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Media MERSON

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Hedging his bets
* ‘I think United will just win the game, although a draw wouldn’t surprise me.’

* ‘I wouldn’t be shocked if this ended in a draw but I fancy Liverpool to get the win.’

* ‘I see Chelsea winning, although I’m not 100 percent sure.’

Conclusion: Paul Merson’s not really got the hang of predictions.
 
Hedging his bets
* ‘I think United will just win the game, although a draw wouldn’t surprise me.’

* ‘I wouldn’t be shocked if this ended in a draw but I fancy Liverpool to get the win.’

* ‘I see Chelsea winning, although I’m not 100 percent sure.’

Conclusion: Paul Merson’s not really got the hang of predictions.

Charlatan-speak.

It's not any different from fortune-telling.
 
Magic moments
When Paul Merson’s predictions begin by telling us that ‘the Magic Man has looks ahead to the action’, Mediawatch starts rubbing its hands with glee. Highlights include:

‘I haven’t been that impressed by Liverpool. I think Jurgen Klopp has gone in there and realised there’s a lot of work to do. I keep on saying I expect Chelsea to win and they keep on losing…’

Jurgen Klopp probably isn’t massively impressed with Merson either; he should write a column.

‘Palace enter it on the back of a hiding at Man City in the League Cup which I don’t understand because they’re not going to get relegated, win the league or get into the top four so surely it should have been taken seriously.’

We’re pretty sure they tried, Paul; you might have noticed that City are really rather good.

‘I don’t see how Norwich can put up with City when they get going, particularly at the Etihad.’

See above.

‘Newcastle are probably sat there now thinking how they lost 3-0 to Sunderland.’

Note to the Sky Sports stenographer: Don’t just write down everything he says.

‘I’m not sure how this going to go.’

See above.

‘Even though they qualified, I don’t understand why Roberto Martinez made so many changes against Norwich in the League Cup.’

This is a recurring theme: does somebody want to talk to Walsall’s former manager about keeping a 25-man squad happy?

‘I thought it was a bit early to sack Tim Sherwood considering he kept them up last season, they would’ve gone down last year if it wasn’t for him. They’ve sacked him and got no one in, how can you sack someone and then not have a replacement lined up?’

a) We’re pretty sure that Villa would have appointed somebody, if not Tim Sherwood and b) only Merson could sound so incredulous about something that happens all the time. We’re pretty sure no manager > shi*t manager. If in doubt, perhaps ask Walsall, who took over two weeks to replace Merson after they lost 5-0 to Brentford.

Mediawatch: Let's talk about Cesc, baby - Football365
 
Everyone who is deep enough in the bowels of working for a sporting network of course has boyhood clubs/teams they supported, I do agree. But I do think it is reasonable to drop the bias for their professionalism.
i actually like the fact that pundits are open in their preferences for some teams and support them, except if its ott and they are never critical for their own teams or always down the rivals because that would be like listening to fans in the pub
 
Yea, all games in all sports (except for American Football) have home and away commentating unless the game is on prime time television where the whole country is watching the same broadcast feed. In that case it's usually pretty unbias for the most part. Even the home commentating can be pretty unbias, there are a few famous homers out there in sports, particularly with baseball that is the exception to the rule. One of the most famous is Hawk Harrelson who calls the games for the Chicago White Sox. When saying the score before the commercials start he'll say, "Good guys 3, bad guys 5". Haha what a loser he is.
Easy, killer. Hawk is not a pundit. He is an announcer. Employed by the White Sox. And he is the first to admit he is an adamant 'homer'. And lifelong White Sox fans, like myself, fucking adore him.

You're not still upset about the dropped third strike, are you?
 
Hedging his bets
* ‘I think United will just win the game, although a draw wouldn’t surprise me.’

* ‘I wouldn’t be shocked if this ended in a draw but I fancy Liverpool to get the win.’

* ‘I see Chelsea winning, although I’m not 100 percent sure.’

Conclusion: Paul Merson’s not really got the hang of predictions.

My Grandad worked as a pundit on American 'Soccer' for a while and was once asked "who is going to win?" and replied "I don't know, that's why they are playing the game".
 
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/nov/10/arsene-wenger-football-doping-Woolwich
Wenger was embroiled in a doping controversy of his own in 2011, when the former Woolwich midfielder Paul Merson told the French magazine So Foot that “on the night before big games we would go to a Holiday Inn in Islington where a yellowy product was injected into our arm. I never asked any questions. From the moment you trust a manager you take everything he asks you to.”

At the time an Woolwich spokesman said the substance was a “simple multivitamin injection”, while Wenger angrily denied the story, saying: “If you find one player who I asked to take an injection to play one game, no matter how big the game was, I would resign tomorrow morning.”

Unfortunately Merson was probably so fucked on gear and drink that he hallucinated the whole incident.
 
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