On tuning in, I was amused to discover that the show is co-hosted by former Wimbledon and Newcastle defender Warren Barton, who is effectively the show's sole pundit. In the late 1990s, Barton was briefly famous for being England's most expensive defender, but he had long since disappeared into relative obscurity, or so I had thought.
Initially, I felt sorry for Barton, assuming that his appearance on American TV was evidence of a career gone wrong. Clearly his punditry was not considered insightful enough for him to have been given a job by any of the major English broadcasters - a sad indictment when one considers the truly appalling state of football analysis. The more I watched though, the more I realised I had been wrong.
First of all, Barton is actually quite good at what he does. Ok he's not going to win any awards for eloquence but unlike many of his counterparts on English TV, he actually tries to dissect the game he's just watched and thinks about what he says before saying it.
Second, despite football not being as popular here as it is in the UK, Fox Soccer still achieves respectable ratings, pulling in around half a million viewers for the big matches - and the figures are increasing year by year. And here's the thing: unlike the average football pundit in England, Barton has the limelight to himself, which lends him a certain air of authority and omnipotence.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more Warren Barton looks shrewd and entrepreneurial when compared to his fellow English pundits. Millions of young Americans will grow up with Warren Barton as their single point of reference for English football, the market for which is growing at breakneck speed. Alan Hanson, take note...
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