Regardless of your opinion of him, it cannot be denied that Eamon Dunphy is entertaining. And few things are as entertaining as Eamon Dunphy on British pundits. Who can forget his outstanding response to Garth Crooks' soft interview with Sven Goran Erikson during the 2006 World Cup. After a sycophantic questioning by Crooks, Eamo told viewers upon the return to RTE 'that's the first time I've seen two men have sex on the BBC'.
Dunphy made his regular appearance on 2FM's Game On last night, and, citing an article by David Walsh in the Sunday Times, criticised the culture prevalent in punditry on British channels.
Walsh used his column in last weekend's paper to decry the BBC's exceptionally bland coverage of the FA Cup tie between West Ham and Manchester City, in which most of the half-time break was taken up with a tedious debate on the nature of a foul:
Ian Wright 🙈 pic.twitter.com/AU1hIjJDxK
— Cahair O'Kane (@CahairOKane1) January 6, 2017
Dunphy agreed with Walsh's column, saying that it's "very rare for someone to call them out the way David did".
The thrust of Dunphy's critique is that most British broadcasters - with a couple of notable exceptions - are disrespectful towards their audience:
They’re really hopeless. Some of them are good - Souness is excellent. Gary Neville, I think, is very good.
Ian Wright is very good when he puts his mind to it, but they’re not encouraged to really put their minds to it and really be rigorous and robust, which is what you need and what you should expect.
They’re hopeless.
I don’t like to say it, but you have to have a commitment to the audience and that’s what’s missing in England. And, also, you have to engage people as analysts who know their stuff. You have to know the game when you’re on live television and giving analysis, you have to actually know it....
...What really baffles me is what the television companies are thinking about.
BT Sport, for example, have invested about £2bn in rights and then they get David James and Rio Ferdinand.
They don’t respect their audience. That’s really what bugs me.
You can listen back to the slot on the 2FM website.
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