Football Ruined My Life

There are times when the panel like to turn the spotlight on those men who do incalculable good work behind the scenes of a football club but remain largely anonymous. Such a hero is Steve Walsh who for many years has performed the job of Head of Recruitment, most famously at Leicester City where he spotted and brought to the club Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez who between them were the spine of the team that won the Premier League in 2016 and cost the equivalent of what it would cost to take a finger nail from Erling Haaland on loan. In a fascinating behind the scenes look at how clubs sign players these days, Steve compares what happens now with what happened when he started out as a scout. The difference in the money is of course breathtaking but also the extraordinary scouting network over which a Head of Recruitment presides. No longer does manager have to travel midweek to watch a player in the Scottish Second Division but a combination of a world wide scouting network and endless footage captured by cameras in every league in every country provides the information on which millions of pounds can be spent without the manager ever seeing the player in action until he arrives at the club. No arguments this week but a series of fascinating revelations.

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In this episode Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Andy Hamilton set out to annoy everyone with a discussion of which players from the pre-1992 era – the year when the world of English football changed with the arrival of Sky Sports and the Premier League – would have been stars in today’s
football. It is arguable that great players will always be great players whatever era they play in and this discussion is therefore entirely pointless, but it is impossible to set a topic for three football enthusiasts without an inevitable disagreement. We can only hope that these points of disagreement don’t lead to tempers being raised to be followed by verbal fisticuffs if such an interesting oxymoron can be said to exist. To see
if Colin, Jon and Andy turn into the Argentina players at the end of the recent World Cup Final tune in to this podcast.
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This week Jimmy Mulville, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler examine ex-players who become owners. It used to be that players saw how managers behaved and thought they could do better when they retired. Now with the increase in players’ affluence, they have seen how the clubs they played for were run and have decided that they could do it as well, if not better. This philosophy underlay the actions of Derek Dougan at Wolves, Francis Lee at Manchester City and a man who remains perhaps the biggest enigma. Terry Venables, after a distinguished playing and managerial career, was desperate to take the last big step into ownership and decided to partner Alan Sugar when they took over Tottenham Hotspur from Irving Scholar in the 1990s. Well, we all know what happened then but is it ever possible for an ex-player to buy, own and then successfully run a football club? And do fans want such an owner or
would they prefer to stick to Middle Eastern nation states and American hedge fund managers? Tune in and find out.
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In 1974, Leeds United won the First Division by five points, transforming themselves from the ugly side known as Dirty Leeds. It was Don Revie’s greatest triumph as a club manager. At the end of that 1973-4 season Alf Ramsey was sacked. Don Revie was his obvious successor as the FA had no intention of ever appointing Brian Clough. In March 1975 England beat Germany at Wembley with a standout performance from Alan Hudson. The press was ecstatic as England ended the season three points clear at the top of their qualifying group for the following year’s Euros. Just two years later Revie resigned before he was sacked and went to manage the UAE team for a lot of money for which he was widely reviled. His time as England’s manager is pointed to as England’s nadir. Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Jim White discuss how things went so wrong so fast for Revie’s England?
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After a long hot summer, Colin Shindler welcomes back our favourite football podcast with the start of what will be our 5th series. And it begins on the same day as the Premier League season kicks off - Friday 21st August, with a special (they're all special) look at England under the stewardship of Don Revie.
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