Off The Ball - Is it good?

[Busta Nut]

I have never seen such a collection of rattled people.

 

I don't catch the show that often any longer but I don't mind Tam & Stuart. Met Tam once and he was a decent bloke.

[gannonball]

3 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I have never seen such a collection of rattled people.

 

I don't catch the show that often any longer but I don't mind Tam & Stuart. Met Tam once and he was a decent bloke.

Thing is I doubt they are giving a f**k about the likes of us on here, if there ratings were dropping significantly then they wouldn’t be given anywhere near the amount of airtime they get Nowadays. I don’t  listen often now but I was at a charity event Stuart had arranged and Tam was there too, must admit it was thoroughly enjoyable.

[Ric]

Is 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' Tam Cowan?

Let's look at the evidence. They staunchly red dotted anything negative about Hearts - now they are red dotting negative comments about Cowan, they are about the same age, they didn't post but when they did their only response was to complain about grammar and the youth of today.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Ric

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Is 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' Tam Cowan?
Let's look at the evidence. They staunchly red dotted anything negative about Hearts - now they are red dotting negative comments about Cowan, they are about the same age, they didn't post but when they did their only response was to complain about grammar and the youth of today.

That's LincolnHearts' dotting account.

[Spam_Valley]

Hi Tam,

If you're reading this, i want you to know that i think you're a c**t.

Sincerely,

S.V.

[Ric]

4 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

That's LincolnHearts' dotting account.

It's alright, I was just swinging the lead..

[AndyDD]

To be fair, they still have the odd dig at the old firm. Last season, when both were going well in Europe, I remember them opening the show remarking that they expected the two clubs and their fans to issue statements thanking  their fellow scottish clubs, on the basis that when they get pumped in europe they always blame the other teams for not testing them adequately. 

You also get the impression that Tam's excitement for the old firm had Cosgrove champing at the bit to slate him and he did make the odd grumble in disagreement, but in recent seasons i've definitely noticed less slagging of the cheeks. Tam also fell into the Sportsound habit of bemoaning the fate of Hearts and Thistle, which grated all summer. 

Still thoroughly enjoy the listen, but could do with a bit more nose thumbing and a return to that slag-the-Old firm angle.  

[Steve_Wilkos]

And ear plugs so you dont have to listen Sydney Fucking Devine or Tony Fucking Bennett. 
51 and into that shite FFS

51?

I assumed he was mid-80s.

[Ludo*1]

16 minutes ago, Stan Hope said:

what would you suggest as an alternative ? Surely not a radio show with those hipster fannies from ''a view from the terrace'' 

Well, if we are starting from the bottom I'd put, 'must know players names' as a basic fucking requirement instead of allowing the likes of Bonner on the radio.

I'd be looking to create new shows as well rather than rely on the same old tired patter for 25+ year with the likes of OTB and OaE still being mainstays of the Scottish football calendar.

I'd then look to hire hosts for the TV shows that can actually host rather than the likes of Steven Thompson just because he's a decent guy (Who doesn't even like football).

I think using a degree of common sense would allow whoever is in charge to improve BBC Scotland's football output rather than the 'that'll do' mentality that exists.

[DA Baracus]

Off The Ball is far superior to Only An Excuse.

 

[Ludo*1]

2 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Off The Ball is far superior to Only An Excuse.

 

100%. As I said before, OTB is the best show about regarding Scottish football and I listen out of habit more than anything else but it's in the same bracket of being dated pish.

If I was the controller of BBC Scotland, it'd probably survive the initial bloodbath of culling purely because there's much worse, but that doesn't make it good!

[Highland Capital]

This thread reminds me a lot of the Still Game thread when the show came back and wasn't very warmly received on here (around about the time they introduced Methadone Mick).  It's not that people don't like the show, it's that they actually like the show and want it to be better - just like it used to be.  I mean even thinking back five or six years ago, the show still had a bit of edge to it and could be a good listen.  I unsubscribed to the podcast about a year ago because it was becoming pretty boring.  The guests seem to be very repetitive - Amy MacDonald seems to be on it every other week.  Tam Cowan is getting a real bashing in this thread but when he was away the show was much worse - Chick Young, Jim Spence and Jane Lewis were all much inferior.  Even things like little gags and stories seem to be reused again and again - the woman scalded at Brechin for example seemed to brought up at least once every couple of months.

I haven't listened enough lately to comment on Tam Cowan's OF lovefest but perhaps that's come from management - Jim Spence seems to have been infected with the same tendencies to play to the Celtic Park gallery in recent years.

Time has probably moved on for it now.  There might have been a time when not knowing about a major subject could be quite funny but the world has moved on.  People don't find being ill-informed funny anymore, perhaps it's a generational thing.  Sometimes things reach their natural end and perhaps the time has come for this show too, at least in the current format.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Highland Capital

[BFTD]

Imagine if they got Methadone Mick to fill in for Tam.

[tamthebam]

You are a national broadcaster.

You get banned from Edinburgh City matches because the club takes the cream puff at something you said which you can back up factually.

Do you

A) suck up to City hoping one day you might just be let back in or

B) Say City are being ridiculously petty and cover the other clubs in City's division instead of bothering your arse about them as they get plenty of coverage in the Edinburgh Evening News and other media. 

Now.. swap Edinburgh City for Rangers in the above scenario...

[stanton]

10 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

You are a national broadcaster.

You get banned from Edinburgh City matches because the club takes the cream puff at something you said which you can back up factually.

Do you

A) suck up to City hoping one day you might just be let back in or

B) Say City are being ridiculously petty and cover the other clubs in City's division instead of bothering your arse about them as they get plenty of coverage in the Edinburgh Evening News and other media. 

Now.. swap Edinburgh City for Rangers in the above scenario...

I've been saying to a few mates for years that BBC should only give Rangers the bare minimum of coverage if they don't want to work with the BBC , why should they bother with Rangers ? I'm fed up with hearing about " the ongoing situation with Rangers means we won't be hearing from anyone from Ibrox " on sports news broadcasts . Just snub them I say 

[BFTD]

Why are they pissed off with the BBC anyway? Is it still over the time that the Beeb ran a terribly inaccurate and biased programme about how the house of cards was beginning to fall and the old club was about to go bankrupt? Because I seem to remember that the house of cards fell soon thereafter and the old club didn't just go bankrupt, but were also liquidated.

I'd have appreciated the warning, personally.

[RandomGuy.]

11 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Why are they pissed off with the BBC anyway? Is it still over the time that the Beeb ran a terribly inaccurate and biased programme about how the house of cards was beginning to fall and the old club was about to go bankrupt? Because I seem to remember that the house of cards fell soon thereafter and the old club didn't just go bankrupt, but were also liquidated.

I'd have appreciated the warning, personally.

Chris McLaughlin reported that Rangers fans at a game had been arrested for sectarian singing, so Rangers banned him from Ibrox.

They never refuted the truth of that report, simply banning him because he "painted Rangers in a bad light with biased reporting", as if he had just ignored sectarian singing from every other set of clubs fans while, you know, reporting on a Rangers game at Ibrox.

The BBC decided they wouldn't send anyone to Ibrox until McLaughlins ban was lifted. The ban is still in place.

You'll get that drunkard Kincardine waddling in a 3 tomorrow morning trying to dredge this into a 8 page back and forth about how its the BBC who banned themselves from Ibrox, FWIW, so enjoy that.

[microdave]

16 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Off The Ball is far superior to Only An Excuse.

 

The steam off my last shite is far superior to Only an Excuse!

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I can't wait for Jonathan Watson's hilarious take on how Denis Law thinks Coronavirus is a Brazil midfielder and how Frank McAvennie reckons Covid is a 19 year old burd.

Also a dig at some diddy team not realising there are no fans in the stadium.

[G51]

4 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Chris McLaughlin reported that Rangers fans at a game had been arrested for sectarian singing, so Rangers banned him from Ibrox.

They never refuted the truth of that report, simply banning him because he "painted Rangers in a bad light with biased reporting", as if he had just ignored sectarian singing from every other set of clubs fans while, you know, reporting on a Rangers game at Ibrox.

The BBC decided they wouldn't send anyone to Ibrox until McLaughlins ban was lifted. The ban is still in place.

You'll get that drunkard Kincardine waddling in a 3 tomorrow morning trying to dredge this into a 8 page back and forth about how its the BBC who banned themselves from Ibrox, FWIW, so enjoy that.

It goes further back than that. The first issues between Rangers and the BBC developed when they edited an interview with McCoist in 2011 to make it look like he was laughing at sectarianism.