Podcast Reviews: Football Weekly from guardian.co.uk
Here’s a snippet of the BBC’s commentary from the FA Cup quarter-final between Middlesbrough and Cardiff:
Jonathan Pearce: “Can you place your finger on why there’s been so many FA Cup shocks this season, Mark?”
Lawrenson: “No.”
Pearce: “Thank you.”
Christ. How much does the TV license cost again? With the major TV networks appearing to have giving up on in-depth discussion and analysis of the beautiful game, it’s a good job we’re living in the digital age because fear not, there’s some good stuff out there. A couple of years ago the podcast became the latest buzz-word to be dreamt up by some IT boffins and thanks largely to Ricky Gervais’ successful foray into the medium, it’s only your Grandma and local ludite that hasn’t heard of them. Being the world’s most popular form of entertainment, football podcasts are in abundance so we thought we’d bring you a round up of our favourites in a piece we won’t title ‘Top of the Pods.’
Football Weekly from guardian.co.uk
Hosted by former Football Italia anchor James Richardson, the Guardian’s offering is, for our money, the best around. A quirky mixture of banter, opinionated chat and reports from across Europe, all up to the Guardian’s usual high-standard make the twice-weekly Football Weekly our first podcasting stop.
The revolving team of regular guests offer their two cents’ worth and also share stories like the time Peter Crouch went into a takeaway demanding free nachos before offering a running third-person commentary and on his meal (‘Crouchy’s having his nachos!”), and the fact that pod regular Barney Ronay once met Dennis Wise’s plumber who revealed that he has gold taps in all six of his bathrooms.
Ringing in from Madrid every week, Spanish correspondent Sid Lowe brings an always excellent summary of the goings-on in La Liga, with Serie A and the Bundesliga also superbly covered. Our only real criticism is the lack of lower-league coverage, but it seems as though if you nag them enough on their lively comment page then they do take notice.
Richardson’s laid-back style is at odds to the straight-men of other pods, and it’s a mystery why the man hasn’t been snapped up by one of the major broadcasters (with apologies to Setanta). He also hasn’t lost his ability to spin a pun, describing Brian McBride as “the best header from America since Monica Lewinsky” recently.
If it was a member of the England 1990 World Cup Squad it would be: Paul Gascoigne – always entertaining, but there’s a danger he’ll turn up pissed.
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