Some football pundits make the occasional slip of the tongue, some make more mistakes a greasy-fingered goalkeeper, and then there’s Garth Crooks.
You can’t fault the former Stoke and Spurs man for effort with his attempts at analysing the beautiful game, but he is prone to amaze with the odd broadcasting faux pas.
This time Crooks’ error was to tell fellow Beeb presenter Jake Humphrey, and the rest of the viewing public, that Brazil had set up their formation interestingly, “almost like a 4-2-1-3-1.”
That would give the Olympic gold-medal favourites 11 outfield players, and a definite advantage for the Samba nation.
Humphrey was onto the elephant in the room like a flash, barely able to contain himself as he joked about the issue.
It’s never nice to be reverted back to playground bullying, but the way Crooks responded with “my maths aren’t very good”, made you really feel for the guy.
You could just imagine Humphrey, Keown and Savage back in the studio sniggering like little schoolboys, but you’d find it hard not to join in yourself if truth be told.
Olympic football has been a mixed bag this summer, but if Saturday’s final can match this clip for entertainment, it should be a great game indeed.
