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“I was always a sports fan and I always wanted to be a journalist, but not necessarily in sport.  Sport is just something I fell into.” And for listeners of The Game podcast, they will be very glad that Gabriele Marcotti did fall into sport. The host of the podcast, produced by The Times newspaper, has become a very popular and influential voice in football. An Italian educated at the University Of Pennsylvania, Gabriel is fluent in Italian, English, German and Japanese. Apart from the podcast, Marcotti is known on other shores for his work in Sports Illustrated in the U.S, and Corriere dello Sport in Italy. You may also recognize Gabriele from his work with BBC Radio Five Live and previously talkSPORT radio. Now based in London, Gabriele is most commonly associated with his much admired work for The Times.

The podcast takes planning in advance, “I normally produce a script and running order on Sunday night and email it out to everyone so they can prepare for the show.  We then tape it on Mondays around 10 am”. As Gabriele tells me “Not only do I enjoy doing the The Game podcast, I was one of the original creators, lobbying hard for it some three years ago.” Podcasts are now a major part of many newspapers' success, and have a huge number of subscribers. So what is it that Gabriele think has lead to The Game having such an avid following? “Given that we've had three different presenters in three years I can only think that it's popular because of The Times brand and because of our producer, Tom Wright, who has been with us all this time.” In my opinion, it is the honest and genuine views of the likes of Gabriele and Phil Jupitus that are behind the success of the podcast. When the views of certain pundits on main shows are often predictable and slightly ‘safe’, I think it is great to hear views from real football fans.

After an intriguing period where it looked like Chelsea or Liverpool may become champions, Manchester United has begun to seem almost unstoppable in their quest for further Premier League Glory. “United have the best manager in the Premier League. They can match the other big clubs in terms of spending.  When you take a team with a history of success and intelligently add one or two parts each year, you're going to be strong. Plus, of course, Chelsea made some key strategic mistakes in terms of signings (and management). Arsenal can't match United's spending and Liverpool hasn't come up with a way to depend less on Torres and Gerrard.  But I honestly don't think Liverpool are that far away”. Although it would appear the Red Devils are frontrunners here in England, it will be a much closer call to make in the Champions' League. “Barcelona and Manchester United are the two best teams in Europe, but the best teams rarely win the Champions' League because it's a knockout competition. I honestly don’t know who’s going to win it.”And if the league has become to look inevitable at the top, it couldn’t be any more different at the bottom of the table. At least five or six teams are playing in real fear of the threat of relegation, with even clubs like Newcastle and Tottenham not assured of Premier League survival. “I would expect Stoke, Portsmouth and one out of West Brom, Middlesbrough and Sunderland to go down” Gabriel remarks. “But it's a very difficult call right now, because it's so tight.”

In September, Gabriele had a book published, titled Capello - Portrait of a Winner. The England boss has enjoyed a great start to his international career, winning over the English fans depleted from the reigns of Eriksson, and especially McLaren. As manager of Roma, Milan, Real Madrid and Juventus, Capello has collected an envious amount of silverware. But how does Gabriele feel Capello is doing in his current job? “I think Capello is pretty much on track thus far.  The main thing to remember is that, with national teams, luck plays a huge part. One mistake and you're out, so you can't just be good, you have to be lucky as well (or, at least, not be unlucky). With a club side, on the other hand, luck is less of a factor as, over the course of a season, you have the chance to remedy mistakes.” Indeed, Capello will have to hope that some of the mistakes that have proved so costly to England in previous tournaments will not be repeated in South Africa next year. But does Capello have the talent at his disposal to succeed? “I don't think there is a lack of quality English players. Gerrard is easily among the five best in the world, Rooney among the top ten or fifteen.  Rio is one of the top five central defenders and Terry isn't far behind.  I think it's a myth personally, there may be less quality than other nations, but I'm not sure there was so much more quality in the past, unless you go back to before the war. It's just that there are more foreign players, that's all.  But the English players who do get a chance to play in the Premier League end up facing tougher opposition (precisely because of the foreigners) week in, week out, so that makes them better.” I have to say that in my opinion, I fully agree with Gabriele’s assessment of this current crop of English players. Terry, Ferdinand, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham and Rooney are world class players, and the fact that someone with the predatory instincts of Michael Owen is not guaranteed a place in the squad proves we do have the talent to make an impact next summer.