Bacon’s Bites: I don’t need Gary Lineker to enjoy MOTD. I can’t enjoy the Open golf anyhow!

Chelsea's Diego Costa celebrates a goal on Match of the Day last season. Wouldn't worry me who presented it! Photo: PA SPORT (Image: PA Wire)

The revelations of BBC pay certainly hit the mark this week.

Plenty of people earning lots of good money – mostly paid for by you and me.

Let’s be honest though, we’d all take it if offered.

But it got me thinking, especially as regards the sports presenters.

Would I really not watch Match of the Day because Gary Lineker (£1.75m) wasn’t introducing it?

Or Alan Shearer (400k) wasn’t doing the summarising?

Well, quite frankly I couldn’t care a hoot who presents MOTD, so long as the production team give me decent highlights, good camera angles and excellent action replays.

John McEnroe, appeared on the BBC's top earners list. I didn't know the Beeb showed so much tennis!

While the BBC obviously see the presenting side of it a job worth millions, I don’t get it.

Lineker is okay. I don’t have an axe to grind with him. I don’t watch MOTD because of him. I don’t eat Walkers Crisps because of him either.

Our Gary is a bit Marmite (you either love him or hate him), and can be a bit naive when it comes to some of his ‘holier than thou’ comments on Twitter.

But, like many blokes his age who like to still flex their muscles to the younger generation and appear ‘cool’, it’s not uncommon.

However, it’s not the presenters, like Lineker, who should be hauled over the coals over what they earn at the BBC, it’s those who sign on the dotted line to allow such amounts to be paid, who should be held to account.

Exactly how many MOTD viewers do the Beeb think they are going to lose if they don’t pay someone like Lineker an extortionate amount to present the programme.

I watch it for the football, not to listen to Lineker, Jermaine Jenas, Ian Wright or any ex-pro for that matter, going on and on, replaying this, trying to prove a point about that.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy plays from the 1st fairway during day two of The Open Championship. Not that you will see much of the Open if you don't have Sky. (Image: PA Wire)

If the standard of the production is poor, you will lose viewers, simple”!

I’d double the production staff’s money!

Now, I like John McEnroe.

But he apparently earns £150k from the Beeb each year.

Who signed that off?

I only hear from him for two weeks over Wimbledon! Nice money if you can get it, I suppose.

The group of leaders with Britain's Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, climbs Vars pass during the eighteenth stage of the Tour de France. (Image: Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

And while I’m on the subject on sports presenters, one person who I do admire, but does not appear among the big earners, is Jacqui Oatley.

I’m not going to pretend I’m her biggest fan when it comes to her radio commentary, but on television, she is excellent.

If the Beeb want to get with the times, they don’t have to look far for their next MOTD presenter.... Oatley would be excellent, should of course Lineker wish to stand down from his job and concentrate on crisps!

Are you enjoying the Open?

Not the same is it without the BBC showing it free for us all to enjoy.

I know, what a hypocrite I am, moaning about the Beeb one minute for throwing money at sports presenters, then crying into my milk, that they have lost the rights to show the Open live. Or, is there a connection?

Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy. Bet he would love a hot winning home streak, as Ipswich Witches are doing. (Image: Pagepix Ltd 07976 93573 8)

Two hours of highlights in the evening is nowhere near enough for me.

Thankfully, ‘Five Live’ gives us some good commentary, but golf is never quite the same on the radio.

I dare say golf, like cricket, will realise the error of its ways in a few years time when less and less young people take interest in a sport that has become irrelevant in their household viewing – because it’s not there to view!

The Tour de France ends this weekend.

What an incredible test of endurance it is.

As I pen this, Chris Froome looks as though he is going to win a fourth title, his third on the bounce.

Wow! How does he do that?

Personally, I cannot for the life of me see the point in putting yourself through so much pain.

I used to bike up Bishop’s Hill in Ipswich and that was enough for me.

I mean, ok, Froome is successful and no doubt earns a decent packet. But for most of those riders, it’s a long slog with far from huge rewards.

So, the football season is just around the corner.

Here’s hoping Ipswich Town enjoy the same success at home the Ipswich Witches are currently doing in the speedway Championship.

If you didn’t know, the Witches have won all 13 home meetings so far at Foxhall. And the fans love it.

What would Mick McCarthy give for such a home run at the start of the new season?

Fingers crossed.