What big teeth you have Grandma...
“The biggest game in club football has got even bigger”
Sky Sports’
reaction to Luis Suarez making his debut in El Clasico this weekend, and their
building up of a game they just happen to have exclusively live coverage of in
the UK.
The
inclusion of the man on his way back from a third biting ban does of course
improve the spectacle, and it would be hard to argue that Real Madrid v
Barcelona isn’t special.
But…
Considering they are determined to call it the BIGGEST game in club football,
about 45 times a day, it would be nice to know exactly how they quantify that.
Is it the
audience figures, because that might largely be because everybody feels the
need to watch a game that is being advertised in such a way, a not so vicious
cycle…
The other
noteworthy thing about Real v Barca is that Sky, and many other outlets, spend
the week leading up to the game asking whether Lionel Messi or Cristiano
Ronaldo are the best in the world, as if this time, unlike the previous 20, we
will stumble across the formula that finally answers the question.
The
question is boring and repetitive, and surely there is something else to
discuss if this game is as big as they claim.
Well
apparently there is, but this one doesn’t make a great deal of sense either…
Don't forget to keep your votes coming in. Do you think Rodriguez or Luis Suarez was the best summer signing? #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/k9n3YRoKDc
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) October 24, 2014
Sky Sports
News HQ’s poll of the day today posed the question, who’s the better summer
signing… James Rodriguez or Luis Suarez?
When rating
a signing, two of the things I would consider would be the value for money and
the impact of the player on their new team.
As they are
the fifth and third most expensive signings of all time respectively, even in
the world of inflated transfers fees in which we live, value is a hard
comparison to make, so we’ll have to stick to impact then.
Oh hang on
a second… Suarez hasn’t played for his new team yet has he..?
Another
ridiculous comment of El Clasico note can be attributed to Guillem Balague,
also of Sky Sports fame.
On their
website he has compiled a combined XI of Real and Barca players, pretty
harmless and formulaic build up content for a big game.
At the end
of the team he suggests that readers might disagree with his selection, “but then isn’t that
what makes football the best game in the world?”
I’m a huge
football fan, but I’d suggest that talking points do exist in other sports
too, and Guillem may struggle to believe it, but not only do people quite enjoy
sports like cricket, they manage to have debates and disagreements over
selection in that too... who knew?!
However, none of the Clasico build up compares to the
head-shakingly pointless job Gary Cotterill was given ahead of Barcelona’s
Champions League game with Ajax.
He found some Dutch fans in a bar then attempted to obtain a
score prediction from one of them while all the others sang over his interview.
When Gary was told the game would finish 2-2 he tried to
point out that Barcelona are quite good.
If this wasn’t already cringe worthy enough, he concluded
the interview by tipping the poor bloke’s beer all over him.
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