Articulate Trent Alexander-Arnold aces audition as potential TV pundit

Footballers are now more comfortable in front of camera than ever before – a reality underlined by Liverpool player’s polished performance

The overall verdict was “a good day for Liverpool”, and a decent Easter Sunday as well for one of Anfield’s favourite sons, as Trent Alexander-Arnold excelled off the pitch in an extended feature with Sky Sports. Alexander-Arnold, not available for selection versus Brighton due to a knee injury, did an in-depth and insightful touchline chat with Jamie Carragher pre-match, packed with thoughtful titbits about the instructions the players get for their preparation, how they go about it and what they get from it, who trains best alongside each other and so on.
He came across as a great lad, smart and sensible, but also charismatic and enjoyable company. After the segment finished, Sky’s David Jones said: “He looked a natural with the mic straight away.” Indeed so. And Jones would know: not just a highly accomplished operator himself, but getting ever more access and screen time with the star players of the Premier League.
‘You need to make sure you’re ready’ 🙌Trent Alexander-Arnold on preparing before the match 👇 pic.twitter.com/Q2NyiqUlPo
There’s no doubt that this generation of elite footballers is more comfortable talking and better at communicating than any before it: the days of “well Brian, I hit the ball first time and there it was in the back of the net” – the post-match analysis of John Cleese’s Monty Python character Jimmy Buzzard – are a distant memory. Identifying which current players will go on to be television fixtures of the future has been a fun parlour game for a while but the competition is certainly getting stiffer and it might not be too much of a stretch to suggest that Sky is conducting some informal auditions and screen tests with a view to filling the punditry roster of tomorrow. A sort of screen-test development squad, if you will.
Monday Night Football, for the last couple of years, has been able to get detailed man-of-the-match interviews and several players have really shone. Standouts have included James Maddison, endearingly certain of his own genius; Conor Coady, a statesmanlike fellow; Patrick Bamford, very much one to take home to mother. Jones and Carragher are brilliant at getting the best out of these guys and you could see any of them, as well as some others like Bukayo Saka, doing telly for years to come, should they so wish.
James Maddison is the best interview in the league IMO… a player with a tonne of personality! 👍🏻People moan players are robots, this honesty is class to watch! 👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/9TKOi6s71q
Of slightly different vintage, Theo Walcott (35 but still as fresh-faced as ever), Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge are going along very nicely in the Sky studios, the latter two especially already well-established. I have no idea as to their personal finances but you’d imagine that 200-plus Premier League appearances from the mid-2000s onwards, as Richards had, would set you up for life, but perhaps not in so much opulence that a healthy salary from Sky wouldn’t be welcome? But for the megabucks Premier League generations after them, given average luck and prudence… there’s surely no amount of money that Sky Sports could realistically come up with to make a difference to, say, the Saka family funds upon his playing retirement.
If this crop of top Premier League players chose to do TV then it will be for enjoyment or fulfilment rather than just the money. But do not write the old guard off yet. An enduringly amusing bit of regular business on Sky Sports is when they make the dutiful Jones read out promotional adverts for upcoming non-sport programming, on this occasion Sky’s swords-and-dragons Game of Thrones follow-up drama House of the Dragon. Little Theo Walcott, who is allowed to stay up for the show as long as he has done his teeth, revealed himself to be a fan. Roy Keane – and can I just shock you? – was not. He appeared to rate the fantasy nonsense somewhere below a non-trying midfielder. I have it on excellent authority that Roy in the flesh is a tremendous bloke with no side to him, but he remains more than happy to play the on-screen part of the belligerent old git in a dressing gown telling the young neighbours to turn that bloody racket down. If Sky really does want to go down the crossover promotion route, let’s do this thing: they already have their very own fire-breathing mythical beast to set upon the Ser Micahs and Ser Theos of tomorrow.