Off The Ball - Is it good?

[Sergeant Wilson]

Is Jason Leitch on it because he needs to talk to their target audience? He's like a 3rd member of the team.

I heard about 5 minutes in the car and didn't feel the need to listen to more.

[DA Baracus]

That's Cowan just slipped and revealed himself as a unionist by referring to the First Minister as 'wee Nicola'.

Not surprising given some of the stuff he comes out with I suppose.

[Munoz]

4 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

That's Cowan just slipped and revealed himself as a unionist by referring to the First Minister as 'wee Nicola'.

Not surprising given some of the stuff he comes out with I suppose.

More likely a Labour voter.

[Ric]

4 minutes ago, Munoz said:

More likely a Labour voter.

Which is pretty much the same thing.

[SouthLanarkshireWhite]

5 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

That's Cowan just slipped and revealed himself as a unionist by referring to the First Minister as 'wee Nicola'.

Not surprising given some of the stuff he comes out with I suppose.

Jeez! Nationalist thought police out on p&b again.  I don't like him, but his politics, or rather your view of them, are irrelevant to this debate.

[DA Baracus]

28 minutes ago, SouthLanarkshireWhite said:

Jeez! Nationalist thought police out on p&b again.  I don't like him, but his politics, or rather your view of them, are irrelevant to this debate.

Ok Tam.

[DA Baracus]

But seriously, you're right, it isn't really relevant. Just might explain some things.

Also I'm not a nationalist. You know fine well the connotations of that term which is why you and other unionists use it.

I am a supporter of Scottish independence though.

[Junior_Arab]

Och, I think it’s alright. It’s not exactly a challenging listen - just aural wallpaper in the background, that has a few genuinely funny moments most weeks. I can understand why people criticise it for failing to move with the times - it’s hardly cutting edge. Some people have also said they keep banging on about players and stories from the dim & distant past, but there are less “characters” in football generally these days and very few players hang around Scottish football long enough to make any kind of impact on the public consciousness or even to be be fondly remembered 6 months after they’re gone. That’s what really scuppered Only an Excuse. 
 

As for the alternatives, I’ve seen a lot of folk talking up The Terrace and it’s presenters. I’ve never listened to the podcast, but the TV show was hardly essential viewing for me. It was fine, but the presenters weren’t exactly brimming with charisma, and there seemed to be a bit of a hipster vibe, competing to see who could talk about the most obscure players or teams. And I can’t abide Si Ferry and especially his pal “Slaney” barking “bantz” at each other. You should know you’re in trouble when Kevin Kyle is the brains of the operation. 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Junior_Arab

[Crawford Bridge]

24 minutes ago, Junior_Arab said:

That’s what really scuppered Only an Excuse. 

Bollocks. Lazy writing scuppered Only An Excuse.

Scottish football is bonkers, 2012 OAE, for example, could have been the greatest tele program ever made. Instead he shat it and played it safe with Denis Law and Frank MacAvenie for the 15th year in a row.

[Junior_Arab]

1 minute ago, Crawford Bridge said:

Bollocks. Lazy writing scuppered Only An Excuse.

Scottish football is bonkers, 2012 OAE, for example, could have been the greatest tele program ever made. Instead he shat it and played it safe with Denis Law and Frank MacAvenie for the 15th year in a row.

I very nearly did say:

 

”That's what really scuppered Only an Excuse. Well that and shite writing.” 

[CambieBud]

 
 

Finally, finally. That BBC Scotland score thingy at 4pm. If there was no other football programme on the TV or radio I would wait for the Sunday papers for the scores and give that a miss.
 
 

This, this, this. The worst football programme on TV ever. It's even worse than Keith Lemon. 



Nothing is worse than Keith Lemon!

[kingjoey]

29 minutes ago, CambieBud said:

This, this, this. The worst football programme on TV ever. It's even worse than Keith Lemon. 



Nothing is worse than Keith Lemon!

If it wasn't for the Sportscene Results programme I would agree with you!

[ropy]

2 hours ago, CambieBud said:

This, this, this. The worst football programme on TV ever. It's even worse than Keith Lemon. 



Nothing is worse than Keith Lemon!

Never seen it as I am at the game, or listening to the radio as I keep myself busy If I am not.  Is it not Faddy and Thommo watching the telly and chatting?

[Guest JTS98]

On 07/06/2020 at 22:27, Junior_Arab said:

As for the alternatives, I’ve seen a lot of folk talking up The Terrace and it’s presenters. I’ve never listened to the podcast, but the TV show was hardly essential viewing for me. It was fine, but the presenters weren’t exactly brimming with charisma, and there seemed to be a bit of a hipster vibe, competing to see who could talk about the most obscure players or teams. And I can’t abide Si Ferry and especially his pal “Slaney” barking “bantz” at each other. You should know you’re in trouble when Kevin Kyle is the brains of the operation. 

I think this is a fair point. OTB is what it is and you know what you're getting when you listen to it. I know plenty of people who have it as a regular part of their Saturday radio listening and would never give it the level of deep analysis it gets on this thread. They just listen to it because it's familiar, they enjoy it, and it references things they know and remember.

As for OTB being stuck in the past and error-strewn, that's true. But I've found all, without exception, of the newer alternative magaziney Scottish shows (which are almost exclusively done by much younger people) to be error-strewn when discussing anything from further back than the last ten years or so. And nobody bothers about their really basic errors. It happens with sometimes jarringly weird opinions on players or managers or matches that they clearly don't remember, but a big example would be how well Cosgrove speaks on the issue over spending in Scottish football and references Gretna in great detail and St Johnstone's experience around that, as well events like the SPLTV fiasco or the SSL. Whereas I find in the newer, younger, shows, the people presenting these shows and commenting on this stuff lack that kind of perspective because they simply don't remember these issues and aren't capable of fully contextualising them. As a Hearts supporter, one issue that frequently comes up is that in shows presented by people whose memories of football begin in that era, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Romanov was the start of Hearts' financial problems. It's detail like this that the younger crowd get wrong, for me.

There are plenty of other options these days for people who want to move on. There's The Open Goal stuff if that's your thing. There the two point one cast if you like numbers etc. There's The Terrace if you like things a bit more hipstery. There's the Totally Scottish Football Show. There's Super Scoreboard. There's a Sunsport podcast if you're fucking insane. There's the Sportsound podcast pretty much every day. Not sure if he's still doing new episodes, but there are plenty of episodes of the Tell Him He's Pele podcast.

In short, Scottish football fans have never been so free to avail themselves of a wide range of shows covering Scottish football in different ways and from different angles. OTB is not a deep analysis of the game. It is not cutting edge radio. I only fire it on occasionally myself these days and often don't stick with it for long. But it's got its place.

Personally, I can't say any of its alternatives have really won me over either. Some are dreadful, some are ok. But there's nothing that has become essential listening for me the way OTB once was. A lot of Scottish fitba coverage is just pretty average. But that's the media we've got.

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by JTS98

[Lee Van Tee]

Have listened to the Jason Leitch sections on OTB when I've been off which have been decent enough and informative. Then the radio goes off.

As for the terrace hipsters, no thanks, almost as cosy as David Currie.

[kingjoey]

I will start by saying that as a programme overall, I like Off The Ball. However, at the start of every show since the leagues were called Cowan has gone on and on about, regardless that the leagues have been called, playing all of the leagues to a finish whenever we can. Nobody has had a go at him about this nonsense , and in particular the fact that Motherwell would not be in the Europa League qualifiers which start on August 14th. He is a balloon.

[DA Baracus]

There's loads of reasons why the leagues can't be played to a finish.

Not once have these been put to Tam Cowan.

He has no idea about the financial challenges around this. He's too wrapped up in the Premiership bubble.

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, kingjoey said:

I will start by saying that as a programme overall, I like Off The Ball. However, at the start of every show since the leagues were called Cowan has gone on and on about, regardless that the leagues have been called, playing all of the leagues to a finish whenever we can. Nobody has had a go at him about this nonsense , and in particular the fact that Motherwell would not be in the Europa League qualifiers which start on August 14th. He is a balloon.

And expecting the Championship to be played to a finish with all the playoffs to potentially save Partick, when they have no intention of starting till October due to behind closed doors not being affordable for most clubs. 

[Sparticus]

1 minute ago, kingjoey said:

I will start by saying that as a programme overall, I like Off The Ball. However, at the start of every show since the leagues were called Cowan has gone on and on about, regardless that the leagues have been called, playing all of the leagues to a finish whenever we can. Nobody has had a go at him about this nonsense , and in particular the fact that Motherwell would not be in the Europa League qualifiers which start on August 14th. He is a balloon.

First time listening today for a while.Had to turn him off.Absolute clown.How can the season be played out when no one has the same team and some maybe not have enough players.

 

Last season is gone.Lets hope a season never ends like that again.

[Le Tout P'ti FC]

Those two fat clowns going on about Amarouso again.