Lack of Respect for John Giles

Seems to be a serious lack of respect on these pages for Irelands 2nd or 3rd greatest player of all time here, and a man who is by far and away the best football analyst on Irish/British TV.
John Giles is a living legend, but many here see fit to mock him, parody him and ridicule him.
Its a bit like the british media and Bobby Robson. John is not that young anymore, and when the day finally comes, and the tributes are paid, the same lads on here that constantly deride and slag him off will be in here saying what a "legend and hero" he was to you all.
Show some respect.:mad:

I dont know anyone who doesnt respect Johnny Giles. But its ok not to agree with him sometimes...

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Originally Posted by M@ttitude

I dont know anyone who doesnt respect Johnny Giles. But its ok not to agree with him sometimes...

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Not agreeing with him is absolutely fine mate, its some lads in here calling him an idiot, a puppet of Dunphy, a "know-nothing" and other less than respectful abuses thats kills me

I think that Giles' ability to analyse a match in progress is second to none. He can see strengths and weaknesses, and explain how to take advantage of situations.

Where he is less than impressive is the amount of 'background knowledge' he has. What i mean by that is that he doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable on anything that isn't Irish or UK football. He doesn't know players names, doesn't know their positions, doesn't know their clubs, and applies stereotypes without even realisisng he's doing it. Somebody on here has previously highlighted his calling the Germans 'efficient and boring' in the lead up to WC2008, despite them not playing like that at all at the time.

He always says that "we can only call it as we see it." I think he's very good at this aspect of the game, but less so at others.

Giles is a legend, always will be. just a shame he has to share a studio with dunphy. I think Giles, Sounness +1 would be a really interesting panel.

I assume you're referring to some of the comments in the Shamrock Rovers thread.

Giles is a legend of Irish football, but in my opinion, he let himself down with his attitude then, and some of his comments since.

How does being a legend in a completely different era make him qualified to talk about a game that has changed significantly since then?

Football has moved on and is a more technical game in a lot of the world (outside Britain and Ireland).

Give me Brady any day. He's kept his knowledge up to date at least. Likewise with Sir Bobby. He kept his knowledge up to date and managed all around Europe in very technical leagues.

I think they need someone like Dunphy on the panel, if only just to act the idiot that he is, by making the outrageous comments that he does he provokes responses from the panel and starts debate

Giles undoubtedly loves football and knows an awful lot about it but the simple fact is a lot of his experience isn't really relevant anymore. Its been so long since he's had an active role withing a club or organization he can be a bit out of touch with the realities of the modern game. This is why Souness is such a valuable asset, he was a manager quite recently and is therefore, in my opinion, better placed than either of the others.

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

Irelands 2nd or 3rd greatest player of all time

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This is the only part of your post I'd have issue with. Giles was the greatest I've seen play, bar none. So unless you're referring to someone who played pre-Giles, who I haven't seen, then I have to disagree.

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Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

Seems to be a serious lack of respect on these pages for Irelands 2nd or 3rd greatest player of all time here, and a man who is by far and away the best football analyst on Irish/British TV.
John Giles is a living legend, but many here see fit to mock him, parody him and ridicule him.
Its a bit like the british media and Bobby Robson. John is not that young anymore, and when the day finally comes, and the tributes are paid, the same lads on here that constantly deride and slag him off will be in here saying what a "legend and hero" he was to you all.
Show some respect.:mad:

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Is this a wind up?
If not, calm down man. He's in the public eye getting very well paid to talk about.......a sport. Nothing more. Nobody has ever said (AFAIK)that he wasnt a good player back in the day. That would be universally accepted. I wouldn't think he cares what some people on an internet forum thinks about him when hes counting his RTE and Newstalk money. Maybe you shouldn't either.

Giles is a classic example of "living on past reputation."

Nobody is questioning what he's done in the game, or that he was a great player in his era, but as an analyst I think his day is done.

The entire RTE panel could probably do with a reshuffling, with the exception of Souness and maybe Bill, but if you're getting rid of Bill you may as well get rid of the others as well and start with a clean slate.

The worry of course is that they get replaced with cliche every sentence skysetanta style sh*t

For the most part, criticisms of Giles I've heard or read have been concrete, along the lines that osarusan posted above. There are always going to be a few idiots who take that further, and his playing days are long enough ago that there's little in the way of worshipful comment to him that someone like McGrath might get on here, but he's respected enough.

maybe if dunphy wasn't there dragging the conversation down to lowest common denominator sensationalist ****, then giles would be able to come into his own.

Bill - legend, should stay

Giles - legend, should stay

Sounness, fantastic player, talks sense, should stay

Dunphy - a nothing player, crap journo, talks nonsense, should be booted off. as soon as possible.

personally i don't care if Giles isn't up to date with some spanish player's latest haircut, or which WAG is cheating on who, he was a marvellous player, (and the term "great player" as John once said, is thrown around FAR too much these days), so I'm interested in, and respect, what he has to say.

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Originally Posted by irishfan86

Giles is a classic example of "living on past reputation."

Nobody is questioning what he's done in the game, or that he was a great player in his era, but as an analyst I think his day is done.

The entire RTE panel could probably do with a reshuffling, with the exception of Souness and maybe Bill, but if you're getting rid of Bill you may as well get rid of the others as well and start with a clean slate.

The worry of course is that they get replaced with cliche every sentence skysetanta style sh*t

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I'd agree with this.

The WC next year would be a perfect opportunity to introduce a few new faces. Did they try that for the Euros last year?
I remember one world cup they tried Ray Darcy as the anchor man for a few smaller games but it was cringe-worthy as he presented it like a round of blackboard jungle. If I remember correctly Niall Quinn was there too.
Can any of the LOI (ex)managers talk a good game, apart from Damien Richardson? :p
Has Kenny Cunningham made the step up from radio to TV yet?
They could also get Roy Keane on to replace Dunphy as the controversial character.
Maybe one of the guys from Newstalk's off the ball as the anchor man, even if they can be a bit smug at times.
Such a mix would either end in them all talking over eachother or an entertaining show.

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Originally Posted by magnumpi

he was a marvellous player, (and the term "great player" as John once said, is thrown around FAR too much these days),

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So which is better....marvellous or great??

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Originally Posted by magnumpi

personally i don't care if Giles isn't up to date with some spanish player's latest haircut, or which WAG is cheating on who, he was a marvellous player, (and the term "great player" as John once said, is thrown around FAR too much these days), so I'm interested in, and respect, what he has to say.

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I don't care about any of that crap, and that's not what people are asking for.

World stars are not recognized by Giles unless they play in England, or have excelled in a major tournament, and if he's getting paid to do a job, that's not really good enough.

You'd think that RTE football coverage would be quite an attractive proposition for any pundit type, its really the only television forum where the truth is actually told and the pundits are encouraged to be brutally honest.

This is probably the only time that Giles/Dunphy's distance from the game helps. Neither of them are invested with the clubs...thats to say they have noagenda's, anyone they played with is long gone so they don't have to worry about upsetting pals or people they're likely to come into personal contact with.

The other channels tendencies to lean towards recently retired players or rival managers or even current injured players in some circumstances means that the pundits can never really be too critical...for instance Jamie Redknapp is never gonna criticise his Dad or Frank Lampard.

And thats why Sky's punditry stinks, its so sycophantic, the BBC are no better & don't get me started on TV3 or Setanta.

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Originally Posted by Irish_Praha

I remember one world cup they tried Ray Darcy as the anchor man for a few smaller games but it was cringe-worthy as he presented it like a round of blackboard jungle.

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I was on Blackboard Jungle, he barely pulled that off so I can only imagine how bad he was anchoring a match

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Originally Posted by Greenbod

So which is better....marvellous or great??

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erm, not sure.

it was during the last world cup, and Bill had said something along the lines of "but England have so many great players, why are they playing so poorly", and Giles went on to make the point that too many players today are referred to as "great", and that its an insult to the truly great players who went before them..... and I totally agree with him.

[QUOTE=Irish_Praha;1282718]
Has Kenny Cunningham made the step up from radio to TV yet?
QUOTE]

tried and failed. like watching a bucket of paint getting bored at the rest of the wall drying.