Nevin In The Scotsman

[Cobra]

PAT NEVIN has insisted he will not change his style of punditry and defended his own comments which infuriated Paul Hartley, the Dundee manager, who described them as rubbish and claimed Sportscene had become unwatchable.

 

Former Scotland international Nevin, who has become a familiar face on the BBC, was heaving criticised by Hartley for the way he described Dundee as disorganised in their defeat to Aberdeen last Friday night.

 

In what was clearly a pre-prepared rant, Hartley pointed out that Nevin had never managed, meaning he was less equipped to make an judgement on how the team was set-up, and that “he doesn’t know what he’s talking about – and it’s the same every week.â€

 

The ex-Chelsea winger was both understanding and unrepentant in the wake of such a personal attack and vowed to continue to give his honest assessment on the state of Scottish football.

 

“I have complete respect for Paul and his position but I did my job to the best of my ability and I stick by what I said,†said Nevin. “I have no problem with Paul or what he’s said about me. It doesn’t really bother me.

 

“Paul is well within his rights to disagree and stick up for his team, his players and his beliefs. But I 100 per cent stand by what I said at the weekend.â€

 

When it was put to Nevin that Hartley would not be the only manager to have a problem with any pundit with no first-hand knowledge of coaching criticising a job they were not prepared to take on themselves, the BBC pundit said: “I actually do understand that. I have never managed and have never wanted to manage. From time to time, when I was a player, I would be asked about going into it when I retired and I always said it wasn’t for me.

 

“So I have nothing but a massive respect for every manager in the country and I obviously include Paul in that. I know how tough a job it is.

 

“What Paul said does not bother me. Not at all. It’s fine. When you play among the big boys then these things will happen. I have doing this job for something like 18 years now and people are always going to disagree with you. I can’t let that bother me at all. It is part of the job and one I will continue to do.

 

“If you offer an opinion on anything then somebody is going to have another view. I have no problem with that and I will carry on giving my take on things as I have been doing for some time “ will continue to have a go. That is part of my job, a job I am going to keep doing in the way I see fit.â€

 

Nevin as a player was one who enjoyed a decent relationship with the media, perhaps a reason he choose quite early on to move into that side of the game. But this is not the first time, as player of pundit, that there has been a disagreement.

 

“As a player, I only once phoned up a journalist to complain but that was more about his tone rather than what he actually wrote,†he said. “But that was a one-off. I didn’t bother with what anyone said about me most if the time.

 

“During all my time as a pundit, only one manager phoned me to take issue with something I said and that was Martin O’Neill. I actually enjoyed that and we had a really long chat. I thought it was classy of him to come to me directly so we could talk about it.

      

“He disagreed with something I said and we had a good chat about. It was Martin who suggested we talk it though and I respected that.".

 

What I would say is a few weeks ago, after the Dundee derby, I did a really nice piece on Dundee, specifically about how they played so well as a team. I would like that underlined. There are always times to praise and criticise. There are always going to be positives and negatives.â€

[HK Blues]

Nothing earth shattering there, says all the right things as you'd expect.

I just wonder if he was having a cheeky wee dig at Hartley when he brought up the fact that O'Neill took the time to 'phone him. Said it was classy that he spoke directly-inference being PH was not classy by going through the media perhaps?

Anyway, as Nevin himself suggested, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

[Cobra]

Nothing earth shattering there, says all the right things as you'd expect.

I just wonder if he was having a cheeky wee dig at Hartley when he brought up the fact that O'Neill took the time to 'phone him. Said it was classy that he spoke directly-inference being PH was not classy by going through the media perhaps?

Anyway, as Nevin himself suggested, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

Yeah fairly predictable stuff. As you say, the O'Neill story is the closest you get to a dig at Hartley.

[8utters]

It's just a shame that the rest of the BBC felt it necessary to spend the entire night last night ripping into all things DFC. They obviously did have a problem with PH sticking up for himself and the players.

[Spiritof62]

Anyone who attended last night and throughout this season would find it hard to disagree with Nevin, the reality is our defence is very poor.

IMO Houston had Falkirks defence better organised, the difference the problem for them was our forwards are excellant players, who were capable of getting goals.

Pity we are short of a bit the little bit of quality in midfield and defence, which would make us a pretty formidable outfit.

In Hartleys defence, from day one he was building a team from a very low platform and to his credit he has found three gems in Hemmings, Stewart and Loy, in time he will sort out the midfield and defence.

He is also right about Sportscene which is so bad it looks like it's produced in a garden shed for loose change.

[Farmerboy]

Our defence never looks like a compact organised unit. The Falkirk defence were exactly that, even to the point of claiming offside as a unit like the Arsenal of Tony Adam's day. Our defenders never seem to know where each other is or should be ? They play like a bunch of individuals thrown together for the first time.

[TheDarkBlues]

Our defence never looks like a compact organised unit. The Falkirk defence were exactly that, even to the point of claiming offside as a unit like the Arsenal of Tony Adam's day. Our defenders never seem to know where each other is or should be ? They play like a bunch of individuals thrown together for the first time.

A good job that we have forwards that are exactly the opposite and are banging in the goals. 

[MainStandMenace]

What a load of rubbish this piece is.

Clearly Nevin can't handle or respect Paul Hartley's opinions if he feels the need to carry this on..

Getting a wee story published in the Scotsman as his response.

He gave his opinion and Hartley gave his.. Then he got his BBC cronies to tear into The Dee at every opportunity last night making them look rather foolish by the full time whistle.

The PAT NEVIN story... why should Paul Hartley feel the need to call a nobody and pander to him anyway?.. 

In the hope of getting get some good press in future from the cleek on BBC / Scotsport ..

Edited 27 January 2016 by MainStandMenace

[Blue4evr]

We lost one goal when even Hayes would agree he got a lucky break of the ball, to a good Aberdeen team. Why didn't he rip into Killie for shipping 5 goals to pysh team.

[Budgem]

Didn't hear the Sportsound negativity but typical BBC, they develop a siege mentality when one of their own gets criticised. They've never liked us, even when we did 'something different' with Ivano and co, they hated it.

Miller and on some occasions dab Preston get stuck in to us at any opportunity and let's not go there with Cosgrove!!

[AMAPC]

My guess is that the media will generally stick together and try to keep provoking him now. That way it keeps them as a talking point and will draw more debate.

[Dondeh]

It would now be good to see PH doing the responding on the pitch.