English Premier League: The Role of Football Pundits

The media today has become such an important part of football. Newspapers, tabloids, news networks and sports channels all have websites and have their respective experts who have very interesting views about football.

The man pictured above, if you don't know already, is Steve McMahon. The ex-Liverpool and Everton player is now an expert, or a "pundit" as they call them these days, on a local television network in South Asia. An abrasive personality, McMahon has very interesting views on the game.

But somehow, he doesn't seem to understand what it means to be impartial.

If you didn't know that he played for Liverpool before you watched him talk about football, you'll probably need only a couple of minutes to understand that he did. It doesn't take him long to bring them up in most contexts. The blatant bias is enough to make me sick.

Of course, back in England, a television channel has hired the likes of Martin Keown and Phil Thompson, who give biased views about their former clubs.

This leads to the obvious question, what is the role of these ex-players today?

They make their weekly appearances on television channels and almost seem to be hired to give controversial views for the sake of it. It makes neutrals wonder why the television channels have hired them in the first place.

Alan Hansen is another such "pundit" who doesn't make his allegiances a secret while writing his column in a reputed news website. If Liverpool reach the final few stages of the Champions League, you can be rest assured that it will be "Liverpool this, Liverpool that" in his column for weeks together.

After all, he has the wonderful reputation of saying that "you can win nothing with kids" in reference to Manchester United before they won the treble in the 1998-99 season.

Roy Keane came out a couple of days back and made his views clear on the "pundits" and gave a scathing view of what he felt about them.

"I was asked by ITV to do the Celtic versus Manchester United game but I've done it once for Sky and never again, I'd rather go to the dentist. You're sitting there with people like Richard Keys and they're trying to sell something that's not there," said Keane.

Keane went on to suggest that he would take a job in TV only "if I fall on hard times", also said, "There was a debate about Wenger on Sky and how crazy is that? People are actually getting interviewed saying he shouldn't be doing this.

"What that man's done for English football is amazing and will be remembered in 25, 50, 100 years' time. Will those on telly yesterday be remembered for what they've achieved? None whatsoever.

"I wouldn't trust them to walk my dog. There are ex-players and ex-referees being given air-time who I wouldn't listen to in a pub. OK, there will be one or two who've done something in the game whose opinion you would take on board, but I'm on about every Tom, Dick and Harry."

Another very pertinent point that Keane made was the role that the media plays in matters like the "sack race" and "crises" that many clubs and the managers have had to endure after just a few bad games.

"We're on about league tables after a week, teams losing two games and it's a crisis and that's constantly being thrown into people's faces.

"People are getting brain-washed so what you've got to do is not to get sucked into any of that nonsense and try and focus on your job, but it's hard because people take notice of what's been said," concluded Keane.

The media has their own agenda at times. They hire these pundits to garner support from their ex-teams' supporters. Somehow, though, I don't see these pundits being balanced and they end up becoming emotional about their former teams.

The press and the media, for instance, made such a hue and cry about how Arsene Wenger should do this and that about Arsenal's "crisis." What was their definition of a crisis?

Two draws and one loss in three games. They also got on Arsenal's boss back for responding to a question which was posed to him a few days after the Stoke City game as well, and after he quite naturally defended his players and criticized the opponents - they ended up criticizing him for the response.

Then after the Fenerbahce game, a reporter asked the Arsenal manager about "a deliberate" elbow on Mikael Silvestre. If he had answered in the affirmative and explained his answer, he would've been criticized for "whinging." As it turned out, he said that he didn't feel that there was any intent in the challenge which led to Silvestre's nose being broken.

Sometimes, certain columns in newspapers are written just for the sake of turning a few heads. The repurcussions are not understood properly, and they end up looking like amateur pieces which a 11-year-old could write.

These "pundits" also end up influencing many fans who people might see booing in the stadiums and criticize their team when in fact, that team needs their support. Like Roy Keane said, they brainwash the fans with all sorts of nonsense and create a huge sense of instability around football clubs.

Some might argue that it's their job. I don't understand how it can be a person's job to come out and criticize a club or an individual, only to wax lyrical about the same club or the person a few days later.

Do these people have any respect? Do they have any pride?

Maybe they feel that they're in a place where they can make a difference.

Balance is most important; there has to be a balanced view presented to the fans about the state of affairs. When the very people who the fans look to present such distorted views about the clubs that they follow, it's no wonder that football fans have become so fickle today.