Shows / Football Ruined My Life
Football Ruined My Life
When Football Ruined My Life started back at the beginning of 2023 it was the new podcast about old football. In it, distinguished football journalist Patrick Barclay joined with Colin Shindler, author of the best selling Manchester United Ruined My Life, and the Super Agent Jon Holmes (think Gary Lineker, Peter Shilton, Tony Woodcock etc.) to talk about football as it used to be in the days before the invention of the Premier League. For over 80 weekly episodes, the podcast viewed those days…
Episodes
- Football Ruined My Life
96. Pundits
Andy Hamilton returns to join Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes as they discuss the contentious subject of football pundits. By pundits, they mean those…
- Football Ruined My Life
95. Is English football still recognisably English?
This week Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler are joined by Omid Djalili to ask the question, “How English is the English football pyramid?” Of course, football…
- Football Ruined My Life
94. England Managers After Sir Alf Part 3
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
93. Onfield Behaviour
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
92. Fan Sentiment
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
91. England Managers After Sir Alf Part 2
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
90. England Managers After Sir Alf Part 1
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
89. 1968
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
88. The One With Omid Djalili (reposted episode)
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
The Return of Football Ruined My Life
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
Patrick Barclay
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…
- Football Ruined My Life
86. Home Internationals vs. Nations' League
This week the panel (and their producer) are bitterly divided on the contentious issue of the Nations League and its value compared to the old Home…
- Football Ruined My Life
85. Penalties
Twelve yards away, the keeper can’t move off his line until the ball is struck. How does anyone ever miss a penalty? Well, as we all know they do miss and…
- Football Ruined My Life
84. Those We Have Lost In 2024 (and also remembering Denis Law)
A change of pace for Football Ruined My Life this week. In this podcast we’re looking back at football players and managers who died during 2024. Clearly we…
- Football Ruined My Life
83. The One With Ian Storey-Moore
The prolific goal-scoring winger Ian Storey-Moore turns 80 on the day this episode was published... and Football Ruined My Life has chosen to mark the occasion…
- Football Ruined My Life
82. Centre forwards vs False 9s
Real centre forwards were old fashioned battering rams like Nat Lofthouse, Ted Drake of the great Arsenal side of the 1930s and Bobby Smith the rampaging…
- Football Ruined My Life
81. The One With Michael Rosen
He’s a well-known and much liked voice on Radio 4’s Word of Mouth programme as well as Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London…
- Football Ruined My Life
80. Our Third Postbag
As a New Year’s gift, the panel come bearing the bulging postbag containing our listeners’ emails. Once again we can report a high standard of literacy and a…
- Football Ruined My Life
79. Yuletide Matches
Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Paddy Barclay wish all our listeners a very merry Christmas and we do so by recalling Christmas time matches from long ago. With…
- Football Ruined My Life
78. Utility Players
Colin Shindler, Patrick Barclay and Jon Holmes examine the value of utility players – the player who could fill in anywhere on the pitch from right back to…
- Football Ruined My Life
77. Brits Abroad
Colin Shindler, Paddy Barclay and Jon Holmes discuss the phenomenon of Brits Abroad, those British footballers who made the transition to the sun, sangria and…
- Football Ruined My Life
76. Screamers…
… is the word frequently given to goals scored, usually from outside the penalty box, like drawings in a Roy of the Rovers cartoon that bring the crowd to a…
- Football Ruined My Life
75. 1992
It was the year of the Sky revolution in football but for Jon Holmes it was also the end of Gary Lineker’s career in England as he prepared to move to Japan…
- Football Ruined My Life
74. Favourite Games
Paddy Barclay, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler talk about their favourite match and, to help them to do so, each of them invites as a guest on the podcast a…
- Football Ruined My Life
73. Wingers
Whatever happened to outside rights and outside lefts? You remember those speedy tricky wingers who beat their full backs on the outside, got to the dead ball…
- Football Ruined My Life
72. Players into Managers
Why don’t great players automatically make great managers? Why did Bobby Charlton fail so disastrously at Preston when Kenny Dalglish succeeded so triumphantly…
- Football Ruined My Life
71. The One With David Peace
David Peace, the author of The Damned United, joins Jon Holmes, Patrick Barclay and Colin Shindler to talk about his latest novel. Munichs, details the story…
- Football Ruined My Life
70. The Football Pyramid
This week the Paddy Barclay, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler ask each other how the Football Pyramid has changed over our lifetimes of watching the game. Our…
- Football Ruined My Life
69. Substitute!
The use of substitutes began in the English Football League at the start of the 1965-66 season. After years of the Wembley “hoodoo” it was initially a simple…
- Football Ruined My Life
68. The One With Frank Foer
This is football as seen through the eyes of an Arsenal supporter, living and working in Washington DC. Frank Foer, a staff writer at The Atlantic and a former…
- Football Ruined My Life
67. Rituals
In the days of our fondly remembered youth which we can still see as it becomes ever smaller in the rear-view mirror of life, football matches kicked off at…
- Football Ruined My Life
66. Number Twos
There are two distinct variations on the theme of Number 2s. The first is that he is the one who sits next to the manager when he is going berserk, berating…
- Football Ruined My Life
65. The One With Gary Lineker
It’s been coming, hasn’t it? We all know that the relationship between Jon Holmes and Gary Lineker started about 45 years ago and we’ve heard many stories…
- Football Ruined My Life
64. Formations
We grew up with the old WM formation. Brazil won the World Cup with 4-2-4 and Alf Ramsey did the same thing with what was called the Wingless Wonders, in other…
- Football Ruined My Life
63. Cheating
We know that cheating isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been in sport ever since the Greeks failed to provide any drug testing during the Olympic Games of 776 BC –…
- Football Ruined My Life
62. The One with Nick Hancock
He’s best known still as the host of Jon Holmes’ supreme television creation the game show ‘They Think It’s All Over’ in which his most famous clients combined…
- Football Ruined My Life
61. Chairmen Vs. Owners
This week, the panel looks at old fashioned Bob Lord style Chairmen of football clubs as against the current fashion for billionaire owners from oil rich…
- Football Ruined My Life
60. Transfers
Now, as most of our listeners will know, there was a time when there was no such thing as the Transfer Window and, as all of our listeners know, before 1961…
- Football Ruined My Life
59. We're Back Once Again (Series 3 Trailer)
After our computer-enforced summer break Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Patrick Barclay return next week on Friday 9th August - just as the new football season…
- Football Ruined My Life
58. A Message From The Cabinet Room...
Good morning listeners - here's a message from Colin Shindler. We'll be returning with the podcast in time for the new season at the beginning of August. Enjoy…
- Football Ruined My Life
57. Footballing Cricketers
In the days when the cricket season finished at the end of August and did not begin again until the first week in May it was perfectly possible to be a…
- Football Ruined My Life
56. The F. A. Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup is the oldest and most prestigious cup competition in the world, having been in existence since 1871. Winning the Cup…
- Football Ruined My Life
55. Route One vs. Tiki Taka
The panel turn their forensic eyes on the question of football tactics and, with a respectful nod to one of the great Monty Python sketches, their wider…
- Football Ruined My Life
54. Reserves
There used to be such a thing as a Reserve team which we watched if we couldn’t afford to travel to watch our team away from home. Young players started in the…
- Football Ruined My Life
53. The One With Jimmy Mulville
Everton may well have saved themselves yet again from The Drop and at the same time finished Liverpool’s chances of a last Premier League title for Jurgen…
- Football Ruined My Life
52. Mavericks
In this episode, the panel is talking about the maverick. Not the old tv series of the same name starring James Garner but the flair players who didn’t…
- Football Ruined My Life
51. 1974
In the second of our occasional podcasts about specific years, we are looking at 1974 when Jon Holmes, Paddy Barclay and Colin Shindler were all in their…
- Football Ruined My Life
50. The One With Delia
For our 50th edition, we’ve cooked up a very special episode – not only have we taken to the road (to the very farthest corner of East Anglia) but we’ve…
- Football Ruined My Life
49. Centre Halves
This is the episode about those big lads with heads squashed flat and brains curdled into early onset dementia by the constant heading of old fashioned leather…
- Football Ruined My Life
48. Our Second Postbag
The Easter special podcast sees the Football Ruined My Life panel fielding another round of questions, observations and suggestions from their listeners…
- Football Ruined My Life
47. The One With The Baron
We are joined this week by Baron Grade of Yarmouth, previously Michael Grade, who has, at various times, been Controller of BBC1, Chairman of ITV and Chief…
- Football Ruined My Life
46. The North East
The North East of England has traditionally been referred to as "the hotbed of soccer". Yet compared to teams from Lancashire for example, Newcastle United…
- Football Ruined My Life
45. The One With Mike Ingham
He was the third in the distinguished line of BBC Chief Football Correspondents and the first not be called Brian (as in Moore and Bryon Butler). His…
- Football Ruined My Life
44. Referees
He has frequently been referred to as “the bastard in the black”. One person with a whistle can arouse more enmity than the worst tackle on a football field…
- Football Ruined My Life
43. Family Values
Jon Holmes, Paddy Barclay and Colin Shindler explore the impact of nature and nurture on footballers from the same family. Is it genetic inheritance or…
- Football Ruined My Life
42. The One With Gordon Milne
Jon Holmes, Paddy Barclay and Colin Shindler meet Gordon Milne who had a fascinating and long career in football. He was a player with Tom Finney at Preston, a…
- Football Ruined My Life
41. West Ham
West Ham won the Cup in 1964, the European Cup Winners Cup in 1965 and, according to Alf Garnett, the World Cup in 1966. They were a stylish, attractive and at…
- Football Ruined My Life
40. The Midlands
Colin and Paddy attempt to make Jon feel better about the Midlands trophy desert. Looking at the Football League’s checkered history over the 135 years of its…
- Football Ruined My Life
39. Sportsmanship
Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Patrick Barclay wonder whether the concept of sportsmanship has vanished from the game. We all remember that famous photograph…
- Football Ruined My Life
38. Print journalism v TV journalism
Back in the dim and distant past of our youth, the coverage of football on television was minimal and we instinctively turned to local and national newspapers…