Saturday 21 November

BLOGS

blogCategory
Previous
Back to blog
Next

The Best…football commentator

Alan Green
  • Posted at 12:34pm
  • 08 August 2007
  • by JohnAizlewood-RT
  • 10 comments

Football, as we all think we know, is about opinion. Yet when someone has the temerity to express an opinion they're bumptious, pretentious and getting above their humble station.

This brings us to BBC Radio Five Live's Alan Green, the man who has single-handedly transformed football radio commentary. Once upon a time, back when BBC Radio 2 found itself accidentally anointed as the voice of football, commentaries were delivered in the honeyed but opinion-free tones of dear Bryon Butler or Peter Jones.

Today, Alan Green, blessed with national radio's sternest Ulster accent since Gerry Adams, has more opinions than most. In fact, he's a walking, shouting bundle of opinions - all of them grumpy. He is, you suspect, a man who could (and probably does) start an argument in an empty room. Hence his famous feuds with Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson and Bolton Wanderers' manager Sam Allardyce, both of whom are not ones for measured criticism. Or even Alan Green's.

Radio commentary is a notoriously difficult discipline, creating hundreds of pictures in seconds, without a script. Green is more scattergun Jackson Pollock than considered John Constable. He approaches commentary as if football is the root of all evil and he is the man to put everything right in the name of "calling it as I see it".

Perennially surprised by the fact that England has a winter, he will rail at the weather at Blackburn in January; disappointed not to be borne to the press box in a bier held aloft by nubiles, he will attack the sightlines at all foreign stadia; he will bellow "get him off the pitch" if a player falls over; and should anyone be sent off our hero will personally call the International Court of Justice at the Hague to press for the strictest punishment, as he almost did when Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor had a tantrum after being dismissed in February's Carling Cup Final.

And not knowing of what he speaks doesn't stop him, hence his description of Middlesbrough's Abel Xavier as "looking just like Zeus, not that I have any idea what Zeus looked like".

In truth, his football knowledge is far from detailed, he resists all temptation to reveal which English club he supports (my money, although not much of it, is on Liverpool) and while I disagree with much of what he says, the never-ending joy derives from how this self-appointed, fire-bringing angel of righteousness says it.

He may be too big for his boots, but perhaps his boots are too small for him. In a world where to care is seen as a mark of the amateur, Alan Green cares. He cares that football isn't like it was when he used to watch Linfield as a lad. He cares that being awash in money may not be the Premiership's way forward and he cares that cheats sometimes prosper. In that, he is the voice of a real fan, but more importantly, he is fabulously, unmissably listenable. That's why he's the best.

Link to this post
Post a comment | 10 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 16 November 2009
  • at 12:46pm
  • by unouwan2

Green is dire. motson is dire. tyldesley is dire. sy bloke is dire.

quite liked barry davies in his day though.

  • Posted on 21 August 2009
  • at 1:21am
  • by r wright

peter jones was an inspirational man and the greatest sports radio broadcaster of all time. in my mid 30s, but no one has ever come close from being a kid in the 80s to now in very humble opinion. i still have recorded tapes that take me back to those radio 2 sport days, and i treasure them and the great man's genius. made me obsessed with game, unfortunately, now ruined by many factors. the most obvious being the scrapping of terraces. peter jones- the man with the golden voice, i salute you sir.

  • Posted on 24 December 2008
  • at 12:53am
  • by jonjo

alan is the last true commentator of our generation if peter j or bryan b were with us today there views would be as honest as alans

  • Posted on 13 October 2008
  • at 12:40pm
  • by Benjamin Nelson

Peter Jones was the finest and Mike Ingham is great as well - Alan Green well he moans about everything, if concentated on the game rather talking about things that annoy him ie someone not agreeing with him

  • Posted on 02 October 2008
  • at 3:14am
  • by annunciatore

The best football commentator? PETER JONES. 18 years deceased...but how we miss him.

  • Posted on 23 October 2007
  • at 8:58am
  • by Jfran

He can't possibly be the best, he is too biased.

I would have infinitely more respect for him if he admitted he was a Liverpool fan.

  • Posted on 22 October 2007
  • at 10:02pm
  • by magic_cantona

And to be honest, I thought he was a WUM.

  • Posted on 22 October 2007
  • at 10:01pm
  • by magic_cantona

Alan Green is dreadful.

Whilst listening to the game, you have no real idea what is going on because he's talking rubbish for 90 odd minutes.

And he hates Man United.

  • Posted on 13 October 2007
  • at 6:42pm
  • by Christhebuilder

The best?? You have to be jesting?? I can't stand his overbearing, clueless, partisan babbling.

In fact he annoys me so much I now turn the volume down on my radio and just watch the dial when the other commentators pass over to him....

  • Posted on 18 September 2007
  • at 6:25pm
  • by griffykee

couldn't agree more

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