Annoying Sports Pundits

[Trumpton]

Geoffrey Boycott is really annoying. He still refers to himself as an active current player - something he actually hasn't done for 25 years!

He's recently developed the need to play the court jester by making stupid fatuous comments such as "eee, me granma could've 'it tha wiv er walking stick". And going down the road of "it was better in my day", something he always said he wouldn't do.

[crofter]

Yes Sue Barker won the 1976 French Open and made three other Semi Finals at Grand Slams, she was also ranked No. 4 in the world - so not sure how anybody can say she wasn't a serious tennis player.

Personally I think McEnroe just takes the money/hospitality from the BBC as he also works for ABC and does the final coverage for them (nowhere to be seen on BBC finals day) ... he must really be bored to tears talking about some of the low level British Tennis players though.

Sue Barker does a grand job I think of holding the whole show together as she doesn't seem to take herself too seriously, but the big suprise for me has been how well Greg Rusedski has done when commentating - the bloke is a natural and why the Beeb picked Henman to commentate on such an epic final as this I really cannot grasp.

[andytaylor]

Jonathan Palmer - ex F1 commentator.

[speedybert]

I suspect Sue Barkers biggest problem in the eyes of the Great British sporting public was that she didn't win Wimbledon whereas Virginia Wade did.As a sports anchor I think she is one of the best.

As to really annoying pundits the BBC won that one hands down when they hired Sally Gunnell.Without doubt a very fine athlete with the medals to back it up.But as a pundit ,truly cringeworthy.I think the beeb fired her shortly after Athens 2004 after some particularly embarassing trackside interviews.

[Ace]

Sue knows her tennis, but as stressed her, is a bit too schmaltzy when interviewing the men players, comes across as a love sick teenager seeing her pop star in the flesh as opposed to a bedroom poster. I think Tracy Austin is a far better analysist especially to someone like me who fancied the arse of her when I was 16!!
But I digress..................
Marcel Desailly, a fine player really grips my shit when he does his interviews at pitch side or on the BBC sofa. Also-rans are the terrible Martin Keown who has the face for radio and smary Lee Dixon who punches above his weight!

[Ace]

Oh, and Ruud Gullit...........again, a legendary player but when he analyses games, sounds too laid back like he's been smoking some of Hollands finest, and inevitably gets it all wrong

[Pervert]

Being a good player doesn't qualify you as an expert. Most of the successful managers were mediocre players. Busby, Shankly, Clough, Ferguson etc were not exactly world-renowned names as players.

Re Hansen. A great one for criticising diabolical defending. Pundits, particularly south of the border, didn't understand why he wasn't a regular in the Scotland team. The reason was we already had a great central defensive pairing, Miller and McLeish. Another partnership, Narey and Hegarty, was left out of the equation because of the dominance of the Aberdeen duo (although they tried shoehorning Narey into rightback and midfield). The one time they tried putting Hansen in with Mller, they went for the same ball---and gifted the Russians a goal that ultimately put us out of the World Cup.

For tennis, Barker is a natural presenter; Wade sounds awkward.

For sheer joy, though, try listening to Peter Alliss on the golf when he comes back from his "lunch."

[Ace]

Caractacus wrote:

> Being a good player doesn't qualify you as an expert. Most of
> the successful managers were mediocre players. Busby, Shankly,
> Clough, Ferguson etc were not exactly world-renowned names as
> players.


Brian Clough was indeed on the fringes of becoming a regular England international till he rupteured his cruciate ligament in his knee. Was the top all-time scorer at Sunderland for 30+ years till Kevin Philips got that accolade.