Colin Murray is fast becoming the rising star of British sport punditry. After cutting his teeth with Channel 5′s football coverage here in the UK, Murray has slowly been making his mark at BBC Radio 5 through the excellent Fighting Talk. Last summer, Murray officially joined Radio 5 as a presenter and he’s shown himself to be a witty, enjoyable and knowledgeable host. Thankfully he’s stayed with Fighting Talk whilst becoming the main anchor man on Friday nights and all day Sunday and the station is all the better for his presence.

Using his love of Liverpool as a starting point, Murray is a big football fan, his passion and commitment clear to see. Yet when the opportunity came round to writing his first solo book, he used Fighting Talk’s humour as the backdrop to debut. A Random History of Football is a book about Football, but perhaps not the type of book you’d naturally expect. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to Fighting Talk, you’ll know just what to expect.

Thankfully it avoids the horror that was Tim Lovejoy’s book that came out in 2007, which simply showed him to know absolutely nothing about the game on any level. That probably garnered the best football book review I’ve ever read in When Saturday Comes, which summed him up perfectly. Murray on the other hand clearly knows his football before the billions came rolling in and it shows throughout the book. This is a book by someone who clearly loves the game, in fact it’s a complete antidote to Lovejoy’s book.

Murray decided that he’d write a book about football, but not like one we’d had before. It would be easy to follow the obvious route he decides to explain in his foreword, so he decided to track down all the stories about football that you probably didn’t know. Yes, it’s done with humour running through almost ever story but it is interesting to cast your eyes over some of the gems that he’s dug up. I know I’m a sad statto who can recite every World Cup winning side, score and host nation, but there were several stories that even I’d never heard of. The greatest comeback of all time being the most marked example but you’ll have to buy the book to find out more.

Yet the book isn’t perfect, several typos appear, but they’re more modest little errors than gargantuan mistakes that litter some other football titles. Yes, some of the stories are quiet well known, such as Edmundo and the drunken monkey, but overall, this is a damn fine little book. Concluding his foreword, Murray promises to write another book in a similar vein if the sales justified it and I hope they do. I for one would like an opportunity to read more of Murray’s work and the humour and wit that he brings to his debut.

Having seen him present Fighting Talk Live in Sheffield, I can attest that I’ve yet to meet anyone who was as polite and friendly to every single person who wanted a chat or an autograph with him and there were hundreds. He signed every autograph, chatted to every fan, had his picture taken countless times. When someone asked if they were keeping him, he simply said “If it wasn’t for you lot, I wouldn’t be here in the first place, I’ll go when you when you’ve all gone.” In fact, the only person who I’ve seen as modest and self-deprecating was Robbie Savage, but that’s another story.

If you think you know your football, or perhaps know someone who thinks they do, I’d recommend you buy them A Random History Of Football. I’d even recommend it to any new converts, through its humour. As a first work in the genre, Murray does a damn fine job and I’ll eagerly be waiting for his next venture in to the field. Funny, interesting and well written, I really enjoyed it, so much so, after reading the first chapter, I read it from cover to cover.

You can buy it here from Amazon.

Over the weekend, the BBC gave football fans the length and breadth of the world the news that they’d waited years to hear. Finally, after 13 years of clueless ramblings, smug arrogance and a frighteningly poor knowledge of the game he professes to love, Tim Lovejoy is to be booted off as a regular presenter of 5 Live’s 6-0-6 football phone in show. A variety of failed shows on a multitude of channels have yet to deflate the ego of this man of football who’s speciality is replacing the idiot who stands next to you in the pub.

Now perhaps you’re not aware of the worst football pundit in Britain, but unfortunately fans in the UK have had to suffer his dreadful insights, punditry and attempts at comedy on a variety of channels. A man derided by fans the length and breadth of the country, he’s the kind of presenter that football in the modern era has given us, knowing nothing about the game pre-Premiership yet somehow became one of the most recognisable faces in televisual football journalism. A “new” Chelsea fan, who claimed to also support Watford, Real Madrid and L.A. Galaxy, he encapsulated the worst of the cliche ridden muppets that began to corrupt the footballing airways in the mid to late 90′s.

He created Soccer AM, which became a cult hit when arrived back in 1996 on Sky, but as the show continued to regurgitate the same old jokes, boring features, sexist agenda’s (no women allowed on as fans of the week), banal features and having guests that knew even less about football than Lovejoy for 11 years , it became clear that Lovejoy had developed a messiah type complex.  By moving from TV to radio, at least fans were spared his grinning lunacy as he rambled on like a chimpanzee on mogadon.

I would recommend that if you ever want to buy a book so unintentionally funny it’s hilarious, you’d be hard pressed to beat Lovejoy’s “autobiography” that was released in 2007. This reviewer clearly adored it, but his abysmal attempts at being a proper football presenter on 6-0-6 have really been a treat for anyone who likes a football presenter to know nothing unless it’s written down for them or available to click on a PC. Things he doesn’t like are “rubbish”, players he likes are “the best in the world”.

His radio show is the audio equivalent of having your teeth pulled with no anaesthetic as he berates callers who don’t think England are the greatest team in the world, sticking up for Ashley Cole (no really), and generally defending one of his celebrity mates who callers dare to think isn’t one of the greatest players in the world.He also had a lovely conversation last week where he showed his delightful arrogance for two minutes. He just never says anything of any depth at all, calls League One, League 3, and feels he actually has INFLUENCE on the Premier League.

It’s hard to find any pundit that evokes the same level of hatred amongst football fans in the UK regardless of the team they support, hell even Chelsea fans hate him. It’s a great day for football fans that the BBC have finally seen sense and given him the boot for next season. Thankfully we only have to put him with him for another 3 weeks at the most and he can go back to his cookery and lifestyle programme on Sunday mornings and his dreadful web channel that seems to have been designed by a 5 year old child high on skittles.

Thankfully, the BBC have brought Danny Baker back and stolen Colin Murray permanently, so if you want to listen to two of British media’s best shows, then you can do a lot worse than listen to Danny when he host’s the Tuesday night 6-0-6 or Colin when he presents Fighting Talk. Once you’ve listened to those two shows, then try and last more than 5 minutes listening to this drivel.

Thank you BBC, now you just have to get rid of Spoony and you may have a half decent football phone in show again.