More football means more content. And most of it is worse than ever. As podcasts get picked up by big streaming platforms, the football content landscape is showing no signs of stopping.
I've felt intensely alienated from top flight football for more than a year now, actually not bothering with the Premier League at all last season, and checking in on the ex-player punditry during the World Cup has reminded me why. I just find it uniformly shit. Pundits I used to like on in the background I cannot listen to any more. Neville, Keane, Shearer; they're all unbearable. Inane rambles no one would pay heed to without the names attached.
Reconnecting with my old podcasts and a new find has rekindled my relationship with the top flight; Stadio, Football Ramble, Adam Clery. I still mostly pay attention to the Championship and WSL though.
Also agree with this. The one beneficial side effect for me has been that it's made me realise how few teams I've watched play in the city where I live (London) and set me off around the grounds this season - QPR and Millwall so far, AFC Wimbledon next. I'm grateful for that, at least. And Adam Clery, as you say!
Totally agreed as someone who stood on the terraces home and away in my youth then into the stands as a season ticket holder I find the PL just a borefest and insanely expensive so I no longer bother with it. The pundits are all insipid and dull so they can get lost. I now watch my local non league team much more fun and in competition and in comparison cheap!
Without sounding biased, I think fans are creating significantly better content - be it blog, podcasts, vlogs - than what these commercial entities fronted by footballers are producing. They may look polished, they may attract significant advertising and investment, but you actually get better analysis from fans who put the time and effort into what is a labour of love for them first and foremost. While these ex-footballers are doing this to open up a new revenue stream after their playing careers have ended.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy some of them, but you can tell those who are just going through the motions in the hope that the cheques follow. Does anyone use cheques nowadays???
The lack of insight deemed acceptable from ex pros on broadcast TV, even just compared with ex pros on US sports broadcast, is laughable. I can only speak for what I see from the Liverpool fanbase, but I also agree that I'm getting much better analysis from a clutch of dedicated (often younger) supporters - in our case, it's loosely an Anfield Wrap diaspora.
This is great! So much of it feels self serving and superficial… and so many of them just parrot the same views across multiple channels and broadcasters.
This is a great article about how the media landscape is shifting so massively toward ex-footballers hosting long-form debates and reaction shows. The issue is that the aesthetics are now so similar, it's hard to discern one format from another. In that landscape, TRIF did a great job early on by creating a dynamic that felt smooth and organic—even though it was hosted by a 20-year media veteran like Gary Lineker and produced by today's most prominent podcast network, Goalhanger. What I'm afraid of now is that other podcasts are trying to replicate the TRIF format without understanding the underlying process and structure that led to its success in the first place.
I used to watch 'Rest is Football' on YouTube. However, didn't feel like watching it when they shifted it to Netflix. The show wasn't that special. As for Match of the Day, I still watch it because it helps me to catch up with weekend Premier League football highlights. The show may not be entertaining but MOTD prioritizes football than the theatrics that we see in the CBS Sports Golazo or The Overlap.
I guess all the football shows are missing that point. They think we watch it for the entertainment but it is football that took us to their show or podcast. However, them overdoing it have made it worse. Here's hoping for quality football shows and podcasts than this showbiz crap.
Too many shows, of varying quality, and apparently we're doing 'pivot to video' again as part of it, all wrapped up in a wall of adverts and subscriptions. It's over saturation, and enshittification all in one go. And a huge amount of it leans towards a small handful of teams.
A media ecosphere that mirrors the Premier League itself really then - relentless, all about money, and we're told it's great even when our eyes and ears often tell us otherwise.
I agree. There’s so much of this content and very little of it feels essential to me. I also don’t really understand the push towards making them video-based shows that streaming companies pay to host.
They are the kind of thing that I’ll have on in the background while I’m working at home or in my headphones on my commute. I’m not really convinced that seeing them in the studio (or recording themselves in their office at home) really adds much to the product.
Funny thing despite Brent Di Cesare saying he has ‘played the game’, he was a policeman that changed his name to Mark Goldbridge and never played in any league. Just a YT ‘personality’. His rants do make me laugh though…
I opened Goldbridge's Youtube channel one day after a Man U defeat last season and as far as I could see some of his followers were donating/paying money on there to have their comment read out or just highlighted. Absolutely unhinged stuff. Fair play to him for milking it with his character if people/kids are that gullible.
Its because negativity brings clicks. See the reaction to Neville’s “this is the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen from Man utd” on Sunday. It was a stupid thing to say (especially as it wasn’t the worst from them that week!) but got loads of clicks when it went viral.
Personally, I much prefer stuff like The Totally Football show and the talk of the devils with actually intelligent people who work in journalism, and have done all their working careers, so are better at delivering their thoughts.
I always used to watch Match of the Day - sometimes the following day, but haven't watched it at all this season. I was growingly frustrated with pundits such as Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy and their outdated 'what it was like in my day'. I rarely found their insights relevant and almost always not relevant to the laws of the game. Though to be fair, the influx of so called refereeing experts such as the ludicrous Mike Dean has not helped with proper interpretation of the laws either!
....and then they added Joe Hart to the mix... phew, he makes the aforementioned (except Mike Dean) look acceptable.
Watching the highlights without punditry is how I'm currently viewing the matches, plus the full of matches that I'm particularly interested in, e.g. Arsenal.
I'm not sure all these extra video podcasts are for me!
I’d say for me, the genesis of the death of Football Focus is myriad. 1. A move towards quite bland features where a media trained to the inch of their lives player provides dull platitudes that feel somewhere between vagaries and outright lies (it’s always been my dream to play for x club.) 2. The fact it’s not your first stop shop for the highlights of any midweek games; like it or not (I actually think the BBC’s Champions League show makes the best of a frankly dreadful format until the knockout stages) people are getting this a long time before Saturday morning. 3. Quality (or perceived quality) of presenter. Like it or not, Alex Scott was divisive as a presenter, but I do think the vast majority of us are able to be mature enough to see past her gender and judge her on her merits (for me, quite boring?) 4. What was it trying to be? There are so many niche and interesting facets to modern football, be it tactics, transfers, boardroom wrangles, form, history, decisions. It perhaps needed more of a direction in terms of where it wanted to go. 5. Guests - it did always slightly feel like you weren’t getting the top tier of guest (no BBC, despite what you’re determined to try and make us think that’s not Wayne Rooney) and I think that always made it a tough draw. 6. The alternatives - this is the big one. STF for all its faults and clippable bits does contain people who know the game and can analyse it thoughtfully. Ditto TRIF, despite the slightly odd insistence from Shearer to make it not child friendly. Then you add the million “content creators” (not my bag at all, but fine people like it) alongside your more niche podcasts as well. Shout out to Libero, which I think is absolutely excellent, and the football history pod It Was What It Was.
Absolutely spot on. Too many shows are either giving very surface level, repetitive breakdowns/takes and not wanting to upset players or manager in the industry or it's the most obvious rage bait you can come up with.
Also feels like a lot of shows are just an excuse to cash on any and all sponsorship revenue before the bubble bursts.
Personally find myself quite liking Monday Night Club on 5 live when (when Chris Sutton doing his best Talk Sport rage bait impersonation)
Great article. I think this phenomenon is partly a symptom of football actually getting less popular. Fewer people, especially young people, are in to it or can access it so the fans that remain need to be milked with more and more content.
I've felt intensely alienated from top flight football for more than a year now, actually not bothering with the Premier League at all last season, and checking in on the ex-player punditry during the World Cup has reminded me why. I just find it uniformly shit. Pundits I used to like on in the background I cannot listen to any more. Neville, Keane, Shearer; they're all unbearable. Inane rambles no one would pay heed to without the names attached.
Reconnecting with my old podcasts and a new find has rekindled my relationship with the top flight; Stadio, Football Ramble, Adam Clery. I still mostly pay attention to the Championship and WSL though.
Also agree with this. The one beneficial side effect for me has been that it's made me realise how few teams I've watched play in the city where I live (London) and set me off around the grounds this season - QPR and Millwall so far, AFC Wimbledon next. I'm grateful for that, at least. And Adam Clery, as you say!
Totally agreed as someone who stood on the terraces home and away in my youth then into the stands as a season ticket holder I find the PL just a borefest and insanely expensive so I no longer bother with it. The pundits are all insipid and dull so they can get lost. I now watch my local non league team much more fun and in competition and in comparison cheap!
Without sounding biased, I think fans are creating significantly better content - be it blog, podcasts, vlogs - than what these commercial entities fronted by footballers are producing. They may look polished, they may attract significant advertising and investment, but you actually get better analysis from fans who put the time and effort into what is a labour of love for them first and foremost. While these ex-footballers are doing this to open up a new revenue stream after their playing careers have ended.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy some of them, but you can tell those who are just going through the motions in the hope that the cheques follow. Does anyone use cheques nowadays???
The lack of insight deemed acceptable from ex pros on broadcast TV, even just compared with ex pros on US sports broadcast, is laughable. I can only speak for what I see from the Liverpool fanbase, but I also agree that I'm getting much better analysis from a clutch of dedicated (often younger) supporters - in our case, it's loosely an Anfield Wrap diaspora.
This is great! So much of it feels self serving and superficial… and so many of them just parrot the same views across multiple channels and broadcasters.
This is a great article about how the media landscape is shifting so massively toward ex-footballers hosting long-form debates and reaction shows. The issue is that the aesthetics are now so similar, it's hard to discern one format from another. In that landscape, TRIF did a great job early on by creating a dynamic that felt smooth and organic—even though it was hosted by a 20-year media veteran like Gary Lineker and produced by today's most prominent podcast network, Goalhanger. What I'm afraid of now is that other podcasts are trying to replicate the TRIF format without understanding the underlying process and structure that led to its success in the first place.
I used to watch 'Rest is Football' on YouTube. However, didn't feel like watching it when they shifted it to Netflix. The show wasn't that special. As for Match of the Day, I still watch it because it helps me to catch up with weekend Premier League football highlights. The show may not be entertaining but MOTD prioritizes football than the theatrics that we see in the CBS Sports Golazo or The Overlap.
I guess all the football shows are missing that point. They think we watch it for the entertainment but it is football that took us to their show or podcast. However, them overdoing it have made it worse. Here's hoping for quality football shows and podcasts than this showbiz crap.
Too many shows, of varying quality, and apparently we're doing 'pivot to video' again as part of it, all wrapped up in a wall of adverts and subscriptions. It's over saturation, and enshittification all in one go. And a huge amount of it leans towards a small handful of teams.
A media ecosphere that mirrors the Premier League itself really then - relentless, all about money, and we're told it's great even when our eyes and ears often tell us otherwise.
I agree. There’s so much of this content and very little of it feels essential to me. I also don’t really understand the push towards making them video-based shows that streaming companies pay to host.
They are the kind of thing that I’ll have on in the background while I’m working at home or in my headphones on my commute. I’m not really convinced that seeing them in the studio (or recording themselves in their office at home) really adds much to the product.
Funny thing despite Brent Di Cesare saying he has ‘played the game’, he was a policeman that changed his name to Mark Goldbridge and never played in any league. Just a YT ‘personality’. His rants do make me laugh though…
I saw him playing in a charity game of some sort at Anfield. He was one of the better players that day 'to be fair' (TM Gary Neville)
I opened Goldbridge's Youtube channel one day after a Man U defeat last season and as far as I could see some of his followers were donating/paying money on there to have their comment read out or just highlighted. Absolutely unhinged stuff. Fair play to him for milking it with his character if people/kids are that gullible.
Very gullible and I imagine you have to pay for his premium channel. He must be raking it in. He's more like a cartoon character than a pundit.
Its because negativity brings clicks. See the reaction to Neville’s “this is the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen from Man utd” on Sunday. It was a stupid thing to say (especially as it wasn’t the worst from them that week!) but got loads of clicks when it went viral.
Personally, I much prefer stuff like The Totally Football show and the talk of the devils with actually intelligent people who work in journalism, and have done all their working careers, so are better at delivering their thoughts.
I always used to watch Match of the Day - sometimes the following day, but haven't watched it at all this season. I was growingly frustrated with pundits such as Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy and their outdated 'what it was like in my day'. I rarely found their insights relevant and almost always not relevant to the laws of the game. Though to be fair, the influx of so called refereeing experts such as the ludicrous Mike Dean has not helped with proper interpretation of the laws either!
....and then they added Joe Hart to the mix... phew, he makes the aforementioned (except Mike Dean) look acceptable.
Watching the highlights without punditry is how I'm currently viewing the matches, plus the full of matches that I'm particularly interested in, e.g. Arsenal.
I'm not sure all these extra video podcasts are for me!
I’d say for me, the genesis of the death of Football Focus is myriad. 1. A move towards quite bland features where a media trained to the inch of their lives player provides dull platitudes that feel somewhere between vagaries and outright lies (it’s always been my dream to play for x club.) 2. The fact it’s not your first stop shop for the highlights of any midweek games; like it or not (I actually think the BBC’s Champions League show makes the best of a frankly dreadful format until the knockout stages) people are getting this a long time before Saturday morning. 3. Quality (or perceived quality) of presenter. Like it or not, Alex Scott was divisive as a presenter, but I do think the vast majority of us are able to be mature enough to see past her gender and judge her on her merits (for me, quite boring?) 4. What was it trying to be? There are so many niche and interesting facets to modern football, be it tactics, transfers, boardroom wrangles, form, history, decisions. It perhaps needed more of a direction in terms of where it wanted to go. 5. Guests - it did always slightly feel like you weren’t getting the top tier of guest (no BBC, despite what you’re determined to try and make us think that’s not Wayne Rooney) and I think that always made it a tough draw. 6. The alternatives - this is the big one. STF for all its faults and clippable bits does contain people who know the game and can analyse it thoughtfully. Ditto TRIF, despite the slightly odd insistence from Shearer to make it not child friendly. Then you add the million “content creators” (not my bag at all, but fine people like it) alongside your more niche podcasts as well. Shout out to Libero, which I think is absolutely excellent, and the football history pod It Was What It Was.
Talk utter drivel-commercial break-gambling, alcohol, gambling, join the army-talk utter drivel-commercial break-……..
Love this so much, for me it’s the inane and constant laughter/giggling while wearing fashion gear and £10-20k watches.
Absolutely spot on. Too many shows are either giving very surface level, repetitive breakdowns/takes and not wanting to upset players or manager in the industry or it's the most obvious rage bait you can come up with.
Also feels like a lot of shows are just an excuse to cash on any and all sponsorship revenue before the bubble bursts.
Personally find myself quite liking Monday Night Club on 5 live when (when Chris Sutton doing his best Talk Sport rage bait impersonation)
1000%
Thanks for reading Sam!
Great article. I think this phenomenon is partly a symptom of football actually getting less popular. Fewer people, especially young people, are in to it or can access it so the fans that remain need to be milked with more and more content.