Call him a dinosaur of a by-gone era all you want, John Giles doesn't really care. The RTÉ pundit knows what he likes and he's always been upfront in sharing those opinions, that also goes for the things that he doesn't like. And, the latest thing in modern football that Giles is less than keen on is managers publicly analysing football.
The appearance of Roberto Martinez on Monday Night Football this week has sparked Giles' ire and he's used his weekly column in the Herald to put his point across. In what is a rather striking sentence, Giles questioned what the Everton manager had to gain by appearing alongside Jamie Carragher.
It made zero sense for Martinez to expose himself to Carragher, an honest ex-pro who is very good on defence and was trying to do his job.
Giles' overarching point is that 'exposure' to managers has become too much in the modern game. Martinez publicly analysing the weaknesses of his own team (and that of other teams) was something that Giles just couldn't get his head around and he didn't hold back on his opinion of Martinez.
It has been fashionable for some time for managers to appear on television talking about other teams and presumably, this is also part of the 'modern game'. But is it right? How can it be?
From where I'm sitting, Martinez has plenty to learn about the game and plenty of work to do with Everton to improve on a very patchy run last season.
Manuel Pellegrini is, according to Giles, the kind of manager that others should be copying. He keeps to himself and gives the media the bare minimum. When you consider the nonsense that Jose Mourinho has been coming out with recently, perhaps Giles has a point that the modern game is just too caught up with listening to what manager's have to say.
