to be fair

A phrase which should mean something but rarely does when it's used by sports players - especially British soccer players - and radio/TV commentators. You think the speaker is about to offer a balanced point of view - e.g. "I know I'm critical of X, but, to be fair, he is recovering from a bad injury", but most times, they're just trotting out the same dumb platitudes to fill airtime. Interchangeable with "at the end of the day" and "as I say".