FOOTBALL

Hamptonians from all spheres are involved in podcasts, exploring topics ranging from politics to physics, and poetry to painting. The Row Z & Beyond podcast is amongst these, delving into the most relevant sporting questions of today. On the latest episode, I was honoured to have Michael Timbs (OH) 2010 join me. We spoke about: Arsenal’s current form; Hampton and the lessons learnt from his time at School; his first sports media job in addition to the Qatar World Cup; how he deals with criticism; and finally advice for people who would like to follow in his footsteps.

When talking about Arsenal at the time of writing, he was obviously over the moon with the incredible form they are in. Unlike Gary Neville, he believes the Gunners can clinch the title despite proven Champions City hunting them down. [Alas at the time of going to print, Arsenal had fallen at the final hurdle and relinquished the Premier League title to City.]

Many people have been speculating about the explanation for Arsenal's significant improvement since last season. However, Timbs - after conversations with the likes of Ben White and Smith Rowe - suggests that it is different from how people see it and the Arsenal team have been growing for a long time. Timbs argues a season like this was a long time coming, due to the long term vision of boss Mikel Arteta. Like many other Gunners, he is hopeful that after a good but sensible summer transfer window, their form can continue into the 2023-24 season.

As the conversation swayed towards School, he felt that although one learns subjects during your time in school to become educated in a specific field, the main lesson taken from his time at Hampton is the vital qualities of passion, hard work and good manners. In addition to this, learning how to open the doors for opportunities, agreeing to things without a clear cut vision of what's going to happen - he believes luck is created by the individual. An example of where agreeing to multiple opportunities opened doors for him in his future was his love of languages.

Timbs chose multiple languages to do in his GCSE exams as well as his A Levels. He spoke about when making these decisions he never knew where it would take him. Looking back he concludes that being multilingual has been instrumental in getting jobs at COPA90 and MOTDX, as well as doing interviews with the likes of Messi and Neymar in their native language.

Timbs also stated that when a company employs someone, they always look at what makes them special, and for many it may be being comfortable on camera or being eccentric. However, for him, it was his language skills which differentiated him from the rest.

We then got to speak about football at Hampton and the privilege of playing in great competitions such as ESFA and ISFA. However, Timbs never got as far as the U13A squad did in the 2021-22 season or the First XI being crowned ESFA champions in both 2019 and 2023. Nevertheless he enjoyed representing the School out on the pitch. He also wished the First XI the best of luck in the upcoming ESFA final. We also discussed how he still attends and loves playing for the Old Boys to this day.

Timbs has done many shoots in his career so far and lots of different events, but two competitions stand out for him. The 2018 Russia World Cup and the 2022 Qatar World Cup. We discussed how he feels privileged to have been able to work at these large tournaments and be so close to the players and organisation and experience the tournament firsthand rather than watching on television at home.

Like many other football fans, he considers the Qatar World Cup to be the best one of the lot in football terms. However, Timbs said he was able to enjoy the Russia World Cup more as the organisation he worked for didn’t feel like work to him but rather a fan experience. Nonetheless, reporting the Qatar World Cup for FIFA felt more professional.

The main takeaway from both these experiences in Russia and Qatar is the togetherness of all the fans who are all gatheing for the same reason - their love of football. Although different people support different countries, when another country wins the competition like Argentina in 2022, one can relate to the joy of their fans.

Being a big personality on TV and online is a double-edged sword for many as it comes with its supportive comments and positive attention but also with negative comments and criticism. Timbs discussed how he finds being able to brush it off and dealing with negativity is an important skill if you want to put yourself out there in the world of media. We also spoke about how confrontation isn’t the way to go. Rather he proposes people take it lightly and keep a positive mindset. A great piece of advice!

BY HENRY FAGAN