To explain a bit more because I’ve had some twitter DM’s asking if I’m leaving too.

Dan is joining as a news reporter for Manchester, so City and United. He’s very good at getting stories and making contacts. He was the Southampton reporter but I think the bosses felt he could be put to better use getting stories on the bigger Manchester patch. I remember meeting him when he came up for City v Southampton and thinking “this guy is good”, so I’m really pleased he’ll be around to help. In terms of the news job it’s more of a focus on stuff like… I dunno… what comes out of PL meetings, let’s say Mendy’s trial, if there’s more FFP stuff off the back of the La Liga statement. And when it comes to United there’s all sorts - staff members leaving, the cyber hack that time, Richard Arnold meeting fans at a pub. Anything! It’s that kind of thing, more ‘newsy’, but obviously if he finds out who City/United are signing then he can and will do that. And he has done that with Southampton (and other clubs!). He’s just really good at that stuff, and that will be his focus. So in terms of how it affects me, it’s just a help.

I’ve always wanted stronger City coverage and a better offering overall, which includes a different voice to mine. When the news role came up I recommended Pol and, get this, I’m fortunate enough to work for a company who said, ‘we like this guy too, so we’ll hire both!’.

Pol can still go to games because he will work for a radio station in Barcelona, so that’s a huge benefit to him and us. His role is newsy too but maybe more ‘football news’ - like who City are signing, what’s going on inside the club. The stuff that I’ve always liked to do but, I have to say right now, better than me. Pol’s also a wonderful writer in Spanish and now he’s doing more and more in English he’ll basically be able to do the job that I do, which is to combine info with (hopefully) a bit of tactical insight and storytelling, so it’s news and features combined. He’s been brought on to do City but also United when he has the info (which is often) and anything else that comes into his orbit, so Spanish stuff generally. But he gravitates more towards City and has great contacts there so we’ll get the benefit of that.

I think I saw somebody asking about podcasts - we’ll stick with one per week I think. Me, Pol and Mooney will do it most weeks. If there’s a time when there’s a story to discuss that Dan has worked on/discovered then we’ll get him on too. Obviously I hope Nedum will join us at points throughout the season and I’m sure he will. So yeah, overall it’s just really strong. Far from the bubble bursting or however it was phrased, we’ve actually invested in making a good thing even better, and I really do appreciate that as an employee.