The Old Spice Boys

Join Neil Harman and John Richardson as the talk to Rick Parry  the current chairman of the EFL, the former chief executive of Liverpool, the original CEO of the Premier League and a board member at New York Cosmos.

Rick talks about: 

• How long would the Football League survive if there wasn't a dramatic reset of football finance?
  
  
• The dangerous absurdity of the Premier League parachute payments
  
  
• The latest on Derby County, currently in the hands of the administrators
  
  
• Why a World Cup every two years would be a catastrophe
  
  
• Are there enough people in the English game with the vision to secure its future?

Listen to Neil Harman and John Richardson aka The Old Spice Boys as they talk with Super Agent Jonathan Barnett the chairman and founder of ICM Stellar Group, one of the most powerful management companies in the world of football. Indeed he represents, among many hundreds of others Jack Grealish and Gareth Bale. 

They talk about: 
1) Why the biggest three agents in world football are getting together 

2) A World Cup every two years? It’ll never happen.

3) On taking care of Jack Grealish, Gareth Bale and his many other footballing clients.

4) If FIFA run the world game, why do they refuse to talk to the men who represent its major assets, the players?

5) From helping make money for two Pakistani cricketers to the dominant force in football.

Listen to Neil Harman and John Richardson aka The Old Spice Boys as they talk with Chelsea, Arsenal and Stoke Legend Alan Hudson who was the cock of the walk along the Kings Road in the early 1970s and played his football with a delightful, uninhibited swagger.

Alan Hudson was born in Chelsea and his boyhood dream was to play for Fulham, who rejected him. He signed for Chelsea and was a galvanising spirit at Stamford Bridge, before becoming arguably the best piece of business Tony Waddington ever did as manager of Stoke City when he moved there in 1974. Waddington described his talents as “the working man’s ballet."

They reminisce about 

• His love of the bright lights - in hospital as well as on the field of play
• Why playing for Chelsea meant the end of his England career under Don Revie
• The day that the Stoke-on-Trent fire brigade flooded the Victoria Ground.
•  If this player had started in every match at the Euros this summer, England would have won the trophy.
• How he only overcame not playing in the 1970 FA Cup Final for Chelsea 27 years after the event.

Listen too Neil Harman and John Richardson aka The Old Spice Boys as they talk with Spurs Legend Steve Perryman. 

They talk about 

• What it was like to play for Bill Nicholson, the simple philosophies that made a great manager
  
  
• The story of his lone England cap and why he wished he'd never won it.
  
  
• Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, which one of them used to ride a horse to football training
  
  
• Why he isn't an admirer of television pundits who have no idea what it is like to be a manager.
  
  
• On Roger Hunt and Jimmy Greaves, two of the great strikers who have recently left us.

For our eighth Old Spice Boys podcast we talk to one of the game’s league of gentlemen. The last time Newcastle United lifted a trophy, 52 years ago, Frank Clark was in the side. When Nottingham Forest first won the European Cup under Brian Clough ten years later, Frank Clark was in the side.

He would later be both manager and chairman of Forest and would also manage Manchester City for two years in the late 1990s. Now, as a highly respected member of the executive of the League Managers Association, Frank helps guide today’s managers through the peaks and troughs of their careers.

Introduction:

On this week’s Old Spice Boys podcast, we’re speaking to a football pairing almost as famous as we are. As BBC documentary series 'Fever Pitch' this month features the birth of the Premier League, we’re delighted to have as our guests the two men who steered us through those formative years and are still at the heart of the sport, Richard Keys and Andy Gray.

Richard the anchor and Andy the analyst were at the heart of Sky Sports innovative, game-changing coverage of live football in the UK 30 years ago. Today, based in Doha, they present for Bein sports with the same, evocative blend of comment and news. 

We welcome Richard and Andy to the podcast as the Premier League starts to take initial shape, the Champions League bubbles into action and new managers, like those at two of Andy’s former clubs, Everton and Wolves begin to bed in.

Show Notes: 

• The advent of Sky Sports drove one leading manager to refuse to let his players speak to the company for the first year of its existence. Who was it?
  
  
• Why the Qatar World Cup should deliver a permanent winter break in English football
  
  
• Which current Premier League boss should not have to put up with his job any longer?
  
  
• The moment Andy Gray, who had just become the game's most expensive player when he joined Wolves from Aston Villa in 1979, walked barefoot across a Birmingham street.
  
  
• Rafa Benitez and why Everton shouldn't have appointed him, 

For the sixth edition of the Old Spice Boys podcast, we enter an area of football where most are not able to tread – that of the men and women in black.

The world of the football referee is largely impenetrable to the rest of us. They arrive at a ground, they officiate, they depart and are never obliged to offer a word of explanation for their decisions.

Today, we have as our special guest Keith Hackett, a former English football referee, who began refereeing in local leagues in the Sheffield, South Yorkshire area in 1960.

He is counted amongst the top 100 referees of all time in a list maintained by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).

Keith refereed the FA Cup final between Spurs and Manchester City 40 years ago, spent a decade on the FIFA list and then became the first man to lead English referees into the world of professionalism. 

Keith also talks about: 

1) Chartering his own plane to referee a match in Europe

2) Telling Mike Dean he'd make him a professional referee

3) Who wound Gazza down?

4) Why he didn’t send anyone off in the infamous Arsenal - Manchester United brawl.

5) The absurdities of VAR

Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco' Richardson as they talk to Gary Lineker about his amazing career in football and his equally stellar career in media.  
 
Gary talks about: 

• FC Barcelona's recent implosion. 
• Saving his beloved Leicester City Football Club and the winning title season
• Which player he prefers Messi or Ronaldo and why? 
• Which current player reminds Gary most of himself playing today 
• Gary's thoughts on England Managers - Bobby Robson, Graham Taylor, Terry Venables,  Gareth Southgate and which was his favourite.  
• Gary's new game show

#football #oldspiceboys

Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco' Richardson as they talk to Joe Royle about his amazing career. 

Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco' Richardson as they talk to Rodney Marsh about his mercurial career.  

Rodney talks about 

• Dennis Law's recent announcement that he has dementia.
• What the American Football authorities are doing to protect young players  
• Why the PFA hasn't helped players in the game 
• His time at Man City and his thoughts on Grealish & Kane
• Why England mistreated its Mavericks like Marsh, Hudson, Osgood, George, Currie, Le Tisser and Hoddle and most recently Grealish but why they built a team around Gasgoine. 
• Why there are no English managers at the top of the game.  
• Moving to America and nearly signing for Elton John's team.
• Messi coming to America and starting his own franchise team like Beckham