SPICY CURRIE
BT Sport host on playing the peacemaker to warring pundits
was dreamed up by the production team after then-Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha had been accidentally halved in two by one of his own players in an Old Firm game.
“At no point though did any of us think Crags was going to hit Chris as hard as he did.
“That was a proper tackle! It set the tone and it’s happened a couple of times now.
“Crags smashed Chris with another one outside McDiarmid Park a few years later when Chris was recreating the Scott Brown incident up at Pittodrie when Broony bounced up from being hit by two tackles and did that little dance.
“That’s the whole point of BT’s coverage of Scottish football – as much as we love the game we also want to play on the Scottish sense of humour.
“Full credit to BT Sport for doing what they have done here. It would have been easy having moved on from losing the rights themselves to say this programme wasn’t going to continue.
“But the feedback we’ve had is amazing and the viewing figures have been superb.
“This was driven by the fans. Had there not been one question asked about us coming back then I don’t think the show would have restarted.”
There’s so much at stake at Celtic Park this weekend ahead of the first derby of a season like no other.
But how does Currie see this showdown going?
He said: “This one is really hard to call.
“I don’t think Celtic have played as well as they could in the majority of matches so far.
“On the other side Rangers have looked good at times but at others have struggled to break down Livingston and haven’t held a lead away at Hibs.
“It is going to be really close this season. Right now it looks like it’s going down to the wire.
“It’s great for us. There’s so much to debate before we even get to Chris and Ally going head-to-head.
“I might need to go to my boss and ask for the 30-minute show to be extended to 45 or an hour!
“It’s difficult at the best of times. I’ll have the producer in my ear saying I need to move the conversation on. But you try moving Ally McCoist and Chris Sutton on when they are going at it!”
Scottish Football Extra – bringing you the biggest opinions from some of the top personalities in Scottish football with Darrell Currie, Chris Sutton, Ally McCoist, Michael Stewart and Stephen Craigan – is on BT Sport every Friday at 6.30pm.