Football Ramble

As the dust and ticker tape settles on the domestic season it’s Man City that have won it all. A comprehensive gubbing of Watford leaves us equal parts impressed and terrified for the future, though it turns out that Newcastle United have also won some silverware this season, if you’re a bit sloppy with the details, which clearly we are.  Peering around the rest of the game we discover that t...

Leeds, oh, Leeds. When will their nightmare end? Not yet, apparently. Frank Lampard’s Derby and Dean Smith’s Aston Villa will face off at Wembley after a frantic pair of play-off semi-finals. There’s also a look ahead at a juicy FA Cup final, a theory on what Jose Mourinho was really getting up to in that hotel, questions about Pep Guardiola’s cardigan - or is it cardigi? - and some fairly torture...

Laura Woods is currently in demand as a live football presenter on both TV for Sky Sports and radio for talkSPORT. She is instantly recognisable for her work on Super Sunday, The Debate and the PDC World Darts Championship. Here, in this exclusive interview, she tells Luke about her path into broadcasting from making her own 'radio shows' on her stereo at home as a kid to co-hosting national shows...

There was to be no twist at the weekend and Man City retain the title, while Liverpool finish second with a points haul that would have seen them as champions in any season but this or last. It’s been scintillating stuff and it’s been a pleasure bringing you our thoughts on it throughout the season. And now for some goodbyes. Goodbye to Neil Warnock, gone from the Premier League, never to return,...

Our ruddy, giddy auntie Nora Bennett! What a week in the Champions League, with turnarounds, late goals, quick thinking ball boys, crying managers and more drama than we realistically have time to explore.  Over in the Premier League, can Brighton stand firm in The Battle of the Amex as Man City come looking for the title? Can Liverpool dispatch Wolves just in case they can? Can Watford and W...

Tom Jones is one of the world's premier architects, and served as Lead Architect on behalf of Populous, the design firm responsible for the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as well as Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and the Olympic Stadium purpose built for the London Olympics in 2012 and currently occupied by West Ham. In this exclusive interview, Tom chats to Luke about how it felt to be present at the...

A strange weekend of football as Liverpool keep it up but Spurs, Arsenal and Man United all implode to various degrees, in what will surely become known as The Season Where Nobody Seemed That Bothered About Finishing Third or Fourth.  The Premier League also says goodbye to Neil Warnock and his fancy new stance, various play-offs take shape and we speculate on the behind-closed-doors characte...

Incredible scenes on the end of Lionel Messi’s foot at the Camp Nou have left us as giddy as a certain anchor’s aunt. We look back at the setbacks that Liverpool and Spurs faced in Europe, rate Ajax’s chances of winning the damn thing and also wonder if Brendan Rodgers might be the crucial element in deciding where the Premier League title parks itself come the end of the season.  Along the w...

In this latest episode of Ramble Meets..., Luke talks to Chief Football Commentator at ITV and talkSPORT Sam Matterface.  Sam delivers spectacular insight into what it's like to be a commentator at the top level, from what preparation he does before a big game to how hospital radio, Portsmouth's promotion season, and being the youngest restaurant manager in McDonald's history h...

We drag ourselves out of the sick bay despite our various ailments - stomach upsets, bronchitis, Townsenditis - to look over a fascinating weekend of football in which Leeds and Marcelo Bielsa took centre stage. What. A. Ruck. It’s exactly what we will not pretend we don’t want to see.  We also look at David De Gea and his latest inopportune out of body experience, imagine what a deadly combi...

Hello and a very warm welcome to this, the latest instalment of The Football Ramble. The boys (sans Jim, sadly laid low with illness) cast their beady eyes over all the midweek action and then, as is the custom, look ahead to all the most exciting games in the Premier League this weekend. There's also plenty of time for all your favourites, too - Pete having a rant about Mike Ashley, Going for Glo...

James Horncastle is a writer, broadcaster and pundit specialising in Italian football. Here, in this latest episode of Ramble Meets... he tells Luke about his path to his current role in the vanguard of Italian football coverage, from a kid growing up in Hull to a highly respected journalist rubbing shoulders with Carlo Ancelotti and Marcelo Lippi. In his own passionate style, James also...

Right, it's Easter Monday, but football waits for no-one and so we're back in the studio ruminating on what's been happening on this, the holiest of weekends. Obviously Man City and Liverpool both won, the latter partly thanks to Sean Morrison's back, but don't forget, Everton also dished out a hiding. Mr Solskjaer is obviously absolutely fuming about it. Elsewhere Pete tries to defend his dreadfu...

It’s Good Fryday and for our final egg we have the Egg Royale, the Golden Goose Egg, a smooth, notorious player who was well and truly laid, pro-teen with squad selection and at one time the toast of the nation. Sven, Sven, Sven-Göran Eriksson. It could only be him. This show is sponsored by bet365 Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here:  show@thefootballramble...

WOW! Spurs and Man City serve up one of the maddest, most entertaining games in recent memory and as if that wasn’t enough we get to see them do it all again on Sunday.  Liverpool had a calmer time of it but have to be wary of Neil Warnock’s slightly resurgent Cardiff, while Man United look like the party might be over. Again.  Elsewhere Andros Townsend infiltrates our dreams, there’s co...

We keep the series rolling with a most decorated egg. Vialli starred for teams like Juvhentus and Shellsea, becoming player manager at the batter when Ruud Gullit got the egg-sac. He had opulent beginnings but don’t omelette that fool you; there was no silver egg spoon in this man’s mouth.  This show is sponsored by bet365 Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here...

A fine custodian of the egg basket, the crème de la crème egg, the quiche de résistance.   A rare smoked egg with impressive refleggses, he lay have been prone to letting his membrane wander but even when over-egging things he was always sp-egg-tacular.  This show is sponsored by bet365 Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here:  show@thefootballram...

The Scotch egg himself! Free kicks were his eggy bread and butter, his passing ostretched defences and his volleys left goalkeepers pickled. In one of football’s most unexp-egg-ted swan songs he became a Liverpool eggular at the age of 35. And yes swans lay eggs.  This show is sponsored by bet365 Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here:  show@thefootballram...

Liverpool keep doing the business and though Shay Given may have barely looked up from his dinner when Mo Salah scored one of the goals of the season, we couldn’t believe our luck.  We also found time to despair at Everton’s performance against Fulham, find that a discussion on aspect ratio and frame rates leads to an explanation of how Newcastle are programmed, and enjoy some innovative prod...

What comes first, the man or the egg? We egg each other on to identifry eggsamples of players we think are going the eggstra farmyard to achieve egghood. Also features an eggstraordinary showbiz aneggdote. Cracking. This show is sponsored by bet365 Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here:  show@thefootballramble.com ***Please take the time to rate...

We continue our Easter eggstravaganza with a man who always has his sunny side up, a man loved by the great Aleggs Ferg-egg-son, a man sent off for eggbutting Robbie Savage. His head both poached goals and hatched The Dube, and this versatility meant you could throw him into any mixing bowl. This show is sponsored by bet365 Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here:&nb...

As we hit the half dozen of our 12 Eggs of Easter we dip into the career of the hard boiled former shoe salesmen who left the doubters with egg on their faces by winning back to back European Egg Cups. Working his way from amateur football all the way to a World Cup final, it’s not over egging it to say that his eggacy is the stuff of yolklore. This show is sponsored...

Why does Thierry Henry only have one egg for breakfast? Because one egg is un oeuf. The eggsquisite, runny, defence scrambling faberge egg had a free range of ability but is he an egg at all? Can one choose to be an egg, or must egghood come naturally? Join us in our most controversial eggspose yet. This show is sponsored by bet365 Search ‘Football Ramb...

The weekend ahead sees many a potential thigh rubber, but is it Liverpool vs Chelsea? Burnley vs Cardiff? Sean Dyche vs Neil Warnock? It’ll probably be all of them.  As well as looking forward, we look back over recent Champions League ding dongs, including harking back to Liverpool and Chelsea’s drab beef of yesteryear, via yet more football food fights and a worrying spread of potential mis...

When most people think of the Leeds United side of this era they think of the reckless whisk assessment that led to their ultimately devastating financial irr-egg-ularities, but it was an enjoyable ride up to then. Their two-egged Champions League semi-final against Valencia, in which most of the squad shaved their heads, was the peak of this ride, and we’re here to reminisce about the hatching of...