In short
The Sports Agents Podcast Episode Notes
Episode Title
Weekend Edition: Q&A - MOTD moments, rowdy Ryder Cup & sheepdog shows
Hosts
- Gabby Logan
- Mark Chapman
Episode Summary
In this episode, Gabby and Mark engage with listeners by answering a variety of questions ranging from their dream athlete design to reflections on significant moments in sports. The conversation also highlights recent interviews with notable sports figures and addresses pertinent issues in the sports industry.
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Key Discussions
- Designing the Dream Athlete
- Question by Nyla (Instagram): What would be the skills from three different sports?
- Mark’s Picks:
- Vision of a snooker player
- Hand-eye coordination of a tennis player or golfer
- Overall athleticism and power of a rugby league player
- Gabby’s Picks:
- Athleticism of a decathlete
- Hand-eye coordination of a tennis player
- Grace of a gymnast
- Women's Rugby Union Sustainability
- Question by Helen (TikTok): What should the Red Roses do to ensure women's rugby union isn’t a passing trend?
- Gabby’s View:
- Focus on creating a unique identity separate from men's rugby.
- Build a strong fan base and accessibility for young girls.
- Cautious growth rather than rapid expansion to avoid pitfalls.
- Team Announcements in Rugby vs Other Sports
- Question by Ethan: Why do rugby teams announce their starting 15 days in advance?
- Discussion:
- Mark criticizes the secrecy around team line-ups in football compared to rugby's transparency.
- Gabby agrees on the need for clarity without compromising tactical elements.
- Friendship Beyond Interviews
- Question by Rebecca T (X): Have you ever become friends with someone after interviewing them?
- Gabby’s Example:
- Discusses a relationship with Andy Murray, highlighting the dynamic shift post-interview.
- Mark’s Example:
- Shares his friendship with Ali McCoist, developing from professional interactions.
- Rowdy Ryder Cup Crowds
- Question by Tom (Instagram): Will the next Ryder Cup in Ireland see similar crowd behavior?
- Mark’s Prediction:
- Anticipates a boisterous atmosphere but hopes to avoid unsportsmanlike conduct.
- Discusses the balance between spirited cheering and maintaining respect for players.
- Favorite Match of the Day Moments
- Question by Lulu (Google form): Best Match of the Day moment?
- Mark’s Favorite:
- The first airing of Match of the Day and the relief of its success.
- Gabby's Favorite:
- A memorable episode featuring Troy Deeney and Rob Green.
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Recent Guests Highlighted
- Geraint Thomas:
- Discussed the potential impact of pro-Palestinian protests on cycling.
- Reflection on his competitive experiences and training strategies.
- Jeff Mostyn:
- Former Bournemouth chairman shared insights on saving the club from liquidation and speculated on Eddie Howe's potential as an England manager.
- Professor Dame Pamela Shaw:
- Discussed the complicated relationship between exercise and motor neurone disease (MND) following Lewis Moody's diagnosis.
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Key Takeaways
- The importance of individuality in women's sports and the need for sustainable growth.
- Transparency in team announcements can enhance fan engagement.
- Personal relationships can evolve from professional interactions in sports media.
- The Ryder Cup crowds may become more lively but should strive for respect and sportsmanship.
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Additional Information
- Podcast Frequency: New episodes released on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
- Contact: Listeners can send questions via the provided Google form or engage on social media platforms.
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- Email: thesportsagents@global.com
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This episode of The Sports Agents encapsulates the dynamic interplay between sports, media, and personal stories, all while fostering a lively interaction with listeners.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:02Jeff Mostyn:This is a Global Player original podcast.
0:05Mark Pougatch:So the moment has finally arrived. We are ending another busy week on the podcast with a much promised Q &A.
0:12Gabby Logan:From all the spectacular sport we've worked on recently, like England winning a home rugby union World Cup to how to handle fans at the next Ryder Cup and building our dream athlete.
0:22Mark Pougatch:We're going to answer all of your questions. Well, the ones that weren't just asking for fashion tips from Mark, of course.
0:26Gabby Logan:Just wear black. Welcome to the Sports Agents.
0:37Jeff Mostyn:the sports agents with gabby logan and mark chapman
0:43Mark Pougatch:okay mark let's get straight into it shall we first question design your dream athlete using skills from three different sports what would you pick this is from nyla.gw on instagram
0:54Gabby Logan:So I'll go the vision of a snooker player. Oh, okay. Just for something a bit different.
1:02Mark Pougatch:Yeah, I was going hand-eye coordination of a tennis player or a golfer.
1:06Gabby Logan:Okay. Well, I was going mental fortitude of a golfer because it's the only sport that you approach the ball. So I'll go the mental fortitude of a golfer and then I'll go the overall athleticism and power of a rugby league player. I would go the overall athleticism of a decathlete because you have speed, power, jump ability.
1:33Mark Pougatch:And I think physically they are the most complete specimens. They look like the most likely person that would be able to wander into a Greek amphitheatre and fight a lion.
1:41Gabby Logan:I hope Daly's listening.
1:44Mark Pougatch:and then i would go the hand-eye coordination of a tennis player right and then the grace
1:51Gabby Logan:of a gymnast any gymnast or a rhythmic gymnast any gymnast i'm not getting into a rhythmic
1:59Mark Pougatch:gymnastics debate again but it is an interesting you know i we speak to so many people on the podcast who are you know seem to have multi kind of faceted skills don't they in sport i mean we We just spoke to Geraint Thomas, who obviously excelled on a bike, fancies himself as a two and a half hour marathon runner. And apparently he had one golf lesson. He was pretty good at it. You know, so these people exist, actually.
2:20Gabby Logan:We don't need to build them. We haven't even gone near the pace of Usain Bolt or the balance of Simone Biles, you know, or any of that.
2:28Mark Pougatch:Yeah, yeah. And also the engine of somebody like Geraint Thomas, you know, who obviously can cycle 200 miles in one go.
2:35Gabby Logan:But I love the fact at the end of it, we've combined you, Daly and Boris Becker.
2:43Mark Pougatch:there's a nightmare thought for the future of mankind uh you pick the next one uh okay then
2:50Gabby Logan:what do you think is most important now that the red roses do so that women's rugby union isn't a
2:56Mark Pougatch:flash in the pan that's from Helen on TikTok I think continue with their ability to to kind of be on their own path and not try and ape and kind of be the men's game because what they've done so brilliantly is make themselves accessible to fans they've made themselves really attractive to young girls already I've had pictures sent to me in the last week of people I know and their daughters going along to their local rugby clubs because you know they they were so drawn to them as personalities and I think the temptation is always to get too big too quickly and think that you can be you know oh I like I heard and I'm sure it was just a news line Ellie Kildum being asked the question would you um be attracted to R360 which is the breakaway league proposed in the men's game well there isn't a breakaway league for the women's game they've just got to get this league sorted out let's not you know throw the baby out with the bathwater let's not you know just just let's just do this in in a very measured careful way and that growth will come build that brilliant fan base and the growth will come so I hope that they don't try and kind of run before they can walk in that respect and that's not because I'm not ambitious for them I'm going to throw one
3:59Gabby Logan:other on rugby in here which comes from Ethan and one of the reasons I'm picking Ethan is because use the google form which i set up last time when you were on holiday yes well done to ethan for doing that why do rugby teams announce their starting 15 a few days in advance rather than on match day such a good question but it's a good question but i would flip it and go why why are other sports why do other sports treat announcing their team like it's the official secrets act it is it is absolutely ridiculous it's unbelievable because because football obviously
4:31Mark Pougatch:as we know, is it an hour officially, isn't it, before kickoff? Often when you're doing a live game, you get it about an hour and 15 minutes before. If you've got a commentator who's well connected, you might get a kind of sniff of something happening with a certain midfield partnership or something going on on the team. But why is it? I don't know. Rugby does it three days in advance. And, you know, it's just as tactical. You can just as easily go, oh, he's terrible at high balls. We're just going to kick at him all day long.
4:54Gabby Logan:That's the bit that I don't, just because you get a list of players doesn't mean you necessarily, I mean, you'd probably do a bit more in rugby because the positions are slightly more set aren't they or the formation is a bit more set but just because you get a list of players doesn't mean you know exactly how they're going to play and as you say in rugby it's not like there are there aren't players who have weaknesses that you could exploit by knowing it 48 football just seems really immature when it
5:23Mark Pougatch:comes to when it comes to team lineups it's very secretive isn't it i mean even right down to kind hands-across-the-mouth interviews, you know, football now. Obviously, you never see a player talking without his hand across his mouth when he's post-match. It's just a secretive business.
5:35Gabby Logan:There was. What was there? It must have been a royal wedding. And Prince William and someone else were talking as they walked into the church. But you could kind of lip-read a little bit about what they were saying. And the thing that struck me then was, it was so nice to see two people just talking to each other rather than the handover.
5:57Mark Pougatch:It was probably Harry's wedding because that was in the last five years, wasn't it? But I can't imagine, I can't imagine, you know, royals.
6:03Gabby Logan:Can you imagine if William and Charles had walked into that with that? I mean, my God, the conspiracy theories then.
6:11Mark Pougatch:How the heck did we get onto that? Okay. Oh, this is, I bet you have. Have you ever done an interview with someone and become friends with them from that? This is Rebecca T on X. While you tell me that you have, you've probably got a whole phone book of them. I made the mistake of thinking that we'd had such a great day together. I didn't think we were friends, but I thought that perhaps the next time I interviewed this person, I'd get a great interview because, you know, we had this great day together. And the person is Andy Murray. And as you know, he's up in my top five of all time and I'm a big fan.
6:46Mark Pougatch:And we had this amazing day at Roehampton, which is the English Centre of Excellence Tennis. and I watched him train and we went in the gym together. We did a session together. We had lunch, we sat down and did the interview. I mean, really a proper period of time together. Next time I interview him, he's won a silver medal at the Olympics with Laura Robson and the mixed doubles. And of course, Andy doesn't do silver. He's a winner. He hates losing as he sees it. And of course he was as, you know, as sullen as he has every right to be in an interview like that. Right. And afterwards I was a bit like, oh, oh, okay.
7:15Mark Pougatch:We're not mates. that was a yeah that was a bit of a wake-up call for me i think it's not a um it started out as an
7:25Gabby Logan:interview back in the day i think but then obviously i've worked with this person a lot and become friends friends with them now but micah back in the day was just a interview with him appearing on a on one of the shows that i did for for half an hour or whatever it may be and then it kind of, you know, we got on and it followed from... And now you're godfather to his kids. Now he spends the whole time going, you won't work with me, you won't work with me. And I'm like, well, you're the one that's doing X, Y and Z and he's rather busy. It's not I'm trying to avoid you.
8:00Mark Pougatch:Yeah, I definitely have. I would say, well, one person would be Ali McCoy, which is somebody I kind of interviewed, I suppose, to start off with, then started working with and now I would class as a really, really good friend. and it is lovely when you, I think it's when they make the transition because Micah's no longer a player. It's when they make the transition, I think, to kind of maybe working in the media, they feel they can become a friend rather than just somebody.
8:19Gabby Logan:Yeah, that war. Because there's always an element of suspicion. Yeah.
8:22Mark Pougatch:Yeah.
8:23Gabby Logan:I mean, I find most pundits still have some element of suspicion towards me. I don't know why, but it is, the other thing I find with a lot of these pundits, maybe slightly different with you, Gabi, half of them I used to boo and shout all sorts at. back in i mean shearer was like we give so much stick to she i mean he's well aware of this now but that's the other thing i find quite weird quite a few of them that you would have given stick to back in the day now have become yeah friends yeah most people that we get you know
8:56Mark Pougatch:have the good fortune to interview and chat to are great people aren't they but they don't you know they've got their own friends and their own lives so we don't take it too personally when they
9:04Gabby Logan:don't want us to go up with dinner with them afterwards god we don't want people thinking we're desperate at the end of this just to be friends with people we interview
9:12Mark Pougatch:and we'll answer more of your questions after the break the sports agents
9:19Jeff Mostyn:the sports agents with gabby logan and mark chapman
Read the full transcript
9:24Gabby Logan:okay next i did this is a funny one because we've both presented some bizarre things at times on television would you ever get the chance to present something on tv together and what would you like that to be if you got offered some of the stuff that you got the raw runaway success of the sports agents now do you think if you got offered celebrity sheepdogging or whatever it was flock stars flock stars yeah or or the the diving what was the splash splash yeah that was nah it'd have to be with me i don't want to sound desperate it's only it's only if i could do it
10:04Mark Pougatch:with chappers yeah flock stars i think would have probably been a at least a two series run if i'd done it with you as it was it was canned after one well it's possibly one of the nicest things you said to me that's probably yulu too on tiktok um i i would uh of course i'd love to present something with chappers on telly um but maybe something that people wouldn't expect you know
10:27Gabby Logan:Celebrity sheepdogging. I don't think anybody's expecting it.
10:30Mark Pougatch:I don't think it's called sheepdogging. I think that's something very different.
10:38Mark Pougatch:That's further down the numbers on the sky grid.
10:45Mark Pougatch:I think that's probably paid to any hopes of us presenting anything together. After the watershed, please. I'd like to do a stint on breakfast telly with you An esoteric version A kind of adult version of the big breakfast I'm going to say adult again I'm not going anywhere I'm getting myself into a lot of trouble today
11:08Gabby Logan:Yeah, I would quite Like fun breakfast Yes We'll skirt the big issues Don't want to do news all the time No A bit of the lighter stories Fun breakfast
11:22Mark Pougatch:aimed at all the family there we go there we go um you heard it here first right okay okay we've got time for one more one more then okay tom on instagram says will we see the same behavior at the next rider cup in ireland and how can it be stopped i'm i'm inferring from that he doesn't
11:41Gabby Logan:want the same behavior at the next rider cup in ireland yeah i i um yes a little bit maybe i think so i think i think the americans will will get booed on the first tee i don't think i'd be surprised if the crowd shouted anything out on backswing or when an american was putting but i think it will be rowdy i think it will be boisterous i still go back very quickly gabby i'm still a little bit conflicted about everything that went on in america because nobody's friends family should have anything thrown at them thrown over them stick given to them i think some of the shouts out fired up some of the european players a little bit and they used it to their advantage and that's not not necessarily a bad thing i also don't think half the stuff that i heard shouted out was so unfunny and dull and not particularly like somebody shouted out shane larry you're a big baby i mean i would have i would have just laughed if somebody had said that or john another one was John Rahm you look like a donut Sepp Stracker you look like a pack like a bag of milk a bag of milk not a carton of milk a bag of milk they were very kind of that tells us more about the packaging industry in America than anything doesn't it it was just all a bit it was a bit on look it was unnecessary in places it wasn't golf crowd behavior and as I think Rory or Matt Fitzpatrick said they believe golf should be held to a higher standard and i quite like that feeling within the sport so i think it will be boisterous in ireland i would hope that they wouldn't cross that line of trying to put the americans off when they're about to play a shot one more go on then go on
13:22Mark Pougatch:then lulu on our google form that you set up says uh her question is a best match of the day moment
13:29Gabby Logan:so far well do you know my favorite show to watch of all the ones that we've done so far was the one you did with Troy Deeney and Rob Green. I absolutely loved that show. They were so good together. My own favourite moment of Match of the Day so far is the music going at the end of that very first one on the Saturday night. I'm thinking, thank God that's over. Everybody can calm down.
13:55Mark Pougatch:What, the final link, you mean?
13:57Gabby Logan:Yeah, yeah. Said goodbye. Music went. Thank God that is over. We're fine. We've done it. Nothing went wrong.
14:06Mark Pougatch:The weird thing is, more than any other program I've ever done, the ones that I've done, the first link, when you say hello to the guests and you link into the first VT, there is this kind of shoulders down moment where you go, okay, we're up and running. And now it's just a TV show. You know, it feels that moment from the kind of titles rolling, the match of the day music, and you know, the news is just finished and you're saying hello to your guests. And no matter how many times you rehearse a link like that, just saying it without tripping up is always a triumph.
14:34Gabby Logan:And also, it's not the hardest link in the world, is it? It's like, hello, five games on the way. These two are with us. Here's the first one.
14:42Mark Pougatch:It literally is as straightforward as you can get compared to some of the things we do.
14:46Gabby Logan:You know, it's not like, hello, where can you go wrong? It's like, good evening, this is Anthony Trejo. I'm Fiona. Oh, I've got it wrong. Like, it's so simple.
14:58Mark Pougatch:Thank you for the questions, though. All very, very good. And we enjoy getting those in.
15:03Gabby Logan:The Sports Agents.
15:08Gabby Logan:The Sports Agents.
15:09Jeff Mostyn:With Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman.
15:14Gabby Logan:Let's recap what we've had on this week then. Before we go, former Bournemouth chairman Geoff Mostyn with us this week. He saved the club from liquidation. And alongside his manager at the time, Eddie Howe, they rose through the leagues.
15:31Mark Pougatch:Is he a future England manager?
15:32Geraint Thomas:Well, you know, I've I've been literally given the warning, you know, about this, because in my role as an FA counsellor and with my, you know, God gave me so much enthusiasm. You know, whenever I'm talking, oh, my God, is he a future England manager? Of course he is. You know, Eddie, you know, I absolutely love him. He's articulate. He's one of the few managers that's got a tongue instead of a shovel, you know. And, you know, he would be absolutely incredible, both in terms of coaching, you know, and wearing the Three Lions, which is a heavy jacket to wear. And then the closer I sort of got, people were saying, oh, my God, Jeff, what are you doing?
16:14Geraint Thomas:You know, you've now put him as a really high profile prospect for England. So I then at council meetings or if ever I was asked, I'd said, well, I was only joking. He's actually really difficult to work with. He's really average. The trouble that we have with him.
16:33Mark Pougatch:And with the news that the former England Rugby Union captain Lewis Moody has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, we spoke to Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, who's conducted a big study on the link between MND and exercise. but it's very complicated and it's very nuanced.
16:51Jeff Mostyn:MND tends to happen to people who are fit and active, whether professional sports people or little old ladies that walk their dog five miles every day. So it very rarely happens to people that lead a sedentary lifestyle. And I think the The medical and scientific literature on this question, is vigorous physical activity a risk factor for MND, it's controversial. There are different studies that have been done of variable quality. The studies that we've done do indicate that there is a link, particularly in men rather than ladies. But it's complicated because clearly exercise is usually a good thing for you.
17:41Jeff Mostyn:Most athletes don't develop MND, so we're very cautious and careful about it because we don't want to dissuade people from doing healthy levels of exercise, which are protective against many different diseases. But I do think there is a link, but it's not just the strenuous physical activity. It must be something to do with the genetic makeup of a person.
18:09Gabby Logan:and then we had the Tour de France winner and two time Olympic gold medalist Geraint Thomas
18:14Lewis Moody:for instance in 2012 the world championships were in March and then the Olympics obviously in June, July and we beat Australians in Melbourne with our tatty kit basically like helmets with little cracks in and like our training skin suits and they had their full Olympic kit full dress rehearsal and we beat them narrowly by less than a tenth of a second I think it was but they knew what we had to come as well and I think that's where we won those Olympics was in March in Melbourne really.
18:43Gabby Logan:Was that deliberate or did it just happen? Or was the order delayed?
18:47Mark Pougatch:Yeah, yeah.
18:48Gabby Logan:Could you have had your All Singing, All Dancing kit or was it deliberately? No, it was always deliberate, yeah. It was always a thing the British cycling did.
18:56Mark Pougatch:They're the 1 %s, aren't they, that Dave Brailsford became famous for. That is right there, what was going on.
19:02Lewis Moody:Funny enough, yeah, that's what my dad did as well. He was always, I don't know, whenever I was training and he would like, like I used to put weights on my bike and all sorts and just to make training harder and then you'd go to a race and you'd have no weights on your bike and maybe a nicer set of wheels or whatever and that's always how I've done stuff for here.
19:22Mark Pougatch:Well, that's it for another week on The Sports Agents. If you've been listening to this on the News Agents feed, just search for The Sports Agents to listen to those episodes in full on YouTube, Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts and remember to hit subscribe or follow.
19:33Gabby Logan:Thanks for sending in your questions. Remember to keep getting in touch on email, particularly if you're a producer of adult television the sportsagents at global.com on social media or via the link in the show
19:47Mark Pougatch:Very specifically breakfast television adult television if that is indeed a genre New episodes every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday Thanks for listening
19:56Gabby Logan:The Sports Agents
19:57Jeff Mostyn:With Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman
20:03Gabby Logan:This has been a Global Player original production Innovation !"
From the publisher
Gabby and Mark answer all of your questions from building their 'dream athlete' and their favourite Match of The Day moment so far, to England winning a home Rugby World Cup and the Ryder Cup crowds.
Plus, we look back at this week on The Sports Agents. Double Olympic champion and Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas joined us in the studio to talk about how recent pro-Palestinan protests might change the future of cycling. Former Bournemouth Chairman, Jeff Mostyn, discussed saving the club and whether Eddie Howe is England manager material. And after former England rugby captain Lewis Moody announced his motor neurone disease diagnosis Professor Dame Pamela Shaw explained whether or not there is a link between exercise and MND.
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