Geoff Shreeves - The Grim Reaper in English football

Geoff Shreeves

Football, like Gotham city, has its own set of heroes that it deserves but does not need. But along with that, from time to time we also get our handful of villains that the game deserves but does not need. And one of the dark knights who takes up that mantle diligently is Geoff Shreeves. Yes, the cutting edge football presenter. The grim reaper. The sideline doctor with a microphone.

We all begrudge presenters for their antics, hyperbole and mistakes but Geoff Shreeves has carved a niche for himself and that we all can agree upon. The Sky Sports reporter induces cringe amongst followers of the game like no one else. Shreeves has not benefited from this hatred and contempt that is showered upon him by fans.

He has never been a flash in a pan, earning notoriety by some stupid quirk like wearing a yellow tie on transfer deadline day or a onetime gaffe like blurting something sexist “off the camera”. Rather, he has worked his socks off trying to come up with various ways to portray the buffoon that we all like to ridicule.

Shreeves breaks the bad news to Branislav Ivanovic

It all began at Camp Nou, the setting being Chelsea’s hard fought victory in the Champions League semi-final against the much fancied Barcelona side. Shreeves took on himself the duty to tell Branislav Ivanovic that the right back was not going to play in the Champions League Final, not once but repeatedly just so that he could drive home the fact.

The feisty Serbian defender for once looked like a deer caught in the headlights on live television as he was told about the sad bit by the good Samaritan, Shreeves.

This, cold hearted sadistic piece of journalism, ultimately became an emblem of the Brand Shreeves. “Being a Shreeves” (Loosely translated to being a buzzkill) was adopted into the football lingo in a jiffy. Overnight social media was flooded with posts about how this act of Shreeves was a new low in sports reporting.

Shreeves repeatedly tries to infuriate Rafa Benitez

But Shreeves in his quest for cutting edge news was not affected by such petty claims and went on to, again, tell people things they did not want to hear. Like this interview with Rafa Benitez which was saw him let the Spaniard know in verbatim what the crowd thought about him.

Shreeves said to Benitez: “Virtually the entire Chelsea crowd booed you and they were singing 'We don't want you here!”” after repeatedly being told that Benitez was not affected by the crowd’s chants. But Shreeves kept on egging Rafa on how difficult it must have been facing the crowd, conveying how “poignantly touched” he was seeing Benitez suffer and not just looking to lure some comments from the Spaniard.

There have been instances where Shreeves at his journalistic best has to endure some obdurate players and managers who fail to see the ingenuous questions that he puts forth and rather see him as some kind of leech trying to suck off a great headline from them for his channel (apparently, this has been become common perception of Shreeves all over football world. Strange, right?)

Steven Gerrard refuses to get sucked into Shreeves’ questioning

An example of this was last year’s Liverpool vs Manchester City game that was glazed with high emotions, particularly from Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard who went to do an impromptu motivational huddle at the end of the game.

Though the whole world got to know what was said in that huddle (a doff of the hat to the cameraman there), Shreeves went on to unearth the mystery of the huddle asking Gerrard, who was still emotional after the game, about the team talk. Instead, Stevie G ‘bantered’ him off with a quick reply: “None of your business”.

It was not the first time our man Geoff had to face ignominy in his quest for a momentous post match interview. There is a popular transcript caught off microphone from a FA Cup game that saw Sir Alex Ferguson go all out against him, presenting him with barrage of expletives that no one would like to hear.

Shreeves in FIFA 13

It comes as no surprise that people at EA Sports, to borrow a phrase from Richard Keys’ dictionary, have “bantered” people by incorporating him in FIFA 13, where he portrays his usual self, over simplifying injuries right from the touchline.

The gist of it all remains the fact that his has been a tough journey in the broadcasting world, tougher has been the journey of the audience who has to endure his broadcasting due to his constant nagging of the people he interviews and his habit of always looking to get a scoop out of them.

While we all agree it is bread and butter for every reporter to have some quotable quotes and exclusives, Geoff Shreeves has a knack of overdoing it and that too with aplomb as the videos above indicate. Thus, bearing the brunt of abuse by the fans is part of the job. And though he might feel dejected, perhaps a little hurt sometimes, I believe he's a tough cookie and he will carry on.

Cheers, Geoff!