Larry Ryan: If TV is football’s stage, social media is becoming its prison

Even the most social of all footballers, Paul Pogba, is turning back to TV

Manchester United’s French midfielder Paul Pogba is interviwed by a TV crew after the Premier League game against Aston Villa last July. ‘Pogba’s ‘Pogmentary’ deal with Amazon Prime promises never-seen-before footage from his youth. Picture: Andrew Boyers/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

The professional footballer species evolved to make television its natural habitat.

The great film critic, David Thomson, writing in his book Television: A Biography, remarked on the way players gradually worked their skills into performances, knowing “they are part of a system of close-ups and slow-motion”.