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ESPN Should. But Won't.
ESPN would do well to heed Ian Hewison's plea that they target their football coverage to those of us whose knuckles don't drag the floor and who read more than just the back pages of newspapers. As Ian rightly points out, there is currently nothing on TV which caters for the intelligent football fan and any far-sighted broadcaster who fills that gap, could make a killing.
Football clubs themselves seem to have recognised that the profile of their fans has changed. You only have to look at ticket prices to realise that an assumption is being made that supporters have sufficient disposable income to fund their hobby year after year. My beloved Arsenal, with the introduction of Club Level and Diamond Club, the football stadium equivalent of Business Class and First, certainly have grasped embraced this idea.
Logic would suggest that we did not accumulate this income by being monosyllabic idiots. And if clubs are recognising that at least a section of their supporters are high earners with IQs to match, then surely advertisers and marketers are too. So... any soccer TV show which could eschew the 'jobs for the boys' approach to pundit recruitment, put a few of the sacred cows out to pasture, dispense with the Soccerette and deliver intelligent, insightful commentary that adds to the viewing experience, might just have a nice little earner on its hands.
Carolyn, South London Gooner
Why It Will Never Happen...
As brought up by Mr Nicholson in a recent column, many people seem to be hoping that our newest football broadcaster ESPN will eschew the lowest-common-denominator coverage which Sky, the BBC, ITV etc all seem to adhere to so rigidly, in favour of a more technically detailed, more insightful analysis. While we'd all like to see this, it will never happen.
The reason is simple economics. It's safe to say that the people who read and write in to this website are what we'll call 'proper' football fans - the sort of people who will happily watch a Monday night game between two teams we don't support or even remotely care about, just because it's football. While we would prefer our commentators and analysts to ignore the 'whats' and concentrate on the 'whys' as Ian Hewison put it this morning, none of us will refuse to watch a game purely on the basis of the commentary being a bit obvious for us.
Whereas on the other end of the scale, the casual fans who don't really understand the offside rule or couldn't name the first XI of any team in the Premier League - maybe 5-10% of viewers - will appreciate the basic and bland commentary as it allows them to understand what's going on and essentially keeps them interested enough to keep them from switching over to Grand Designs or something. The cost for the TV companies of pandering to the majority is effectively 10% of their audience in this case, and considering what they pay on a game by game basis, they need to squeeze out every last viewer they can.
We're going to be stuck with mundane, pointless and bland commentary for the foreseeable future - all we can do is put up with it.
Jon Gibson, LFC
PS. All the talk of Arsenal's medical dept reminds me of Peter Griffin's advice to his son on how to lift heavy objects - "Now Chris, keep your legs straight and lift with your back in a series of twisting, jerking motions".
Apparently, F365 Should Take The Mantle...
Ian Hewison, I share your pain. Sunday Supplement is full of arrogant pricks all with an axe to grind and on when my hangover is too intense to take anything in. Goals on Sunday is better than MOTD but I can't bear it when they have someone like Allardyce on and it turns into some sick back-slapping operation. Not everything Murdoch owns is of the gutter but it's not exactly a surprise that people who own Fox News, The Sun and The News of the World, approach Sky's live football coverage in such a lowest common denominator, tabloid style: hysterical claims, no substantive debate or intelligent opinion and former pros, ill-qualified for their new role, spouting cliche.
The Final Word or whatever it's called would have been good if Andy Gray hadn't lost it years ago and decided he was just going to spend his time singling out referees, the only people protagonists in a Premier League football match that aren't massively overpaid. Match of the Day used to be bloody good back in the Des Lynham days when Alan Hansen was on form and Lineker was actually a good pundit rather than the banal presenter he is now, but then someone decided that people were less interested in five minutes of analysis than they were the five minutes of 'highlights' that some poor editor had to scrape together from a goalless draw between 'Boro and Bolton. I never watched Setanta but I doubt it was ground breaking.
Queue now, of course, a phalanx of smirking Irishmen telling us how fecking great RTE is. Excellent. Thanks for that. Seeing as we don't get it I could not be less interested.
What I am interested in is how long it's going to take Football365 to realise quite how big the opportunity is to put together an amusing, informed, weekly take on football in England in the shape of a video podcast. It's not like you aren't moving towards it with the Podball thing and the increased role of streaming video on your site. With the commercial and financial backing you have as well as the following you have built up, I honestly think you're the ideal candidates to provide a service that there is an obvious demand for. Maybe you've all got faces for the radio but being physically repulsive never stopped Richard Keys!
If you asked your readership if they wanted it, I'm sure you'd be very heartened by the response.
Will O'Doherty
Nope...Same Old Football Coverage Please
Ian Hewison makes an interesting case for intellectualizing football coverage but I have to say I totally disagree with it.
There's no escaping the fact that football itself is a lowest-common-denominator sport. It's simple. You could describe the fundamental aim of the game in one sentence. Anyone can understand football; it is the Sun of sports. Cricket is different: it has always had an middle-class, intellectual air. There are many aspects of the game that need to be understood before a person has any chance of enjoying watching. It is more like the Guardian of sports.
However, there is room for both in the world. Football has no reason to aspire to cricket, just as the Sun has no reason to muscle in on the Guardian's patch. There's no reason why an intelligent person needs intellectual stimulation in everything they do, so I for one hope ESPN follow the same old tried-and-trusted formula.
Griff
Where Have All The Good Men Gone?
Various F365 letters recently have highlighted the paucity of commentating skills amongst our most exposed footballing 'personalities' and lots of people have wondered where all of the intelligent footballers are.
Ironically there is already a program on Sky answering this question. It's called 'Where are they now?' and it's a truly interesting watch (cheap Sky plug!) and a good answer to all those footballers who say 'I deserve the money because it's only a short career' - A statement I have always found disgusting, becuase many many people have to change careers in their mid thirties and manage quite succesfully, if they have any kind of education, drive or imagination.
I was inspired to write this email after watching the Tuesday night episode with Espen 'I got bored with the controlled routine of football, so I studied finance in my spare time and am now a hedge fund manager' Baardsen and Arjan 'When I retired, I decided to finish becoming a doctor' de Zeeuw, which just highlights how much better educated foreign footballers appear to be than their English counterparts.
This programme shows (whether intentionally or not) that all of the intelligent footballers manage to go and get jobs in other sectors after calling it a day on their playing careers and the less well-educated ones continue to sniff around football and sport in general, unable to cope in the real world without the cosseting and control previously exerted by their club(s), in either low level coaching jobs or worse by going into 'Media'.
Would you employ Jamie Redknapp or Les Ferdinand to run a hospital, for example?
Matt Loren, London
Getting Back At Madrid...
I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I am absolutely sick and tired of Real Madrid and the disgusting way in which they conduct business. I'm not altogether sure how the way in which they attempt to disrupt and unsettle players by declaring their interest in them is anything other than tapping up, but as the spineless fools at FIFA seem too scared to take them to task it's bound to continue.
Surely the only way to stop them is to play them at their own game. So, I call upon every Manager, Director of football and club President across Europe (obviously they all read this page), to state their intentions to buy each and every player in the Real Madrid squad. From the trainess and boot cleaners to Ronaldo and Kaka, nobody should be off limits. They should make remarks like, 'Of course he's a player we're interested in' and then protest that Real are being difficult if, heaven forbid, they might not want to sell.'
Obviously none of the above will ever happen, but I'd certainly enjoy seeing the arrogant toads Perez, Pellegrini and the rest of their rotten cohorts being given a taste of their own medicine.
That is all.
Rex (with a healthy slice of catharsis) Barlez
Dzeko For United?
As a Manchester United fan, I am a little annoyed that Sir Alex has not spent a lot of money this summer considering the budget he has. Now I know he will not go out and buy for the sake of it, whether it be a big-name player with a big reputation etc. He wants to buy players that he believes will fit into the Manchester United way of playing and understand their ethos, which to me, is fair enough. He very rarely makes mistakes and we all trust him one hundred percent. He admitted recently that Karim Benzema was his number one target and instead he f***ed of to the circus in Madrid, which again is fair enough because he will end up like being ruined by Madrid like Klass-Jan Huntelaar was. Ultimately, Benzema will end up playing for Spurs, Levante or some s***e team like that!
This gets me to my point, Fergie is looking to strengthen for the right reasons in the right departments. We all know, as he has stated a million times, that he like to operate with four front men like we did in 1999. I really think Fergie should make a move for that young Bosnian lad Edin Dzeko. When he signed for Wolfsburg, he finished his first season with 8 goals and 7 assists in 17 league games started. Good record. He then followed this up with 26 league goals and 10 assists in 32 last year. Excellent record. The lad is obviously improving all the time and is prolific. Under the guidance of Sir Alex I think he would be a smashing addition to the Manchester United squad. He would bring the youth that Fergie is looking for, and the prolificness that we have been missing since Ruud Van Nistelrooy. He probably wouldn't cost what the likes of Aguero, Eto'o etc are commanding either.
Go on Fergie...
Matthew English, Belfast
Pipe Down Fellow Gooners
It's getting a bit embarrassing now. I think it would be best if all fellow Arsenal fans refrain from mailing in from this point forward. Buzzard yesterday, Ryan AFC ('Now please stop talking' - could you be any more arrogant?) this morning, no wonder we get so much banter from F365.
Forget the injuries, we would not have won the league with all our best players for 38 games. And until the billionaires get bored, the Yanks can't find refinancing and the Spaniards stop pulling 200 million euros out of their arses, it's going to be a tough time for us.
We used to win trophies before Roman, before the sheiks, in a ManU transitional period when Wenger could build a team and make it play for fun, and on a shoestring. Until that playing field returns, we might as well pipe down and enjoy the football we sometimes play.
Mark Elton, embarrassed Arsenal Fan
Alonso Will Be Biggest Miss
Alonso is going to leave Liverpool. He is going to leave because there's a suitable opportunity for him elsewhere (unlike, say, current Serie A and Champions League no-hopers Juve last year). Why cut his own throat last year be making the wrong move? Mascherano is not going to leave. Nobody will pay what Liverpool would settle for.
We are going to find out which player is more important. The one who can pass, or the one who runs tirelessly and doggedly after tackles. It will turn out, when Liverpool play the majority of teams who'll focus on defence against them, that it was Alonso. Then we'll see Mascherano harry a few top-class midfielders against top teams and listen to numpties say he's the better player.
Alonso is the difference for Liverpool - between challenging for the title again, or reverting to their season boiling down to a moderate shot at the Champions League by November and failing to score at Wolves. Neither Mascherano nor Gerrard will be near so effective in his absense.
So long as they don't bloody win!
Andrew, Ireland
The Zlatan Debate Rumbles On
Shravan, I don't really follow your logic: The top four want a player who will advance their cause in Europe. Zlatan never performs in Europe. All that his domestic form does is highlight his limitations on a wider stage.
You sound like a sensible man so maybe I've missed your point, but the reason he gets slated is for the exact same reasons you seem to make him out to be a cracking player. So what if he can score wonder goals in his domestic league? He has simply never performed in Europe which is what a lot of his potential suitors will be looking for.
On another issue, what is it with Gooners not understanding their clubs (manager's) business model? Ryan says, 'lately Arsenal, for whatever reason, have had to deal with a worse-than-usual situation with regards to players being unavailable because of injury.
For whatever reason? How about Wenger consistently buys players on the cheap because of their injury history and then because half your squad is made up of these types you end up rushing them all back into action exacerbating the problem further.
My god, this is old news and Gooners still haven't worked it out!
By the way, excellent 'prediction' from Stephen Charles that Ronny couldn't top what was possibly the best season any player has had in this country...are you like, some kind of god?
And you had ONE good game against us. I know that's all your season amounted to, but you just sound like a bitter, moron...sorry, red-nose scouser, when you start bandying the word 'lucky' around.
Funny how we can be lucky over a whole season, but it seems that you can't be lucky for one game!
Marky Bufton, MUFC
Kaka Not Roadie After All
The following is from the official Real Madrid Website: 'Kaka, Casillas, Ramos and Albiol will also miss the match (vs Shamrock Rovers and the training camp in Dublin) as they are still on holiday due to their participation in the Confederations Cup.'
So, Tom Della Vedova, Perth WA (Ricky, playing for Morley Inter Football Club [Football West Social Comp Division 1] isn't much of step down from La Liga...honest!),how the f365 did Kaka carry your pal's guitar from him when he was off tanning his rich arse somewhere alot warmer than Dublin? High 5s requests to join the band? Heroin and a tendency to bulls**t seems more likely.
I'll be sure to check out 'College Falls' tour diary though. I'll look forward to the entry where Gandhi scores some weed for the drummer and David O' Leary offers to manage them.
Kevin Walsh, Luimneach
Why I Want An Agent
I want an agent. Not because I'm a professional footballer but because I'm bound by a different type of contract. A marriage contract. I want my agent to big me up. Tell me I'm the most handsome, fittest and well-hung dude around. I want him to tell my wife she better treat me good and give me lots of lovin' cause there are plenty of takers out there for a man of my calibre. I want him to make contact to other women, send out feelers to see if I should cash the present model in. Then, should I get rebuked, he can lie to me, protect my throbbing ego. Should the missus find out about his enquiries I would be able to deny it all, blame my agent for acting without my consent. And for all this he'll be due only ten per cent of all the lovin' he acquires for me.
So that's why footballers have agents. Just needed it in the right context.
Buxx
Pricks' Corner
With reference to Dom's letter today entitled Pedants Corner, surely this should be Pedant's Corner, or Pedants' Corner? Is this the most pedantic e-mail Football365 has ever received?
Pedro Pedantington, Pedantsville
