Hello

Kyle James Frazer
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read

A new football podcast launched this week to a crowded marketplace dominated by The Guardian’s Football Weekly, The Second Captain’s talkshow and a recent pod from The Telegraph. With so much transfer activity and cash-splashing in football this summer there’s plenty to talk about — so who are these crazy kids?

Familiar voices, that’s who. James Richardson, presenter of the previously-mentioned Football Weekly podcast and 90’s hit Football Italia, has moved on a bosman-ruling along with former producer Ben Green to set up shop at Muddy Knees Media and their ball-kicker chinwagger, The Totally Football Show. In cahoots with football journalist Iain MacIntosh, TFS brings back the 3 horseman of the apoc…er, the European Football Show that was axed by BT Sport at the end of last season, with James Horncastle and Julien Laurens.

A fifth microphone is taken by broadcaster, presenter and sports journalist Kelly Cates, familiar to viewers of Sky Sports back in the day and more recently BBC 5 Live’s 606 football phone-in and Channel 5’s Championship highlights programme.

The quintuple ease into the podcast once early pleasantires are exchanged. Nervous nods to Football Weekly; MacIntosh referred to as “Yoko” for “breaking up the band”, the “Nasser Al-Khelaïf” of the podcast world, and made light of for suggesting “there’s a lot to be said for stability” in football. After introducing the elephant to the room, the group settle down to what is essentially five mates down the pub chatting about football, ribbing each other for indiscretions and embarrassing tales, and embarking on long tagents. It’s the friendly atmosphere that makes the show warm, punctuated with James Richardson’s trademark pun-ditry and sneaky jibes, and Kelly Cates cheeky personality and occassionally bringing the boys back down to earth.

Top-flight football still a week away, the inaugural pod conversation was limited to Premier League predictions, the fallout to English football’s most high profile friendly (Community Shield), and THAT transfer to PSG. Nothing we haven’t heard before. We were treated to Julien’s perspective on Neymar’s huge transfer to PSG, given the dire straits the club were in 20 years ago, and musings on a possible implosion at Chelsea. Conte’s choice of training-ground attire over suit and tie at Wembley had backfired after a similar, more effective ploy by Mourinho at Liverpool, whilst the Blue’s injury list and recent departures were also mulled over.

That’s the show, then. Pretty much the same as we’ve come to expect from the years of listening and watching the cast in other roles and programmes. In an interview with Football365, Richardson did uncover some tidbits of information on the transition from The Guardian to Muddy Knees, and that they have new ideas for the show.

And it’s that future of The Totally Football Show and Muddy Knees Media that intrigues me most.

I always felt that The Guardian underused James Richardson, almost confining him to the studio to present Football Weekly. Those familiar with Iain MacIntosh’s exploits at The Set Pieces will have seen dabbles with livestreaming, match reports from the press box, and a very bizarre method of introducing FC Freisenbruch of the German 9th Division (!). Hopefully we’ll see more live videos presented by James in the future and see his talent shine.

Also of note is Kelly Cates, who deserves a better role than babysitting retired professional footballers on a football phone-in show on 5 Live. She has the insight into a football club that other journalists can only speculate about, and can convincingly argue her point of view without using the usual slang we hear from other pundits. Her place on the show is a breathe of fresh air to the format.

The Totally Football Show is slated to be recorded twice a week and is available on a number of platforms such as iTunes and Audioboom.

Kyle James Frazer

Written by

I play the ukulele and am part of the Grand Old Uke of York. @Fulhamfc fan, @blzzrd reader

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