Anyone in football media knows celebrity, its cultivation and public response to it are at the heart of business they are part ofDeciding what to do with Jamie Carragher has taken some time. Indeed it’s been possible to worry for the HR department at Sky Sports. Perhaps they have seen the former Liverpool defender flob on a 14‑year‑old girl too many times. A loop of expectorate running continually before their eyes, this short video clip may eventually have assumed the same mystical qualities as the Zapruder film.Sky ultimately made its decision on Wednesday, opting to suspend Carragher from his role as a pundit until the end of the season, at which point his position will be reviewed. Related: Jamie Carragher...
Eyebrows were raised when Rooney agreed to appear on Monday Night Football but his impressive display showed that he, and footballers in general, are brighter than many suggestIn fairness to Frank Lampard, he called it ages ago. A little over seven years, in fact, and during an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live in November 2010. Asked about Wayne Rooney, then still a Manchester United forward, Lampard, then still a Chelsea midfielder, said: “People who call him thick – it’s a lazy thing to say. They look at him, the fact he is a footballer and looks tough, and make a judgment without trying to find out what he is really like. How can you call someone thick who you...
The mistrust harboured by a minority of hardliners in each community for the other will continue to provide a rich seam of entertainment for the rest of usAs debate not so much raged but gently percolated over the merits of “expected goals” as a useful metric for analysing football last week, it was difficult to shake off the feeling that the battle for survival and relevance between old-school pundits and the growing army of stats buffs had reached a somewhat pivotal phase.The sound may have been drowned out by the white noise generated by quarrelling over other, far more important global concerns, but the latest volley was fired by Jeff Stelling. The Sky Sports presenter went viral after footage of...
Real football men vs the nerdy analytics crowd … opinion is wildly divided over the new metric cited by Arsène Wenger but hated by Jeff Stelling and his Soccer Saturday old prosJeff Stelling is known for being a cheery sort. The most exasperated he ever gets is when Hartlepool are drubbed and, even then, he usually bears it with the fatalism of the long-suffering supporter. This week, however, the Sky Sports presenter has starred in a much-shared clip in which he goes on an actual rant. And the subject? Expected goals.In the run-up to their coverage of the north London derby, Stelling observed to his Soccer Saturday pundits that Arsène Wenger had done a daft thing. “He quoted expected goals!”...
Joe Root is light years away from the visibility David Gower enjoyed and, away from terrestrial TV, some team-mates in Australia might as well be in a witness protection programmeAt the risk of making myself a hostage to fortune, it is very possible that Australia has already delivered its most withering put-down of England before an Ashes ball has even been bowled. I may come to regret this rash statement when this year’s exquisite causal link between someone’s girth, someone else’s wife, and some form of baked goods is made. But given how much of modern journalism seems to be about “calling” things in the comical belief that functioning as Earth’s wrongest bookmaker makes one relevant, let’s give it a whirl:...