When we watch football as youngsters it is the goals that catch our eye, not the vital defensive midfielders or the manager’s clever/stupid substitutions. A Gary Lineker tap in is less spectacular than a Bobby Charlton thunderbolt but in a vital 1-0 victory it counts for as much. Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Patrick Barclay discuss the scorers of great goals and great goalscorers from Ted Drake and Dixie Dean to Harry Kane and Lionel Messi.

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He's been a disc jockey since the early days of Elvis. He's been a Fulham fan since the days of Johnny Haynes and for many years was the voice of the club. Special guest David Hamilton joins the panel to offer his recollections of his life at Craven Cottage. His unwavering support for his club mirrors so many of Football Ruined My Life listeners in that his love of Fulham FC is never affected by their success (or lack of it) on the field. A true Fulham obsessive and as you would expect from such a top broadcaster and a wonderful raconteur.

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Time was when there was scarcely an English top flight team without a few influential Scotsmen in it. Can you imagine Liverpool in the 1980s without Hansen, Souness and Dalglish, Manchester United’s 1960s team without Denis Law and Paddy Crerand or Revie’s Leeds United without Bremner, Jordan, McQueen, Lorimer and Eddie Gray? There are almost no Scottish players in the English Premier League, barely a handful in the Scottish Premier League and the crowds are embarrassingly small outside of Celtic and Rangers. What on earth has gone wrong with football in Scotland? Patrick Barclay helps Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes to come up with some answers.

At the end of the episode Colin, Jon and Patrick also briefly remember Sir Bobby Charlton

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If you’re an actor or a writer and you love football, you may think that being involved in a movie or television series about football would be, in the unmistakable words of the great German forward Harry Kane, “a dream come true”. However, from ‘United!’, the 1965 BBC tv soap opera, to ‘Ted Lasso’, the current American comedy drama hit show about AFC Richmond, the many attempts to persuade the football audience to watch a drama series about the game have proved only occasionally successful. The usual panellists are joined by actors Ian McShane and George Layton to discuss the promotion and relegation of football in novels and on the film or television screen.

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Is the Champions League better or worse than the old European Cup? Do we all support British teams in Europe the way we did before the Bosman ruling altered the complexion of British football?

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The Spirit of Shankly seems to stand for everything that is good about football. He is still revered at Liverpool and respected throughout the world of football. What made him unique?

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Simon Inglis, author of books on the football grounds of Great Britain and the football grounds of Europe, joins the team to give his expert knowledge of the building of some of football's most iconic grounds - Highbury, Maine Road, Old Trafford, Craven Cottage, Filbert Street etc. Do the fans revel in the creature comforts of the new stadiums or do they still hanker for the ramshackle tumbledown grounds of their youth with their cosy sense of community?

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Between 1959 and 1972 ten different clubs won the English First Division. What has happened to that competitiveness? Is the much-lauded Premier League a better competition than the old First Division? Why has this pattern been repeated in so many other European leagues?

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The panel are forbidden from praising their own teams and have to confess their admiration for other domestic and international teams. There are a few surprises…

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He remains the only England manager to have won the men's World Cup. The FA sacked him when he was 54 and apart from a brief caretaker stint at Birmingham City his career was over. Is he loved or just admired? Was he a great manager?

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