Football Cliches

An immaculate Etihad goalkeeping hierarchy, nearly picking Maicon by accident, an underwhelming Pep Guardiola raid of Bayern Munich, a capable midfield wardrobe, the one turn-of-the-2010s Englishman they didn’t sign, the Messi/Ronaldo dilemma, Hulk tearing up the Premier League from the right-hand side, an agonising choice for No 9, and one charming man to lead them all.

Adam Hurrey is joined by David Walker and James Maw to sift through dozens of names in a bid to pick apart Manchester City's various transfer strategies from 2008 to the present day - from the early post-takeover splurges to the relentless squad-refining of the Guardiola era - and select a lineup of players who somehow slipped through the Etihad net.

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Adam Hurrey is joined on the Adjudication Panel by Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker. On the agenda: one of the best phone-in callers of the Man City saga so far, Richard Keys vs Liam Gallagher, England’s nursery-rhyme back four, statistical proof that it's tinpot for a country’s football association to have an actual football in its logo, David Seaman barely contains himself yet again, analysing the full weekly lineup for The Overlap Daily, Sean Dyche's favourite line gets another airing, and the greatest pound-for-pound commentator's curse of all time.

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Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker are joined by former Premier League referee Graham Scott, who answers some increasingly obscure questions from the pod and the listeners about life as a top-flight match official...

Is RefCam a positive development in our relationship with referees? What's the threshold for a referee becoming "card happy"? When would an official call a player by their nickname? Why have anti-referee chants failed to evolve over the years? Why is Jay Bothroyd now the nation's unofficial chief referee assessor? Why do referees whistle for full time in different ways? And how long would it take for a flawlessly talented 40-year-old referee to go from Sunday League to Premier League?

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Adam Hurrey is joined on the Adjudication Panel by Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker. On the agenda: the finer details of the fallout from the Premier League's verdict on Manchester City's charges, accidentally musical commentary from England vs Spain, a huge development for players who have their full names read out every time, Poland delivers the adverb that football never knew it always wanted, Andy Townsend on pub toilets, Dave unconsciously saying the names of Ballon d’Or winners, Jeremy Clarkson presenting Match of the Day, and Glenn Hoddle goes route-one in search of some international-break social media engagement.

Play our fantastic new Out of Control daily quiz at games.footballcliches.com

Sign up for Dreamland, the members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com

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Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and Nick Miller entertain this month's listener entries for Mesut Haaland Dicks, as the Clichés faithful nominate their niche footballing fascinations and irritations.

Among the selections are the three minutes it takes to identify the co-commentator by voice alone, the body language of an offside striker performatively not interfering with play, why a player can be "on a hat-trick" but not "on a red card" and the sheer dissatisfaction of a new signing not being immediately unleashed for their debut.

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Sign up for Dreamland, the new members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com

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Adam Hurrey is joined on the Adjudication Panel by Charlie Eccleshare and Nick Miller. On the agenda: More Drurian delivery from Australian football commentary, a geographically earth-shattering MLS fixture from 2015, the most likely current Premier League manager to jokingly pretend to walk into the wrong dressing room, a satisfying Saturday evening for one Coventry fan, Jose Mourinho prints off his La Liga complaints, the logical framework of being “the happier of the two managers at half-time”, Irish wondergoal commentary, Martin Tyler celebrates his birthday by finally completing a very specific set, a Belgian version of Happy Hunting Grounds and a listener asks for our favourite overlappers.

Play our fantastic new Out of Control daily quiz at games.footballcliches.com

Sign up for Dreamland, the members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com

Download SAILY in your app store and use code CLICHES at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase! For more info, visit https://saily.com/cliches

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The 26th edition of the Football Clichés Quiz sees Adam, Charlie and Dave take on trivia-savvy listeners Pat Noone, Sam Huxley and Jonny Sharples.

The questions include: Premier League Chrisses, managers of Premier League games that have their own Wikipedia pages, the Oceanian Champions League, guessing the co-commentator, football men dubbed into Welsh, Richard Keys’s World Cup rallying cries, guessing the Champions League final from the pre-match punditry, various nations' Premier League top scorers and, of course, Happy Hunting Grounds.

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Sign up for Dreamland, the members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive new show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com

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LONDON LIVE QUIZ - TICKETS ON GENERAL SALE WEDNESDAY 16TH - ⁠quiz.footballcliches.com⁠

Adam Hurrey is joined on the Adjudication Panel by Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker. On the agenda: the fallout from the Manchester derby, Tottenham's goal drought passes an important threshold, referees commentating on goals, a very familiar-sounding voice from a game in Australia, whether Manchester United vs Sabah set an incredibly niche world record, overdue praise for the steadiest commentary duo in the business, sci-fi heritage in Scottish penalty shootouts and Andy Gray’s booming return to co-commentary.

Play the Happy Hunting Grounds daily quiz at games.footballcliches.com

Sign up for Dreamland, the members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com

Download SAILY in your app store and use code CLICHES at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase! For more info, visit https://saily.com/cliches

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Adam Hurrey is joined on the Adjudication Panel by Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker. On the agenda: Dean Saunders continues his intermittent campaign against modern football terminology, tinpot scenes in the Yashin Trophy nominations, a Talksport debate about the threshold for in-game dominance, John McGinn's trademark caressed curler, the growing usage of "late doors", an unacceptably casual word for a headed goal, the least "rounding the goalkeeper" striker in the Premier League, commentary to the accidental rhythm of football chants and Richard Keys's top 6 commentators of all time.

Play the Happy Hunting Grounds daily quiz at games.footballcliches.com

Sign up for Dreamland, the members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com

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Adam Hurrey is joined on the Adjudication Panel by Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker. On the agenda: reflections on a superb afternoon at the Cliches live show, Tom Cruise deploys the football plural, Gary Cotterill plumbs new press-conference depths, Manchester United are Arsenal 2008/09 in disguise, the fallout from Mike Dean's embellished anecdote, slightly-too-casual VAR announcements, the Gary Neville noise in a Kaiser Chiefs song, and much more.

Play the Happy Hunting Grounds daily quiz at games.footballcliches.com

Sign up for Dreamland, the members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com

Download SAILY in your app store and use code CLICHES at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase! For more info, visit https://saily.com/cliches

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