What would Christmas be without unhealthy dollops of nostalgia? The Christmas season is built upon endless servings of sentimentality and so it seemed appropriate to see Dunphy, Giles and Brady back on our screens last night, reunited for Premier Sports's coverage of Burnley vs Man City. The Three Amigos apparently speak regularly about the Premier League on Dunphy's podcast, but haven't been seen together on a TV screen for almost three and a half years. But there they were last night, looking slightly naked around a round table as Ivan Yates of all people tried to wind them up.
🎤🎸🥁 The band is back, baby!
📺 Ivan Yates is joined by John Giles, Liam Brady, and Eamon Dunphy for live coverage of Burnley v Man City
🗣 "These are two of the best players ever to play the game, and I'm one of the worst! But we get on!" pic.twitter.com/d0ARZzrfQl— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) December 3, 2019
Among the highlights were Gilesy, full of prematch nerves, admitting he'd been watching highlights since 9am that day, the general confusion over the pronunciation of the surname 'De Bruyne' and as ever, the pronunciation of the surname 'Jesus', ie 'JAYSUS'.
There was little in the way of insightful punditry, but what is there to say about a 4-1 win by City?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vgGh5bq-M
In the Examiner, Liam Mackey was largely positive:
Critics of the panel have been heard to complain that, towards the end of their days on RTE, they were showing signs of not quite being up to speed with the stat attacks which account for so much of football analysis these days. And, worse, one or other might even occasionally mispronounce a name, like Gilesy referring to “De Breen” last night.
But wisdom is a different ball game to mere knowledge, and Dunphy, Giles and Brady have always preferred to deal with the game’s eternal verities, cutting through the extraneous noise to get to the heart of the matter.
Form is temporary but class is permanent. Really, they shouldn’t be just for Christmas.
Over in the Irish Times, the in-form Mary Hannigan captured the nostalgic spirit behind the slightly surreal experience:
Then there was a bit of debate about the form of De Broyne, De Broy-na, De Broone, De Bri-na, when the lads should really have just said ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin', before Ivan expressed his concern about the absence of the injured Sergio Agüero, unconvinced by his understudy Gabriel Jesus. Liam did nothing to allay his fretting, doubting Jesus was the real deal.
“You know what'll happen now, Ivan, after what I said – Jaysus will get a hat-trick.”
But Jaysus had to settle for just the two in the end, the first of the peachy variety.
“This is the guy you said was no Agüero,” said Ivan. Liam repented.
“I'm having to eat my words.”
Full-time, 4-1.Ivan: “The Blues are back!”
Gilesie: “I think you're getting carried away there, Ivan.”
Ivan: “Liverpool will be looking over their shoulder now!”
Eamon: “Give me a break, baby.”
The band is back. Playing all the hits. And sure Jaysus, who doesn't love some nostalgia?
The Three Amigos will be back on our screens tonight for the Merseyside Derby. Hopefully the lads will have more to work with.
