The Amazon All Or Nothing documentary on Arsenal has been a huge success.
And there is no doubting that Manchester United is the No1 target for the next fly-on-the-wall series for the streaming giants. But they may have to bide their time as there is disquiet in the TV industry about how much access Amazon are given considering how many billions the likes of Sky and BT Sport pay in live rights.
Sky actually agreed to the Amazon series because it helps promote the Premier League but there have been noticeable tweaks to the new TV contract to give other broadcasters more and better access.
For example, the new TV contract allows the likes of Sky - featuring their front line pundits like Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher - to have an extended pre-match chat with a manager or star player on the pitch from the away team five times per club each season.
Harry Kane did it at Chelsea and Mikel Arteta did it a Crystal Palace. TV companies can also request half-time interviews with managers but this is on a discretionary basis and is unlikely to catch on but surely would make up for the insight into dressing rooms shown in the Amazon documentary.
The Amazon shows have been a huge success and their coverage of the US Open tennis is sensational so maybe it will help other broadcasters raise their game when it comes to programming and live football. TV companies and media outlets using the same pundits and same experts has become boring and predictable and it is easy to forget which channel you are watching.
Amazon’s All Or Nothing on Arsenal was incredibly revealing on Mikel Arteta - even if there were shades of Ted Lasso in some of his ideas, particularly getting the club photographer to do a team talk - but Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsdale’s dad came across so well. Now the clamour is to get Manchester United with the Erik ten Hag regime but the other TV companies will be watching closely.
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Marinakis meddling
Nottingham Forest’s recruitment has been scatter gun to say the least. Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has been upsetting agents and rival clubs with his “aggressive” approach but also agreeing deals - and then not pursuing them. But it will be interesting to see just how many of his bigger foreign recruits become regular first teamers under Forest boss Steve Cooper.
Cooper has made his name and reputation based on building a very British dressing room and two of his biggest deals were Jesse Lingard and Morgan Gibbs-White. Whether Cooper can maintain his tried and trusted methods remains to be seen when the owner has spent big on foreign deals
FA go back to the future
A new England kit launch is always exciting. But actually the old retro kits are now becoming quite a thing, too. The Football Association has an official kit deal with Score Draw who produce kits from yesteryear, including the beautiful red away kit from the 1982 World Cup.
The retro kits are becoming an increasingly large part of the market for clubs as well as being a big earner for the FA and England. The FA are now promoting the retro kits on an official basis as well as selling them in stores. Even at non-league level there are shades of Coventry in the 1990s about Earlswood Town’s new kit.
Shades of Gray
One teenager to watch this season is Leeds’ 16-year-old midfielder Archie Gray. The grandson of Leeds legend Frank, the teenager popped up in a few squads and was on the bench last season but has been training regularly with Jesse March’s first team group and been blowing people away.
Canaries chief peaks
Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber has had mixed fortunes at Carrow Road as Premier League survival has been beyond them. But Webber has got his sights on scaling an even bigger mountain. As he explains in a new BT Sport podcast, Webber says climbing Everest has been a childhood dream, he is doing it for charity and it will not interfere with his work.
Webber said: "Everest has been a dream since I was a child. What's been nice within the industry, people I bump into, phone calls, emails has been the number of them who say: 'wow, I wish I could do that, get off the treadmill.' What's been nice is that I signed Isaac Hayden from Newcastle when I was 4,000m above sea level. Dan Ashworth didn't know where I was. I went to Brazil for a week for work and that didn't stop me working.”
