Our (Media) friends in the North | OneFootball

A couple of things prompted me to write this, the first thing that piece by Theo Walcott on the BBC Sport website, where he had  been asked to compare and contrast Alexander Isak with Thierry Henry.

He started off ok but ended up with a plea to Arsenal to sign our player.

Someone should have edited his final paragraph in the same way I’m not allowed on here to really describe what I think of him.

Then there’s news tonight (Monday) of Gary Lineker finally leaving the BBC after the 2026 World Cup and ahead of that, he will no longer present Match of The Day after the end of this 2024/25 season.

So who is going to replace him and who exactly are our friends in the media?

Here’s my two penneth on the current crop.

Theo Walcott and Martin Keown are basically the same person. They are still wearing their Arsenal shirts and struggle to offer anything other than who Arsenal can buy. They miss the point that Captain Scarlet’s enemy is starting to fail and maybe it should be who can they sell instead. Why don’t they point out that Arteta just loses his temper all the time and it’s starting to wear thin.

Next up, we have self-appointed Man Citeh legend Micah Richards. He can comment on any team as long as it’s Man Citeh. He’s funny and at least he isn’t pushing for Bruno to fill the Rodri gap.

There’s the misery in a human, Danny Murphy. He hates Newcastle United and can rarely give us any credit no matter how well we’ve played. For me it’s a real shame Ian Wright has left. He got us. He knew what Mike Ashley had done and he stood up for us. I think he’s a great bloke to have on TV. There’s a few more nonentities all of who can’t see beyond the top six. I’m leaving Alan Shearer out, as obviously he isn’t against us.

Over on Sky we have Roy Keane, who for obvious reasons doesn’t “think of us at Christmas “ or any other time tbh. He’s mildly amusing at times and isn’t a sycophant at least.

Jamie Carragher isn’t too bad but can’t see beyond liVARpool. Again he “has this view of us” and our best players.

Gary Neville is decent at giving us credit when it’s due and has fought our corner over PSR.

I won’t even mention the moronic Sky panel on a Saturday.

So who else is there?

For me, if it can’t be Ian Wright I’d like Micky Flanagan or Frank Skinner.

Joking aside, I’d like to see ex-players who maybe need the money, who don’t support a top team and don’t come with a script.

I’d like to see someone comment on a game without taking the side of the top team from the start.

These media companies assume we want to hear from players of a top team. Who they played for and what they won doesn’t necessarily mean they are intelligent or articulate.