Bleep tests were once confined to the purgatory of pre-season training where players had to sprint until they vomited.
But when Sky Sports cameras are granted “enhanced” access at Wycombe Wanderers' home game with Portsmouth, with dressing room footage, in-game interviews and on-pitch audio, viewers will be able to eavesdrop on matchday dialogue like never before. Although the experiment will break new ground in English football, it is nothing new in America, where media locker-room access at sporting fixtures is a rite of passage.
But it is fraught with risk for live broadcasters, not least because of the industrial language which forms the soundtrack on football's shop floor. None of it is likely to be as abrupt or unrefined as former Leyton Orient manager John Sitton's infamous 'bring yer dinner' diatribe in a fly-on-the-wall documentary 27 years ago.
The bleep machine went into meltdown as Sitton snarled: "You, you little c***, when I tell you to do something, and you, you f****** big c***, when I tell you to do something, do it. And if you come back at me, we'll have a f****** right sort-out in here. All right?
“And you can pair up if you like, and you can f****** pick someone else to help you, and you can bring your f****** dinner. 'Cos by the time I've finished with you, you'll f****** need it."
By all accounts Gareth Ainsworth, the guitar-strumming Wycombe boss who has been getting a tune out of the Chairboys for more than 10 years, is less militant in his choice of vernacular. But Wanderers defender Jack Grimmer is relishing the chance to show footballers going through their lexicon, from A to F, in a fascinating appetiser ahead of England's main course at the World Cup.
“As players, we are aware there are going to be cameras and microphones in places we normally wouldn't expect to find them,” said Grimmer. 2But from the fans' perspective, it's probably great news that they will get to see more of what goes on behind the scenes on a matchday.
“And whatever is shown, hopefully they will bleep out any swear words without diluting the emotion and passion that comes with professional sport. We have to embrace change, and on the whole I think players will welcome it – just as social media provided us with a new bridge to interact with fans, access all areas will help shed new light on a familiar product.”
Grimmer, 28, has been at Adams Park three years, and he has learned there is no such thing as a dull season at Wycombe. He has lived through promotion behind closed doors against Oxford at Wembley, relegation on the final day in the Championship – where Wycombe almost made their loose change talk louder than Premier League drop-outs' parachute money – and another play-off final against Sunderland.
And he was so proud of his second Wembley triumph in three seasons, after helping Coventry win their first promotion in almost half a century in 2018, that he took his medal on holiday with him to Greece.
In fairness, he wouldn't have been the only medallion man showing off his bling around the pool in the Mediterranean. “I'm not gong to lie, I couldn't let go of it,” laughed Grimmer. “It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we had to keep it in the hotel safe.” Wearing a winner's medal on holiday? You must be ****ing joking. Sky Sports would have to bleep that out.
