Michail Antonio’s prediction on the Footballer’s Football Podcast he co-hosts with Newcastle striker Callum Wilson, that his West Ham side would finish above Liverpool in the Premier League table this season, was subject to some mockery online after a recent 3-1 defeat at Anfield. Antonio’s linkup play was key in setting up Jarrod Bowen’s only goal for the Hammers, but that didn’t stop sections of the social media brigade from making their point. Namely, that he was all talk and no action.
Athletes are entitled to their opinions, but the derision aimed at Antonio is merely one of the reasons that proportionally few active participants in their chosen discipline commit them to a podcast format. Another, clearly, is that it requires work to plan and mental bandwidth to engage in sufficiently captivating conversation to prove worthwhile while not giving too much away.
