The subject of Marco Silva's appointment at Hull City was up for discussion on Soccer Saturday this weekend, and Paul Merson decided to stand up, and take back his borders from Johnny Foreigner.
Merse had evidently sounded off about Silva's appointment before the show, as Stelling teed him up by saying "Ok Merse, let's get you started on Marco Silva". You can grimy watch it unfold below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=97&v=m88ivM2DwJ4
What followed was three minutes of bloviating that swung from the inane to the insane. What will follow will be a quoting of Merse's comments, juxtaposed with that awkward little thing called objective reality. In this instance, reality is not Merse's friend.
Stelling read out Silva's accomplishments - his most recent being a title win with Olympiacos.
Merson: I could win the league with Olympiakos. They've won it 107 times, and it's only been going 106 years.
Reality: Merson was sacked by Walsall having taken them from the Championship to the relegation zone in League One. Olympiacos have won the league title 43 times, and the competition has been staged since 1927, and the league has been successfully completed on 80 occasions.
Next, Merse decried:
Merse: Why's it always got to be a foreign manager?
Reality: Marco Silva replaced Mike Phelan, noted Englishman. Phelan succeeded Steve Bruce, also a noted Englishman. Bruce succeded Nicky Barmby, who is known for being, among other things, English. Barmby succeeded Nigel Pearson, who is English.
Before Nigel Pearson came Iain Dowie, who is admittedly not English. He is however, British, hailing from Northern Ireland. Before Dowie were Phils Brown and Parkinson respectively, who are both English. Peter Taylor preceded Parkinson: another Englishman. And before Taylor? Billy Russel, who is Scottish. That means that Hull's last 'foreign manager' was Jan Molby, who managed the club between April and October in 2002.
Merse then decided to do some comparing and contrasting:
Merse: How is this geezer any different to Gary Rowlett?
Reality: The highest ranking Gary Rowlett on Google lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and describes himself on LinkedIn as an 'experienced store and multi-unit retail manager leader'. Merse is likely referring here to Birmingham City manager, Gary Rowett, who has as much Premier League experience as Marco Silva.
Merse's defence of English managers then descended to a succession of words which made no sense. Stelling made the point that Silva managed Olympiacos to seventeen successive wins in the Greek League season: a club record.
Merse: Yeah, that can happen. That can happen. That can happen at Olympiakos. You ask people, that can happen at Olympiakos. That can happen. You couldn't tell me who Olympiakos are playing in two months time. Because they don't do the fixtures. They do the fixtures a month at a time. That's how bad it is. No.
Reality: It is (almost) true that such winning runs can happen at Olympiacos. In 2005/06, they went on a 16-game winning streak. In two months' time, Olympiacos are away to Panathanaikos, per this list of the Greek SuperLeague fixtures up to April 30th.
Phil Thompson was equally bad, stating with remarkable conviction that Silva knows nothing about the Premier League, one of the most widely televised competitions in the world.
In fairness, Stelling argued the case for Silva well, with Matt Le Tissier making the fair point concerning the success of Mauricio Pochettino, a largely unknown foreign manager who quickly mastered the Premier League, and made the competition much better for his presence.
There is a legitimate debate to be had about the pathway for British coaches to the Premier League, but Merson added nothing to that conversation with his inaccurate and isolationist drivel: it boiled down to an argument defending a British coach whose name he doesn't know based on a totally wrong assumption about the fixture list in Greek football.
What do they know of England who only England know? Very little, as it turns out. Not even the name of the former Birmingham City manager.
*****
This column has been critical of BT Sport Score - BT's bombastic rival to Soccer Saturday - in the past, but their coverage of the FA Cup 3rd Round was gloriously anarchic, reflecting the careless, rugged splendor of the competition itself.
The show was an absurdly difficult undertaking: 24 live cup games on concurrently, featuring eight studio guests and reporters at most of the grounds.
The edition of the show we've previously previewed felt overly-regimented and exceptionally force, but on FA Cup Day, the show loosened its tie and ripped open its top button. Hell, it even allowed Howard Webb to wear his Sunday Casual and ascend from his bunker:
When the FA Cup is at its best, it melds the obscure with the anarchic, and that is precisely what BT served up. Consider the excruciating amount of time that Adam Virgo had to fill when reporting on a penalty between Eastleigh and Brentford, which might well have been scripted by Beckett:
With so many games on, BT had to be creative to met their reporter quota. Step forth presenter, Reality TV star, one-time footballer and life coach (per Wikipedia) Jeff Brazier. He was married to Jade Goody at the time of her death, and his television credits include This Morning, Wife Swap, I'm Famous And Frightened! and ITV's Celebrity Wrestling.
He was sadly beset by a few technical gremlins:
The FA Cup is largely ruined by declarations that it's the Greatest Domestic Cup Competition in the World. It sits much easier at the centre of chaos.
