Pat Nevin absolutely loves football.
You can tell after spending no more than a minute in his company that he gets great enjoyment out of dissecting the game he loves, and played at the top level, as the former Chelsea and Everton man speaks with an infectious enthusiasm no matter what facet of the game is up for discussion.
Speaking at the launch of Newstalk's Premier League coverage for 2016 in Dublin today, Nevin revealed that he is a massive fan of Chelsea's most recent summer signing, Michi Batshuayi from Marseille.
In fact, Nevin was such a big fan of the Belgian striker that he directly told the club to sign him last season.
Batshayi is fabulous.
I went to Chelsea last year and said; "Buy this guy. Just buy him."
Sadly, he will not play instead of Costa. Does [Conte] play 4-4-2? He's tried to for five of the six games in preseason, but he's also gone for 4-1-4-1, so if you've got Costa battering defenders and then bring this guy on, he capable of scoring.
He can be so, so dangerous, and given what's going on behind him, wow.
But when the discussion moved on, Nevin disclosed that he has noticed a difference in the questions he is asked when over in Ireland doing media work, compared to back in the UK. And he was impressed. Nevin claimed that the questions he gets asked in Ireland are more tactical as Irish fans really know their sport.
Oddly enough, when I come over here and talk in Ireland, it's great. Particularly on Newstalk on a Monday night, I get asked questions that I don't get asked over in the UK. I get asked technical, deep, questions about tactics, and people, they know their stuff here.
They want to know about it. Ok, you have the big daft stories and we all love them, but in actual fact, people in Ireland know their tactics, know their sport.
Be it the Gaelic football, be it whatever, they know their technical side of sport.
He may have just been rubbing our belly, but it was an interesting statement.
And sure even if he is, we'll take it.
Newstalk 106-108fm’s Off the Ball team officially launched their coverage of the 2016 Premier League with the newest member of the team, Kevin Kilbane today. Former Welsh International and Arsenal striker John Hartson, and former Scotland and Chelsea winger Pat Nevin were also on hand to offer their insights and predictions for the season ahead.
For further information on Newstalk’s 2016 Premier League coverage and fixtures, check out www.newstalk.com and follow the conversation on @Newstalkfm @OffTheBall and #TeamOTB.
