Jim White returns to contribute to the last in our series of podcasts about the England managers which takes the panel from Sven to Thomas Tuchel and the glories that lie ahead for the England football team - which is usually a reminder that they haven’t won anything since 1966.  In the name of Allah go, they said to Bobby Robson.  Yanks 2 Planks 0 the Sun helpfully pointed out to Graham Taylor.  We know that the press, not just The Sun, can be very hostile and extremely rude to England managers.  Are the national managers judged by a different yardstick from ordinary club managers?  Are the press just waiting for England managers to fail so they can pile in on them?  Jim White tries to defend his profession.

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In this edition of the podcast, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes are joined by Andy Hamilton to talk in a very headmasterly tone about Onfield Behaviour which quite frankly is bringing the good name of the Football Ruined My Life school into disgrace.  In a Champions League quarter final this season two Real Madrid boys in the Lower Sixth, Rudiger and Mbappe, were shown on television after a fortunate win over their rival boys school Atletico Madrid making obscene gestures.  Rudiger was appearing to make a throat-slitting motion, apparently towards the Atletico crowd, while Mbappe was shown seemingly making a crotch-grabbing gesture.  Both boys then had to report to Mr Infantino’s study after Assembly where it would appear nothing at all happened to them.  Government regulations unfortunately no longer permit Sir Stanley Rous to give both those boys a severe caning which would have happened in the more enlightened 1960s.  Has onfield behaviour deteriorated so badly in recent years or does football simply reflect an increasing disregard for authority which can be seen in so many facets of society in the 21st century?

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We’re all fans.  That’s why we make this podcast and that’s why presumably you all like listening to it.  Fan sentiment is something we suspect we all feel strongly about but probably in our different ways.  It’s not just foreign owners, ludicrous transfer fees, and (present company excepted) cynical agents taking money off both their clients and the clubs.  Today’s panel (of Jon Holmes, Colin Shindler and Jimmy Mulville) consider how fans like all of us are being slowly alienated from the clubs to which we’ve given a lifetime of devotion.  Colin even has sympathy for Manchester United fans who are appalled at the antics of their club since it became apparent that Jim Ratcliffe was not a knight on a white horse but a panic-stricken tax exile in a limousine trapped in a car park, surrounded by angry fans.  We can’t help but accept that our clubs have to change, it’s inevitable but is it still our club?  It’s a question we all ask ourselves, some with increasing anxiety.

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In the first podcast Football Ruined My Life has done since the untimely demise of Patrick Barclay, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler are joined by the Daily Telegraph sports columnist Jim White.  Forced to restart the episode because the Producer had failed to press the record button first time round, eventually the panel turn to the “the poisoned chalice”. They consider the story from the sad night of defeat on penalties in Turin to the singularly appropriate day in 2000 when Kevin Keegan resigned the job in the toilets at Wembley Stadium after a 1-0 home defeat by Germany.  In between came the nadir of Graham Taylor and the oh-so-nearly efforts of Terry Venables before Glenn Hoddle was defeated by the players’ decision to embrace his original tactics but reject his rather strange insistence on utilising the assistance of a faith healer called Eileen Drewery.

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It’s commonly known as “the poisoned chalice”.  The only England manager to win the World Cup was Alf Ramsey in 1966.  Nobody has done it since though a few have come close. In this, his last ever podcast, Patrick Barclay, along with Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler, analyses why that has been the case.  Paddy and co. take the story from 1974 when Sir Alf was dismissed by the FA to the end of Bobby Robson’s unlucky regime after the defeat by Germany at Italia 90.  Gazza cried, we all cried but we comforted ourselves with the thought that the next manager to try was Robson’s immediate replacement, Graham Taylor.  It's unlikely that Paddy's wit and erudition was ever better displayed than in this, his last but triumphant farewell.

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This is the penultimate podcast in which Patrick Barclay appeared.  In it the original Football Ruined My Life panel of Paddy, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler analyse the year 1968, as the latest in their periodic examinations of one particularly memorable year.  In football terms 1968 was the year that Manchester United followed Celtic to become the first English club to win the European Cup but even that landmark occasion was only one of many.  It was also the year of the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the riots in Chicago, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the alliance between students and workers which brought France to a state of total paralysis.  Two black American athletes held up a black gloved fist in support of Black Power during the medal ceremony at the Mexico Olympics and the anti-Vietnam war protest movement came to Grosvenor Square in London.  West Bromwich Albion fans need not worry because we do not ignore their victory over Everton in the FA Cup Final or Manchester City’s triumph as they were crowned League Champions.  A memorable year indeed.

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This is the first of the last three episodes recorded with Patrick Barclay.  We are re-releasing the podcast he made with the original Football Ruined My Life team of Patrick Barclay, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler because it was previously published the day we heard of Paddy’s tragic death and we removed it out of respect as soon as we heard the news. 

Stand-up comic Omid Djalili was born in Chelsea and has been a passionate and regular spectator at Stamford Bridge from an early age.  Forced out of London by the impact of the pandemic, he re-appeared in Suffolk and became increasingly interested in the fortunes of what is now his nearest football club, Ipswich Town.  In a predictably amusing podcast episode, Omid explains his new found interest in Ipswich Town but adds a variety of stories of growing up a Chelsea fan at the time of not only increasing violence amongst supporters and but also when to be of Middle Eastern origin was not a pathway to automatic acceptance, either by football crowds or by a British society growing increasingly intolerant of immigrants.  As ever, Omid deals successfully with all problems through humour.

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Back in February, when we learnt about the tragic and shocking death of our friend and colleague, Patrick Barclay, we suspended the podcast and took time to consider if and how it can continue.  Replacing Paddy is impossible; the breadth of his knowledge and his infectious (and mischievous) sense of humour made him unique.  But here we announce our return with roster of stars who will make irregular appearances to join the regulars Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler.  Also, we reveal a special week-long series of releases of the last episodes Paddy recorded with

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It is with deep sadness that Jon, Paul and I have to tell you all that our friend and fellow podcast host Patrick Barclay died suddenly on the morning of 12 February. All of us and no doubt many of our listeners who responded to Paddy's cheery Scottish burr over the course of 80 or so episodes will have cause to feel his loss. Out of respect we have removed this week's edition.  We are obviously talking among ourselves as to if and how the podcast can continue. For the moment we feel that a brief pause is the right approach to this deeply depressing and tragic news.  

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Buy One Football Supporter, Get One Free.  Stand-up comic Omid Djalili was born in Chelsea and has been a passionate and regular spectator at Stamford Bridge from an early age.  Forced out of London by the impact of the pandemic, he re-appeared in Suffolk and became increasingly interested in the fortunes of what is now his nearest football club, Ipswich Town.  In a predictably amusing podcast episode, Omid explains the dual loyalty but adds a variety of stories of growing up a Chelsea fan at the time of increasing violence amongst supporters

and in an era when to be of Middle Eastern origin was not a pathway to automatic acceptance, either by football crowds or by a British society growing increasingly intolerant of immigrants.  As ever, Omid deals successfully with all problems through humour.

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