ian wright is stuuuuuu-pid!!!

Plus he's not as bad as Peter S was.

'Do The Right Thing'

I used to like Wrighty a lot when he did things like little adverts for 'Arsenal vs Paris St Germain UEFA Cup semi-final live in Carlton' and that NIKE 'Can I Kick It' advert. Even his Friday night ITV show (with Pete Tong as resident DJ!) wasn't that bad. Moving from light entertainment presenter (where he's adequate and aesthetically pleasant enough) to actual football pundit has undone him a bit. Now people come to him for insightful expert opinions and he doesn't have them. But then again neither do many of the other younger pundits.

At least they haven't put him in the commentary box yet (unlike annoying Mark Bright).

Allardyce, Curbishley and Manchester City's Stuart Pearce will form part of ITV's commentating team for the tournament in Germany, which runs from June 9 to July 9.

Virgin Radio breakfast host O'Connell will present the ITV4 World Cup spin-off show, World Cuppa, taking a light-hearted look at the event.

ITV has also hired Ruud Gullit, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Jay-Jay Okocha, Gareth Southgate and Jim Beglin for the World Cup.

christ.

He mostly hates Sven for not picking his kid. The thinly veiled racism is just an underlying thing.

It would've been good if Wright could've made a point about how the diving disease has now affected English players to the point where FIFA should use video evidence to punish players proved to have dived with suspensions, regardless of who they are or where they're from. Ah well, maybe next time?

if its as 'light-hearted' as 'world cup heaven and hell' then no thx.

-- Dom Passantino

I wonder how Wrighty would rant about this:

An extremist far right racist party, more extreme than B*N*P won 2 council seats in Blackburn last month

Lancashire Evening Telegraph: reports
http://tinyurl.com/q3k7m

included in an extremist racist and fascist manifesto:
Only allow white footballers born in England to play for the national squad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Hargreaves
The FACTS:

born in Canada
raised in Canada
represented Wales in youth international football
is a professional footballer in Germany
speaks English with a Germanic twang
never lived in England

I love the way the English middle classes hate "foreigners" playing for England or representing Britain — Hargreaves and Greg Rusedski are constantly being mocked for not really being British because they were born elsewhere.

Yet if a poor person who doesn't work in the mee-ja says that someone born in, let's say, India to non-English parents has no right to say they're British they're called racist...

Like, Scottish people. Some Scottish people.

Ian Wright: *mutters something about selling out*
Sean Lock: "yeah, England have never sold out to foreign influences. Like having a non-English manager"
Ian Wright: *glowers*
Sean Lock: "You'll be looking forward to seeing Arsenal in the Emirates Stadium then"
Ian Wright: *glowers, looks for something to slit wrists with*

Earlier:

Rory McGrath to Glenn Hoddle (Wright sitting between them): "So Glenn, when you were England manager, would you have picked an untried teenager over an experienced player with international experience like, say, oh, I dunno, Shaun Wright-Phillips?"
Ian Wright: *glowers*

BEST. PROGRAMME. EVER.

Incidentally, Peter Nicol is a Scottish squash player who defected to play for England due to lack of funding from the great and good of Scottish sport. He's not awfully popular for this.

Saturday 10 June

Rio Ferdinand's World Cup Windups
10:00pm - 11:05pm
ITV1

Subtitles, widescreen

Rio Ferdinand plays a series of practical jokes on England teammates including Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, Gary Neville and Peter Crouch.

And yes, Wright is a twunt, albeit an occasionally amusing one, in a childish way.

There is no evidence for that, either.

I don't really mind him on the telly, I mean, you need a twat, don't you?

Having said that, he should be exposed as a coke fiend, if he is one.

THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER was quite an odd programme.

Expect David Brent/Alan Partridge-esque levels of cringing. Did one of them get this commissioned?

The Beckham kidnap joke was in the papaer last week, I think. He did a runner. I didn't read it though.

I think Motty said he had the same driver on Saturday or something. I didn't really get it though. Perhaps he was just saying his driver was a menk as well.

He also said that Jamaica have got a Big Youth development programme.

Come on, it's just a bit of fun, etc...

FNAR! Also, true.

If that's the case, why not employ some bloke from down the pub? Why not employ me? I have an opinion — drop Ferdinand, bring Dawson it at the back.

I thought the idea of employing ex-pros as pundits was that (in theory) they understand more about the game is played and can explain and analyse what is going on, not merely "express an opinion."

But then most former players now plying their trade in the TV studios are thick as pigshit, so I suppose we'll have to make do with their "opinions" instead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7353949.stm
Footballer turned TV pundit Ian Wright has said he no longer wishes to work at the BBC, claiming he was made "a comedy jester" by the corporation.

The former England and Arsenal striker said fans could not relate to the BBC's coverage or its presenters.

"I don't know how long young people are going to want to sit down and watch that same old 'jacket, shirt and tie' format," he told Broadcast magazine.

"That's why I've said to them I don't want to do the England games any more."

A spokesman for the BBC said Wright was on a freelance contract and that it wished him well.

Wright was most often employed for coverage of England matches and FA Cup ties, the rights to which switch to ITV from August.

'Run-of-the-mill'

Wright, who will soon be seen hosting Gladiators on Sky One with Kirsty Gallacher, began presenting after he retired from football in 2000.

He joined the BBC in 2001, appearing on programmes including Match of the Day.

According to Broadcast, though, the 44-year-old believes he was "just there as a comedy jester to break the ice with Alan Shearer and Alan Hansen," whom he accused of doing "run-of-the-mill things".

"I can't do that anymore," he is quoted as saying. "People want something different."

Good riddance. I'm quite happy with Hansen and Lawrenson (and even Shearer) most of the time. All Ian Wright did was cramp everyone's style whenever there was an England match because no one could talk honestly about SWP.