If you're a Man United fan from South London, Tom Garratt would like to hear your connection to that club. And he doesn't just think it's a bit much - he thinks it should be a rule.
That's one argument from Tom Garratt's episode on Marc White Fixes Football.
Born and bred Black Country. First game at five, a 1-0 defeat to Grimsby in 2001, and he sat and watched the whole thing while every other kid looked at the sweets. West Brom home and away for ten years after that, until men's football got in the way. A scholarship in America that he's honest about - "anyone who goes to America is because you can't make it here" - and one training session against a 39-year-old pro that told him everything he needed to know about the level.
Then TikTok in 2021, a take on Virgil van Dijk and Nemanja Vidic that went off, and a job at Pitch Side. He's got no dog in the Big Six race, and that's exactly why people listen to him.
In a full hour, Marc and Tom get into:
⚽️ MIKE DEAN - Garratt loves that a referee finally admitted to playing games during matches. Marc thinks he's lying, and says so four separate times. Neither of them moves an inch.
⚽️ GLORY HUNTERS - why he thinks supporting your local club should be compulsory, what he makes of United fans in Bristol and South London, and the one exception he'll allow.
⚽️ SHOULD REFEREES HAVE A PERSONALITY? - Marc wants them seen and not heard. Garratt reckons humanising them is the best thing that could happen to the game. Plus the Geordie referee in the Isthmian who winks at managers before kick-off, and the lad Marc coached who's now overturning VAR decisions in the Premier League.
⚽️ THE NEW RULES - five-second countdowns, throw-ins, substitutes, and the referee who started counting down a Wigan player who was a goal behind with two minutes left.
⚽️ CONTACT - Garratt's theory that letting players create contact is quietly ruining the game, why grappling at corners would stop within a week, and what it would take from a referee to do it.
⚽️ THE LEVEL - the gap between a good non-league player and a Premier League one, found out in a single session. Plus Conor Gallagher's brother on why four of them still can't get near him in the park, and a story about Brighton Pier that explains the whole thing.
⚽️ BELLINGHAM - he called him overrated and said he shouldn't start at the World Cup. He was at the Mexico game. "How stupid was I?"
⚽️ RONALDO - why he's never been a fan, and the players who stop teams winning.
⚽️ THE MONEY - agents stalking players on social media, million-pound deals in League One, and how clubs like Bury and Macclesfield go to the wall in the same week somebody moves for £120m.
⚽️ WOKE NONSENSE OR NOT - hydration breaks, goal music, half-time shows, five subs, set-piece coaches, referee cams, and yellow cards for taking your shirt off.
⚽️ PREDICTIONS ON RECORD - Arsenal by ten points, where he thinks Manchester United finish under Michael Carrick, why he can't call Spurs, and the three clubs he's putting down. All of it dated and timestamped for when the season ends.
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⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 - Tom Garratt: Welcome to Marc White Fixes Football
03:10 - The Mike Dean confession
05:40 - Should referees have a personality?
08:35 - Five-second countdowns and the new rules
10:36 - Contact, grappling and what's ruining the game
13:45 - Growing up a West Brom fan
19:25 - Tamworth, America and knowing when you're not good enough
25:29 - How Tom got into content
26:55 - Calling Bellingham overrated
33:20 - Mbappé, Ronaldo and players who stop teams winning
35:13 - Woke nonsense or not?
38:54 - Football Hates
39:12 - VAR and the over-analysis of everything
47:56 - Where the money should actually go
52:16 - Glory hunters: support your local team
54:34 - Predictions: Arsenal, United, Spurs and the drop
1:00:20 - Agree or Disagree?
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🎙️ABOUT THE SHOW
Marc White Fixes Football is hosted by Marc White, owner and manager of Dorking Wanderers FC. Marc is in the game every day - he owns a club, he manages a club, and he's not guessing. Every week he brings in someone who knows the game and they take on what's gone wrong with it: refereeing, VAR, ownership, ticket prices, academies, fan culture.
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