Acerbic punditry is nothing new. Brian Clough was the master of it.
Scotland have the Tartan Army but need some firepower.
Acerbic punditry about England is nothing new. Brian Clough, working for ITV, went through England’s team to face Hungary in a Euro 88 warm-up match with trademark forthrightness. He pointed out the inexperience of some: “(Gary) Pallister is untried. Young (Stuart) Pearce who works with us (at Nottingham Forest) doesn’t have much experience either.” Clough then reaches Bryan Robson of Manchester United, England’s lionheart and midfield dynamo, scorer of 21 goals in 62 internationals. “The skipper is the one under pressure actually,” Clough said. “Nobody really knows how much he’s going to react to an indifferent season. So he's the one that's under pressure.” Clough then argued that Bobby Robson should have dropped his namesake and started the Forest player Neil Webb alongside Steve McMahon.
Agendas proliferate in some punditry but Clough was also eloquent and said what many people were thinking. He was box office. As a former England international himself, Clough’s views carried even more weight. Similarly Paddy Crerand on Scotland, also on ITV in the 70s. As in his ultra-competitive playing days for Celtic, Manchester United and Scotland, Crerand didn’t hold back. When Scotland were turned over by England at Wembley in 1971, Crerand’s invective towards his compatriots was intense. He slaughtered their defending in particular. And Crerand was right.
Another United legend and now unmissable TV pundit, Roy Keane, laid into Fabio Capello’s England side at the 2010 World Cup. “You keep talking about them having world-class players, they’re not,” Keane told Sky Sports. Keane went through almost the whole side listing what he saw as their limitations. Highlights included: “John Terry had his issues. Don’t think he had a great season... as much as Chelsea just won the Double...that’s down to the fact that they had some world-class attacking players. (Steven) Gerrard didn’t have a great season with Liverpool. (Gareth) Barry I thought was very average for Man City this year.” And so on.