Saturday 21 November

BLOGS

blogCategory
Previous
Back to blog
Next

Why I Love...Match of the Day

Alan Hansen
  • Posted at 2:57pm
  • 27 March 2007
  • by ChrisSkeat-RT
  • 13 comments

Football is an ever-changing world.

In the 1960s it was rattles, England, Bobby Moore, crap wages. In the 1970s we had bubble perms, slow-motion replays, communal baths. The 1980s was all tight shorts, hooliganism and unforgettable mullets. And the 1990s saw Richard "Hairy Hands" Keys on Sky, Ron Manager's Jumpers for Goalposts, and Baddiel and Skinner's Three Lions.

Now we have WAGs (heaven help us), diving and Roman Abramovich's yachtfuls of cash. But one thing has remained constant: Match of the Day.

Saturday night, 10:30pm-ish, there's Gary Lineker with his trademark cheeky schoolboy grin and FA Cup ears. A permanent fixture in the schedules, it's as familiar as an old shoe. It's one of the BBC's longest-running shows, having aired since 1964. Indeed, the theme tune is so rooted in British culture that it's become synonymous with football full stop.

Another near-permanent fixture for more than a decade has been the programme's primary pundit and summariser, Alan Hansen - in his time one of the most elegant and skilful centre-halves in the modern British game. He is a calm, authoritative and rational analyst, particularly keen on highlighting the "diabolical" mistakes of defenders, as well as their triumphs.

What I like about him is his no-nonsense style when it comes to the post-match debrief. His considered observations are always candidly explained. When a team is poor, he'll tell you so. When a team is good, he'll tell you why. And when dodgy decisions are made, he's not afraid to mince his words.

For example, commenting on England's performances in the European Championships in 2000, he declared: "Systems can help you, but if you took the England players that took part in those three games and got the best coach in the world to work with them for a year, it wouldn't have made any difference."

He was similarly scathing about the national team's 4-1 loss to Denmark in 2005: "The second half was easy to sum up - an absolute shambles. Communication, organisation and man-marking was nil." These vintage quips are always delivered in a cursory manner, with a classic Scottish lilt Fulton Mackay would be proud of.

Hansen's also on the ball when it comes to the Premiership, and he's not frightened to dole out spadefuls of criticism there either (when it's justified, of course). After Liverpool, his former team, played poorly recently, he concluded: "It's 14 years since I left the club and that first-half performance was the worst I've seen since. It was devoid of quality, devoid of ideas, and, worst of all, devoid of fight."

And what's more, unlike all the other ex-professionals, Hansen refuses to sit with the commentator at matches, preferring instead to be in the studio at the stadium for live matches and at TVC for highlights programmes.

A man who knows what he's good at and sticks to it. For Match of the Day, Hansen's been a fantastic signing.

Link to this post
Post a comment | 13 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 17 October 2009
  • at 9:55pm
  • by jay

i personaly think,Hanson is the most biased person to be a "pundit"very anti ENGLISH,should go back where he came from....and comment on Stenhousemuir v Hamilton Academicals

  • Posted on 28 January 2009
  • at 9:44pm
  • by Smokingsy

I love MOTD - it is easily the best programme on terrestial TV!

And i'd like to add to all the pundit talk - don't forget about Martin O'Neill - it's good when he comes in & was wicked having him in the studio during last Euro's. He is one of the few pundits from whom i actually learn things i didn't know about. His analysis of the game & of the players is very insightful & very informed. I love listening to his opinion & analysis of a match!

  • Posted on 11 January 2009
  • at 1:50am
  • by tony

Wasatching the Sunderland v Middlesborough match and heard Gary Lineker say that the guy who scored the Sunderland goal was given a yellow card for an over enthusiastic celebration of his goal and I say 'What is the game coming to when a guy can't groove on scoring?Why do we have to have this petty minded officialdom which seems to be creeping into every aspect of life including sport?' I'm sure John McEnroe has got away with FAR worse!

  • Posted on 09 January 2009
  • at 7:57pm
  • by Mickren

I absoulutely love Match of the Day i turned the channel to BBC 1 each time it is on but love the comments from Garl Lineker and Alan Sherrer as I think they are fabulous commentators on match of the day and always give their fair comments I love football any way so I will always tune in

  • Posted on 28 December 2008
  • at 6:10pm
  • by Mr A

As long as they dont get Marcel Desaillyon MOTD full time, everytime i hear his descriptions im normally shouting spit it out half way through and he talks absolute rubbish! I like MOTD but personally i cant stand Adrian Chiles and how he bangs on about the woes of being a West Brom supporter, get over it mate, you will be back in the championship next season where you belong!!

  • Posted on 26 October 2008
  • at 7:37pm
  • by downturn

Have to disagree with most of the posters on here. In my opinion the amount of football on MOTD has reduced. Its more talk than action, back in the 70's it was more action than talk. Sky has a lot to answer for. Has anyone not noticed how the highlights are edited down to the bare minimum. GL is good but the other ex-pros are tedious. Come on BBC ask for more highlights!

  • Posted on 05 October 2008
  • at 1:46pm
  • by Claydoh

I am a Sky Sports and Setanta subscriber, but i still religiously tune in every Saturday and Sunday for MOTD 1&2 respectively, It is what Football is all about, the theme tune, the banter. Sky's live coverage is ace, but i find their Football First show on a Saturday night very sterile and full coverage or extended highlights of a game played that day can be boring particularly when most footy fans know the scores anyway.

  • Posted on 17 August 2008
  • at 4:17am
  • by mcduck

of course i watch it becaue i can't afford sky. but even if i could, I'd still watch motd. It's the smell of the weekend. Fair enough, watching "Gary and the alans" every saturday night can get a bit dull but have you seen motd 2 on a sunday? Adrian Chiles and the like of Lee Dixon etc really do provide us with proper banter, like people talk in the pub about football with their mates. I love Linekar to bits but when you watch a tv programe about football, the program needs to be as good as the football. at the min we see the best football in the world being shown....with mediocre (at best) tv personalities presenting it.

  • Posted on 28 May 2008
  • at 5:24pm
  • by devilish7

I completely agree with lawsw6 about the fact that we watch MOTD mainly because Sky is expensive. As far as the show goes, Hansen is just about the only thing it's got going for it. Mark Lawrenson is a walking corpse who's been there for too long and does nothing but stating the obvious to go along with his predictions which are wrong more often than not. Shearer has all the charisma of a broom handle, Lee Dixon has been surprisingly good at times but the less said about Le Saux and some of the other regulars, the better. It's an old mates club a bit like the masons, who are happy to take a large pile of cash in salary from the license fee pot and do little more than talk absolute rubbish or state the obvious, and play golf in their spare time in return.

I want to see more people like Hansen who are not afraid to be controversial and upset people when it should be done. After upsetting Sam Allardyce, Harry Redknapp and Fergie to the extent that they would not talk to the BBC anymore(a great move in my opinion and exactly what the BBC are supposed to be doing), BBC's football coverage has become feeble and commercialist, in fear not to upset anyone else and thus deprive themselves of the oh-so-important post-match interview, that only a moron would find fascinating. That however, is a totally different subject I will not get into right now.

In conclusion, I'd keep Lineker(only just though), Hansen and Dixon and get rid of everyone else that turns up on MOTD as a pundit, unless they really have something intersting to say, and not afraid to step on their mates' toes, when that's the right thing to do.

  • Posted on 24 February 2008
  • at 8:51pm
  • by ukdomi

Lineker and Hansen are indeed brilliant, but that's just about it for what is good about MOTD.

The commentators (Jonathon Pearce especially) seem inept and often miss blatant points, whereas some of the other analysts (Gavin Peacock especially, along with Graeme Le Saux while he was there) make sweeping statements backed up on one specific piece of play, that do not reflect the match at all, or worse yet, make points that aren't supported by the 'evidence' they show. Claiming to have 'thought' or just come up with a point even though it's been in the press for the last week is another favourite of theirs. And stating the obvious isn't analysis, it's just licence payers money wasted on these people's salaries.

  • Posted on 06 February 2008
  • at 11:48am
  • by peasplease

Errrr....Beautiful Day by U2? That was ITV1's rubbish Des-Lynam fronted attempt at a Saturday-night football show. Shame on you!

  • Posted on 06 February 2008
  • at 11:10am
  • by pumpalump

Just a quickie. Please, please please can you bring back the old U2 theme tune at the start of the programme. It really does set the stage for a Top programme.

  • Posted on 21 August 2007
  • at 3:06pm
  • by lawsw6

We watch it because, if we don't subscribe to Sky, or have a Setanta freeview box or BT doesn't beam it to our mobile phones, and we can't get a ticket for love nor money... we have no choice! Bring back the 70's

Post a comment

Do you have something to say about this post? Share your thoughts…

Post a comment

(first or nickname only)

Please do not include any personal or personally identifiable information about yourself or others (including email addresses). All information you submit about yourself or others can be viewed by others.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

Post another comment

More


Advertisement