00:00 Where does your love for football come from?
00:04 I don't know really, I guess it was just innate.
00:07 I grew up with brothers kicking a ball around in the backyard and I went to school where
00:13 football was a thing and I guess my love for it at a sort of professional level comes from
00:20 having grown up locking myself in my bedroom listening to the radio.
00:24 If you enjoyed the commentary so much as a child, is that why you chose commentary to
00:29 get into because of course broadcasting and media and football, there's a lot of avenues
00:32 you could go into presenting, you could go into punditry for example.
00:36 That makes it sound as though it was a plan which it never was, I didn't expect this to
00:41 happen to me but insofar as it has happened to me, yeah certainly because truth be told
00:49 and I constantly say this, the thrill of my job is being there and that's the privilege
00:56 that the commentator has.
00:57 What is the difference between commentating for a TV audience and commentating for a radio
01:02 audience where of course they can't see the pictures?
01:05 Yeah it's a massive difference and everybody who's done both would acknowledge that.
01:12 As you say on the radio, the commentator is absolutely essential and truth be told the
01:17 television commentator is nowhere near as essential.
01:22 The basic rule of thumb for a television commentator is only to speak if you can add to the picture
01:27 Now of course you're now working for Sky Sports replacing Martin Tyler, how much have you enjoyed
01:33 your time in this new role so far?
01:36 Yes so far so good, I've really enjoyed working with the people I've worked with, it's a huge
01:42 privilege to be moving into that slot.
01:46 How much preparation does it take to just prepare for one game?
01:50 One day at the desk for one day's football, so maybe an eight hour office day.
01:57 Maybe for the really big ones or the slightly more complex ones that can grow into maybe
02:02 10, 12, 14 hours.
02:04 The truth is you're never as ready as you want to be.
02:07 Some of your iconic lines I think of a Greek God in Rome, do they just come to you off
02:12 the top of your head or have they been meticulously planned?
02:15 The one thing you don't prepare is what you're going to say during a football match.
02:20 To a certain extent you prepare what you're going to say up until kick-off but once the
02:24 game kicks off then you simply have to rely on the homework you've got factually speaking
02:29 and your instinct hopefully for finding something appropriate when the moment occurs.
02:37 Do you have any particular moments yourself that you look back on with a lot of fondness?
02:42 I have great memories of some lovely moments, what I don't do is associate them with myself
02:48 because I'm always keen to remind myself and others that I didn't score Aguero's goal,
02:55 he did.
02:56 The warmest feeling I've had around a football match was when Xabalala scored for South Africa
03:00 at the start of the World Cup in 2010.
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