Sky Sports pundit lets slip reason why he so often predicts Newcastle won’t win
David Prutton has made a bit of a name for himself with his predictions on Newcastle matches this season.
The drop to the Championship has meant Newcastle fans haven’t had the pleasure of Michael Owen, Paul Merson, Mark Lawrenson predicting results/defeats.
Instead it has been this clown who most supporters had never even heard of.
Despite Newcastle standing top of the table, David Prutton grabbed attention – particularly with his forecasts since the turn of the year.
Of the 11 matches he covered, the pundit predicted Newcastle would fail to win in seven of them.
As well as predicting NUFC would fail to beat many lesser teams, Prutton also confidently declared that both Huddersfield and Brighton would beat the Magpies, only for Rafa’s boys to win both.
However, in an interview, David Prutton has let slip his reasoning for swimming against the tide and repeatedly predicting Newcastle won’t win.
Prutton has said that when he was a player:
‘The more interesting I was (or to put that a better way, the more interesting my quotes were) the more they got used’.
So basically, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that in his role as Sky Sports pundit/predictor for the Championship, David Prutton knows that if he says Newcastle are going to beat Bristol City, Brighton, Burton or whoever, it will hardly get a mention. However, by going against the grain and saying that the odds will be upset, he gets the coverage…and keeps his job.
Not exactly the Katie Hopkins of football punditry but it works.
Even when his predictions are so regularly wrong, Prutton won’t care just so long as he gets noticed and coverage, even though he declares ‘Most of us end up getting bitten on the backside by something we’ve said now and again’.
David Prutton talking to the Yorkshire Evening Post:
“I was quite an open person (as a player) when it came to the press but I didn’t take long to find out that the more interesting I was (or to put that a better way, the more interesting my quotes were) the more they got used.
“That’s not a complaint. With hindsight it’s extremely obvious.
“Make a declaration about promotion in September and people will hold you to it. Start puffing your chest out in March or April and you draw attention to yourself, some of it needless.
“I don’t think I was ever told by managers, media officers or anyone else what to say in relation to the table, but most of us end up getting bitten on the backside by something we’ve said now and again.
“Some players make a career out of it.
By the end of March you can split footballers into three categories: those who are fighting relegation and feeling that sense of creeping death, those who are going for promotion, and those who’ve got their flip-flops on. If you’re on the beach then you can switch off but everyone else will be consumed by it all.
“Take Tuesday night: if Fulham don’t concede, they’re into the play-offs. That’s a massive statement with nine games to go. But they let one in on 94 minutes and Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and Reading breathe a little sigh of relief. That goes for the players of each club too. After all, they’re only human.”
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