Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast These Football Times

Young managers, five subs, sky high ticket prices, no concessions, eight grands worth of fireworks and the end of the Saturday 3pm live TV blackout. Are we entering the second era of 21st century football?

Arsene Wenger’s revolution at Highbury means everyone starts loving Arsenal. Except Alex Ferguson that is, who sees his Manchester United side beaten to the title by them. Manchester City slump to the third tier – that’ll be them finished – and Paul Merson shares a house with Gazza. There goes the neighbourhood.

Another title for Manchester United; Newcastle  splash the cash on Alan Shearer; Middlesbrough reach two cup finals, don’t reach Blackburn, can’t reach Emerson and do reach relegation. All human life is here in our look back at 1996/97. 

Gary Thacker quizzes another member of the team about who they support. Why, best and worst moments, favourite players and those they’d like to forget plus the nuclear question: could you ever support anyone else? Matthew Gibbs keeps right on with Birmingham City. 

Taking a leaf from David Bowie’s book, we are looking into the next five years, but for Manchester United alone. What would represent success for them over that period, will they return to the summit, or will there still be five years left to cry in? From an ice-cream parlour, drinking milk shakes cold and long, Rob Fletcher and Alex Ireland look for the answers.

Do you reckon that you can’t win anything with kids? Would you love it if the entertainers came through and took a first Premier League title back to Tyneside? Are you in raptures at the arrival of some Ruud sexy football? Do you want to hear everything you ever wanted to know about Juninho but were afraid to ask? Then you’ve come to the right place.

There seems to be a stat for everything those days, but are they truly helpful or is it just a case of lies, damned lies and statistics? And is the fascination with numbers turning football from an art form into a science? Rob Fletcher and Matthew Gibbs have their spreadsheets to hand.

A season of chaos, controversy and that kung-fu kick. Eric Cantona takes matters into his own hands at Selhurst Park, leaving newly-signed Andy Cole without a strike partner at Manchester United. Meanwhile, Blackburn's SAS make hay while the sun shines, Joe Royle’s dogs of war win the FA Cup and, all around the land, managers fall on their swords with gay abandon. Meanwhile, there are match-fixing scandals, brown paper bags full of fivers, taxi drivers fearing for their lives, drugs, gambling and plenty more. Yes, it’s 1994/95.

Gary Thacker quizzes another member of the team about the team they support. Why, best and worst moments, favourite players and those they’d like to forget plus the nuclear question: could you ever support anyone else? Steven Scragg gives us the lowdown on his love for Liverpool. 

Is there too much pressure in football for anything to be done about health and welfare? From the demands placed on managers to the strain put on kids from the age of eight in football academies, while we might talk a good game about mental health, is there really anything we can do to protect it in perhaps the most high profile industry in the world?

There’s a double for Manchester United after Aston Villa deny them the treble, Jeremy Goss writes himself into Norfolk folklore, Newcastle  entertain the nation and Graham Taylor doesn’t. It’s time to revisit 1993/94 with Rob Fletcher, Aidan Williams and Alex Ireland. 

Trying to keep the fans, the board and the sporting director is a minefield for modern managers, so have we seen the last of the managerial titans such as Ferguson and Wenger who ran their clubs from top to bottom? Can any manager expect a shelf life of more than three seasons in the pressure cooker environment of today?

Crank up the Simple Minds soundtrack, dust off the fireworks, make way for the cheerleaders and dodgy versions of Baker Street. The Premier League has arrived and it’s a whole new ball game, especially at Old Trafford. As Leeds boss Howard Wilkinson presides over the transfer from hell and sees his side fall from their position as champions, it’s left to Aston Villa to push United to a first title since the days of Best, Charlton and Law.

Gary Thacker quizzes another member of the team about the club they support. Why, best and worst moments, favourite players and those they’d like to forget plus the nuclear question: could you ever support anyone else? Alex Ireland talks about Manchester United. Don’t worry, he’s a local.

Is social media changing the way fans view the game and their club? With the never-ending torrent of material passing into and out of our clubs, how are we handling an era of changed access to our favourite clubs and players? Rob Fletcher and Chris Lepkowski are glued to their phones.

It’s the end of history as the Football League as we knew it entered its final season before some of its biggest cubs would gallop off over the horizon and into the warm embrace of the Premier League. What a season it turned out to be too, a War of the Roses raging between Leeds and Manchester United at the top of the First Division. Liverpool have one last hurrah in the FA Cup but the seeds of gloom are sown in some transfer market misadventures. Elsewhere, it’s a glorious season for domestic leagues across Europe, but big money will soon put a stop to that.

Has Pep Guardiola’s incredible success imposed a tactical orthodoxy on the English game that sees too many teams trying to play the same way? Do we need a bit more originality, a little more of Jurgen Klopp’s chaos theory? Rob Fletcher and Dave Bowler look into the state of the game.

1990/91: where we went from Gazzamania after the World Cup to manic Gazza in the FA Cup final; where Arsenal’s near invincibles sent Liverpool to unravel; where a Mark Hughes strike set Manchester United on the way to Cup Winners’ Cup glory. For all this and more, join Rob Fletcher as he guides Steven Scragg and Alex Ireland through the season.

Gary Thacker continues to talk to the team about who they support. Why, best and worst moments, favourite players and those they’d like to forget plus the nuclear question: could you ever support anyone else? Rob Fletcher talks about life as a Middlesbrough fan in exile.

Is the expansion and commercialisation of club football harming the spirit of the international game? Rob Fletcher, Aidan Williams and Gary Thacker look at the future for international football, ask where it lies within our affections, and ask the eternal question: why does the national stadium have to be in London?

A final hurrah for Liverpool, a surprising challenge from Villa Park that earns Graham Taylor the England job, Rangers march on under Graeme Souness while stealing the signature of Mo Johnston from under Celtic’s nose, the outcome of the Taylor Report: the 1990s splutters into life, trying to create its own atmosphere.

It's been 50 years since Admiral took the football world by storm with the first of their range of kits that have become icons, from Leeds  to West Ham,  Coventry to Queen’s Park,  Spurs to Saudi and  the NASL to Hearts. There’s a magnificent new book out to celebrate half a century of reinventing football fashion. Theo Hamburger and John Devlin join Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler to revel in some of the most remarkable kits ever to adorn a monolithic centre-half.

A number of the game’s top players have said they are being worked into the ground and have threatened strike action if something isn’t done about it. Are they right, or are they really carrying as heavy a workload as they suggest? Is it a top four issue only? Is it actually their demands for bigger and bigger salaries that is the main driver of the expanding fixture list?

It’s the Doctor Who episode of our ongoing trawl through the footballing decades as, following his masterful hosting of the 70s and 80s series, Steven Scragg morphs seamlessly into Rob Fletcher, your master of ceremonies for the upcoming 90s pods. Get on board here.

In a new series, Gary Thacker quizzes the  team on the team they support. Why, best and worst moments, favourite players, those they’d like to forget, plus the nuclear question: could you ever support anyone else? Aidan Williams is first up with tales of a life in thrall to Newcastle United. Well, most of the time.

Does it matter who owns our football clubs? That’s a question that goes to the heart of what English football is for in the 21st century and for whose benefit it operates. Delving into the detail are Rob Fletcher (Middlesbrough), Gary Thacker (Chelsea) and Matthew Gibbs (Birmingham).

Has league position - and the large cheque that comes with it - become more important than winning a trophy? Should a club get the open top bus out for finishing 13th rather than for winning the League Cup? And is the gulf between what the fans want and what the club’s accountants want now at breaking point?

End Of An Era makes a welcome return as Steven Scragg and Dave Bowler mull over the final years of Alf Ramsey’s tenure with England, as his side went from wingless wonders to winless wonders. Where did it all go wrong? We delve into the detail.

A new series exploring issues in the game today. The Champions League is nearly upon us and it has taken on a slightly bewildering new format. The team try to pick their way through that and any potentially unintended consequences that might arise, as well as looking back at the summer transfer window and the murky world of FFP, PSR and other acronyms. We reckon only Birmingham  have got it sussed ...

Over the course of a glittering career, Alan Kennedy won pretty much everything that there was to win during his time with Liverpool, but the closest he got to an FA Cup winners medal was in his time at Newcastle , who went all the way to the  final in 1974. Fifty years on, we spoke to Alan about a season of riots, tea dances and Tommy Smith.

Coming up to the 50th anniversary of Aston Villa’s 1975 League Cup win, the precursor to promotion from Division Two that season, Dave Bowler talks to Villa goalkeeper – and Worcestershire opening bowler – Jim Cumbes about that season.

President Javier Milei’s drive to deregulate football ownership in Argentina could mean a massive change in club ownership. What could this result in for some of the continent’s biggest clubs? Gary Thacker, Pete Watson and Matthew Gibbs explore the implications.

For fans of football kits, we are taking you to podcast heaven as TFT’s very own Alex Ireland talks us through his new book, Double Diamond: 100 Years of Umbro. Rob Fletcher and Steven Scragg are suitably attired as they quiz Alex on the company that is more synonymous with football’s greatest kits and biggest moments than any other kit manufacturer. 

The football season is nearly upon us and that means we’ll fairly shortly be putting the league on hold for an international break. With that in mind, under the chairmanship of Gary Thacker, Chris Lepkowski, Dr David Turner and Dave Bowler reflect on Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England, debate the qualities his successor will need, and run the rule over the early favourites for the job.

Rob Fletcher is back with his second book on 90s football, and a blockbuster it is too. 1994/95 is under the spotlight in Chaos, Controversy and That Kung-Fu Kick and Rob is with us to trawl through a campaign that had enough incident to last a decade. From Klinsmann to Cantona, bungs to drugs, and the SAS to the sack race, Alex Ireland and Dave Bowler join Rob on a riotous ride. 

The one where Gary Thacker breaks the podcast. Ahead of a new These Football Times magazine devoted to the might of Uruguayan football, the South America Files team tries to select the nation’s finest five-a-side team. Chaos ensues.

As Colombia prepare for their first Copa América final since 2001, Gary Thacker, Steven Scragg and Pete Watson trace the reasons for their renaissance under coach Néstor Loreno, look ahead to the final itself and discuss the domestic implications of their tournament exploits. 

Author Christopher James Evans finds himself in the Centre Circle to discuss his excellent book on the history of Athletic Club. We would call it the last word on the club, but as they keep winning trophies, he has to keep adding chapters.

Pending a new in-depth South America Files series coming your way shortly, the team have produced this pilot project: pick the greatest five-a-side team possible from each of South America’s constituent countries. Think of it as the South America Files meets Mount Rushmore. We road test it by trying to compile Argentina’s finest five-a-side team. 

The European Championship is finally upon us and a month of magical moments and shattered dreams lie ahead. Will Gareth Southgate lead England to tournament victory or will M&S be awash with returned cardigans from disenchanted fans before the group stages are over? Matthew Gibbs, Rob Fletcher and Gary Thacker may have the answers.

Aidan Williams takes Gary Thacker on a rollercoaster ride through what he considers to be the greatest match in European Championship history, France’s 3-2 win over Portugal in the semi-final of Euro 84. Iconic venue, iconic kit, Michel Platini at his peak and John Motson going all boy soprano. What’s not to love?

Many methods of deciding drawn cup ties have been tried done the years, from drawing lots and tossing coins to penalty shootouts and the golden goal, which was a part of the Euros in 1996 and 2000.

In the latter tournament, France rescued themselves from seemingly certain defeat, equalising against Italy in the 93rd minute of normal time before going on to win it with David Trezeguet’s extra-time golden goal. But what would VAR say about such shenanigans these days? Rob Fletcher and Gary Thacker look for an answer. 

The European Championship final of 1988 will always be remembered for that goal by Marco van Basten, but beyond that, it was the day when Rinus Michels, architect of the Total Football that took the Netherlands so close to the summit in 1974, finally won a major international tournament. Dr David Turner relives that day, that goal and that trophy. 

It’s a grand old team to write about and These Football Times is proving the point with a special magazine dedicated to Everton. Aidan Williams, Chris Lepkowski and true blue Evertonian Paul Mc Parlan talk you through some of the contents of the magazine, covering league and cup wins, great players and managers, and Goodison Park itself, and ruminate on Everton’s place in the wider scheme of English football, past and present.

It might not have been a Panenka, but when Stuart Pearce blasted his penalty into the Spanish net during the quarter-final shootout at Euro 96, he produced a penalty, and certainly a celebration, every bit as iconic. Dave Bowler and Gary Thacker debate the stones of steel shown by Pearce on a day when, after his penalty nightmare at Italia 90, lesser men might have found their way to the back of the bus queue. 

Johan and his famous Cruyff turn at the 1974 World Cup was all very well, but did it end up with the ball in the back of the net? It did not. Some 42 years later, Hal Robson-Kanu showed how it should be done in the white heat of the 2016 Euros quarter-final, sending the Belgian defence for a bag of chips - mayonnaise optional - and then bludgeoning the ball past Thibault Courtois. Matthew Gibbs points out to Gary Thacker that the Welsh are therefore better than the Dutch. Popcorn all round.

Joining Gary Thacker today is Dr David Turner who takes us back 20 years to a day when England looked to be emerging as genuine contenders for the Euros in 2004, only to have those hopes dashed by injury. It’s all about England v Croatia and it’s mostly about Wayne Rooney.

Fresh from being chiselled into the European Championships’ Mount Rushmore, Antonín Panenka takes centre stage as Aidan Williams brings us chapter and verse on perhaps the most iconic penalty ever taken. 

A goal of beauty is a joy forever as the old saying almost goes. Proving the old adage true in 1996 was Davor Šuker who produced one of the tournament’s immortal moments with his goal for Croatia against Denmark. Rob Fletcher tells Gary Thacker all about it.

In a tournament dominated by the usual heavyweight suspects of European football, nobody saw Greece’s title winning tournament of 2004 coming. Matthew Gibbs talks to Gary Thacker about the ultimate underdog story.