By Far The Greatest Team Football Podcast

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...

How Great Were Season 4’s Greatest Teams? | Promotion/Relegation Special Did we get the Season 4 rankings right? In this special end-of-season episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham and Jamie are joined by regular guests Declan Clark and Gus Krasonis to reopen the Greatness Index and review every team, tournament and football story covered across Season 4. After 38 episodes and features, 154...

FIFA Barbarians 26: The World Cup Team FIFA Forgot Should FIFA create a World Cup Barbarians team for future men’s and women’s tournaments? In this special episode of By Far The Greatest Team , we take one of football’s most ridiculous ideas and, naturally, start treating it far more seriously than we probably should. What if FIFA held back one slot at future World Cups for a Barbarians-style foot...

How Great Were France 1994, the team nthat never reached USA '94 How can a team featuring Eric Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, David Ginola, Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly and Laurent Blanc fail to qualify for a World Cup? In this special episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham and Jamie are joined by author James Bennett , whose fascinating book No Shows explores some of football's...

How Great Were England 1986? Bobby Robson, Maradona and the World Cup That Became Myth Was England’s 1986 World Cup campaign a glorious failure, a missed opportunity, or simply the moment Bobby Robson’s side ran into Diego Maradona at the peak of his powers? In this traditional end-of-season England special of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham and Jamie are joined by Steve Double to place Bobby Ro...

How great was World Cup USA 1994 — and did it change football forever? In a special change of direction for By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney step away from ranking a club or national team to debate the greatness of an entire tournament: World Cup USA 1994 . And who better to guide us through it than legendary US soccer writer Michael Lewis , a journalist who has covered Worl...

How great were the FA Cup pioneers — and were Wanderers the first truly great cup team?   In this special episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by brilliant football history guest Phil Craig to travel right back to the birth of the FA Cup — from its Victorian amateur origins to the moment football began its journey from gentlemanly pastime to national obsess...

How Great Were Leyton Orient 1994–1995? | Football Club for a Fiver, John Sitton & Football’s Rawest Documentary What happens when a football documentary captures not the glory of the game, but the collapse — emotional, financial, tactical and human — of a club fighting for survival? Most football fans remember the trophies, the great teams, the title races and the last-minute winners. But som...

How great were Brighton & Hove Albion 1982–1983? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by South Coast Jamie Wilson to tell the story of one of English football’s great contradiction seasons: Brighton & Hove Albion 1982–83 . This was a campaign that ended in relegation from the First Division — but also took Brighton to the first FA Cup Final...

How Great Were FC Twente 2009–2011? | Steve McClaren, Bryan Ruiz, and the Club That Broke the Dutch Order Were FC Twente 2009–2011 one of the great outsider stories of modern European football — a provincial club from Enschede rising to the top of Dutch football under a manager England had already written off? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by...

Were Blackpool 2009–11 one of the greatest one-season teams in Premier League history — not because they stayed up, but because they made themselves unforgettable? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney dive into one of the most entertaining, improbable and strangely enduring football stories of the modern era: Blackpool from 2009 to 2011 . This is the story of...

How Great Were Liverpool 1968–1974? | Bill Shankly’s Last Great Liverpool Side Were Liverpool 1968–1974 the most important bridge in the club’s history — the side that not only won major honours, but carried Bill Shankly’s revolution from one great era into the next? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined once again by regular guest Declan Clark to ex...

How Great Were Stoke City 2008–2013? | Tony Pulis, the Britannia Fortress, and the Art of Being Horrible to Play Against  Were Stoke City 2008–2013 one of the most misunderstood teams of the Premier League era — dismissed as brute force, but actually brilliant at becoming exactly what they needed to be? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by regula...

How Great Were Arsenal 1925–1939? | Chapman’s Super Club Revolution How does a London club go from obscurity to dominance — and, in the process, invent the blueprint for the modern football super club? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by super guest Phil Craig to explore Arsenal 1925–1939 — the era where Herbert Chapman and George Allison transf...

How Great Were Arsenal 1997–1999? | Wenger’s Revolution Begins How does a famously old-school English powerhouse become modern overnight — and, in the process, help change football forever? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by Arsenal fan Andrew Walker to dive into Arsenal 1997–1999 — the era where Arsène Wenger takes a title-winning back four, i...

How Great Were Liverpool 1961–1968? | Bill Shankly’s First Reds: The Boot Room Blueprint How does a drifting Second Division club become Liverpool again — and, in the process, invent the modern football superpower: identity ? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by regular guest and Evertonian Declan Clark to dive into Bill Shankly’s first great Liv...

Were AC Milan (2002–2008) the ultimate redemption dynasty — or the last great old-world superteam?   Graham and Jamie are joined by Gus Krasonic to go properly old-school on one of the most legend-stacked teams ever assembled. This is the Milan of Maldini, Nesta, Pirlo, Seedorf, Gattuso, Kaká, Shevchenko and Inzaghi — a side built on control, experience, and big-night intelligence, guided by Carlo...

Bayern Munich 1993–1999: FC Hollywood and the Birth of a Super Club  How did Bayern Munich turn chaos, ego, and controversy into the foundation of a modern super club?   In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham and Jamie dive into one of the most dramatic eras in European football history — Bayern Munich between 1993 and 1999.  This was the age of “FC Hollywood.”   A dressing room fill...

Huddersfield Town 1921–1928: England’s First Super Club? How did Huddersfield Town become English football’s first true dynasty — and why does their story still matter today? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , Graham and Jamie are joined by regular Phil Craig to explore one of the most important — yet often overlooked — eras in football history: Huddersfield Town between 1921 and 1928....

Rangers 1986–91: Souness’ Ibrox Revolution How did Graeme Souness transform Rangers overnight — and change Scottish football’s culture, money, and power balance forever? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , hosts Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by Stuart Murray to revisit one of the most explosive turning points in British football: Rangers from 1986 to 1991 , the era when Graeme...

Was Norwich City’s early Premier League brilliance a fleeting miracle — or proof that football’s outsiders could dream big? In this episode of By Far The Greatest Team , hosts Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney are joined by Greek football expert Gus Krasonic to revisit one of the most captivating and unexpected stories of the early Premier League era: Norwich City from 1992 to 1994 . Fresh from the cre...

Welcome back to the NASL madhouse… because for the final episode of our mid-season break, Graham and I are joined by super-guest Phil Craig to relive the glorious, chaotic magic of Vancouver Whitecaps 1979 — the year a club built on steel, structure and sheer bloody-mindedness survived North American football’s weirdest rulebook and ended up lifting the big one. This is a league where draws don’t...

Is North Korea 1966 the most astonishing World Cup underdog run of all time? In this Mid-Season Break Seasonal Special , super guest Phil Craig takes us down one of football history’s most improbable rabbit holes: North Korea at the 1966 World Cup . Set against the shadow of the Cold War , we unpack how politics, perception, and FIFA power dynamics shaped their path to England — and why their stor...

As our mid-season winter break continues, By Far The Greatest Team keeps the spotlight firmly on teams whose greatness deserves revisiting — even if they don’t always get the full episode treatment. This time, Graham and Jamie hand the mic to Declan Clark , who takes on the task of making the case for one of English football’s most stylish and complete sides: Manchester City, 1968–1970 . In just t...

As we head into our traditional mid-season winter break, By Far The Greatest Team is doing things a little differently. Instead of stepping away entirely, Graham and Jamie have put together a special run of bite-sized mini-episodes , each shining a spotlight on a truly great football team that might not normally receive the full podcast treatment. First up in the series is one of the most extraord...