Funes Mori: Vickery admits he got it wrong

Tim Vickery??? Makes a complete mockery of football punditry. Makes most of us amateurs sound good. The man is an idiot. I won’t be tuning in to listen to him anytime soon.

I had to laugh at the self-delusion he has when, droning on about Martinez paying about £6.5 million for Mauro Boselli when he was Wigan boss, he says, "I advised another Premier League manager" against signing him, as if any professional would trust the judgement of a hack when deciding whether to sign someone.

He’s right on only one thing: it is a big step up from Argentinian league to Premier League – look how many goals El Stracq scored there... So it is a risk for someone to come straight in as he has done due to injuries... but for me he’s been terrific, bar the odd mistake, which is to be expected.

It was the way Vickery went about it that annoyed me; he was so sure of himself he was right, stating his opinion as if it was written in the stars.

After the first 20 mins against Chelsea, you could see he was talking bollocks and clearly doesn’t know what he’s on about.

I'm very happy with Funes Mori so far and can only see him getting better.

This guy is a self-appointed knob and it’s typical of the BBC to pay a dickhead like him a fee for spouting shite.

Also, how long have we waited for a player other than Naismith who tries to get on the end of every corner and free-kick? The nutters club: Terry, Vidic, Skrtel, Dann and Co... not exactly a bunch of angels but they’ve won many a match. All Funes Mori wants is good consistent deliveries.

I think they are proud of our boy back in Argentina. I know the International coach is thrilled with his progress.

The back four are looking good, what we need is offensive minded midfielder to give us that bit creativity in the final third. Barkley is doing his best, but he’s not quite there yet.

We also need another keeper to push Robles. Joel may, or may not, be the answer for the future; in any event, Howard can’t go forever and we will need a second GK.

Maybe we could get them from South America, and Vickery could tell us if they’re any good... or not... whatever.

What motivated Vickery to write this article anyway? Was he getting flack from Everton or River Plate fans? Or from people that pay him for his self-titled "expertise" on South American football? There's no reason to write this. I don't recall very many player-analysts who announced that they were wrong. And if they did admit their mistake, it wouldn't be until they were A) forced to for some reason, or B) would wait until the season played out to get complete data on the player. Give themselves time to be proved correct.

Usually hacks such as this guy ignore their mistakes; they keep on writing and doing their thing. But this guy writes an article describing - in detail - reasons and examples that justified his views after only a couple months of the season? He must have thought Funes Mori was going suck big time.

So I wonder if there was some powerful media entity that pays him money, and was now questioning his expertise - and that pressured him to respond? Oh, and nice response too. After begrudgingly admitting that Funes Mori as been OK, he quickly reminds us that the player hasn't been perfect, and won't make anyone's end of season best XI. But, you know, his judgment was poisoned because of watching (allegedly) sooo much poor South American football.

If only the rest of the UK hacks in the print media would put their hands up when they’re wrong – but then the papers would be like telephone directories with all the retractions and admissions.

It is difficult to avoid reading or hearing these people but I always think it is best to ignore them and form your own opinion and not get upset if their opinion is different.

Link

Harold - I like the look of this nutter.

He’s been big enough to say he got it wrong then gave an array of examples as to why his opinion had been skewed. Excellent journalism in my opinion.

Light relief from the likes of Savage and Lawrenson, with their cosy couch analysis and uninformed nonsense.

To be honest. It sounds like his original opinion was that South Americans can’t make it in England as defenders. That’s a pretty lazy opinion. Claiming as he did, that he would fail due to lack of pace and physicality just lends weight to the theory that the guy is making it up as he goes along... and dressing it up with random opinions to support whatever theory he’s already arrived at.

So now he’s apparently wrong. Is he? I’ve been very impressed by Funes Mori’s start but surely he’s a long way short of proving himself in this league? Will we get another article saying he was wrong that he was wrong if Funes Mori’s form dips?

We know it must be extremely difficult for the South Americans. New continent, new culture, new life. Many can’t adapt but our boy was given no time to ponder on possible problems. We were forced to chuck him in the deep end when Jags got crocked and, all things considered, he has performed really well. A credit to himself and his country. Nowhere near his peak, this lad will have a successful future.

As for Vickery. I wonder how many agents and clubs were put off Funes Mori by his silly rantings. Quite a few I’ll bet.

Anyway, reading the article, Vickery still hopes to be proven right. The criticism was "unfair" and "unwise" but he is praying the lad drops clangers galore.

How many people expected Shevchencko, Veron, Falcao, to be complete flops in English football? Not many...

We as fans have been guilty of this kind of thing. How many have we written off new signings only to have ended up with egg on our faces having been proven wrong?

This guy is paid to offer such insight and admits to dressing it up with comments on ability that were lacking in basis.

Nothing against him but he’s just an amateur hack isn’t he?

Regarding the other debate on this thread of us slagging players off prematurely... I can’t think of many better examples than Lee Carsley who became virtually the first name on the team sheet. He was brilliant in front of that back 4 but many gave him stick when he signed.

Vickery has admitted he was wrong about Funes Mori, so fair play to him. He’s always come across as a bit of a prick; to be honest, I never listen to any of the pundits and now watch TV games with the sound off.

Everyone gets it wrong. The fella who scouted Stones for us and pushed Moyes to sign him scouted the one-paced, unsuited-to-English-football Bilyaletdinov, who was not what we needed to balance us in midfield at the time.

Although the overall fault on that goes to Moyes who sanctioned it and then later got Donovan in on loan who was exactly what we needed in the first place: pace, directness and cutting edge. Could never understand that.

I just made that up! I’m off to bed. Evening all.

Not only is he usually wrong, the South Americans almost universally view him as a clown. For whatever reasons, if he takes a dislike to any particular player, that player is useless in his eyes. Nothing and no-one can change his mind.

Fair play he has admitted he was wrong about Funes Mori but don't be fooled by this admission. The man has clouded judgement in almost everything he does and seems to make his decisions on whether he likes the player personally, or not.

He does not have extensive experience of South American football at all, he is based in Brazil and bases most of his decisions on what he sees on TV. Not only is he a poor pundit, he is also a very poor judge of footballers

I was disappointed when he made his initial comments about Funes Mori as I believed he would more than likely be right. It's still early days but it looks like he may well have been wide of the mark and thankfully so.

You have to give Tim Vickery some credit for not only recanting his assertion, but also for going back and examining why he might have been wrong in a probably effort to improve his own journalistic skills. Surely we all get it wrong in our various lines-of-work from time to time and, as Mr. Vickery, points out, football is not mathematics: it's hard to be certain about anything.

Fair play and kudos for admitting a probably error in judgement.