Planet Swans ArchivesBlimey, there is a sackable offence if ever I heard one. Maybe from here on in we could arrange for a public flogging somewhere in Splott for the heinous crime of speaking his mind. Is there really a big deal in this story at all?
Personally I think Leighton talks bollocks more often than he doesn't and on this occasion I really read his comments and didn't give them a second thought. He wants Swansea born Simon Davey to get one over on Cardiff City. Where is the crime in that?
I actually quite fancy seeing Cardiff in the FA Cup Final personally so clearly I am in the 0.01% of Swansea fans who think that (according to Leighton) even if it is only to see what happens regards European qualification but I didn't take any offence at someone stating different. I certainly see no reason why that means the BBC have to drop him with the pompus up their own arse statement of "By mutual agreement, Leighton James will not be participating in any BBC Wales programmes for the foreseeable future".
I do have to add that it won't make any difference to me – I have never watched any programme that Leighton has been involved in nor do I intend starting now. In fact I am actually less likely to watch it now because of the attitude and reaction to someone speaking their own mind. Forget the crap that he should be impartial because he is in the media – that simply doesn't ring true – if it did then half the pundits in the country would be out of work. Watch Match of the Day any week and you know where all the loyalty lies on their panel and it's not as if Leighton hasn't had enough digs at us in recent weeks despite having a great league position.
Somewhere around it all there needs to be some lightening up if this kind of thing happens. I assume someone somewhere has made a complaint regards what is written and all hell has broken loose which resulted in this absolutely crazy decision from the BBC. Please nobody tell me that either fans of Swansea or Cardiff actually took the time to make the complaint? Surely this just has to be the result of a hidden agenda to dump James rather than a result of the comments he has made.
Mind you having said that the whole story bores me rigid. In the times when one Welsh league club is fighting for their future in League Two, another one tops League One by five points and one is facing a FA Cup Semi Final with a more than realistic chance of winning the competition this is the best thing the BBC can come up with to do? Geez, I wonder what they would do if their clubs were struggling? Public castrations maybe?
Good luck to Cardiff and all that but there are more important things to worry about than suspending people for airing their own opinion. Which strangely was what he was actually employed to do? Or was it a case of being able to air an opinion providing it agrees totally with the corporations view?
Small minds.
