Sports Pundits. Why?

[RientO]

Any point to them?
Had been watching pre-season friendlies on Premier Sports. All you get are line ups, the first half and the second half. Not even the half time chat and it was ideal. Just a commentator and sometimes a co-commentator.
On Sky Sport today they have two videos of Jose Mourinho's punditry. It is self serving nonsense.
Watching MOTD, Lineker, Shearer and Wright added very little to what had already been shown in the games despite all the VAR decisions.
Why do BBC, Sky, BT Sport et al bother with these has-beens? For the most part the pictures tell the stories and if there is a need for further discussion, the radio presenters are far superior to ex-players.

[spen666]

It's the broadcasters way of helping to keep poor impoverished ex footballers out of the gutter

[Clive Evans]

You would have been happy watching the Beeb's coverage of FA Cup pre-preliminary round on the red button on Saturday Punjab V some village side. One camera, one commentator and everyone went for a pee at half time. A " crowd " of about 50 people and a dog. Excellent!

[RientO]

You would have been happy watching the Beeb's coverage of FA Cup pre-preliminary round on the red button on Saturday Punjab V some village side. One camera, one commentator and everyone went for a pee at half time. A " crowd " of about 50 people and a dog. Excellent!

I guess that will still be lurking on iPlayer, will check it out. A few cameras are always handy though I suppose nearly every Os game I watch is effectively like that.

When Sky started they had an audio with just crowd noise and no commentary. Always used that.

Anyway for the most part I never listen to pundits/ads as I fast forward past them with the TiVo and start watching games about 15 minutes after kick off, though doesn't always work as I found getting a text message telling how easily Dublin won when I was only at half time with them two points down at half time on Saturday.

[EH16]

Quite agree with the original post, most of these 'experts' add nothing at all. Stuff like MOTD, I record so I can fast forward through the aimless chatter and for live games I usually mute HT and go make a cuppa or open another beer. I do watch quite a lot of televised sport - rugby, cricket and NHL (Ice Hockey) - and it's very noticeable that the quality of commentators on other sports is far far superior. The level of technical knowledge, insight and useful info puts the football 'experts' to shame.

[DuvB]

I couldnt stand the female commentator on MOTD on Saturday. Her high pitched screech when something happened was very annoying and boy, she could not stop talking. Thankfully it wasn't a long highlight piece.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

I couldnt stand the female commentator on MOTD on Saturday. Her high pitched screech when something happened was very annoying and boy, she could not stop talking. Thankfully it wasn't a long highlight piece.

wow

[Rich Tea Wellin]

I think it's very slowly getting better. I agree when people like Ian Wright who offer nothing more than the pub after 5 pints, but I thought Mourinhos insights were quite good and the in depth stuff gets me going.

Funnily enough, just watched the EFL highlights from Quest and the Newport fan on there was very good.

[Red_Army]

Football is essentially a simple game and therefore analysis can often be quite dull. Match of the Day seems to have got worse for this. Compare this to the punditry you get in Cricket, where technical aspects are explained in detail, and you can see why people don't like football's current offering.

[RientO]

So much of MOTD is chat. Of the 90 minutes or so it was on for, about a third was chat. Maybe limited to an hour of highlights by rights, but watching Big Match Revisited, Brian Moore spent about a minute between games. Even that is about 30 seconds too long :-)

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Always prefer pundits who have actually played at a high level the sport they are commenting on. Fair to say they understand the game far better than the rest of us.

But I do wish they would keep it brief and display a modicum of charisma.

[EliotNes]

Any point to them?
Had been watching pre-season friendlies on Premier Sports. All you get are line ups, the first half and the second half. Not even the half time chat and it was ideal. Just a commentator and sometimes a co-commentator.
On Sky Sport today they have two videos of Jose Mourinho's punditry. It is self serving nonsense.
Watching MOTD, Lineker, Shearer and Wright added very little to what had already been shown in the games despite all the VAR decisions.
Why do BBC, Sky, BT Sport et al bother with these has-beens? For the most part the pictures tell the stories and if there is a need for further discussion, the radio presenters are far superior to ex-players.

I so agree with you

[Red_Army]

Always prefer pundits who have actually played at a high level the sport they are commenting on. Fair to say they understand the game far better than the rest of us.

But I do wish they would keep it brief and display a modicum of charisma.

I don't think it matters on a technical level how high they played to be honest. There are some good pundits in all sports that weren't great players and vice versa. The can offer insight into the pressures of playing at the highest level but on a technical level, they can be an average player and offer as much insight.

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Always prefer pundits who have actually played at a high level the sport they are commenting on. Fair to say they understand the game far better than the rest of us.

But I do wish they would keep it brief and display a modicum of charisma.

I don't think it matters on a technical level how high they played to be honest. There are some good pundits in all sports that weren't great players and vice versa. The can offer insight into the pressures of playing at the highest level but on a technical level, they can be an average player and offer as much insight.

Fair point but when talking about Prem football I think it’s adds credibility when the pundits have done it themselves. The good pundits who haven’t played at high level tend to overcome it with interesting and articulate points. Something many ex pros seem to struggle with.

[The Mindsweep]

Watching W*** H** loosing 5-0 is fun no matter who the commentator is and you can never get enough of the post match analysis.

[ContrifibulatoryFred]

Watched a bit of BT football coverage on Saturday afternoon and the number of pundits in their studio was bordering on the obscene. Give me a vidi-printer and one presenter any day of the week