Sportsound Watch

[EdinburghLivi]

Could just about get on board with St. Mirren going top of the table if 'Thommo' wasn't so insufferable and biased. Worse than Willie Miller.

[The Master]

Steven Thompson makes Pat Bonner look competent. 

First he thought a scored penalty could be retaken if the keeper was off his line, then had no idea what “double touch” meant. 

[TheScarf]

1 hour ago, The Master said:

Steven Thompson makes Pat Bonner look competent. 

First he thought a scored penalty could be retaken if the keeper was off his line, then had no idea what “double touch” meant. 

It's no surprise to me that a former professional footballer doesn't know the simplest of laws of the game. Doesn't know the penalty double touch law. Fucking idiot of a man. 

[Sarto Mutiny]

15 hours ago, EdinburghLivi said:

Could just about get on board with St. Mirren going top of the table if 'Thommo' wasn't so insufferable and biased. Worse than Willie Miller.

He was fucking seething yesterday at the end of the St Mirren game. Was very funny

[Darren]

It still infuriates me that someone at BBC Scotland looked at Gary Lineker presenting MotD, thought 'I'll have some of that' and chose to employ "Thommo" as a TV presenter.

[TheScarf]

6 minutes ago, Darren said:

It still infuriates me that someone at BBC Scotland looked at Gary Lineker presenting MotD, thought 'I'll have some of that' and chose to employ "Thommo" as a TV presenter.

Lineker at least has a bit of charisma.  Thompson is totally dead behind the eyes.

[Savage Henry]

6 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Lineker at least has a bit of charisma.  Thompson is totally dead behind the eyes.

To be fair, Lineker is the rare case of a footballer who can actually do TV well.  More often they turn out like John Barnes on Five’s European games, and can’t actually read an autocue.  I guess Thompson is somewhere in between, but it has taken him about five years to get there.    
 

The trouble is, the bar is so, so low.   When BBC Scotland send out their second or even third team, it’s genuine car crash stuff.  Even ITV are scraping the bottom of the barrel with their attempts to appeal to the Talksport audience. 

[Stylish Kid]

PAOK v Hearts, kicks off in 10 minutes, I think the announcer in the stadium (or is it Pittodrie, I'm confused) is reading out the teams. We're being treated to a discussion of what is essentially Celtic's autumn fixture list

 

Willie Millar is paid to comment on football and doesn't know when the transfer window shuts. 

In some ways this is the most frustrating things - basic stuff that the average fab knows

 

[Sergeant Wilson]

12 hours ago, Stylish Kid said:

PAOK v Hearts, kicks off in 10 minutes, I think the announcer in the stadium (or is it Pittodrie, I'm confused) is reading out the teams. We're being treated to a discussion of what is essentially Celtic's autumn fixture list

 

Willie Millar is paid to comment on football and doesn't know when the transfer window shuts. 

In some ways this is the most frustrating things - basic stuff that the average fab knows

 

Shows how much you know!

The transfer window SLAMS shut.

[VincentGuerin]

On 27/08/2023 at 16:58, EdinburghLivi said:

Could just about get on board with St. Mirren going top of the table if 'Thommo' wasn't so insufferable and biased. Worse than Willie Miller.

Why do you have a problem with bias? It's football. Everyone is biased.

I don't have a strong opinion on Thompson. He seems to call it more or less as he sees it. What's the problem is he obviously supports a team? Grow up.

[RiG]

On 28/08/2023 at 12:32, TheScarf said:

Lineker at least has a bit of charisma.  Thompson is totally dead behind the eyes.

 

On 28/08/2023 at 12:44, Savage Henry said:

To be fair, Lineker is the rare case of a footballer who can actually do TV well.  More often they turn out like John Barnes on Five’s European games, and can’t actually read an autocue.  I guess Thompson is somewhere in between, but it has taken him about five years to get there.

Derek Johnstone on Football First anyone?

"And now.....we go to the Highlands and......the.....Caledonian Stadium where Partick.....Inverness Caledonian Thistle played........Livingston."

[Stylish Kid]

10 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Why do you have a problem with bias? It's football. Everyone is biased.

I don't have a strong opinion on Thompson. He seems to call it more or less as he sees it. What's the problem is he obviously supports a team? Grow up.

I don't think Thomson is particularly biased TBH.

 

I get bias, it's a thing, it's human. The issue with certain people (particularly Millar and Bonnar, to a lesser extent "bisquits"), is that they actively don't give a shit about any other teams or players and cant be objective.

 

For all his multiple faults, Michael Stewart is actually quite good at this. He's obviously a Hearts fan and gets frustrated when they don't do well, but he still offers decent analysis/opinions on Hearts, the opposition, or whomever else he is covering 

[Dons_1988]

11 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Why do you have a problem with bias? It's football. Everyone is biased.

I don't have a strong opinion on Thompson. He seems to call it more or less as he sees it. What's the problem is he obviously supports a team? Grow up.

There’s ways to carry bias I suppose in that role, but I don’t have a particular problem with Thompson. I just find him pretty poor at the job. 

Everyone carries it differently, some are total cheerleaders. I actually think Willie miller over compensates and goes two-footed on Aberdeen quite a lot. 

it should be fairly basic stuff, you can be open about your allegiances as long as you can maintain reasonable discussion about what’s happening in front of you. 

I think Richard Gordon is a good example of this. (Or maybe I’m being biased…)

[VincentGuerin]

4 minutes ago, Stylish Kid said:

I don't think Thomson is particularly biased TBH.

 

I get bias, it's a thing, it's human. The issue with certain people (particularly Millar and Bonnar, to a lesser extent "bisquits"), is that they actively don't give a shit about any other teams or players and cant be objective.

 

For all his multiple faults, Michael Stewart is actually quite good at this. He's obviously a Hearts fan and gets frustrated when they don't do well, but he still offers decent analysis/opinions on Hearts, the opposition, or whomever else he is covering 

Bonnar is just awful. Knows zero about anyone apart from Rangers and Celtic.

The rest I have no real problem with.

I think Stewart is really good when he just talks about fitba. I think he's right about things more often than not. Just needs to learn when to take a wee breather and never talk to Tom English or about Craig Levein.

 

[Stylish Kid]

Just now, Dons_1988 said:

There’s ways to carry bias I suppose in that role, but I don’t have a particular problem with Thompson. I just find him pretty poor at the job. 

Everyone carries it differently, some are total cheerleaders. I actually think Willie miller over compensates and goes two-footed on Aberdeen quite a lot. 

it should be fairly basic stuff, you can be open about your allegiances as long as you can maintain reasonable discussion about what’s happening in front of you. 

I think Richard Gordon is a good example of this. (Or maybe I’m being biased…)

I think Millar doesn't over compensate when he has a go at Aberdeen, he's simply regressing into being another Aberdeen (grand) Da' on the terraces

[VincentGuerin]

5 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

There’s ways to carry bias I suppose in that role, but I don’t have a particular problem with Thompson. I just find him pretty poor at the job. 

Everyone carries it differently, some are total cheerleaders. I actually think Willie miller over compensates and goes two-footed on Aberdeen quite a lot. 

it should be fairly basic stuff, you can be open about your allegiances as long as you can maintain reasonable discussion about what’s happening in front of you. 

I think Richard Gordon is a good example of this. (Or maybe I’m being biased…)

I can't think of anyone whose bias has ever annoyed me. It's just something I take for granted as being part of football.

If you ever listen to the English coverage on Five Live, for example, absolutely nobody tries to hide who they support. It's referenced all the time and just isn't an issue. I just think if someone is going to listen to football, then getting annoyed about someone expressing bias is childish.

Richard Gordon handles it fine. I remember he commentated (or maybe reported) on a Hearts - Aberdeen game midweek when I was a kid back in the 90s and couldn't go. Aberdeen won 2-1 and you could more or less hear him jumping up and down when they scored. My brother was raging about it. Even as a kid this never bothered me. It's his team. Can't remember why it was him commentating and not Begg or Alexander, but he certainly moved on from that and has been head and shoulders above everyone else.

[Stylish Kid]

Bias can almost be endearing - certainly in the case of Dickie Gordon. However, again there's a way of doing it. I think it's o.k. if you can speak about other teams well. For Bonnar and Millar it doesn't matter who the opposition is. 

 

Also Gordon is happy to commentate/observe on other matches. BBC never let B&M anywhere near anything that isn't Celtic or Aberdeen respectively. 

 

Also, Millar is frequently wrong, and has form for casual racism. 

[Salvo Montalbano]

1 hour ago, Stylish Kid said:

Bias can almost be endearing - certainly in the case of Dickie Gordon. However, again there's a way of doing it. I think it's o.k. if you can speak about other teams well. For Bonnar and Millar it doesn't matter who the opposition is. 

 

Also Gordon is happy to commentate/observe on other matches. BBC never let B&M anywhere near anything that isn't Celtic or Aberdeen respectively. 

 

Also, Millar is frequently wrong, and has form for casual racism. 

To be fair, Miller will often get sent to Dundee (either ground), Inverness or Ross County if Aberdeen either aren't playing or are away. He was the reporter for the Dundee Utd v Dunfermline game in week 2 and did the Dunfermline v Kilmarnock game in the League Cup. He knew a bit about both teams on both occasions and was fairly enthusiastic. Can't say anything remotely similar about Bonnar.

[Rodhull]

6 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

To be fair, Miller will often get sent to Dundee (either ground), Inverness or Ross County if Aberdeen either aren't playing or are away. He was the reporter for the Dundee Utd v Dunfermline game in week 2 and did the Dunfermline v Kilmarnock game in the League Cup. He knew a bit about both teams on both occasions and was fairly enthusiastic. Can't say anything remotely similar about Bonnar.

I find Miller’s enthusiasm on reporting from games has a lot to do with the weather. I’ve seen TV highlights for Aberdeen games that had numerous chances Miller didn’t bother mentioning on open all mics as it was presumably freezing cold and he couldn’t be arsed.

He’s not the best but far from the worst of the current crop and absolutely miles ahead of Bonnar. Bonnar would be crap even by club tv channel standards, no idea how he’s managed to be employed by the BBC for so long other than he’s obviously got a lot of pals there.

[Alert Mongoose]

2 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

Begg or Alexander

That's brought a tear to my eye reminiscing. Could make a dreary game sound enthralling.