For Our Sins: The Clichés Pod Archive

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker convene for the Adjudication Panel once again. On the agenda: some semi-convincing football small talk on Coronation Street, Frank Lampard's accurate portrayal on Football Manager, the most training-groundy training ground name possible and what we mean when we say a striker is "unplayable on their day." Meanwhile, the panel humour so...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey and Charlie Eccleshare are joined by former Liverpool defender, European Cup winner and long-serving BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson or, as simply everyone knows him, Lawro. Among Lawro's selections for his footballing fascinations and irritations are managerial touchline bust-ups, referees making players walk over to them to get booked and, of course, "players squealing when...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker assemble for the latest edition of the Adjudication Panel. On the agenda: celebrity baker Paul Hollywood, Rolls-Royce cricketers, The Killers playing Carrow Road, England's Nations League relegation dogfight and a look at the curious annual phenomenon of Soccer Aid. Meanwhile, the panel decide if Liverpool's signing of Darwin Nunez qu...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, David Walker and Nick Miller assemble for the latest edition of the Adjudication Panel. On the agenda: football talk creeping into cricket and darts, the flimsiest possible language used for transfer speculation, Thibaut Courtois' ongoing war against the content creators and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg giving his verdict on some Korean food. Meanwhile, the panel define the pa...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey and Charlie Eccleshare are joined by host of the Brazilian Shirt Name Podcast, 5 Live presenter, Charlton Athletic supporter and existential philosophy enthusiast Dotun Adebayo Among Dotun's selections for his footballing fascinations and irritations are the dying art of the stepover, the misunderstood application of 'philosophy' in football, superficial footballing supe...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey and Charlie Eccleshare are joined by BBC commentator Conor McNamara for the latest instalment of Mesut Haaland Dicks. Among Conor's selections for his footballing fascinations and irritations are the precise techniques of goalkeepers' goal celebrations, the "pause before the roar" that commentators are trained to fill with expert timing and the tricky logistics of pre-ma...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, David Walker and James Maw assemble for this week's Adjudication Panel. On the agenda: the true definition of a "Great Escape" (and why Everton and Leeds don't qualify), Erik ten Hag's rough start at the hands of the UK's only body-language expert, a dubious double guard of honour in Spain and the final Keys & Gray Corner of 2021-22. Meanwhile, the panel establish t...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker explore the curious coverage of footballers' gestures of humanity by selecting the most traditional "classy touches" on and off the pitch, from goalkeepers refusing to celebrate their freak goals against their opposite numbers to the complex art of muted celebrations. Meanwhile, the Adjudication Panel compare some charmingly obscure o...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker assemble for this week's Adjudication Panel. On the agenda: Eurovision's football parallels, perhaps the greatest ever real-life case of a goal-shy striker "needing one to go in off his backside", the true definition of "going down in instalments" and an astonishing chant by fans of Bishop's Stortford FC from 2007. Meanwhile, the pane...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and Jack Pitt-Brooke select the most magical all-time FA Cup line-up of all, with fierce competition in goal, a rollercoaster of Cup fortunes in defence, a truly romantic midfield, a cast-iron choice up front and one very unfortunately-named referee to keep them all in line. Meanwhile, the Adjudication Panel decide whether Man City's deal for Erling H...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and Nick Miller form this week's Adjudication Panel. On the agenda this time: the Spanish media rattled by an unexpected English voice, the number of departing players needed for a "fire sale" or a "clearout", a spectacular hat-trick of curious penalty punditry, the most pantomime crowd noise of the season, and why Schalke should adopt the Birds of a...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker select a lineup of the most classic footballer-related adjectives, from "eccentric" goalkeepers to "impish" forwards via "talismanic" midfielders. Meanwhile, the Adjudication Panel pick out the classic protagonists of a textbook pitch invasion, cast doubt over the Premier League futures of some emerging transfer-gossip stars and take...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker form the Adjudication Panel once again. On the agenda this time: Snooker players wearing their "scoring boots", the enduring mini-obsession with managers buying Jose Mourinho a bottle of wine, the definition of a footballing "linchpin", positions that footballers can be "by trade" and a concerning instalment of Keys & Gray Corner....

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey and Charlie Eccleshare are joined by sports broadcaster and author Ned Boulting for the latest edition of Mesut Haaland Dicks. Among Ned's selections for his footballing fascinations and irritations are his good friend Peter Drury, the unique tenses used in footballspeak, the misunderstood Jose Mourinho and elite players' obsession with golf. Meanwhile, Ned reveals how h...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker assemble for another Adjudication Panel. On the agenda this time: some wholesome commentator giggling, Netflix dramas getting in on the Clichés act, Channel 4 winning the rights to England games this summer, which Premier League manager "kicks every ball" the most and who Richard Keys thinks should have got the Manchester United job....

In the fourth instalment of the Clichés quiz, reigning champion Charlie Eccleshare aims to become the first to successfully defend the title as he takes on mandatory challenger James Maw. They battle it out over five rounds, including Players Who Somehow Didn't Play For That Club, Wikipedia “Style of Play” sub-sections and, as tradition dictates, the potentially pivotal football clichés round. Hos...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker are back for another Adjudication Panel. On the agenda this week: the precise criteria for a team being in "dreamland", the #classiest football photo ever taken, some surprise commentary from the top table of European hockey and the most Richard Keys tweet ever constructed. Meanwhile, the panel dismantle a very curious depiction of mo...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and Michael Cox use their vivid footballing imaginations to put together a team of industry-standard goalscorers, from goalkeepers venturing up for last-minute corners to inverted wingers cutting inside to do the inevitable. Among the big decisions to be made in this 4-3-3 lineup are: Why are left-backs more spectacular than right-backs? Just what do...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker assemble for another Adjudication Panel. On the agenda: a novel new word for a near-post flick-on, examining football's classy new fad of crest-respecting, the most Australian co-commentator of all time, and a bumper instalment of Keys & Gray Corner. Meanwhile, the panel discuss which manager was the first to earn themselves the "...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey and Charlie Eccleshare are joined by the BBC's South American football correspondent Tim Vickery for the latest edition of Mesut Haaland Dicks. Among Tim's selections for his footballing loves and hates are traffic-stopping post-match celebrations, the relentlessness of the Brazilian football calendar and impatient, vertical football Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker line up for this week's Adjudication Panel.  On the agenda: Gary Neville's two favourite phrases in the English language, Brighton's Graham Potter finally loses patience with a traditional crowd noise, Antonio Conte wins a weird little trophy and some commentary highlights from the footballing weekend. Meanwhile, the panel look back a...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker assemble for a bonus edition of the Adjudication Panel. On the agenda: Jeff Stelling's Soccer Saturday U-turn, Kelsey Grammer's new football film and a look ahead to what England can almost certainly expect in the World Cup draw. Meanwhile, the panel assess some spectacularly sketchy reasons for booing footballers during a game. Hoste...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker assemble for this week's Adjudication Panel. On the agenda: the definition of the footballing verb "to slot", unexpected commentator accents for far-flung World Cup qualifying matches, what it means to be "a sleeping giant" and a vintage, non-football slice of Peter Drury. Meanwhile, to mark the forthcoming return of Masters football,...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey and Nick Miller are joined by bestselling author and columnist Séamas O'Reilly for the latest edition of Mesut Haaland Dicks. Among Séamas' selections for his footballing loves and hates are the demise of the FA Cup final song, the underrated but anatomically awkward Irish legend Robbie Keane, the filler content of the average footballer's autobiography, pre-match TV poe...

The Athletic's Adam Hurrey, David Walker and Nick Miller line up for this week's Adjudication Panel. On the latest agenda: An unexpected podcast tribute from US high school ice hockey, a revelation about Leyton Orient's unique goalframes, the threshold for "celebrating like you've won the league" and an actually quite reasonable opinion from Richard Keys. Meanwhile, the panel try to establish the...