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Thursday 3 March 2011

Underestimate - a rant

This blog's heart belongs to Millwall FC, but even so it seems a bit harsh when pundits say you can't underestimate Chelsea.
And the football pundits do say that sort of thing rather a lot.

Let's go through it slowly.

To underestimate means to believe something is less, or worse, than it really is.

So you can't underestimate Chelsea means that Chelsea are so bad that no one could imagine a worse team.
Which is slightly harsh, I think.

You mustn't underestimate Chelsea is probably the form of words towards which the pundits are groping.

Ah well, perhaps the pundits will learn. I mustn't underestimate them. As Stuart Pearce once said, 'I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel'.

On the other hand, like Paul Gascoigne, 'I never predict anything and I never will.'


Word to use today: pundit.  From the Hundi pandit, from the Skanskrit pandita, meaning learned man.
You have to laugh.

1 comment:

  1. If their recent win over Manchester United is anything to go by, Chelsea are just as good as Wolverhampton Wanderers...

    I use the word pundit quite frequently in a football context but it seems I was using it incorrectly. It is true that any former footballer with the ability to string a sentence together probably seems learned in comparison with other footballers but to describe them as 'learned' is an example of OVERestimation.

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