A thread is required to complain about the inevitably infuriating, ill-informed and complacent punditry we will have to endure for the next few weeks.

To kick things off, a reminder of how it was last time.

For me, that's an excellent bit of vision from young Hofzinser there.

Yes he's really stuck that into the mixer early doors

He's got the thread up so quickly, and if there's anything that will cause problems every time, it's pace, pace, pace.

David Pleat will be pleased that the Czechoslovak Republic have qualified.

Motson will be delighted the Soviets are in it as well.

Nesta Makhno wrote:


On Five Live tonight, Pleat predicted Group A would be boring because of the presence of "Russia, Poland, Greece and the Republic of... Czech Republic" So he's improving. Increment by increment.

Darren Gough was particularly unimpressed to be broadcasting from Lille on his way to Poland.
He must have forgotten he is being paid to go on holiday, watch football & make a noise come out of his head on the radio until you switch over.
Cued up by the excellent Hawksbee & Jacobs thus-
What's it (Lille) like then Darren?
Well...it was a bit quiet, not like London. There's nice architecture, if you like that sort of thing.
I don't. - he guffed.

Darren Gough appears to be a complete twat. Rather a shame, because he was a good player for 3 years.

Etienne wrote:

Unfortunately he seems to be the model a lot of ex-players seem to want to follow.
You know, the 'personality' or 'character'.
Even on Talksport, with your expectations suitably lowered he stands out as a charmless dimwit.
I hope someone has picked up Chris 'Pelanty' Waddle who I always find to be insightful & engaging.

I note the linked Scotsman article makes the "It's not just ITV" point. For me, one of the most horrible things in the last WC was the Beeb being worse than ITV. I have no confidence that they'll turn it round.

Exhibit 1 of this year's ill-informed punditry comes from Mark Lawrenson (you just need to watch the first seven seconds).

What about Alan Hansen? Proof that he's been phoning it in for years is not necessary, granted, but of the 4 teams he predicted to go far in the tournament - Spain, Germany, Holland and Portugal - 3 of them come from the same group. The BBC quickly amended his predictions so that Portugal was erased. Therefore, every other pundit has 4 prediction. Hansen only has 3.

In related punditry news, I also read that the BBC have tightened their budget to the extent that they will all stay in Salford.

delicatemoth wrote:

Ach. Nothing the BBC did came close to that exercise in fuckwittery before the USA-England game where Chiles basically sneered at the television and told the Americans to run along and play baseball (which is really rounders, anyway).

Mind you, I might have taken it more personally than most. But Klinsmann's presence alone ensured the USA weren't patronized like that and generally the other pundits were bland but not condescending.

The BBC are lazy. ITV makes me want to throw things at the television.

Already bored of this 'Ha ha, look at us, promising not to talk up England's chances' palaver. I bet they're all secretly lifting up enormous England flags and waving them at each other when they're off camera.

Squeaked out as his testicles zoom past his eyeballs and through the gap where his brain never was;

"It's a red Russian revolution!" as the Russians score again.

Peter Drury.

Thread over.

In a way US TV has better analysis because there's no baggage from pre-EPL players moaning about the modern game being shit, like football Fred Truemans.

According to Barry Glendenning on the Guardian podcast, Alan Shearer has both done some preparation and appeared animated and enthusiastic.

Is this true?

Hofzinser wrote:


Not available here... what did he say?

Actually, do I really want to know?

Why bother watch the real thing when you can watch this instead