George Caulkin's new piece

[The Fish 8989]

 

The BBC’s flagship football show is enjoying a revival after responding to criticism of its pundits and style. George Caulkin is given behind-the-scenes access to a national institution

 

There had been chatter and wisecracks, the blare of duelling commentaries from 12 screens, despairing grunts, jubilation, constant motion between green-room and editing suites, the hubbub of work. And then, when time reached the point it was always ticking towards, when the countdown of four minutes, three, two, one had ceased, there is a silence so sudden and profound that it is breathtaking.

Perhaps the moment lasts for 30 seconds. Three very famous men twitch and stretch, mouth their first lines, no longer footballers but broadcasters. Fingers are poised over buttons, hands grip cameras. And then the brass section starts, piercing the dead, heavy nothing and this is not just a television studio. It is Match of the Day. Sharper now, tighter, but still home.

 

At noon on Saturday, Alan Shearer was in place to watch the early kick-off, sitting in front of a bank of monitors inside a building in Salford Quays, where The Jeremy Kyle Show is also filmed. It is an intimate room; a coffee table, armchairs. Shearer calls it the “inner-sanctum.” The programme’s lead pundit is definitive, imposing and quick to laugh. Beside him sits Mark Golley, an analyst and behind is Mark Cole, the BBC’s head of football.

As Leicester City begin to “dismantle,” Manchester City, Shearer speaks and Golley jots down notes; he points out Pablo Zabaleta’s poor positioning, Leicester’s “team ethic.”

 

These conversations, repeated during the 3pm games, are the basis of the compact analytical packages — known as ‘runs’ — which will pepper the show.

 

Shearer voices his reluctance, “to call it a job — I get paid to watch football,” as if his career was built on chance, but just as Match of the Day has confronted its own relevance — too chummy, the accusations went, not enough rigour or stridency or depth — so the former England and Newcastle United captain has changed with it. A player known for giving little away now trusts his own spikiness.

 

“When I retired in 2006, I thought I’d do two or three years of this and then go into management,” Shearer, 45, says. “That was always the plan. I went straight into the World Cup in Germany and I was probably lazy. I didn’t really want to p*** people off because you can look foolish if you then go back into the game. I still had my guarded football head on, the one I had when I was playing.

 

“I had that itch to manage. I had those eight games at Newcastle and the itch was there for another six months or so and then it faded away. I’d be amazed if it came back now. I realised I had to get my head down, to work at this and be the best I can be. It wasn’t that I didn’t knuckle down before, but I’d been reluctant to say as much as I could. I took advice, listened to people and got stuck in.”

 

The result was evident on Saturday night, when Shearer talked about the “traps,” Leicester had set and drew on his experience of winning the title with Blackburn Rovers. There was an impassioned segment when he said: “I do not think any fan in the country — at all — should be asked to pay more for tickets next season.” It was confident, assured. “I believe if you work hard enough at something you’ll get there,” he says.

 

It is a theme; Claudio Ranieri’s side are working prodigiously. At 1.10pm, Ian Wright walks in, a burst of humour with him. When Leicester score a second, it calcifies Shearer’s views. They know this game will lead the show, dominate the back pages. A third goal follows. When Gary Lineker, a Leicester fan, arrives, he is greeted with cheers. “Unbelievable scenes!” he says.

 

At 3pm, the scene is bewildering; six games jostle for attention. Shearer and Golley focus on Tottenham Hotspur v Watford, Wright and Andy Fraser, another analyst, on Liverpool’s home fixture against Sunderland. Shearer exhales when Aleksandar Mitrovic scores for Newcastle, his club. “YES! Big goal.” Impartiality and tactical finesse wrestle with those old feelings of love.

 

That mix is the essence of Match of the Day. In some ways, it is an anachronism, a highlights programme in an era of constant live matches and instant reaction — “it almost defies logic,” Cole says — but it also has a reach which, for all their influence and advances, Sky Sports and BT Sport cannot compete with. Of the 37 million people who watched at least 15 minutes of the Premier League last season, 25 million did so only on the BBC.

 

On air since August 1964, it is the world’s longest-running football programme. Barry Stoller’s theme tune was voted the most recognisable on British television. “We’re broadcasting to about five million people,” Cole says. “It’s a huge number and not all of our audience will be football nuts.” They have less time for detail or flab.

 

They have adapted, though. When Wright left Match of the Day in 2008, he spoke about being seen as a, “comedy jester,” and expressed frustration at the, “same old ‘jacket, shirt and tie’ format.” The familiarity of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson was a comfort to some and, as Lineker points out, “Alan Hansen was the person who really changed analysis in this country,” but fashion mutates and others perceived cosiness.

 

“We’ve made a conscious effort to evolve,” Cole says, “and moving to Manchester gave us the perfect opportunity, because it was a chance to get a new studio and do things differently. People are watching football in different ways. We feel we’ve really pushed things on in the last three or four years. There is that air of journalism — we want to set the agenda. We’ve tried to get more variety and different viewpoints. It’s about working closely with the pundits, pushing them.” Wright is relishing his return to a programme which holds an emotional resonance.

 

“When I first went on it, I said it was like my Graceland,” he says. “People go there to pay homage to Elvis Presley and that’s what it was like. As a kid, it was the be all and end all for me, but my stepdad wouldn’t let me watch it. It would be on in the background and I could hear the music, but he would make me face the wall.

 

“If you looked up, he would go absolutely mad. I was so afraid of him that I wouldn’t look up. I’d be crying. It was horrible. All the feelings come back. When I left it, I don’t think I missed a single Match of the Day in that time. I love it. To be on it now and feel a lot more appreciated is amazing. But that also comes with me being more vigilant in my reading and listening. I want to give people insight.”

 

At 52, there is a note of regret that, post-football, he focused on light entertainment (Friday Night’s All Wright and others). “I was pushed down that road by my agent and I missed my opportunity to coach or manage,” he says. “There was a lot of money being offered — TV shows, music — and it was very exciting and hedonistic, but everything I’ve ever done that’s been led by financial gain has never worked out for me. If I had my time again, I’d take my badges.”

 

His shift mirrors the BBC’s. “They’re treating me like a serious pundit,” he says. “I think I was winging it a bit more back then, but I still felt that I had things to say and wasn’t getting the chance to do it. I always thought it was a little bit too stiff and I just wasn’t having fun. I felt undervalued, as if I wouldn’t be missed. I love it now. You can see that.

 

“I’ve been educated on the job. All through school, I felt like I was slower than anyone else; they always said I had the intellect but that I didn’t pay enough attention. But then as I got into football, I learnt about everything, about decorum, how to carry yourself. I’m still a work in progress in that respect. But I speak like this because this is how I speak. I’m not Trevor McDonald. I’m not trying to be anyone else.”

 

At 4.55pm, dinner is ordered (a Nando’s for Lineker, spaghetti carbonara for Shearer, carbonara with a side of fries for Wright), and, down in the studio, Lineker interviews Mauricio Pochettino of Spurs. Shearer and Wright watch Southampton’s turgid victory over West Ham United, after which Chris Foy, the former referee, pops his head around the door to see if guidance is required on the day’s decisions (it is not).

 

By 7.30pm, Lineker and Cole are working on tonight’s script, while Wright and Shearer are in the VT room. The issues they have marked out for discussion have been worked into clips and they decide what they might say. Off this room there are several others, two people in each, editing the individual matches into chunks. There are clocks everywhere.

 

Just after 9, the process is honed and by 9.30pm Lineker is in the studio, recording trails. He is funny and engaging, enthused by Leicester’s improbable story, but something happens when the camera is on him. There is a shine. Like Shearer and Wright, he was a brilliant striker — between them they have 176 England caps — who won the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup, but for millions of people, this is who he is. He has been doing it for 17 years. “Even as a kid, I always used to write match reports,” he says. “I always thought that if I didn’t make it, I’d be a sports journalist and in the end it’s come full circle. I just thought that if I could crack the presenting side, then I’d have a real niche.

 

“Following Des Lynam was tough. He was enormously helpful, but he was also the doyen and coming after him was massively difficult. I was still pretty inexperienced and there was criticism, but people become familiar with you. In the first two or three years, there’d be times I’d drive home and think, ‘I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to do this’, but I suppose I wasn’t bad enough for them to get rid of me.”

 

Few would disagree with Cole’s contention that Lineker has, “grown into the best.” There is a fire, a yearning, which connects him to Shearer and Wright. “I work my socks off at it and try to make myself as good as I can possibly be,” he says. “That’s part and parcel of getting to the top in sport.”

“I’ve been retired 10 years now and I’ve not found anything that gives you the same buzz as playing football or scoring a goal,” Shearer says. “Jesus. I think about playing and scoring all the time,” says Wright. “This is as close as you can get. Being on Match of the Day is like being in the tunnel, waiting to go out, the butterflies circling in your stomach. All this now is like preparation for a game. I’m thinking about what I’m going to say.”

It is almost that point. At 10pm, Claire Edmondson is applying make-up to Shearer and Wright. Shearer jots down some notes. He feels, “excitement.” By five past, they are all in the studio. Rehearsals will continue even when the show is in progress. There are nine people in the gallery, where the show is directed, but 30 have worked on it here and another 30 in the field.

 

Just before the silence, Lineker says, “It comes around eventually,” and so it does. Cole feeds prods back to the panel, offering encouragement. Sections are trimmed as they talk. There is tension, but the operation is slick and deeply professional; they have been waiting for this. As midnight arrives, Lineker mouths some familiar and unfamiliar words to his audience. “Leicester City are top,” he says. He is off camera and both of his arms are held aloft.

[Dr Gloom 19813]

nice piece, that.

[Alex 30376]

Think it has improved. Lawrenson and Hansen went from being top analysts to just going through the motions years before they finally got shifted.

[Dr Gloom 19813]

lawrenson is a right miserable old woman

[Alex 30376]

lawrenson is a right miserable old woman

There was a series in some men's mag which featured blokes who looked like ageing lesbians. Might've been GQ. I remember him being one of them and Fabio Capello being another

[The Fish 8989]

Frustratingly the more topics there are to cover the more trite the comments. It's only really when it's been a fairly dull day of football (or one of those Saturdays with only 3-4 games) that they can really get into an issue.

 

A lot of Wright & Shearer's contribution seems to be "well he's got the ball there and he's taken his chance early and the 'keeper wasn't where he should be." Which doesn't really tell you that the player's dropped off his defender or if his teammate has distracted the defender with a well timed run, nor where the 'keeper should be.

 

I like seeing Shearer when he gets impassioned about a topic, I mean sure, it's often about us, but when he opined about the ticket prices, it grabbed my attention.

[ewerk 26284]

Not nearly enough mentions of registas or trequartistas for my liking.

[The Fish 8989]

Not nearly enough mentions of registas or trequartistas for my liking.

 

think the nascent On Demand service will mean people who just want the goals and not much more will be able to get that and people who want more discussion & insight will be able to download/stream that as well. There might be issues with the highlight duration? There'll be ways around it though, surely? Like if they're talking about formation, they needn't show the actual footgae, and instead do the MNF big ipad thingy instead?

[TheGingerQuiff 2412]

He was taking the piss out of you, you biff.

[ewerk 26284]

[The Fish 8989]

He was taking the piss out of you, you biff.

really? I didn't see that!

 

Shit, you're right he was.

 

Well, don't I feel foolish...

 

Fuck off Thompers, you relentless bellend.

[Dr Gloom 19813]

There was a series in some men's mag which featured blokes who looked like ageing lesbians. Might've been GQ. I remember him being one of them and Fabio Capello being another

 

he looks and sounds like an old bag tbf.

 

i'm still not sure what the craic is with his hair, unless he's got an bigger conehead than CT

 

[TheGingerQuiff 2412]

really? I didn't see that!

 

Shit, you're right he was.

 

Well, don't I feel foolish...

 

Fuck off Thompers, you relentless bellend.

 

 

Please don't banish me to general chat like you did Gemmill, David. Still don't know who thompers even is btw

Edited February 8, 2016 by TheGingerQuiff

[Monkeys Fist 38739]

There was a series in some men's mag which featured blokes who looked like ageing lesbians. Might've been GQ. I remember him being one of them and Fabio Capello being another

[Monkeys Fist 38739]

 

Still don't know who thompers even is btw

Rearrange these random words into a sentence, then I'll believe you.

Terrible Rock Fucking Kid Is.

[ewerk 26284]

There was a series in some men's mag which featured blokes who looked like ageing lesbians. Might've been GQ. I remember him being one of them and Fabio Capello being another

Looks like Man U's troubles have been taking their toll on LVG.

 

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

That is very funny

[Rayvin 4964]

You sure it isn't cowardly?

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

That wasn't very funny but you did think it was,didn't you?

[Alex 30376]

That wasn't very funny but you did think it was,didn't you?

It's the way you tell 'em

[Rayvin 4964]

That wasn't very funny but you did think it was,didn't you?

 

It was my turn to say something derogatory about one of your posts - we have a forum wide rotation system in effect.

 

[Monkeys Fist 38739]

[strawb 3659]

Can I go next please?

[Alex 30376]

 

It was my turn to say something derogatory about one of your posts - we have a forum wide rotation system in effect.

 

[ohhh_yeah 2765]

 

"Its a local thing. Its a community thing. Its a way of looking at the world from a north-east angle, from a corner of a country often forgotten, its the cap badge of our Geordie identity. Its family, friends, the street, the estate, the village you were brought up in. The club should stand side-by-side with the aspirations we have for the north-east, wanting to be better, to give us pride and recognition.

 

The 1974 FA Cup run is the first thing I remember really well, the Leazes End at the end of the Forest quarter-final, Supermac, Jimmy Smith, Moncur. My old man having a bit crack with Jackie Milburn on Grainger Street and Milburn calling my old man son' and asking me if I played and then walking off into the crowd and no-one taking much notice."

 

 

 

Was just watching this clip from the quarter-final against Nottingham Forest in 74'. Down a man and trailing 3-1, before Terry McDermott scored a brace and Bob Moncur slotted home the winner.