Graham Poll's 'media carreer', please make it stop!
If you happen to be in the car on a Saturday, struggling with the limited choice tha analogue radio brings in the dead hour before Johnathan Ross comes on at 10am, you may have stumbled across the Eamon Holmes show. This is a terrible programe, lots of forced jokey banter about being a Manchester United fan, made worse by the inclusion of the truly loathesome, self obsessed former referee dispensing his own brand of comment and wisdom. His complete lack of self awareness is painfully laid bare each week as he waffles on about referee decisions like some kind of oracle. Nobody cares about you Mr Poll, nobody cares about referees they are merely a necessary evil. The only reason some idiots listen to your after dinner ramblings is on the off chance of hearing a tibit of gossip about players and managers; i.e it is not about you and never will be! He is also probably substancially cheaper than the actual subjects he witters on about, are the bean counters in part responsible for his rise? To make matters worse, as he is on the BBC, we are paying him!
- More from woodface.
- Login or register to post comments
I like him.
He's pretty honest and speaks his mind. In fact I think Radio 5's current line up of pundits is excellent, with special mention to Stan Collymore, and the Claridge/Marcotti double act.
None of them however, can hold a candle to the great Eamon Dunphy on RTE's equivalent of Match of the Day. Go to Youtube, and search for his rants about Ronaldo and Terry Venables. Absolutely brilliant.
Really, but he is a referee!
Really, but he is a referee! One of the side effects of the increasing money within the game is the way officials feel they are part of the attraction, they even have training camps! I do like Stan Collymore and Claridge is always very honest; the main man for me is Jimmy Armfield.
"A necessary evil"? Surely you jest, Woodface.
As ever, HMHB have the true perspective:
I can't see a problem with that.
Referees tend to be a tad more intelligent than yer average footballer and I for one would value the opinion from the other side.
Training camps doesn't sound like too bad an idea either. 90 mins of running plus added time is more than a lot of people can muster.
Graham Poll doesn't annoy me half as much as...
...Eamonn Holmes does on that same programme. Because Five Live seems to have adopted the same hiring policy as Radio Two (if you're on TV you're in) their weekend schedules are bursting with examples of TV names discovering that what works on the telly (a jovial presence, a little twinkle, a nice tie) will only get you so far on the wireless. I have no doubt that Holmes is a bright bloke but all those years on telly have made him too ready to adopt the "I know nuffink" persona of what he imagines is the man in the street. His assumption of the mantle of ignorance is deeply irritating. On the other hand I don't mind Poll. He's prepared to stick his neck out and express an honest opinion on the radio, which is more than 99% of football pundits are doing. On the other side of the Irish Sea however...
Honest?
I think Mr Poll's views are more self-serving than honest. There is always something sad about an ex-player straining to stay in the limelight, an ex referee even more so. I fully agree re Eamon Holmes though although I cannot say I like him on the telly either.