Second Captains

At 18 years of age two time world darts champ Luke Littler has no more worlds to conquer, so now gets his kicks from turning heel. Eoin goes through his wrestling archives while Ken frets about the future of the sport. Leinster won three from three in the Christmas interpros but Ulster are the story this week after a stylish 28-3 win over Munster at a packed out Ravenhill, a result which sent them...

Goodbye Ruben. We are sorry to see you go. You were good to us. We wish you well. We discuss why so many fanbases currently seem to hate their manager/coach - with happy exceptions like Arsenal, and Brentford, whose four goals against Everton amounted to a symphony of the head coach's craft.  Mark Critchley and Lars Sivertsen join us to talk about how United reached this point, why they decid...

Charlie O’Leary, a former Republic Of Ireland kit-man under big Jack and all round Irish football legend, was our Second Captains Hero of 2025; he was even in the Gaiety to take a victory lap in front of 1300 people in October.  But before then, Ken, Eoin and Branno were in his house on Dublin’s northside to talk to him about his incredible 101 years (and counting), a life nearly as old as th...

An annual Second Captains tradition continues today under new branding (RIP Scrooge Cast), as Jonathan Wilson joins Ken to discuss the post-Christmas football.  Also touched on today: energy flows, Wilson's inability to take a day off work, the possible impact of AI on the game, Protestantism, whether 'reading' might in fact have been the problem all along, and whether Aston Villa, now l...

Inside us all are two wolves. Unfortunately for Wolves  the football team  (despite Matt Doherty's reverse Churchill) it's the wolf that is currently the worst at football in all of Europe. Meanwhile, the Romulus and Remus of Serie A get their teeth into Evan. To talk about Ruben's back four, Villa's rise, Rogers V Bellingham and happy Pep we chat to Mark Critchley. Ken also breaks-down...

It was “Super-Friends Of The Show” week this week, between Killian Sundermann coming in for the Second Captains FAT quiz of the year, a chat with US Murph, our first ever festive edition of KENCALL and Oluwashina Okeleji on Salah's AFCON 2025 and Nigeria's legal route to the 2026 FIFA World Cup . We’ve had an amazing year on the podcast this year, so we’d love to have you aboard. You can also gift...

Munster and Leinster both won their Champions Cup games over the weekend, both came through sticky situations against English opposition, but overall satisfaction levels are low. We chat to Shane Horgan and Andrew Trimble about Clayton McMillan's realistic outlook on the Munster project, Leinster's pre-Chistmas form, and they react to former Leinster and Ireland out half Ross Byrne's suggestion th...

It looks like Celtic arrived at a good time for Evan Ferguson, while Robbie Keane seems to be having so much fun in Europe the question is how he will ever be tempted back to the league where he made his name. Morgan Rogers' Stan Collymore-like winner for Villa at West Ham reminds us that it's been a while since Ken read out some npG minus xG stats, so let's get into a bit of that. Jonathan Wilson...

We’d another barn-storming week this week, with the main story being Mo Salah’s rapidly-deteriorating relationship with Liverpool Football Club, which we covered in depth. We had a brilliant chat with Danny Rensch, the co-founder of  chess.com , which went from being a successful start-up to a billion dollar company during the pandemic, thanks largely to people being stuck at home. As a...

Permutations Man had a rough week last week and he is back on air today to explain what happened. Ken asks if Rio Ferdinand was the worst possible choice for a complex World Cup tv draw? The Champions Cup is back, and Munster got a reality check inside the first 20 minutes against Bath on Saturday evening. Munster legend Dave Kilcoyne and Gerry Thornley lament Tadhg Beirne's early y...

The memory of Friday's FIFA draw continues to linger like the smell of a dead rat under the floorboards. As he whines about middle-of-the-night kick offs, people are accusing Ken of being 'eurocentric' - but surely somebody has to be? Meanwhile Mo Salah seems to have torched his future at Liverpool by accusing the manager and club of throwing him under the bus, trying to get him to take all the bl...

We've seen it all this week on Second Captains, from ultrarunning with 100 mile world record holder Caitriona Jennings to 'American ultraviolence' with Hasan Piker on Ken's Politics Podcast, taking in our Sports Book of the Year Show and a brilliant follow-up chat with Ireland and QPR's Jimmy Dunne along the way.  For six independent ad-free shows a week, sign up now at secondcaptains.com/joi...

Caitriona Jennings is the proud World Record holder over the terrifying distance of 100 miles and she spoke to us in studio about how and why she was able to run this distance, what it feels like mid race, and her harrowing London Olympics marathon experience. We discuss Charlie Smyth’s extraordinary journey from the Down senior Gaelic football team to kicking a 56-yard field goal on his NFL debut...

Just as a watched pot never boils, an obsessively tracked Irish striker in Europe does not deliver goals under the desperate hungry eyes of the nation. Is it time for us to back off Troy and Ev and give them some space to do their thing? Maybe, but not today!  James Horncastle joins us to talk about Roma v Napoli. How happy is Gian Piero Gasperini likely to be with the performances of his you...

Welcome to our world service e taster show! To access all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join To get some insight into the man presiding over Liverpool’s worst run of defeats in more than 70 years, we welcome Mikos Gouka, journalist with Algemeene Dagblad and author of the recently released Arne Slot: The New Era. There’s no contracts, no hidden fees and shows can be listened to on all go...

GOOOOOLAZZOOOO... OK Evan Ferguson's first goal for Roma was not quite in that category but we can say now that the Eternal City has officially entered Fergie Time. Meanwhile Troy Parrott scored another nice goal: is this an unprecedented attacking selection headache for Ireland? What's the deal with playing two strikers anyway? How many teams are doing it in the Premier League right now? The...

South Africa beat Ireland 24-13 but in reality it was a demolition by Rassie's men. Did the whole game hang on James Ryan's deserved red card, or could Ireland have done more to adapt to the situation against the world's best team? We chat to our man in South Africa, Craig Ray about the rash of reds and yellows, if refs get influenced by external noise, if Ireland could ever dream of having a scru...

It's been a beautiful, podcast-packed week on the World Service since Troy Parrott stole the nation's heart on Sunday afternoon in Budapest. Seven shows later, we're bringing you a taste of what member-led broadcasting looks like in a golden few days for Irish football.  Monday’s shows are free to all. To listen to our programming throughout the rest of the week,  join the Second Captain...

The Irish lineout was near perfect, their kicking game was on point, a few key players are back in form, they have a new fullback option in Mack Hansen, both 10's played well, they beat Australia by a record margin and the fans in Lansdowne Road went home happy for the second time in four days... the good times just keep rolling in Irish sport. We chat to Shane Horgan and Andrew Trimble about the...

Skill, heroics, late late glory... things like this don't happen to us, until now. Ken, Eoin and Murph record today's show in a state of joyous disbelief, and Branno joins us from Budapest to reflect on the goals, the emotion, the madness. Plus there's the playoff picture, Troy's week and the brilliant post match interviews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've recorded a lot of podcasts.... but the one we just posted today about all the great moments, all the heroes, all the Ronaldo comedy and all the joy of beating Portugal 2-0 is maybe our favourite ever. Our best of show includes a taste of that joy, plus some Ken education and a great chat about Swedish football, Zlatan and Isak. On Sunday we will be posting a show straight after the Hungary g...

Ireland eventually got the win over Japan on Saturday but all the same doubts remain about a team that has had very few good performances since the summer of 2024. Andy Farrell was honest with the media afterwards, stating “we need to get over ourselves and get on with the big boy stuff". We chat to Shane Horgan and Gerry Thornley about Farrell's frankness, why previously skilful players...

It was a surprise to wake up on Saturday morning and find that US Senator Lindsey Graham had been putting the boot into the FAI.  https://x.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1986961533193032133?s=20 Graham was referring to the resolution that was due to be voted on at Saturday's FAI EGM, asking the FAI to forward a motion to the UEFA Executive Committee requesting the suspension of Israel's FA from...

It was a heck of a spread put out for our world service members this week with Infantino announcing the creation of a new FIFA peace prize and appearing on stage at the same event as Donald Trump in Miami last night, Champions League action featuring Yamal and Dan Burn, Liverpool outplaying Madrid, Trent getting booed, the DJ Carey sentencing, Ireland V NZ fallout, Ireland thumping Panama in the u...

For an hour on Saturday Ireland looked comfortable, if not quite in control, against NZ, and then came a sliding doors moment as Jamie Osborne dropped a pass from Crowley, and within four plays the All Blacks were ahead and, as it turned out, home and hosed.  Ireland have now lost to NZ three times in a row, and since the 2023 RWC have had very few good performances. We talk to Shane Horgan a...