Pete Hall
Pete Hall is a sports journalist who covers football for The i, with a particular focus on the Premier League. His work is distinguished by structured, league-wide verdicts after each round of fixtures and clear, unapologetic judgments on teams, managers and pundits. He combines match detail, historical context and season-long narratives to explain not just what happened but what it means for a club’s trajectory.
Premier League verdicts and The Score
Hall is a central voice behind The i’s recurring Premier League verdict pieces, including The Score columns that deliver an assessment of every team after each gameweek.
These articles are organised club by club, often running through the weekend’s fixtures and then stepping back to decide where each side stands after the latest round of matches. He uses concrete markers such as Nottingham Forest spending a day in the top three for the first time since 1998 to situate current results within longer histories.
Individual performances and fitness are treated as part of the wider picture, as when he notes Kevin De Bruyne’s limited league starts in 2023-24 as evidence of wear and tear over time.
The tone is brisk and declarative, moving quickly from the scoreline to what it reveals about form, tactics, depth and confidence. The result is a regular, panoramic view of the division that does more than summarise results; it ranks, critiques and projects.
Season previews and crystal-clear predictions
Alongside week-by-week verdicts, Hall writes forward-looking pieces that stake out how he expects the season to unfold. In his Premier League predictions, he does not shy away from specific calls, tipping Arsenal as title winners while flagging clubs he expects to be dragged into relegation battles such as Crystal Palace.
European qualification is treated in the same direct manner, with teams like Leeds assessed for their prospects of breaking into continental competition rather than just mid-table consolidation.
These predictions pieces are framed around questions fans care about - champions, European spots, and who drops - and he answers them with clear conclusions rather than caveats. Across these articles, he links pre-season expectations, recruitment and managerial situations to the probabilities of success and failure, setting a benchmark he can revisit in later verdict columns.
Personality-driven opinion and cultural analogies
Hall’s range extends beyond match analysis into personality-led opinion on football’s most prominent figures. In his piece on Roy Keane, he likens the former midfielder to Donald Trump, using that comparison to explore how Keane’s combative pundit persona dominates debate in a way that mirrors polarising political figures.
The article treats Keane not just as an ex-player but as a cultural operator whose rhetoric and presence shape how audiences engage with the game. Hall uses the analogy to examine power, attention and disruption in football media, connecting the sport’s discourse to wider public life without losing sight of its specific context.
The style is punchy and comparative, relying on strong metaphors to make a point about influence rather than simply quoting post-match soundbites.
Style, structure and what he brings to a story
Across his work for The i, Hall’s writing is built on clear structure and decisive opinion.
League-wide verdicts follow a repeatable format - team by team, often ordered by fixtures or table position - which makes room for him to highlight swings in momentum and looming problems for each club. He frequently anchors judgments in specifics: recent scorelines, historical landmarks like Forest’s brief return to the top three, and player availability or fitness data such as De Bruyne’s number of starts. His predictions pieces show a willingness to be out front with calls on titles, European places and relegation, setting up a narrative he can track across the season.
Opinion features, including his Roy Keane comparison, demonstrate that he is comfortable pulling in references from outside football to illuminate the dynamics of punditry and public perception. For a story tied to the Premier League, its clubs or its media ecosystem, Hall brings a blend of broad-league perspective, historical and statistical anchoring, and a strong, conversational judgment that makes clear where he believes power and momentum sit.
4 more sports journalists.
Aaron Bower
Aaron Bower stands out for covering rugby league through transfers, contracts and squad strategy. He is commissioning editor of Love Rugby League and leads its news and analysis output, while also working as a sports journalist for national outlets. His reporting spans Super League, the Championship, international rugby league and the NRL. He writes hard news, features and audio coverage, from club injuries and signings to long-form pieces on squad building, player contracts, club grading and father-son links. He also covers international selection, eligibility and the impact of NRL-Super League deals. His work treats club news, match context and off-field decisions as part of the same competitive story, and his editorial role places him at the centre of written, podcast and multimedia coverage.
Adam Becket
Adam Becket is a news editor and road racing specialist at Cycling Weekly, combining live race reporting, detailed stage analysis and regular opinion columns on elite men’s professional road cycling. He focuses on grand tours, general classification battles and shifting hierarchies in the peloton, tracking how results reshape team dynamics, rider reputations and future leadership. His reporting covers pivotal race moments, jersey contests and British riders and teams, linking daily outcomes to wider stories about WorldTour talent and development pathways. He also writes on cycling culture, technology and group-ride etiquette from a rider’s perspective, connecting elite competition with everyday riding. Becket previously wrote for Procycling, reported on ecclesiastical matters for an Anglican newspaper and covered politics at Business Insider, bringing institutional and governance insight to his coverage of teams, ethics and power at the top of the sport.
Adnan Riaz
Adnan Riaz is a senior football journalist whose distinct focus is forward-looking, tactical coverage of Manchester United, treating season outlooks and European campaigns as analytical projects in their own right. He works at United In Focus, centring on the club’s domestic and European runs, squad dynamics and supporter response. His beat is Manchester United under Ruben Amorim and Michael Carrick, with detailed work on season previews, prediction-led pieces, Europa League and Champions League campaigns, match analysis and transfer stories. He reports through tactical systems, specific scorelines, stages and scenarios, and player-centric storytelling built around figures such as Bruno Fernandes, Rasmus Hojlund, Matthijs de Ligt and Raphael Varane. His wider background spans fan-facing sports brands, gaming outlets, social-first content and syndicated sports and entertainment coverage.
Aidan Macdonald
Aidan Macdonald stands out for covering how football clubs are run and how supporters shape their future. He works on the sports desk at Clydebank Post, where he reports on club-level football, matches, signings, managers, academies, league campaigns and grassroots achievements. His work also covers governance, supporters’ trusts, ownership debates and the effect of club decisions on fans and communities. He has reported on Dumbarton Football Club’s supporters’ trust raising concerns about a takeover deal. Macdonald also contributes local leisure and business stories to Renfrewshire Gazette, including coverage of a restaurant reopening at a former popular eatery. His background includes work for specialist football outlets and wider news organisations. He writes short, timely reports in a direct, factual style, linking sport to governance, business and everyday community life.