Steven Thompson on moving from player to pundit: "You have to be very strong in your opinions. But you can do that without being derogatory"

After finally calling time on his playing career in the summer – he admits with hindsight he should probably have quit two years earlier – he has made a seamless transition into a new career in the media, used regularly by BBC Scotland on their flagship television highlights show as well as a co-commentator on live radio broadcasts. He will add to his growing portfolio when his first column for The Herald appears on these pages tomorrow.

Read more: Big interview: England legend Mick Channon on beating the Jocks, the importance of keeping your legs shut and Tam Forsyth's tackle

Thompson, well-groomed, good-humoured and articulate, comes across as a natural broadcaster but his punditry style is far from off-the-cuff. Determined to not only do the job but do it well, he spends a large part of his week - when not on the school run or playing tennis - undertaking research, scanning websites, and scribbling down notes. It speaks to a methodical and organised mind.

Like cramming for an exam, Thompson hopes that by writing down his thoughts, facts or observations they will spring to mind whenever the television camera points at him or it’s his turn to talk on the radio. Every pundit has their own way of going about the role – Michael Stewart, his regular companion in the Sportscene studio, is more instinctive – but being organised is what makes Thompson feel most comfortable.

“I’m like the Boy Scout who has prepared properly,” he acknowledges, smiling. “Mikey laughs at me for the amount of homework and research I do. He knows his stuff but he doesn’t take as many notes as I do, whereas I need to feel like I’m thoroughly prepared. I like to make sure that I have all the bases covered in terms of the possible questions that might be asked and have all the information I need.

Read more: Big interview: England legend Mick Channon on beating the Jocks, the importance of keeping your legs shut and Tam Forsyth's tackle

“So ahead of this England versus Scotland game I’ve spent four or five days going through the players from both sides, their form, the form of both teams, formations, statistics – anything that could be useful in commentary. I probably won’t use 90 percent of the things I’ve written down but I like to have that information there just in case. Quite often if you write something down it sticks in your head.

“When I do Sportscene I’ll have pages of notes in front of me but others do it differently. Having the notes is like a comfort blanket. The preparation can be time-consuming but if you know the right websites to go on and work out a system then you can speed up the process.”

Putting the programme together takes a lot more than simply turning up on a Sunday evening as the cameras roll. “Mikey and I go in all day to cut the highlights, and pick and choose the bits we want. We go in at 12 and we’re in there for six or seven hours before the show. We sit with the producer and the rest of the team and put it together. In the past they would have built it for us and told us what we would be talking about. Now we decide what we want to speak about.”

Thompson, who names Trevor Sinclair, Slaven Bilic and Dean Saunders as pundits he enjoys watching and listening to, agrees that those being paid to offer an opinion should never shy away from doing so. But he believes that can be done within certain parameters.

“You have to call it as you see it,” he adds. “That doesn’t bother me. I would probably shy away, though, from being deliberately over the top. It’s important to have a balance. You can be critical without completely slaughtering somebody. I remember some of the criticism I got when I was playing and you remember how much it hurts and angers you. So I don’t want to be that guy.

“But you can still call it without being personal. You have to be very strong in your opinions. If you’re wishy-washy and sit on the fence then nobody wants to hear that. But you can do that without being derogatory. That’s the balance I’m aiming for.”

Unlike most other pundits, Thompson has yet to embrace social media and isn’t to be found on either Twitter or Facebook. “The good thing is I’m not on social media so I don’t know what folk are saying about me,” he adds. “From what other people have shown me on Twitter, there is more negative on there than there is positive. Why bother bringing that into your life? If someone thinks I’m crap on Sportscene, why would I want to know that? I would rather not. Social media gives people a platform to have a voice and a lot of people abuse that. I don’t need that in my life.”

Thompson began to consider his post-playing options when he signed for St Mirren, initially favouring a move into coaching. But he would soon find himself dissuaded.

Read more: Big interview: England legend Mick Channon on beating the Jocks, the importance of keeping your legs shut and Tam Forsyth's tackle

“I decided I should probably get my badges so I did my B and then my A License. And I enjoyed that and I started to think about becoming a coach. But the last three years at St Mirren made me change my mind. That soured it for me. I look at people like Ian Murray and Alex Rae, in the job for six or eight months and then you’re out.

“Some people are extremely keen to go into coaching. For me it was something I thought about but it never drove me. I never had that passion for it. So I’ve closed the door on that one. I’m only four months into my new career and I want to focus all my attention on that. I want to make sure I’m good at it and improve all the time. This is my job now and I want to do it properly.”

- Steven Thompson is Herald Sport’s new columnist. Read his views on Scottish football and beyond every week, starting from tomorrow.