So long Adrian Chiles. You really don't miss someone until they're gone. That's how I felt as the credits rolled at the end of the season's first edition of Match of the Day 2.
The Sunday highlights programme has carved out a niche at the end of the weekend, neatly providing highlights of the day's Premier league football with considered analysis of Saturday's talking points following 24 hours thinking time.
As the show has a lower profile than its big brother on Saturday it tended to be a better watch, with the feel that it was more for the aficionado with Kevin Day's comedy slot just about tolerable.
With the close season's TV transfer news being Chiles' big money transfer to ITV (motivated by the fact he wouldn't have to comment on his beloved Baggies during their biannual spell as Premier League whipping boys?) the BBC had the ideal opportunity to give a platform for a young up and coming presenter. Fortunately the wide eyed earnestness of Manish Bhasin saw him remain on the Football League Show as an optimistic foil to the downbeat gutteral tones of Steve Claridge. Unfortunately the BBC seemed to deem Colin Murray's spell on the World Cup highlights show a success and gave him the MOTD2 job. Now everyone I know soon switched from the BBC to ITV for this summer's World Cup highlights not simply because of Murray's nasally whine or even the way he stroked John Motson's ego so effusively that you expected him to start fellating him after the show, but mainly because the highlights were kept to the bare minimum at the expense of silly video montages of such key talking points as for example the worst World Cup haircuts which then had to be followed by all the guests giving analysis of these crucial issues whilst Murray stifled schoolboy giggles.
Thus my heart sank when Murray's promotion to MOTD2 came along with the stupid footage slots. Oh how we laughed as we watched for the umpteenth time Norman Hunter going toe to toe with Franny Lee. Of course this came at the expense of the actual raison d'etre of the programme, the weekend's Premier League football. Looks like I will confine myself to watching just the Saturday Match of the Day this season. I'll get just as much footage of the Sunday football by watching the News.
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