Why you were wrong to hound Adrian Chiles out of his job

Well done, football fan. You got what you wanted.

Adrian Chiles, a rare colourful buoy in the murky, grey seas of sports broadcasting, is leaving his job hosting ITV’s football coverage because you sent a nasty tweet about him.

You said his face looked like a potato. You said he wasn’t funny. You hurled the kind of vitriolic abuse in his direction that’s normally reserved for murderers and politicians.

You called for him to be sacked. And now you’ve apparently got your wish, you’re celebrating with Vines of dancing children and pictures of Alan Partridge saying “back of the net”.

Well done, football fan.

Why didn’t you realise that Adrian Chiles was there for you? He was the voice of the fan. For all his many qualities – and he does have many qualities – this was what he did best. Along with his warmth and wit, he had and has that same childish wonder for the sport that never leaves a true supporter.

Sports presenters are generally from one of two camps – journalists or ex pros. Both of these camps think they know more about football than you do.

Chiles never thought that. Chiles was never afraid to be the voice of the outsider in the world of football. If you, as a football fan, were angry about England’s latest listless performance, he was angry too – and he wouldn’t be afraid to show it.

If you, as a football fan, had a big, dumb question that the ‘experts’ thought was beneath them, he’d have it too – and he wouldn’t be afraid to put it to Martin O’Neill, Glenn Hoddle or even Roy Keane for goodness sake. In this way, his ignorance was his virtue.

If you, as a football fan, thought the match you were watching was offensively boring, he’d think so too – and he wouldn’t be afraid to say it.

But offensively boring is all we’ll get when it comes to football presentation now, because anyone who stands out as being a bit different is executed on Twitter.

It’s a horrible, self-propelling phenomenon, the Twitter mob, as more and more people rush to get a cheap laugh, a retweet and maybe a new follower, like bullies in a playground.

Then these opinions become “the truth” and they’re repeated often and loudly until some executive producer somewhere decides they have to take action.

Now we are drawn inexorably towards a world where Mark “Chappers” Chapman presents every football event on TV and radio – until even he is seen to be a bit too much of a maverick.

Then it will be over to Simon Thomas, Ed Chamberlain and an army of bland, featureless presenters to lull us to sleep at half-time.

Nobody will make jokes, because Twitter doesn’t think jokes are funny.

Nobody will be the voice of the fan, because Twitter thinks this is worthy of contempt.

And you’ll remember the days when Adrian Chiles sat alongside the vaunted experts, and performed his job with skill, calmness, personality and wit.

And you’ll wonder whether it was such a good idea to call him a potato after all.