10th place Fulham host West Brom tomorrow afternoon and if the following report from Friday’s edition of When Saturday Comes Daily is accurate, the BBC’s Alan Green can probably expect a less than warm welcome.
It emerged that following Fulham’s 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford on Wednesday night, the club’s head of communications Sarah Brooks stepped in and prevented Radio 5 Live from talking to the manager, Roy Hodgson. Fulham fans, already on edge at the ease with which Rooney and co swept their team aside, took exception to the commentary of Alan Green (above) and hit the message boards to protest. “Alan Green’s comments about Fulham appalled some of our fans,” said Brooks. “Remarks like ‘Fulham should not have bothered to turn up’ were insulting. In those circumstances, I didn’t feel it appropriate for 5 Live to speak to our manager.”
One of the least expletive outcries on the club’s official website invited 5 Live to “turn up a day before the match and do their commentary”, while the mildest description of the controversy-courting Green was “a mix between Shrek and Benny Hill”. The Irishman has regularly been spotlighted for his opinionated and often rash commentary, which in the past has touched upon issues both social (the morals of Liverpudlians) and racial (Sun Jihai and Chicken Chow Mein) which his employers would be keen to avoid. Elsewhere, BBC investigations into the corruption of transfers, agents and bungs has landed the broadcaster in trouble with Harry Redknapp, Alex Ferguson and Sam Allardyce. They all complained loudly about unfair treatment but rather than go to court to defend themselves, they now ignore the broadcaster altogether. Ironically, those who which suffer most from this non-cooperation are the mild-mannered Gary Lineker and his comrades on Match of the Day, and their audience, who must instead turn to Sky to catch any comments from the aforementioned managers.