Football and the media. Isn't it? Mmm. In this week's Football Fives Podcast we're going back in on the beautiful game's rather less enticing mediascape, inspired by Gary Neville's set-to with members of the fourth estate last week. So, where better to begin than by discussing the point he was making and the point that got poked back at him. Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee also take a look at the impact of clickbait culture in football, the future of the match report and whether agents, players and clubs are to blame for increasing contempt for transfer rumours in the media. Well, three of us do. One of us hates the bloody things anyway. Finally, we look for a positive spin on what can be a distressing topic. The challenge? Pick a line-up of columnists for an imaginary football website that we don't want to turn out rubbish like so many of the real ones. 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

Regular Football Fives Podcast listeners will be aware of our tendency to prioritise the obscure in the face of pressure to embrace mainstream topics. In this week's show we've taken our preference for the niche questions by talking about the flashest player in the world, the England manager, the England captain and that Liverpool guy. You won't find that stuff anywhere else. We're shorthanded this week, so Daniel Storey, David Hartrick and Chris Nee tackle their way through five pertinent questions around the theme of the show, which is "no theme" - it's another of our "anything goes" episodes, so we delve into the matter of whether Cristiano Ronaldo is underrated, where England will go under Gareth Southgate, and whether the recent Wayne Rooney story was worthy journalism. And, just to lighten the mood a bit, we also discuss the abandoned prospect of Steven Gerrard managing MK Dons and what it means for star players going into management, and report back on the teams we've been most interested in watching so far this season. 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

When you get four men in their thirties together there's not always a lot that unites them. Their politics will differ. Their music taste will differ, as will their taste in films, their taste in books and their taste in...well, food and that. And their football allegiances will differ, if they even like football at all. So it's kind of nice when there's something they all admire with equal gusto. In the case of the Football Fives Podcast, that something is Mr David Beckham. In this week's show Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee focus on the man they've been itching to talk about since day one. With the help of a listener question, we discuss five Beckham-based or Beckham-related topics and dribble our way through the best part of an hour of #content. Fair warning: if you're not a Beckham person, this podcast ain't fo' you. If you are...enjoy. 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

The Football Fives Podcast is at full-strength this week and we even had time to prepare for a specific topic, for once. The strikers among us are setting aside our differences with the folk on the other side of the game, talking as we are about defending, the art of ruining the game for those dastardly entertainers. Spoilers: spoilers. Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee are in action this week to discuss what makes the perfect modern centre back, and the relative importance of defensive midfielders and full backs to a team's defensive function. To lighten the load, we also name our own teams' greatest ever back four line-up. In the middle we talk about the merits and otherwise of zonal marking by way of a comparison with its Proper Football Man equivalent, and answer Ashley Connick's listener question about whether defenders are unfairly overlooked when it comes to debates about football's greatest ever proponents. 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

Well, it's all kicking off in the Premier League, isn't it? Jose Mourinho's not a happy man and the world has to hear about it at every opportunity. The Football Fives Podcast isn't inclined to indulge him, but his influence tees up the first question of this week's "anything goes" episode. Favourite managerial outbursts? Yes please. Ryan Keaney, Chris Nee and foul-mouthed Daniel Storey are without David Hartrick as we discuss big-name managers under pressure and ask whether Mourinho, Mr Josep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti are under any real threat of losing their jobs, and tackle the small matter of players who've squandered their potential. In the middle, we talk about football's declining television audiences in the UK. BT, Sky Sports, the Premier League, the Champions League, illegal streaming and social clipping all feature as we try in vain to get to the bottom of why we're turning off. 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

Whether or not our interest has continued into adulthood, there's a generation of football supporters in England with a disproportionately affectionate nostalgia for Serie A, the storied and celebrated top flight of Italian football. This week's Football Fives Podcast is for them. (Us.) Our 65th episode brings back the occasional Fives format, in which we each create a five-a-side team from a finite category of players and combine them into the ultimate this Fives or that Fives. We've done international teams. We've done fictional football. We've done punditry. Now, for the first time, we're embracing an entire league. Of course, a league with Serie A's richness of history is too wide a category. So Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee are picking from the big but not-quite-so-big group of foreign imports who've made Italian football their own. Serie A foreigners? It's as bloody difficult a choice as it sounds. 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

What football supporter doesn't dream of owning a club? Not a one, that's what one, or something. In this week's Football Fives Podcast, David Hartrick challenges the rest of the panel with his latest blind episode, by which we mean not that our eyes are covered up, but that we don't know the five questions before we hit record. This week Daniel Storey, Ryan Keaney, Chris Nee and Brother Hartrick build a football club. Yes, like The Sound Of Football. Yes, like Twohundredpercent. But we figure once one pack of reprobates have stolen an idea then whosoever steals it from them is doing a favour for the originators. That being the case: you're welcome, SOF. Anyway, ours is a little different. Dave sets the panel the task of picking a location, a stadium design, a philosophy, a manager and a level of ambition. Unfortunately for Chris, Dave also pre-selected level five as the starting point, so blood-and-thunder semi-pro action is off the table. Curses. 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

We've got a few formats we like to throw our "Fives" name behind, and one of them is a five-question review of a football tournament from years gone by. What with three of us being England supporters - and two of us just a year or two too young to remember the ins and outs of World Cup Italia '90 - UEFA EURO '96 is one we've had on the to-do list since the Football Fives Podcast began. This week, we get stuck in at last. We assess England's performance on home soil and talk at length about the games that lifted the mood that summer, as well as the eeriness of automatic qualification as hosts. But it's not all about England. We also pick our favourite games and goals from the competition and ask whether the right team took home the trophy. And, of course, we take the nostalgia too far by talking about a few things that have no relevance to EURO '96 whatsoever. So stick around; you might not learn anything about football but you'll certainly learn a thing or two about four idiots who like it. 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

When an England manager loses his job after just one game, it's always going to be worth abandoning one's existing plans and talking at length about his demise on a podcast. In this week's Football Fives we do exactly that, picking over the carcass of Sam Allardyce's disgraced England spell after The Telegraph caught him out with a smidgeon of entrapment. Daniel Storey, David Hartrick, Ryan Keaney and Chris Nee talk about why Allardyce had to go, and also discuss the values, virtues and vagaries of the Team of the Week feature. There's a chat about West Ham United's difficult start to life at our their stadium, and the shortest question we've ever done: who, Nigel Pearson aside, is next up for the chop. And there's a listener question this week from Andy Rockall, who gave us an excuse to talk about football kits. So we did. Nottingham Forest, Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester United and Aston Villa supporters will recognise our choices. 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

Back once again with the ill behaviour, it's the Football Fives Podcast. We're back to our customary four-hander this week with Chris Nee's return from the brink of technological oblivion, so we decided to mark the occasion by doing next to no preparation and putting out another of our "anything goes" episodes. First up, we re-acquaint ourselves with our respective taste in goals, before exploring in a bit more depth an issue that's come up as part of another question recently: why do pundits and various football folk get so blinded by the ball being touched in the process of a foul being committed? There's some Pep Guardiola stuff too. In the last part of the show we answer a listener question from friend of the show Dave Musson, who wants to know our favourite examples of bad sportsmanwomanpersonship, and get all emotional about Henrik Larsson, whose birthday was this week. Fortunately for us we can do the same again next year. 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