That hoary aphorism ‘be careful what you wish for’ may be a hackneyed one, but there’s nothing football pundits like more than a sagacious cliche. I dare say Gary Lineker used it on more than one occasion during his long tenure as Match of the Day presenter. And many people were glad and relieved when the lavishly-remunerated pundit was forced to relinquish that role in May, following a stream of unwise political interventions on social media. But, as the saying goes, they may now regret that their wish came true.

The new direction taken by Match of the Day represents the thin end of the wedge

The BBC’s flagship football programme in its new incarnation, presented by Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates, has not proved popular, shedding hundreds of thousands of viewers since Lin

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