on the spot with a fairly basic (but now glorified) concept.
I was pointing out that you presumed incorrectly :)

The previous points were about Giles' strengths, e.g. match analysis /co commentating and I agreed with them. It's up to the presenter to get the best out of Giles.

[DeLorean]

Fair enough. We don't have to endure (probably a bit harsh) Bill for much longer I suppose.

[Stuttgart88]

What's Giles' theory on Torres?

[bennocelt]

Remember Gilesy classic on 10 V 11, that the team with 11 really should win, etc?

[DeLorean]

What's Giles' theory on Torres?

It was more a summary of what has happened than a theory to be honest. The first point was a bit dubious as well. This is what I remember anyway.

- Came to Liverpool relatively unknown without pressure
- Scored goals for fun
- High profile big money move to Chelsea
- More pressure
- Started poorly
- Lost confidence
- This has made him uncomfortable with his surroundings
- Strikers need to be comfortable with their surroundings
- Has nothing in his game other than goals so if he's not scoring goals he's not contributing to the team (compared to somebody like Suarez who has a good all round game)
- Struggled to get confidence back
- Won't get confidence back
- He's finished

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

"- Has nothing in his game other than goals so if he's not scoring goals he's not contributing to the team (compared to somebody like Suarez who has a good all round game)"

That's pretty harsh imo. His link-up play in and around the box is pretty good. His goalscoring record isn't good enough - granted - but there is no need to exaggerate (Giles).

[Charlie Darwin]

I was pointing out that you presumed incorrectly :)

The previous points were about Giles' strengths, e.g. match analysis /co commentating and I agreed with them. It's up to the presenter to get the best out of Giles.
Gilesy would never agree with that. He'd say punditry is a simple game - it doesn't matter who the presenter is, you always put your best pundits out on the field.

[geysir]

How about, "you always play your best pundits".

[geysir]

It was more a summary of what has happened than a theory to be honest. The first point was a bit dubious as well. This is what I remember anyway.

- Came to Liverpool relatively unknown without pressure
- Scored goals for fun
- High profile big money move to Chelsea
- More pressure
- Started poorly
- Lost confidence
- This has made him uncomfortable with his surroundings
- Strikers need to be comfortable with their surroundings
- Has nothing in his game other than goals so if he's not scoring goals he's not contributing to the team (compared to somebody like Suarez who has a good all round game)
- Struggled to get confidence back
- Won't get confidence back
- He's finished
I think the theory bit was that Torres has nothing in his game other than scoring goals and at Chelsea he was asked to do more (contributing to the team) and he couldn't do that properly, that added to what made him feel uncomfortable, as a result of that - affected his confidence re his default role, scoring goals.

[kennedmc]

Gilesy would never agree with that. He'd say punditry is a simple game - it doesn't matter who the presenter is, you always put your best pundits out on the field.

But is Gilesy working hard enough these days? When it was his turn to get the coffees, he forgot the Danish and refused to track back!

giles does tend to hide behind his "senior analyst" role as an excuse that he is not expected to know basic stuff - it's just lazy.

There's plenty of things that annoy me about Giles especially how upset he gets with players that don't do enough work (in his eyes) . His opinion on ronaldo for years was very embarrassing.

a few years ago he bizzarely said Rooney was the best midfielder in the PL after he played 2/3 games there for man utd!

He he constantly says that neither Gerrard or lampard are great midfilders but patronisingly says they are players capable of great things. He has a very narrow definition of 'midfielder'.

Gerrard and and lampard gave their flaws but they have both had phepenomals careers from midfield

[DeLorean]

At least he had the moral courage to make those statements.

[Crosby87]

Bill: This UEFA Cup Final is something of a local derby between Holland and Germany.
Giles: Er...yeah they've been close to each other for years.

[DeLorean]

Phil Babb & Jason McAteer coming up next on the Late Late.

[kennedmc]

Tubridy may have been stretching it a bit with the 'soccer legends' tag though.

[Charlie Darwin]

I wonder if Macca will put forward his case for LOI management again. Sligo might have a vacancy soon.

[DannyInvincible]

Came across this on Ball.ie earlier:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYuUPeXpid4

The RTÉ panel don't star and it was broadcast by ITV for some reason, but it does feature Colm Murray as victim of an amusing prank by Ronnie Whelan and Andy Townsend back in 1990. Stick with it 'til the end.

[tetsujin1979]

completely off topic, but I'm not too fond of balls.ie and their relentless trawling of the net for other site's content (videos, images, match reports, etc) to embed on their own pages and inflate their traffic numbers.

[DannyInvincible]

That's kind of what Balls.ie is though, is it not? It's a dedicated repository for amusing sports-related news, images and videos compiled from around the internet and analysed to some degree with a direct target audience in mind. I find the site pretty handy as it often saves me from having to trek around looking for the story of the day or whatever; instead, I get interesting links and updates on Irish sport and football on my newsfeed. To their credit, I've never seen them embed or quote material on the site without hat-tipping the original creator or whoever it was brought it to their attention.

[tetsujin1979]

That's a relatively new feature from them, first they didn't give credit, then they gave a text credit (e.g. "from Twitter", "from instagram", etc) and now they include a link
I'd guess about 10% of their site is original content (rugby nerds, what we learned from league of Ireland, wrestling column), but it gets lost in the flood of memes, vines, embedded videos, etc
I have the same problem with buzzfeed, and to a lesser extent thejournal.ie, it's just click-baiting

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

That's a relatively new feature from them, first they didn't give credit, then they gave a text credit (e.g. "from Twitter", "from instagram", etc) and now they include a link
I'd guess about 10% of their site is original content (rugby nerds, what we learned from league of Ireland, wrestling column), but it gets lost in the flood of memes, vines, embedded videos, etc
I have the same problem with buzzfeed, and to a lesser extent thejournal.ie, it's just click-baiting

That's pretty pedantic in fairness.

[tetsujin1979]

is it? they're boosting their traffic using someone else's work - more traffic leads to more advertising money for the site, but the author of the content sees nothing from this.
do they deserve it for copying a few lines of embed code? I doubt it.

[DannyInvincible]

I know what you mean, with the ambiguous and teasing "you've got to see this..."-style headlines, but if advertisers want to pay the site money and people want to click, what can you do? That's just the format. I don't see a major problem with it and even keep an eye on the site for its updates. They're only re-publishing freely and legally-available content anyway and channeling it towards a particular audience so the audience don't have to do the trawling. You can always just ignore it if you have a problem with it.

[Charlie Darwin]

is it? they're boosting their traffic using someone else's work - more traffic leads to more advertising money for the site, but the author of the content sees nothing from this.
do they deserve it for copying a few lines of embed code? I doubt it.
Is what they're doing any worse than the people who record something off a stream, make a gif of it and called it their own "content"? I do hate when they extensively quote from news articles/interviews though.

[tetsujin1979]

Is what they're doing any worse than the people who record something off a stream, make a gif of it and called it their own "content"? I do hate when they extensively quote from news articles/interviews though.
don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of that either, but I do respect that there's a level of technical ability involved in that
Just had a look at balls.ie's homepage and there isn't a single post on their front page you could say was their own. No photos they took themselves, no videos they recorded themselves, and only a few lines they've added to whatever is embedded in each post.

[DannyInvincible]

They don't pretend to be anything other than a website that unearths and compiles viral sports stories from around the web though. As far as I can see, they're pretty open about the fact that the material they re-publish is secondary and not actually their own original work.

[Dodge]

They pay for those photos btw, the same as pretty much any decent website...

If you're interested in the league of Ireland, I suggest bookmarking this ;)

http://balls.ie/football/league-of-ireland/

Loads to keep you entertained...

[The Fly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSjjBdrf3h4

[Charlie Darwin]

RTE debate on the merits/demerits of big friendlies against English clubs on Soccer Republic now. Should be interesting.

Dermot Keely has started off on a tranquil note by branding 40,000 Liverpool fans morons.

[Charlie Darwin]

Saying "not being ageist" doesn't mean you're not being ageist. In fact, your entire argument is one of the most commonly-used examples of ageism in society.

[Crosby87]

Charlie is one of our grayer eminences and does not take kindly to any suggestion that he has lost a lap mentally.

[Charlie Darwin]

You're losing it. The old Crosby would have accompanied that with a picture of a geriatric American celebrity nobody has heard of.

[Grafter]

Saying "not being ageist" doesn't mean you're not being ageist. In fact, your entire argument is one of the most commonly-used examples of ageism in society.

Look tv is unforgiving, you make a mistake it's on youtube in 5 seconds... I do think certainly from 70 onwards it is a big ask to anchor a 3 hour long tv programme....

[pineapple stu]

Sure he's not on the air for most of that.

Your comment was completely ageist.

[Grafter]

Sure he's not on the air for most of that.

Your comment was completely ageist.

Jeez maybe I really do need to take a good long look at myself....

[pineapple stu]

Yup.

Absolutely not for you to be deciding what people in their seventies should or shouldn't be doing.

Sorry!

[Charlie Darwin]

Look tv is unforgiving, you make a mistake it's on youtube in 5 seconds... I do think certainly from 70 onwards it is a big ask to anchor a 3 hour long tv programme....
What mistakes is he making that he wasn't making when he was 50?

[Grafter]

What mistakes is he making that he wasn't making when he was 50?
I take your point.

[Crosby87]

Anyone see the johnny knoxville movie when he is the grandpa with the mouthy kid?

[OwlsFan]

What mistakes is he making that he wasn't making when he was 50?

None really. To be able to chair a comedy programme about football for 30 years and still not have the slightest idea what is going on is some achievement. At least Dunphy rightly pulled him up (assuming we're talking about O'Herlihy and not Giles as the original post has been deleted) on his questioning there being a Japanese referee for the opening game.

[tetsujin1979]

How do you know he's no idea? He's on record multiple times as saying that he's not there to give his opinion, he's there to direct the conversation between the analysts

[OwlsFan]

How do you know he's no idea? He's on record multiple times as saying that he's not there to give his opinion, he's there to direct the conversation between the analysts

Because he frequently offers his own opinion on games, Irish managers, styles of play etc etc

Interesting to hear Ossie A give his opinion on the Nigeria vs Iran game. He does talk very quickly but I did hear him say there is nothing wrong with the long ball game provided the front man is supported by the midfield. Nigeria tried it but left their centre forward totally isolated. Mind you when they tried passing, they were also totally inept at that as well. Still it was interesting to hear one of the best midfielders of his generation not dismissing the long ball game as a way of getting round (over) six opponents in midfield.