Is it just me or is Jimmy Hill a complete waste of space on the excellent Sky Sports 1 programme he supposedly hosts, ‘Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement’? Why on earth do Sky persist on giving him the title credits – it cannot be to give the programme gravitas. It’s not like his opinions are worth listenning to; he just whines on and on about when he was a player (nearly 50 years ago), manager (40), or as a chairman (30). None of his thoughts are relevant, contemporary or interesting. Nobody gives a flying fig about what he thinks about anything any longer do they, except the Head of Sport at Sky presumably?
The poor sod, normally Brian Woolnough, who actually gets to host the programme, has to interrupt the often fascinating and insightful conversation between the always-engaging football journos to allow the big chin his allotted 2 minutes on every new topic introduced. He cannot resist the temptation to lapse in to ‘when I was a player/manager/chairman, there wasn’t anything like the money around that there is nowadays…’ Yeh we know that Jim; you’ve only mentioned it 7000 times now and guess what – we’re just about intelligent enough to know that without being reminded by you, you tube. There wasn’t the money 5 years ago either; it’s a sign of the times, a fact of life, a given. Move on you bloody diplodocus.
Most of the journo guests are gracious enough to give old jawbags his say without grimacing too obviously. Indeed Paddy Barclay has to be the most charming and understanding in this respect. But I love it when Oliver Holt is one of the guests; he can barely conceal his apparent contempt for chinno’s out-dated, conservative and often nationalistic views. Good on yer Ollie.
Finally have you noticed that annoying habit that Hill uses when seeking approval to his point; he asks a question like ‘don’t you think it’s the Chairman’s right to sack a manager for picking his nose’ immediately followed by a noise like an eh? um? as if imploring the guys to agree with him. None of them ever do of course. So can anyone explain why he gets his own show? If Sky want somebody to be the voice of experience in the game why not go for someone with more up-to-date views. But do you know what, I can’t think of anyone who has been involved in several aspects of the game whose opinion I’d quite like to listen to. David Dein? Nah too self-serving. Alan Sugar? He couldn’t entertain views contrary to his own. Bobby Charlton? Too decent. Bloody hell surely Jimmy isn’t the best Board level pundit we’ve got, is he? Sigh….
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ps I was delighted to see that Sky have indeed dropped JH for this season’s programme. Ah ha. The forecasting master Pasta Paulie!
Tags: football, jimmy hill, sky sports, tv
