'They’re very robotic' - James Wade slams new generation of darters for having a lack of personality

James Wade has hit out at the new darts stars coming through, labelling them as 'robotic'. The world number five wants more personalities in the sport, reminiscing in the past when he started to rise to the top.

With darts growing popularity, many players have started to be a lot safer, not wanting to cause and publicity or attention for the wrong reasons. This may be why Wade is referring to many of the new generation as this. He is not the first one to say this, with Gary Anderson describing them as 'boring'.

"I don’t think the characters are vibrant as they used to be. I don’t think there’s many characters in the game," Wade said in an interview with the Weekly Dartscast. "You’ve got to remember when I was. When I started or mid-career for me, you had Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis, Wayne Mardle. There was loads of them. They were individual characters. For me, it doesn’t feel like it’s like that anymore. They feel much of a muchness and they’re very robotic and they’re very good with their interviews. They’re very new. It’s changed a lot. I think the game is poorer in some ways because of that. But it’s also the way the world is. The world’s very sleek and uniformed”

The Machine is back to his best

Only Luke Littler has won more money than James Wade this year, and a large part of that is because he has defeated him in two major finals. Wade reached the UK Open final where he was demolished by the World Champion but forced a much closer contest at the Winter Gardens, narrowly losing the World Matchplay title to Littler. On top of that, he has made four European Tour semi-finals and has won his first title on the floor since 2022.

“I’ve had a brilliant 12 months. I think every TV tournament, I’ve been in quarters or further, apart from World Series that I’ve just played in, but I wasn’t even at the races there," Wade said. "I think money-wise, ranking-wise, I’ve been the second-best performing player in this year so far. I’m doing well. I’ve not played particularly well, but I’m doing well. I’m getting the right results. I’m grinding out results. One of the finals against Luke, I was rubbish. It was a long, long day for me. And the second one, costly double ten at 14-14 massive, massive, massive double. But it’s like relearning again. I’m having another go at it.”

Wade has had an illustrious career, spanning two decades. Since ending 2006 in 11th, there has only been one year where Wade has not finished inside the top 16. This remarkable consistency is why he will be considered as one of the greatest players to pick up a dart, but it will not last forever, with Wade giving himself five to ten years left of his career.