Arsenal News » That most disgraceful profession
The pundits’ pundit by Walter Broeckx
We know them all. The modern oracles. The know-alls. We know them as the ‘pundits.
What do these pundits actually do in football? They say how it should have been done. They see the mistakes. They see the flaws. Is there somewhere a goal? The pundits know “who did it”. Was it the right winger of the team, they have seen that he was 10 cm too much to the left which brought the attack to an end and thus gave the opponents the ball and they scored. Was it the midfielder who had advanced too far and lost the ball? The pundits are nailing him to the pillory.
Was it the wing back who let his man go by, every right-minded pundit has seen it and will tap him on the fingers?
Was it the central defender who was beaten in the air by the attacker? He will be declared too small, not strong enough, too slow, poor positional play or whatever. The pundits know what went wrong.
Also on changing players the pundit knows much better than those incompetent managers. Why with a 1-0 lead the attacker was taken off and when they subsequently lose the pundit will put the finger on the wound and he will expose that incompetent manager. The tactics of the coach will always be wrong if they lose.
What should you do to become a pundit? The best thing is to have been a player. Preferably played for some teams in particular of course. Could Arsène Wenger, with his limited football career as a player, have become a pundit? Of course not, he is incapable for something like that.
He is to stupid according to the pundits. That what you’ve won in your career helps of course. Who would dare to argue with a former champion. Did he not, by becoming champion receive the ultimate certificate of competence? If you’ve become champion you know everything. It is a gift from the God’s as we all should be aware of.
Are the pundits neutral? No. Not at all. They try to give that impression, but they are not. I remember one game last season. Arsenal – Tottenham. When Tottenham in the final minutes unexpectedly grabbed a point. The pundits admitted frankly that they had been jumping full of joy for the late Tottenham goals.
And then we expect them to give a neutral analysis of games of Arsenal? Since that day I often miss parts of games shown on MOTD. After the interviews with the trainers, I switch away from the channel and switch to my own channel, which gives the horrible football of my own country.
I don’t need their colored “I know better’ explanation. Now the pundits opinion is more important than the players on the field and the pundits feel as if they have invented the game. Well they sometimes behave like that.
How nice it is if one of those pundits is called upon by his old team to help avoid relegation. And look, the man from on TV who knew everything fails and bakes nothing. Suddenly it seems not as simple as in the comfortable TV studio. On the field there are no 27 camera positions to use and analyse a phase.
No time to quietly look for errors. No, on the bench next to the field is only 1 point of view and he must make decisions immediately.
So congratulations on your career, my dear pundits. You knew your business on the field. I take my hat off for that. But as no journalist needs to tell me what to think of society, or tell me for which party I should vote, I don’t need any pundit to tell me that my team will never win if they buy nothing. No pundit has to tell me that my young players cannot win anything, or that our players are too small.
Today, most people are wise enough to form their own opinions, even about football.
So my dear pundits, find another job. Become a manager or something like that. There will be soon, perhaps, a vacant job in one of your favourite clubs. With your knowledge and skills you will win in your first season the PL and the CL the year after. For my dearest pundits, what could go wrong?
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