Growing up I watched football go from an enjoyable game to one of the most convoluted, messy, and complicated games. Here is one of my reasons to explain why it became that way.

There are a few I concluded from watching ex-footballers talk about football.

• They all look to fortify their opinions using their past experiences as players

• They don't have an opinion they all share

• The one thing they agree on is the fact that as long as you haven't "kicked a football before" then you shouldn't talk. Even if your opinion matches their opinions.

The issue with all of that is the fact that this is a trick everyone in the world of football uses.

Carlo Ancelotti, who used to be a midfielder in AC Milan, used it against Mourinho who never played professionally. Mourinho used it against a journalist who shed doubt on the reason Mourinho used Ander Herrera as a center-back in the famous press conference where Mourinho stormed out while saying "Respect! Respect"

Mourinho did that even though he is living proof that managers don't need to have kicked a football before. The entire field of football personnel in front of the camera is filled with entitlement. The motto is: I was successful, therefore no one has the right to criticize me. I know more than all of you.

The Dunning Kruger Effect

David Dunning and Justin Kruger are two social psychologists who came up with the term. Below is the definition of Ig Nobel prize-winning effect.

The Dunning–Kruger effect is the cognitive bias whereby people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Some researchers also include in their definition the opposite effect for high performers: their tendency to underestimate their skills.

People filled with such entitlement don't know their limits. The result of that is they overestimate their abilities.

One of those people could rate themselves 7 out of 10 as a manager. The problem is that they don't know what a 7 out of 10 is like. The only way for them to know is by facing someone who is actually 7 out of 10 as a manager, otherwise, they wouldn't know because they have overestimated their abilities. It is a closed circle.

That's why humbleness is required in a field where it exists the least. Not required so you wouldn't annoy people with your smugness, but required so you would know the limits of your abilities and learn what to work on and improve. That mentality exists in managers, old managers specifically. But, it also exists in TV sports personnel.

The Reasons

First, those people are just like us. They get their information from the same place you and I do without having to do the work required to be an actual analyst.

Second, they don't even have a practical experience like the one Mourinho has as an assistant or Guardiola as Barcelona B coach, they don't have that. All they have is that entitlement, a fake feeling that they understand the game more than they actually do.

Third, and most important. If sports analytics was a job, they don't even do the work required for it. Bringing ex-players to Sky studios has become so common that ex-players don't feel the need to add anything to what they already know.

It has become so common, that the ex-players don't even need to be great to be there. What has Danny Mills done to have an opinion that is more qualified than yours? The same goes for Craig Burley and Shaka Hislop for their opinions to matter more to ESPN than yours? When did Thebes grow so much realism and heroic characters?

These people go from the pitch to the studios, carrying their misunderstandings, fallacies, ideas, and cliches as they are. They come with their experience, be it right or wrong, without the need to review them. Quite the opposite, they believe that since they became TV stars then that experience is what made them brilliant. So, they hold on to their experience and ideas even more.

That's How I See It

However, I don't even think anyone cares really. Nor, do I even believe anyone should. More on than in the next post.