Catching my eye in the last week…..

Going for Gold?

Whilst reading Eric the Red’s site I came across this. As Eric says Good Ole Seb, the Olympic hero, may have been misquoted but he’s a class enemy so I doubt he will have been. Wales and Scotland…”Fuck ’em” appears to be the kernal of his argument, but why is he so vehement?

It appears that England’s Celtic cousins don’t want to be involved in the British football team that will play in the London 2012 Olympics. Who the hell do these people think they are?  Doubting good ole Seb, the very idea!! He knows what he’s doing and he’s only being logical, 

What’s more he should get his way. Think about it, we can all look forward to the moment when “our boys” stand to attention with their gold medals fluttering in the breeze. I can hardly wait to hear the tune that exults God to save our favourite medieval institution from pestilance in the background. It’ll be magical, Gawd Blimey we’ll all be prahhd to be British.

It’ll be inclusive, it will be beautiful; Loudmouth racists, loudmouth knuckle-draggers, loudmouth Loyalists, loudmouth xenophobes, loudmouth bi-annual football tourists all together, hugging in the streets. The country will be one, indivisible under god.

This is all fine and dandy except for one small detail, the penny might drop with the game’s elite and then some blazer will pipe up; “You lot played together in the Olympics, why can’t you do it all the time?”

My blood runs cold at the thought. Having lived in England during major championship I don’t like the atmosphere. I don’t like the pressure of having to support “the boys” from people who never talk about football for the other 11 months of the year. Having had a taste of one England crowd I don’t like the idea of following the same team as a bunch of neanderthals who you wouldn’t engage in a conversation if you were on fire and wanted someone to put you out.

So Yeah, how dare the Welsh and Scottish not undermine their very existance.

This Bloke came up to me….

I was made aware of a rather amusing happening on Friday by one of the Jet Set. Joe Kinnear, a boss from the old school, took exception to some questioning and his riposte was a torrent of colourful language. Before  I had actually heard this reincarnation of Derek and Clive the good people in media land had already conditioned me to feel disgust at the outburst. How dare he speak like that, quite quite I agreed.

I found the clip and instead of disgust I found it to be amusing as the carefully constructed curtain of PR bullshit in proper football was slightly lifted. Like me, Joe has obviously become irritated by the questioning style of journalists; half anodyne-half prosecuting lawyer off the telly.

For example;

“David Moyes you’ve just lost to a last minute goal, how do you feel?” (I’m Trevor McDonald),

“Well obvoiously I’m disappointed but the lads gave it everything, it wasn’t our day”

 “Yes, yes David, more importantly how are the contract negotiations coming along? Come on David, clear it up for the fans, the people who pay your wages, the very lifeblood of the game (I’m Paxman, I’m Bob Woodward, I’m the journalist what broke the story)

Sky Sports News represents the zenith of this style of coverage. The channel where everything that happens is the most important thing to have happened ever, ever, ever. Although, for some reason, the sports or events that they don’t possess the  broadcast rights for aren’t that important.  

The trouble with this approach is twofold; (1) it defines the terms of what becomes an issue (something “interesting”) and what doesn’t (something “boring”), (2) it helps these issues become so hysterically overblown that they overshadow more important things, even in the “proper” news.

Three Cheers for Joe, hopefully others will start to be a bit more brusque.