Osvaldo Ardiles is awful, bring in Guillum Balague or Roberto Martinez or someone

Bodhisopha

Most Balague haters are Man United or Arsenal fans that hate Balague because he is usually the most vocal about the rumours surrounding their loved ones moving to Spain. I'm thinking Ronaldo, Fabregas and Henry. You could possibly throw Liverpool fans into the mix too.

Don't shoot the messenger, that's what i say.

mobby

seadnamac wrote: »

Are you having a laugh? So it's perfectly fine that Paul McGrath went through his whole career in England being pronounced Paul McGratt? And that Andy Keogh is pronounced Keyho? And I'm sure there are numerous other examples.

Things should be pronounced the way they are in their home countries no?

Kevin More-an

An Citeog

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Most Balague haters are Man United or Arsenal fans that hate Balague because he is usually the most vocal about the rumours surrounding their loved ones moving to Spain. I'm thinking Ronaldo, Fabregas and Henry. You could possibly throw Liverpool fans into the mix too.

Don't shoot the messenger, that's what i say.

I don't like him because he talks absolute crap and does so with that stupid smug look on his face. I find him incredibly arrogant aswell.

CorkMan

seadnamac wrote: »

Are you having a laugh? So it's perfectly fine that Paul McGrath went through his whole career in England being pronounced Paul McGratt? And that Andy Keogh is pronounced Keyho? And I'm sure there are numerous other examples.

Things should be pronounced the way they are in their home countries no?

No, but there should be a standard. I can understand Souness, Hamann perfectly. Hell, even Dunphy, he's from Dublin!!!

I think Ozzy barely makes an "intermediate" level of English sometimes, he throws in the odd advanced word (cynical, pessimistic), but the fact is he's far from fluent, not including being graded to comment on an english languaged tv channel. He even said Brazil played tonight instead ofArgentina and he said disliked the swiss when refereeing to greece!!!

If Guillem Balague was on i'd hear every single word clearly. I'd grade Hamann and Balague on the same level.

murpho999

mobby wrote: »

Kevin More-an

Mark Kin-sella
In Snooker they always say Ken Docherty
Politics we had Charlie Hockey
There's loads of them
Most annoying for me is now how everyone now says Tim Kay-hill.
Would be gas if Hector o'hEochagain (sp?) became famous in Uk.

There's loads of them

Kess73

murpho999 wrote: »

Mark Kin-sella
In Snooker they always say Ken Docherty
Politics we had Charlie Hockey
There's loads of them
Most annoying for me is now how everyone now says Tim Kay-hill.
Would be gas if Hector o'hEochagain (sp?) became famous in Uk. There's loads of them

Nah that would be no bother. Twat is pretty easy to pronounce.:D

monkey9

CorkMan wrote: »

No, but there should be a standard. I can understand Souness, Hamann perfectly. Hell, even Dunphy, he's from Dublin!!!

I think Ozzy barely makes an "intermediate" level of English sometimes, he throws in the odd advanced word (cynical, pessimistic), but the fact is he's far from fluent, not including being graded to comment on an english languaged tv channel. He even said Brazil played tonight instead ofArgentina and he said disliked the swiss when refereeing to greece!!!

If Guillem Balague was on i'd hear every single word clearly. I'd grade Hamann and Balague on the same level.

Get a grip, will you!!! As has already been pointed out, you're from Cork, ffs. He's a lot more understandable than some of you lot.

And i would actually consider Ardiles fluent in English. I can make out what he says. Sure, he says 'bery' instead of 'very', but i get his meaning!!

fryup

Its all very well having the "big name foreigner" on your panel but if they're command of english is poor then there's no point in having them on.

And its not just Ossie look at Veira, Adebayor and worst of all Edgar Davids they all just give media friendly comments and add nothing to the overall analysis of the game > a complete waste of space.

Get them off i say.. they're only an annoyance to the viewers and an embarrassment to themselves.

monkey9

fryup wrote: »

Its all very well having the "big name foreigner" on your panel but if they're command of english is poor then there's no point in having them on.

And its not just Ossie look at Veira, Adebayor and worst of all Edgar Davids they all just give media friendly comments and add nothing to the overall analysis of the game > a complete waste of space.

Get them off there only an annoyance to the viewers and an embarrassment to themselves.

The bloke knows his stuff on South American football. I can understand the likes of Lee Dixon perfectly, pity he has f*ck all to say!!

DB10

I don't like Balague one bit, gutter press have no place on RTE.

Mind you I don't like Ardiles either because I think he doesn't add alot to the discussion and the panel are kissing his arse because he won a world cup.

If we wanted experts on latin football, Tim Vickery would have been perfect not some WUM like Balague.

seadnamac

I honestly don't think his command of English is poor at all. I think he speaks quite well, it's just a little fast but I have no problem understanding him.

flahavaj

CorkMan wrote: »

He pronounces Argentina the Spanish way as well, as in "Ar-hen-tina" rather than the english way of "Ar-gen-tina".

Though tonight I think he will be alright since he should have good inside into argentine football.

Says the CorkMan.

Most people have no idea what "Da Peeple's Republic boooy" is all about either, but it doesn't stop ye harping on about it.:pac:

fryup

he looked a wee bit nervous tonight > sweaty upper lip

maybe Giles was touching his thigh under the table

CorkMan

CorkMan wrote: »

he was on about england and france in the world cup final there.

well they will meet yet....at the airport

CorkMan

fryup wrote: »

he looked a wee bit nervous tonight > sweaty upper lip

maybe Giles was touching his thigh under the table

So he can keep the standard of commentary up through the tournament?

CorkMan

Even Gerry Armstrong now souness and hamann are gone.

Exclamation Marc

I think he's a great pundit to have. After watching a bit of BBC or ITV and trying to get something/anything constructive/understandable out of Edgar Davids, you'll see how good Ossie is.

He speaks a bit fast sometimes, but his grasp of English is great, he has spent 20+ years in England. If you look at the Sky Sports pundits who are English especially on Soccer Saturday, they are so bland its's a bit scary, and rarely have anything of interest to say.

Would you rather have a well travelled pundit who can give a unique insight but has a slightly different accent, or someone who speaks English as a first language but can only spurt out the usual clichés.

If I was getting rid of anyone on that panel it would be Giles, as much as I love the guy, he's clearly done shag-all research for the World Cup outside of the big teams, and sitting next to Didi Hamann (who clearly did a hell of a lot of work, even on the small teams) he looked amateur in what he could say.

Just turn up the volume on the TV

Boskowski

I just find his accent very very hard to understand. But maybe it's because English is not my first language.
My understanding of what he says is like a badly tuned in radio station. I get a string of words or even a couple of sentence perfectly fine so therefore I know what is being said is proper English but then I get a few seconds of static noise also so I don't get a coherent picture.

Is it just me or other people the same?

murpho999

OP...some fella on RTE now called Denis Irwin.

Absolute disgrace....he speaks 100 words a minute and I can't understand a word he says with that weird accent?

Do you know where he's from?

missingtime

CorkMan wrote: »

I have no idea what he is saying half of the time.

"it is' a good game today, the pitch plays good for the teams, who score most of the goals. I think the Denmark will win".

All in a rapid accent. Anyone with me? Can't they afford to hire Guillum Balague from Spain? He would be 10000X better than this pundit.

This is first time I have hear Ozzie and his english is perfect. Bit accented but not as half as bad as you make out...

FearDark

This guy kinda sucks, the accent is fairly thick enough but he's understandable, I just dont like him.

missingtime

FearDark wrote: »

This guy kinda sucks, the accent is fairly thick enough but he's understandable, I just dont like him.

He's great I think. Its like he's on speed or something

Aidric

fryup wrote: »

he looked a wee bit nervous tonight > sweaty upper lip

The sweat seems to be an ongoing issue along with the sniffling. I think he is quite decent as an analyst and offers a worldly perspective. You become accustomed to his pace and diction after a while.

FearDark

missingtime wrote: »

He's great I think. Its like he's on speed or something

I think RTE's pundits are just class, Brady, Giles, Dunphy, Didi, Souness, Sadlier.

Then again, they have this Ardeliles and Whelan, you cant always win

prinz

Ardiles knew more about the Japanese tonight than any of the other pundits have displayed about any team in the finals tbh.

Royale with Cheese

Yeah I thought that. While I enjoy Dunphy and Giles, it was nice to see a pundit with some decent knowledge of a country outside the top 5 or 6.

Mr. Guappa

Aidric wrote: »

The sweat seems to be an ongoing issue along with the sniffling. I think he is quite decent as an analyst and offers a worldly perspective. You become accustomed to his pace and diction after a while.

Took me a couple of days to get to grips with what Ozzie was saying but I thought he was very good tonight. Lots of background on the Japanese. I think he has been an excellent addition, whats the point in just having pundits who have no idea what goes on outside the Premier and Champions League.

CorkMan

Its true he knows more about the worldwide game.

I think Brady has a fair bit of knowledge about the italians, but thats useless now.

CorkMan

Did Ozzy have a bandge on his head at the start of discussion but remove it when he was questioned again?

Beans_On

i saw that alright. was it make up or something that he then rubbed in?

SDTimeout

I would turn off RTE if i ever saw Balague on it. I hate having to listen and even look at the man, sh!t stirring cretin.

fryup

Ossie speaks english like most latins at 100mph

peabutler

fryup wrote: »

Ossie speaks english like most latins at 100mph

Hows your Spanish ??

CorkMan

"the ONduras" were playing bad tonight.

I'm suprised no pundit has asked him to repeat himself. I know Souness defnitely didn't like it.

prinz

CorkMan wrote: »

I'm suprised no pundit has asked him to repeat himself..

Perhaps they are smart enough to know what he's talking about.

SantryRed

He's easy to understand

CorkMan

prinz wrote: »

Perhaps they are smart enough to know what he's talking about.

Well some facial expressions have been otherwise.

antomorro-sei

Have to say, Ozzy's a hero.

First night I've listened properly to Ozzie and his punditry is top notch once you get over the 1000mph talk.

Doesn't appear to have much time for England..

fikay

Think Ozzy's analysis of England was spot on tonight after the Argie's game

LuckyLloyd

Listening to him the last few minutes. Makes good points with the minimum of fuss.

Headshot

Ossie is a legend, pity its his last night

fikay

Aww crap, he's gone. What a gent.

Mr.Nice Guy

Sad to hear Ossie is going. I like him as a pundit. Top man.

flahavaj

Headshot wrote: »

Ossie is a legend, pity its his last night

I'm gonna miss him, I found him very insightful and he seems to have done his research very well

I'd give any money to have seen him out on the lash with the boys.:pac:

fikay

flahavaj wrote: »

I'm gonna miss him, I found him very insightful and he seems to have done his research very well

I'd give any money to have seen him out on the lash with the boys.:pac:

Hye deed eeet moy wey!!

LuckyLloyd

Nice send off from the lads. Dunphy ribbing him over belting out "My Way" in a 'well known Dublin piano bar' on Friday.

flahavaj

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Nice send off from the lads. Dunphy ribbing him over belting out "My Way" in a 'well known Dublin piano bar' on Friday.

To be fair nothing will ever beat Bill's "And to think they said you were anti-Irish Graham" to Souness on his last night at the last World Cup.:pac:

monkey9

Imagine you're on a night out, you decide 'ah sure, we'll head in here for a quick one' and you walk in and there's Ossie Ardiles and Eamon Dunphy singing 'My Way'. :pac:

You know those ads they do on the radio for the pub?? They should create a scene like that. "The pub, where anything and i mean anything, may well happen!"

fryup

ossie is leaving already??????

is it because of this thread?? hope your happy OP