Pundits must offer insight not just noise
TALKING about football on telly used to be a job for men in golf jumpers and beige BHS slacks.
Saint and Greavsie joshing over Scottish goalkeepers. Arthur Montford and Dougie Donnelly carefully avoiding any needless sabre rattling. The opinions were safe, uncontentious and threatened no one with a sleepless night.
The patterned V-necks left the scene around the time BT Sport and Chris Sutton came along. Followed swiftly by Michael Stewart.
Now they’re all at it; tearing strips off fellow pros in their designer togs like Noel Gallagher on a good night out.
This week Kris Boyd took an air rifle to Aberdeen players as if they were coconuts on a shy. Tony Cascarino, meanwhile, slaughtered Scottish football like an amnesiac who had completely forgotten he was one of Celtic’s worst-ever players.
Football, we’re told, is all about opinions.
And the stronger the opinion the modern pundit expresses, the more likely he is to claim a coveted seat in a Match of the Day 2, Sportscene or BT Sport studio.
The smart ones learn quickly that ‘on the other hand’ are the four words no broadcaster ever wants to hear.
The day will come eventually when opinion-fatigue sets in. When the shock and awe becomes the norm and loses its impact.
But the last week in Scottish football shows we’re not there y et.
ASTATIoN for mouthy London cabbies and white-van men one speeding fine short of a ban, talkSPoRT doesn’t want mere opinions. They want edicts in tablets of stone.
And the more the opinions pander to Brian from Bristol’s ignorance and prejudice over Scottish football, the better.
Regular pundit Cascarino played to the galleries this week when he claimed that Celtic’s unbeaten record is worthless because beating St Johnstone and Ross County means nothing.
Listen, if anyone should know how hard it is to win games in the Scottish Premiership, it’s big Tony. A £1.1million Celtic signing in 1991, he lasted a mere seven months because he couldn’t beat a carpet.
Best remembered for being struck by a pie during an old Firm game, a man’s opinions on Scottish football don’t automatically become worthless because he was hopeless in a Celtic shirt. But they are less likely to be taken seriously.
The same can be said of Joey Barton, another talkSPoRT gob who branded the Celtic record ‘Sunday league’.
Journalists can’t be po-faced or hypocritical about this stuff. We gobble it up for the back page. Then get a column out of it.
If Kris Boyd thinks the inclusion of three Aberdeen players makes the Scotland squad a ‘laughing stock’, it’s unquestionably good for business.
Whether Boyd’s comments are quite so good for Kilmarnock is a different matter. A glance at the SPFL Premiership fixture list shows that Aberdeen are at Rugby Park in two weeks’ time. And manager Steve Clarke might feel it’s hard enough beating the second-best team in the country without giving his opposite number a thick pile of headlines to stick up on the noticeboard.
Boyd differs from other powerdrill pundits in one key area; he’s still playing. And that raises a rather awkward question for the SFA’s compliance officer.
Because if Kris Boyd, Kilmarnock striker, walked into the Pittodrie press room after a game and slaughtered Graeme Shinnie, Kenny McLean and Ryan Christie, he would be up on a charge of failing to act in the best interests of the game.
Why should Kris Boyd, BBC pundit, be offered immunity because he hammers fellow players in a Pacific Quay studio instead?
BBC Scotland made a conscious decision this season to spend more of the sport budget on ex-pros with opinions in a quest for website and Twitter hits. In Boyd and Michael Stewart, they have two feisty characters guaranteed to deliver.
Some might think that 50 per cent of what these guys say is nonsense. But no one can deny they get people talking. And attract headlines.
Should that be the BBC’s remit? A public service organisation, many would prefer Auntie to guide and inform rather than sensationalise. Getting the balance right is clearly the challenge.
If the game is up for dull ex-pros stealing a living by looking out for their golf club cronies, then bring it on.
But let’s have the strong opinions based on knowledge and reasoned insight. Not a headlong race for a gig on the talkSPoRT Drivetime show.