As I was listening to a football commentary on the radio yestaerday I was surprised to hear Mr Stanley Collymore describing Mr Mesut Ozil of the Arsenal as 'running like a meerkat' 
I tried to visualise a creature with Mr Ozil's face scurrying around the Emirates pitch with a hunched back and his tail in the air, but my imagination failed. I think Mr Collymore's colleagues had similar difficulties because he had to explain that he meant that the midfielder was turning his head from side to side looking for a colleague. I would have understood more quickly if he had used a phrase such as 'running like a courting great crested grebe' but perhaps that would have confused the rest of his audience.
Followers of the Great British Gutter Press may remember that several years ago, Mr Collymore's reputation was dogged by scurrilous and scarcely believable reports which used another animal metaphor
Alan
I tried to visualise a creature with Mr Ozil's face scurrying around the Emirates pitch with a hunched back and his tail in the air, but my imagination failed. I think Mr Collymore's colleagues had similar difficulties because he had to explain that he meant that the midfielder was turning his head from side to side looking for a colleague. I would have understood more quickly if he had used a phrase such as 'running like a courting great crested grebe' but perhaps that would have confused the rest of his audience.
Followers of the Great British Gutter Press may remember that several years ago, Mr Collymore's reputation was dogged by scurrilous and scarcely believable reports which used another animal metaphor
Alan
