Second Captains

I already know Neville Southall is a legend.

Wait for the end.



Michael Owen is an absolute fool.

I enjoyed the pod, even the Ronaldo v Messi rant wasn't all that bad.

The Southall interview was a let down though. "Left wing former footballer uses Twitter" would be the headline of that interview. It was totally politically centered, imo. Considering the career he had, I expected it to be more football focused whilst covering his political outlook. Some of stuff he stated was hardly earth shattering either, LGBT, Corbyn, etc.

I did get a laugh out of Peter Reid but being called "Wilson Picket" when Eoin called him a blues legend.

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

the Russian Today chap (not saying I agree with his politics, to be clear...).

He was shown up pretty quickly as morally degenerate and intellectually bankrupt.

The patently wrong get plenty of airtime elsewhere, I'm grateful for this one oasis of good sense and decency.

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

That's true of course, but that's not to say you can appreciate or understand the reasoning behind another's politics. The problem with a lot of the Second Captains stuff is that it puts forward to much theory and assumption as obvious fact, and rarely does Ken acknowledge his own bias.

His choice of guests and topics also tend to re-enforce his views unchallenged -- it's no co-incidence that probably the most interesting Politics pod was with the Russian Today chap (not saying I agree with his politics, to be clear...).

I agree that Ken often relies on guests in the political pod that tend to be on the same wavelength on whatever topic they happen to be discussing. I suspect a few of the guests he's had on could well be personal friends of his - I get the sense that the net isn't cast too wide when it comes to sourcing interviewees.

Though I don't actually know anything about the reality of the situation. Maybe they are constantly trying to get conservatives or other right wingers to appear on the show, but it's the guests that don't want to appear - who knows?

Undeniably, it would make for more interesting listening if Ken and his guests didn't always - well, largely - readily agree about things. The Russia Today episode was a standout show - mainly down to how Ken just kept tightening the screw on that weasel that he had on. In comparison, I listen to On The Media a lot and while it does come from a similarish cozy liberal-ish place quite a lot of the time, they aren't afraid to interview and have on as guests the people that they vehemently disagree with. More often than not it leads to car crash stuff, but they aren't afraid to stick up for their assumptions and have them tested.

In general though I don't know why some people are shocked that Ken talking politics, turns out to be, well, Ken talking politics. It's the same way he discusses anything - football, art, history, anything - a bit brashly smug and indignant, but the man has obviously got perception and intelligence.

I'm not surprised by anything he says and I think if you are looking for all encompassing, razor sharp dissections of hot topic issues then you're looking in the wrong place. It's pretty good for what it is. And despite his absolute surity at all times about the correctness of his opinions and his sometimes complete lack of empathy for those who hold differing views, I think more often than not he's bang on the money about things.

Really? You're that vexed about that interview with Neville Southall?

The Fabio Quagliarella is absolutely crazy. And scary. The poor guy.

The Quagliarella story was bizarre. Crazy to think the guy is still working with the cops in Italy. The Deirdre Gogarty interview was quite good as well. Ken gets most of the plaudits, and rightly so at times, but in my opinion Eoin does a terrific job at the interviews. There seems to be a lot sincerity and interest when he's conducting an interview.

rufuseric82 wrote:

Enjoyed the Philly McMahon interview. McDevitt always gets the most out of the interviewee.

It started off quite good. Then felt eoin (and rightly so) started questioning him and mcmahon was contradicting him. eoin just stopped it then..

I assume episode 1,000 will include Dunphy v Ken?

Hunky Monster wrote: »

If you're getting someone on the show go talk politics at least get someone who isn't talking out of their arse.

urm... wasn't the whole point that this was a lad who freely admitted to knowing fu(k all beyond some dated notions who was using Twitter to learn more and create debate in the process!?

what exactly was your problem with that?

the interview was framed that way by the lads from the very outset. It's not like they presented him as some authority on any matters.

what you've posted is utterly miserable really

Dots1982 wrote:

Has the world/this forum gone mad!? Why the **** would I give a flying **** about a ****ing 80s goalkeeper’s ****ing journey towards ****ing Twitter self-discovery.

Personally, I wasn't mad on the Southall interview, found it a bit of let down. That said, I definitely wouldn't knock SC for getting an interesting guest on, even if I wasn't crazy about the end result. After all, the man was one of the last goalkeepers to win player of the year, he's won cups with Everton and seems to have a pretty large following on Twitter, which probably means something to some folk with a social-media interest. So, all in all, I can see why Southall was on the pod.

You need to take a leaf out of Pochettino's book, mate - Buy some lemons and clear your negative aura posthaste.

by the way, what is the sporting moment behind the Oasis Supersonic track from yesterday...sounds like a Welsh commentator going mental about rugby , is it?

tomwaits48 wrote: »

by the way, what is the sporting moment behind the Oasis Supersonic track from yesterday...sounds like a Welsh commentator going mental about rugby , is it?

Rugby League. Castleford v Wigan I think. The video is on YouTube. Mick Morgan is the commentator's name.

tomwaits48 wrote: »

by the way, what is the sporting moment behind the Oasis Supersonic track from yesterday...sounds like a Welsh commentator going mental about rugby , is it?

Also, it's Columbia rather than Supersonic.