Originally Posted by swansea steve:
“@ the Difference, what did you make of John Roder and Andy Gray on Talksport? I believe you were planning to listen to a game with them a few days ago? I've really enjoyed Roder's work so far.”
I have heard them the once - I listened to their commentary on Saturday's Greece v Russia game.
I've got to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Andy Gray. I know people say you either love him or you loathe him but while I'd not consider myself to be at the latter extreme and can appreciate his strengths, in the confidence and clarity of his analysis, I have found himself to be very strident in his views, as detailed by Mark F above on the Karagounis booking. I've preferred what I've heard of Alvin Martin - who's been excellent as he always is on the two occasions I've heard him - and Stan Collymore but Gray has been listenable enough.
John Roder has sounded exactly as he does on Match of the Day, which is a very good thing. Despite not having done a full radio commentary since perhaps as far back as his BBC Coventry & Warwickshire days, he's gelled back into working for the medium with consummate ease, he doesn't sound like a TV commentator on the radio as John Taylor for example was accused of sounding like early on in talkSPORT's Rugby World Cup coverage last year. He sounds at ease and equally natural working on radio as he does on TV, which is a strength regular cross-medium commentators like Jim Proudfoot and Simon Brotherton possess.
I might be out of step with a fair few opinions I have read on Keys & Gray (most on here and on the talkSPORT Chat thread seem to like Gray's punditry and co-commentaries but struggle to warm to Keys), but I have to say I've found myself warming to Richard Keys. He comes across better as a personality than perhaps I was expecting and has worked well with pundits other than Gray. I've listened to a fair bit of talkSPORT's build-up before all three Republic of Ireland matches and thought his rapport with Matt Holland made for very listenable radio.
I know Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore have taken a bit of stick for getting themselves a bit mixed up with regards the Group B possible scenarios during this commentary, but when I heard them on the Germany v Netherlands match they worked well together as usual, had a strong knowledge of both teams and did a good job of communicating the passion within the stadium. I'm pleased to see that they'll both get the chance to commentate on the final going by the schedule that 4-4-2 posted, they deserve it for their efforts over the course of the season.
Last day of the Euros at least in terms of covering live matches it would appear for Nigel Pearson and Alvin Martin, who are doing Sweden v France for talkSPORT.co.uk, and also Ian Danter who is doing the same game for UEFA.com. I think all three of them have done very well in spite of their obvious handicap location-wise and can be proud of their efforts.