Soccer Writers

Dub13

No one comes close to Graham Hunter he is simply top class,his knowledge of European football is second to none.I am not sure if he still writes for the The Guardian as I have not seen anything from him in that paper for a while,I have him alot these days on NewsTalk.

event

Dub13 wrote:

So who do you enjoy reading...?I have to say one of my favorite's is Roy Curtis,he is the best thing (maybe the only good thing in the Sunday World).He is prone to going way of topic which can be a bit much but he has a way with words.He is also a good general sports writer I have read many a good rugby,horse racing even boxing articles from him.

personnaly cant stand the man, a poor mans dunphy

he likes to pick up on a topic and keep at it.

Over the next month, i expect a piece on either:

Robbie keane
Stan the gaffer
how footballers are overpaid primadonnas
cristiano ronaldo
roy keane at sunderland

id say he loves the sound of his own voice.

IMO, an ar$ehole

eirebhoy

I don't read the Sunday World but plenty of people who seem to dislike Curtis:
http://foot.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=46919

Dub13

I agree that Curtis can rub people up the wrong way I don't agree with him alot of the times but I like the fact that he does not hold back.One thing about him I think he is a Man Utd fan,nothing wrong with this per say but when reading a sports writer you should not be able to tell who he supports.

When you think about it we are not blessed with great soccer writers.

I also like Dominic Fifield (The Guardian),maybe the fact that we get some top class reporters from the UK means we don't see many good Irish ones.

madds

Roy Curtis....why can't he just write a straight journalistic piece? Guaranteed that any piece of his will contain at least 2/3 pieces of imagery in the first paragraph, e.g. he'll mix the Ire/Eng match in Croker tomorrow with say.....Sean Quinn's battle with Mary Harney and the new legislation passed through by the government yesterday.

He really is the poor man's journalist.

stovelid

I like Keith Duggan's column.

Tom Humphries is a decent writer but since became a writer, his purple prose, third person references ("the sports hack") and bashing soccer /bigging up the GAA is starting to severely test my patience.

The Guardian football writers are usually enjoyable too.

LuckyLloyd

Whenever Tom Humphries or Keith Duggan turn their attention to football in the times, I always think it is worth a look. Dominic Field in the Guardian is a good shout also.

I have yet to see a sports journalist working for a tabloid newspaper that impressed me tbh. Curtis embodies what a lot of them are about - pushing their own set in stone opinions along with occassionally jumping on a bandwagon of praise or critiscism - whichever way the wind is blowing merchants are most of them.

Additionally, there is a real lack of Brittish football writers that are knowledgeable and interested in the lower levels in English football - or are objective enough to look at the game as a whole, or consider the implications of "sport as business" in a realistic way.

The real point here though, is that the English and Irish media suffer from a real lack of decent sports journalists. The general standard of sports coverage pales in comparison to the quality of work produced by the US sports media.

BaZmO*

Dub13 wrote:

I have to say one of my favorite's is Roy Curtis,he is the best thing (maybe the only good thing in the Sunday World).

Doesn't say much for the NOTW if he's the best or the only good thing going fo it. On the very odd time that I happen to read his column I'm just dumbfounded as to how this man is actually making a living from being a journalist. As has been mentioned already, he's a poor man's Dunphy.

I actually like reading Tom Humphries but I'd have to agree with stovelid he says...

Tom Humphries is a decent writer but since became a writer, his purple prose, third person references ("the sports hack") and bashing soccer /bigging up the GAA is starting to severely test my patience.

The bit in bold annoys me the most. And I think that he's probably read too much Hunter S. Thompson.

Zaph

Tom Humpries - he understands what it is to be a Leeds fan.

My favourite sports writers are in the football magazine When Saturday Comes. Harry Pearson, in particular, is always a good read.

eirebhoy

LuckyLloyd wrote:

I have yet to see a sports journalist working for a tabloid newspaper that impressed me tbh.

There's very few actual articles in Irish tabloids where the journalist just gives his opinion. Hyland in the Herald is the only one I can think of but he's rubbish. When Setanta had that sports show at 7 every night there was a guy from the star that seemed to know his stuff, Cunningham I think. The rest of the articles are written by ex pros like Dunphy, Giles, Dolan, etc, etc. Fitzgerald in the Herald writes for UEFA.com, what's he like?

The Herald and the Star are the only daily Irish tabloids I know of btw.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Ardent

Roy Curtis is a good sports journalist?! You're having a laugh right?!

Andrew 83

Sid Lowe's pretty good for coverage of Spain. Most of World Soccer's stuff is excellent.

I like Tom Humphries some of the time, other times he irritates me. Kimmage is good, so's Emmet Malone.

Xavi6

Henry Winter is easily my favourite. His columns in Four Four Two are my first port of call every month and his newspaper pieces are excellent.

bohsman

Neil McCaffrey.

Bateman

Got to agree with the vote for Henry Winter, easily the best out there IMO, with a nod to Kevin McCarra as well.

I have expressed my opinion of Roy Curtis before, suffice to say he wouldn't be a personal favourite.

In Ireland, the tabloids are taking it to Delaney while my pal Daniel at the Indo has his hands tied by their recent history of arse licking towards the FAI, the proponent being Gerry McDermott, someone whose writing and opinions I was never keen on. Emmet Malone comes accross as being very pro-Shels, but plenty of people have argued the toss with me on that one so maybe it's just me.

Mark

Sid Lowe, James Richardson, Henry Winter, Gabrielle Marcotti, Martin Samuel when he deigns to write a sports article. The fellows at The Times are all pretty solid, I'm a fan of the Fink Tank.

stovelid

TBH though, when he writes on soccer these days, he only wheels out the LUFC or Bohs reference when he's bashing soccer to show that he was misguided enough to actually support it in the past.

zaph wrote:

Tom Humpries - he understands what it is to be a Leeds fan.

_blank_

Bateman wrote:

arse licking towards the FAI, the proponent being Gerry McDermott,

Seems to have worked for him then. He got a job with them.

Charlie

I'm surprised Oliver Holt hasn't gotten a mention yet. After that I would agree with the choices of Martin Samuel and Henry Winter. Can't stand Shaun Custis.

Bateman

seansouth wrote:

Seems to have worked for him then. He got a job with them.

Precisely what I was getting at.

SectionF

IMHO, there are far too many sports 'writers' and not enough reporters. The tell-tale is the increasingly prevalent hyping of sportswriting 'legends'. Purveyors of this genre probably are responsible for the production of more media pap than the whole pop idol/boy band phenomenon ever will be. Most of the crud that counts as 'writing' in the sports pages would take a very short trip to the editor's spike in every other newspaper department.
People in this bracket who, I think, are worth reading are Con Houlihan and Hugh McIlvanney. Most of the rest are pale imitations, put up to it by sports editors who should be on trial in The Hague.
Sport reporters whom I think do a worthwhile job and actually provide a public service, because they go to games and write with skill about reality, are: Emmet Malone, Irish Times, Neil O'Riordan, The Sun etc. The others, who harp on about the soul of oul' Ireland as expressed through GAA, rugby, the boyez in green and all the rest, are just in showbiz.

tdv

Did anyone read Roy Curtis's colum in the sunday world this week were he compared Commical Ali to John Delaney? It was very funny.

"Rember Comical Ali, The Iraqi Defence Minister who claimed the Yanks were being pulverised even as Dubya flattened Baghdad & Saddam scurried off to cower in a fox hole?
Well just when you thought it was safe to take a lie detector test, he's back...
Last night at a hastily-arranged press conference in Merrion Square, the prince of propaganda spoke his first word for four years.
"Good morning (it was eight o'clock in the evening), what a beautful day (a tornado had just blown the roof off goverment buildings) , you are very welcome (the middle digit of both hands was extended to full length).
"Steve Staunton is a genius.
And I would like to advise that wrinkled cretin Mister Dunphy, that he is also the finest train driver since Brendan Olge. With my very own eyes, I have seen the marble bust they have dedicated to his greatness in Limerick Junction"

Ali had shaved his moustache, lost weight, devloped a Waterford accent an addiction to the phrase "going forward" and a strange quiff in his hair.

kinaldo

Phil Ball writes a top notch Spanish column on Soccernet every Monday. He's also published acclaimed books on Spanish football, Real Madrid and David Beckham, none of which I've read though.

Gabrielle Marcotti is always worth a read. He wrote for The Times last year and used to present a fiery European football show on Talksport.

Graham Hunter as has already been mentioned is very good too.

kinaldo

Phil Ball's latest offering is another good piece, where he contrasts the unity of Sevilla to the cuatro mágnificos of Barcelona, and surprisingly comes to the defense of at-last under fire Spanish national team coach, Luis Aragones.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=463801&root=europe&cc=3436&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2

yom 1

Who does Martin Samuel write for these days? I used to love reading his column in NOTW on a sunday morning but havent seen one in a while.

iregk

Roy Curtis piece in last sundays world was horrendously bad! As pointed out this guy is useless.

Paul Hyland in the herald is basically a Roy Keane, Man Utd clock watcher. Siapan kept him in a job for 4 years and now thats to Roy going into management he gets to keep his job. The guy has no ideas not talent and no nothing!

Decent writers as said, Gabriel Marcotti is class and one of the few journos who will give a good account of Italian football and be honest about it. Also I recently (on a trip to spain) found an english version of Marca I think it was. Guillem Balleque, while I've only ever seen him on sky and heard references to his articles in that paper to read one was an eye opener. That guy has it down, excellent writing.

Graham Hunter and Phil Ball as said previous are top class.

As for TV, my presonal fav is James Richardson.

chopperbyrne

Does Pat Dolan still write for The Star?

I always enjoyed his article. He is very opinionated and clearly has a passion for the sport.

raven136

oliver holt is the best tabloid journo.Henry Winter,Joe Lovejoy,Marcotti,Samuel,Mccarra and Tom Humphries i reckon are the best around

yabadabado

im a fan of james lawton's.his article's are usually top notch.he writes in the independent.as for roy curtis his article's usually make me cringe they are piss poor

cson

James Lawton gives excellent insights in the indo, as does Vincent Hogan imo when he writes on soccer.

Winter is usually spot on the mark in FourFourTwo, wrote a bit there a while ago about Irish fans being the best in the world, must see if I can dig it up...

CountryWise

I very much doubt Curtis is a United fan, he seems to hate them and wants Fergis gone ALL THE TIME!

Jazzy

event wrote:

a poor mans dunphy

no such thing.

i was listening to9 some of his "in depth analysis" before the pool - porto match yesterday and of course he started blubbering on and just saying things to be controversial regardless of facts and watnot.
Apparantly Thierry Henry wasnt that good in his last 18 months at arsenal cos he failed to win the CL final individually and his strike rate wasnt that high. forget of course the goal he scored against Real Madrid to see arsenal through to the semi's or the fact that he was injured for a long time last season and his goals per minute was still one of the highest in the PL last season... he was clearly being crap and i would never have noticed if it wasnt for eamonn pointing that out to me.

hes the Paris Hilton of irish punditry, he shouldnt be a pundit... but he is and he has legions of followers who applaud his "truthfull, confrontational style" such as saying how crap the England national team are and how its the PL's fault cos the PL is all hype... forgetting that his favorite league, La Liga, also supplies Spains national side with teams that have under achieved to a greater extent (if thats even possible) then Englands one.
We are constantly reminded how crap Cristiano Ronaldo is and how hes all hype.. despite all those goals he scores / assists and the fact that he was player of the year last season and other sources often rate him as either the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world ("Kaka is reality" - oh right, u mean ur ****e if ur not the best player in the world eamonn?).

Why do we pay our liscence fees to hear a man talk about a sport he was never a success in and barely involved in? his wage on RTE is your money and the only reason he gets on is because he drinks in Lillies on the weekends and he will say something that will be so stupid its controversial before calming down and talking about how Roy Keane created man on the 3rd day...

kinaldo

Jazzy wrote:

no such thing.

i was listening to9 some of his "in depth analysis" before the pool - porto match yesterday and of course he started blubbering on and just saying things to be controversial regardless of facts and watnot.
Apparantly Thierry Henry wasnt that good in his last 18 months at arsenal cos he failed to win the CL final individually and his strike rate wasnt that high. forget of course the goal he scored against Real Madrid to see arsenal through to the semi's or the fact that he was injured for a long time last season and his goals per minute was still one of the highest in the PL last season... he was clearly being crap and i would never have noticed if it wasnt for eamonn pointing that out to me.

hes the Paris Hilton of irish punditry, he shouldnt be a pundit... but he is and he has legions of followers who applaud his "truthfull, confrontational style" such as saying how crap the England national team are and how its the PL's fault cos the PL is all hype... forgetting that his favorite league, La Liga, also supplies Spains national side with teams that have under achieved to a greater extent (if thats even possible) then Englands one.
We are constantly reminded how crap Cristiano Ronaldo is and how hes all hype.. despite all those goals he scores / assists and the fact that he was player of the year last season and other sources often rate him as either the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world ("Kaka is reality" - oh right, u mean ur ****e if ur not the best player in the world eamonn?).

Why do we pay our liscence fees to hear a man talk about a sport he was never a success in and barely involved in? his wage on RTE is your money and the only reason he gets on is because he drinks in Lillies on the weekends and he will say something that will be so stupid its controversial before calming down and talking about how Roy Keane created man on the 3rd day...

Just to add to your rant, he was on last night about Real Madrid and how they sacked the great Fabio Capello TWICE.
Unlikely given that Capello resigned the first time around.

Exit

He also stated twice on two separate occasions that Utd had signed Anderson from Sporting.

And then his rant afterwards about teams selling players seemed to just be something he thought up on the spot just to get a 'controversial' rant out there.

cson

Dunphys vision been obscured so much by his "Roy Is God" goggles that he knows no more about football than some lad in the pub corner. Granted he comes out with some gems now and again (the train to cork one being one of the best).