I find the RTE Euro 2008 coverage horrible.

[jebus]

1) First of all they don't have basic knowledge of the teams. On several occasions the pundits have when questioned about certain demonstrated that they know nothing about them and are unashamed to admit it. It happened with Turkey, Austria, Romania and other lesser known teams. Now, I myself know little about these teams but it is the pundits JOB to know about the team they're analyising.

True, but they don't need to, the common football fan doesn't care about these teams

If the ignorance ended at the lesser known teams It could be forgiven but It's appalling to see it continue to the better known sides too. Just yesterday Jimmy McGee exclaimed that he didn't know who Abidal was and was confused at how he was ahead of Clichy and Evra. How can you call yourself a commentator and not know Barca's first team?

That is a joke in fairness

Then there's Souness who stumbled over how to pronounce Real Madrid and Germany's "Metzelder"

That's a pronounciation issue, to which end I don't care that he had trouble saying it

Brady who made me really concerned about his ability in the Irish role by downtalking Van Der Vaart because he's playing for Hamburg while at the same time using no other reasoning for his doubt, I'll add is completly ridiculous since Vad Der Vaart is regarded as argubly the best player in the Bundesliga.

That was in relation to Brady commenting on reports of Van Der Vaart being the next top European player whilst at Ajax, to which I agree with Brady, if he had been that good he would have had bigger teams than Hamburg signing him

And Dunphy calling Toni a "poor man's Peter Crouch". I don't know where to even start on that one.

It's Dunphy, he probably had his ego stroked further by the Star printing 'Dunphy Says No' as it's banner headline on it's front page yesterday in relation to the Lisbon Treaty

2) Then there's this whole Premiership-centric nature. The panel seem to want to discuss Ronaldo and Torres far more than they do the rest of their respective teams. When players like Robben or Van Nistellroy appear the first thing they mention is the fact they used to play for Premiership teams. I don't think Hamilton mentioned either of their current clubs once, it seems to be much more important to them to remind viewers that they once had English ties.

The vast majority of people who watch RTE's football coverage watch only the Premiership, they cater to that audience

I'd expect this kind of narrow minded coverage from the BBC or ITV but the un-biased RTE? It seems like the entire panel are in mourning because England aren't there to be honest and feel that the Irish public won't care about it for such reasoning. The public don't care about England especially and it's bemusing as to why RTE feel they do.

Yes they do. The Irish public watch English football as if it's their own, and they always follow the fortunes of the England national team

3) Over reliance on cliches. It's absurd at this stage how Giles can still cling on to German cliches of at least 10 years old. Calling them hard working and defensive, it's not only irrelevant to the current crop but it's a fine filler to try and hide when you know nothing of substance about a team.

The German team are hard working and solid defensively, granted he should have said they have added a great deal of flair to their team, but Giles is probably joined by at least one pundit from every other station covering this tournament in saying that cliche

Sorry for the rant but it's just very frustrating when the supposed experts have virtually zero knowledge beyond the premiership.

I guarantee you Spanish commentary are more concerned with players playing in La Liga, or coming to La Liga than any other, ditto Italians with Serie A, and so on

Giles and Souness are complete trash. They don't know the first thing about anybody they're analysising and tend to resort to cynical bashing of some element or someone they don't like. My cat would do a better job on that panel than those two.

Thats just nonsense to be honest. Souness in particular is one of the finest pundits in Ireland and Britain at the moment

[Roadend]

Jimmy McGee was truly awful yesterday in commentary, near the end when he nearly burst into song over two Romanain players who's names sounded alike was just terrible.

[brendy_éire]

Spare a thought for us cable and satellite viewers in the north. RTÉ Euro coverage gets blocked and we're stuck with BBC and ITV pundits whinging about how England aren't involved, even showing an interview with Capello talking about the England team during half time in matches.

[joe_barry80]

Jimmy McGee was truly awful yesterday in commentary, near the end when he nearly burst into song over two Romanain players who's names sounded alike was just terrible.

You're lucky. I'm watching with German Commentary and sometimes he doesn't say anything for more than a minute. It like he's gone to take a leak or make a coffee.

[Dodge]

You're lucky. I'm watching with German Commentary and sometimes he doesn't say anything for more than a minute. It like he's gone to take a leak or make a coffee.

I'd prefer no commentary at all myself

[TheBoss]

I agree with Ciaran here, They know nothing about some players from the other countries, shall we call them. As jebus says there, the general football fan does not much about those other nations, well, I disagree there, why watch the tournament if you do know those countries, surely you know at least 3/4 of the team, cause I know all of the players very well, cause those players do play in the UEFA Cup and Champions League virtually every season also top teams from other teams aswell.

[jebus]

I agree with Ciaran here, They know nothing about some players from the other countries, shall we call them. As jebus says there, the general football fan does not much about those other nations, well, I disagree there, why watch the tournament if you do know those countries, surely you know at least 3/4 of the team, cause I know all of the players very well, cause those players do play in the UEFA Cup and Champions League virtually every season also top teams from other teams aswell.

As I said, the general football fan, i.e. one who can't be bothered with any league outside of the Premiership and the occasional La Liga game won't give a toss about Austria, Turkey etc. I'm not on about people who watch other European Leagues

[John83]

If the ignorance ended at the lesser known teams It could be forgiven but It's appalling to see it continue to the better known sides too. Just yesterday Jimmy McGee exclaimed that he didn't know who Abidal was and was confused at how he was ahead of Clichy and Evra. How can you call yourself a commentator and not know Barca's first team?

I've seen Abidal play a number of times for club and country, and I'm confused as to how he's in the team ahead of Evra and Clichy.

[Newryrep]

Spare a thought for us cable and satellite viewers in the north. RTÉ Euro coverage gets blocked and we're stuck with BBC and ITV pundits whinging about how England aren't involved, even showing an interview with Capello talking about the England team during half time in matches.

Can you not get RTE via an aerial in Derry ?

[DaveyCakes]

I agree with just about everything in the first post..

True, but they don't need to, the common football fan doesn't care about these teams

They're being ****ing well paid to provide their "expert" analysis, so the least they could do is spend a few minues reading something so they can at least pretend they know what they're talking about.

The German team are hard working and solid defensively, granted he should

Solid defensively?? hmmmm......

You're lucky. I'm watching with German Commentary and sometimes he doesn't say anything for more than a minute. It like he's gone to take a leak or make a coffee.

I love that about German commentators, if there's nothing happening in the match, there's no need to say anything. Better silence than Magee or Hamilton and their endless irrelevant statistics

[superfrank]

The panel's knowledge is poor.

Dunphy is a joke. He was mentioning his "French friends" yesterday as if that makes him more knowledgeable about the French team. Bill also looks in Dunphy's direction when he needs info on Spanish or French leagues. He'd be better off asking a Martian.

Brady is the only regular with reasonable knowledge of European football but he, as noted, is prone to be exposed on the "lesser" leagues. Giles is totally lost.

Souness failing to pronounce someone's name properly is hardly a crime. Everyone's guilty at it. Souness is by far the best pundit this time around. He's knowledgeable and he actually understands the game a lot better than the others.

Ronnie Whelan is truly awful. Cunningham isn't too bad but he doesn't say enough. Maloney, McGee (I didn't hear his commentary yesterday, I had Radio 5 on for that), Hamilton, Steven et al are very poor and have been shown to be fools in the past.

I feel like I know more about a lot of these teams than the RTE muppets and that'd just be from watching the CL, UEFA Cup, the German, French, Dutch, Portuguese, English and Scottish leagues. Radio 5 are a bit better but they do harp on about England at frequent opportunities, as to be expected.

[OwlsFan]

1) Dunphy generally has good opinions so he's dissapointed me this Euro 2008, I get the feeling though that he's just plain being lazy rather than ignorant..

I think your last word there is more apt.

Giles and Souness are complete trash. They don't know the first thing about anybody they're analysising and tend to resort to cynical bashing of some element or someone they don't like. My cat would do a better job on that panel than those two.

While Giles is dated and we hear the same thing time and time again from him, Souness I like and is still actively involved in football and knows his stuff. I personally think he's a class apart from the rest. He doesn't say things just to be controversial like Mr "good opinions" but he generally calls things correctly and does know his stuff. Anyone can mispronounce a foreign name and we're probably mispronouncing them ourselves anyway.

Speaking of mispronouncing, did anyone see Laughing Bill try and pronounce the name of the Polish pub in Dublin which came up on his cue card to which they were going for the views of the Polish fans in Dublin before the German game ? Hilarious. And the Polish fan with the Dublin accent: "Deadly!".

[brendy_éire]

Can you not get RTE via an aerial in Derry ?

In Belfast at the minute. Ye can still get RTÉ with a really tall aerial on your roof, but that's not an option in rented accommodation.

[pete]

I find RTEs coverage far too stuffy & serious. At least the BBC for all their faults not taking too seriously as their country is not involved. RTE only worthwhile for Apres Match.

Saw a little of RTEs preview before the first game & the few clips of players involved were all English Premier League. German players are disregarded as they don't play in the top 2 leagues in Europe yet this fails to match up with their tag as favourites. Torres might score load of goals for his club but is he any good for Spain - I would be to informed of facts like that if I going to bother to listen. Every pundit hyped Croatia but then did immediate u-turn after their first game

If you are listening RTE, just put the Apres Match guys on full time.

[superfrank]

Saw a little of RTEs preview before the first game & the few clips of players involved were all English Premier League.

Brilliant point pete. The Mutu footage they had was atrocious, it was about four or five years old at this stage.

[pete]

Brilliant point pete. The Mutu footage they had was atrocious, it was about four or five years old at this stage.

Would be a good idea for Apres Match sketch. Find 10 year old clip of Van Nistellroy or Larsson from his early days at Celtic

(if they show the Larsson one tonight I want commission)

[anto1208]

I like it i think Bill is brilliant i get a laugh of him every time he is on and when the lads start fighting its hillarious. It writes the Apres match sketches for them.

I dont care that they dont know what they are talking about if i have just watched the match i know what happened i dont need some one who knows all the romanian first team's name's to explain it to me.

What are the other options BBC with Liniker shearer talking about nothing , ITV with andy "carrick is better than scholes" Townsend or Skys Jamie " ill talk all day yet say nothing" rednap.

Screw that give me Bill anytime

[bennocelt]

Ah it aint that bad lads?
True Dunphy is a joke and brady is way too up his own hole, but Giles is a legend, and Souness is the best pundit out there

The guys hadnt a clue about the offside goal last night, which was a bit shocking

[anto1208]

ha ha yeah.

I should mention I actually like the crew. The Dunphy / Giles / Brady dynamic is never dull, but for all they know on Ireland and the Premiership they collectively don't know a thing outside of it. Which is frustrating to watch, you have to wonder how much (if any) preperation they put into it before each game.

Oh it seems like they just sat down 2 mins before it went on air

[gustavo]

Gobdaw Collins presenting now

Seems to think its a surprise Fabregas isn't playing