What happens if it's been a quiet week?
There's never a quiet week in the world of football. It's such a mad and intense and scrutinized, and let's be fair, bent industry. Something is always going on. Even if it wasn't, then it's about broadcasting skills. I do what I do - the rotating cast of people who help on the podcast, you just want to make sure you've got people who have always got something to say. You've got to be careful, a loud voice does not indicate something to say. One of the people on my podcast, for instance, is one of the most quietly-spoken people you could imagine, but he is a statistician of the very first water. When he speaks, he always engenders something very interesting to talk about. Equally, you want to make sure that people are as passionate about it as you are. There have been times that there's been international breaks, there's been no specific matches to talk about, but there's always issues to talk about. That's the test - whether you're going to do general podcast, or something that's much more specific. If you haven't already had the argument in your head with yourself, then you shouldn't be going out there. You've got to have things to say, and you've got to trust the kind of people you employ and work with, that they have got something to say as well. There's one other thing about that - radio is very much about being yourself. People always say that. Podcasting is very much about being yourself but, it's being yourself plus about fifteen percent. Nobody wants to hear the kind of jibber jabber that you or I would be getting up to if we're just talking in a public house. They want to hear a slightly heightened version of that. Great broadcasters, whether you are talking about Alistair Cook or Howard Stern, that is not exactly how they are, that is a projection of how they are. If I might sum it up more easily, you are not there to appear, you are there to perform, and there is a slight performance about it. You don't want to become some kind of 18th Century Shakespearean, giving it absolutely everything about association football. however, you want to be able to project yourself and have the other people project back and forth, and it should never be a problem with what you are talking about. The danger is to just open your mouth for the sake of hearing your voice. I always say to new guests, and sometimes people think I'm rude; I always say, don't say anything unless you're going to say something funny, or you're going to add something informative to the previous part of the debate. You'd be amazed at how people sometimes think, but once they get going, they realize that's all you're there for.
