OF PUNDITRY
with Barcelona or Ajax. Gary Lineker, the man Cruyff played out of position when he was at Barcelona, has become a sage more or less through always being there, throwing to Alan, Alan, Mark or Micah. pick players to ensure a good score in that gameweek’s Fantasy League.
Paddy Power is a knacker’s yard for old pundits. In 2020, Phil Thompson was picked up after departing from Soccer Saturday, alongside Matt Le Tissier and Charlie Nicholas, for an online advertising campaign. Mark Lawrenson has taken his weekly set of predictions there from the BBC, too.
Thompson and Peter Crouch are both Paddy Power ambassadors, and they put their faces to Bet Builders. As well as advising punters on a possible result, they also counsel them on backing players who score, have a shot on target, are shown a card and commit a certain number of fouls. It matters more when there’s money on it.
Chris Sutton or Alan Shearer giving postmatch interviews from their playing days, they seem to be like hostages or sinners uttering a confession. Nowadays Sutton’s rhetoric is helped by a sing-song delivery that sounds terrific on radio, while Shearer has become perhaps Britain’s most-watched pundit thanks to his lead role on Match of the Day.
It is useful to note that Shearer’s fellow pundit Ian Wright actually started off in light entertainment, hosting the National Lottery, or ‘Lot’ery’ as he called it. Then there’s Roy Keane with his scowl and Micah Richards with his cackle that burst on to the scene in 2019.
These exaggerated selves are perfect for HDTV but you wouldn’t want to be stuck in a lift with ‘Micah’ or ‘Roy’ when they play at being sealions in smart suits. Such is the nature of the ‘character pundit’.