Glasshalfull co commentators, have a read!
Sadly now having to listen to Jonathan Pierce watching a cup game today. Turning it down now. Doesn’t shut up in his concerned tone.
Is there any way you can shut up Jamie Carragher, I never can understand what he’s saying anyway. A Welsh chap was co commentating on the Lincoln Peterborough game yesterday, just droned on and on in a monotonous tone. Awful.
And Alan, don’t use the nicked phrase ‘crowd scene’. You are better than than that, much better in fact.
None of today’s commentators can beat the inimitable Kenneth Wolstenholme.
I would of course run this by Sky customer services, but that would be like peeing into the wind.
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Your thoughts and those on the related thread just prove that commentary is a very subjective subject. I share your affection for Kenneth Wolstenhome and the great David Coleman, two commentators who believed that silence is as important as words on TV broadcasts.
Personally, I dislike the constant chatter that is so commonplace on TV football commentary these days, I find it distracting to my enjoyment of the game.
Thank you for responding. Jonathan Pierce just rabbits on and on, with all his stats and other information that no one needs or is interested in,. His radio days I think are responsible for this. If you get to chat to him in your line of work, please advise him of the silence rule, which I do note you use frequently. Makes it so much more enjoyable. Belated Happy New Year?
I have my opinions on certain commentators but I hope you understand that it would be unprofessional of me to make them public or discuss them with the chief culprits!
HNY to you as well.
According to Jonathan ‘he has to score from there’ Pearce, every match should finish 7-7. Shut up man!
No-one will top Brian Moore for me. Long periods of simply saying player names mixed with occasional excitable roars.
My favourite commentators are the ones I grew up listening to on the radio - Peter Jones, Ron Jones, Mike Ingham and the like
(although I did go off Alan Green when he became a tiresome whining parody of himself)
We're lucky to have @glasshalffull on ifollow of course. One of the country's top commentators for many a year
As long as no one mentions Clive “I’ll shoehorn Manchester United into this commentary at every opportunity” Tyldesley as a good commentator I’m happy ish
I think he's a great commentator as it goes.
It's an absolute scandal that ITV have ditched him for England games in favour of Sam Matterface. They're just not in the same league.
Reminiscent of when Alan Smith got rid of Paul Hyde for Brian Parkin
Mostly watch football on Sky. Martin Tyler and Gary Neville my favourite combination.
Totally agree about Jonathan Pearce. I tend to think of him as one of the new kids on the block as a TV commentator (hence the tendency to bring his radio style to the table) and I’m surprised to discover that he is in his sixties. Equally surprised to find that Martin Taylor will be 76 in September and even more surprised that he is assistant manager at Woking. Commentators are full of surprises.
I too find Jamie Carragher’s unrelenting nasal monotone extremely irritating and the most boring “analyst” (?) has to be that former Tottenham and England midfielder on BT Sport.
Voices are a particular interest of mine. There is a tradition in my family of loving to do impersonations and being reasonably good at it. My wife’s voice and soft southern Irish accent was just one of the things that attracted me to her. No, @Malone , @mooneyman et al, I won’t enlarge on that ! But what I wanted to say/ask is why it is that so many Radio 4 female reporters these days (on big topics like business, health, and education) sound like 14 year old schoolgirls. Squeakiness seems to be gaining ground.
Better go and see if Crawley have beaten Leeds. Crawley versus Chorley would be creepy.
A great commentator, for me, is like a great referee - you barely know he’s there, let’s the game flow and doesn’t make it about him but certainly adds some context to the game that you would be doing if you were sat in the stands yourself.
Radio commentators going to TV struggle for me on that switch over. I liked Alan Green on Radio but he sounded wrong on the odd occasion he called a TV game. You need to add more context for the listener than the watcher and tend to tell you what you are looking at.
On the flip side, a constant stream of surnames, like they are reading from the phone book is just as unhelpful
I remember reading an interview with Tyldesley in Four Four Two in which he claimed to be a Wycombe fan.
The unnamed former Sours midfielder is ace at telling us what we are looking at @TheDancingYak. And little else. Remember her?
With some pundits you do wonder how they got the job in the first place, and Carragher is the prime example. I've got houseplants more sentient and articulate.
I've slagged off Jermaine Jenas on here before but he has improved massively. When he first started it was hard to make sense of anything he said as every sentence was bookended and punctuated with "to be honest with you". All I could think about when he spoke was whether everything else was a lie. He must have had some media training as that vocal tick is mostly gone these days and it turns out he's actually vaguely interesting.
Carragher though can get in the sea. Speaks only in clichés and brings zero insight to anything he comments on because he's not capable of thinking.
For me Brian Moore was the perfect commentator who gave some facts but knew when to shut the hell up.
The interesting thing for me is that I know a lot of people who turn the sound off when Jonathan Pearce is commentating. We all turn off the half time analysis from pundits who think they’re interesting especially trying to use the clever dick maps and gadgets that they are provided with. And who in their right mind turns on the 45 minute banal drivel that Sky have on before every game. I think I’d most like John Arlott commentating on football...could you imagine that!
Jon Champion and Ally McCoist are a really good pairing. The two clearly enjoy each others company, Champion understands the need for silent breaks and McCoist is knowledgeable and funny.
Tyler is ok once he's got beyond the dreadful "and it's live" catchphrase.
Although you can tell he's always looking for that big soundbite.
I’m not keen on Sam Matterface.
It does my nut when commentators start sentences with ‘AND....’. He does this more than any other commentator I can think of.
AND that’s a great goal by ....
AND did you see that for a shot ....
Blah blah blah
Will be so glad when I can get back to watching live football and not having to brother with commentators. Especially now with empty stadiums the commentary needs to add to the spectacle and not just describe what we can all see.
Watched a bit of the Marine v Spurs game just now and both the commentary and expert chat was awful. Had to turn over in the end.
I thought Dion Dublin gave some excellent insight into how to improve the houses that run alongside Marine's ground.
Brilliant, nearly spat my coffee out reading that
Have to agree, Pearce is my least favourite, by some distance... as for co commentators, Carragher, Steve McManaman and Robbie Savage make me want to turn off
You will probably disagree with me but I always think that listening to @bluntphil has strong similarities to a good cricket commentary. It's the banter and humor that does it for me. I seriously enjoy listening to Phil.
Peter Jones will forever be my favourite commentator (sorry @glasshalffull). Without getting dewy eyed the memories of listening to him commentate on midweek European games is something very special.
Sam matterface and Stuart Pearce are terrible and possibly the worst pair, Alan Brazil being possibly the worst host/presenter...
Jamie Carragher being employed by sky after the spitting incident is an embarrassment.
Ally McCoist is always good, seems like a genuinely funny man along with Jon Champion....
Gary Neville is a superb pundit, I've grown to love the once hated Man utd player.
I worked alongside Peter for many years, an absolute gent and a genius with words. He was the guy who persuaded me to apply for a job with the BBC sports department in London when I was with Radio Merseyside so I owe him a debt of gratitude. We played together for the BBC football team and he was an elegant midfielder.
Did you know that he was a teacher at Bradfield College near Reading and lived in Gerrard’s Cross?
His "and the sun shines now" monologue on the day of the Hillsborough tragedy will go down as one of the greatest pieces of radio ever recorded. To summon the strength and composure to deliver something like that on a day of such sadness and horror is beyond belief
Over in the world of cricket, there is no more horrific combo that Graeme Swann and Michael Vaughan both trying to out bantz each other.
I know Phil is currently off air on our commentary as the BBC don't allow travel during the lockdown so it was a surprise to me to find that Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Ian Wright and Dion Dublin all live on Merseyside.
Peter Jones and Byron Butler on midweek sport special, were purely magical. They never over hyped. And made everything sound so precise and important. The biggest compliment I can pay those two, is that listening to them on an important England international evening, was more exciting being tuned into the radio, than it is now watching on the box.
Hoddle and Mcmanaman make me scream out in despair.
Hoddle thinks only he has the insight into the pro game, and Mcmannaman is a shreeking pain on the ear drums.
I'm with many on here & perhaps worse in my detest of Pearce. The classic "he should have scored that/hit the target"! WTF would that overweight lump know. He's never even seen his boot laces, let alone have ability to bend down to do them up. Never makes nor give credit for the defender putting the forward under huge pressure or pulling the forwards shirt. Voice too loud and excitable. Puts me right off a game.
I know I'm probably going to upset a few on here, but I'm old school. Listening to female commentators on men's matches just doesn't seem/sound right. No problem with hosting/ presenting a football programme, or even commentating on a ladies game. As I said it is probably that I'm old school & in need of "modernisation?
Sorry to butt in but I'm fascinated by this thread.
I consider myself fortunate to have known and still know many of these wonderful people. Went on many an assignment with Bryon Butler, Mike Ingham, Alan Green, Ron Jones, Jimmy Armfield [who wrote for the Daily Express when I was on the Mail in the north in the 1980s so we were friendly rivals], worked with Clive Tyldesley and Richard Keys when they were on local radio in Manchester and Liverpool; Tom Ross and the great Tony Butler in the Midlands; Tom Tyrell, Brian Clarke and Ian Frame in Manchester. Radio has been blessed with great voices, who captured the game with such authority and resonance. I have to say that Phil Catchpole is right up there and should get a wider audience.
I'm afraid today's TV commentators don't hold a candle to David Coleman, John Motson, Brian Moore or Barry Davies.
And as for 'summarisers', no one has touched Jimmy Hill.
I tried to watch Marine v Tottenham yesterday and it was like being in lockdown in a nursery. Dion Dublin's constant, inane dribble took away from the enjoyment; there was too much patronising of Marine's players. Simply horrible. I'm afraid Martin Tyler has gone backwards, talks in cliches and soundbites. The minute he went on about 'pen-demics' they should have put him out to grass.
IMHO JP [my good friend Jonathan Pearce] has found the transition from radio - where he was brilliant on Capital Gold - to TV quite tricky. I think even he would admit that.