Adrian Durham: Flying The Flag
On his Talk Sport “Drive Time” Show on the 12th December 2013, Adrian Durham once again brought his lack of knowledge and general arrogance to the fore. Durham's latest cause is getting Scottish sides barred from the Champions League.
On the show, with guest host Matt Holland looking on in almost stunned silence; Durham declared that current Scottish Champions Celtic should not be allowed in the Champions League because their league wasn’t competitive enough. He questioned what benefit it was to Celtic to have the highlight of their season being Barcelona coming for a Champions League contest. Durham essentially pulled down his trousers and took a massive dump over Celtic and Scottish football in general. Durham embarrassed the radio station he works for, the listeners who tune in and, most of all, his own country.
Sometimes we English like to question why the rest of the world looks at us with a mixture of contempt and derision. It’s for reasons like these. If it were up to people like Durham, the Champions League would be only for English, German and Spanish teams (With maybe the odd Belgian or Portuguese team chucked in). Durham has, on more than one occasion, taken a pop at Bundesliga and has constantly been on Celtic’s case for years. Durham is the living embodiment of the angry “Little Englander” who thinks that the Premier League is the only thing that matters and thinks people like the Scots, and the other “minnows” of Europe, should know their place and leave the sporting competitions to the “Big” countries.
This isn’t the first time that Durham as rallied against a smaller nation. Northern Ireland plays their home international matches at Windsor Park. Windsor Park is not a big stadium but it has been Northern Ireland’s home for a long time and the venue creates an excellent atmosphere on match nights. Durham spoke out a few years ago that he thought it was terrible and an insult that some of the world’s best players had to play in such an awful stadium. He went as far as to demand that Northern Ireland play all their home games in Dublin. The fact that Dublin wasn’t actually IN Northern Ireland didn’t seem to bother Durham of course. Who cares about a little thing like a country actually playing in their own country eh? Totti and Maldini might have to “lower” themselves to playing in a hostile environment and might be upset that the away locker room didn’t contain a vending machine and Foot Spa!
And, so what if Celtic’s highlight of the season is welcoming Barcelona to Celtic Park? Is Barcelona not the world’s best team? Do they not have some of the world’s best players on their books? Just because Celtic operate within a league they win with ease, it should not disqualify them from taking part in club footballs showpiece event. It’s not like they get straight in either. Celtic, and teams from other teams with poor coefficients, have to go through a grueling pre-qualifying campaign before they get into the last 32 of the Champions League. If Celtic truly don’t deserve to be in the group stages then the onus is on one of the other teams to remove them from the process. Celtic survived the qualification round and thus were in the group on merit. That’s really all there is to it.
Durham has been out for Celtic on more than one occasion, going as far to call them a “joke” club. You could argue that Durham is just trying to say controversial things so that people are offended and then call up to the show to complain, thus netting Talk Sport a tidy sum in the process. To be honest, I personally find either to be reprehensible.
Either Durham is an arrogant ignoramus or he’s a money grabbing carnie.
Neither one would cover him in too much glory. Talk Sport has done an excellent job the past few years cleansing itself of trouble makers like Durham and his elk. Maybe it’s time to take this horse out the back and put a bullet in it, before it limps on to tumble over more hurdles?
Rant over.
