Rory Jennings video deleted by talkSPORT after idiotic rant about Everton star Dele Alli
Following Dele Alli’s recent interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap, talkSPORT pundit Rory Jennings spoke about how the Everton midfielder’s protection and well-being must be his priority after seeing the “painful” interview.
As quickly as Jennings’ heartfelt plea was published, screenshots of a quietly deleted clip of the pundit calling Dele “the problem”, following this up with his he will “never play in the Premier League again” when discussing his poor footballing spell at Everton.
This brings up another contentious debate in the world of football punditry and analysis: what is the line between genuine player criticism and player hate?
Jennings is not famously known for good takes, having been well off-target in predicting Erling Haaland’s exceptional debut season in the Premier League. Still, his role as a pundit and the industry’s need for clickable catchy headlines makes poor takes like this harmless to anyone who’s not Jennings himself, so who cares?
However, his piece about Dele’s failure in the Premier League with Everton and his claim that he could never play in the top flight again because “he is to blame” is more alarming and dangerous.
It is also more controversial, which means they will get more clicks, which means talkSPORT will publish them. That in turn boosts views and interactions. It gets shared across Twitter and Facebook and in WhatsApp group chats. Users will tag their friends and call Jennings a clown. But the real winner is talkSPORT, who are seeing green arrows and happy managers.
No one could blame talkSPORT for wanting the green arrows, they need them to remain active as do all news outlets. But having controversial and heated debates about football does not need to become specific, targeted attacks on players themselves. This shifts the industry from genuine football analysis and discussion into needless polemic based on harmful speculation and conjecture, for clicks.
However, this can’t mean players should be free of criticism. It comes with the job, and when fans pay hard-earned money to watch their team and they don’t feel their players are doing enough for the shirt, criticism of their football is valid and justified.
If Player X takes a long-range shot that hits row Z instead of passing it to Player Y who is free in on goal, Player X will get an earful from his manager, the fans at the ground, and everyone on social media. Fairly? Yes.
However, if the discourse turns from genuine criticism of footballing ability, decision making or talent into questioning the player’s attitude and integrity without having knowledge of their personal life, then we end up with Rory Jennings-like comments being covertly deleted when Player X’s past trauma is revealed by Gary Neville.
It is a very difficult balance to strike, and Jennings has lost his balance completely and fallen over without grace.
But pundits must be more astute and careful in their wording of criticism before they judge players, and hopefully, Dele’s case can be a lesson rather than adding to a trend.
In other Goodison news, the Toffees must splash on a former loan target if they want to improve their league-worst scoring record.