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Allison has scored an amazing 95th minute header to give Liverpool three points against West Brom. It's the first time an LFC goalkeeper has ever scored for the club, and it was some header. Wish we had someone who could plant the ball into the far corner like he did.

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58 minutes ago, RiseAgainst said:

Allison has scored an amazing 95th minute header to give Liverpool three points against West Brom. It's the first time an LFC goalkeeper has ever scored for the club, and it was some header. Wish we had someone who could plant the ball into the far corner like he did.

And what an important goal it was ... Now LFC's chance to get in the CL is very much alive ...

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17 hours ago, Rioch's Braves said:

These idiots kicking off about Alex Scott are clueless, she has a degree in sports journalism, 140 caps for her country captained Arsenal, she's there on merit she has the football knowledge and a good personality its an excellent choice she'll do well. 

If the BBC had any guts they would get rid of the terrible crew that inhabit Match of the Day and appoint her in Lineker's place. I tuned in at half time of the cup final and the puerile chat was worse than a conversation in the pub after a day on the beer. Gary Lineker and his "mates" are well out of their time and so full of their own self importance. And that comes from a 64 year old.

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16 hours ago, Uwe said:

Saying that I had a quick look on Twitter and saw nothing for praise and well wishing for Alex getting the job 🤷‍♂️ 

Thats unusual - or maybe just lucky? Twitter is where a lot of the nutters hang out.

Then again, I haven't spent much time on there lately...wait that doesn't sound good, does it? :classic_blush:

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29 minutes ago, oldman said:

If the BBC had any guts they would get rid of the terrible crew that inhabit Match of the Day and appoint her in Lineker's place. I tuned in at half time of the cup final and the puerile chat was worse than a conversation in the pub after a day on the beer. Gary Lineker and his "mates" are well out of their time and so full of their own self importance. And that comes from a 64 year old.

I've loved watching them for years, but I do feel a change is probably overdue now.

I think Lineker has been a brilliant host. Shearer is great at analysis, but is a bit overly critical...another Alan Hansen? I don't feel Wright ever really added much to the conversation. Lovely bloke and liked the banter but I feel he was mostly there to fill a quota.

With Gary being the Beeb's highest paid talent, retiring him ought to give them a decent amount to spend on improving their programming.

I also like the "matey" atmosphere. I think MOTD needed to move on from the polished, rather stuffy presentation of the 80s and 90s.

Thing is - who do you get to replace them? Most of the younger guests they've had on shows like FF and Final Score are pretty "meh" in my opinion (talk too much like footballers, rather than presenters / pundits).

Alex Scott looks like a "rising star" but is too new. I think you need some established names for the flagship show. If she does well on FF for a few years, I could definitely see her stepping up.

The only standout candidate for me would be Jermaine Jenas. Like Scott I've always thought he came across very well. Knows his stuff and can present clearly and articulately. Think he'd be a great host. Just need to find a couple of new regular pundits to sit alongside him.

Or maybe try a few out until they find a trio that "clicks"?

 

Edited by AnglianRed
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3 minutes ago, Smogzilla said:

I've never really understood the hate Lineker gets. I've always thought he was a good host. 

I don't hate him but I do expect more from him for his £1.3 million salary than a couple of laughs with Shearer

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Lineker is probably the best anchor we've got in British sport, despite the occasional foray into smug self-satisfaction. Jenas is probably the best analyst we've got. Scott will be great given time on FF to adapt to a new role. But let's be honest, there's some absolute dross out there in football-telly-land. Sky really shot themselves in the foot getting rid of Le Tissier and Thompson, replacing them with second-rate pundits like Pulis and Clinton Morrison. How Morrison gets to commentate on anything more than snail racing, I will never know. He makes Paul Merson seem erudite and loquacious.

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47 minutes ago, Smogzilla said:

I've never really understood the hate Lineker gets. I've always thought he was a good host. 

Me too, though he obviously has a good agent. It's an interesting change since certain newspapers have taken against his politics, though. Whereas he used to be described as, "England legend Gary Lineker", these days he's been demoted to, "Overpaid Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker". 

Both are true, obviously, but the difference in perception is pretty clear.

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21 minutes ago, oldman said:

I don't hate him but I do expect more from him for his £1.3 million salary than a couple of laughs with Shearer

His hosting on Saturday was as human as anybody could possibly expect, I don't know what your problem with it was to be honest. Boiling it down to 'a couple of laughs with Shearer' feels really unwarranted. He is friends with Shearer, with Ian Wright but what does that matter? What more were you expecting from him?

It was raw and emotional. He spoke about his personal FA Cup story as a fan with Leicester as an 8-year old, going to the final with his dad and crying on the train home. Who here following the Boro who has witnessed the cup finals, the failed play-off final, not connect with that?

Him talking about his feeling of expecting Leicester to be back there the year after as a child, I connected with that too, even as a 15 year old I felt something similar to that with the UEFA Cup final. Every year since then has broken that down, broken the optimism of a young fan down to its bare bones.

Then his feelings on the day, as a man who has seen the disappointment, has felt the 52-year wait to even be involved in a final as a fan. Put aside the Premier League win, this man still holds the FA Cup in the highest regard as a fan and its clear because of his story. Not just because the FA Cup was once seen as significantly more important than it generally is by the bigger clubs these days but because of his memory of going to Wembley with his dad. He came into that day the same way plenty of us would now; thinking we will lose because this is my team and my team doesn't win.

Then his celebration during the game, the reaction in the aftermath, looking down on Rodgers and his team and thinking about their journey. Looking down at Khun Top and an owner he's proud to have, remembering the tragedy of 2.5 years ago too.

Finally, the end of the show where he can't stop repeating himself. He's a host, the expectation a lot of the time is to remain impartial. With Gary Lineker on Saturday, we saw someone let loose and whilst Chelsea fans may not have liked it (which to be fair, he did apologise for), I suspect plenty of other fans embraced the victory of the FA Cup alongside him, Leicester fan or no. In my eyes, Lineker's story and his presenting throughout on Saturday made that FA Cup final better.

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Unfortunately there are now a number of very poor sports reporters/pundits on TV these days. The bar has been set very low in what appears to me at least to be a lazy effort (ironically being even more offensive) to tick quota boxes. As mentioned above Scott and Jenas are absolute stand outs for me for both quality and genuine ability and highlights why it is unnecessary.

Before anyone starts to saddle any very high horses, this isn't a racist slur, quite the opposite, in that it is embarrassing to endure pundits from any walk of life struggling to string coherent sentences together whilst commentating on a game. I have the impression that just simply throwing someone on because they "represent" a minority is good enough which has to be the ultimate demeaning insult with Sky the worst by far.

Not being a great conversationalist in itself isn't a hindrance, indeed Kammy has endeared himself to the nation through his confused, befuddled, excited feedbacks to the studio with huge glaring gaps of action that he has missed but his charisma carries it off, his rapport with Stelling and the studio clearly helps. There are however others who literally make my toes curl whose efforts are more akin to a remedial reading class for eight year olds. Putting someone in that situation to me is cruel and unkind and I question if there is another agenda.

Like Jenas and Scott any presenter/reporter/panelist/pundit should be there on merit. That said the reporter that really irks me the most is Sky Sport's Dickie Davis (not the old ITV one) who I literally haven't a clue what he is saying thanks to a saliva splattering 100 mile an hour speech impeded by a very strong accent which has me reaching for the mute button.

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33 minutes ago, Redcar Rioja said:

Like Jenas and Scott any presenter/reporter/panelist/pundit should be there on merit. 

I absolutely agree. And it's one of the great failings of the current drive to achieve inclusivity that people are now being promoted to these roles through an attempt to tick diversity boxes, rather than because they're strong on-screen performers.

It used to be the case that white ex-players and pundits were prioritised ahead of articulate and informed minority pundits, which was absolutely wrong. Today, the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Seeing third-rate ex-players rambling and stuttering their way through match reports is to everyone's detriment - not least the future Jenases and Scotts.

I suspect there's been very little criticism of Alex Scott getting the FF anchor's role because she's a qualified journalist, highly articulate and a bloody good player. I know that's a rare combination of skills, but there are people who have two of those three attributes, rather than just one. Broadcasters have to start appointing people based purely on merit, rather than because someone is already part of the media merry-go-round/ticks diversity boxes/has a good agent.

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I have to say, it's not that hard to find criticism of Alex Scott being given the Football Focus job at all. I looked under the BBC Sport tweet for about 3 minutes and found tweets saying:

- "If you're black, queer or in a wheelchair, you've got a job for life"
- "What about a presenter who actually has the qualifications"
- "Get rid of those nails - its a sports show"
- "Box ticked"

I'll end with these:

 

It's great that people think that the meritocratic way always works, too. I agree, I would like people to be given a job on merit. But merit is something that is judged by people, it's not a statistical certainty that the same person I would put in a job based on merit would be the same as yours and the perception of the people in power is one that fundamentally has to change in order to create more stories like Alex's.

What we're looking at above is people who think a woman's role in presenting football programs that largely focus on men's football isn't based on merit, in their eyes her being a woman and having 'only played women's football' puts her lower on the list. Those people also believe in meritocracy, they just think there's relatively little merit in what she's done. So yeah, I think that Alex Scott would have had to work a lot harder to get this job without changing perceptions of what merits a role. And how can somebody in her position change perceptions without opportunity. She got the opportunity, she took it and now people like the above are slowly becoming the minority view.

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26 minutes ago, Rioch's Braves said:

Its a good job Alex Scott wasn't competing with horrible Phil Schofield or Holly never off the tele Willoughby, for the football focus job because she wouldn't have got a look in, with those 2 *** holes. 

He's not horrible ...  that incident with the gopher in the cupboard was a misunderstanding..  he just mishandled the broom..              didn't he?

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