Marc White Fixes Football: Trailer

If you're a Man United fan from South London, Tom Garratt would like to hear your connection to that club. And he doesn't just think it's a bit much - he thinks it should be a rule. That's one argument from Tom Garratt's episode on Marc White Fixes Football. Born and bred Black Country. First game at five, a 1-0 defeat to Grimsby in 2001, and he sat and watched the whole thing while every other kid looked at the sweets. West Brom home and away for ten years after that, until men's football got in the way. A scholarship in America that he's honest about - "anyone who goes to America is because you can't make it here" - and one training session against a 39-year-old pro that told him everything he needed to know about the level. Then TikTok in 2021, a take on Virgil van Dijk and Nemanja Vidic that went off, and a job at Pitch Side. He's got no dog in the Big Six race, and that's exactly why people listen to him. In a full hour, Marc and Tom get into: ⚽️ MIKE DEAN - Garratt loves that a referee finally admitted to playing games during matches. Marc thinks he's lying, and says so four separate times. Neither of them moves an inch. ⚽️ GLORY HUNTERS - why he thinks supporting your local club should be compulsory, what he makes of United fans in Bristol and South London, and the one exception he'll allow. ⚽️ SHOULD REFEREES HAVE A PERSONALITY? - Marc wants them seen and not heard. Garratt reckons humanising them is the best thing that could happen to the game. Plus the Geordie referee in the Isthmian who winks at managers before kick-off, and the lad Marc coached who's now overturning VAR decisions in the Premier League. ⚽️ THE NEW RULES - five-second countdowns, throw-ins, substitutes, and the referee who started counting down a Wigan player who was a goal behind with two minutes left. ⚽️ CONTACT - Garratt's theory that letting players create contact is quietly ruining the game, why grappling at corners would stop within a week, and what it would take from a referee to do it. ⚽️ THE LEVEL - the gap between a good non-league player and a Premier League one, found out in a single session. Plus Conor Gallagher's brother on why four of them still can't get near him in the park, and a story about Brighton Pier that explains the whole thing. ⚽️ BELLINGHAM - he called him overrated and said he shouldn't start at the World Cup. He was at the Mexico game. "How stupid was I?" ⚽️ RONALDO - why he's never been a fan, and the players who stop teams winning. ⚽️ THE MONEY - agents stalking players on social media, million-pound deals in League One, and how clubs like Bury and Macclesfield go to the wall in the same week somebody moves for £120m. ⚽️ WOKE NONSENSE OR NOT - hydration breaks, goal music, half-time shows, five subs, set-piece coaches, referee cams, and yellow cards for taking your shirt off. ⚽️ PREDICTIONS ON RECORD - Arsenal by ten points, where he thinks Manchester United finish under Michael Carrick, why he can't call Spurs, and the three clubs he's putting down. All of it dated and timestamped for when the season ends. 🎧 Enjoying the show? Follow The Jeff Stelling Show wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode, and leave us a rating and review - it really helps new listeners find us. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Tom Garratt: Welcome to Marc White Fixes Football 03:10 - The Mike Dean confession 05:40 - Should referees have a personality? 08:35 - Five-second countdowns and the new rules 10:36 - Contact, grappling and what's ruining the game 13:45 - Growing up a West Brom fan 19:25 - Tamworth, America and knowing when you're not good enough 25:29 - How Tom got into content 26:55 - Calling Bellingham overrated 33:20 - Mbappé, Ronaldo and players who stop teams winning 35:13 - Woke nonsense or not? 38:54 - Football Hates 39:12 - VAR and the over-analysis of everything 47:56 - Where the money should actually go 52:16 - Glory hunters: support your local team 54:34 - Predictions: Arsenal, United, Spurs and the drop 1:00:20 - Agree

A Premier League player told Marc White he hates football. Still playing, still brilliant at it, and counting down the days until he can stop. That's one story from episode one of Marc White Fixes Football with Fulham captain, Tom Cairney. Leeds had him from the age of seven. At sixteen they released him for being too small - "we haven't got time for him to grow" - while keeping a lad a year above him down a year to develop. His mum was arguing with the coach in the car park at Newcastle, and crying by the time she picked him up. His dad told him: as soon as you become a man, it goes back to who can play football again. Two and a half years later he was in the Premier League. He's now twelve years and 300-plus appearances into a career at one club, with three promotions and a Wembley winner in it. In a full hour, Marc and Tom get into: ⚽️ REFEREEING - whether ex-players sitting with officials would stop the big clangers, why a split-second read from someone who's played the game spots the acting, and whether old-school referees handled players better than the modern ones are allowed to. ⚽️ THE TITLE RACE - why Cairney thinks Arsenal's is theirs to lose, what it's actually like trying to get a shot off against them, the size of their back line, and why the peak Guardiola City side was the hardest he's faced: "if you won a corner, it felt like you'd scored." ⚽️ PROMOTED CLUBS - sack or back the manager who got you up? How many players can you sign before you break the dressing room that just won promotion? Why Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth worked out how to stay and so many others don't. ⚽️ BEING RELEASED AT 16 - the full story, the coaches who put him forward anyway, the contract offered over the phone by a manager who said he didn't need to see him, and going from elite academy football to getting changed in a hockey goal outside the stadium. ⚽️ PHIL BROWN - the manager who gave him his pathway, what he was like in training, and why Cairney still mentions him every time he's asked. ⚽️ THE DRESSING ROOM - what captaincy actually involves, taking the armband off Scott Parker, helping foreign signings settle, why a squad without a proper core struggles however talented it is, and why Cairney reckons the changing room is the thing he'll miss most. ⚽️ JIMMY BULLARD - what it was like turning up to training every day as a 17-year-old to see what he'd done next. ⚽️ THE MODERN GAME - set-piece coaches, throw-in coaches, long throws, what it's like being the midfielder asked to block James Tarkowski, and why so much of it is "killing me a little bit." ⚽️ THE NUMBER NINE PROBLEM - nobody wants to be a striker anymore, kids aren't allowed to head it, and who exactly is going to be England's centre-forward in ten years. ⚽️QUICKFIRE AND VALUATIONS - best player he's played with and against, the toughest opponent, the loudest ground, and what Gazza, Gerrard, Scholes, Shearer and Henry would be worth in today's market. Plus what Cairney puts on himself. 🎧 Enjoying the show? Follow Marc White Fixes Football wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode, and leave us a rating and review - it really helps new listeners find us. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Tom Cairney: Welcome to Marc White Fixes Football 02:30 - Pro Ref and the calls they keep getting wrong 03:05 - Should ex-players sit with the officials? 06:55 - "Arsenal's title is theirs to lose" 10:08 - Promoted clubs: sack or back the manager? 11:25 - Released by Leeds at 16 17:30 - Phil Brown and the first-team pathway 19:50 - Captaincy, the armband and playing Premier League football 29:15 - Inside a Premier League dressing room 30:26 - The Premier League player who hates football 40:20 - Jimmy Bullard at Hull 48:43 - Set-piece coaches and long throws 56:30 - Captains swapping ends 58:50 - Quickfire questions 1:03:00 - What would they cost today? 🚨WIN money-can't-buy sporting experiences at OLBG Prizes 18+ | UK Entrants Only | T&Cs apply | Free Entry Route Available Enter at 👉