No gift from Gab and Co

Oct 25 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

WHAT with Question Time and all that, this probably isn’t the week to complain about positive discrimination at the BBC.

Nevertheless, can I ask if Alan Green and Gabriele Marcotti are employed by Radio 5 Live for anything other than their accents?

Would Italian-born, US-educated Marcotti be deemed worthier of airtime than a homegrown football journalist if he wasn’t Italian-born, US-educated and had a voice like a computer-generated New Yorkist/Roman hybrid?

And would Green’s bluster be indulged if he was from Belgravia rather than Belfast?

I can’t listen to either man on the abomination that is now 606. Marcotti, because he sets out to rub people up the wrong way. Green, because he simply agrees with every caller in a bid to be seen as a man of the people.

By contrast, Green’s rabid, often ill-informed rubbishing of footballers has rarely rebounded on him more amusingly as in midweek, when his latest victim – Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou – responded to him with two Champions League goals.

While I’m on the subject, Green’s co-commentator Graham Taylor spent much of Wednesday night criticising Carlo Ancelotti – and managers in general – for failing to field players in their best positions.

This, from a man who played David Batty and Keith Curle at right-back at Euro 92.

Of course, 5 Live employs plenty of excellent sports broadcasters – not least North East-born John Murray and former BBC Radio Newcastle man Ian Dennis.

So why bother with Green, Marcotti and Spoony (don’t get me started . . .)?