Football punditry: The good, the bad and the ugly.

The role of the football pundit is a weird one. Clearly most of the viewers or listeners are tuning in primarily to watch the game. Yet you only have to look at twitter during a live game or listen to a lounge full of viewers to know that the co-commentators and pundits can make a massive difference to people's enjoyment of the game.

No doubt who you prefer to listen to depends on your taste. Are you looking for someone who will hype up the excitement? Someone who will add some real insight to the action taking place? Someone with a soothing voice?

For me the best pound-for-pound pundit working on tv/radio is Pat Nevin. When he's co-commentating he's adds insight as well as describing the action in a way that's easy on my ears, when he's in the studio he'll nearly always highlight something interesting from the game and on magazine programmes he's able to be both interesting and do the amusing banter the genre requires. I'd like to think these observations aren't coloured by the fact I know he's got some Everton in his heart.

Coming up on the rails is new boy, the freshly retired Gary Neville. He's contributed more to my enjoyment of Sky games in the last four months than Jamie Redknapp has in the last three years. Aside from Neville (and Redknapp) Sky have some other half decent analysts - Graeme Souness can be interesting when he's not being partisan and Ray Wilkins has a lot to add despite the far too regular shouts of 'my word'! At least he's stealing from a broadcasting legend I suppose!

Where things go really downhill are on our main two terrestrial channels. Somewhere along the line the producers on these channels must have decided that anything too complex will cause the masses to turn-off. The worst two in my book are Jim Beglin and Alan Hanson. I can only assume they must have made a pact to provide shit punditry during retirement over a half-time cuppa in the Anfield bootroom at some point in 1983. If they did, they've stuck to their word.

The Goodison time machine

The January transfer window is fast approaching and it appears that David Moyes is trying to reprise an Everton squad of yesteryear. Not content with just picking up James McFadden on a free transfer, Moyes has agreed a deal for Landon Donovan to return for a two month loan spell. Rumours are now gathering that he might complete the set by striking a deal to loan back Steven Pienaar for Spurs for the rest of the season.

It would be an interesting move. One that most of the football world would probably find a bit beffuddling. But I think most Evertonians would probably welcome the South African back. For all the bitterness around him leaving for the money (and Champions League), I think people realise the key part he played in the football we played during his previous spell and appreciate that all the more having put up with the last few months of dirge.

For me, the biggest thing we've been missing this season is attacking movement and that's something that Pienaar has in bundles. Couple this with the pace of Donovan and the directness of Drenthe and we might just get to see some interesting football again soon. 

It IS a step backwards. You shouldn't go back. It probably won't be the same.
But right now, it might just be for the best.

When is fair play unfair?

Empty seats at the Reebok

There has been a lot of talk over the last few years about the growing predictability of the premier league. A pattern that began in the mid-late 90s seems to have accelerated in recent years, with the gap between the top teams and the rest of the premier league becoming wider and wider.


The forthcoming UEFA fairplay regulations are intended to redress some of the imbalance, limiting clubs spending to a proportion of their turnover. Theoretically, this would prevent rich owners coming into smaller clubs and spending hundreds of millions on new players without a sustainable business to fund it. However, it's a plan with flaws. Clubs will find loopholes, such as signing massive sponsorship deals to increase turnover. This is supposedly limited as part of the plan but as yet Manchester City do not seem to have been called to account for their incredibly fishy sounding stadium naming deal with Etihad. With the regulations pegged to turnover, it also means they essentially protect the status quo even more so than currently. The rules benefit huge clubs like Manchester United and Bayern Munich who have already invested in massive stadia and set up huge merchandising operations around the world. Smaller/medium-sized clubs who have challenged at the top of European football after investment from rich owners such as Villareal would be less likely to repeat their feats.