To some, it is purely noise in the background. To others, it is an art form which dates back further than most modern day memories and is a skill perhaps underappreciated by those outside of its capacity.
To have a career as a football commentator automatically comes with its disadvantages. Forget about the toughness of getting your ‘first gig’ or the even harder task of maintaining your place within the industry whilst continuously improving upon your original passion and rare talent; you also endure the opinion of every football fan up and down the country, good or bad.
Working class loyalists to Wembley lounge habitués, each man, woman or child has an opinion about which words pass as valuable additions to their psyche and which nonsensical collection of clichés pass as a mere distraction in their attempt to enjoy the sport they love.
One man who has ensured that his professionalism and personality have endured the test of public consensus is Sky Sports football commentator Daniel Mann, who is currently the youngest member of Sky’s live commentary team despite already achieving over 12 years of commentary with the network.
Dan’s CV speaks for itself. 20 Wembley finals, 3 World Cups, 2 European Championships and countless matches up and down the country whilst establishing himself as one of Sky’s most reliable and consistently listenable commentators on the books.
After making the move with his family to Liverpool, Dan started up a working relationship with independent local radio station ‘Radio City’, which served the inhabitants of Merseyside with the all-important sports news needed to make it through the day. Dan claims that it was here where his passion for commentary developed into a slightly more realistic opportunity.
“On my first visit to Albert Dock in Liverpool, then just beginning to transform into a tourist destination, I persuaded my mother to let me purchase a cassette telling the story of Liverpool’s extraordinary campaign in 1985/86. It was produced by Radio City, narrated by Clive Tyldesley – then the station’s sports editor.”
It is clear from the way Dan enthuses over Tyldesley how much of an influence he was in his pursuit of commentary stardom.
“Tyldesley’s radio commentaries were pure gold, succinctly capturing the moment time after time with the perfect line, the memorable phrase, the right level of emotion. Later, in the Radio City archives, I would come across his handwritten script for the programme. It was a thing of beauty.
“Clive Tyldesley was a huge inspiration to me in the first place, and subsequently has been of great practical help. I feel he is the finest radio football commentator I have ever heard, with a mention for the sublime Peter Jones. To me, he is also the finest television commentator out there at the moment, a genuinely first-rate broadcaster.
“The key is that first and foremost he is a journalist, his preparation is outstanding, his contacts book enviable. He is also the best at finding the right words at the right time, he thinks deeply about the language he uses. There are moments that simply are not the same without his commentary.”
When describing his first big break in football commentary, Dan reveals that there are in fact two main moments in his professional career that opened the gate to today’s opportunities.
“There were two really, I had managed to get involved on a Saturday afternoon at Radio City. A letter to Clive Tyldesley helped, I got the all-important phone number through him. In terms of getting to cover a match, well I just went ahead and did it!
“For my university coursework, I decided to produce a live sports show, with me commentating on a match. This was scheduled to be an Everton reserve game, which was rather unhelpfully postponed! So I settled down in front of the TV at home and delivered a commentary down the phone on Tranmere v Middlesbrough in the League Cup. Some clever jiggery-pokery with a surround sound amplifier gave me a crowd effects feed and it sounded pretty authentic! It was enough to convince Radio City that I could do some match reporting.
“In time, I got a full-time job on the news and sports team at City. By 2006 I was ready to move on. I had done some television commentaries for Everton and Liverpool’s TV channels and made a number of DVDs of some of my best bits – quite a laborious process – and sent them off to various TV companies.
“It was a little Craig David really, I sent the demo on Monday, got a reply from Sky on Tuesday, booked for my first game on Wednesday…….. twelve years later I’m still getting booked for games. I also got work from IMG and Eurosport among others on the strength of the DVD. Within a couple of months, I’d left Radio City to go freelance.”
And thus began Dan’s love affair with one of Britain’s leading sports broadcasters.
12 years in any job is quite the success story, however, at just 37 years of age, Dan’s progression can only be seen as an example of what can happen if you strive to succeed.
As we all know, there are still those out there that seek to condemn without justification and the emergence of social media across the last decade has provided a platform for those with loud fingers to share their negativity with those who perhaps don’t warrant it.
For Dan, his advice is simple. Avoid and ignore.
“It depends what you mean by criticism. If you’re talking about social media then it’s very easy, don’t use it! I know there are people out there who’ll post on Twitter that I hate this team or that team….and I’ll be honest they are wrong and I don’t care what they think anyway!
“I don’t mean that to sound arrogant, but you simply cannot commentate to please certain people. You must work the way you feel is best, have a viewer in mind that you’re talking to (my mum in my case) and get on with it! The last thing you need to do is worry about what people on the internet write about you.
“Ultimately though, the most important criticism is your own. You know what you are aiming for, you know whether you got close or not – you never get it 100% right. Often you might get a well done from the producer, director etc. and think “why?” Because it wasn’t what you wanted it to be. Keep your own scoreboard and stay humble.”
Through the rarity of negativity, Dan has commentated on some fantastic matches, in some of the most impressive, culturally aesthetic and thoroughly enjoyable environments in the football demographic. Asking him to pick his favourite moment isn’t exactly the easiest proposition to bring to the table.
“It would be difficult to look at individual moments. The World Cup Final in 2010 is an obvious standout, if not for the quality of the game! It was also Nelson Mandela’s last public appearance.
“I have covered three Champions League finals.
“Bayern v Dortmund was my best commentary, Barcelona v Manchester United was the most compelling performance and Bayern v Chelsea was the most dramatic.”
Amongst the brilliant, Dan has faced the damn-right bizarre.
“I have commentated on a man handcuffing himself to a goal post at Goodison, protesting about Ryanair’s recruitment policies!
“Swindon 5 Sheffield United 5 in the playoffs stands out. Not a great football match, just a chaotic mess. I remember Nigel Clough, then the Sheffield United manager, asking our floor manager Mick Howard what the score was at one point.”
To those battling to gain the password that leads to the world of regular football commentary, it is hard to find a balance in being true to yourself and style but also appeasing those with the power to influence your career towards the direction desired.
“More difficult than ever. The old cliche “be yourself” holds true in any form of broadcasting, within the parameters of what you are doing.
“In terms of football commentary, don’t ever say “what a goal!”, don’t describe players in such terms as “the 24-year-old Dutchman”. Don’t make stats the story unless they are genuine milestones, don’t make much of “Premier League records” – which aren’t generally recorded at all.
“On TV do not try to describe what’s going on in the box, names are enough. Keep it clean and tidy, everyone can see it. Use the atmosphere to your advantage and keep quiet much of the time. The better the game, the less you need to say.
“Get your own background information, talk to managers, coaching staff, kit men, physios, press officers. Build relationships. The little asides that you use to jolly a game along should, ideally, be your own journalism or research, rather than something you read in the paper or stats you’ve swallowed from a preview. Unless the stat is a belter.
“Above all, watch football and talk football with people who know it and soak up their knowledge.”
And his advance to budding young commentators?
“The great thing about modern technology is that you can just do it! You can write that blog, you can record that commentary or match report.
“Get in touch with companies, clubs, ask for experience – that is gold.
“If you are doing a degree worry about getting practical experience in your field above all else – no one will care if you got a first if you didn’t get your hands dirty, so make the most of the opportunities you get.”
So, 12 years in, does Dan want to continue his journey with football commentary?
Absolutely.
“The beauty of it, the passion, the stories. They are the fundamental reasons why. I don’t always like it, there are aspects of it that I really disagree with, but despite some ups and downs, I join the dots of my life through football.
“I am the youngest commentator on Sky’s live team, and probably have a good 30 years left in me!”
William George Eldridge 
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