Modern football vernacular
I love football at all levels, but obviously nothing beats Wycombe. In the media, Premier League football seems to be at saturation point, with literally dozens of pundits and former players having opinions on everything, big and small (without even mentioning now having referees on the payroll to tell us if a decision was correct or not! Arghhh!) And they seem to have been all trained up in the same way. I’m probably just a miserable, getting old git, but the same old phrases seem to get trotted out, and annoy the hell out of me! Just a few below:
‘...at the football club’ - rather than just club
‘Top, top player’
‘Game management’
‘Breaking the lines’ or ‘play between the lines’
A player now has great ‘physicality’ rather than just stamina and strength.
Players ‘cheating’ (I.e., not running back to defend)
There are so, so many more but I don’t have the energy to type them!
And that is not to even mention something that has crept into almost all sporting and political language, I think from Australia, starting answers with ‘Look’ and ‘Listen’ which is both appalling English and sounds so arrogant! Anyway, rant over!
Comments
Completely agree! An additional "pet hate" is when someone like Martin Keown says "Listen..." before they answer!
EDIT Sorry I typed before reading the bottom of your post!
"up top"
any percentage value greater than 100
"two banks of four"
Agreed, but was ever thus, no?
The "look/listen" one is not confined to the world of sport in my observation.
In terms of interviewees, "obviously" is a notably common one.
"Cheating" is a very annoying one. I first heard that a few years ago when a lazy unfit oaf of a midfielder i played along side was adamant that his opposition number was "cheating" as an explanation why he was completely out of position the whole time. Rather than just being a lazy unfit oaf
Game management is dreadful too.
Keep it tight is a pointless phrase too. When do you ever go "loose"?
Definitely.
it's about 'winning football matches'.
“It’s eleven against eleven.”
“A game of two halves”
'You can do all the work you want all week but once they cross the white line...'
bloody hell, almost forgot.....
"we go again"
"impact sub". As opposed to the other sort?
"shot stopper"
"net spend"
"matchday experience"
why is it only footballers seem to be "tenacious"
"a big unit"
"Stadium bowl"; particularly as used by our club in their First Time Fans Guide to refer to Adams Park, which bears zero resemblance to a bowl.
"Wycombised"
‘Passion’ being a guide as to how good a player is.
“Good shot stopper” although I admit to having used that expression in recent times as a euphemism to imply indifferent “command of box”.
Big "presence"
'We showed them too much respect in the first half...' and here's a very recent example....'we go there with nothing to fear'
@chapmanio '...in the dressing room.'
"The ball moved in the air"...
Naive. Everyone and everything is naive apparently.
'...that one goes in and it's a different game...'
They’re getting more subtle now.
"Why hasn't Gareth signed anyone?" Oh wait, that's the fans...
The transfer window has literally slammed shut.