A lot of People take sport and politics too seriously. People are allowed to think differently to you. They may be right / you may be right. Nobody is right all the time. I would never lose a friend / acquaintance, over sport or politics. Maybe some family thing would be too big to get over, but it would have to be pretty big for me to shun somebody altogether.
Life is too short to be falling out over silly stuff.
What’s Mcmanaman ever done to anyone?Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
Who would you have provide punditry on the games? All those players have played at the top. They're perfectly positioned to provide commentary on soccer matches.
And I'd love to know why McMamaman is a scumbag too btw
Folding my way into the big money!!!
I don't know, maybe I'm getting old but I like pundits who can make coherent, grammatically correct observations in full sentences. With the game in mind rather than how many clickbait hits can I engineer here, re Keane.
McManaman, every failed pronunciation of every vowel & consonant resonates of absolute scrote & proud to be. Which he is. I get there has to be regional representation in the broadcasts but how he choses, and it is a choice, to put himself across makes me look for the game on elsewhere.
Sorry, but have to disagree. Those guys aren't chosen for their technical excellence (those who do have that quality are doing it at a club, not talking about it in a studio).
Instead they're chosen depending on which club they played for (hence Man U and L'pool dominating) and/or their "personality". Re this latter, Chris Sutton and Martin O'Neill are the controversialists; Roy Keane is the "Studio Hit Man"; Gary Neville is there to laugh uproariously at Keane's "jokes"; Micah Richards is the Class Clown, in succession to Ian Wright who was upgraded to Head Boy; Jamie Redknapp is probably there to entertain the Laydeez, while Rio Ferdinand is... Jeez, I've no idea why he's ever let near a TV studio, since I doubt he's ever said anything interesting or insightful in his entire life, even by mistake.
Above all, they virtually all merely tell you what you've just seen, not why it happened. A notable exception was Terry Venables, a genuinely deep thinker, who had great insight; while Glenn Hoddle also has his moments, though these are often spoiled by his also being a bit of a prat.
Mind you, all of that may be outdated, since these days I usually switch over/make a cup of tea/go to the bar etc when they appear on screen.
P.S. No idea why McManaman is a "scumbag" either - I mean, it's not as if eg he gobbed at a 14 y.o. girl asking him for his autograph...
Last edited by EalingGreen; 24/06/2025 at 1:10 PM.
The actor playing Keane looks more like a young Stephen Elliott.
Thats it. We are DONE old man.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Very few, I'd say.
Would highly recommend "The Damned United", the story of Brian Clough's 44 days at Leeds United. His family were (understandably) upset at the way he was portrayed, though the book was harsher on him (I'd also recommend the book btw).
"The Keeper", a biopic of Bert Trautmann, the great German gk/former POW, who played for Man City after the war is also pretty good. Not sure how accurate it is, but it has its moments, drama-wise.
While "Marvellous", about a Stoke City fan (played by Toby Jones) is quite simply outstanding, absolutely hilarious, whilst also being thoughtful, too. Everyone I've recommended it to has thoroughly enjoyed it, incl those with no interest in sport. The original book is also very good, as is the stage version which followed the film. Must watch stuff!
The Damned United is a heavily fictionalised account of Clough's time in charge. John Giles took the writer to court over how he was portrayed in the book and won, which is why his name is only used once(I think?) in the book, and he's referred to as "the Irishman" after that.
When the film came out, Giles discussed it on one episode of Off The Ball. He'd refused to speak about it before and hasn't spoken about it since to the best of my knowledge, but I rarely listen to OTB these days. He did mention that Clough's surviving family investigated taking the author of the book to court, but couldn't because you can't liable the dead.
To be fair, Carragher and Neville's breakdown of players and passages of play on Monday Night Football were excellent, but they seem to have left them long behind. Adam Clery on youtube does similar stuff now, I'd recommend his channel - https://www.youtube.com/@TheAdamCleryFootballChannel
Ian Wright was a lot better on Match of the Day, and Match of the Day 2. Might have been given more time to prepare, or time to get his point across? Richards is there for ratings, or (more likely) clicks and views. The Champions League show he does for one of the American broadcasters(ABC?) is risible, but it does numbers, as the kids are saying, on YouTube, tiktok, etc. Redknapp never says anything controversial, which is probably why he's still there.
Lee Dixon was good for this too on MOTD2
If you're talking about the incident where Carragher spat out his window at another car, I'd have a degree of sympathy for him here. He was driving on a dual carriageway, possible a motorway, and was being goaded by another car, who were looking for a reaction from him as much as an autograph. He shouldn't have done it, and was punished for it, but he's not entirely to blame either.
There's a time and a place to ask for these things, neither are at 60mph+
Nedum Onuoha was on a BBC broadcast, think is might have been a women's game in the last year, and he was outstanding, insightful, gave knowledge, you'd learn from him and enjoy the lesson. Doesn't make sense he's not involved but so many idiots are, and it proves, it isn't about quality, its about ratings, clicks and dick heads having what passes for banter. If the face fits you are in and you stay in, if it doesn't, you can be as good as you like, you aren't getting picked. Rio Ferdinand is absolutely appalling, he basically sees who's hot on twitter on the continent and passes that off as his own, alongside feigned emotion nonsense about trusting your team mates and bonds on the field, like it some kind of marriage. Absolute clown.
Ok, I was wrong about the autograph bit, and yes, the other driver was an irritating prat. But now having seen the video with sound, there is absolutely no excuse for Carragher - you just wind your window up and look ahead to the road:
https://youtu.be/yAo6SNt4lLg
I think Crafty should be given 24 hours to post some evidence of McManaman being a scumbag or retract and/or get a meaty ban from the forum.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Wasn't the father following Carragher for a few lights and baiting an interaction with various insults all along the way? And then a cut video was sold to the Mirror. I heard that's why no charges were brought against Carragher. Still totally inexcusable to spit at someone, but worth considering it might not have been a single interaction but the culmination of a series of incidents.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...anna-hardwicke
Maybe it won't be quite as bad as I've been expecting it to be.
Two good actors, I'm expecting it to decent enough
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