Show Notes
In our last edition before the World Cup break, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes are joined by the distinguished author and journalist Duncan Hamilton. Duncan has written almost twenty books on various aspects of football and cricket including three William Sports Book of the Year winners. Among those twenty are biographies of George Best, Harold Larwood and Neville Cardus, a fascinating portrait of Brian Clough called Provided You Don’t Kiss Me and his latest Answered Prayers about Alf Ramsey and the winning of the World Cup. You would think that there was nothing left to say about 1966 but by concentrating on the rather tortured character of Alf Ramsey, Duncan makes us relive that whole experience with fresh insight. In particular Duncan promotes the importance in Alf’s life of the Spurs manager Arthur Rowe, the now almost forgotten manager of the Tottenham Hotspur side that won the League Championship in the 1950-51 season. His tactics came to be called “push and run” and in Alf Ramsey, Rowe found a willing student. To discover all sorts of fascinating details about Alf and the 1966 World Cup triumph download the latest podcast.
And just to re-iterate: Colin, Jon and their indefatigable producer, Paul, are arriving at the World Cup like all the players – utterly knackered. In order to recharge the batteries, they will have a close season where they will not be found drunk and disorderly in a nightclub in Ibiza. Instead, they will be back bright eyed and bushy-tailed for the new season towards the end of August. If you really can’t wait till then and you want to see them all in operation you will be able to find them at the Nevill Holt Festival in the glorious Leicestershire countryside near Market Harborough at 4.45pm on Saturday 13 June.
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More from Football Ruined My Life
This week Colin Shindler and Jim White open the postbag which is predictably full of scorn for the owners and operating officers of Manchester City… but also includes some well written observations on the state of football and football supporting in this country. We have an intelligent audience, and the postbag reflects that intelligence with very little of the emotion and bile that accompanies the game online and on radio phone ins. There are complaints too about the way we ignore the lower leagues and don’t give enough credit to the young players of today. And there’s a surprise guest appearance of FRML’s most consistent critic.
In this episode Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes talk to the author Dave Tomlinson about his book Doing A Leeds. Even by the standards of traditional football chaos, what happened to Leeds United between 1996 and 2005 constituted a financial, football and psychological roller coaster. The Elland Road club ascended at breathtaking pace to the Champions League semi-finals and plunged almost immediately into a nightmare of bankruptcy, relegation and a fire sale of the outstanding players who had got them onto the top table of Premier League and European football. David O’Leary seemed to be the manager of the future, he and chairman Peter Ridsdale forming a winning team before the latter abruptly sacked the former and was then ejected from the board he had been running. Plenty for both panel and listeners to get stuck into – like a Norman Hunter tackle.
Since we’ve had two weeks off from the Premier League (and the Championship) in order to wallow in beating up Croatia and the Czech Republic as well as losing (as is our tradition) to Spain, we thought you might like to hear again the familiar, engaging voice of Patrick Barclay who took strong exception to Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler as they dismissed the Nations League as a sop to the demands of television and the financial greed of UEFA. Listen to Paddy as he berates the other two who are nostalgic for the old Home Internationals when England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland played with themselves. One side sees a desperation of the television companies and UEFA to ensure that no summer passes without an international tournament, leading to player burnout and spectator indifference. The other side sees a sensible arrangement that abolishes pointless friendlies, gives every match a purpose and ensures that the weaker sides play each other and are not just cannon fodder for the big boys.
In this edition, Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Jimmy Mulville are talking about one particular phrase and its meaning within football. Never Go Back is a particularly poignant phrase for two of the panel when it’s used to refer to two of their heroes - Malcolm Allison and Howard Kendall. The other name which crops up immediately in the conversation is Kevin Keegan who went back to Newcastle when it was owned by Mike Ashley and left quickly when he realised that it wasn’t the same club he had managed a decade earlier under the more benevolent patronage of Sir John Hall. It applies to players too – players who had achieved great things at one club return to the same place at the end of their careers to find they simply cannot reproduce the magic of those early years. For Colin the phrase also evokes the sad memory of his old City hero Francis Lee returning to Maine Road with the club in the doldrums in the 1990s only to be driven from the chairman’s office by the fury and yes, the hatred of those supporters who had once been his greatest fans. All supporters will have their own nominations for this topic.
In a change to our usual podcast, we bring you a special edition of Football Ruins My Life in which we consider the leak at the end of last week that Manchester City have apparently been found guilty on 114 of the 115 alleged breaches of Premier League rules. Not so much a discussion as a series of opinion pieces offered by Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Jim White. Very much from the heart, as well as the head. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices