There aren’t many things in life which annoy me. Parking ticket machines which don’t accept credit cards are a bit of a bug bear. The quality of service in Cafe Nero is another. And don’t get me started on Nicky Campbell…
But one thing that really irritates me, and which partly caused me to set up this website, is how little football journalists seem to know about, y’know, football.
Let’s get this right. They have a job which most of us can only dream about. They get to watch football and write about it for a living. They have the opportunity to travel the world to do so. They can watch as many matches as they like because it is all research.
Yet so few of them are capable of actually saying or writing anything original. It must be the easiest job in the world if you love football but too many of them say nothing more than the average man or woman in the street could. It drives me nuts. After all, it’s not like they’re ex-players who have turned to punditry as a second career. These are ‘professionals’ and yet they often operate at a standard which falls pitifully below any standard which would would be expected in any other profession.
One of the main problems seems to be that so few know anything about football outside of the the Premier League. Despite it being part of their job to inform us, the football journalist seems untroubled by the notion of research or groundwork.
So, one thing I’m going to keep my eye on is some of the worst offenders. If I see any particularly anodyne, ignorant or trivial commentary, I’ll make sure I report back here.