Who is the worst BBC pundit?

[Pavilionaire]

Townsend is clearly better than the awful Crooks and Bright but the reason people hate him so much is that he's the match pundit and has ruined many a good game with his ill-researched banalities and his pretty awful reading of penalty shouts.

Brian Moore is so sorely missed, no one has come close since he departed our screens.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

That list is shocking in its abjectness

Robbie ‘You’ve never played football so what do you know’ Savage is a candidate. His shrill disregard to anyone who questions a players professionalism shows him up as the apologist for the game he really is. Go on Robbie tell us something that would interest us as opposed to defending your ex colleagues all the time. Watch a bit of Gary Neville – That’s how you do it. Steve Claridge’s certainty in tone is in direct disproportion to his ability as a manager. Shearer and Hanson might as well write their critique for any match they analyse prior to the game given they say the SAME thing EVERY Week ‘Shocking defending’.

The winner, though, GARTH CROOKS. An absolute bell cheese of the highest order. How he is still employed as an ‘expert’ I will never know. I once saw him compare Rooney’s performance in a united win to one of his own (In which it transpired he got on as sub in the 82nd minute rather than a 90 minute master class). This is as well as a diatribe about a ‘disgusting tackle’ which turned out to be a push in the back when watched back on Match of the Day. The man is an idiot and knows less about football than my wife and next door neighbours cat.

That said, Alan Green. Don’t get me started.

 

[Pavilionaire]

why is our national game so bereft of top level experts? Football pundits are either thick idiots or dull as anything....often both

I put it down to sheer laziness. Gary Neville is easily the best pundit because you can tell he studies hours and hours of videotape and is a real student of the game. The likes of Shearer and Lawro give the impression they roll in off the golf course 5 mins before the show airs and wing it.

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

Yep, Crooks by a mile. Thinks he's some kind of great modern-day thinker, when in fact he's the Adrian Mole of the BBC's coverage - an 'intellectual' who comes across as a bit of a thicky. It's bloody football, for Christ's sake, you're not trying to finalise the Middle East peace process or design a perpetual motion machine. They should never have let him loose on that late night politics thing - I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him on it. Who thought it was a good idea to let a retired footballer present a politics programme? He's obviously viewed himself as a 'serious broadcaster' ever since. Verbose, self-centred f-wit.

 

[Drebin]

I went for Shearer. He just adds nothing. The highlight og british punditry is at half time and full time when itv show england and roy keane gives adrian chiles exasperated and then murderous looks as chiles' questions just keep more and more inane and stupid.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Townsend is clearly better than the awful Crooks and Bright but the reason people hate him so much is that he's the match pundit and has ruined many a good game with his ill-researched banalities and his pretty awful reading of penalty shouts.

Brian Moore is so sorely missed, no one has come close since he departed our screens.

townsend is shit, but i think he does suffer from being more "high profile" than the likes of crooks, who is much worse

townsend is usually found on high profile champions league matches, with high amounts of viewers to witness his ineptitude in contrast to the excellent standard of football on show

whereas i never really see crooks....he seems to be on final score which i hardly ever watch (which he is atrocious on)...does anyone really watch final score? so my exposure to him is much less...i maybe see him 3 times a season, whereas townsend is probably at least 20 times a season

 

[Hove Seagull]

miserable, snidy potato headed tit.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Another Case for the Prosecution of Mr Crooks

His calls for Hodgson to consider James Morrison for England

A midfielder excelling in a team that continues to thrive under Steve Clarke as West Brom continue their push up the table. If James Morrison had played for a top four team, it can be argued that he would be part of the England set-up already. Oh, and of course the fact that 26-year-old has 25 caps for Scotland. Yes, Crooks championed the campaign for the Baggies star to be called up to the national team, post-haste. Naturally, the segment of his team of the week was quickly removed after those on Twitter began to pass the message around the social networking site and promptly tore his piece of “journalism” a new one.

 

[Pavilionaire]

What would be funny would be to see Crooks stand in for Phil Thompson on Soccer Saturday. I can imagine Merson, Nicholas, Le Tissier and Stelling ripping him to shreds.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

I put it down to sheer laziness. Gary Neville is easily the best pundit because you can tell he studies hours and hours of videotape and is a real student of the game. The likes of Shearer and Lawro give the impression they roll in off the golf course 5 mins before the show airs and wing it.

yep i agree....the laziness shown by the itv and bbc mob is most evident in major international tournaments. Basically anyone who doesn't play in the premier league, hasn't played there before or doesn't play for barcelona or real madrid is treated as being a complete unknown

they are unknown...to them...because they don't do any research. Seriously how long does it take to have a look at the squads and have a bit of a look into the key men?! Really, really lazy

You're right G-Nev has completely shown everyone up in this arena since he started. Really knowledgeable about the way the game works, about players and he has his own opinions

 

[Pavilionaire]

I also think Andy Gray deserves a mention here. For years I despised that man, little more than a Scottish Townsend and solely responsible for holding back quality punditry on Sky for 15 years.

 

[Kumquat]

I'd like to give a nod to John Hartson as being the best pundit i've seen on the BBC. Passionate and knowledgeable. Don't know why they don't use him more.

As for worst, I think Mark Bright because he is so biased and rarely right. I don't think I find him as difficult to watch though as some. If it was pundit I can't stand watching/listening to it would be a close call between Crooks and Claridge.

Crooks is an opinionated, arrogant self-absorbed tool. He makes even the smallest incident in every game seem like an act of war. He's clearly only there to make waves. He's the BBCs Kamara but without the humour and and self-deprecation.

Claridge makes every question to him sound like someone's asked him why he's shit. He also has that annoying australian habit of starting every reply with "Look!" and keeps referring to his notes like some kind of newbie on the job. And he's not very good. He makes Shearer look interesting.

All I can say is no wonder Lee Dixon took ITVs moolah. He was the best pundit the BBC had then and was surrounded by a mixture of egos and tedious jobsworths.

 

[TheBlueAndWhiteStrips]

It should be Garth Crooks by a fu@king mile.

I found some look a likes

 

[beorhthelm]

Bright by a country mile. typically doesnt offer any insight to the procedings that i couldnt see for myself. all the others, people dislike on the personality or their style, but they do have knowledge and insight. but even Bright is still above the appalling Townsend, who will change his mind on how the game is going or a player is performing within two minutes.

 

[Mellotron]

I'll go for Alan Shearer. The epitome of lazy, BBC golf-buddy, expensive pointlessness.

This. He's never, ever, ever, ever said anything of note, anything that isn't immediately obvious to anyone with a brain, and his comment that no one had heard of Ben Arfa shows a shocking lack of knowledge for someone supposedly working in the game.

 

[willyfantastic]

Garth Crooks - at the Olympics where he just made up a formation that consisted of 11 outfield players.....guy hasnt got a clue

ALthough its quite enjoyable watching him and savage fall out every week on football focus

 

[TheBlueAndWhiteStrips]

Garth Crooks - at the Olympics where he just made up a formation that consisted of 11 outfield players.....guy hasnt got a clue

ALthough its quite enjoyable watching him and savage fall out every week on football focus

The 4-2-1-3-1 formation

[yt]OzeJkO6wChQ[/yt]

 

[willyfantastic]

This. He's never, ever, ever, ever said anything of note, anything that isn't immediately obvious to anyone with a brain, and his comment that no one had heard of Ben Arfa shows a shocking lack of knowledge for someone supposedly working in the game.

also this - he'd played for the 2 biggest clubs in france and in the champions league - just showed how blinkered his views are and that he obviously only watches the premier league

 

[Simster]

This. He's never, ever, ever, ever said anything of note, anything that isn't immediately obvious to anyone with a brain, and his comment that no one had heard of Ben Arfa shows a shocking lack of knowledge for someone supposedly working in the game.

I remember [MENTION=47]Tooting Gull[/MENTION] rightly berating him on here during the World Cup in South Africa, something along these lines:

"We don't know much about Honduras" says Shearer.

No, because you've been out on the golf course with "Lawro" instead of doing the research you were paid to do, you dull, pointless moron.

 

[Mellotron]

yep i agree....the laziness shown by the itv and bbc mob is most evident in major international tournaments. Basically anyone who doesn't play in the premier league, hasn't played there before or doesn't play for barcelona or real madrid is treated as being a complete unknown

they are unknown...to them...because they don't do any research. Seriously how long does it take to have a look at the squads and have a bit of a look into the key men?! Really, really lazy

Ibrahimovic truly is an enigmatic presence.