Alan Green BBC Contract Not Renewed

JPRouve said:
I don't know him but based on this thread consensus I will celebrate the news.
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I can assure you that had you listened to his commentary you would not have that view.

Yes he is opinionated.
Yes he makes his views know, especially if it is a poor match.

But he is an excellent communicator who has a deep understanding of how to talk about a match on the radio to the listener.

There are so many stereo type commentators who are at best boring.

Alan Green is certainly not boring.
Please try to listen to his commentary of Didier Drogba preparing to take the winning penalty for Chelsea in the CL final.
You will immediately understand the passion of the man.

 
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I hadn't listened to 5 live for years, but did Green still laughably insist that the only team he supported was Linfield? I remember that from him a few years back. It's like Oliver Holt pretending that he only supports Stockport and no-one else.
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
I hadn't listened to 5 live for years, but did Green still laughably insist that the only team he supported was Linfield? I remember that from him a few years back. It's like Oliver Holt pretending that he only supports Stockport and no-one else.
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Many people say that he was a big Liverpool fan, although he has often denied that.
Personally I care not who he does or doesn't support.
For me, it was only his commentary skills that I was interested in.
 
Buster15 said:
Many people say that he was a big Liverpool fan, although he has often denied that.
Personally I care not who he does or doesn't support.
For me, it was only his commentary skills that I was interested in.
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I have to say I liked his style and thought he had a great voice, but, always hated his bias and arrogance. Goal when RvP picked up on half way line and scored great goal - all he kept saying for the rest of the match was that it was a foul. Also , didnt he call Ronaldo a “one trick pony” for ages ?
 
SteveJ said:
Here's Green's view, in about a billion words:

Green lamented in an interview with Henry Winter in The Times, “They have shown me very little respect in how that is ending. I feel a mixture of disappointment and anger. I don't think it's justified. I was basically told, 'You don't fit our profile.' I got a fair idea of what they meant by just listening to the output over the last year or so. There isn’t an ageist, sexist, racist bone in my body.

"I only care about ‘Can somebody do the job?’ There are new people in favour. They match the requirements in terms of ‘bants’ — banter with presenters.”

Green also criticised the BBC's decision to drop Mark Pougatch as well as its flagship sports news show, Sportsweek, last year, describing the latter as "a much-respected programme that was discarded”.

“It’s not the organisation I loved for so many years,” Green added.

“I hear about the departure of Mark Pougatch, an absolutely outstanding presenter, and I’m really pleased that he is valued by so many other people [like BT Sport] that he probably doesn’t notice not doing 5 Live any more. Certain people have been discarded wrongly in pursuit of change. That’s OK if it is thought through and it works but I’m not sure it is working.”

He 'graduated' to Match of the Day in 2014 but didn't feel it was going anywhere and gave that up three years ago.

Green commented on his departure from MotD: “It’s not a big deal. I was doing, at most, 10 commentaries a season. There’s nothing sinister there. It’s just that I’d get a game and often be fifth or sixth in the running order, so it wasn’t really going anywhere. The team on Match of the Day were really good to work with and it’s been good to do television commentary, so I suppose the scratch has been itched, yes.”

Much of this was made public via an interview with Henry Winter in The Times, which continues:

The BBC defends its position, as a senior source says: “Yes, the BBC is having to look at its strategy for young audiences otherwise we will become quickly irrelevant, but that does not come at the expense of authority, knowledge and experience.”

What seems strange about the BBC not wanting to keep Green is that, in many ways, he is the ideal commentator for many in this era who want spiky opinion. “Being honest is the only way I know how to do it,” he says. It’s brought him some run-ins, most notably with Sir Alex Ferguson and Sam Allardyce.

“I had immense respect for Alex in what he did as the manager of Manchester United. It is a matter of great sadness to me that we haven’t spoken for 28 years,” Green adds. “It was all about one incident when he misled the Friday press conference about team news about Mark Hughes’s availability. I was doing the commentary on the Saturday at Old Trafford and I said, ‘I’ve learned not to listen to any propaganda that might be coming out of the manager’s afternoon office on a Friday. I will try to recognise the United players when they come out on to the pitch!’ It was done as much for humour but, by God, somebody obviously told him, and he confronted me, and he said, ‘You don’t fecking pick my team’. I said, ‘Don’t tell me fecking lies, tell me nothing.’ 28 years of silence since.

“With Allardyce, I just didn’t like the style of football his teams tended to play. I do remember going up to him at the end of one season, 2004, when Sam was out working [at the European Championship in Portugal], and I was staying at same hotel. I said, ‘I can’t speak highly enough of how well you have done this season when Bolton finished eighth.’ I put my hand out, and he turned away."

“I am perfectly happy for people to disagree with me as long as they accepted it was honest and heartfelt. Other people [in broadcasting] say something stupid to provoke a reaction on social media. Definitely! It’s not my style. I get threats on trains, and threats outside certain grounds. You just have to take it and walk on."

“After the 1999 Champions League final, early the following season, I was at Old Trafford, and this guy came up to me, and I thought, ‘Oh, God, what’s he going to say? Is it going to be hostile?’ He said, ‘I’ve got to get you to listen to this.’ And he played his ringtone which was my commentary on the Solskjaer goal! Fantastic!”

Green’s thoughts scrolled back to Manchester United’s semi-final that year against Juventus.

“I always had this gritty admiration for Roy Keane,” he says. I thought Roy was immense in terms of his character and drive. I remember vividly the night of the Turin game when Roy was booked and would miss the final. We journalists always got on the plane after the players were already sitting there. Roy was sitting on his own, window seat. I just leant over to him, and said, ‘I’m so, so sorry, you don’t deserve to miss the final, you were key tonight’. He just looked right through me! But I meant every word. Keane, for me, was immense, the way Steven Gerrard was for Liverpool, the way Henderson is now.”

Administrators did not always take kindly to Green’s occasionally withering verdicts.

“One of the difficulties I had with Richard Scudamore was that I was strong on my opinions on the Premier League. We are the most-watched league in the world, for good reasons, we are a great watch but it doesn’t make the football always the best. Scudamore made it known to me that he didn’t like that. He thought I should be more involved in ‘selling’ the Premier League. The Premier League is outstanding but that doesn’t mean it’s faultless. That’s my commentary style: if something’s wrong, I’ll call it’s ‘wrong’ but when it’s good I’ll make sure I’m screaming to the skies that it is bloody good.”

He thinks, too, of those he has worked with like the late Peter Jones, “so helpful” and Jimmy Armfield, whose “death hit me hard. He was like a broadcasting father to me and Mike.”

The Mike to whom he refers is Mike Ingham, who he worked with for years, sharing commentaries. Ingham has now retired to the West Country and has written a book.

“A couple of months back, the Daily Mail ran a story about Mike’s forthcoming book, and made the point that he didn’t mention me once in the book, and what’s the story behind that? The truth is I don’t know. Yes, it did hurt me.”

In essence, Ingham was urbane, Green occasionally prickly, yet they blended into a magnificent broadcasting double act.

“I swear hand on heart, I’ve never done anything against Mike,” Green adds. “It’s very sad. We were so close. Think of all the times we shared. The only Alan Green mentioned in the book is the former Coventry player! I can’t imagine it was deliberate. Mike surely wasn’t like that. I hope not. Mike was a constant theme throughout my book.

“Mike retired at the World Cup final in Rio in 2014 and there was a blaze of publicity for that, and Mike deserved it. I remember during the commentary when I handed over to him, and saying not only how much I had appreciated his friendship and being a work colleague, I said he’s been like my brother for all these years. I can’t say anything more to show how much I appreciate Mike. I am not in touch with him. It’s a delicate subject.”
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I love that! Bigging up Keane by comparing him to Gerrard and Jordan bloody Henderson! It's baffling why he ignored him!
 
MikeeMike said:
I have to say I liked his style and thought he had a great voice, but, always hated his bias and arrogance. Goal when RvP picked up on half way line and scored great goal - all he kept saying for the rest of the match was that it was a foul. Also , didnt he call Ronaldo a “one trick pony” for ages ?
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Just watched again. He did swing an arm after winning the ball on half way line. Luckily RvP > vAR
 
Going to go against the grain here and I say I generally didnt mind his commentary,though its was certainly alot better when he wasn't commentating on either us or Liverpool.

He's right about the BBC in general,more so in recent times.
Mark Pougatch has been a loss for 5live and as much as I dont mind Mark Chapman the 'bants' with his colleagues does get rather grating all too quickly.

So,I will strangely miss Green. Sure he liked a good moan,as we all do,but at the very least he was articulately interesting.

Personally I wish the BBC would've ditched Chris 'moaning Minnie' Waddle as he is neither articulately coherent nor ,in comparison, interesting.
 
He is a Liverpool fan, absolutely no doubt. His voice changed to absolute glee when speaking to Liverpool fans after a big win. When Utd, particularly under SAF, won a huge game , he'd be far more reserved and circumspect.

His problem with Utd stemmed from his belief that SAF was abrasive and volatile particularly towards match officials and this spilled over into the way the team behaved. He called Keane a thug which on one occasion resulted in one of Keane's brothers angrily approaching him while he was commentating for the BBC. I doubt this would go down well with anyone, let alone a Liverpool fan. :lol:

I can't say I have any feelings either good or bad at his leaving. I long since stopped listening to the BBC commentary except when I've been driving on a matchday. He's not been as bad as some make out but he's never been as good as Mike Ingham, Brian Butler or Peter Jones. Even John Motson showed a lot more charm and whimsy on radio.

And the BBC are cnuts of the highest order. There is a way of treating employees whether we like them or not, and the Beeb are absolute bastards. I know from speaking personally to a well known employee that they are happy to throw you under the bus and are less than forthcoming with an apology
 
I think he is an excellent commentator and I'm sad to hear he is leaving the BBC - he can be a bit annoying but I still enjoy listening to him.
 
I have to admit in the early 2000s before finding a river was a thing I listened to him on 5live commentaries a lot, and did like him. I never noticed the supposed bias against us until I joined this forum. Then whenever I had to listen to 5live on a car journey to catch a game the bias suddenly was fairly obvious!

Still, I thought he had a voice for radio and live football commentary and could put up with him.

Strangely though I thought he was feckin terrible at highlights on MOTD when he was on there for a couple of seasons, just sounded very awkward and didn't help the flow of the highlights whenever he was the commentator. Probably due to the fact that he couldn't do any inane ramblings (which sometimes were quite funny...) and I'm pretty sure it's recorded post-match, so the element of surprise sounds forced even by the best MOtD commentators.
 
Inigo Montoya said:
He is a Liverpool fan, absolutely no doubt. His voice changed to absolute glee when speaking to Liverpool fans after a big win. When Utd, particularly under SAF, won a huge game , he'd be far more reserved and circumspect.

His problem with Utd stemmed from his belief that SAF was abrasive and volatile particularly towards match officials and this spilled over into the way the team behaved. He called Keane a thug which on one occasion resulted in one of Keane's brothers angrily approaching him while he was commentating for the BBC. I doubt this would go down well with anyone, let alone a Liverpool fan. :lol:

I can't say I have any feelings either good or bad at his leaving. I long since stopped listening to the BBC commentary except when I've been driving on a matchday. He's not been as bad as some make out but he's never been as good as Mike Ingham, Brian Butler or Peter Jones. Even John Motson showed a lot more charm and whimsy on radio.

And the BBC are cnuts of the highest order. There is a way of treating employees whether we like them or not, and the Beeb are absolute bastards. I know from speaking personally to a well known employee that they are happy to throw you under the bus and are less than forthcoming with an apology
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Completely agree with you about Mike Ingham.
Him and Alan Green were perfect together.

And when Ingham retired a few years ago, Green gave him a brilliant send-off on the radio.

Alan Green deserves an equally good send-off for the brilliant service he has given to the BBC.
Very much doubt that is going to happen.
 
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12OunceEpilogue said:
This post details the ridiculous way in which Green reacted to the VAR calls made during City's CL game with Schalke. Pat Nevin had to explain to him over and over why the linesmen weren't raising their flags until the ball was out of play, and after he'd been proven wrong and made to look a tit all he could do was double down on his moaning. That's the thing with him, leaving his abrasive style and possible ABUisms to one side when your number two has to pretty much beg you to stop being an arse live on air you know you've lost the plot.
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I love this bit:

“There’s nothing original about criticising Alan Green. But that’s no reason to shy away from the task.”
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MikeeMike said:
I have to say I liked his style and thought he had a great voice, but, always hated his bias and arrogance. Goal when RvP picked up on half way line and scored great goal - all he kept saying for the rest of the match was that it was a foul. Also , didnt he call Ronaldo a “one trick pony” for ages ?
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Yes he did.
But then he changed to call Nani a Ronaldo wannabee.

I liked his humour and as you rightly say, he has a great voice for the radio.
 
I don't care about bias. In fact, I quite like it, in the same way I like it when there are opposition fans in the stadium.

However, a commentator should be there to commentate the game. Alan Green spends far too much of the game ignoring the action in favour of telling everybody how shit it is.

He's a shit hipster who makes himself out to be superior by dumping on football.
 
People still listen to the wireless?
 
Buster15 said:
Ok. I get that you don't like him. Fair enough.
So who do you like.
Anybody??
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You’ve asked this question twice which I found to be very odd, you don’t have to be a fan of any other commentator to think a particular one is terrible.

For what it’s worth, I have no beef in this, didn’t even know he existed before this thread. Imo we viewers are conditioned to listen to commentators, even though they very rarely have something good to say. I’ve watched games without any sounds for years and once you get used to it, it isn’t any worse.
 
He’s a miserable git who can be very annoying when he goes on and on about a pre-conceived narrative even if that isn’t transpiring, but have to admit he does build the game up very well for radio when he’s at his best. It’s like every play is important and keeps you gripped.

I always remember him banging on about Ronaldo being so fat during the 2006 WC and how disgusted he was, even when he was bagging a brace against Japan he still wouldn’t let it go. Dick.
 
With various stations covering the games in Manchester back in the day it was rare to switch on BBC radio but he did sound very bitter when I did. Even worse was the need to "go around the grounds" we'd get about 20 mins of commentary each half.
 
Utterly despised United at times, had a love in with Liverpool, not sure if he supported them, but certainly never had a bad word to say. He wasn't bad if he was on a game about other teams, he was trying to be like the "Test Match" commentary of football without any of the grace or charm.
 
My old man used to despise him and was convinced he was a dipper. The best thing was he used to always cover our games at the time when we were constantly scoring last minute winners and he sounded devastated every time.

I don’t listen to the radio much anymore but he must be a nightmare to listen to covering Liverpool games these days since they are doing the same of late.

He’s an absolute bellend and won’t be missed in the slightest.
 
MaxiPaxi said:
People still listen to the wireless?
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It’s expanded from traditional radio to more online avenues but yes. I took my commentary from nothing at all to averaging between 400-500 listeners for a home game to 600-800 for an away game and that is just for Weymouth in the National league south.

I have also received many compliments from opposition supporters too and had neutrals tune in too. It’s not a dead medium just yet.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
You’ve asked this question twice which I found to be very odd, you don’t have to be a fan of any other commentator to think a particular one is terrible.

For what it’s worth, I have no beef in this, didn’t even know he existed before this thread. Imo we viewers are conditioned to listen to commentators, even though they very rarely have something good to say. I’ve watched games without any sounds for years and once you get used to it, it isn’t any worse.
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I have asked the question twice, which is hardly odd.

I am simply interested in who other football fans enjoy listening to as a football commentator.

Always easy to criticise but far more constructive to be positive.
 
Buster15 said:
He certainly is.
So. Which football commentators do you like.
I have said who I like.
But the rest are against Alan Green but don't say who they favour.
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Have you heard his commentary from when Drogba was preparing to take a penalty in the CL Final?

Go on Didier!
 
Solius said:
Have you heard his commentary from when Drogba was preparing to take a penalty in the CL Final?

Go on Didier!
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Thank you for reminding me of what I posted a few days ago with the actual commentary.

But yes. It is a brilliant piece of proper football emotion.
 
Buster15 said:
Thank you for reminding me of what I posted a few days ago with the actual commentary.

But yes. It is a brilliant piece of proper football emotion.
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A few years ago it was quite brilliant when there was Mike Ingham and Alan Green doing a half each
 
Solius said:
A few years ago it was quite brilliant when there was Mike Ingham and Alan Green doing a half each
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Completely agree. That was when I really started to listen to radio commentary.

I still miss Mike Ingham but I will definitely miss Alan Green even more.
He has a unique style. Obviously some don't like it.
But I do and I am sure that the BBC has made a big mistake.

Quite how someone can sack a proper professional commentator like him and yet still employ a complete imbecile like Robbie Savage is utterly ridiculous.
 
Buster15 said:
Completely agree. That was when I really started to listen to radio commentary.

I still miss Mike Ingham but I will definitely miss Alan Green even more.
He has a unique style. Obviously some don't like it.
But I do and I am sure that the BBC has made a big mistake.

Quite how someone can sack a proper professional commentator like him and yet still employ a complete imbecile like Robbie Savage is utterly ridiculous.
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Wow. I honestly didn't expect anybody else to like Allen Green. He repeatedly says that he doesn't support Liverpool but I don't believe him.
 
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