Better Late Than Never: TAW's A Wrap – Now For A New Challenge

A new podcast alongside Paul Cope is now up and running and we're keen to hear what you think of it.

A LONG time has passed since The Anfield Wrap launched. 

August 2011 was the first time a TAW podcast was released to the big wide world and the (much smaller) team involved back then sat and waited for the verdict from the listening public.

The rest as they say is history. Everyone involved then and now can rightly feel proud about playing a part in building one of the biggest and best organisations of its type. Plenty seem to spend a lot of time knocking it and dreaming up conspiracy theories…and what are you doing again, lads?

Over a decade later it’s Paul Cope and I who are now waiting and watching; wondering how episode one of The Late Challenge Podcast will go down.

A lot has happened in those almost 12 years, personally and professionally. There are few things I haven’t questioned in that time, including how much modern-day football matters to me. This piece for This Is Anfield seemed to resonate with a lot of people on that particular subject.

It hasn’t just been football. And what’s been clear is that I’m at a time of life when lots of us middle-aged men (it’s what I am) question things. We fuck up as well. Get things wrong. And that’s alright. “Man I’m only human” and all that. 

I’ve always got on with Copey. He likes to question things too. And he’s not *that* much younger than me. So the thought arrived…why don’t we do a podcast and question things together? 

I left The Anfield Wrap in June and I have been trying out some totally different types of work, including teaching sessions with primary school children and speaking at universities. 

It’s been enjoyable. But it was time to take my own advice. I’ve been encouraging students I’ve spoken with to start their own blogs, their own podcasts, their own video channels and meanwhile, aside from infrequently appearing on the odd thing and writing something here and there, I wasn’t doing too much of that myself.

The media world has shape-shifted in the time period I’m referencing and it will no doubt do so again. Podcasts, subscription podcasts, paying for podcasts, podcast businesses, podcast jobs…all have become the norm. We’re also seeing more opportunities for niche forms of journalism to grow and grow. Not everyone wants clickbait or media delivered adhering to rules that don’t actually exist. The Post is a good example of doing things differently in Liverpool.

I’ve enjoyed doing a bit of writing again. It’s cathartic. It’s a good release. And if people are nice about it, that’s an added bonus. 

READ: This Is Anfield: Liverpool's Anti-Social Media

I’ve had years of putting up with the bellends too, so that’s nothing new. On that, the most telling thing is that in circa 15 years of writing and talking about Liverpool, football and everything that comes with, I’ve had precisely no form of serious stick in person.

The closest was a friendly jab to the arm, a grin and a “we’re watching you” warning from an Evertonian outside Goodison Park once. That was a laugh. It’s all bollocks after all, isn’t it?

Online, of course, it’s been a different story. I’ve got hundreds of blerts blocked and muted. I’ve had threats, I’ve had people trying to stop me from getting work by contacting people who have paid me in the past and so on. Arsed. I’m still going… And if they are, I can’t see it. Hope you’re enjoying shouting at yourselves, lads.

Back to the point. For a long, long time I enjoyed making content — written, audio and video. I questioned it for a while. I’ve had a break. And now it feels like the old mojo is returning.

The Late Challenge is a work in progress. In a short space of time we’ve gone from a conversation over a pie and a brew at Homebaked to something that actually exists — a podcast with a name, website, social accounts, a YouTube and, now, an actual recorded first episode.

Over 3,600 followers on Twitter and a ton of nice messages has been amazing as well. Thanks to everyone for that.

It was all a bit surreal starting from scratch again. A new studio. A new format. A new name. But it was enjoyable. There was a buzz. And where it goes, who knows? We’re excited to find out. We must have put some effort in as we were both goosed afterwards.

In episode one we explained the idea so far. We talked about stuff we had spotted in the media, including the return of Brookside. We had a chat about the breaking Manchester City news, a wider convo about football and how we view it — and how people consume it — and we got stuck into some crisps. Yes, crisps. 

When you’re stopped in the aisles of Aldi and asked to do a podcast about crisps well you’ve got to do something about that, haven’t you? High five to that lad and to the many other people who I don’t know who have told me to get back to making things again.

Do look out for the vote on the crisps by the way. It’s my crisp choice versus Copey’s crisp choice — “The Crunching Challenge”. You’ll have to watch or listen to find out more about the choices etc. 

So that’s the story so far really. 

We’re going to get stuck into anything we fancy as we go on but we’re also very keen to hear from you. 

Email us your ideas; your feedback; your questions; your ideas for topics. Tell us where you want it to go. You can tweet us, too. Or leave a message on our Facebook page, or on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. You can even fill a form out on our website. And it works! (Nice one, Dave Mol).

We go again. Have a listen/watch and let me know. It’s up on YouTube now, and podcast platforms will follow.

Nice one.

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