Football's podcast war: Gary Lineker sticks the knife into rival Gary Neville's pod for 'languishing miles behind' while he rakes in £1.4m profit

Lineker's The Rest Is Football sits just above in both the Apple and Spotify charts

Gary Lineker has taken a shot at Gary Neville's Stick to Football podcast

Gary Lineker has taken a swipe at Gary Neville's Stick to Football podcast as he responded to comments made by Jamie Carragher earlier this week.

Carragher was working in his role as a pundit for CBS Sports during their midweek coverage of the Champions League when he made a bold claim to Lineker's The Rest Is Football co-star Micah Richards.

The former Liverpool defender's phone had gone off on air with Richards proceeding to ask him if he was at the top of his game right now.

'Well, I'm on the best Champions League show, I'm on the best Premier League show and I'm on the best podcast,' Carragher replied.

Carragher stars alongside Neville and co on the Stick to Football podcast and Lineker has ramped up the tongue-in-cheek rivalry between the two shows.

Lineker's The Rest Is Football podcast sits just above Stick to Football at the top of both the Apple and Spotify charts and the former England striker clearly feels he has the better product.

Gary Lineker took a shot at Gary Neville's Stick to Football podcast on his latest episode

Lineker said that Neville's product was 'languishing miles behind' The Rest Is Football

The former England striker has had tremendous financial success with Goalhanger Podcasts

'They're trying to pretend that they've got the best football podcast?' he said to Richards and Alan Shearer on the latest episode of the podcast.

'They're languishing miles behind - and that's OK, we like people to have a bit of competition in there.

'You can't be the best podcast when you stand there talking over each other all the time.

'They're a YouTube show, we know that, because you can't have five people round a thing doing a podcast, it's just too many, it doesn't work... not that I know anything about podcasts.'

Lineker founded Goalhanger Podcasts in 2019 and has had tremendous success with the venture.

The company produces 13 podcasts with The Rest is Football the most popular of them.

Accounts filed with Companies House showed that Goalhanger Podcasts' retained earnings rose from £590,000 ($741,800) in 2023 to £2.03m ($2.55m) in 2024, a profit of £1.4m. Cash in the bank also grew from £560,000 ($704,000) to £2.7m ($3.39m).

Earlier this month, Lineker revealed his thoughts on the BBC's decision to select three separate hosts of their flagship football show, Match of the Day, to replace him.

Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman will show hosting duties for the foreseeable future.

And Lineker has backed the BBC's decision to split hosting duties between the three 'top presenters'.

'That's probably down to the fact it's a massive commitment,' Lineker told FourFourTwo magazine. 'Those three have all got families, and if you're saying someone is going to do it for the next 10 or 20 years, then your weekends are gone.

'That might be it, I don't know. I didn't get involved in any of that. I take it as a compliment that they've named three, but I suspect it's not due to that.

'I haven't seen them yet to speak to them, but I will do - they'll be fine and they'll do a great job. I've known them all for years, they're top presenters. I'll be watching, but probably on iPlayer… I don't think I'll be watching on Saturday. Maybe the odd time, if I'm in.'

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