Cannon Conversations

Some would say this is the podcast that wasn't supposed to happen. 

After a couple of reschedules and then a couple technical errors during the recording we did finally get it done. 

Mathew, James and Liam joined me to talk all things United, Chelsea and Liverpool. 

Basically it was all about ripping into United and James in his England top and asking Liam about the Chelsea "flops" but there is also some good football chat in here. I promise.

We touch on how Tuchel looks to have really improved Chelsea in a short space of time, is Ole the right man to take United to the next level and really challenge for league titles and eventually win them, and a very brief chat on the signings of Davies and Kabak for the reds and also if Roberto Firmino could be the one to miss out in Liverpool's next phase of evolution.

Jason Grant, don't you worry I haven't forgotten about our bet. The mighty Leeds will be finishing above Arsenal. It's going to be one hell of a finish for that 20 quid!

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

P.s.  Lets hope Ole crashes the bus eh Jambo :)

This week I sat down with the legend himself Mr Mark Christie.

Mark is a coach out in California who started his coaching journey in Aberdeen coaching the women's team, progressing to work with clubs such as the San Jose Earthquakes on the youth side and also running his own football (soccer) company called Euro Soccer Training.

In this chat we talked about Christie's journey into football and coaching starting with seeing the Aberdeen casuals and being hooked on the game since he first stepped foot in Pittodrie. Christie then shares his story as a coach and how he continued to learn and add more tools to his toolbox as he says.

We go into detail on how we can educate parents on how to navigate their child's journey through not just football but any sport and there is a lot of great pieces of advice in here for any young players, parents or coaches. Listen and learn. 

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

I was fortunate to reach out and hear back from a local radio station in East Lothian called EAST COAST FM.

I had a great chat with Liz on coaching football out in America, how I ended up out there, how the podcast got started and a few other topics during this conversation.

Thanks to East Coast FM for giving me the time and helping me on getting myself out there more. 

It was a great song choice after we went off air with Wonderwall!

Hope you enjoy the short conversation and for those of you who don't know me personally but have been listening and watching I hope you get more of an idea on who I am rather than just hearing me talk about football.

Cheers,

Cannon

For this chat I was joined by Mike Mackie, Mike Spink and Euan who are all part of the Gullane Athletic Football program.

This was a special one for me as I am sure like a lot of people, there is no place like home. Gullane means a lot to me and looking back now at growing up it's a one of those special places that you are lucky to be a part of.

The community feel to it just brings something special to the place. Having grown up with a lot of family members volunteering in the village to put events on for the youth every year I always had the urge to give something back to kids myself and venturing into coaching for 8 years was the beginning of that.

These guys, and especially Mike Mackie, created a Football program for boys and girls to be a part of, building a community club and adding huge value to Gullane. All volunteers and giving their spare time to help out the youth.

It's a great conversation on how they fell into Football as kids themselves, moving into the journey to build up the program from scratch and how they continue to grow it and work with the kids.

During the conversation there may be a reference made too limited heading drills for the kids, this is only for those aged 12 and above. There are no heading drills for kids aged 12 and under.

If you see this and you are someone from Gullane, or even if you listen and enjoy it, it would be great if you could share it and spread what these guys are doing around the area.

Song choice for the feel of this podcast:

Diamonds in the Mud by Gerry Cinnamon.

I've been all round the world, but there's nowhere compares to my home-town.

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

We almost got the full band back together for this week.

In this chat Mathew, Scotty and myself discuss Stevie G and Rangers with regards to what we feel like Gerrard has brought to the club not just from a football point of view but the mentality he has instilled.

We also talk about how the Premier League is currently shaping up in what is turning out to be the most unpredictable season for all the teams bar Man City. Also is Pep Guradiola's football getting boring or is the game lacking the usual energy without the fans?

Thankfully this was recorded before the Liverpool vs Chelsea game...

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

In Part two I speak with Matt about his journey into coaching and what that journey may look like for other people wanting to go down this path.

We chat about how coaching kids is more than just teaching them football, the different avenues you can go down to be a coach, what both Matt and myself have learnt through our time coaching and more.

You have to see the world through the kids eyes.

This is a great conversation for anyone but particularly if you are wanting to be a coach or know of anyone who would like to get into coaching. Im sure you will pick up a few gems in here.

Huge thanks to Matt for coming on and having this chat with me.

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

For this chat I was joined by a friend from California Matt Bambrick.

Matt is a Football coach and huge Villa fan. He has recently started up his own company called Socal Youth Sports and is now based in LA, the city of dreams.

I have split this conversation into two parts as we discussed Villa for the first half and coaching for the second half.

In Part One Matt tells me how he fell in love with Football and Villa, what Villa have done to get to where they are now, how good Dean Smith is, how much of an impact John Terry is having on the team and just how good is Jack Grealish.

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

For this conversation I caught up with an old friend of the family Al "Big A" Watt.

Big A is a huge Aberdeen fan (even though he doesn't get to see them as much these days) has been to almost every ground in Scotland and has dabbled a little in football journalism both in Scotland and out in Georgia where he is currently living and has lived and breathed football all his life.

We chat about Aberdeen, Scottish football as a whole, the Scottish national team, Big A's wee stints here and there getting to cover games as a journalist as a hobby and how football is much more than just the 90 minutes that the game is on.

The game is just a reason to be there.

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

This week we had an old friend and former footy teammate of mine growing up Andy "AJ" Jones join us.

AJ has been involved in Football all his life and still currently plays and works in Football and has a great footy brain.

We chat a lot about West Ham, why is Scottish Football not more available on TV to kids and the man that AJ says he idolizes to this day as a left winger Mr Gareth Bale plus a lot more.

GSE GSE GSE! STAND YOUR GROUND AND FIGHT!

You aren't a true Football fan if you didn't fall in love with West Ham a little after that movie right?

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.

P.S.

I do apologize for some moments in the audio where there is a bit of an echo. It is only smart parts but I understand how annoying it is when listening. Just got to make do with what Zoom gives us until we can start to do this in person!

This week we lost Super Frank. Another Chelsea manager that has felt the wrath of the owner. The difference this time was that this manager was a club legend. 

For this conversation we brought on our good friend Liam, who is a Chelsea fan all the way from sunny California to get his thoughts on the situation at Chelsea.

We also took the top five (at the time of planning for the podcast) and discuss their next six games in what could be the moment someone starts to pull away with the league.

Are City clear favorites? Can United bounce back off that defeat last night and keep pace? Are Leicester good enough to win it again? Are Spurs the dark horses with Jose in charge? And can Jurgen Klopp turn around his first tough time at Liverpool to regain the title? 

Just remember. It's a marathon, not a sprint. 

Sit back. Relax. Pour yourself a drink and enjoy the conversation.