The showpiece showcase showdown between Real Madrid and Liverpool is fast approaching and it's an intriguing conclusion to a UEFA Champions League season that's thrown up a few surprises and a handful of memorable matches. Now we're at the business end, we couldn't resist; this week's Football Fives Podcast is all about the continent's elite competition. Daniel Storey was probably doing someone else's podcast so it's down to David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee to put the spotlight on the latter stages. We ask whether the Champions League final could or should be played outside Europe, whether the Group Stage is anything more than a procession and whether Liverpool and Roma have blown open the doors. And we look forward to this year's final - complete with some likely wayward predictions - and back to our favourite finals of all. We'll just assume Dan's would have been rather close to home... Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

Shahid Khan's bid to buy Wembley from the Football Association - its spiritual and current owner, if not its traditional one - has put the national stadium at the heart of the conversation about the soul of English football. In this week's Football Fives Podcast we dedicate our unnecessarily rigid five-question format to the old place. It's a full house as Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee delve into the life and times of Wembleys original and rebuilt, discussing our personal perspectives on the stadium, our favourite ever Wembley memories and the statues that aren't outside the ground but bloody well should be. And, of course, we talk about the sale. Should the FA take the money and run? Is it a good deal? Should the England team vacate the premises rather than become a tenant in their own home? You'll have to listen to find out. So go on. Listen. Seriously. Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

Every now and then we like to get up close and personal with just one player, subjecting him to our inflexible five-question format and putting him in the spotlight. This is one of those shows - this week's Football Fives Podcast is a career retrospective and the man in question is the inimitable Roberto Baggio. Baggio is a larger than life figure for British followers of Italian football in the 1990s but he came through in the mid-1980s and embarked upon a career that would create history. Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee begin this week's episode by asking whether that's a career of which we're jealous. We debate the characteristics that made Baggio so loved, relive his best goals, try in vain to establish whether he'd be a superstar in modern football. Our closing question this week is an indulgent one for those British Serie A fans: would Football Italia have been as successful as it was without that Divine Ponytail to look at? Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

Phew! Manchester City have finally won the Premier League title. What took them so damned long, eh? Luckily, the Football Fives Podcast gang is on hand to run the rule over their extraordinary tardiness. It's gone Easter, for Christ's sake. Embarrassing. We're a three-piece this week. Chris Nee had to go and cause some trouble at a derby match so it's left to David Hartrick, Daniel Storey and Ryan Keaney to talk City's triumph, mull over the bizarre phenomenon of the PFA awards, discuss football documentaries and name the best footballing time of the year. (It's Christmas.) There's also a dip back into our hands-off running of the fictional club we made up once as we talk about our marquee summer signings. Will we snatch Mohamed Salah? Snare Cristiano Ronaldo? Rescue Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini from their parted hell, reuniting them in our fantastical version of Berlin? There's only one way to find out... Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

We're a bit distracted by the World Cup. With only a few more months to wait, with sticker albums out, with that Germany away kit revealed, who could blame us? So, in this week's Football Fives Podcast, we're getting even further ahead of ourselves by talking about World Cup finals. Finals. The final game. Not finals. You know what we mean. Anyway... Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee are together once more to talk about the pinnacle of our sport, including the old-timey finals that most intrigue us, our favourite final goals and a few stories about the men who went out on the pitch and made it happen. We also talk about the likelihood or otherwise of another World Cup final hat-trick and make what is likely to prove a pretty terrible attempt at predicting which two teams will appear in the final of FIFA™ World Cup™ 2018™ Russia™ this summer. Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

This week's Football Fives Podcast is a little bit different. It's a quiz episode, which isn't unusual in its own right, but Daniel Storey's work-related absence means we've got a straight-up head-to-head between two blokes who like talking about football but may or may not know sod all about it. David Hartrick and his new book are in the quizmaster's chair. Chris Nee (ENG) is a retainer of useless memories from football in the 1990s, a solid quizzer on the subjects of Aston Villa and Olof Mellberg, and a fierce competitor who'll settle for second but never third. NEVER third. Not this time, anyway. Ryan Keaney (NIR) is a finger-on-the-pulse enthusiast who knows what's going on in the football world around him, remembers vital matters about the sport's biggest historical moments and understands the importance of an analytical approach to quizzing. So, who'll come out on top? Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

Here at the Football Fives Podcast we love nothing more than fixing football. This week, we've dedicated our entire show to it. Instead of the usual five questions, each member of the panel has five opportunities to change one of the laws of the game or a detail within. Fun, eh? We're without Daniel Storey this week because of real work - whatever that is - so it's a three-hander starring this week's host, David Hartrick, along with Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee. We change five rules each, and throw in a bunch of listener suggestions for good measure. Five substitutes anyone? We talk about effective playing time, orange cards, penalties, offside, handball, head injuries, sin bins, transfer windows and many, many more topics that make the beautiful game beautiful. Would we change some of these? Sure. Would we change football fundamentally? Not a chance. Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

We find a certain joy in recording some of our podcasts without a plan. It means you get our unfiltered opinions, you get us at our fastest thinking and let's be honest - we are at our best *looks to camera*. It has nothing to do with 2018 being manic so far, and all of us needing to keep things relatively easy preparation wise. This week is another blind episode and another chance for us to delve into David Hartrick's bag of football teams. We pick out another side to get the Football Fives Podcast run down and having previously pulled Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur out, we figured that law of averages would see us head down the road less travelled for our third attempt. And so, of course we ended up with West Ham United - who have definitely shied away from the headlines in the last few days and months. Lovely. Join Dave, Daniel Storey and Ryan Keaney as we talk about the current state of the club, our favourite current and past players, what personal connection we all feel for the Hammers and how we see the next three years going for them. Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

If your jam is listening to four amateur audio talkers judging countless professional audio talkers, this is the Football Fives Podcast for you. We're stepping away from the field of play this week and dipping into another aspect of football culture. Our topic for this episode, upon which we tackle the customary five questions, is the peerless BBC Radio 5 Live. Daniel Storey takes the Mark Chapman role and guides David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney, Ryan Keaney's tea and Chris Nee through those questions, which begin with a discussion about the legendary phone-in show, 606, and end with a few ideas for the shows we should be commissioned to make for the station. In between, we touch on the joys of radio football commentary, ask whether there should be more - yes, more - football on 5 Live, and identify the queen or king of the station's football output. There's some nattering about talkSPORT as well, but don't hold that agin us. Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher

Welcome to the latest episode of the Football Fives Podcast. This week we're without Daniel Storey, who presumably was out on some kind of press tour to promote The Totally Football Show, so it was left to the three remaining panelists to embark upon on of our very favourite Fives formats: the tournament retrospective. Yes! Over the years we've mentioned far too many times that the FIFA World Cup closest to one's birthday is the one against which other tournaments are compared. For Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee, that tournament was USA '94, and in this week's episode we finally get around to talking about it through a mist of nostalgia. David Hartrick completes the line-up to take the edge off the giddiness. So, World Cup USA '94. Romario and Bebeto. Bulgaria and Stoichkov. Salenko. Romania and Hagi. Even El Diego made an appearance! Join us, then, as we relive the most attended World Cup in history with childlike excitement. Submit a question: show[at]footballfivespodcast.com Listen to the show: Click to play / right-click to download (MP3) Import to podcatcher of choice (feed) Subscribe in iTunes // Subscribe in Stitcher