Join us as we kick off our Future Coaches campaign, an initiative aimed at empowering smaller football clubs with insights from the big leagues.
This special episode features the illustrious David Tanner, a journalist and broadcaster whose career was inspired by his blind grandfather's passion for football. Listen to David recount his journey from a childhood dream of being a radio commentator to his early experiences providing play-by-play commentary for the blind at games.
David also shares the fascinating history of Cathkin Park and its significance to his family's love for the sport.
Future Coaches Tour 2024
Free to attend football club business and networking event.
Join us as we kick off our Future Coaches campaign, an initiative aimed at empowering smaller football clubs with insights from the big leagues.
This special episode features the illustrious David Tanner, a journalist and broadcaster whose career was inspired by his blind grandfather's passion for football. Listen to David recount his journey from a childhood dream of being a radio commentator to his early experiences providing play-by-play commentary for the blind at games.
David also shares the fascinating history of Cathkin Park and its significance to his family's love for the sport.
Future Coaches Tour 2024
Free to attend football club business and networking event.
Welcome to another episode of In the Club. This episode is a very special episode as we are going to be launching our Future Coaches campaign. Future Coaches are events that we run here at Class for Kids. We started doing this last year and they are in the football space specifically for smaller size football clubs to come along and listen to larger size football club owners tell their stories and to give their valuable insights across to the smaller clubs to lift them up and elevate them. This year we're taking future coaches on tour. We're going to be in Birmingham, london and Glasgow throughout the end of July and the beginning of August and it's going to be bigger and better than last year. Guaranteed.
Speaker 1:
This year's host we have on board. Who is going to be the person Rebecca and I are interviewing in just a second on this very podcast is the journalist and broadcaster, david Tanner. He is very respected in the football field. David came in a few weeks ago. He talked about his career, some of the highlights, some of the celebrities he has met over the years and how he's going to be involved in the future coaches event this year. Now why do I keep talking about it when I can just say here is David.
Speaker 2:
Tanner, it's great to have you here. You're a journalist, sports pundit. You've been working across many different industries, but football seems to be where you found your calling. Tell us how you got there.
Speaker 3:
Well, that's correct. And as a kid I wanted to be the commentator on radio and I've got some cassette somewhere in my mum's loft of me reading out the newspapers and saying this is me reading out the sports desk, and so on. And I also had a, in fact two grandparents who were blind, and one of them, my grandfather, was a really, really big football fan and he went along to games every week, blind, totally blind from birth, but went to the football. Now you might say why did he do that? But he and all of the other visually impaired people loved the experience of going to the game. They might have had a beer before, who knows, but they got involved in the banter, they got the thrill of the, the atmosphere, the crowd, and they were really, really knowledgeable at football.
Speaker 3:
My grandparents, so, um, my father, was a commentator from a very young age on my grandfather's shoulders initially, um, and I became a commentator as well. So I was a commentator for the Blind from the age of 12, 11 or 12. And I did that right up until I was 16 when I got a Saturday job at Radio Clyde, which was then the big place for live sport in central Scotland before Sky Sports came along, so were you on the shoulders commentating to the match in front of you.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah yeah, you must have had the crowd around you as well, like, oh yeah, not just the visually impaired, but everybody must have been like keep the noise down. Keep the noise down, david.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it was a great experience and you know it was nice to give something back to the organisation that looked after my grandfather. It started in 1937. Something back to the, the organization that looked after my grandfather. It started in 1937. It's called the Rex Blind Parties. My grandfather was at the very first game, which was on Christmas day, cause in those days they used to work in the morning Christmas day hard for us to believe and then go to the football in the afternoon. It was like an ordinary Saturday and it was Hearts playing at third Lanark in the top division in Scotland at Cathcombe Park. So Third Lanark went bust in the 60s but Cathcombe Park, which was the second Hampden Park we know the third one better, where Scotland play their big games and where the cup finals are played. But he was at Cathcombe Park on that first day in 37, so he was looked after by them for the best part of 40 years. So that's where my passion for commentating and telling people something they didn't know started.
Speaker 1:
I have a story about Thurland. I don't have many football stories. My wife's dad, who's now passed away, john, was a mad Third Lanark fan growing up Now Cathkin Park when it was destroyed it was in the 60s. It was torn down and again, as you said, that used to be Scotland's old Hamden. He stole a large bit of the wood and he made a guitar from it, which is in the hamden museum. I've seen that guitar in the hamden park museum.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that was my wife's dad, um and and and the at the top headstock of the guitar with the logo. Usually, as it's just a third lanark, he'd kind of emblazoned with the third lanark shield, so that's interesting.
Speaker 3:
That's crazy. And kathleen park is still there and I occasionally wander around there. The terrace thing is still there. It and I occasionally wander around there. The terracing is still there. It's overgrown now. The pitch is still pristine and youth clubs will play it. Young footballers get a chance to play there, where the cup finals were held in the early days and where big Scotland internationals took place, and that is where my grandfather was first exposed to a football game, and so I guess that's ground zero for the Tanner family's love of football and talking nonsense about it.
Speaker 2:
So did you always know that football was kind of where your passion was based on your experience and, I guess, enjoyment to go with your grandfather and experience those things?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it was terrific. We used to travel the grounds across Scotland and I'd commentate at all the big Scotland games and most of the cup finals when I was at school. So it was a great opportunity to get to know football but also get to know commentating for the blind and one of the main BBC commentators of the 70s and 80s a lot of the Kennedy-Oglish goals when he was playing for Celtic. It was Alistair Alexander commentating on them, and Alistair started out at the Rex Blind Party as well. So there's been a couple of others since then as well. So it was great times. And yeah, you're right, Football has been very good to me. I've been to over 30 countries. That was one of my questions.
Speaker 3:
Travelling around the world covering it as well, and I've met the great and the good, so I've been very, very fortunate on the back of that.
Speaker 2:
I mean, you've interviewed some pretty big names. When I was kind of looking up who you'd interviewed and where, david Beckham's up there, cristiano Ronaldo.
Speaker 3:
I'm on the David Beckham Netflix documentary.
Speaker 2:
Really Right. If you're listening or watching the podcast, go and check David out on the Netflix documentary.
Speaker 1:
Hang on, but what point? I've seen this Again. What?
Speaker 3:
point. It's at the point where he is leaving LA Galaxy to go full-time at AC Milan Okay, and I've interviewed Beckham in Madrid a couple of times, but also AC Milan came to play Rangers in a friendly game, yep, and afterwards I managed to persuade him to do a little bit, and that's where it was. And I say to him something along the lines of there's a lot of talk about you leaving LA for Milan. Can you confirm that's what you want to do? And he did so. We got the story for Milan. Can you confirm that's what you want to do? And he did so. We got the story. And that was just as the internet um was really taking off and it's the first time I've been aware of an explosion happening a viral story.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah it was just before social media kicked off. I think it was probably even just before Facebook started. Um, and he also told me that night he wanted to go to the World Cup. So my name was associated with Beckham's, for you know 24 hours of the news cycle at that time and I was quite surprised to see it pop up, are?
Speaker 1:
you in the credits.
Speaker 3:
No, no, no, and I didn't get a million quid.
Speaker 1:
So we need to call Netflix after this then right. David, if you're listening, come on, pay up. That's all I'd say.
Speaker 2:
So that leads me on to a question of what's your most memorable or unforgettable interview that you've ever done, and where was it and who were you interviewing?
Speaker 3:
Well, I remember, not that far from where we're sitting now waiting to interview Diego Maradona. And Maradona not only scored his first international goal at Hampden Park in Glasgow, he also had his first game as Argentina manager at Hampden Park in Glasgow. He also had his first game as Argentina manager at Hampden Park in Glasgow a lovely coincidence and I was working for Sky Sports for the game and we had exclusive coverage of the match and therefore we were entitled to get an interview with the manager Maradona. So we were told where to go, at the Radisson Hotel in Argyle Street, and we were told to be there for a two o'clock interview. So we got there nice and early, at 12 o'clock and to set up the microphones and the lights and the cameras make it look absolutely sharp, which we did.
Speaker 3:
So two o'clock came, but Diego didn't come. Three o'clock came, but Diego didn't come. Four o'clock, five o'clock came, but Diego didn't come. 3 o'clock came, but Diego didn't come. 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock he arrived, oh okay, went for something to eat and at 8 o'clock he did Argentinian TV. He then did Argentinian radio radio, and then it was our turn was you in Argentinian time?
Speaker 2:
is there a time difference or something? No, he was in Diego time. I'll turn up when I want time.
Speaker 3:
So then it was me, and I stood there in Shiggy's hand. I said Diego, david Tanner, lovely to meet you. And he pulled out a cigar, lit it and said goodnight and off he went and that was that. So that was a memorable one. That didn't actually happen, but I've been lucky. I've interviewed Pele. I've met Messi. I was the first person to interview Cristiano Ronaldo after his debut at Real Madrid. But my favourite interview- it's now, isn't it?
Speaker 1:
You can tell us, stephen, it now, isn't it?
Speaker 3:
it's this one it's Rebecca and Stephen my favourite was Johan Cruyff, who, for those who don't remember him, you might know the Cruyff turn and I think everybody's tried that on a football pitch. Every boy and girl has fancied doing that, but he was the best footballer that Europe has produced. With respect to Beckham and all of these guys, they've got the celebrity, but this guy was the best Played in the Dutch team that got to the final of the 74 World Cup playing what they called total football. I always say that Scotland invented football, but the Dutch reinvented it with total football. The national stadium in the netherlands, the amsterdam arena, is now called the johan cruyff arena and the new barcelona stadium is also going to be named after johan cruyff. So that's how big this guy is, and every year he would come and chat to me when he played golf at the dunhill in scotland and I interviewed him in amsterdam, in Barcelona as well, and he was the best interviewer because he had things to say and he was a great. When you're a journalist, you're looking for a source of news and a source of comment, and if they know what they're talking about, then they're a really important source, and he for me, is the ultimate football source. His teams played tic-a-tac-a. He invented tic-a-tac-a and his first job at barcelona.
Speaker 3:
His first day as the coach of barcelona, he asked one of the coaches there he said what about the young players? Um, tell me about them. Um, the guy said, well, actually, the best player at the club is this kid we've got. He's playing for the third team. Um called joseph gariola and he said well, if he's the best player at the club, get him in the first team. So he put Pep Guardiola into the first team as a very young teenager at Barcelona. And then, when they won the European Cup in 1992 the first time they won the European Cup Pep was in the team as the youngest player in that team. So that style of play Guardiola has taken him to Barcelona, bayern Munich and now Manchester City. So when you watch Manchester City, it's a Cruyff team.
Speaker 2:
It's a.
Speaker 3:
Cruyff blueprint. It's a Cruyff blueprint, so he was great because he was really really big into playing the game the right way. Very critical of jose marino for not playing the game the right way and not behaving in the right way, um, and I thought that was.
Speaker 2:
So he's my favorite because he was the ultimate football brain, but he also had opinions as well, you know so somebody interesting to interview them, where you could get the point of the source of the news you're looking for. But had an opinion that was sort of well versed, I guess yeah, absolutely that's.
Speaker 3:
That's the way of what they said made sense. You know, and if you can get people as a journalist, who are, you know, experts and in this case, the ultimate expert, then you've done really well. So he was terrific. So I really enjoyed Johan Cruyff and he's number one in my favourite list of interviewees. Number one in my favourite list of interviewees In my days in the TV studio Gordon Strachan was terrific just for being another expert.
Speaker 3:
A great personality, played for Scotland, managed Scotland, won titles with Celtic, did well in the Premier League with Southampton and Coventry. And a great personality as well. Someone who just loves talking about football, loves playing football, loves coaching young people and making them better. You know, in a class for kids, that's. We're all about that as well. So these are great guys.
Speaker 1:
Great. What would you, what advice would you give right for kids now that might want to get into journalism, sports journalism, broadcasting?
Speaker 3:
Practice, yeah, practice, practice, practice. When I started it was just before the internet was invented. I know I look much younger than that.
Speaker 2:
Real David.
Speaker 3:
But to produce any content that were to be published, we had to work for a radio station or a TV station.
Speaker 1:
That's kind of why I asked, because there's all these other outlets now, isn't there, I think, tiktok?
Speaker 2:
That's got to be a point of conversation. Tiktok's got to be one of those places, YouTube giving somebody's commentary on that. Well, now we can self-publish.
Speaker 3:
Everybody can self-publish. You know, the minute the website was invented, every company got one. So every company became a publisher, yeah. And then when social media was invented, which democratized the written word and publishing it, then we all became publishers, yeah. So practice, write, publish yourself, build, build an audience. And the thing about I mean youtube in particular. You know, people are building huge audiences on that and making a living out of it without the need for being employed by a sky sports or a bbc or the times, or the daily mirror, the daily record of the sun, or so on.
Speaker 3:
So these are exciting times for people who want to create an audience for themselves, as you have done. Yeah, with the podcast, yeah I mean.
Speaker 2:
So you've sort of gone from commentating for your grandfather working in radio. You worked at places like sky as well, so you're now back at talk sports radio. What is it you're doing? What is it you're doing there?
Speaker 3:
well, talk sport is the world's biggest sports radio station, uh, based at uh tower bridge in london. Terrific organization, um under scottish football correspondent and match reporter, which is great fun and pop into programs. I did something into a really popular program called hawksbane jacobs just before I came here. Um so um, jeff stelling and alan brazil and ali mccoist on breakfast.
Speaker 3:
If they need something in scotland they'll give me a shout to to um inform, but also at talk sport, entertain as well yeah so that I've been very, very lucky um to do that along with all my other freelance activities, and I'm also a lecturer in journalism at um, scotland's number one journalism school at edinburgh university, where I went as a student as a as a teenager full circle full circle. Um, that's f o o l and that's been terrific fun there as well, getting to teach and to coach younger people well you've got so much experience and knowledge that it would be, you know, almost bad not to share what you can.
Speaker 1:
You can teach is there anybody at the university there, like any teachers there, that that would have taught you no no, no, no, they've um.
Speaker 3:
I just thought, that might have been an interesting.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, they've all gone.
Speaker 3:
It's a little while ago, but no, that's a really exciting part of my portfolio of work. We've just started the Masters in Sports Journalism.
Speaker 2:
Big things to come out of Scotland then in the commentary space in the future we hope so. Quite an accolade of companies there, David. And now just the finishing one. It's class for kids. It's got to be up there. You know, Sky, Edinburgh, Napier TalkSport is great, but class for kids, Come on, it's got to be up there on your portfolio.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's really exciting. I'm really looking forward to it and I've always been interested in talking to coaches in sport about how they bring young people and children through and allow them to develop their talent. And some people are born with talent but they still have to work on it. And Johan Cruyff to go back to the great Cruyff said to me that you know, the more you can practice with the ball before the age of nine, it becomes instinct. It's like muscle memory, isn't it? Muscle memory exactly. So if a football player, for example, is through on goal and smashes the ball into the back of the net without thinking, with 50,000 fans cheering at them half the ground wanting them to miss, a big defender about to come and kick him or her, you know they calmly put that away without thinking about it. That's instinct, and croif said that that was learned before the age of nine. After nine it's coach. So if a player goes through on goal and he or she has to think about it and then messes up, because, they've had.
Speaker 3:
They've not had that. They've had to think, oh, what am I supposed to do here? What have I been taught? Um, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:
It's as young as that. It's as young as nine. It's kind of like nature versus nurture, like what's actually in your nature and what needs to be, in this case, coached to a child to be able to learn that Instinct.
Speaker 3:
So stuff like that really really interests me, and I'm a big fan of Alec Ferguson's views on bringing the best out of people. There's a really famous story that I love about Fergie when he talks about the geese and Sir Alex, who of course was a hugely successful manager with Aberdeen in Scotland before going to Manchester United where he was manager for over 20 years. And Fergie told the golf players who were playing in the Ryder Cup the Team Europe at Gleneagles in Scotland a few years ago. He talked to them. He said remember the geese when they're flying, the strongest goose goes at the front and then the weaker ones follow in the V and if there is someone who's, if there is one that's injured or older or whatever, or younger, then the geese all look after that.
Speaker 2:
In the middle.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. So you know he said everyone's got a part to play. You look after each other, you help each other develop or get to where you want to be, and if that that might be warmer climbs for the geese, or it might be playing in an fa cup final or a world cup final for england or scotland, wales or northern ireland, wherever your, your nation is, um, then you've got to do it as part of a team and I really like that story. I really really like that story.
Speaker 1:
It's like I mean, is that his analogy? Because that's great, wait till we bring it to a team building day.
Speaker 2:
steven and I were just thinking we're going to take complete credit for that.
Speaker 3:
Don't bring any geese into the building if you're listening at home. But one of the things that the players did after that was they always said remember the geese, remember the geese. And there is a wonderful photograph of Team Europe with the Ryder Cup, having won it at Clunegals, and they're standing posing for a photograph, at which point guess what flew overhead.
Speaker 1:
For real, it's got to be geese.
Speaker 3:
No it was a helicopter. No it was a flock of geese. You were right, stephen. So you know. So it was almost that little wonderful bit of magic. So yeah. So, class for Kids, teaching people about the benefits of teamwork if it is a team sport they play and, you know, developing children and young people that really, really appeals to me. So let's go and do it.
Speaker 1:
Let's do it. I mean, what a good way to wrap things up.
Speaker 2:
I think we might as well mention that Future Coaches is coming back on this podcast and that our very own David is going to be hosting that event.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
It seems like this is the first time he's been told.
Speaker 1:
I think yeah, so I think Brian if he could do that.
Speaker 2:
We just took him off the street, Brian lock the door.
Speaker 1:
He doesn't know yet, but we'll just hold him here until the event. Yes, david is going to be our host at the upcoming future coaches tour this year, so it's going to be really good to have you. I think you fit in very well with our madness and very on brand.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you're very on brand for us, david on brand.
Speaker 1:
I'm not so sure about the madness, but that might be catching yeah, it might be that'll come once we've locked you in for a few days. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:
I mean, I know and I've known previously about what you do and what everybody gets involved in and the team ethic and the structure for teams and coaches and young participants. It's terrific. So really looking forward to travelling around the UK spreading the word and hopefully we'll get some star athletes Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
We will fly down south like geese To wrap up the podcast.
Speaker 2:
then, David, what's the one thing you're most excited about? About being involved in future coaches?
Speaker 1:
I'm most excited about the geese I don't know about. David, don't distract, okay, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:
What are you excited about for future coaches?
Speaker 3:
I like geese, but I couldn't eat a whole one.
Speaker 2:
I'm veggie.
Speaker 3:
We'll get a corn goose.
Speaker 2:
Well, thank you, yeah, a corn one.
Speaker 3:
So for me, I think it's the opportunity to spread best practice and give people a template from which to build and use to they can copy to make their clubs better. So, be it chess, be it netball, be it football, be it rugby, whatever the sport or pastime is, things can be done better. And to make the job of those who give up their time because I'm a great believer and I was very fortunate that I played football very badly I was in the boys' brigade and all of these organizations that provide these kind of great platforms for young people to develop themselves, to grow as people grow in conference. They're all run by volunteers. So if class for kids can make the life of the volunteer better and can therefore make the product better, and that will be fantastic. So if we can spread that word, spread that best practice around the uk and ireland, I think that will be absolutely fantastic there you go, david.
Speaker 2:
You summed it up perfectly. Great to have you on board for future coaches and even better to have you in the podcasting seat with us today thanks, yeah, again, it's great to be here.
Speaker 1:
Thank you very much indeed fantastic insights there from David and amazing to have him on board with future coaches. I'm just going to give a shameless plug here to some of the merch that we'll be giving away on the tour. If you can secure your tickets now, how can you secure your tickets? If you're listening to the podcast, you'll be able to look in the podcast description and there'll be links to the Glasgow, london and Birmingham event. If you're watching on YouTube, again, look in the description and there'll be links to all of the events there. Now, be quick, because the events are selling out and there is limited spaces, and we hope to see you there. Future Coaches 2024, class for Kids. Bye.