Jamie Carragher and 5 other pundits who courted controversy

#3 Alan Pardew

Due to the volatile nature of football management, bosses who are out of a job quite often appear as guest pundits on football shows such as Match of the Day and Monday Night Football. Back in 2009 – after his stint as Charlton boss and a few months prior to his time as Southampton manager – current West Bromwich Albion boss Alan Pardew appeared on Match of the Day 2 and caused a major storm.

Discussing the highlights of a game between Manchester City and Chelsea, Pardew spoke about a tackle by Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien on City’s Ched Evans, and said “he’s a strong boy. He knocks him off...he absolutely rapes him”.

Unsurprisingly, comparing a tackle in football to rape horrified viewers at home and the BBC received 35 complaints, and were forced to apologise, stating that the producer believed Pardew had used the word “rakes”.

Pardew for his part apologised for the remark, but was condemned by anti-rape charities and somewhat unsurprisingly, was never asked back as a pundit by the BBC.