Opinion: Mark Lawrenson's bitter, self-satisfied response to his BBC sacking shows why he had to go ✍️ danielstorey85
On the age issue, Lawrenson probably has a point. According to YouGov data, Football Focus is most popular with those aged 16 to 41. The oldest viewers in that category were eight when Lawrenson retired from playing football. To most, he is purely a pundit and punditry is a competitive industry into which former players are entering every year, forcing up the level of insight demanded. Rather than beomaning your exit from the pool, celebrate that you swam in it for 30 years.
For 30 years, that worked for Lawrenson. At times his grumpiness – deliberate or natural – gave the impression that he wasn’t enjoying himself at all. His successful persona was based on a premise of gruff suspicion about the trappings of modern football that landed with much of his audience. “Dislocated shoelace” was one disdainful assessment of a player rolling on the floor. If that did eventually become a little hackneyed, he was also an antidote to his peers.
The second red flag – and this is really where Lawrenson let himself down – is using “anti-woke” as a personality type. The initial accepted definition of wokeness, aware of social and political issues that disproportionately affect minorities or the powerless, has been lost in a fog of the culture war. In this context it is a slur, a weakness for lily-livered kowtowing to a lefty agenda.
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