It's still on

Eriksson does seem to have got the Pearson thing almost spot on.

The only thing he didn't get right is the big delay.

So I am reassured by this.

Stringer's good. He brings everything to the table, as it were. Can't really fault him to be fair. You won't realise until someone else replaces him. Don't knock it.

Until on the eleventh hour he turns on a sixpence

Seriously though

Stringer is a legend!!

Can you blame Hull for trying this on after the way we acted with Maynard in the summer?

"£3m."

"Ok, £4m."

"We're very sorry, £5m!"

"PLEASE! £6m!!!"

Yes Stringer is self-indulgent and often subjective, but I don't really mind this as part of his commentary.

The thing that I do find grating is how often he gets things wrong - 'it's in..oh no just wide..off the bar...no, goalie tipped it over..it's a foul! No ref doens't give it...

He is paid to provide accurate commentary to be fair. I did wonder if this was just live commentary, but having been at a game whilst listen to the odd bit, it really shows how much he gets wrong; things which seem patent even to the non-journalistic eye. And this is supported by how, more times than not, Youngy correctly points out his misinterpretations, despite having the same view as Stringer and no journalistic training.

Of course, this is without even mentioning the periods of commentary where Stringer can go 30 secs/1 minute without a single reference to the game he is watching.

He paid for my part,To give a bias one sided view of the match to my Camel in the desert.

I rather have him with his passion and humour than some of the Muppets that graced Radio grandads airwaves in recent years

Yep, ok, fine; local radio, by all means be a bit subjective and certainly I don't think anyone would resent passionate commentary.

But as I said, it's how many times he get things wrong, and the lack of constant communication about the game - irrelevant of how boring he may feel a period of the match is; it isn't his position to decide to instead, talk about the car journey to the match, what drink he is having at half time, what colour ear muffs Alan Young has on, etc.

Fine, add some dynamic to the commentary by adding some personality and creating a more holistic picture of the matchday for the listener, but I feel this stuff is often way too top-heavy (and possibly is spoken about when we aren't doing the exciting stuff - so you may not, for example, hear about preiods of play which are pretty lackluster, but involved King tracking back well..etc, etc).

I commented on Ians 'style' a couple of weeks ago, during the Millwall game if I remember correctly, when they had Gally in 'the box' with them. Ian sent me a very nice reply, part of which I've shamelessly reproduced below.

"It’s a lot to ask I know but I remember the incident you’re talking about and it was a foul on Jermaine Beckford on the halfway line, you missed nothing and IF there was a real scoring opportunity I’d have cut across Paul as I do Alan.

It’s a tough balancing act to describe square passes on the halfway line and injecting some colour into an hour and a half of radio but rest assured I do my best to improve every week. "

He went up in my estimation just because he could be bothered to reply directly to me, even though I was very uncomplimentary about him - due no doubt in part because we were AWFUL that day. We need Ians passion, he is entertaining.

The sound of someone who has already been down to Furniture Village and spent his winnings without waiting the bookie to pay out?

Don't worry, Massive. Most men suffer from over-excitement and premature dissipation at some point in their lives.

I blow hot and cold on Stringer, I confess. He sometimes comes across as far too pleased with himself, but I too enjoy what seems to be his genuine passion for City. On balance, like others, I think we could do far worse.

He'll have to think hard, though, about how best to approach Pearson (assuming he does come). I think he'll have drop the flippancy he got away with when talking to Sven, who was too much of a gentleman to show the resentment he must surely have felt at being treated like a drinking chum by this uppity local small-fry. It used to make me cringe.