Second Captains Part II

Brock Turnpike

Ol' Donie wrote: »

Now, I hate to criticise the lads ever, but no pods at all by lunchtime on day 4 of the tournament is a bit crap.

Agreed. Far too slow to react to that weekend off football.

Salvation Tambourine

Arghus wrote: »

I guess I just find the dynamics of the Spanish football soap opera kind of boring from a distance.

To my ears, the talk is either about who of Real or Barca is in the ascendancy, until some club president eventually makes a pigs ear of it and then the other one gets on top for a while, until some other club president makes a pigs ear of it at the other club and then the previous one of the two clubs gets back into the driving seat again. And round and round it goes.

Athletico play a part from time to time, but their main role in the soap opera seems to be to make some other people at the other two look bad from time to time: they aren't inherently interesting in and of themselves.

Essentially it's all about who is top dog at the moment: Real or Barca. And it never really fundamentally changes, even if some of the names involved do. Which is why, no matter what Sid Lowe - or any Spanish football correspondent for that matter - is saying at any given moment it always sounds the same, even if it's different.

Sid has a podcast with Phil Kitromilides called The Spanish Football Podcast. It goes much more indepth into Spanish football.

Let's face it, the average Football Weekly listeners probably doesn't want to hear about Getafe vs Leganes at the weekend. I'd imagine Sid's remit on Football Weekly is limited to the top three and sometimes Sevilla.

Pete Moss

During Euro 2016 and WC 2018, I understood why they held off doing the daily pod thing like other sports podcasts with Ken travelling between games and cities, it was probably a headache to sort.

That's not a problem this time and they've been able to pull together the 20 minute mini-pods every Monday, which would at least cover some of the talking points of the day's action during the tournament.

So much has happened since Friday's pod that they'll skim over or have to dismiss talking points. Even the biggest talking point of the weekend (arguably the tournament), being the medical emergency involving Christian Eriksen and the heroic actions of all involved to save his life and protect him as he received CPR, seems like it has been heavily covered and discussed now.

EltonJohn69

Do not update your iPhone—- new podcast app is terrible /kills your phones battery

Lucas Hood

New Pod out now.

Acosta

Ol' Donie wrote: »

Now, I hate to criticise the lads ever, but no pods at all by lunchtime on day 4 of the tournament is a bit crap.

With Ken not in transit there's no excuse to get something out early. They like their weekends off clearly, but they should really have one out at least an hour before the first match.

Acosta

Pete Moss wrote: »

Even the biggest talking point of the weekend (arguably the tournament), being the medical emergency involving Christian Eriksen and the heroic actions of all involved to save his life and protect him as he received CPR, seems like it has been heavily covered and discussed now.

The guardian football weekly covered it really well.

dulpit

But Second Captains has never really been about breaking news coverage really, so I don't see there being an issue. There are other sources for the up to the minute news/stories/etc.

lawred2

dulpit wrote: »

But Second Captains has never really been about breaking news coverage really, so I don't see there being an issue. There are other sources for the up to the minute news/stories/etc.

I'd prefer them to give some stories a bit of time for reflection rather than being some sort of bulletin service.

Lucas Hood

Disagree with the 2 above posts.
When your competitors (Totally football show, Football weekly, football ramble, bbc football daily) are putting out daily shows you really should be also , bear in mind all of those are free

Certain stuff has been talked about to death already by the time today's podcast came out.

If you're not first your last, some wise man said before.

dulpit

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Disagree with the 2 above posts.
When your competitors (Totally football show, Football weekly, football ramble, bbc football daily) are putting out daily shows you really should be also , bear in mind all of those are free

Certain stuff has been talked to about to death already by the time today's podcast came out.

If you're not first your last, some wise man said before.

But I think they are fundamentally different offerings, so not direct competitors.

Pete Moss

dulpit wrote:

But Second Captains has never really been about breaking news coverage really, so I don't see there being an issue. There are other sources for the up to the minute news/stories/etc.

No one's relying on a podcast for up to the minute news.

You're quite right when you say there are other sources for these types of tournaments, as another poster pointed out Football Weekly covered the events on Saturday well. Most here would likely agree though that the SC lads, particularly Ken, are best when an event has happened within a reasonable time frame - I think one of the most listened to pods was Ken's reaction to the England Iceland match the day after the game in the 2016 tournament. Had that game been on a Friday night, his reaction on Monday morning would have been far more tame and not nearly as memorable.

The point is that international tournaments, particularly the group stages, move so quickly that between the time the SC podcast on Friday and the next one on Monday a lot can happen. They build the tournament and their coverage of it up nearly as much as the likes of Football Weekly, but then fail to make the same effort to cover it.

kippy

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Disagree with the 2 above posts.
When your competitors (Totally football show, Football weekly, football ramble, bbc football daily) are putting out daily shows you really should be also , bear in mind all of those are free

Certain stuff has been talked to about to death already by the time today's podcast came out.

If you're not first your last, some wise man said before.

It's really not about the subject matter with the SC. It's about the presentation and the delivery.
If you want on the minute content you go else where. If you want a decent angle on it with a smathering of humour and some good interviewing you go with SC
You can get 'sports breaking news' in tonnes of media outlets these days. You'd be a fool to JUST focus on that angle as a podcast.

Pete Moss

kippy wrote:

It's really not about the subject matter with the SC. It's about the presentation and the delivery. If you want on the minute content you go else where. If you want a decent angle on it with a smathering of humour and some good interviewing you go with SC You can get 'sports breaking news' in tonnes of media outlets these days. You'd be a fool to JUST focus on that angle as a podcast.

What about the Super League? They reacted to that almost on the day as the news was breaking, just as every other football podcast did.

Similar type pods to huge football tournaments that come around every 2 years, like the Euros or WC, could be put out with the same presentation and delivery.

kippy

Pete Moss wrote: »

What about the Super League? They reacted to that almost on the day as the news was breaking, just as every other football podcast did.

Similar type pods to huge football tournaments that come around every 2 years, like the Euros or WC, could be put out with the same presentation and delivery.

The Super announcement league was probably the most seismic moment in the history of the game, and the lads were probably available at short notice.
And in fairness, they have done "reaction" type shows the odd time - I'd say dependent on whether the lads were available at short notice or not.

atilladehun

They did one Sunday night recording a while back and I thought it was poor. Ken hadn't got his head around the weekend yet.

They should however aim to have a pod out by midday.

TXPTGR1

How many podcasts is the average listener listening to
Second captains is pretty much the only one I listen to on any regular basis, 99.9% of podcasts are trash, happy they take their time

Arghus

TXPTGR1 wrote: »

How many podcasts is the average listener listening to
Second captains is pretty much the only one I listen to on any regular basis, 99.9% of podcasts are trash, happy they take their time

The nightly totally football ones are pretty good, I haven't listened to the Football Weekly since James Richardson left, but I presume they're grand too.

There's a fair few decent football podcasts out there.

healy1835

Ken used to be in his element during midweek rounds of Premier League fixtures live on OTB back in the day.

Robert McGrath

“I have the ‘consh’”

The “consh”, Ken? Really?

I tell you what, to say something like that, he’s gone way down in my estimation

charlesodowd

healy1835 wrote: »

Ken used to be in his element during midweek rounds of Premier League fixtures live on OTB back in the day.

Yeah definitely, their sort-of commentary of the mid-week CL&PL games essentially made the show. 9pm-10pm. Used to really enjoy it, and podcast on the way to work the next morning if I missed it.

The talk of them being best taking their time to compose and react to events is a bit of a reach. They have made bank, and either couldn't be bothered or now 10 years on have other responsibilities like families etc. Presumably a combination of both.

Can't blame them either, but no need to tie oneself into knots defending it.

Icemancometh

Robert McGrath wrote: »

“I have the ‘consh’”

The “consh”, Ken? Really?

I tell you what, to say something like that, he’s gone way down in my estimation

It wouldn't be Ken Early without his literary allusions. Personally, the conch gave me a chuckle.

Ol' Donie

charlesodowd wrote: »

Yeah definitely, their sort-of commentary of the mid-week CL&PL games essentially made the show. 9pm-10pm. Used to really enjoy it, and podcast on the way to work the next morning if I missed it.

The talk of them being best taking their time to compose and react to events is a bit of a reach. They have made bank, and either couldn't be bothered or now 10 years on have other responsibilities like families etc. Presumably a combination of both.

Can't blame them either, but no need to tie oneself into knots defending it.

I've said it before, the lads reacting to live text from the listeners is the biggest element that's missing from the podcast format, hand in hand with the live sport.

Arghus

Robert McGrath wrote: »

“I have the ‘consh’”

The “consh”, Ken? Really?

I tell you what, to say something like that, he’s gone way down in my estimation

He made an acutely appropriate reference to J. G. Ballard last week when talking about Declan Rice's euphoria in an England fan park, so he's entitled to the odd mistake.

Ol' Donie

Arghus wrote: »

He made an acutely appropriate reference to J. G. Ballard last week when talking about Declan Rice's euphoria in an England fan park, so he's entitled to the odd mistake.

Pfft never mind that.

He asked Wilson if he brought any little white mice to feed Declan Rice when he interviewed him.

Declan Ricesssssss

That's what I'm paying for.


Edit: or Miguel. Whatever

Arghus

Ol' Donie wrote: »

Pfft never mind that.

He asked Wilson if he brought any little white mice to feed Declan Rice when he interviewed him.

Declan Ricesssssss

That's what I'm paying for.

And you could tell it flew straight over Jonathan Wilson's head, which made it funnier.

Robert McGrath

Arghus wrote: »

He made an acutely appropriate reference to J. G. Ballard last week when talking about Declan Rice's euphoria in an England fan park, so he's entitled to the odd mistake.

You are right, of course. I love Ken. I am only judging him against his own impossibly high standards

dulpit

Ol' Donie wrote: »

I've said it before, the lads reacting to live text from the listeners is the biggest element that's missing from the podcast format, hand in hand with the live sport.

Live streamed pods on say YouTube would be great actually

Arghus

Robert McGrath wrote: »

You are right, of course. I love Ken. I am only judging him against his own impossibly high standards

The conch was in reference to Lord of the Flies AFAIK. Seemed well judged to me, given what he was talking about.

~Rebel~

Arghus wrote: »

The conch was in reference to Lord of the Flies AFAIK. Seemed well judged to me, given what he was talking about.

Yeah, exactly. I got a kick out of it anyway.


Is their weekend radio show thing on Radio One gone altogether these days? Quite enjoyed that, and missed it last year when it never reappeared.