Points of view

Everything you need to know about Garth Crooks is summed up in the following exchange between the great man and Gordan Strachan.

BBC employee: 'Garth Crooks is out on the pitch waiting to interview you'. Strachan: 'Tell him to start asking his question and I'll be out in five minutes'.

When Crooks was a player he somehow managed to keep his trap shut and score 128 goals in a career that included a successful spell at Tottenham Hostpur, but since those glory days he has been hanging around the BBC and popping up whenever a programme has needed somebody to bang on for ages without saying very much.

Crooks is an occasional pundit on the BBC's coverage of the African Cup of Nations, so we don't get to hear him asking any questions but we do get Crooks on Marcel Desially - "He's a great bloke who does a lot for charity". On Fredi Kanoute - "He's a great striker". On Mohamed Sissko - "He's not as good as he thinks". On the Ivory Coast - "If they don't take care of business they will catch a cold".

Hard as he tried, even Crooks's presence could not ruin the BBCs coverage of Guinea's 3-2 victory over Morocco yesterday. Virtually everything that can happen during a football match happened as the team's traded spectacular goals and Pascal Feindouno, the talismanic Guinea captain, was sent off for stamping on El-Armine Erbate.

"You can't be a great player and do things like that," Crooks said. Quite. And you can't be a decent pundit without ever saying anything interesting.

Comments

[jo]

I know no-one outside the BBC has a good word to say about Garth, and admittedly he's a poor interviewer, but if you watch him as a pundit I think he's good. He's got strong opinions and isn't afraid to express them, contrast this with Shearer, Dixon or Lineker. Alan Hansen's been phoning it in for years, and if there's a worse pundit on Earth than Mark Lawrenson, I hope I never have the misfortune of seeing him.

[Alex]

correct - he is a bore. He cant pick a team of the week on BBC to save his life either