Who are the best pundits on TV? While there are plenty of bad ones – we couldn't possibly comment who – there are plenty to choose from when it comes to the best.
Punditry is rather like being a full-back: anyone can turn their hand at it and put in a half-arsed performance but real mastery takes hours of craft. The best pundits don't just explain what's going on, they make you feel a part of the event; they illuminate things you would never have thought to look for and make even a 0-0 at Turf Moor worth tuning in for.
Or, they might just have an entertaining moan about Paul Pogba's potential. Here's FFT's favourites…
The 10 best football pundits on TV right now: 10. Alan Shearer
Gary Lineker's righthand man. The Premier League all-time scorer. The first comment on whichever status has just happened.
Alan Shearer's had a seamless transition from arm-raising goal-getter to the Match of the Day studio, like he was studying his punditry badges from his late 20s onwards. The Geordie is excellent value for any kind of comment on movement or finishing, too – that was his thing, kids – while the annual game of "when will they mention Alan never won the FA Cup" is fun for all the family.
But where Shearer steps into his own is the odd occasion that you've just witnessed the most monumental disasterclass one could possibly concoct (from a ref, manager or forward alike). The calm, exasperated growl of a man who once decked Keith Gillespie for dropping some cutlery? He has the air of a man who would complain in a restaurant on behalf of the whole party. His soliloquy in the aftermath of England's Euro 2016 exit is still a punditry take for the ages.
9. Alex Scott
Alex Scott has had to overcome unbelievable prejudice in her media career – and yet she might be the most accomplished pundit in the game. Can you think of anyone else with 140 appearances for their country? Anyone who's won the quadruple?
Scott's natural flair for analysis has not only had a huge impact on women getting into football broadcasting, it's been a breath of fresh air on both the BBC and Sky. Scott is effortlessly capable of dissecting a match succinctly and offering insight without ever digging anyone out and her passion for football comes across well: she's a really engaging presence.
That she's been a presenter for Football Focus, an anchor during the Olympics and even on day-time TV quizzes shows her universal appeal. Scott is one of the most reliable studio guests in football and a very welcome addition to any panel.
8. Rio Ferdinand
Ahead of the 2006 World Cup, Rio Ferdinand was given his own prank show. Like Manchester United's answer to Fonejacker, the much-maligned experiment featured Rio convincing art-lover David James to seriously critique children's paintings or attempting to kidnap David Beckham. It's safe to say Ferdinand's broadcasting career has taken a good turn since.
The ex-England centre-back was a cultured ball-player and Rio's screen analysis on TNT Sports is fittingly informative and well-conducted; given that relatively, at least, it's not that long since he retired, either, insights into what Sergio Busquets actually says on the pitch have been wholly welcome over the years. He's become a staple of the Champions League coverage – and he fits the picture, as a former winning captain in the competition.
Ferdinand knows the game: he especially knows how to defend and he's good at what he does on TV these days. He may never live down that excitement he showed for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's early United tenure, mind.
7. Peter Crouch
Peter Crouch is a brand in his own right: the face of podcasts, the subject of a festival, a safe pair of hands for a number of big-name brands. That he has time to grace TV viewers with his punditry presence, truly, spoils us.
The 6ft 7in striker is a national treasure, too, y'know – which makes the fact he's such an ever-present on TNT Sports even sweeter when you deep it. Seriously, could you imagine an Attenborough or a Stephen Fry on the box every damn week? And though he's famed for his sense of humour, he's actually capable of insight, too. Just as when he was a player, he's refreshingly versatile as a media personality.
Lest we forget, this was a man who worked his way up from Dulwich, had a spell in Scandinavia and was signed by Harry Redknapp so many times that were he a Caffe Nero cappuccino, 'Arry would be entitled to a free Crouchy by now. He played alongside everyone from Bale to Bojan, Pennant to Pope. The things he's seen. The stories he's still sitting on. Who wouldn't want an extra hour of Crouch before kick-off every week, alongside his other channels?
6. Micah Richards
Micah Richards' rise to Super Sunday regular has come out of the leftfield, in the void of Manchester City legends to call on in television. Stick your Richard Dunnes and your Joe Harts, TV bosses said, as they opted for a name many fans perhaps expected to still be playing professionally, perhaps out in India or down in the fourth tier, when he first burst onto the box. Hell, Carra's probably said it to his face.
A wonderkid who never really reached his heights – and found himself, somehow, at Fiorentina – there's something charming about Sky and CBS leaning on an ex-pro who didn't actually do much on the pitch. It's wholly fair to say he's a better pundit than he ever was a player.
Richards is pigeon-holed for his explosive laugh and the fact that he knows a few of the City players on a first-name basis – none of them will speak to Gary Neville – but the former right-back is a lot sharper than he's perhaps given credit for. His struggles as a player inform his insights, while he's just about fair to everyone. He has an infectious enthusiasm for the game and it comes across nicely.
It's actually pretty difficult to be as upbeat as Richards while coming across as a serious mouthpiece on the sport; most others try the 'serious critic' look for size. Richards has thrived for just being his jovial self, though - and we're here for it.
5. Ian Wright
It's shocking that Ian Wright has not been knighted: or least given the formal title of the nation's uncle. He is every "your dad's mate at the pub".
Kids might not realise that Wright wasn't a footballer until his early 20s, but he went and scored 185 goals for Arsenal after hanging up his plastering tools when he left his 9-5 in DIY. He's such a natural presence on Match of the Day or ITV's international coverage though, that you'd be forgiven for thinking he'd taken an MBA for this gig.
Though he's not the most cutting or the most analytically-pressing, he's just blooming good at talking about the game that he loves (and never without a comeback: never banter a man with a single gold tooth). He knows one thing in this game and that's the most important: how to score goals. For that, there will always be a job on the box for him.
And Ian Wright is never afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. He's always willing to talk up players, managers and teams he loves. He's unashamedly an England fan; he turned up to the 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama wearing a kimono, spent most of 2014 in Brazil dancing with locals and was front row for the Lionesses' Euros triumph. He is the definition of how most of us would approach punditry and for that, we salute him.
4. Thierry Henry
That the greatest footballer in Premier League history dedicates his post-playing life to US television is enough to make you want to emigrate. Thierry Henry flirted with taking on management like he'd take on right-backs in his prime: now he's doing a different kind of flirting.
The Arsenal all-time scorer isn't the glue of CBS's Champions League team: he's the breadwinner. The sensible father figure opposite the cheekier Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher – letting presenter Kate Abdo take disciplinarian-in-chief – he is the star attraction. Le grand fromage. Without him, it would be one Dan Sturridge short of a Saturday 5:30pm kick-off. With him, it suddenly oozes transatlantic glamour. His anecdotes are almost unmatchable; modern-day players are starstruck in his presence.
He could hack it in Hollywood. He's dripping in charisma, whether he's giving Erling Haaland shooting tips (no, really) or just wiggling the corners of his mouth after dropping an embarrassingly bad pun. You get the feeling this whole studio will do anything just to avoid talking about football, too: it's great telly (we assume, we've only seen the clips).
3. Roy Keane
The hand grenade in the ball pit. The argument in the empty room. The dark side of the moon. You don't have to have agreed with anything that Roy Keane has ever said; nor do you have to have appreciated anything achieved in his trophy-laden career. But you can't live without him.
Keano is the chief firestarter of football punditry. While we always knew he liked a scrap on the field, his adoration for arguing is excellent television, whether he's talking about how far United have fallen, the lack of steel in the Arsenal midfield or just how much he hates the game that gave him this platform.
Roy's ramblings are a constant. Any lack of effort is jumped upon like a guard dog, as the irate Irishman will quite happily berate just about any current player or manager in the game. He's even had fiery conversations with Jurgen Klopp on-air.
No one is safe. Keane tears ex-teammates ("Peter Schmeichel was overrated") and total strangers apart equally (see his tiff with Tim Cahill in lockdown over Mikel Arteta), seemingly unimpressed with anything in the modern game and with a weekly axe to grind. It's just like it was in his playing days. You may hate his guts: but you can't deny what he adds to the team.
2. Jamie Carragher
It's easy now to see how Jamie Carragher got into punditry. The Liverpudlian began youth football as an intelligent striker keeping Emile Heskey out of England boys sides with his link-up play; he was used across Liverpool's backline as a senior pro and though he was never lightning quick or physically supreme, he was perhaps the most intelligent player on any pitch.
In punditry, he's matured into an oracle of the sport and become a benchmark for other ex-pros, complete with his trademark points at his giant Monday Night Football tablet (accompanied by a very Scouse "there!") and Loki/Thor-like relationship with Gary Neville. Carra is extremely well-read and obviously so: he's fair to all, even when he has obvious biases and he's very articulate.
That he won European titles and played with and against some of the greatest footballers in history only adds to the gravitas. The Liverpool legend might never have been the first pick in an England squad – but Sky would be empty without him.
1. Gary Neville
Arguably no one has been at the forefront of so many iconic moments in football punditry and commentary over the past decade-and-a-bit. The heated debates. The scream when Fernando Torres scored for Chelsea against Barcelona. The Super League inquest. The self-reflecting takes on his Valencia stint. The TikTok of him rapping along to Dua Lipa.
To call him a latter-day Alan Hansen is underplaying just how he's soared to become one of the leading faces in British football in recent seasons. ITV securing him for international coverage was a genuine coup: he's the first voice that many look towards when Manchester United are in crisis, when Big Six teams are waning or when a political issue dominates the game. That he's capable of dishing out an Alan Partridge-esque quip here and there only adds to his appeal.
Football should be thankful that he's not going back into management any time soon. Ultimately, he's changed the game for punditry in this country: most measure up to Neville, these days… which is ironic considering Carra told him that no one wanted to be him as a player.
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