It seems that holding together a five minute interview with Todd Cantwell was too much to ask of Steven Thompson.
The two dimensional anchor man of Sportscene is rarely required outside his studio where he shares the same bland thoughts and opinions as Kenny Miller, Neil McCann, Richard Forster and James McFadden.
Once a month Michael Stewart gets called in to provide some originality but after his warning from the Ibrox PR machine it seems that the former Manchester United midfielder is on mute when he he appears with the state broadcaster.
Thompson was auditioning for a job with the BBC through the final years of his playing career before being handed a prime job without any obvious qualifications or talent.
Funded entirely by the Licence Tax, BBC Scotland do whatever they like with a payroll that probably exceeds every other media group in Scotland combined.
Overstaffing is rife at every level, this week in Switzerland there will probably be around 50 on the jolly led by Thommo, Kenny Macintyre, Jane Lewis and the usual suspects apparently cheering on the co-efficient.
In contrast STV and Radio Clyde can probably justify one person covering the Champions League qualifier, working round the clock covering every angle while the BBC mob pile up their expenses.
Live football matches are something of a rarity on BBC Scotland, it seems that interviewing a footballer is also a trip into the unknown for Thommo who picked up £485,000 in disguised remuneration during a three year playing spell at Ibrox that averaged 20 appearances a season. That sum was on top of his regular salary that had National Insurance and Income Tax deducted.
A five minute interview with Cantwell is hardly Paxman territory. An opening question of how does Scottish football compare with the game in England could barely be described as demanding.
Casually sitting on a bench inside Murray Park, Thompson had to rely on his notes to get through an interview as dull and bland as an episode of Sportscene.
Cantwell was asked if he was surprised about how massive a club ‘Rangers’ are and the interview continued in that direction. A mention of Kenny McLean was made, a mutual friend of the two ‘characters’.
Rather than ask about being on the bench at Kilmarnock, hard hitting Thommo showed, wearing trainers and no socks, that he is still one of the lads by asking about the best and worst trainers and who had the worst taste in clothes.Finally he asked, assisted by hs notes about who had the best car. WOW!
Like many others at the state broadcaster it is clear that covering five Celtic trebles in seven years, trying to be professional has left Thommo and other completely broken.
CLICK HERE for the full BBC interview.
Rangers EBT recipient of the day
Steven Thompson
£485,000 pic.twitter.com/B0MB8KgGuD— Papa Doc ⚽️ (@Andyq65) November 18, 2020
1 Comment
by John Copeland
If you cast your mind back to the Scottish cup final where Thompson was asking Ange questions about winning the treble and his future at Celtic FC , he had to refer to pre written questions from his clipboard . On live shows presenters think and react on their feet , big Thommo could not remember the posers he had rehearsed prior to the interview . He is following on in the tradition of BBC Scotland and it’s under qualified , boring presenters …. MC Lean , Sutherland , Lewis et al .