Football pundit's David Brent moment (From South Wales Argus)

Football pundit's David Brent moment

8:25am Thursday 19th February 2009

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Something strange happened during the Everton v Liverpool game on the telly recently and I'm not talking about the technical issues that meant those of us who had sat through one of the most tedious games you'll see all season missed the only moment of any note in the entire match.

I'm talking about summariser Jim Beglin having what can only be described as a David Brent moment.

If you watch football regularly you'll be familiar with the much used phrases like "he'll be disappointed with that", "the lad's got a good engine", "all credit to the lads" and this season's favourite "he put in a good shift".

However, Jim raised the bar when he spoke of Liverpool being "chance deprived". This is a significant move for TV punditry and it takes us into uncharted territory.

It's a little scary to be frank.

How much longer before we hear about teams being "proactive", "pushing the envelope to achieve a win-win situation" and talking before games about their "mission critical strategy".

They are however, perfectly entitled to "think outside the box" as long as it results in a "postive outcome scenario" but "moving the goalposts" would appear to be against the spirit of the game not to say against the rules.

We've all heard examples of this sort of nonsense haven't we? You may have noticed that of late you no longer watch the telly, read the newspaper or listen to the radio, oh no, nowadays you "consume the media".

Have you tried eating the Argus? It's a bit on the dry side.

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