Furious Sheffield United fan sets up petition calling for BBC to sack Garth Crooks

A furious Sheffield United fan has launched a petition for the BBC to sack Garth Crooks as a pundit.
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Crooks enraged Blades fans this week when he labelled Chris Wilder’s side ‘basic’ during their 2-2 at Chelsea on Saturday.

With United trailing 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, Crooks wrote off United’s chances of top-flight survival this season and added “their style of football is quite basic for the Premier League”.

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Tammy Abraham added a second before United roared back in the second half, securing the draw thanks to goals from Callum Robinson and a Kurt Zouma own goal.

Sheffield United players celebrate after their team's second goal (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)Sheffield United players celebrate after their team's second goal (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Sheffield United players celebrate after their team's second goal (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

The result only made Crooks’ comments seem even unusual, with the Blades now sitting level on points with Manchester United.

One fan has now launched a petition for the BBC to sack Garth Crooks over his ‘basic’ pundity.

The fan states: “For too long Garth Crooks has offended football fans with his lack of basic knowledge of the beautiful game and his overall basic understanding of football.

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“His dull and pointless tenure at the BBC must now stop and he must basically be removed from TV punditry.”

The petition has 30 signatures so far after going live yesterday.

David McGoldrick, the Sheffield United striker, has also hit back at the BBC pundit Garth Crooks while on international duty.

When asked if United had taken a few people by surprise so far in the top-flight, McGoldrick said: “I think we have, yeah.

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“And we are still getting our critics. I heard Garth Crooks talking the other day, saying we are a bit down and we’re rubbish but he hasn’t seen anything [from us]. I don’t have a clue what he took that morning, but he needs to think.

“We play a different way style. We’ve come with the same philosophy that we had in the Championship and we need to get respect for the fact we won’t change for anyone.

“We’ve got a few results and listen, it’s going to be a long season, we are going to have ups and downs, there are going to be games where we get beaten and walk off the pitch and we are just going to have to hold our hands up but I think at home we can give teams a lot of problems.”

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