These Football Times

According to Steven Scragg, Stu Horsfield and Aidan Williams, this is the "Stingray" season – anything can happen in the next nine months. Ron Saunders walks out on Aston Villa, joins Birmingham  and misses out on lifting the European Cup. Spurs win the FA Cup in a year not ending in 1. Swansea's rapid ascent from Division Four now sees them topping the First Division. But, obviously, Liverpool wi...

Following the sad passing of Franz Beckenbauer and Mário Zagallo, Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler assess the legacy of football’s greatest names, men whose place in the World Cup pantheon will be forever secure. 

Was 1980/81 really the final year of the 1970s, the decade when the level playing field threw up all kinds of title winners? With Aston Villa taking the First Division and Ipswich in hot pursuit, it certainly feels like it. 

Following our trawl through the 1970s, the team return with a new series focusing on the 80s. First under the microscope is the 1979/80 campaign. Steven Scragg, Aidan Williams and Stu Horsfield, fuelled by vast intakes of fizzy pop and smoky bacon crisps, recall a year when Liverpool won Division One, Arsenal missed out on everything, Alex Ferguson won his first league title, and Nottingham Forest...

Ebeneezer Thacker, Jacob Scragg and Tiny Tim Fletcher are at the helm of this special christmas podcast where they encounter the ghosts of football past, present and future. Will their lives be changed for the better by these visitations, or will those pesky kids at FIFA ruin everything as usual?

We venture into the early days of European football in this Mount Rushmore debate as we look to find the greatest names from the European Cup, prior to seeing them hewn into the mountain face. Aidan Williams, Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler put the case for the icons of the European Cup in its pre-Champions League form, while Gary Thacker has the final say on the goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, st...

Following the sad death of Terry Venables last week, we take an in-depth look at his playing and coaching career and the legacy he has left behind. And there’s also time to look at the ten-point penalty imposed on Everton by the Premier League.

It’s a Centre Circle/Seasons in the Sun mash-up as Stephen Peace joins Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler to discuss his book on Tottenham’s memorable 1986/87 campaign. There are goals, near-misses and grief aplenty amid its pages, and we’re covering them all here. 

Seasons in the Sunderland it is for this episode as we relive the glories of Sunderland’s FA Cup run in 1972/73 that took them all to the way to the holy grail itself. The mighty Bill Hern returns to talk us through the season of his supporting life with Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler listening on in awe.

Will Erik ten Haag win the sack race? Why does the Copa Libertadores final look so much more spectacular than its Champions League equivalent? How many goals will Harry Kane score this season? Should England follow Scotland’s lead and get the League Cup done and dusted by Christmas? How will Chelsea and the WSL fare without Emma Hayes? Rob Fletcher, Aidan Williams and Dave Bowler tackle the big qu...

We’re back in the Centre Circle to discuss Jon Spurling’s excellent book on 1970s football, the decade that These Football Times won’t let go. Steven Scragg, Dr David Turner and Dave Bowler talk to Jon about the thinking behind the book, some of its major themes and just what football from 50 years ago tells us about the game today.

As the clocks go back and we head into the long, dark nights ahead, it’s time for the early season report card on the Championship, with particular reference to Wayne Rooney being parachuted into Birmingham, while his former Manchester United colleague Michael Carrick gets Middlesbrough firing on all cylinders again. There’s also time for the team to take a quick look at some surprising relegation...

Wrapping up our series on football’s black pioneers that has run across Black History Month this year, we are again joined by our wise spirit guides, David Gleave and Bill Hern, authors of the book Football’s Black Pioneers. Our final guest for the series is Dave Busby, the first black player at both Brighton and Barrow and, as you’ll hear, a raconteur par excellence. 

The passing of Sir Bobby Charlton has robbed us of perhaps England’s greatest ever footballer, and certainly its finest sportsman and ambassador. John Dunn and Dave Bowler pay tribute to the great man. 

The huge contribution of the Windrush generation towards every aspect of life in the UK has been well documented - if not by the Home Office – and their impact on our football forms the basis of the fourth episode of this series. As well as our regular expert voices Bill Hern and David Gleave, this time we are joined by Brenton Phillips, a child if Windrush parents, who speaks fascinatingly of his...

Seasons In The Sun sees a guest bringing one campaign from their supporting life to the dissection table. In this episode, Alex Ireland talks about Manchester United’s epic 2007/08 campaign that culminated in Premier League and Champions League glory. Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler wield the scalpels.

The contribution of Barbados to English football falls under the spotlight in the third episode of our series marking Black History Month. Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler are again joined by Bill Hern and David Gleave, authors of Football’s Black Pioneers , along with special guest Roland Butcher. Roland might be better known as England’s first black cricketer but he was also Stevenage’s first black...

Following on from our series on the 1970s, we’ve one final visit to the decade as Steven Scragg, Dr David Turner and Dave Bowler offer their choice of the goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, striker and manager who should be chiselled onto the decade’s Mount Rushmore. Lord Chief Justice Gary Thacker presides over the court.

Tackling this week’s thorny topics, Gary Thacker, Aidan Williams and Paul Mc Parlan run the rule over FIFA’s future World Cup plans, the coming of a UK & Ireland Euros, the FA Cup’s final qualifying round and plenty more, including a tribute to international football’s longest serving warrior, Ildefons Lima Solà of Andorra.

In the second episode of a special series marking Black History Month, Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler are again joined by Bill Hern and David Gleave, authors of Football’s Black Pioneers , along with special guest Matt Tiller. Matt was the founder of the Jack Leslie campaign and has produced a biography of the great man. As well as talking about Jack, there’s plenty of discussion of Lindy Delaphena...

Not one but two new These Football Times magazines are out, both centred on the wonderful, intriguing world of football from Eastern Europe. From the Hungarians of 1954 to the Croatians of ’98, through the romance of Dinamo Tblisi to the majesty and pragmatism of Red Star (and a whole lot more besides), Aidan Williams, Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler take a flick through the magazines’ sumptuous con...

Another glorious weekend for VAR comes under the microscope but Rob Fletcher, Steven Scragg and Matthew Gibbs also cast the net further afield, taking in 13-year-old debutant, the plight of Sheffield Wednesday, Scunthorpe and Reading, and a Friday morning YouTube addiction for following the twists and turns of the J League. 

In the first of a new series for Black History Month, Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler talk to Bill Hern and David Gleave, authors of Football’s Black Pioneers about the role of black footballers in the English and the wider game, their successes and their struggles. In the first episode, we look at players from Africa.

The European Championship is the playing field for the Mount Rushmore debate this time around as Aidan Williams, Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler argue for their choices to be immortalised on the rockface. Gary Thacker sits in judgement on the goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, striker and manager that best represents the history of the competition.

Will Manchester City become the first club to win four top flight titles in a row in English football history? Is Leicester's promotion to the Premier League a foregone conclusion? Will Harry Kane’s Bavarian adventure ignite a run to the European Championship title for England? Why is the League Cup so maligned? These questions and more are answered – possibly incorrectly – by Rob Fletcher, John D...