OK, let's do some of this in order. Starting with the chat about The Greatest as it is useful as a microcosm.
There is a strange thing that sometimes you have to experiment with what you do in public and new shows is a great example of that. As is new voices. On The Greatest, it probably hasn't been as crisp as I would like yet but it might well find its feet. It might not, it might end up joining an array of shows which we did a few of and then stopped. That's alright and we will box that and feedback is always worth having but we are always flying and building the plane at the same time.
On the idea of us doing too much content - we have done less audio content by this stage this season than we had done by this time last. Further the last time we did a 10 show week we had people asking us for more. Everyone wants different things, everyone has a different show they wish we were doing more of. Someone just there has said they want more Wildcards, elsewhere people are saying it is different to other shows. There has been no shift in the amount of time able to be spent on editorial focus and in fact we're in the process of changing a couple of things to be able to add further editorial focus. There will be some crossover on shows but - to give a quick example - this week The Friday Show and Teamtalk were hugely different - TFS didn't touch on Liverpool at all but it will next week because TFS is the best weekend premier league preview show available and we are the biggest game next weekend. I would argue Friday Show is reason enough to subscribe but other people have their own favourite shows. We want our shows not to be the best amongst supporter media but the best fullstop. I think we do more good football audio shows than any network in the world if you take out the actual live football commentary which we cannot do.
Currently we are working on bringing in another 3 - 5 formats for the start of the new year. It's constant renewal, but again, constant renewal means making mistakes in public. The idea isn't that everyone listens to everything, just as it isn't for Netflix that everyone watches everything and that every Netflix show is absolutely brilliant.
However I do think from this discussion we need to be clearer on two things for all subscribers:
1. What shows are what.
2. When they are coming out.
We're putting a plan together around that.
We also are constantly looking to find new voices and different voices. The Liverpool diaspora is massive, for us what matters isn't where people are from but where they are at and the first part of where they are at is being in Liverpool at the time of recording. I like having people on post match shows who have never been to Anfield before because I want that sense of wonder at seeing The Reds.
Some of these new voices won't work either or will involve letting people find their feet or find their shows but broadly the contributors brought on the last twelve to eighteen months have been really good. It isn't Mike Girling and Rob Gutmann sitting in a room together but Mike has moved away. That's a shame. Dan Austin has recently gone away which has been a blow. People have lives and therefore we have to be organic, have a range of voices and be able to react. If Rob needs to have a quiet few weeks because he is opening a new bar we can't throw our hands up and not do shows. We won't always get it right but we're very engaged with getting it right. Also everyone would soon be bored if it was just me, Rob and John chatting all the time. I'd include me and John in that. If not Rob.
Being fair on the number of shows though there is the addition of the video shows. Some people want to engage with supporter media through video and if we are doing video we want the video to be as good as it can be. Gareth is leading on presenting that because he is a really good presenter. We're pleased with how it is going but the journey it is on will be long both in terms of that content, how it is supplied and so on.
Partners are important to us but we do select who we work with. Also we've not had anything behind the paywall since the CL Final except for Redsbet who are our lead partners for the whole year and Slingsby for AFQ, which I am fine with as they give us the gin and we drink it. Redsbet is one 3 to 7 minute segment a week, no more. If that is too much for you then fair enough but that is all there is bar the intro and outro of the Monday show. If you are subscribing but hearing ads you must be listening to the free feed. If you have examples where that isn't the case do let me know. Really shouldn't be happening and would suggest there is a technical issue we need to look into.
Yesterday's Pink - I think my Review here (
https://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2018/10/liverpool-cardiff-review/) makes my wider point better and was finished as I began to calm down and I think I would have been calmer if it hadn't been for Salah's attempt to do the keeper from 70 yards which is exactly the sort of thing which gets my goat and was a cherry on top of an infuriating cake. I'm not thinking of Manchester City/goal difference. I am thinking of Ferguson's United who tended to play their best football against smaller teams once they went one up. They changed realities quickly. We had a real opportunity to do that against Cardiff but we allowed them to rope-a-dope us and played the game on their terms. It was unfolding exactly how Warnock would like bar the first goal and it just drove me absolutely mad watching it. Just seemed so casual combined with how awful Cardiff were. I don't think I was alone, the manager kept doing that thing where he does big circles with his arms to his players. Most definitely not about entitlement nor about the idea we should have won by 6 or 7. I have been saying for months we need to remember that there have been seasons like 2011/12 where we only scored 4 at home in the league once. That 4 didn't really count either that season as it was after the cup final.
Perhaps I was too harsh but immediate post match reaction is immediate post match reaction and I walked out livid with the passive reds. You heard that.
If anyone wants to ask anything I'll keep an eye on this across the next few days.
And lastly to go back a few pages it is more than ok for people not to like me and not be massive fans of me. Obviously. Jeffrey Lewis nailed that one ages ago and these are words to hold close when going after any pursuit I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7kHi2gffeY