By Simon Wright – Follow
me on Twitter @Siwri88
The
development of football on TV has evolved tremendously over the past 40
years. Competition for live TV rights
continues to increase, and the personalities that host, report and commentate
on live matches become familiar household figures.
The Media Eye
will profile some of the most recognised and famous faces in football in
regards to its growth. It won’t just be
TV figures profiled, with radio also getting a look in.
To mark the
announcement of his retirement from television duties after next summer’s World
Cup finals, Alan Hansen is the third personality to be profiled in The Media
Eye.
On Thursday, the news was confirmed that Hansen (pictured) would indeed be leaving his post with the
BBC after 22 years. The 58-year-old
confirmed his decision in a newspaper interview with the Daily Telegraph.
The former
Liverpool captain has been the main pundit for BBC’s coverage, especially Match
of the Day since 1992. He has covered
five World Cups and five European Championships, along with 13 FA Cup finals
and hundreds of highlights programmes.
Hansen said: “I’ve
been in football for 41 years and I’m going out right at the top, just as I did
at Liverpool.
“I have worked for a
great organisation with wonderful people on the most fantastic programme.”
Current Match
of the Day anchor Gary Lineker said in the wake of Hansen’s decision to step
aside: “In my opinion as a television football pundit, Alan Hansen has been
for two decades consistently the best.
Opinionated, knowledgeable and tactically superb.”
Hansen’s
playing career was a huge success too, as he helped guide Liverpool through one
of their most successful periods in the club’s great history. The Reds ruled the 1980s, and Hansen won
eight top flight titles, three European Cups and two FA Cups. He captained the club to a famous double in
1986 before persistent injuries ended his career in 1991.
A year later,
Hansen began his media career initially with BBC Radio Five Live, before
quickly making the switch to TV ready for when BBC snatched Premier League terrestrial
highlights for the start of the league’s inception in August 1992.
He comes
across as thorough in his analysis without losing his cool with anyone. He has been involved in a couple of
controversies, one being in 1994 when he remarked “The Argentine defender warrants
shooting for a mistake like that,” referring to some poor South
American defending during a World Cup round of 16 tie with Romania. This comment came just 24 hours after the
tragic shooting of the Colombian defender Andrés Escobar following Colombia’s
shock early elimination from the tournament for scoring an own goal in a game
with the hosts USA. The BBC were forced
to apologise for Hansen’s strong viewpoint.
Hansen became
most famous for this remark in August 1995 after Manchester United’s disappointing
3-1 defeat away to Aston Villa on the opening day of the season. “He needs to buy players; you can’t win
anything with kids.”
United had
sold experienced players that summer in Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei
Kanchelskis as manager Alex Ferguson opted to field younger players like Nicky
Butt, David Beckham and the Neville brothers.
Hansen got his prediction spectacularly wrong as Manchester United ended
up winning the double in 1995-96.
Despite
coming across at times with a bias towards Liverpool, which is slightly
understandable given his long association with the club he spent the majority
of his career, Hansen’s professional approach can’t be questioned even if some
of his comments like ‘diabolical defending’ or ‘very poor performance,’ have
got slightly monotone in recent seasons.
The Scot has
recently revealed he turned down the chance to manage Manchester City in the
summer of 1995 when the club sacked Brian Horton. He was also approached four times by BBC’s
great rivals ITV, including for a ‘crazy’ sum of money in 2006 but stayed loyal
towards the Beeb throughout and wasn’t interested in defecting to another
channel.
Another of
Hansen’s best moments came in March 2006 when his phone started ringing when
commenting on Arsenal’s impressive 4-0 away win at Fulham. Rather than looking sheepish at this blunder,
Hansen laughed at his own expense and turned it into a humorous joke by
pretending it was the Gunners boss Arsene Wenger ringing him live on air.
While Match
of the Day needs some fresh faces, and is adopting that policy this campaign,
it won’t quite be the same without Alan Hansen on our television screens next
season. He has been ultra-successful in
two professions and is once again leaving at the top. I wish him a happy retirement and a
productive final season on Match of the Day.
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