OH KAY ON…IRONY, RAFA AND INVERNESS

Irony watch

Today is the day. Today marks the start of it. Today is the beginning of the Oh Kay campaign to remove the word ‘irony’ from football commentary. The dictionary definition of irony is: an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. All football commentators should be made aware of this.

The best misuse of a sentence containing the word irony was along the lines of “and Gary Neville is being replaced by Manchester United and here’s the irony, the man taking his place is his brother Phil.” Let’s examine that shall we? Both players played for the same team, both were defenders (at the time) one featured in the starting XI and the other was on the bench. There is nothing ironic about this turn of events whatsoever. Other classics include “and here’s Rovers’ new signing who, ironically, makes his debut against his former club.” No, coincidentally he makes his debut against his former club. And only recently we had “and Spurs go behind to a goal created, ironically, by two of their former players.”'  No, wrong again. The fact that the two players in question were playing for the opposition meant that their involvement in a goal was more than a possible occurrence, particularly as one of them was a striker. It certainly wasn’t contrary to what was or might have been expected.

So, I urge all football fans to keep an ear out and if you should hear a commentator or pundit crowbar the word ‘irony’ in to sentence without real cause or justification, send me the details and we’ll name and shame them right here.

Rafa blast

Another week, another rant from Rafael Benitez. Hot on the heels of his dart at Sir Alex Ferguson, this time David Moyes has copped it from the Spaniard with Benitez claiming that Everton turned up an Anfield in the FA Cup to ‘play for a draw’. Bearing in mind that the whole object of cup football is not to get beaten particularly when away from home you’d have to suggest that Moyes got it spot on. Indeed, let’s not forget that the team that was apparently happy to settle for stalemate actually took the lead. Perhaps Benitez’s anger stemmed more from the fact that they’d dropped 2 home points against the same opposition a few days earlier and lost top spot in the Premier League.

Hot is the new cold

At 2.54am on Tuesday morning, the Daily Mail published a story on their web site that former England international Terry Butcher “wins race for Inverness hot seat.” The story was regarding Butcher’s successful pitch to take the vacant manager’s job. At the time, the temperature in Inverness was -1. Not overly hot then.