‘The football stories that matter…’
I’ve become very set in my ways in terms of podcasts. If I can’t get them directly from the podcast app, then I tend not to bother at all. My laziness has become so all-encompassing that it would appear that spending 30 seconds downloading an app in exchange for hours of entertainment is now beyond me. I listen to a bunch of football podcasts (Guardian Football Weekly, the Totally Football Show, Quickly Kevin etc etc), but Giant is the first one that is also a Spotify exclusive.
As with so many other examples of football media, I was initially drawn in by the promise of Brian Clough, and as ever, Ol’ Big ‘Ead delivered. An entry in season two of the Giant podcast focuses on Clough, and features interviews with Mark Crossley and various staff members in what is a genuinely wonderful 25-minute episode. Other episodes include a dissection of the infamous Battle of Bramall Lane, a retrospective on the fall and rise of AFC Wimbledon and a recounting of the time when the Welsh national team lost to Leyton Orient. Each story is told in a way that is passionate, involving and compelling, with Owen Blackhurst of Mundial providing the narration – alongside such luminaries as Ryan Giggs and Pat Nevin.
Some of the subjects tackled throughout Giant have already been covered in depth elsewhere, whereas others are being explored for the first time, in both cases though, Blackhurst and his team bring a humanity and an infectious enthusiasm that is impossible to ignore. Even if the acoustic guitar driven ballad dedicated to Alan Shearer in one episode is pushing things a little far…