Upfront - A Women's Football Podcast

On today’s episode of Ramble Meets... Andy sits down with FC Nordsjælland chairman and Right To Dream founder, Tom Vernon! Tom founded Right To Dream, the Ghanaian football academy, in 1999 - he joins Andy to discuss its immense educational and footballing imprint in the region, with over twenty graduates since playing professionally in Europe.  He also expands on the academy’s purchase of Da...

Dotun, Andy and Nicky Bandini catch their breath and bring you their reaction to a dramatic week on and off the pitch in the Champions League! After Juventus’ exit in the last 16 again on Tuesday, we ask whether the Cristiano Ronaldo experiment has been a failure. Nicky also addresses the question marks over Andrea Pirlo’s position and whether Max Allegri really could do any better with such an un...

Some promising performances on the pitch haven’t drawn too much attention away from the chaos unfolding behind the scenes at Barcelona. Join Dotun, Andy and David Cartlidge for the latest on the club’s ongoing boardroom scandal, as we preview the runners and riders in Sunday’s momentous presidential election.  Staying with clubs on the brink of collapse, we try to work out which (if any) staf...

Today's Ramble Meets... guest has spent nearly three decades coaching in elite football, including ten years under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Mark Pougatch is joined by Ferguson's former first-team coach and current Australia assistant coach, René Meulensteen! René has worked with some of football's most esteemed characters in a career that has taken him to England, Russia, the Middle...

Dotun, Andy and Lars Sivertsen guide you through the second week of Champions League last 16 games and all of the biggest stories from across Europe! First off, we try and provide some answers to Atletico’s head-scratching performance against Chelsea. Their city rivals hardly pleased the eye either, though. But while Lars puts on his tin foil hat over some poor refereeing decisions in Real’s game...

Today's episode of 'Ramble Meets...' features a man well versed in professional football's intense and various demands, from playing as an international striker to managing across the leagues. Mark Pougatch sits down with former Northern Ireland, Southampton and West Ham striker, Iain Dowie! Iain regales us with tales from his storied career, from surviving non-league football's school of hard kno...

It’s a Champions League extravaganza on this week’s episode of On The Continent! Dotun Adebayo, Andy Brassell and Miguel Delaney are here to pore over the biggest stories from another round of continental crusades. As the reigns of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dwindle, we wonder how significant Kylian Mbappé’s cracking hat-trick at Camp Nou might prove to be and ask whether he will move on f...

Today’s episode of the Book Club takes you deep into the heart of the Swedish underworld, as the gangland execution of a promising footballer made national news in 2010. Kate and Jim are joined by Ann Törnkvist to discuss her best-selling book, Follow Fucking Orders. Ann spent five years looking into the story of Eddie Moussa, the promising Assyrian footballer whose performances captured almost as...

Join Dotun Adebayo, Andy Brassell and Nicky Bandini for a brand new episode of On The Continent, your one-stop shop for all things European football! We begin by assessing the main contenders for the Serie A title, with Juventus' great run of form putting pressure on their Milanese opponents. We also ask what’s happening over at Borussia Dortmund and wonder whether they may be forced to sell their...

Our Ramble Meets... guest this week went from watching her hometown club Burnley on the terraces at Turf Moor to earning 82 international caps and even becoming an Olympian: it's former England goalkeeper turned pundit, Rachel Brown-Finnis! Rachel sits down with Mark Pougatch to talk about a fascinating career that straddles two vastly different eras of women's football in England. As the only gir...

Dotun and Andy are joined by David Cartlidge to pick through the smouldering wreckage of another week in European football! After El Mundo revealed the staggering details of Messi’s contract, we study the fallout since as Messi looks to the courts and Barcelona’s presidential candidates scramble to back up their star player. We ask David whether Messi is the cause of Barcelona’s financial woes, or...

Welcome to another edition of On The Continent! Dotun and Andy are joined by Lars to dive into the biggest stories from across European football. First, Andy gives us an update on PSG’s interest in Dele Alli, who looks ready to move across the Channel. Meanwhile in Germany, Dortmund and RB Leipzig’s capitulations have handed the initiative to a faltering Bayern Munich side. We take a look at what...

Not every football manager arrives at the training ground in an orange Ford Mustang with Guns N' Roses blasting from the stereo, but today’s guest wouldn't have it any other way. Mark Pougatch welcomes Wycombe Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth to the Ramble Meets... hot seat! Gareth and Mark look back over a storied career that saw him involved in over 1000 matches from both sides of the dugout....

Dotun, Andy and Miguel bring your weekly European football fix with the biggest stories from across the continent! We begin in Turkey, where Mesut Özil has finally touched down: but what, exactly, awaits him there? We gauge expectations in Fenerbahçe after their massive financial gamble and explore exactly how Özil will fit into the country’s political landscape. We check in on Serie A, where it’s...

Ever wondered what it'd be like to live with Jürgen Klopp? Well, our guest on today's episode of the Book Club turned a Twitter thread on just such a thought into a book: it's Laura Lexx, comedian and author of Klopp Actually: (Imaginary) Life with Football's Most Sensible Heartthrob! What started as a few hundred characters on Twitter has grown into a heartfelt book about dealing with life's anxi...

Have the icy conditions in Spain somehow given Diego Simeone even more power? First aCoach of the Decade award, and now he’s managing La Liga’s genuine title favourites! Dotun Adebayo, Andy Brassell and Nicky Bandini are here to assess their snow-covered title charge on today’s episode of On The Continent! Elsewhere, with both Lazio and Roma playing at home in this weekend’s Derby della Capitale,...

This week Andy was delighted to sit down with Rubin Kazan head coach and former Russia national team manager, Leonid Slutsky! Leonid reflects on his hugely successful period at CSKA Moscow, where he made history in Europe. He also opens up about his turbulent time at Hull City back in 2017, and why he still maintains such great fondness for the city and for English football. And after going viral...

We’re back with your weekly European football fix! Dotun and Andy are joined by David Cartlidge to discuss some huge midweek fixtures. And where else to start but in Paris? We assess Mauricio Pochettino’s first game in charge and look at what can be realistically expected of him there, as well as what Pochettino could learn from Tuchel’s reign. We also go to Italy, where Juventus finally halted Mi...

Today, we welcome Nottingham Forest and England legend, Stuart Pearce! Stuart sits down with Mark Pougatch to reflect on the biggest and quirkiest moments of his storied career. He opens up about his relationship with Brian Clough and the legendary manager’s incredible attempt to tap him up midway through a game for Coventry City.  He also guides us through Euro ’96: his feelings towards the...

Andy is joined on today’s Ramble Meets… by Ride founding member and diehard Oxford United fan, Mark Gardener! Mark’s love for Oxford United was cemented in his childhood, trying to clamber over the terraces to watch them with his Dad. He talks us through those early days, including the famous 1986 Milk Cup win, and how following his side became increasingly difficult as worldwide fame found the ba...

To help round off what has been a tumultuous 2020, Dotun Adebayo and Andy Brassell are joined today by all four of our On The Continent pundits! Together, we pick out some of European football's biggest stories from the past year.  Miguel Delaney joins us to discuss whether Bayern Munich will cement their European dominance in the next few years of the Champions League, while David Cartlidge...

Fantasy Five-a-Side is back with a cracker! Jim is joined by YouTuber, presenter of ‘Live From London Stadium’ and host of the JaackMaate’s Happy Hour podcast, JaackMaate! Jack lures a couple of West Ham legends to the Goals pitches of Norwich - including the man known as the Lardball and the player who once had to escape a fight at a party in his boxers. It’s obviously a side oozing with class, b...

It seemed a strained relationship from the beginning, but Lucien Favre has finally lost his job at Dortmund. Dotun Adebayo, Andy Brassell and Lars Sivertsen are here to unpick it all on this week’s episode of On The Continent. Join us! After his sacking, we look into the cultural differences between Favre and the fevered Westfalenstadion crowd and ask whether he was ever the right fit for the club...

We're off to the Allsvenskan for today's 'Ramble Meets...' episode, as Andy is joined by former Milan, Feyenoord and Newcastle forward, Jon Dahl Tomasson! Andy catches up with Jon Dahl after training over in Malmö to discuss his storied playing career and impressive start to his time in management. From learning under the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Giovanni Trapattoni to perfecting his craft ove...

Today, Dotun and Andy are joined by Miguel Delaney to reflect on the biggest stories from around Europe. We begin with memories of the late great Paolo Rossi and his indelible impact on the 1982 World Cup. If Maradona made 1986 his, then '82 belongs to Rossi - who shaped his country’s destiny while also overcoming one of Brazil’s great teams. Everyone was talking about Ronaldo vs Messi this week:...