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Sky & MOTM

God, I hate so many things about Sky! Jack Rodwell, despite his super-classy goal to wrap things up, was quite right to feel embarrassed by their decision to give him the MOTM award, as he was only on the field for a few minutes! In my view, it amounts to an insult to the rest of the team, who sweated blood for the cause throughout the 94 minutes, none more so than the much-derided Ossie, who I've also had a go at on many other occasions but who was excellent against United and for me, the true MOTM.

But then Ossie has never been and never will be a media darling, whereas Jack Rodwell is being hyped up largely because Sky want to see him at Old Trafford as soon as possible. Let's hope they don't get their way...

Brilliant performance and result, now let's really go for it in Lisbon.
Mike O'Neill, Barcelona Posted 21/02/2010 at 19:39:02

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Jimmy Crack
1 Posted 22/02/2010 at 04:54:32

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Summed it up perfectly, Mike. And I’m sure it’s been discussed before but the BBC website "Garth Crook’s Team of the Week" is officially making my blood boil. We beat Manchester United in an amazing display, yet only 1 player makes it in! While 2 Villa players show up when they expectedly cruise past Burnley. The twat Crooks doesn’t even have to type anything explaining his picks, he just chooses as many top 4 players as he can get away with and goes and collects his paycheck. Tit doesn’t even watch the games I have to assume, just goes to the match reports, sees who scores, and voila in they go.

Ridiculous, extremely annoying.

Jimmy Crack
2 Posted 22/02/2010 at 04:58:36

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Osman didn’t even make it into the reserves, and for most he was the man of the match! Yet somehow Rodwell and Gosling get in...

Duncan McDine
3 Posted 22/02/2010 at 09:40:31

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Crooks is a class-A prat, so wouldn’t read or listen to a word he says. The rednose Hansen is probably one of the better pundits on telly.

Sky especially are just pathetic when it comes to analysing footy matches.

Ciarán McGlone
4 Posted 22/02/2010 at 10:02:24

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Dion Dublin is the man for that call...Not SKY.

Sam Higgins
5 Posted 22/02/2010 at 10:06:05

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You beat me to it!

My delirium following the final whistle was short lived when learning of Rodwell’s MotM award. Total fucking conspiracy: give him the award, raise his profile... get him to OT. Because there is no way Sky can swallow someone like Rodwell being at Everton...

Sean McCarthy
6 Posted 22/02/2010 at 10:37:09

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"....... Jack Rodwell is being hyped up largely because Sky want to see him at Old Trafford as soon as possible....."

Pathetic. Just pathetic

Dave Roberts
7 Posted 22/02/2010 at 10:41:07

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What got my goat a little was the view that Manure must have been tired after their game in midweek. They had obviously forgotten we had a game the same night! Ok they had to travel but 1.5 hrs to Milan?

As for Rodwell getting MOTM, if he had said after the game that he thought he deserved it I would have been annoyed. But he said himself it was ridiculous so I don’t see it as a problem for the team or us. So sod it!

The most stirring thing for me is that after the game there were so many different opinions as to who was the MOTM! And they all had merit.

The options I heard were:-

Osman (my own choice as well)
Heitinga
Distin
Baines (iffy that one. Great going forward but defending a bit suspect)
Pienaar
Donovan

This illustrates how well the team as a whole played and that is what is so impressive for me.

Tony Williams
8 Posted 22/02/2010 at 11:08:31

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As Ciaran said, it was Dion’s decisions, not Sky's. He gave a crap reason though.

Garth Crooks on the other hand is a person I like to ignore, as what he does for his team of the week is to see how Spurs got on and pick as many of them as he can if they won.

This is a man who defended Adebeyor’s actions against Arsenal on the footy show with Gabby and Lee Dixon because he hates Arsenal so much. Even Adebeyor apologised; he didn’t.

Franny Porter
9 Posted 22/02/2010 at 11:14:35

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Dion Dublin spent the preview to the match completely dismissing our chances of getting anything out of the game, and went on the same way at half time. Even Richard ’Wookie Hands’ tried to take him to task over his comments after the game, but Dion would not concede fuck all. The fact he then gave Rodders the MOTM suggests to me the biased prick is trying to make out it was fluky win, if he gave it to Ossie or Donavon he would have been admitting we where the better team. Wanker.

Ciarán McGlone
10 Posted 22/02/2010 at 11:32:45

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My favourtie ’Crooks’ moment was when he suggested we would miss Tommy Gravesen in this game [after he came back from Celtic] as he had been vital for us this season...

Someone should really have told him that Gravesen had yet to see any pitch time for us...

As thick as champ.

Andrew Ellams
11 Posted 22/02/2010 at 12:08:04

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I’m not sure why people take any notice of what these pundits say. To be honest, they probably couldn’t care less who they give MOTM awards to or put in their weekly ’Dream Teams’. It was an excellent team performance, nobody let the side down and if we carry on the way we are going we might just get something out of what was starting to look like a season to forget.

Nick Wall
12 Posted 22/02/2010 at 12:15:51

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I find the Guardian player ratings on a Monday are usually a pretty good benchmark. Today the Guardian gave Osman a 9 — the highest rating for any Premier League player this weekend.

Stephen Ryan
13 Posted 22/02/2010 at 12:54:36

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Sean McArthy nail on the head mate.

John Nelson
14 Posted 22/02/2010 at 12:47:48

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The Sunday Mirror’s (shite paper I know) team of the week contained half the Arsenal team, half the West Ham team and not one Everton player! Rather than get wound up over the bollocks most of them print the best thing to do is just ignore them.

Man of the match BY FAR was Leon Osman — now I’m one of his biggest critics, however against Chelsea and Utd he has been nothing short of superb. Non-stop running, full hearted tackles, clever skill, clever passes, even getting in a few decent scoring positions... He’s like a completely different player to that of a few months ago.

All he needs to do now is keep this up and not only will he win all the fans over, he’ll cement a fully justified first team place.

Well done Leon and well done Everton — fucking brilliant on Saturday that was.

COYB

James Elworthy
15 Posted 22/02/2010 at 13:15:07

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I posted on Saturday it was an insult to our players for Dublin to give MotM to Jack, the poor lad was only on in minutes.

Osman was MotM but guys like him are unsung heroes and honest and don't get the plaudits they deserve, like he proved when he didn't go down on his first run deep into the Utd half.

When I was a kid, we had a player called John Hurst, never noticed him on the pitch but when he didn't play, you well noticed he was missing.

I think we should start up a campaign for a formal apology by SKY and Dublin for insulting us on Saturday and Dublin, only renowned for the length of his manhood than his ability, should be sacked as a pundit.

Ciarán McGlone
16 Posted 22/02/2010 at 13:18:33

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"I think we should start up a campaign for a formal apology by SKY and Dublin for insulting us on Saturday"

Aye, you do that.

James Elworthy
17 Posted 22/02/2010 at 13:18:38

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And I forgot to say Garth Crooks is the biggest smug-faced tosser on TV. I won't watch the BBC goals on Saturday programme if he is on, I would rather watch Pinnochio and the illiterate Merson than him.

Norman Merrill
18 Posted 22/02/2010 at 14:01:13

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Mike, You are spot on about the performance of Osman, and also about the over the top appraisal of Jack Rodwell. We have learnt over the years how false Sky can be when it suits them, as our lads are never flavour of the month, any other time.

Terry Hayes
19 Posted 22/02/2010 at 14:05:24

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James, you've got to admit, he's a handsome fucker though...

Dave Roberts
20 Posted 22/02/2010 at 14:04:22

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James Elworthy: Funnily enough I have just posted about John Hurst on what is probably a dead thread now (Harvey Ball and Kendall are back).

A great player, very underrated and who never got the recognition he deserved (although I think he had a couple of call-ups for England but never actually played... correct me if I’m wrong).

James Elworthy
21 Posted 22/02/2010 at 14:25:09

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Dave, Sorry didnt see your post, I remember he always wore number 10 which was unusual in those days for a defensive player, I think he played alongside Labone at the back.

I dont think he played for England and of course Kendall never didnt either, Harvey did play only once or twice didnt he (seem to recall maybe the likes of Malta he played against).

However, those days caps werent given out willy nilly to anyone. I think Hurst suffered from the fact the competition was Moore, Hunter and Todd for his position. My dad says Tony Kay displaced Moore in the England team after the 62 World Cup and, if he hadn't got his life ban, Bobby Moore may not of been captain of the '66 World Cup winners.

Another underrated player in my view from the past was Paul Bracewell, he again didn't get the England recognition he deserved... maybe one or two caps.

Dave Roberts
22 Posted 22/02/2010 at 14:38:06

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We seem to agree on a lot James! Paul Bracewell was my favourite player in that side. I remember him running the midfield at Old Trafford in a 1-1 draw and putting Mark Hughes et al to shame!But nobody in that side truyly got the recognition they deserved. England had to be embarrassed by the press to call up any of our players at that time. But once they were in they stuck like Reidy, and the two Stevens’.

James Elworthy
23 Posted 22/02/2010 at 15:07:24

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And Garth Crooks and Dion Dublin were both mediocre players and even worse pundits.

Tony McNulty
24 Posted 22/02/2010 at 16:34:18

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As others have said, it was the space cadet of a presenter who made the call, inlfuenced I guess by Andy Gray’s rhapsody over the goal.

Tony Williams
25 Posted 22/02/2010 at 16:47:40

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Christ! Don’t start me on that effing Andy Gray, winds we up to death.

He even said on Saturday that there was a possibility that Rodwell should have been sent off for his celebration, as it was a yellow for the shirt and one for jumping into the crowd. he even went as far on Sunday to state that he had spoken to a referee about, tosser. Can’t stand the man anymore so far up the Sky 4’s arse that we don’t know where they finish and he starts.

Nick Lewis
26 Posted 22/02/2010 at 16:52:39

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I have to defend Dion Dublin here. He emphatically DID predict an Everton win at half time. I remember it clearly as I thought it was quite a bold thing to do, given our record against United. Sorry Franny, you’re wrong there. I didn’t see his pre-match comments, but if he predicted a United win, well, who the fuck didn’t? Also on the Rodwell thing, I think he was just caught up in the majesty and brilliance of the moment like the rest of us, and awarded the moment of the match rather than man. Yes, it should have been Ossie, but all of this Sky want Rodwell at OT is just conspiracy theory bollocks.

Lee Mandaracas
27 Posted 22/02/2010 at 17:06:21

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Dion Dublin (and this is a verbatim quote ten minutes or so after the final whistle) "That would’ve been a goal if it'd’ve gone in." ’Nuff said Dion!

Anybody still give his opinion any credence whatsoever? Didn’t think so.

Tim Kelly
28 Posted 22/02/2010 at 18:14:51

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It gets worse - look at the Daily Mail football site right now: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/index.html
Lots of Sky4 stuff (naturally) plus match reports from 9 of the weekend's games. Guess which match report is missing?
Are we invisible?

Unfair of us to play them when they were tired, I suppose.

Gerry Western
29 Posted 22/02/2010 at 19:11:36

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Mike to be honest I was surprised by his change of heart right at the end. However, he did concede that right up to that point he’d had Donovan ahead of everyone else and was about to award the accolade to him. He was certainly my choice for MotM, though I do agree Osman had his best game ever in my opinion and ran him close as did Hetinga who did a great marshaling job on Rooney.

Pete Case
30 Posted 22/02/2010 at 21:50:29

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Well I guess the lesson is that you can’t expect to get MOTM when you fluff a sitter.

Derek Thomas
31 Posted 22/02/2010 at 23:46:06

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James Elworthy, you Dad is spot on about Tony Kay.

As for Hurst, then as now (Rodwell) any body who is a big lad is automatically a centre-half, unless he gets a goal or two in the youth teams then he becomes the next great white hope, the new Dixie.

Hurst was in the Reserves as a CF and as far back as 1964 he kept on getting chances up front for the 1st team but stunk and would usually be swapped with Gabriel (no or only one sub then and it had to be a genuine injury... those where the days).

And that's how he landed in the back 4 and made a decent fist of it so he stuck there, but still popped up with a goal or 5 per season.

Eric Myles
32 Posted 23/02/2010 at 07:14:38

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We got 2 players in Soccernet’s TOTW and Manager of the Week to boot.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=745291&sec=england&root=england&cc=3888

And in the Fantasy Premier League Donovan was MOTM

John Smith
33 Posted 24/02/2010 at 16:40:57

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You lot should of learned by now to ignore people like Garth Crooks; for lack of a better word, the man is a fucking idiot.

Utter, up his own arse, smug twat who only cares about Tottenham and the rest of the "Sky 4" except Arsenal - and even then he’d choose Arsenal players above anyone else. Prick.

As for Sky, I agree with what someone above said, they won’t rest until Rodwell is at Old Trafford or anywhere else apart from Everton, they’ll try and sensationalise every story or try to pick up anything they can on him to maximise his profile - I’d stop watching Sky Sports in a heartbeat if I could, however that would mean missing out on Everton games.

Dion Dublin is now, in my eyes a complete wanker, how can you give a kid who had only been on the pitch some 10 minutes when his team was already 2-1 up against the three-time consecutive champions Man of the Match? its a complete joke, and he needs to have a word with himself - speaking of Dublin, why the fuck was he there in the first place? Dublin spent all of five minutes with United...even before they began to win everything in the early 90s, its not like he played even a percentage part of their success. Says everything about Sky though.

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