Let’s beat the beautiful game into submission with a copy of Tony Pulis’ Big Book of Tactics.

Fans of Rob Townsend's weekly column in English newspaper The Argus will notice there is nothing from him this Thursday. Normal service will be resumed next week but, for now, here is a web-only special, exclusive to BobbySix.com:

Steve Claridge's comments on his video blog on the BBC football website really seem to get on people's nerves, don't they? Recently he waxed lyrical about how Brighton and Hove Albion's style of Total Football wouldn't work if the club competes in the Championship next season because teams would be fitter and better equipped to close down their passing game. I’ve never heard such nonsense in my life. Sure, the quality of opposition is going to be better - it is a higher division after all - but what does he propose they do? Start lumping it up to centre forward Glenn Murray? Hit the ball into the corners and try to score from set pieces and throw-ins? Good idea Steve. Let’s beat the beautiful game into submission with a copy of Tony Pulis’ Big Book of Tactics.

Aren't Swansea and QPR flying high in The Championship by playing fluid, passing football? Didn’t Brighton beat Watford and Portsmouth recently? I don’t think anyone expects a team like Brighton to march straight to the Premier League, but surely, with a few signings, they could hold their own and remain playing aesthetically pleasing stuff.

To be honest, football followers shouldn't be concerned about the rubbish Steve Claridge spouts. If you read the comments sections below his - quite awful - videos, he is berated pretty much universally by fans from all divisions. I have never been a fan of his viewpoint. On the BBC he pontificates with such arrogance that you would think he was the ultimate authority on football. In reality he is just another former player trying to make a buck.

In fairness though, while the words that tumble out of Claridge's mouth really grate on me, he is just a small fish in a massive pond of pointless punditry that blights my enjoyment of football. The problem is that there is just so much media coverage now that we are subjected to countless former players giving their ill-informed views just to fill air time and column inches. I fail to understand why Sky's live coverage starts an hour before kick-off. Do we really care what Scott Minto (for example) has to say? Not really. The pundits who are on constant rotation don't have an all-seeing knowledge of every team they cover, so it is little wonder they sometimes get things completely wrong.

I have no problem listening to pundits talk about things they are expert in. Alan Hanson's analysis of defending is genuinely interesting and I love listening to Guardian journalists discussing issues on the newspaper's excellent football podcast. I just can't be doing with the half-baked opinions of the likes of Claridge, who seem to talk purely for the sake of talking. If you don’t know what you’re going on about, how about just keeping your mouth shut?