Brian Glanville 'The (inaccurate) voice of football', on The Amex in World Soccer

[otk]

I've got a lot of time for World Soccer as a magazine, with it's monthly digest of all that is going on in the world of footy globally (hence the name...), but...

If you are going to take, or have bestowed on you, the mantle of 'The voice of football', you should look at the basics before committing something to print, like the facts...

In his piece on The Amex in September's issue, Brian Glanville states that The Goldstone was lost to a 'supermarket', rather than the retail development it became, and that Withdean 'rarely' saw attendances above 6000 during our tenure, when both 'facts' could have been easily checked via Google and a look at his complete set (I really do hope he has them?) of Rothmans/Sky Football Yearbooks respectively, for the reality...

While happy that The Amex will be brought to the attention of footy lovers around the world, the thought that someone who feels able to castigate people for errors in his column doesn't feel the need to do anything other than flimsy research grates a tad...

 

[Rookie]

Write to the magazine and correct them?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

That's disappointing. Most of these heavyweight sports writers stay at the top of the tree by staying sharp. Sounds like he's reduced to living off his reputation and not having to try too hard. Maybe he'll blame the sub-editor - like that silly tart who wrote up West Ham v the Albion in the Cup a couple of years back and failed to mention the Albion even once in something like 1500 words. Seem to recall we did our level best at the time to get her sacked

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Glanville puts Messi at a ludicrously low 8th best player of all time, bit long in the tooth for writing nowadays

 

[xenophon]

Lazy man, complacency is an ugly temptation

 

[Easy 10]

Glanville is an absolute DINOSAUR, and a complete miserable bastard.

Almost nothing post-1974 is worthwhile to him.

 

[catfish]

He used to be a very good journalist but started getting delusions of grandeur by the 80's. Now his head is well and truly up his own arse.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Glanville is an absolute DINOSAUR, and a complete miserable bastard.

Almost nothing post-1974 is worthwhile to him.

The bloke is 80 next month, and he is pretty much what you'd expect from an opinionated 80-year-old still covering football.

You're spot on about the era. If it's a piece about Italian 'catenaccio' in the 60s you're after, he's your man. If you want to know about the Championship 2011, he's not your go-to operator.

You have to respect someone who has done what he has done. But I would liken his editor's job to a relative trying to think of a tactful way of telling their parents they shouldn't really be driving any more.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Seem to recall we did our level best at the time to get her sacked

Quality, don't remember that. A good old calculated and organised witch hunt is one of the many things that makes this place great

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Got a feeling he now lives in Italy and is into his 80s.

Can't argue with his view on Sepp Blatter though - "The man has 50 new ideas a day of which 51 are bad."

 

[crasher]

The bloke is 80 next month, and he is pretty much what you'd expect from an opinionated 80-year-old still covering football.

You're spot on about the era. If it's a piece about Italian 'catenaccio' in the 60s you're after, he's your man. If you want to know about the Championship 2011, he's not your go-to operator.

You have to respect someone who has done what he has done. But I would liken his editor's job to a relative trying to think of a tactful way of telling their parents they shouldn't really be driving any more.

Spot on - no one's taken him seriously for 20 years. A self-absorbed old waffler.

 

[Easy 10]

The bloke is 80 next month, and he is pretty much what you'd expect from an opinionated 80-year-old still covering football.

You're spot on about the era. If it's a piece about Italian 'catenaccio' in the 60s you're after, he's your man. If you want to know about the Championship 2011, he's not your go-to operator.

You have to respect someone who has done what he has done. But I would liken his editor's job to a relative trying to think of a tactful way of telling their parents they shouldn't really be driving any more.

Totally agree.

He still does a match report each week in the Sunday Times, and I can't help but begin to roll my eyes before embarking on it. He's a respected journalist, rightly, but he really is out of his era now. Its just such a jaundiced view on everything from him, I can't really take is seriously.

For my money, Martin Samuel is currently the best sports hack out there. And I don't always agree with Rod Liddle, but his sports columns are laugh-out-loud entertaining.

 

[Ringmer Seagull]

Totally agree.

He still does a match report each week in the Sunday Times, and I can't help but begin to roll my eyes before embarking on it. He's a respected journalist, rightly, but he really is out of his era now. Its just such a jaundiced view on everything from him, I can't really take is seriously.

For my money, Martin Samuel is currently the best sports hack out there. And I don't always agree with Rod Liddle, but his sports columns are laugh-out-loud entertaining.

Rod Liddle is always essential reading. Like you I don`t always agree with him but ,unilke a lot of football journalists, he does at least show an interest in the world outside the Premiership. Some of his Millwall stories are very funny as well.

 

[alan partridge]

Glanville puts Messi at a ludicrously low 8th best player of all time, bit long in the tooth for writing nowadays

Wow. I don't pretend to know much about football and it's history but surely he's better than 8th?

Do you know who he has above him?

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Glanville puts Messi at a ludicrously low 8th best player of all time, bit long in the tooth for writing nowadays

Probably about right if you take into consideration players like Puskas, Cruyff, Pele, Maradona, Beckenbauer all of whom succeeded on the highest stage unlike Messi who has yet to do so.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Wow. I don't pretend to know much about football and it's history but surely he's better than 8th?

Do you know who he has above him?

Found it, he was talking about forwards only, his top 10 in order were:

Pele
Di Stefano
Maradonna
Cruyff
Puskas
Best
Charles
Eusebio
Messi
Charlton

 

[Pondicherry]

For my money, Martin Samuel is currently the best sports hack out there. And I don't always agree with Rod Liddle, but his sports columns are laugh-out-loud entertaining.

I can't take anything Martin Samuel says seriously because of his hair. I am always amazed he can see anything through that floppy fringe.

 

[otk]

Write to the magazine and correct them?

I sent an e-mail to the editor, which wasn't responded to, regarding one of Glanville's previous columns, where he was talking about the offside rule, and kept referring to the players in his examples in the masculine. He obviously hasn't cottoned on that women play football these days

 

[Mellotron]

I'm sorry but to call George Best better than Messi is embarrassingly rose-tinted.