IN some ways I admire the cheek of the former-footballer-turned-pundit, the ex-pro who sits on a TV sofa offering nondescript opinions while wearing a shiny shirt and too-tight trousers.

It takes a certain amount of front to accept what I can only assume is a large fee in return for such clichéd and ill-informed thoughts.

Alan Shearer is perhaps the best example, a man who announced before the Algeria versus Slovenia match at last year’s World Cup that his knowledge of the two teams was ‘limited’ – with no suggestion that he had done any research to address this shortcoming.

Two years earlier at Euro 2008, the former Newcastle striker joked about his inability to pronounce the name of any member of the Polish team while providing his ‘expert’ analysis of their match against Germany.

There was another example last week when former Arsenal striker Ian Wright gave ITV1 viewers the benefit of his insight during the Gunners’ match against Udinese.

While talking us through the highlights at half-time, he referred several times to players on the Italian side as ‘the lad’ or ‘the defender’ – giving the distinct impression that he didn’t know one Udinese player from another.

Now, I must admit I’d struggle to pick out most of them from a line-up. But then again, I’m not the one picking up the big bucks to talk about a game involving Udinese.

This approach is so commonplace in football punditry that it’s no longer shocking – though it should be.

Imagine if the rest of us performed our jobs with such an attitude.

One of my tasks is to report on the monthly meeting of Kirklees Council. There are only 22 players on a football pitch – but there are 69 councillors in Huddersfield Town Hall.

How would my council reports read if I shared Ian Wright’s attitude to learning people’s names?

“And then Clr Thingy, I forget his name but he’s got really bad breath, anyway, he said something about potholes and then that woman, I think she’s called Mary or maybe it’s Margaret, anyway, she piped up as usual, giving off about something or other.

“And then Clr Baldy he was clean through and he only had the keeper to beat and he really should have done better. He’ll be disappointed with that. You get punished for that at this level.”