These Football Times

The power of transformative coaches comes under the spotlight in this week’s podcast as Rob Fletcher, Dr David Turner and Dave Bowler put Ange Postecoglou and Kieran McKenna under the microscope. With the academic year just starting, we compare and contrast Manchester United and Brighton’s approach to team building, ruminate on the state of football politics, look at how Burnley’s Women might brin...

Our season-by-season trawl through the greatest decade ever  might be over, but we couldn’t resist one last chance to come over all Jerry Springer and reflect on what we’ve learned. Great games, great names and great moments of the 70s are recalled along with a reflection on the decade’s enduring impact on football’s sociology and politics. And there’s one last chance for Karl Marx to win a lounge...

An international weekend allows Steven Scragg, Rob Fletcher and Alex Ireland to reflect on life in the Championship and League Two thus far, as well as looking at Euro 2024 qualifying to date. Is Gareth Southgate heading into his final tournament and, if so, should he look to go out in a blaze of glory? Will Luxembourg make it to a major tournament at last? And will Jude Bellingham ever play in th...

The final season of the 1970s as an epic decade goes out in epic style with a magisterial title win for Liverpool, a European Cup for Nottingham Forest and the sighting of the first of an oncoming foreign invasion through the advance guard of Muhren, Thijssen, Ardiles, Villa, Tarantini et al. Elsewhere, the season is disfigured by the big freeze, we crown Colin Barrett as the most significant play...

The new season has started, the transfer window has (mostly) closed, and football fans around the land are either daring to dream or are already looking out the bedsheets on which to scrawl fruity protests about their owners or managers. Steven Scragg and our deadline day signing Rob Fletcher reflect on the Women’s World Cup, the transfer window, the coming of Saudi Arabian football, and look ahea...

Now then, young man, Brian Clough is back. Cloughie takes Nottingham Forest to the top of the First Division, to a League Cup final win and to within a whisker of a first ever domestic treble, but Ron Greenwood beats him to the England job - to the relief of the City Ground faithful. Liverpool retain the European Cup, Ipswich  capture a first FA Cup, and West Brom’s John Wile gets a rotten headach...

The 1970s continue to produce moments that echo half a century later. Liverpool are denied the treble by Manchester United but content themselves with a first European Cup and the retention of their league title, as Kevin Keegan heads off into the sunset. Clive Thomas looms large for Evertonians, Don Revie packs his bucket and spade and trades England for the UAE, and there’s skulduggery aplenty a...

There’s a new name at the top of the First Division as QPR go toe-to-toe with Bob Paisley’s Liverpool for the title, and a new name on the FA Cup with Southampton seeing off Manchester United at Wembley. England start to stutter under Don Revie and a manager who will one day follow him into that job starts to make his reputation at Lincoln City.  Steven Scragg and Gary Thacker are joined by Dr Dav...

Prior to Gary Thacker getting out the chisel for the World Cup version of Mount Rushmore - just where does he find all these untouched mountainscapes incidentally? - Pete Watson, Matthew Gibbs and Dave Bowler offer up varied cases for just which goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, striker and manager has left the greatest impression on the World Cup since 1970. See if you agree with Gary’s selection...

Another tumultuous season beckons as Don Revie struggles to get a tune out of England, Brian Clough finds life at Leeds even tougher, Derby win the title as just seven points separate the top eight, Manchester United go up, Chelsea go down and Billy Bremer and Kevin Keegan get naked for charity.

In a packed programme, Brian Clough resigns from Derby and calls a Polish goalkeeper a clown within the same week, England miss out on the World Cup, Leeds go 29 games unbeaten from the start of the season to carry off the First Division and Manchester United are relegated. And that’s only the start of it …

1972/73 arrives and gives us a glimpse of the First Division to come as Liverpool march to the title and carry off the UEFA Cup to boot. At Wembley, there’s an FA Cup final for the ages as Sunderland defy Leeds while one of Wembley’s legends, Gordon Banks, sees his career end in a car crash. Tommy Docherty arrives at Old Trafford, Malcolm Allison walks out on Manchester City and second-placed Arse...

Nothing stirs the emotions quite like football does - for good and for bad. In this new series, Chris Lepkowski invites two guests to offer up three of their footballing pet hates before selecting which topic gets an early bath. Stu Horsfield and Aidan Williams do their best to earn a straight red card ...

We reach 1971/72 in the third part of our 1970s odyssey, an epic title race that ends with the First Division won by a team sitting on a beach in Majorca while the other clubs fall over their feet. Leeds just miss out on the double, Stoke win their first major trophy and there’s all-English UEFA Cup final. Meanwhile, West Germany give England a footballing lesson as storm clouds gather around Sir...

Introducing a twist on our popular Mount Rushmore series. Steven Scragg, Stu Horsfield and Dave Bowler are called to the witness box to each make the case for which goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, striker and manager should make it onto England’s Mount Rushmore. Gary “Solomon” Thacker sits in judgement, chisel in hand.

Picking up our trawl through the 1970s, the team alight upon 1970/71, a season where Arsenal re-emerged from Tottenham’s shadow to do the double (though Spurs did at least win the League Cup as consolation). There’s a power shift on Merseyside, Manchester United remain in the dumps, and Don Revie wonders just what he did to upset the footballing gods.

In the first of a new series that will cover the ten seasons of the 1970s, Steven Scragg guides Paul McParlan and Dave Bowler through the twists and turns that see the School of Science setting the pace, an FA Cup final for the ages, Derby entering the national conversation and the chilly winds of a failed re-election bidding blowing through Bradford.

Rounding out our South American odyssey, we visit São Paulo in Brazil, where we look through the myriad of clubs and great names that makes up Brazilian football in the continent’s most populous city. Plus, there’s news of our next project ...

Another pod from the literary Centre Circle, in which we welcome David Hartrick to discuss his book Silver Linings , covering the tumultuous times that faced England during Bobby Robson’s stint as national team manager. 

On our penultimate city stop on the tour of South America, we've skipped over the Andes to Santiago where the team guide you through the intricacies of football in the capital of Chile.

We're back in the Centre Circle. This time, we're chatting with Rob Fletcher about his excellent new book 1992: The Birth of Modern Football . Join us as we explore how Rob's book covers some of the massive football events of the year.

Bringing the season’s weekly podcasts to an end, the team look at a week of European finals and assess Manchester City’s achievements, ponder the state of David Moyes’ knees, and ask if Jose Mourinho has outdone himself this time by getting red carded in a car park.

With seasons coming to a halt all over Europe, the intrepid team take a lingering look at matters both domestic and continental as we offer the final word on the uppers, the downers and the just hanging-arounders across Europe’s leagues.

The FA Cup reaches its climax with the Manchester derby at Wembley. In preparation, the team look at how the FA Cup final launched golden ages for both Manchester United and Chelsea and paved the way for a coronation, as well as unveiling the ‘Lovett final’ and carbon dating a cup winner ...

The team are joined by David Begg, the doyen of radio commentators across his long and successful career with BBC Radio Scotland. We reminisce about covering Aberdeen’s Cup Winners' Cup final success over Real Madrid in 1983, Scotland’s trip to the World Cup in 1982, and "Glory, glory James McFadden ..."