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.

Here’s a bit of fun for a Saturday morning. The Mackem Mover appeared on Soccer AM this morning and showed off his dance moves (see video below). The bloke named Steve first came to fame when TV cameras caught him dancing in the crowd during half-time against Newcastle United (watch here).

Enjoy the video.

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