The Dark Arts…
The Game
The Times
3.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2024
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are footballers stupid? Why do footballers cut holes in their socks? And how to write a match report in 2 minutes.
Martin Samuel, Jonathan Northcroft, Gregor Robertson and Tom Clarke discuss the dark arts of football and sports writing.
On the pitch they were exemplified by Porto on Tuesday night.
But what are the dark arts of the press box? How do writers produce a piece when the result turns around in the final minutes? Martin recounts the Nou Camp in 99’ – from “Poor old Fergie gets his tactics wrapped around his neck..." to "Arise Sir Alex!…” And facing a deadline, Jonny McNorthcroft found himself hoping Scotland didn’t score.
Gregor had a surprising response to his article on ‘Why do footballers cut holes in their socks?’ Which led to another question - are footballers stupid?
Finally – its FA cup weekend.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You got I know what you're going to do. Should we just get it over? |
| 0:03.0 | Should we just get it over? |
| 0:04.0 | It's just, it's just, I like, I like the innate mischief of you thinking I'm going to do something even when I'm not. |
| 0:10.0 | Hello and welcome to... |
| 0:12.0 | No? No, I'm just. Hello and welcome to... No? |
| 0:13.0 | No. |
| 0:14.0 | No. |
| 0:15.0 | No. Just keep going. |
| 0:18.0 | Hello and welcome to the Game Football Podcast from The Times. |
| 0:21.0 | Today we are talking about the biggest issue dominating the beautiful game today |
| 0:25.6 | socks and why are players cutting holes in them |
| 0:28.6 | we'll also discuss Arsenal penalty shootout triumph against Porto and remember some of the dramatic stories |
| 0:34.2 | that we've never had published during our careers. |
| 0:37.0 | And there'll be some chat about the Bournemouth Luton thriller and this weekend's |
| 0:40.6 | FA Cup matches. |
| 0:42.2 | Joining me, Tom Clark, for all of that we have the |
| 0:44.0 | chief correspondent for The Times and Sunday Times Martin Samuel, the football |
| 0:47.4 | correspondent for the Sunday Times Jonathan Northcroft, and a former footballer |
| 0:51.2 | who's a little bit of a sentimental soul as he used to wear his grandfather's ring on match days |
| 0:56.1 | Taped up holding it in the moments before kick off while repeating positive affirmations in his head |
| 1:02.0 | Gregor Robertson let's hope for some more positivity today, eh? |
| 1:05.0 | Now, as I said in the piece, I can't like, |
... |
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