Ian Wright (and TV pundits in general)

[joeSoap]

The man should be a fishmonger. His mastery of the English language is quite amazing.....innit?? He offers nothing constructively and has nothing at all to offer but mumble after mumble and good old bulldog English supremacy.

God I hate him!!

Sorry....just had to get this off my chest...:mad:

[Hither green]

Thanks for putting it into words. Saves me having to type it :D

[Closed Account 2]

Agree - he adds nothing to the coverage of the matches. He knows nothing about any of the teams except England, rubbish pundit.

[FarBeag]

He has got to be the most annoying man ever to sit, stand or attempt to present behind a TV camera. He is totally clueless and I can’t imagine his IQ being above 70.I just detest the bloke.

[The Stars]

used to think he was alright but after the Gerrard peno incident i have no repect for him.
Actually all the BBC are so biased towards england i cant bear to listen to them

[gustavo]

Are any TV station naturally going to be biased towards their home country ?
Having said that though Wright is a cretin with his own agenda

[drinkfeckarse]

I haven't really listened to any of the pundits before, during or after the games so luckily I haven't heard any of his waffle. Someone here told me that he was quite bitter about the fact that SWP didn't get into the squad though so he might even be critical of them when things go wrong.

[Pauro 76]

loved his theory that Shaun Wright Phillips was dropped by Sven just to spite Ian Wright. what a plonker... who'd in their right mind would listen to him anyway....

[NeilMcD]

He is a muppet and I only see him during the add breaks on RTE. RTE have by far and the best panel about. Its the production and freedom that allows RTE Pundits to look so good. Hansen and O Neill and Strachan would be great on RTE but on BBC they are not allowed the freedom to debate issues. Not enough credit is given to O Herlihy for encouraging these debates with his open questions. O Herlihy plays the gombeen to perfection.

[tetsujin1979]

I watched Irwin and Cunningham show up Dunphy for what he really knows about the modern game in the Czech - USA game. For all his harping on and on about the ball being lighter (it's not) Denis and Kenny just stayed calm, said that they didn't think the ball was making much of a difference and talked about the tactics and skill of the Czechs, while Eamon was trying to make the point that the States had no "heart". That said RTE are streets ahead of the Beeb in punditry, Martin O'Neill aside, with Dermot Gallacher still to come in. They can get away with saying what they really think about every player and team without fear of recrimination, and I think this is really bringing the best out of Souness - now there's something I never thought I'd say. Over on BBC, Lineker is trying to make everyone laugh, Lawro is laughing at himself, Ian Wright is off his game and Hanson hasn't said anything of note. Leonardo and Desailly were interesting choices but the old boys seem to be ganging up on them, in Desailly in particular. I haven't watched any game on ITV. Nor have I any great desire to.

[joeSoap]

Johnny Giles is the best analyst/pundit on TV in m opinion. He's been there, done that and bought several t-shirts and knows what he's talking about. No nonsense, gazing at the camera, trying to be funny-just simple, direct, and to the point....kinda like he was as a footballer. 10/10.

I don't like Brady as a pundit. He comes across as a bit of a smarmy, patronising git if you ask me. Maybe its his half dub, half cockney twang, or just the fact that he's so droll. I don't know, but he kills me as a pundit. 4/10.

Souness has surprised me. I thought I'd hate him. I don't. He's knowledgeable, witty and a good inter-acter. 7.5/10.

Denis Irwin has potential. The Cork accent biy goes well with the situations, and he seems to enjoy talking about the game. Has a future. 7/10.

Same applies to Kenny Cunningham, although he needs to brush up on his english a bit, and someone needs to tell him that the rug is receding rapidly and he needs to shave his head....fast!! 6.5/10

Dunphy is Dunphy....no more to be said...8/10 purely for controversy...you never know when he's going to kick off into a rattle-throwing tantrum.

[Roadend]

Leonardo and Desailly were interesting choices but the old boys seem to be ganging up on them, in Desailly in particular. I haven't watched any game on ITV. Nor have I any great desire to.

O'neill was anyway, and rightly so. Its half the language difference but these two lads are a complete waste of space as analysts. Fair play to O'Neill for putting Desailly in his place yesterday.

[bluemovie]

Ian Wright's command of the English language is being put to shame by Leonardo. Which one is the native speaker?

[joeSoap]

used to think he was alright but after the Gerrard peno incident i have no repect for him.
That would be the one where he praised Gerrard for diving in a friendly, right??

Typical of the man.

[drinkfeckarse]

O'neill was anyway, and rightly so. Its half the language difference but these two lads are a complete waste of space as analysts. Fair play to O'Neill for putting Desailly in his place yesterday.

Would you mind explaining to me what that situation was about Roadend? I have a work colleague here who is a Rangers man and was mouthing off to me yesterday about how MON was bang out of order and a pr!ck etc over that. I hadn't seen it so couldn't offer my opinion but he is (my colleague) a little bitter and twisted so I assumed he was looking through blue tinted glasses...

[noby]

The best thing about the BBC so far is that you can switch off the commentary. Especially when you have a particularly annoying combination of commentator/co-commentator.

[Reality Bites]

O'Neill and Hansen and Strachen are topclass pundits, Leonardo and Desailly are amicable chaps but they are by the numbers with no meat on the bone wheeling out Cliches (leonardo had Roy Keane and John Travolta in the same bracket at one stage because his english couldn't extend beyond "big character"), Wright well he is just there for eejit value, a bit like the unfortunate Paul Gascoigne was ruthlessly exploited by UTV in the 2002 World Cup for comic value..but thank god that plonker Schmeichal hasn't appeared yet

[Reality Bites]

Oh yeah John Motson is a Racist as well, anyone catching him saying during a hand to ball incident in the England V Paraguay "Is that another one of those South American Paws".. Lawros lazy commentry last nite during the early stages of Brazilian Croatian match was embarassing..basic extolling the virtues of the Brazilians Oh they don't need to chase down the ball they'll get it back anyway attitude, it was insulting to the Croats who thankfully outplayed the Brazilians for large parts of game..

[joeSoap]

Motson and Wright epitomise al that is to be hated about England. Their disgusting over the top supremacy is appalling. I'm all for patriotism...it's commendable, but these guys really do seem to think theres an empire out there still.

Great programme on Sky One last night, showing World Cup blips and mad moments. They showed Chile v Italy in 1962...the most violent game of ball I'd say has ever been recorded. France in 1978 having to borrow a kit from a local junior club, and lining out in green and white stripes, blue shorts and red socks....can't remember the name of it...good though

[drinkfeckarse]

Lawros lazy commentry last nite during the early stages of Brazilian Croatian match was embarassing..basic extolling the virtues of the Brazilians Oh they don't need to chase down the ball they'll get it back anyway attitude, it was insulting to the Croats who thankfully outplayed the Brazilians for large parts of game..

I noticed that too. If they mis-placed a pass he'd almost say they meant it such was his arse-kissing.

[razor]

The best thing about the BBC so far is that you can switch off the commentary. Especially when you have a particularly annoying combination of commentator/co-commentator.Agree, switch on BBC, go interactive and put on the FiveLive commentary. Happy Days.

[Stuttgart88]

Oh yeah John Motson is a Racist as well, anyone catching him saying during a hand to ball incident in the England V Paraguay "Is that another one of those South American Paws".. Lawros lazy commentry last nite during the early stages of Brazilian Croatian match was embarassing..basic extolling the virtues of the Brazilians Oh they don't need to chase down the ball they'll get it back anyway attitude, it was insulting to the Croats who thankfully outplayed the Brazilians for large parts of game..
Agree 100%. I'm glad the racist angle has been picked up by someone else. I think because he's old & cuddly people don't pick up on these undertones. Shame on the BBC for keeping him employed, and also for trying to "compete" with ITV's dumbed-down tabloidesque coverage by hiring Ian Wright.

Italy vs Angola. Sammi Kuffour gives a woefully underhit backpass. Italy score.

Motty: "Another example of Ghanain gullibility?"

No, you ****ing ****. It was a sh1t backpass from a very experienced footballer. Nothing to do with any national tendencies.

Poor old Barry Davies. A legend of a commentator in my opinion. Fair, intelligent, articulate, knowledgable, impartial and anything but patronising and smug. No wonder he despaired so much he resigned.

[Stuttgart88]

On the racist angle: London Evening Standard referring to Paraguay as "those Paraguayan Nazi Harbourers" was one of the worst recently. OK, so it's an extreme example, but some in this country have such a warped view of the rest of the world it makes me want to puke.

[stojkovic]

Agree about Motty and always listen to him for his OTT xenophobia. He nearly had an orgasm the other night "look at the ITALIANS surrounding the referee" he exclaimed in shock. Come on Trinidad, how many times will he mention Brian Lara end Viv Richards.

Shame Desailly and Leonardo aren't on RTE.

Did you notice how Lineker trys to talk slowly to Leonardo. The man speaks about six languages and English better than Ian Wright Wright Wright.

[LeixlipRed]

RTE's coverage is by far the best. No debate about that anyway. I turned over to ITV today during a break on RTE before the Spain game to catch Ruud, Ally and the gang talking about why Spain dont gel as a team. He started by saying something about the Basque/Catalan thing (McCoist was just "aye,aye-ing" having no idea where Spain was never mind posessing knowledge of its internal strife) and when he could see that noone had a clue what he was talking about he just said something to the affect of "Spain are like the US in the Ryder Cup" and this prompted jubilant cries of "aye" from Ally who instantly understood this so called "analogy". Hilarious stuff. I was expecting Gazza to fall thru the ceiling with a Sombrero on his head. Never happened though....

[gustavo]

Motson doesnt have a clue , H e was going on about how Nesta and Cannavaro had a great club partnership for years the other night

[OwlsFan]

Souness is a breath of fresh air on RTE to break up the grusome threesome of Drunkphy, Giles and Laughing Bill. He likes to nettle G & D (or should that be G & T ;) ) by talking about the modern game. He was interesting last night when he said that in the modern game, only the full backs have any time on the ball when G&D were bemoaning the poor German midfield. Hence it is very important to have good ball players or even converted wingers as full backs. Giles tried to counter by saying that a good midfielder makes time but Souness once again spoke the "modern game" saying that it was much more difficult, putting the two old timers in their place.

What irritates me about RTE is that it attempts to go the opposite of the Sky hype and put a negative aspect to most things. Laughing Bill does not play the fool well - he is a fool when it comes to football and does not have the nous to contradict G & D when they go off on one of their theories. Giles even spoke about the Sky hype last night as if to say, well we're going to have none of that. The game between Poland and Germany was enjoyable. Sure it wasn't free flowing samba football but there was real competition and local/historic rivalry in it with a typical last minute German goal. The latter have 6 points out of 6 but there was not one shred of praise from either G or D - in fact the opposite.

Cunningham and Irwin have been good.

Ian Wright is a buffoon but then we have one on our panel as well.

The most irritating thing about Motson is the chuckles at his own jokes.

The RTE commentators (Hamilton aside) have been good but they're now falling into the Andy Gray "attack the referee" style as well.

ITV have Gabby Yorath - that makes up for a multitude of sins ;)

[Stuttgart88]

Gary Lineker ***ed me right off last night!

The Germans were celebrating their win and their almost certain passage to the last 16.

Lineker in a tone that exceeded his own very high standards of patronisation told the Germans to calm down, it's only the group stages.

I can't wait to see his reaction if England win tonight. Calm down Gary, it's only the group stages (and 2 small cricket playing caribbean islands!).

[Roadend]

Giles even spoke about the Sky hype last night as if to say, well we're going to have none of that. The game between Poland and Germany was enjoyable.

He was right as far as I could see, that game last night wasn't overly enjoyable at all and as Giles pointed out, it was like a poor pl match, Poland going forward were absolutely atrocious. Sometimes they are negative just for the sake of it, but to be honest I prefer that to the english stations talking up something that you know is bad.

[Roadend]

Would you mind explaining to me what that situation was about Roadend? I have a work colleague here who is a Rangers man and was mouthing off to me yesterday about how MON was bang out of order and a pr!ck etc over that. I hadn't seen it so couldn't offer my opinion but he is (my colleague) a little bitter and twisted so I assumed he was looking through blue tinted glasses...


It was something along the lines of Desailly making out France to have played a whole lot better than they had done, deserved the victory against the Swiss and that, to which O'Neill came out and said that he didn't care how many medals WC,CL euros that he'd won, his opinion was biased and that he didn't think they did.

[superfrank]

Agree, switch on BBC, go interactive and put on the FiveLive commentary. Happy Days.
Ah yes. I love Alan Green. The guy's a commentary genius.

[bluemovie]

Agree, switch on BBC, go interactive and put on the FiveLive commentary. Happy Days.

Yeah, I've done that for a couple of games. Martin Jol was brilliant to listen to for the Dutch game. Totally one-sided, but insightful too. He said that he usually watches their games with his family - all of them (himself included) dressed from head to toe in orange. 5 Live call the game well too. Unlike BBC tv, they'll say if something/someone is bad.

[Closed Account 2]

Who is worse Clive "That Final" Tyldsley or Motson ? I can't decide they're both so bad it's like two cheeks of the same arse... but both make Jonathan Pearce look good.

[pete]

No surprise Ian Wright not in coaching or management. He is shocking. Bring back Gazza! :D

[OwlsFan]

He was right as far as I could see, that game last night wasn't overly enjoyable at all and as Giles pointed out, it was like a poor pl match, Poland going forward were absolutely atrocious. Sometimes they are negative just for the sake of it, but to be honest I prefer that to the english stations talking up something that you know is bad.

There is always the dig at the PL though. Could he not just have said it was a poor game without a mention of the PL. If England are knocked out Laughing Bill will ask them: "What does this say about the Premier League ?". I guarantee it. The RTE Panel has its own agendas as well.

Lineker doesn't like the Germans - that's fair enough. But then neither do G & D. I do :D

[Roadend]

To be honest I think the PL is Giles' only frame of reference, he doesn't watch anything other than that (aprt from the odd CL game)which is blatantly exposed when he is asked about teams other than England.

[tetsujin1979]

To be fair to Giles, while his knowledge of the game outside England is limited, he does manage to pick up on the nuances of a player's game after only watching him for a few minutes. Very few (if any) of the other pundits on any station can do that.

[Schumi]

Was anyone else disappointed by Strachan not bothering to find out the names of players in the Germany v Poland match last night? "When number 17 came on for Germany, he made a big difference" and several other examples. How much work does it take to write down the guys' names if you're going to talk about them after the game?

[gustavo]

Dunphy et al should be able to realise the irony of them earning a living off a league which is muck in their own words

[jockser]

RTE's coverage is by far the best. No debate about that anyway. I turned over to ITV today during a break on RTE before the Spain game to catch Ruud, Ally and the gang talking about why Spain dont gel as a team. He started by saying something about the Basque/Catalan thing (McCoist was just "aye,aye-ing" having no idea where Spain was never mind posessing knowledge of its internal strife) and when he could see that noone had a clue what he was talking about he just said something to the affect of "Spain are like the US in the Ryder Cup" and this prompted jubilant cries of "aye" from Ally who instantly understood this so called "analogy". Hilarious stuff. I was expecting Gazza to fall thru the ceiling with a Sombrero on his head. Never happened though....:D :D deadly

[OwlsFan]

Dunphy et al should be able to realise the irony of them earning a living off a league which is muck in their own words

I thought the RTE panel's reaction to the English game last night was a national disgrace. Scoffing and jeering has now taken over from analysis. Dunphy said he enjoyed the first 80 minutes of the game. Could you imagine our reaction if Wright or some other clown on the BBC said they were enjoying a match because Ireland were doing badly. Then they play snippets of interviews with Beckam and Sven and totally jeer and scoff at their remarks. Sven says they haven't beaten Sweden for a while now and Laughing Bill says, sotto voce, "and I doubt if you will for a while yet". Very professional and unbiased. Incidentally, Dunphy who of course jeered the most, seemed to have forgotton than on his radio programme the day before the WC began had tipped England to do well because they had such "great players as Lampard and Gerrard".

England were poor but they have 6 points out of 6 and have qualified for the next round. They started very badly in Italia 90 and lost in the semis to penalties to Germany (another team Dunphy loves to scoff at). As I also predicted earlier Giles attacked the Premiership, the league he makes his living out of commentating on.

Attack the performance like any other bad performance from any other team but the jeering and scoffing does our national broadcaster no favours at all.

[OwlsFan]

Oh and by the way anyone see Dunphy say after the Sweden game that if England and Sweden draw, England will finish top on the basis of the most goals scored. The clown had forgotten that in such circumstances England would have more points than Sweden and Laughing Bill didn't or wouldn't contradict him.

[LeixlipRed]

OwlsFan, you expect those slip ups from RTE. They never have a clue how many points people are on or how to work a Tv camera or how switch over to Giles's little stop 'n' go clips. Their production is 2nd rate at best sometimes but its still the most entertaining of the 3 main stations coverage. And for football purity, I dont think you can look further than RTE either. They've stuck together a great crew of pundits (I'm warming to Souness which makes me feel dirty) who analyse games in more depth than anything on the other 2 channels. Whats the deal with the BBC ending their post match coverage 5 minutes after a game? Maybe its a subconscious attempt on the BBC's part to keep the ramblings of Wrighty to himself

[tetsujin1979]

For some reason unknown to me, work decided to show the ITV coverage of the England game yesterday. Having now sampled all 3 main teams of commentators (I'm not even contemplating checking out amateur hour over on UK TV G2) I can safely say that RTE are actually streets ahead of both BBC and ITV in terms of analysis and knowledge of the game.
Tyldsley (sp?) at the end of the first said that "England were finishing strongly" whereon T & T promptly had the best chance of the game!
All his commentary seemed to focus on was "wave after wave of England attack", nothing was made of the organisation and discipline of the opposition and their efforts to frustrate the English.

[LeixlipRed]

I'm not even contemplating checking out amateur hour over on UK TV G2

Wasn't even aware they had WC coverage. I'm just imagining the line up now. Steve Claridge will be there. Perhaps, Dave Basset too. And Rodney Marsh is out of a job these days too so I'd imagine he's there all day everyday. Are they covering all the games or what?

[tetsujin1979]

Wasn't even aware they had WC coverage. I'm just imagining the line up now. Steve Claridge will be there. Perhaps, Dave Basset too. And Rodney Marsh is out of a job these days too so I'd imagine he's there all day everyday. Are they covering all the games or what?
Rodney Marsh is on TalkSport, or TalkNONSENSE as Football365 refer to them as.
UKTVG2 are covering all the games, I think DJ Spoony is one of the commentators, can't remember who the other one is, check the website?

[LeixlipRed]

DJ Spoony?? I checked their site and can only find mention of some guy called Stuart Hall who they have on it. No one else. Maybe they don't need pundits or any of that stuff. Why are they even bothering showing the games? Surely their audience would be way less than 100,000 people? probably way less than 50k too

[tipp man]

some guy called Stuart Hall

If you haven't heard of Stuart Hall then all I can say is .....Christ I feel old. The guys is a legend. Crap commentator mind, but a legend nonetheless.

[tetsujin1979]

DJ Spoony?? I checked their site and can only find mention of some guy called Stuart Hall who they have on it. No one else. Maybe they don't need pundits or any of that stuff.
Can't find him on the site either, but according to the telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/06/09/btv09.xml - him and David Seaman were the commentators for the opening game

[LeixlipRed]

Who is DJ Spoony? I dont normally judge a person by their name but this guy sounds like a fool