It is a difficult task for BT Sport as they try to rival Sky Sports as the leading sports broadcaster in the country.
They managed to convince Jake Humphrey to jump ship and join in with the BT revolution and he is a pretty good man to lead the way. Humphrey is inoffensive and pretty good at his job but, unfortunately, the level of punditry is poor, and until that is sorted that will not have a chance of beating Sky’s coverage.
Anyway, for today’s broadcast of Newcastle vs Liverpool BT Sport had Owen Hargreaves, Steve McManaman and special guest David Ginola there to help Humphrey dissect all the important moments. Ginola, who has now cut off those famous locks, is of course an ex Newcastle United player so naturally he knows more about the club than someone who hasn’t played for them. Right?
An aside, isn’t it remarkable that people are paid to sit with other men and talk about football? It is the dream job but you get the feeling that in order to lure Humphrey from the BBC, BT Sport must have offered him some pretty decent money.
So, there’s Humphrey having a little bit of banter with Ginola over what the Frenchman’s wearing which, in truth, looks a little silly. Ginola clearly isn’t impressed because nobody insults Ginola and his choice of clothes.
When Humphreys turns his back on Ginola, then, the Frenchman makes a gesture that he must have learnt during his time playing football in this country. Did Humphreys deserve it? Probably not, but it does show that Ginola can’t take any ‘banter’ as it was.
Embarrassingly for him, though, he has been forced to apologise as he did not realise that the camera was still on. Gutted.