We’re tired of bland punditry, the obvious almost always being stated, while we can also give or take the pantomime outrage of a Roy Keane or Savage.
What would make our match-viewing experience all the richer is straight-talking, from the heart, from former players whose aim is to elucidate, less so entertain.
Because ultimately we’re not watching Love Island. It’s football. It matters and we want to be informed.
Thankfully, the future bodes well if any of these current players swap their boots for an uncomfortable-looking chair.
Kevin De Bruyne
“I am a brutally honest person.”
So said one of the best Premier League footballers of all time when he shared his life story in 2019, and the Manchester City assist-king has plenty of form for not holding back.
That same year, the Blues were about to take on Tottenham in a Champions League quarter-final, the first leg held at Spurs’ swanky new ground. Might that be an advantage for the London side?
“Everybody talks about the stadium like it’s something special. Everybody has a stadium. Everybody has supporters.”
Disarmingly no-nonsense and thoroughly schooled in Pep-ball, the Belgian is always worth listening to.
Jamie Vardy
Diplomacy usually takes a back seat when the Leicester man speaks, his thoughts mercifully unfiltered and lacking that PR sheen that typically makes top-flight players sound like politicians on a campaign trail.
Vardy holds little truck with empty platitudes but similarly is not one to criticize without due cause or reason.
As his famous Facebook post back in 2011 claimed – a claim that later found its way onto his shinpads – those who talk nonsense tend to ‘get banged’.
Instead, Yorkshire to his core, he speaks with substance while it would be fascinating hearing one of the best Premier League strikers around breaking down a forward’s failings, or what he does so well.
He’s funny too, genuinely so. That helps.
Wilfried Zaha
The winger, newly signed by Galatasaray, is often said to be ‘outspoken’, a label sadly attached to any player willing to speak their mind.
That we also bemoan the absence of characters in the modern game reflects the double-standards we project onto players who can’t win either way.
If Zaha’s forthrightness on an array of subjects antagonizes some, it will be nothing but a plus in the studio, where his intelligence and strong opinions would help enliven debates and get people talking.
Jamie Redknapp’s banal observations would wither on the vine in his company.
Andrew Robertson
Unimpressed by reputations on the pitch, and never shy from airing his takes on such matters as fixture scheduling, the Liverpool left-back has made himself an unpopular figure beyond the confines of Anfield for habitually winding up opposition players and fans.
And as much as we are advocating sensible discourse in the studio, let’s face it, some friction is always welcomed.
So who better to bring that discord than a player who could start an argument in an empty room?
Add into that room Roy Keane – who has previously been critical of the Scot – and we’re in business.
Jack Grealish
Too casually pigeon-holed as a happy-go-lucky party-boy, what is often overlooked in this simplistic stereotype is that Jack Grealish is an engaging and candid interviewee, who always speaks with real feeling about the sport that he loves.
There is a refreshing honesty to the Manchester City midfielder that is nothing but endearing.
In that regard, parallels can be drawn with Ian Wright, and if a vodka shot or three is ‘accidentally’ left lying around the studio before going on-air then all the better.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
