Sorry, your browser is out of date. The content on this site will not work properly as a result.
Upgrade your browser for a faster, better, and safer web experience.

Search: ' Joe Kinnear'

Stories

Any Given Saturday by Shay Given

376 Given

Sport Media, £20
Reviewed by Jonathan O’Brien
From WSC 376, June 2018
Buy the book

Read more…

Joe Kinnear’s forward planning

Kinnear200

Are You Watching The Match Tonight?

321 WatchingThe remarkable story of football on television
by Brian Barwick
Andre Deutsch, £18.99
Reviewed by Roger Titford
From WSC 321 November 2013

Buy this book

 

There’s one memorable phrase in this book, describing the television pictures from the 1970 World Cup in Mexico as “blurred, almost like a watercolour painting caught in a rainstorm”. There are also a fair smattering of interesting or half-forgotten facts: only 12 matches were televised live at the 1966 World Cup finals, the term “route one” came from the show Quiz Ball, and there is a reminder that TV folk generally do not produce great works in print. Efforts by John Motson, Jeff Stelling and Barry Davies come to mind.

To give Brian Barwick his due, this is an intentionally lightweight account for the less well-informed and written in a matey journalese liberally splashed with exclamation marks. It is the complete opposite of a misery memoir – everyone has a wonderful time, are great friends and meet famous people. Andy Gray’s Sky career ends with an “alleged misdemeanour” and the ITV Digital fiasco of 2002 is glossed over in a single paragraph. The content is as uncontroversial and pro-establishment as a footballer’s autobiography of the 1950s. Those who would question the structure of the Champions League are dubbed “purists and romantics”. Such an approach is to be expected by a former chief executive of the FA and head of BBC and ITV Sport in a long and successful career which continues as a consultant.

Barwick’s story follows a fairly straightforward chronological path from the first TV pictures in 1936 to the present day and is certainly more colourful on the 20th century era in which he was personally involved. He reminds us of what happened with a mix of social history-lite and obvious landmark matches. But he ignores his unique opportunity to reveal the story of how it was done – how the techniques of football coverage have adapted, or not, to audience demands.

He does make a couple of points about how TV commentary has evolved into a conversation between commentator and pundit and how there now can be too many action replays for his taste, to which he regrettably adds the words “I digress”. Actually, this is potentially more interesting than a repetition of the value to Alex Ferguson of Mark Robins’s Cup-winner at Forest in 1990. And it is certainly more interesting than the semi-macho accounts of scraps between BBC and ITV staff when trying to get inconsequential post-match interviews as players come off the Wembley pitch.

Perhaps there is value in the anecdotes. Roy Kinnear gets mistaken for Joe Kinnear. Jimmy Hill gets to take sex symbol Raquel Welch to Chelsea. George Best nearly doesn’t turn up. After spending the morning at the British Grand Prix, Barwick flies by private plane to the World Cup final in Paris and gets locked in a stadium toilet while relieving himself of the champagne he drank on the way. My heart bleeds. Alas my sides do not ache. Maybe they are the kind of stories where you had to be there rather than just sitting at home watching TV.

Buy this book

Ploughing ahead

AFC Wimbledon’s promotion to the League provides optimism for a supporter-led future, yet Andy Brassell also remembers the machinations in SW19 that led to the death of the original club

Never mind May 28, 2002 – I remember exactly where I was on January 15, 1999. Sitting on the sofa at home with some mid-morning tea, Teletext told me that Wimbledon had signed John Hartson from West Ham. For £7 million. Seven million pounds. My mug hit the floor. Not for the last time in the years to come, Wimbledon FC were involved in the previously unthinkable.

Read more…

Call the caretaker

Some are wild cards, some club stalwarts. Jon Spurling looks at the life of the acting manager

Newcastle and Sunderland rarely admit to having anything in common, yet the clubs’ recent moves to formalise the positions of Joe Kinnear and Ricky Sbragia represents a rare moment of triumph for caretaker managers. The fact that both clubs hankered after bigger names suggests that neither man’s position is secure, but at least they are likely to emerge with their self respect intact, unlike many hapless interim appointments.

Read more…

Copyright © 1986 - 2024 When Saturday Comes LTD All Rights Reserved Website Design and Build NaS