These Football Times

It’s been an extraordinary campaign in the National League, from first day to the final penalty kick. The team is joined by BT Sport’s Adam Summerton, who has commentated on all its ups and downs, from Wrexham to Scunthorpe and all points in between, to reflect on a seismic season.

We're back in the Centre Circle talking with Gary Thacker about his book Dutch Masters: When Ajax's Totaalvoetbal Conquered Europe . Find out more about one of European football's iconic teams that set standards of innovative play that few, if any, have been able to match since.

Rosario is Argentina’s third most populous city and the list of the country’s great players born there reads like a veritable Who’s Who of footballing stars. Yet their clubs have probably underperformed, both nationally and continentally. The team discuss why.

With title, promotion and relegation issues all coming to a climax as the season’s end hurtles towards us, the  team try to find the winners and losers amongst it all, both at home and abroad.

With a huge Bank Holiday Monday fixture list in the post-Coronation offing, we debate who will be swapping places between the Premier League and the Championship, explain why we expect Ipswich to be tearing up the second tier next term, see Napoli put the celebratory pizzas on hold, and ask if failing players refunding fans is such a good thing after all.

With the recent departures of Patrick Vieira and Paul Ince, there are just three black managers left in the top four English leagues. The team debates why that is, as well as looking at the coming ups and downs of the Championship and League One, a Scottish Cup semi-final for the romantics and, one for the conspiracy theorists, are we at the end of an era for both Harry Kane and Bayern Munich?

It's down to the last four and Wembley beckons - we’re not playing any semi-finals there, thank you very much. From the age of Pathé News through to the shifting sands of the early-90s and a semi-final weekend when Fergie’s United began to emerge from Liverpool’s shadow, all footballing life is here.

In this episode Dave Bowler, joins us to select the four giants who should feature on Aberdeen’s epic Mount Rushmore. The selection might surprise you, but there’s plenty of discussion about why they were the choices and just who missed out. 

It’s a Chelsea special at These Football Timess. e look back on the evolution of the Blues from Jimmy Greaves and Ken Bates to Roman Abramovich to Graham Potter. Will Chelsea’s chaos theory deliver a third Champions League triumph, or do they need to finally find some stability before the glittering prizes return?

After an early Sunday morning drop, we’re in Rio, the city of beaches, carnival and the towering statue of Christ the Redeemer. Led by the knowledge of Dr Pete Watson, we look at some mega clubs, mascots, shirts and a few exotically named players.

In this edition of the Centre Circle, we talk with Chris Lee about his book The Defiant: A History of Football Against Fascism, exploring some of its most fascinating storiesin greater depth. 

In this episode, we’re off to the south of Brazil to visit Porto Alegre and look at a couple of the biggest clubs in the country, plus one with a mascot who fits right into our narrative. Stu Horsfield, Gary Thacker, Steven Scragg and Pete Watson are your travel guides.

The sixth round, the last eight, the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Now it’s getting serious,  eternal glory sitting just three wins away. It’s a round of pitch invasions and last-gasp penalties, of Ceefax recruits and dashed dreams. All human life is here - because that’s the magic of the FA Cup ...

It’s a Leicester City special at These Football Times. We look back on a remarkable decade for the Foxes and ask just where it’s gone wrong this season. Will Leicester survive the drop? We’ve got the answer in one of these three envelopes ...

The podcast crew discuss the strange case of Harry Maguire’s demise, investigate promotion and relegation dramas in Scotland’s League Two and England’s National League, and ponder just why it is that no club has ever got the open top bus out to celebrate a fourth-place finish.

We pay tribute to the late John Motson, laud David Moyes, take the pressure off Erik ten Hag, fret over the future of the EFL, debate a century of continuity going down the drain at Rochdale, and revel in the skulduggery of this most Italian of Serie A seasons.

The fifth round of the FA Cup means that for some, Wembley begins to beckon. For others, it’s the graveyard of their dreams. We explore some classic games of fifth rounds past, including a legendary example of El StJames’Parkico, bedsheets for goalposts at Anfield, Mrs Revie doing the Highland fling, Paul Rideout enjoying his second-best FA Cup day, a grim day at Gay Meadow for Bobby Robson, and G...

Will Graham Potter survive at Chelsea? Will Valencia stay out on a limb? Who will be in goal for Newcastle at Wembley? Who thought a UEFA panel would actually blame UEFA for the chaos at the 2022 Champions League final. The answer to all these and more  brought to you by These Football Times.

In this podcast, we ask what is done to be done about VAR, pay tribute to Joe Allen, ponder the impact of The Office on Southampton, and revel in a post-World Cup Argentina, while the ZX81 generation get to grips with eSports.

Montevideo probably has more football clubs per square mile than any other city in the world. Tag along with Stu Horsfield, Gary Thacker and Steven Scragg as Dr Pete Watson guides us through the cafes and colours, giants and minnows, heroes and villains of football in the capital of Uruguay. 

The pod crew go from Stockport to Spain, Italy and Japan in a global odyssey, picking out some intriguing stories. From Stockport's rise to the lengthy struggles and brief successes of Elche and Cremonese, we discuss the  changing tides caused by Everton's win over Arsenal, look ahead to the FA Cup fourth round replays, and send some love to the never ending career of  Kazu Miura.

Join Stu Horsfield, Gary Thacker and Steven Scragg as we journey to Lima, guided, as always, by the brilliant Dr Pete Watson. With marmalade sandwiches packed, we explore football, its past and present as it is played in the capital of Peru. 

After the international discussions of recent weeks, the Today's Football Times crew go all domestic, discussing the highs of Queen's Park and the National League promotion chasers, the lows of Aberdeen and Everton, and the future for Lampard and his old rival Gerrard. Plus a few words on the upcoming anniversary of the Munich disaster and the way Manchester United handle such a pivotal event in t...

The fourth round of the FA Cup is sometimes castigated as the ugly duckling or the plodding bassist of the competition, but Steven Scragg, Paul Mc Parlan and Dave Bowler are having none of that. Mighty replays, free bedroom furniture and unlikely sex symbols abound as we dig beneath the surface.

Freedom of movement returns to the pod as Steven Scragg, James Kelly and Matthew Gibbs wander the highways and byways of Europe as they talk about LaLiga in general and Sevilla in particular, delve into the Bundesliga, and then return to Blighty to give us the pinsticker’s guide to upcoming FA Cup fourth round shocks.