Originally Posted by The Difference:
“Have Radio 5 Live opted to do commentary on Arsenal tonight or are they leading with the Football League?”
Originally Posted by bwfcol:
“They've gone with Arsenal as it's the biggest game tonight
Tomorrow they're doing Fulham/Wolves rather than Celtic”
There you go then - even more reason for talkSPORT to have done an Around the Grounds show last night, providing a different, worthwhile service as an alternative to commentary on a game that was live on both free-to-air television and the other national radio station that covers midweek football. I note from 4-4-2's post that talkSPORT had more than twice as many reporters at Football League games than 5 Live did, so they will have been able to provide a more comprehensive service in terms of updates as well as regular scoreflashes.
I think you are a bit guilty of doing what you criticise other people for over on the Radio 5 Live Chit Chat thread here, Col, if I'm being honest - it does seem as if you are criticising talkSPORT's editorial call for criticisms sake. If Matchday Live on Saturdays now gets a bigger audience as an Around the Grounds programme than it did when they provided commentaries on 3pm games, then it would suggest they'd be similar demand for the same format on a busy night of midweek action, especially when the alternative is a one-off qualifying game that is receiving prominent free-to-air coverage elsewhere.
If you want to be critical, why are Radio 5 Live not providing commentary on the "biggest game tonight" in Maribor v Celtic instead of a routine Championship game? In fairness I suspect the reason for this is because of the costs involved in gaining individual rights to that game and sending a team to Slovenia, but even so it would have been nice if they'd have come to an arrangement to simulcast Radio Scotland's commentary on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. It will also be interesting to see if 5 Live provide live progress reports on the Celtic game, which they haven't done for European ties involving Scottish clubs in the past despite Roddy Forsyth being there both for them and The Daily Telegraph. If Roddy isn't able to provide in-game reports, then doing off-tube updates would be better than nothing.