Best and Worst: I - TV Pundits (1 Viewer)

Tom

The DJ
Oct 30, 2001
11,726
#1
Tell us all about them, which ones you can't stand, which ones simply haven't got a clue and which ones you respect and actually listen to.

Out of the regular pundits on BBC, ITV and SKY, only one comes to mind (in my opinion) that actually knows what he's talking about, Alan Hansen on BBC. First, he's not insanely biased towards British clubs, he always sees matches objectively, even if one of his teams is involved like liverpool. Second, he is probably the only pundit that goes in depth instead of just spurting out a sentence or two and leaving it there. Third, I like the way he focuses on negative defending, maybe because this is the way I always look at goals: how they could be prevented and so on. Fourth, he is always interrupting the useless turd that is Mark Lawrenson and Fifth, during the UEFA cup semi final when Celtic were playing, he went completely OT and started praising Thuram's display in the champions league the previous night, then compared it to the standard of defending on show in their featured game. IMO this is good knowledge and I'm sure the knowledgeable fans out there appreciated it.

Worst pundits have got to belong to ITV..the two I am going to pick out are Andy Townsend and the infamous "Big Ron" Atkinson. The one thing they share is an incredible bias towards English clubs, and in particular, they have recently become Arsenal fans. In addition, they appear to have irtually zero knowledge of the game, incredible being ex players/manager but their analysis barely lasts more than 10 seconds and even then iuts a load of crap. They very rarely accept that a foreign team has been totally superior to an English side (unless of course its Real, who they apprently love to bits and one of the ITV team publicly admitted he wanted Real to score in those last few minutes in the Delle Alpi - I'll get on to him in a minute). Anyway, bias is somewhat inevitable, that I can stand, but some ofthe commentary from these two is borderline racist. They often stereotype the Italian game, clearly having never witnessed a Serie A match between them in their whole lives, diving is often ignored by the English player, but one dive by an Italian and its the "bloody foerigners" attitude. Anyway these are the worst.

Most hated commentator is John Barnes because he clearly has something against Juventus, having been caught on camera cheering when Barcelona scored agsinst us and being the guy who admitted wanting Real to put us out in the semis. Obviously this cannot be explained as him being a fan of the other teams - who supports Barcelona AND Real Madrid??

Over to you, which PUNDITS (not commentators) do you love and loathe, and why?
 

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Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
#2
When I hear a quality commentator it's like manna, there are so many useless guys on tv. The worst are probably on Tv3, Eurosport has some sedated ones and Tv2 isn't much better either. Gimme Arne Scheie or Thor Eggen, Drillo is fine too.

EDIT: It makes little sense to criticize unless you give a reason for it. What pisses me off about these people is that 11 times out of 10 they know very little about what they are talking about (unless an English team is involved, which is not often the case), they mispronounce names and never do their homework."Yeah, Costa is doing well today, his passing is better than Gattuso's". If you know you'll be doing a CL game on tv and a lot of people will watch it, why not at least make a little effort to learn the most basic stuff about the two clubs? Another thing is that some of these guys are retired players and they always say a lot of stuff to make themselves look good. "You've played against this side before, who impressed you the most in the Milan team of 95?" "You know back then we held them in the first half, but I'd say Maldini, he was a rock". Great, noone knew Maldini was good. :rolleyes:

Oh and Erik Solér (also an agent for several Norwegian internationals) might be the most knowledgable guy Tv3 ever hired but his arrogance really annoys me. On R. Carlos goal against us in the 1st leg he said it was "an absolutely correct ruling". Apparently, there is no room for interpretation and only he knows what is correct and what isn't. Not that I disagreed with him at the time but his attitude just pisses me off.
 

Slagathor

Bedpan racing champion
Jul 25, 2001
22,708
#4
++ [ originally posted by Paolo_Montero ] ++
Most hated commentator is John Barnes because he clearly has something against Juventus, having been caught on camera cheering when Barcelona scored agsinst us and being the guy who admitted wanting Real to put us out in the semis. Obviously this cannot be explained as him being a fan of the other teams - who supports Barcelona AND Real Madrid??
Oh John Barnes!!!! He makes me want to chew my arm off just so I have something to throw at the TV!!!!!

I love the coverage of Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen on the BBC though - sadly, they only do NT matches (WC too), FAcup and UEFAcup.

Mark Lawrenson is useless and ignorant about everything that has to do with football, as is Ron Atkinson (can't stand ITV coverage as a whole).

Other than that, I watch a lot of Belgian and Dutch commentators. Fairness urges me to mention that the Belgians are always far less chauvinistic and know more about foreign teams. One Dutch commentator (Evert ten Napel) once even called Liverpool a "fine attacking machine" and referred to Inter as the "example of modern calcio" :wallbang:
 

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
#5
++ [ originally posted by Paolo_Montero ] ++
Over to you, which PUNDITS (not commentators) do you love and loathe, and why?
Erm, what's the difference? I never heard the definition :undecide:
 

Zizou

Senior Member
Apr 21, 2003
3,965
#6
Pundits are usually ex-players turned opinionists, but sometimes you do find pundits that never were players (not even for fun) so I have no idea how they can give out technical judgements. In Italy, the most famous pundit is probably Maurizio Mosca. Hilarious guy, always shooting transfers left right and centre. Italian people on the board would know what I mean lol.
 

Anders

Senior Member
Dec 13, 2002
3,134
#7
You can say whatever you want, but the worst commentators belong to Denmark.

On TV2 it's usually a guy called Flemming Toft and the former Liverpool player Jan Mølby. I have no problems with Toft, his only problem is that he can't pronounce any names right. Mølby is terrible though. He has got no idea what he's talking about. He always ends up talking about Liverpool, or some other British club/player... cuz that is all he knows anything about. Terrible!

Sometimes Toft teames up with another former proffessional called Erik Rasmussen. Now he's a great commentator/pundit. He always brings a good analysis and is always objective. He's nowhere near Mølby's lousy comments... if only TV2 could get that through their simple heads, I would enjoy watching football on danish TV alot more.

Don't get me started on TV3's guys... TV3 handle the Champions League in Denmark which is a nightmare. I usually mute them, and turn on UEFA.com instead.
 

Anders

Senior Member
Dec 13, 2002
3,134
#9
I love the norweigan dudes, all though I don't understand half of what they're saying.

They're crazy! Whenever Norway scores they go absolutely nuts. I like when someone puts a little heart in it... The brazilian's are pretty nuts too... I like 'em too! :D
 
OP
Tom

Tom

The DJ
Oct 30, 2001
11,726
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread Starter #10
    ++ [ originally posted by Alex ] ++


    Erm, what's the difference? I never heard the definition :undecide:
    well IMO

    commentators - the guy that describes the action
    pundit - the guy in the studio, supposedly an expert, who gives his opinions on the game
     

    Martin

    Senior Member
    Dec 31, 2000
    56,913
    #11
    ++ [ originally posted by Karlberg ] ++
    I love the norweigan dudes, all though I don't understand half of what they're saying.
    Are you kidding me? I would think after you get used to hearing Danish all the time, understanding Norwegian should be as tricky as falling asleep after going sleepless for 78 hours. :D
     

    Torkel

    f(s+1)=3((s +1)-1=3s
    Jul 12, 2002
    3,537
    #12
    ++ [ originally posted by Alex ] ++
    When I hear a quality commentator it's like manna, there are so many useless guys on tv. The worst are probably on Tv3, Eurosport has some sedated ones and Tv2 isn't much better either. Gimme Arne Scheie or Thor Eggen, Drillo is fine too.
    Thor Eggen? Really?
    He's not very bad, but I wouldn't describe him as knowledgable(sp?).

    Knut Gleditsch was pretty good too (before he died of cancer, RIP), by far the best Tv3 had. He used to be at NRK, so I guess that explains it.

    I agree totaly with what you said about the guys never doing their homework, they try to hide by only talking about the star players. When they have to say the name of some of the less famous players you can almost hear them looking up the names in their notes.
     

    Anders

    Senior Member
    Dec 13, 2002
    3,134
    #13
    ++ [ originally posted by Alex ] ++

    Are you kidding me? I would think after you get used to hearing Danish all the time, understanding Norwegian should be as tricky as falling asleep after going sleepless for 78 hours. :D
    :D

    Don't get me wrong. I can have a conversation with a norweigan dude. My grandfather is norweigan. But when those commentators start yacking out 50 words per second, and combine it with norweigan slang... then I'm lost.
     

    Martin

    Senior Member
    Dec 31, 2000
    56,913
    #14
    Kalle, yeah okay. :)

    ++ [ originally posted by tarmpropp ] ++
    Thor Eggen? Really?
    He's not very bad, but I wouldn't describe him as knowledgable(sp?).

    Knut Gleditsch was pretty good too (before he died of cancer, RIP), by far the best Tv3 had. He used to be at NRK, so I guess that explains it.
    I've only heard him a couple of times but he also does other sports (he knows his alpine skiing for instance) and I always liked him because he's a good guy, sticking to the job, not making moronic jokes and also has no dialect. All the amounts to a pleasurable listening experience. Always respectful of the athletes and never ridiculing anyone. In short: a professional approach.

    I don't know Gleditsch, although I might have heard the name on NRK. But clearly, the old guard shines on these occasions, all the younger commies stink. And I hope Mini never becomes a regular. :yuck:
     

    Torkel

    f(s+1)=3((s +1)-1=3s
    Jul 12, 2002
    3,537
    #15
    ++ [ originally posted by Alex ] ++
    And I hope Mini never becomes a regular. :yuck:
    Wouldn't worry about it, I remember them slowly realizing that he sucks and taking away his show. Pretty funny actually. First it was "Mini timen" wich got pretty much the prime time slot. Then they showed it later in the evening. Then they shortened it to "Mini halvtime". Then they started showing it around noon at weekdays or something :D That guy can't do anything in TV.

    It's sad how all the old commentators are the best. Imagine the future were Lersveen and Hoff is the best alternative there is! :eek::down::groan:
     

    Torkel

    f(s+1)=3((s +1)-1=3s
    Jul 12, 2002
    3,537
    #17
    ++ [ originally posted by Alex ] ++
    I think it's time we stepped up ;)
    Yeah, would make a nice addition to the group of English addicts that have the jobs today.

    I think so many fans could do the job much better than the current people, as they have as much or more knowledge and are a lot more humble.
     

    Majed

    Senior Member
    Jul 17, 2002
    9,630
    #18
    Most of US (including me) also hate ESPN and their poor excuse of European football coverge in the US, and many of you hate their commentators too, but i think Tommy Smyth and Mike Hill are pretty good. :thumb: they doesn't talk too much so they makes me enjoy the game.

    for me, it's not much about his commentary (which i dont see anything wrong with), it's about history. I first watched the CL years back on ESPN International so listenning to them really brings back all the memories of Juve's CL quests of the 90's.

    So, for these reason, i enjoy listening to their games.
    ...........

    My worst Commentator is The Latin commentator in Fox Sports World USA. it's not about his pronounciation, it's just that he's waaaaay too critical about the players. he's also very negative and i hate that (specially when watching a neutral game where you dont mind who wins and you just want to enjoy the game)
     

    Anders

    Senior Member
    Dec 13, 2002
    3,134
    #20
    ++ [ originally posted by Erik ] ++
    BTW - does any of you get REALLY annoyed by Mark McKay (CNN)? Can't stand him!
    I don't know him - I don't watch CNN, cuz I get so pissed every time some nut uses the word Soccer.
     

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