Thierry Henry is Sky's wet dream. He looks good, sounds good, has a celebrity profile and enjoyed an illustrious career at the top level.
Too bad he offers nothing but vacuous cliches although that has usually been a secondary consideration for Sky when replenishing their punditry stock. You wouldn't think it would be too hard to be honest, somewhat insightful and reasonably humorous when discussing football but alas, there are more Garth Crooks' than Gary Neville's in this world.
We are blessed with interesting pundits in Ireland. God knows most people don't regard the RTÉ panel as a fountain of knowledge when it comes to modern day trends but Giles, Dunphy, Brady and their eventual replacements Kenny Cunningham and Richie Sadlier are always fun to watch.
When pressed, Dunphy often sticks the boot in on his 'banal' counterparts across the water and last night he delivered a brilliant assessment of Thierry Henry's contribution to Sky.
"Thierry Henry is on two million a year... for talking shite," Dunphy said with a laugh, speaking at the Irish Sports Awards where he was honoured for his contribution to Irish sport.
Dunphy got emotional later on in his speech when he spoke about what it is like working with his punditry colleagues, tearing up as he likened working with John Giles and Liam Brady to Xavi and Iniesta doing punditry.
Note to award ceremonies going forward: Eamon Dunphy acceptance speeches should be mandatory.
