Football Ruined My Life

• 113. Football in the 1960s

  Colin Shindler tries to convince Jon Holmes and Jimmy Mulville that the 1960s was English football’s most glorious decade.  Not just the world cup triumph of 1966, though that obviously features significantly at the heart of the decade.  Secondary school was dark, depressing and alienating.  Football by contrast was light, colourful and inclusive.  All it asked of you was to enjoy playing and supporting your team.  As a teenager in that decade, Colin had no wife or children to demand attention as they would in later years and in the 1960s football seemed to offer a cheap and readily available entertainment.  Of course, the decade also provided terrible pitches, small wages to most players even after the abolition of the £20 minimum wage, dilapidated grounds with no toilets and the danger of swaying on the terraces with those rolling crowds.  It can’t just be nostalgia that elevates football in the 1960s, can it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 112. Short Lived Managers

  We all remember Brian Clough’s infamous 44 days as manager of Leeds United, a fractious period of time which compared favourably with Liz Truss’s time as Prime Minister of the UK - and of course the lettuce that lasted longer than either of them. Colin Shindler recalls with ghastly clarity Steve Coppell’s 33 days in charge of the disaster that was Manchester City in 1996.  Both these short-lived phenomena have been beaten very recently: not just by what last week with Ange Postecoglou’s departure from Nottingham Forest but also by what happened at the start of this season – the sacking of Erik Ten Hag after just three competitive matches in charge of Bayer Leverkeusen.  Jim White, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes speculate as to what on earth Bayer Leverkusen could possibly have found out about Ten Hag after three matches that they didn’t already know when they made the decision to hire him in the first place? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 111. No Hopers

  On the first day of every season nearly all football supporters experience the same surge of pride and expectation.  When they get to the ground it looks gleaming.  The grass is green and the white lines stand out in marked contrast inviting the arrival of our heroes and stimulating thoughts of promotion and championships and European football.  This emotion for most supporters doesn’t even last ninety minutes as the wretched disappointment of a 2-0 home defeat brings them back to the grim reality.  They are not going to win the League or the FA Cup (or get promotion or even avoid relegation) this season after all.  Colin Shindler, Jim White and Jon Holmes wonder what drives the supporters of clubs with no hope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 110. Who Runs The Club?

  It’s an increasingly pertinent question in football.  In the days of Shankly, Clough and Ferguson it was blindingly obvious who ran their clubs.  But as the manager’s role has been split between the Head Coach and the Director of Football, that vision of total authority has become increasingly blurred.  The Head Coach might pick the team on Saturday afternoon (or possibly Friday night or Sunday lunchtime) but bizarrely, and to his utter frustration, he might not have bought any of the players he is selecting.  That could well have been the responsibility of the Director of Football and a committee.  Is this a better way to run these clubs which are now billion-pound businesses?  More to the point, does it increase the distance still further between the club and its fans?  Omid Djalili, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler ponder these questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 109. Team of the 70s

  Following on from the previous edition, Colin Shindler, Jim White and Jon Holmes set themselves the task of choosing from the English Football League as it then was, a team of the 1970s.  That’s not one individual club or national side, but a team composed of the outstanding players of that decade in some sort of logical formation that would bring out the best of them both as individuals and as team players.  It is with evident relief that all our regular listeners will realise that we can start proceedings knowing that Jamie Vardy wasn’t born until 1987 and therefore he is ruled ineligible for selection – which is going to cause Jon to scrabble around at the bottom of his Leicester City suitcase where he will no doubt find Frank Worthington and Keith Weller.  However, the decade provided so many great players that selection of a final eleven is going to be difficult. The panel has great fun seeing who makes the final cut and they are sure you will be equally enthused to decide on your own team of the 1970s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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