Alan Ruddock’s excellent piece in today’s Guardian makes the point that football punditry in Britain has reached an all-time low. Ruddock bemoans the relentless blandness of Gary Lineker et al. and he is right to do so. As he points out, football fans are not ‘morons’ and deserve far better. In Ireland, football fans enjoy world-class punditry, in the form of RTE’s Bill O’Herlihy (in the Lineker/Lynam anchor role), Eamon Dunphy (pictured), John Giles and Liam Brady. Their analysis is witty, bold, passionate, incisive and usually free of cliches – everything ITV, Sky and the BBC aren’t.
I disagree with Dunphy frequently – rather that than suffer Alan Shearer saying ‘Fantastic play there, Gary…’ for the nineteenth time. Click below to watch the best YouTube videos of the RTE lads in action…
Dunphy has a pop at the BBC
Dunphy and Brady go at it over Roy Keane (an epic and famous rant)
O’Herlihy reacts to Ireland’s Italia ’90 triumph
Dunphy calls C. Ronaldo a ‘brat’