The Football Collective Podcast

In this episode, Josh, Sarthak and Paddy discuss the online conference coming on the 12th May, the podcasts of S2 so far, life in lockdown and Netflix recommendations.

In part 2, Josh Dean chairs an open debate about gambling and football with guests from part 1: John Myers and Steve Sharman.

S2 E12 Betting On The Beautiful Game Part 1 - Josh Dean speaks to John Myers & Steve Sharman by The Football Collective

S2E11 Josh Dean speaks with Jon Mackenzie about furlough in football and the Premier League by The Football Collective

Stuart Cosgrove has been the co-presenter of the much beloved BBC Radio Scotland football show Off the Ball for 25 years. A St Johnstone fan, born and raised in Perth, Stuart is also a Northern Soul music enthusiast, author and former C4 television executive. Perhaps in that order. His recent Soul Trilogy, 'Detroit 67', 'Memphis 68', and 'Harlem 69' are perhaps the finest books written on soul mus...

Football scholar Dr Christoph Wagner had been stuck in his western Paris apartment with a young family for a while before we chatted about Uli Hesse's landmark history of German football, 'Tor!' The chance to talk about football was such a relief to both of us that we let it run. Christoph, whose PhD looked at representations of the English and German national teams, details his great love of Hess...

Alan Tonge of UCFB Etihad campus in Manchester discusses Oliver Kay's 'Forever Young: The Story of Adrian Doherty, Football's Lost Genius' a brilliant elegy to a uniquely gifted young footballer who fell through the cracks of the professional game. Alan, who played at Manchester United with Doherty gives firsthand insight into an enigmatic player who was more interested in Bob Dylan, playing guita...

Dr Anthony May of Coventry University discusses his love for Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch', the football book that kicked open the door for thousands of others that were pale imitations. As Anthony says, what separates 'Fever Pitch' is Hornby's deceptively simple style which is very difficult to imitate, and how he stands back and tries to rationally explain the largely irrational nature of being a...

Professor David Kilpatrick of Mercy College in New York discusses one of the most lyrical love letters ever written to football: Eduardo Galeano's 'Soccer in Sun and Shadow'. This podcast is as much about the role that football has had in influencing David's life, from being an up-state New York child to becoming a New York Cosmos fan in the era of the NSL to picking up Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch'...

Stirling University's Robert Kielty discusses Duncan Hamilton's eye-opening and access-all-areas memoir of 20 years covering Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest. Robert marvels at Clough's ability to lead people and places him a generation of great British managers the like of which we will probably never see again. On the way, Robert, who has an extensive career in professional football as a coach...

Stuart Carrington of St Mary's University Twickenham passionately argues for his choice of book, John Ludden's extraordinary account of Diego Maradona at Napoli, 'Once Upon a Time in Naples'. Stuart's passion for Italian culture shines through in a discussion of one of the greatest books ever written about football. Predictably though, it's Maradona who is the real star of this podcast.

Dr Danny Fitzpatrick of Aston University discusses the political and sociological significance of James Brown's lovely off-kilter memoir 'Under Head Height'. Brown, the creator of Loaded magazine and a legend in British magazine publishing, is a Leeds United fan, and lover of the Merseyside football culture that spawned the casual movement. He used playing 5-a-side in his recovery from drug and al...

In the latest of our 10 x 10 series, where 10 writers spend 10 minutes talking about their favourite football book, forensic accountant and Collective member Christina Philippou of the University of Portsmouth tells us about her love of David Conn's 'The Fall of the House of FIFA' - the book that revealed the full extent of financial corruption in global football's governing body. Some might say w...

In the 9th episode of the Football Collective Podcast, Sarthak Mondal sits down with football agent, Stephen Dunham to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the football industry.

French culture and sport scholar Dr Jonathan Ervine of Bangor University talks about his love of Philippe Auclair's biography of Eric Cantona. Apologies for the poor sound quality, there are a lot of people using Skype and other video conferencing services at this time. Jonathan, a friend of the podcast, persuasively explains why Auclair's peerless biography gets to the heart of the essence of Eri...

A short section of Dr Jonathan Ervine's chat about why we all should read Philippe Auclair's peerless biography of Eric Cantona. Full podcast will be available tomorrow at 12pm.

In the latest instalment of our 10 x 10 series where 10 writers speak for 10 minutes about their favourite football books, Leeds fan, Sheffield Hallam PhD student, and the creator of this podcast, Josh Dean, talks about Johan Cruyff's autobiography 'My Turn'. Josh says Cruyff's life is so extraordinary that in places it reads more like fiction than real life.

A bit of internal housekeeping. Chair Dan Parnell assesses the work of the Collective over the last five years and assesses the advances made in the last 12 months. Dan explains why the board have taken the tough decision to postpone this year's conference and how the mentor scheme is just the start of things to come for the Collective.

Liverpool fan Dr David Webber of Solent University talks about his favourite football book: John Williams' 'Into the Red', the story of Gerard Houllier's re-invention of Liverpool. It touches on Houllier, Antonio Gramsci, the Manic Street Preachers and the everyday radicalism re-emerging in modern British football. Not to be missed.

Historian Dr Gary James, the author 20 books about football, including the soon-to-be published 'The Emergence of Football Cultures in Manchester 1840-1919', talks about the wonderfully off-beat 1994 novel 'Gladys Protheroe... Football Genius!' by Simon Cheetham. You can view Gary's books here: shorturl.at/EJX16 And you can buy 'Glays Protheroe...' here: shorturl.at/jntX4

In this episode, our host Sarthak Mondal sits down with Peter Drury to discuss the various aspects of life as a football broadcaster. Peter is further quizzed on FFP, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal. To know his answers, listen to the podcast.

Emy Onuoura is the author of the wonderful book Pitch Black, a forensically researched history of black players in the British professional men’s game. Emy is one of the most experienced, articulate and learned people you will encounter in football scholarship. He comes from a decorated Nigerian Scouse family. His brother Iffy played for, and managed a number of football league clubs, and his sist...

Dr Joe Cable, of the University of Gloucestershire starts by discussing the role that social media plays in contemporary activism and how the Internet has changed the British media’s reporting of football. Most importantly, Joe explains his fascinating research on how Manchester City and England’s Raheem Sterling has cannily used Instagram and social media to wrestle the control of the public narr...

In this episode, our host Sarthak Mondal sits down with Dr. Robert Wilson to discuss the circumstances that led to the dismissal of Bury FC and the situation of Chesterfield FC, the implications of Manchester City breaching Financial Fair Play regulations and the effects of salary caps in Chinese Super League on Western European Football Industry.

Dr Lee McGowan of the University of the Sunshine Coast talks about his Football Collective book 'Football in Fiction' published by Routledge. Lee talks engagingly about his Scottish childhood, his first memories of football, the importance of supporters club buses in Scots football culture and, most importantly, his favourite books on football. It's a podcast not to be missed by anyone with any in...