My footballing weekend doesn’t start on a Saturday and end on a Sunday. It begins on a Thursday and ends late on a Monday night. The only way it compares to a “regular” weekend is that the feeling of dread you get on a Sunday night when you realise you have to go back to work in the morning, I get on a Monday evening as I prepare to work with Chris Sutton.
Of course my family would say there is no such thing as a week and a weekend for me and that they all roll into one. I tell them they are exaggerating but as they won’t be reading this I can probably admit they are right.
The early part of the week is made up of calls and emails with producers and management (I don’t know if you are aware, but the BBC do like a good few layers of management) about what worked and what didn’t from the previous weekend’s shows and also to discuss which pundits and reporters are booked for the upcoming shows. I know it sometimes sounds and looks like it has been thrown together, and sometimes it has, but we do try and cast it so the pundits who are on together work well and get on with each other. And yes there is another obvious Chris Sutton joke in there but I can’t spend the whole of this article hammering him.
Thursday is when we really start to plan Saturday’s 5 Live Sport and when the stats start to fly. Des Lynam used to refer to “our man Albert” on Match of the Day as Albert Sewell provided him with those little nuggets of information. If I followed suit, I would be talking about “our people” not because I’m trying to give myself a regal air, but because I get the statistics from so many different sources: producers, Opta, social media and our new Albert, Chris.
I have a love/hate relationship with stats. I think they are overused and don’t always give you the full picture and yet I scour them all because I don’t want to miss out on a gem or get something wrong as the goals go in on a Saturday. Over the first month of the season, I do know where I will make the most mistakes though. Ground names! I apologise if I have forgotten your team now plays at the Coco Pops Arena instead of GoCompare Stadium.
Now that the broadcast industry is so fragmented, with different games covered by different stations, there are plenty of people who get themselves in a tizz about not being able to cover a certain game. Not having the commentary to a game, or a big match being switched to a Sunday so it won’t be covered on a Saturday, are things that can really bother people but one of the lovely things about presenting the radio on a Saturday and the television on Sunday is that I don’t have to worry. If Saturday is duff then Sunday should be a cracker and vice versa.
When I took over Saturday 5 Live Sport, I asked if I could bring the old theme tune back. Firstly because I am a real radio geek and I love the history attached to the music and secondly, and most importantly, it gives me a real buzz to talk over it. Although since Alistair Bruce-Ball told me he plays air maracas to it, I have started to go off it.
Quick guide
Premier League 2019-20 season previews
Saturdays are six hours of fun. Goals, incidents, other sport, interviews and pundits. We have tried to make it as fast and as energetic as possible and we all go through the emotions of a Saturday afternoon as supporters. We have Liverpool, Villa, Bury, Wycombe and Bristol City fans working on the show to name just a few and they don’t just sit there like robots. On top of that there are a few of us who may have small accumulators. Last season I don’t think anybody had one come in. Ian Dennis is the man who tells you all the goals as they go in and if you listen carefully enough I think you can tell in his intonation which game he may have had a bet on.
Whilst Ian is at a game commentating, I am back in the studio working off around 10 screens. I have every Premier League game on, plus a vidiprinter. I also have as-it-stands league tables, goalscoring statistics and clubs’ Twitter feeds. Even though this piece is meant to coincide with the return of the Premier League behemoth, I feel it is so important we cover the whole game in England and Scotland as comprehensively as we can during the show.
Sundays are all about the Premier League with Match of the Day 2. We all aim to be in the production office for the first game kicking off. “We” is myself, the editor, the show’s statistics person, the director and the pundits. I say aim because there will occasionally be a pundit blustering through the door a couple of minutes late moaning about his journey. No names. Oh OK, Martin Keown.
I have spoken in these pages before about the ridiculous stick pundits get and I’m sure you will have those you like and those you don’t but I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to watch top-class football with people who have played at the highest level. What makes it even more enjoyable is that in that office, with the game on live, they are behaving just like you and me, like a normal fan. It won’t surprise you that Ian Wright is the most excitable of the lot. I feel it is my duty, on behalf of all of us, to wind them up as much as possible when their team is playing.
A former editor of the show was an Arsenal fan, hence why he is former. That’s a joke obviously. There is no agenda against any team on MOTD2, apart from the one you support. Anyhow back to the former editor. My dream scenario was always that editor with Martin or Wrighty on the show and Arsenal having a shocker in a game we were going to show. The whole office knew we would have 90 minutes of wind-up heaven. It worked to perfection one week when the editor was so annoyed at Arsenal conceding late on, he launched a pen violently towards the television. Fortunately the TV wasn’t damaged because Martin’s head got in the way. What stopped the editor playing the part of Ruud van Nistelrooy in this scenario is that Martin was so angry himself he didn’t notice.
One other thing to note from the office, is that whenever Sky put up a landmark goalscoring stat during the game, the player involved has often just become “second only to Alan Shearer” in whatever the achievement is. Shearer then smiles in his seat and then sticks his arm up as if he’s just scored another goal. Another reason to avoid statistics.
Mondays are still part of my Premier League weekend. I’ll read as much as I can about the weekend and listen to a couple of podcasts to get myself ready for either another game that evening or the Monday Night Club. I actually prefer there not to be a game, as there is much more to get stuck into if we have a MNC.
In the afternoon, I WhatsApp Ian Wright, Rory Smith and Chris Sutton to tell them what we will be covering. I tell them the subjects but not any questions as I think that makes it more natural. They suggest the topics they want to cover. As we can often be in different studios, they continue to WhatsApp each other during a show but don’t include me in their conversations, like naughty schoolchildren behind a teacher’s back. After the show I’ll get appreciative messages from two of them. Chris will message me saying I have been horrible to him.
Once Tuesday comes I am on to NFL and the Champions League but as they don’t start for a while, I’ll leave it there and maybe the Guardian powers that be will bring me back for when they do!
