{"id":558679,"date":"2026-07-20T08:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558679\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T08:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:12:14","slug":"the-mad-the-bad-and-the-roy-keane-ad-rating-the-world-cup-pundits-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558679\/","title":{"rendered":"The mad, the bad and the Roy Keane ad: Rating the World Cup pundits \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cRate the World Cup<\/a> pundits like L\u2019\u00c9quipe rate players,\u201d was the instruction. Now, this is hard, because we all know just how brutal L\u2019\u00c9quipe can be. It\u2019s like they forget these players have mothers who read papers. <\/p>\n

Take, for example, their mark out of 10 for Lucas Digne, Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 and Michael Olise after France\u2019s semi-final defeat to Spain: two \u2013 two! For those of us who had just named Olise in their team of the tournament, this was especially humiliating. <\/p>\n

Mind you, that\u2019s still two more than they famously gave Bordeaux midfielder Wendel 20-ish years ago when he was sent off for almost removing the leg of a Grenoble opponent.<\/p>\n

There will be no zeros in these pundit ratings because everyone should get at least one point for turning up (and having a mother), and we\u2019ll only be picking a sprinkling from each channel, because if we covered every contributor this would end up longer than War and Peace. <\/p>\n

\"DidiDidi Hamann offers a delicious blend of grumpiness with some mad opinions thrown in. Photograph: Sebastian El-Saqqa\/Getty Images RT\u00c9<\/p>\n

Kenny Cunningham: This will seem harsh because Kenny appears to be a very nice man and regularly offers opinions on footballing matters so unique that you cannot but be entertained. But for saying that Lionel Messi<\/a> should have retired after the last World Cup, and for welcoming the (Infantino\/Trump) decision to allow Folarin Balogun play for the United States against Belgium, we were close enough to doing a Wendel on him. Rating: 1\/10<\/p>\n

Didi Hamann: Quite often he comes over a little like the love-child of Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy \u2013 ie a blend of delicious grumpiness with some mad stuff thrown in. And few can skewer a manager\/team\/player quite like him \u2013 see his pulverising of Germany after their elimination at the hands of Paraguay. Rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n

Richie Sadlier: He doesn\u2019t always come over as a bag of laughs, a bit Ronnie Whelan-ish, but his mission is more to analyse than amuse \u2013 and considering he\u2019s an analyst, that\u2019s not unreasonable. The highlight of his World Cup was when he whipped RT\u00c9\u2019s arse \u2013 live on RT\u00c9 \u2013 for showing ads during hydrations breaks. Top man. Rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n

Shay Given\/Kevin Doyle\/Stephen Kelly: Sorry, bland. Like they\u2019re paid by the cliche. Rating: 3\/10<\/p>\n

\"WayneWayne Rooney does not always look comfortable in front of a camera, but his analysis is good. Photograph: Paul Ellis\/AFP via Getty Images BBC<\/p>\n

Alan Shearer: Look, it\u2019s perfectly fine for pundits\/co-commentators to lustily support their own, but Shearer\u2019s glasses are so tinted with Three Lions the fella appears unable to see. He even thought Jarell Quansah shouldn\u2019t have been sent off for embedding his studs in a Mexican. He makes Lee Dixon seem objective. And that\u2019s sayin\u2019 something. Rating: 1\/10<\/p>\n

Wayne Rooney: During his playing days, Wazza had the look of a man who would rather undergo a colonoscopy than give interviews to the media, so his development as a pundit has come as no small surprise. He still never looks entirely comfortable in front of the cameras, and on occasion holds his microphone so high his face is no longer visible. But his analysis is good. Sometimes very good. Rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n

Micah Richards: Disliking Micah would be akin to disliking labradoodles \u2013 it just shouldn\u2019t be possible. But since he burst on to the punditry scene, going on to become omnipresent (is there a channel or podcast he doesn\u2019t appear on?), it\u2019s sometimes a little difficult to figure out why he keeps getting employed. Yes, he has a hearty laugh that registers around nine on the Richter scale, but, well, what else does he offer? Often, his best tactical advice amounts to: \u201cMove the ball!\u201d Rating: 2\/10<\/p>\n

Joe Hart: As a former Manchester City player, Hart was always going to have to work hard to be liked as a pundit. But he\u2019s succeeded. Needless to say, his analysis of goalkeeping is especially perceptive, to the point where he leaves you feeling sufficiently qualified to replace Jordan Pickford (behave). Rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n

Olivier Giroud: He came over as wishing he was anywhere else than in a studio watching football. And after a couple of games, you\u2019d be left wishing he was anywhere else too. Lovely hair, though. Rating: 1\/10<\/p>\n

\"GaryGary Neville is another of the Marmite pundits. Photograph: Henry Nicholls\/AFP via Getty Images ITV<\/p>\n

Roy Keane: It\u2019s a mystery how he even found time to work on the World Cup when he\u2019s walking the paws off that golden retriever and having his eyebrows trimmed on the hour, every hour. Our rating could prove a little controversial because there are, unfathomably, people out there who don\u2019t love Roy and believe he has become a parody of himself. True, his tactical advice often goes along the lines of \u201cget into them!\u201d, but no matter. If you\u2019re not entertained by Roy, you\u2019re unentertainable. Rating: 11\/10<\/p>\n

Emma Hayes: Putting her in a kitchen-like setting and only providing her with chalk and a blackboard to do her analysis had some wondering why ITV didn\u2019t go the whole hog and give Hayes an ironing board and vacuum cleaner. But that was all much ado about nothing. As ever, her punditry was insightful, though, at times, it can sound coaching-manual-ish. Rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n

Ian Wright: Whatever it is about Wrightie, his jingoism never feels as grating as, say, Shearer\u2019s or Dixon\u2019s, it just comes over as bubbly and passionate \u2013 a bit like himself. His double-act with Roy won\u2019t be everyone\u2019s cup of tea, but for others it\u2019s the best since Abbott and Costello (ask yer granny). Rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n

Gary Neville: Another of the Marmite pundits \u2013 some enjoy and admire him, others want to lynch him. This couch likes him. Very much. Will inevitably be mayor of Manchester one day, and you know where they can lead. Rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n

World Cup Wallchart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cRate the World Cup pundits like L\u2019\u00c9quipe rate players,\u201d was the instruction. Now, this is hard, because we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2956,18920,98175,61,60,141031,271,112,4018],"class_list":["post-558679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fifa","tag-gary-neville","tag-ian-wright","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-richie-sadlier","tag-roy-keane","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}