The Misguided Musings on Mesut Ozil
A lot has been made on the so-called 'experts' views. I myself have written a blog only two weeks ago listing the pros and cons of the pundit glitterati. It seems that a trophy-laden football career or a degree in sports journalism isn't required when airing your offerings in front of a camera or scribbling your thoughts onto a national rag. No, what is wanted, what is mandatory, is to raise enough heckles, turn enough heads to give the opinion credence via word of mouth, and to relent to tired cliches that are rolled out by no-marks and people who are trying to converse in a football conversation but have less clue than an England World Cup Celebration Committee.
These cliches, these old adages are dangerous. Spouted often enough and instead of dying in the shadows, much like spurs after spending over £100m, they glean new life from morons repeating what they heard Adrian Durham or Mark Lawrenson say. If they've said it, it must be veritable, for they are the deities we visit at the altar of MOTD and TalkSport, to hopefully sponge some titbits of genius we can then pass off to our friends, lording it over them as we falsely claim football intelligence.
This hasn't been the case for as long as I can remember. Maybe it is the Age of The Click, where even the pundits will sell their dignity in order to gain a higher standing on the ladder of punditry, heaven forbid that they form an original opinion grounded in fact. "No! This is heresy! Look to Crooks and Owen for the answers you seek!" hisses a craggy-necked Hansen, cowering in the dark depths of the unlit MOTD studio, refusing to leave like a morose barnacle. There are exceptions of course, if you read my blog then you will be fully versed in, not only bullsh!t, but of the true experts, the men who do not shy away from the illuminating facts and will openly disagree if the fatigued phrases are wheeled out. Dixon. Vieira, Savage, Neville, even Shearer is slowly turning to the ways of the Force as the influence from Hansen grows weaker.
Unfortunately though, this lazy style is still used and is doing the rounds even during the Worlds Premier Sporting Competition, the World Cup. Countless times I've muted the TV as I've had the unfortunate luck to hear another specialist trot out a comment regarding Balotelli bringing trouble wherever he goes, to Germany lacking in flair but they always bring the results to the fore and always when commenting on England.
The one phrase, the one perversely wrong opinion that has me taking to my keyboard like the very 'Keyboard Warriors' I detest, is that Ozil is underperforming.
He is coasting.He is being carried.What does he bring to the team?Why does Yogi Low insist on starting him?If you watch him he doesn't do much.All these f*cking sentences compiled of f*cking drivel have been what I've seen or heard during the WC.
