By Far The Greatest Team Football Podcast

How did two Argentine World Cup winners, a pair of Wembley classics and one unforgettable European night turn Tottenham Hotspur into one of English football’s defining teams of the early 1980s?
Season 5 of By Far The Greatest Team continues with the story of Tottenham Hotspur between 1978 and 1984 — six years in which Spurs embraced international talent, rediscovered their taste for trophies and became pioneers both on and off the pitch.
Jamie Rooney and Graham Dunn are joined by regular guest Stu Burgess to revisit the eventful reign of Keith Burkinshaw.
Freshly promoted in 1978, Tottenham made an extraordinary statement by signing Argentina’s World Cup winners Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa. At a time when overseas footballers remained a rarity in England, their arrival brought ticker tape, global attention and a completely different footballing culture to White Hart Lane.
The transition was not always easy, but Burkinshaw gradually assembled a wonderfully entertaining side. Glenn Hoddle supplied imagination and technical brilliance, Steve Perryman provided leadership, while Steve Archibald and Garth Crooks formed one of the most effective attacking partnerships in English football.
Then came Wembley.
Spurs defeated Manchester City after a replay to win the 1981 FA Cup, with Steve MacKenzie’s spectacular volley almost overshadowed by Ricky Villa’s extraordinary solo winner — one of the most celebrated goals in the competition’s history.
Twelve months later, Tottenham returned to Wembley and defeated Queens Park Rangers, again after a replay, to retain the trophy. The football, the iconic kits and the unmistakable sound of Chas & Dave made Spurs one of the defining teams of the era.
The story also contains a much darker warning. Tottenham’s 1981 semi-final against Wolves witnessed a serious crowd crush at Hillsborough, exposing safety failings that English football tragically failed to address properly.
By 1983, Tottenham were changing away from the pitch as well. Under Irving Scholar, Spurs became the first European sports club floated on a stock exchange, embraced shirt sponsorship and participated in the first live Football League match shown on British television for 23 years.
Football was becoming a television product and a global business — and Tottenham were standing near the front of that transformation.
The era concluded with the 1984 UEFA Cup.
Following a dramatic run through Europe, Spurs faced Anderlecht in a two-legged final. Graham Roberts forced the decisive equaliser at White Hart Lane before goalkeeper Tony Parks became the hero of the penalty shootout.
It was Tottenham’s third major trophy under Burkinshaw — and his final match as manager.
Along the way, Jamie, Graham and Stu explore the near-miss involving Diego Maradona, Hoddle’s emergency appearances in goal, the evolution of Tottenham’s famous Le Coq Sportif and Umbro kits, the later controversy surrounding Anderlecht and Burkinshaw’s memorable farewell:
“There used to be a football club over there.”
Finally, this talented, innovative and occasionally chaotic Tottenham side faces the question asked of every team on By Far The Greatest Team:
How great were they?
🔑 Takeaways
Why the signings of Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa represented a landmark moment for English football
How Keith Burkinshaw rebuilt Tottenham following promotion
The importance of Glenn Hoddle, Steve Perryman, Garth Crooks and Steve Archibald
The stories behind Tottenham’s unforgettable 1981 and 1982 FA Cup triumphs
How football kits, television and Chas & Dave helped define the identity of the team
The disturbing safety warning provided by the 1981 Hillsborough crowd crush
Tottenham’s pioneering move onto the stock exchange and the growing commercialisation of football
The dramatic route to the 1984 UEFA Cup
Whether three major trophies and enormous cultural influence made this Tottenham side genuinely great
Join Us
Subscribe to By Far The Greatest Team wherever you get your podcasts and head over to our YouTube channel, where you can watch the show and discover additional football-history rabbit holes.
Visit the By Far The Greatest Team website for accompanying stories, articles, typical starting XIs and the growing Greatness Index as we continue asking:
How great were they?
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don’t forget to subscribe, give us a rating and tell everyone about them!
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe and give us a rating and also tell everyone about them!

How did one of England’s most famous clubs find itself in the Second Division — and did Tottenham’s year outside the top flight ultimately help transform English football?
Season 5 of By Far The Greatest Team continues with Tottenham Hotspur’s 1977–78 promotion season — a story of relegation, recovery, final-day tension and the beginnings of a new era at White Hart Lane.
Jamie Rooney and Graham Dunn are joined by regular guest Stu Burgess to revisit a moment when Spurs were searching for a way forward.
The glory years under Bill Nicholson were over. Tottenham had finished bottom of the First Division in 1976–77, while the controversial sale of legendary goalkeeper Pat Jennings to Arsenal added to the feeling that the club had lost its direction.
But Spurs kept faith with manager Keith Burkinshaw.
With Steve Perryman providing the leadership and a young Glenn Hoddle revealing his extraordinary talent, Tottenham attempted to return to the top flight at the first opportunity.
They scored more goals than anyone else in the division, including an extraordinary 9–0 victory over Bristol Rovers, during which debutant Colin Lee scored four times. Yet a late-season wobble meant promotion remained uncertain until a tense final-day goalless draw at Southampton secured third place ahead of Brighton on goal difference.
Jamie, Graham and Stu examine the drama of the campaign while asking whether Tottenham’s promotion represented a convincing recovery or simply a narrow escape.
The story then moves into the summer of 1978.
With restrictions on overseas players being relaxed, Burkinshaw and Tottenham made the remarkable decision to sign Argentina’s World Cup winners Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa.
They were not part of the promotion team, but their arrival became the defining next chapter in the story that promotion made possible — changing Tottenham and helping open English football to a more international future.
Along the way, there are the usual football-history rabbit holes, including changing transfer regulations, wonderfully dated broadcasting and the cultural impact of two Argentine World Cup winners arriving in north London.
Finally, the 1977–78 Tottenham side faces the question asked of every team on By Far The Greatest Team:
How great were they?
Style of Play
Keith Burkinshaw’s Tottenham remained committed to attacking football throughout their season in the Second Division.
Glenn Hoddle supplied vision, creativity and technical class, while Steve Perryman provided energy, intelligence and authority.
Spurs scored 83 goals in 42 league matches and could overwhelm opponents when everything clicked. However, this remained a transitional and occasionally vulnerable side — ambitious, entertaining and rarely inclined to achieve anything the easy way.
🔑 Takeaways
How Tottenham declined following the departure of Bill Nicholson
Why Spurs kept faith with Keith Burkinshaw after relegation
The controversial sale of Pat Jennings to Arsenal
The emergence of Glenn Hoddle and the leadership of Steve Perryman
Tottenham’s record-breaking 9–0 victory over Bristol Rovers
How a final-day draw at Southampton secured promotion
Why the signings of Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa changed English football
Whether a team finishing third in the Second Division can possess genuine greatness
Join Us
Subscribe to By Far The Greatest Team wherever you get your podcasts and head over to our YouTube channel, where you can watch the show and discover additional football-history rabbit holes.
Visit the By Far The Greatest Team website for accompanying stories, articles, typical starting XIs and the growing Greatness Index as we continue asking:
How great were they?
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don’t forget to subscribe, give us a rating and tell everyone about them!
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe and give us a rating and also tell everyone about them!

How did a wartime prison-camp football match become one of cinema’s most beloved sporting stories — and just how great were the Allies of Escape to Victory?
Season 5 of By Far The Greatest Team continues with the ultimate meeting of football and film: Escape to Victory.
Jamie Rooney and Graham Dunn are joined by John Smith, author of Escape: A Love Letter to a Cult Football Classic, for an affectionate deep dive into the making, mythology and enduring appeal of a film they have loved since childhood.
John explains how that love became a two-year research project, uncovering the remarkable stories behind the production and the extraordinary collection of actors and footballers brought together to make it.
The story begins with the history, legends and earlier films that helped inspire Escape to Victory, before moving through its lengthy journey to the screen and into the hands of legendary director John Huston.
It arrived at a fascinating moment. Pelé had helped bring football unprecedented attention in the United States, Sylvester Stallone had become a global star through Rocky, and the worlds of Hollywood and international football were ready to collide.
And what a cast they assembled.
Michael Caine. Sylvester Stallone. Pelé. Bobby Moore. Osvaldo Ardiles. Mike Summerbee. Kazimierz Deyna. Hallvar Thoresen. John Wark. Russell Osman.
Jamie, Graham and John explore how the footballers were recruited, why so many members of the Ipswich Town squad became involved, and how genuine football action was combined with actors, professional players and some remarkably effective body doubles.
Along the way, they head down some classic football-history and filmmaking rabbit holes — including why winger Kevin O’Callaghan was cast as a goalkeeper, the roles played by Kevin Beattie and Paul Cooper, the characters and Jean-Paul Rémy storylines that disappeared
There is also the small matter of Stallone playing in goal, Pelé designing the football sequences, Michael Caine attempting to look like an international-class defender and a half-time escape plan being abandoned because the Allies suddenly fancied their chances of completing the comeback.
The episode then turns its attention to the fictional Allied XI.
A team containing Pelé, Moore, Ardiles, Deyna, Summerbee and Thoresen surely possesses a touch of greatness — but can a hastily assembled collection of ageing internationals, prisoners of war and one extremely unconventional goalkeeper really be considered a great team?
Jamie and Graham examine the players, the balance of the side, their performance against Germany and the cultural legacy of football’s most famous fictional team before deciding where the Allies belong in the pantheon of greatness.
Style of Play
Managed from the pitch by John Colby, the Allied side combines experience, improvisation, individual brilliance and extraordinary resilience.
Defensively, Bobby Moore provides composure and authority, while Luis Fernandez — played by Pelé — supplies the imagination, skill and spectacular finishing. Carlos Rey brings South American flair, Terry Brady adds energy and direct running, and the wider squad offers a wonderfully unlikely mixture of international class and prison-camp resourcefulness.
Tactically, however, the Allies are less convincing.
They are underprepared, unbalanced and initially overwhelmed by a younger, fitter and far better-organised German side. Their goalkeeper has never previously played in goal, their star forward is carrying an injury, and their player-manager appears to be developing the tactical plan while the match is taking place.
But when the stakes are at their highest, individual talent and collective spirit take over.
The result is a side built less upon tactical sophistication than courage, defiance, improvisation and the irresistible demands of the Hollywood comeback.
🔑 Takeaways
The history, mythology and earlier films that helped inspire Escape to Victory
How John Huston brought together Hollywood actors and some of world football’s most recognisable stars
Why Pelé, Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles and a large contingent from Ipswich Town became central to the film
The production secrets, body doubles, missing characters and casting decisions that shaped the famous match
Whether the fictional Allied XI possessed the balance, performances and legacy required to be considered a genuinely great team
The final ranking of one of the most famous — and certainly most entertaining — fictional sides in football history
How great were they?
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don’t forget to subscribe, give us a rating and tell everyone about them!
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe and give us a rating and also tell everyone about them!

How did a supposedly friendly curtain-raiser become one of Wembley’s most infamous matches — and just how great was Kevin Keegan?
Season 5 of By Far The Greatest Team begins with the story of an English football institution: the Charity Shield.
Jamie Rooney and Graham Dunn trace its wonderfully strange history from the Sheriff of London Charity Shield, professionals against amateurs and shared trophies, through unusual qualifiers and changing formats, to the point where the traditional season opener became established at Wembley.
And that brings us to 1974.
English football was emerging from a turbulent period. Attendances were falling, hooliganism was rising, England had failed to qualify for the World Cup, Bill Shankly had unexpectedly resigned from Liverpool, and Brian Clough had just walked into Leeds United.
Then Liverpool met Leeds at Wembley.
What followed became one of the defining Charity Shield moments: aggression, confrontation, Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner becoming the first players sent off at Wembley, and a penalty shootout that eventually decided the game.
Along the way, Jamie and Graham head down some classic football-history rabbit holes — including referee Ken Aston, the origins of yellow and red cards, how violence and controversy helped reshape football’s laws, and why penalty shootouts eventually became part of the game.
The episode then turns its attention to Kevin Keegan.
European champion. Twice European Footballer of the Year. England captain. Hamburg superstar. Newcastle hero. Pop-culture celebrity.
But Keegan's greatness goes beyond the trophies. His willingness to take risks, move abroad, reinvent himself and embrace life beyond the pitch made him one of the most recognisable British sportsmen of his generation.
For the first time on the podcast, the Greatness Index is introduced as Jamie and Graham ask not simply whether Kevin Keegan was great — but attempt to measure, score and rationalise exactly how great he really was.
Style of Play
The 1974 Charity Shield brought together two of English football's dominant forces.
Liverpool, transitioning from Bill Shankly to Bob Paisley, combined organisation, movement, possession and increasingly sophisticated collective football.
Leeds United, champions under Don Revie before his departure for the England job, arrived with the physicality, experience, competitiveness and edge that had defined one of the outstanding English teams of the era.
At Wembley those characteristics collided.
What should have been a celebratory curtain-raiser instead became a wonderfully revealing snapshot of English football in 1974: talented, fiercely competitive, combustible and on the verge of enormous change.
🔑 Takeaways
The remarkable history of the Charity Shield — from professionals versus amateurs to the modern Community Shield
Why the 1974 Liverpool v Leeds match became one of the competition's defining games
How Ken Aston, red and yellow cards and football's disciplinary laws changed the sport
Why Kevin Keegan became far more than simply a brilliant footballer — emerging as a genuine British cultural icon
The introduction of the Greatness Index, as Keegan becomes one of the first football figures to have his greatness measured, scored and rationalised
Join Us
Season 5 is only just beginning.
Subscribe to By Far The Greatest Team wherever you get your podcasts and head over to our YouTube channel, where you can now watch the show and discover additional football-history rabbit holes linked to the teams and personalities we cover.
And visit the By Far The Greatest Team website for accompanying stories, articles, typical starting XIs and the growing Greatness Index — our attempt to answer football's most enjoyable question with a little more evidence:
How great were they?
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe and give us a rating and also tell everyone about them!

World Cup Stories Reheated: Zaire 1974 & Australia 2006 — How Great Were They?
We’re on our summer break before returning in August for what we hope will be our biggest and best season yet — but we’re not leaving you without football history.
Over the break, we’re reheating a few of our favourite World Cup stories from the By Far The Greatest Team archive. First up, it’s a brilliant World Cup double-header as Graham and Jamie are joined by guest Shane Guiliano to revisit Zaire 1974 and Australia 2006.
Two very different teams. Two very different tournaments. Two stories that show exactly why World Cup history is never just about results.
Australia 2006 gave us Guus Hiddink, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, late drama against Japan, and the heartbreak of that last-gasp defeat to Italy. It was the moment Australia’s golden generation finally stepped onto the biggest stage and made the world take notice.
Zaire 1974, meanwhile, is too often remembered only for the 9–0 defeat to Yugoslavia and the famous free-kick moment against Brazil. But behind the clips and the punchlines is a deeper story of politics, pressure, Mobutu’s regime, unpaid players, fear, pride, and a team carrying far more than football into the tournament.
This episode asks whether greatness can be found not only in victory, but in context, meaning, legacy, and survival.
In this episode, we cover:
Australia’s long road back to the World Cup
The Socceroos’ golden generation of 2006
Guus Hiddink’s impact on Australian football
Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and that unforgettable run
Zaire’s historic place as the first sub-Saharan African team at a World Cup
The political pressure surrounding Zaire in 1974
Why the 9–0 defeat to Yugoslavia does not tell the full story
The truth and mythology around the Brazil free-kick moment
How football history remembers winners, losers, cult heroes and misunderstood teams
If you love World Cup history, forgotten football stories, underdog teams, controversial tournaments, cult heroes, political football, or simply asking “how great were they?”, this one is well worth another listen.
Follow By Far The Greatest Team on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky, and come and join the debate.
We’ll be back in August with a brand new season.
Until then, enjoy this World Cup story from the archive.
How great were they?
If you enjoy these podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe and give us a rating and also tell everyone about them!