guardian tv coverage utter dog egg even more than the median level of the paper. Mangan and Heritage seem to do all of it, neither can write and they both have no taste or enthusiasm for tv. that guy Sam Wollaston that they used for a decade wrote like a primary school kid who won a competition

Lib Dems in about the 70s probably have them beat pound-for-pound, but in the UK it's not a category you want to be second in either

it was very much like when they put someone in the WWE Hall Of Fame for political or 'Vince just likes them' reasons. Trump is in the WWE Hall Of Fame, of course

interesting precedent to set. Peter Kyle not on this website yet is he?

they've already been awarded the 2034 World Cup

absolutely not. presume they'll give it out once or twice more buried deep on the fifa website and then retire it (Trump keeps the trophy ofc)

one comment journalist - still working today - challenged Corbyn to a 'head-to-head on Joyce analysis any place any time'. I am the real James Joyce Scholar!!!! I am him!!!!!!!!

absolutely grotesque behavior from Dunstan. the words of a man who does not believe in consent.

the Athletic buying up exclusivity of so many sports writers and then pivoting exclusively to big club daily gossip pages and desperate yankslop has been so destructive to sports journalism lmao

and again there's a story there "jobbing part time backup keeper ends up playing alongside beloved 3 time World Cup Winner". but that's not the story they tell, they all just try to kayfabe Messing being this great, pioneering legend of the US game. GK the one position US not short of actual legends

the hook for all the puff pieces seems to be 'the goalie who played alongside Pele' which ofc there'll always be interest in. but he played 1 season alongside Pele as a panic buy when their first choice keeper got injured. they'd previously sacked him years before for getting his dick out in Viva

lmao I don't get why they always do this every WC cycle. like if we believe all their lies about how Pulisic, or Jozy Altidore, or Landon Donovan etc are world elite players then that makes their team underachievers, the one thing no yank sports fan can seem to abide

again I can't stress enough that this guy was doing analysis of like Brazil and Italy at a modern world cup and came across like he'd never heard of any of the players, couldn't pronounce 'Kaka' etc

he claims to have made over 50 saves in 1 game against West Germany in the Olympics, an obvious lie that @sbnation.bsky.social, a usually legit website, just run with. it's like if some lifelong jobber told all the Hulk Hogan lies about slamming Andre so hard he died etc and people believed him

going down a Shep Messing rabbithole, there's loads of yank media puff pieces on him over the years where they just print all his mad lies, claiming his goalkeeping changed us soccer forever. he played barely 100 games in a 6 year career, and again just once for the 70s USMNT, a joke team

look he was going through it, his dad died around that time

Lalas an early example of a particularly American phenomenon in the football world. decent player who got to play in one of the world's best leagues, does ok, but so embittered by not being the big fish like in the small MLS pond that he does decades of TV punditry pretending to be heavily concussed