 about the discrepancy between Leeds United's performances and Leeds United's results. Statman Dave set his stall out with early mention of 'underlying statistics' and 'underperforming against expected goals'. The ears of the Proper Football Man were already pricking up before Statman concluded 'their expected points are absolutely fine' and Chapman, spotting the opportunity like Kevin De Bruyne assessing an injudiciously diffused defence, put it on a plate. 'Are you alright, Alan?' asked Chapman, and the former Glasgow Rangers full-back was off at the sort of gallop that was once a){kind=link}
The corporation marked the end of an era by discontinuing it’s classified football results service which began broadcasting in the 1950s
The annual Halloween weekend expedition to a nearby heath to view this one particularly splendid and much-loved tree, normally gorgeously copper and ruddy coloured of leaf by this time of year. A wildly exciting life, I know, and that’s to say nothing of watching Tony Adams on Strictly later. But on Saturday, the tree and its colleagues still bold and green; the temperature 71 degrees Fahrenheit, the heath not blasted but verdant. Unsettling.
Home, to the calming comforts of Radio Five Live, which has been enduring calls to update, modernise, diversify and thus attract the dread “new audiences” over recent years. The truncation of Sports Report and removal of the full classified football results have been covered previously in this column and newspaper; this writer remains unwavering in his belief that this was a wretched act of self-harm that leaves our national sporting life just that little bit poorer. But the sun still rises, and the station’s Saturday coverage remains a wonderfully rich and warm thing, its strength surely not in innovation and progress but in reliability and familiarity.
For instance, on Saturday, a recorded interview with the then-beleaguered, now resurgent, Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch. Presenter Mark Chapman led his studio pundits Alan Hutton and Ashley Williams in a debate with Radio Five’s in-house number-cruncher Statman Dave (real name: Statman David) about the discrepancy between Leeds United’s performances and Leeds United’s results.
Statman Dave set his stall out with early mention of “underlying statistics” and “underperforming against expected goals”. The ears of the Proper Football Man were already pricking up before Statman concluded “their expected points are absolutely fine” and Chapman, spotting the opportunity like Kevin De Bruyne assessing an injudiciously diffused defence, put it on a plate.