Adrian Durham
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Adrian Durham (born 13 May 1969, Peterborough, England) is an English football journalist, broadcaster and wind-up merchant.
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[edit] His career
Durham currently hosts "The Game" Monday-Thursday between 4:00pm-7:00pm alongside alongside ex footballer Ian Wright on the national radio station Talksport. His previous slot before the 2006 World Cup on the station was presenting "Kick-Off" with Alvin Martin, Ray Houghton, or Gary Stevens.
Durham is an avid Peterborough United fan.
[edit] His Broadcasting Style
Adrian often takes controversial positions in discussions, which are usually disagreed with by listeners and co-presenters, sometimes resulting in a heated argument. This can become quite surreal on a slow news day when Durham will spend a whole hour trying to argue that white is black. Many suspect this is simply to wind up the audience, so that more people will phone in to the show and boost listening figures over rival BBC Five Live. One of his more bizarre suggestions is that he could do a better job than the current England manager, since, in his view, the only attribute an England manager needs is passion. Furthermore, Durham has a habit of responding to those who have contradicting views to his own in a sarcastic and condescending response. He has recently gone on record calling Alan Shearer "a bottler" and accused Thierry Henry of going missing in big games.
His opinions are also very fluid. This fluidity allows him to air apparently contradictory statements. On one such occasion, he spent an entire show explaining why he wanted Chelsea to be beaten by FC Barcelona, but two weeks later revealed he would ask Chelsea manager José Mourinho to manage England at the World Cup. He regularly reminds listeners he's first and foremost an England fan, secondly he's a fan of a team who plays proper football (i.e. a team that plays with flair) regardless whether its an English club playing in a European Cup.
Despite (or perhaps because of) all the criticisms Durham remains the first choice presenter for the radio station talkSPORT having been giving all the prime slots during the recent 2006 FIFA World Cup.
[edit] Television
Durham claimed that he does not own a television because "there is nothing worth watching on TV" and that "it ruined conversation." When asked by fellow presenter Rodney Marsh how he watched football on television, Durham said that he either went to his local pub or listened to the match on the radio.
In July 2006, Durham presented live coverage of Glasgow Celtic's tour of America on Irish satellite channel, Setanta Sports. He is expected to be their anchor presenter when Setanta Sports broadcast live Premiership and Conference football in the UK and Ireland from 2007-08, which may mean he will take time off talkSPORT radio.
Should this happen Rhodri Williams is expected to take his place.
