Football Ruined My Life

143. The One With Duncan Hamilton - 1966 And All That 29.05.2026 43mnt

In our last edition before the World Cup break, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes are joined by the distinguished author and journalist Duncan Hamilton. Duncan has written almost twenty books on various aspects of football and cricket including three William Sports Book of the Year winners. Among those twenty are biographies of George Best, Harold Larwood and Neville Cardus, a fascinating portrait of Brian Clough called Provided You Don’t Kiss Me and his latest Answered Prayers about Alf Ramsey and the winning of the World Cup. You would think that there was nothing left to say about 1966 but by concentrating on the rather tortured character of Alf Ramsey, Duncan makes us relive that whole experience with fresh insight. In particular Duncan promotes the importance in Alf’s life of the Spurs manager Arthur Rowe, the now almost forgotten manager of the Tottenham Hotspur side that won the League Championship in the 1950-51 season. His tactics came to be called “push and run” and in Alf Ramsey, Rowe found a willing student. To discover all sorts of fascinating details about Alf and the 1966 World Cup triumph download the latest podcast. And just to re-iterate: Colin, Jon and their indefatigable producer, Paul, are arriving at the World Cup like all the players – utterly knackered. In order to recharge the batteries, they will have a close season where they will not be found drunk and disorderly in a nightclub in Ibiza. Instead, they will be back bright eyed and bushy-tailed for the new season towards the end of August. If you really can’t wait till then and you want to see them all in operation you will be able to find them at the Nevill Holt Festival in the glorious Leicestershire countryside near Market Harborough at 4.45pm on Saturday 13 June. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

142. Team of the 1980s (with Steve Coppell) 22.05.2026 44mnt

Today we’ll be following on our discussion of football in the 1980s with an entirely self-indulgent session of selecting the team of that decade. To help Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler to do so they are delighted to be able to call on the services of Steve Coppell, a man who was playing for Manchester United and England at the start of the decade and at the end of it was the manager of Crystal Palace. It’s hard to think of anyone better suited to evaluating the talents and characters of the players of that decade. There have been two previous podcasts on teams of the 1960s and 1970s so we can usually rely on Jon to supply the goalkeeper, the position awarded in the 1960s to Gordon Banks and in the 1970s to Peter Shilton - except that now a new rule is in operation. Like Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year, no player can be selected more than once so what is Jon going to do now that he can’t start off his team with his client Peter Shilton again? Listen and you’ll find out… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

141. Football in the 1980s 15.05.2026 50mnt

In this podcast episode Jim White, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes turn their attention to one of the darkest decades in recent football history - the 1980s. It wasn’t all bad. We got to the quarter finals of the World Cup in 1986 and were unlucky to lose to a goal punched past Shilton by the Hand of God. We had a fascinating rivalry at the top of the game between the two sides based in Liverpool one of whom was not Tranmere Rovers. Three different English sides won the European Cup between 1980 and when we were banned from Europe after Heysel. However, if you look at the crowds during the decade there was a steep decline. The hooliganism was bad and getting worse, the government hated the game and everything to do with it and television was accordingly losing interest. The decade was the last chapter of the game as it had traditionally been played in this country and it culminated in one of the great finishes to the League Championship as Arsenal won at Anfield. Tragically too, it was the decade of Bradford fire and the Hillsborough disaster when 96 innocent people died needlessly. What are your feelings about football in the Eighties? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

140. 1970 08.05.2026 43mnt

This week the Andy Hamilton, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler discuss the year 1970, which, to their collective astonishment, is 56 years ago. It’s Colin’s favourite year and much treasured by the 20-year-old Jon. Meanwhile the teenage Andy Hamilton skipped school to watch Chelsea beat Leeds in an infamous FA Cup Final replay (and was found out) and ignored his O level revision to watch Brazil v Uruguay in the World Cup semi final (he failed his Latin and had to resit). Everton won the League, City the League Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup and England got knocked out of the World Cup at the quarter final stage when the whole world (never mind the whole of England) was eagerly anticipating an England v Brazil World Cup Final. It was the end of the decade and somehow the excitement that had been generated in the 1960s disappointingly began to diminish thereafter. If you ask us to nominate a year when football ruled our lives and hadn’t yet ruined them, it was 1970. Much to discuss, much nostalgia to wallow in. Please join us in our indulgence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

139. Postbag 01.05.2026 38mnt

Today Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes look once more at the emails you’ve sent us since we did our last postbag at the end of last year. We encourage you to write to us every week and you do so in comforting numbers. Once again the tone is almost entirely positive with people wanting to contribute their own memories to the topic they’ve just listened to… or correcting our very fallible memories. We’re happy to acknowledge our mistakes even if on some occasions we have been grossly libelled. We look forward to these occasional episodes because it enables us to connect with our audience and we’re very grateful that you take the time and trouble to write if only because it reassures us that we’re talking about the topics which you think and talk about and also it’s a comfort to know that at least we’re not just talking to ourselves. The subjects range widely, reflecting the breadth of the listeners’ interests but there is genuine anger at the travesty of the World Cup draw and the sycophancy of the FIFA Peace Prize. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

138. The One With Tony Woodcock 24.04.2026 47mnt

Tony Woodcock was one of Jon Holmes’ earliest clients, a superb player who scored 139 goals in 437 appearances for Nottingham Forest, FC Koln and Arsenal besides the 16 goals scored in 42 appearances for England. This record compares favourably with Jon and Colin Shindler’s combined contribution of no goals at all at professional level. It is therefore entirely appropriate that we leave the discussion on the art of goalscoring and how it has changed in the past forty years entirely to Tony. Along the way we get his insight into the weird and wonderful art of management as practised by Brian Clough and a detailed description of what happened when Tony was transferred to FC Koln much to the displeasure of Mr Clough. We also learn what happened when Tony took a DNA test to discover where his skill as a professional footballer might have come from. The results were surprising, even to Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

137. The Gap Between the Premier League and the Championship. 17.04.2026 43mnt

This week Jim White, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes wonder if the gap will ever narrow between the Championship and the Premier League. In 1964 Leeds United were promoted from the Second Division and in their first season in Division 1 they lost the League Championship to Manchester United only on goal average (as it then was). In the 1976-77 season Nottingham Forest finished third in the Second Division – well behind Chelsea and champions Wolverhampton Wanderers. The next season they won the First Division, the year after that they won the European Cup and then retained it the following year. Clearly that is never going to happen these days. More relevant is that last season all three clubs who had been promoted the previous year went straight back down again. This year at least one will go down and possibly two of the relegated sides in 2025 will come back up again. Will any club in the future be able to replicate what Forest did? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

136. Turning Points 10.04.2026 50mnt

This week Andy Hamilton, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes discuss turning points in football history. The historian A.J.P. Taylor, a name that has never graced a football podcast previously famously described the 1848 revolutions, particularly in Germany, as a "turning point in history that failed to turn". Well the panel now discuss those moments in football history which were significant turning points in the evolution of the game we see today. Our first turning point deals with the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary but some time after its collapse. On a murky afternoon in November 1953 the Hungarian football team came to Wembley and shocked the world by defeating England in its fortress – and not just defeating them, they wiped the floor with us. But was this really a turning point in British football? After all, the old WM formation carried on for many years after Hidegkuti had demonstrated the value of a new fashioned number 9 and you could argue that it took a further 13 years until 1966 when England finally emerged from the 1953 induced nightmare. Are the panel’s turning points the same as yours? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

135. The One With Dominic Sambrook 06.04.2026 52mnt

This week’s special guest on the podcast is the distinguished historian Dominic Sandbrook, author of magisterial histories of Britain from 1956 to 1982 and of course a co-host of the podcast The Rest is History. More to the point, however, he is a passionate supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers whom we have shamefully neglected in our previous 134 plus podcasts, mainly because we have been waiting to get hold of Dominic. In Who Dares Wins, his history of Britain from 1979 to 1982, he not only references the 1980 Wembley final in which Wolves beat Clough’s Nottingham Forest but he utilises the names of Wolves players on a far larger scale. If you listen to this edition of the podcast you will discover how and why he does it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

134. Underrated Players 27.03.2026 42mnt

This week Omid Djalili, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler discuss the sort of player who should have played for their country but never did, players who lacked the ebullience to stand out from their more aggressive and extrovert team mates and players - wherever they operated in the football pyramid. Players who were the unshowy but reliable… who got the ball, made ground and passed accurately to a colleague in space. On a fictional level the list would start with Blackie Gray who did all the donkey work for Melchester Rovers and provided what we now call the assist for Roy Race, who scored all the goals and was credited with the fancy title of Roy of the Rovers. Today’s edition is all about the Blackie Grays of this world. To be fair to Gary Lineker he always credited Peter Beardsley as the creator of many of his goals for England. Listen to discover who else is regarded as underrated in this way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

133. Did Young British Players Come Into The First Team Faster Than They Do Now? 20.03.2026 47mnt

This week Colin Shindler, Andy Hamilton and Jon Holmes gather to discuss whether there are more 17 and 18 year old players coming into the game than there used to be in the postwar years. Has the abandonment of the A and B sides and more significantly the reserve leagues – like the Central League and the Football Combination – changed things for the better? Can young players learn much by sitting on the bench watching the first eleven play or would they learn more by playing games in a reserve team? How effective are the academies in speeding talented youngsters into the first team? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

132. Have Newspaper Football Journalists Lost Their Influence? 13.03.2026 44mnt

It’s the view of Football Ruined My Life that many football supporters used to buy broadsheet newspapers specifically to read Geoffrey Green or Brian Glanville or David Lacey or Hugh McIlvanney – four hugely respected titans of the art of writing about football matches for the next day’s paper. In this edition, Jim White of the Daily Telegraph joins Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler to explain why his own career has coincided with the long slow decline of the influence of the football journalists. There was a time in the glory days when television knocked on the door politely and managers were much more afraid of Glanville and McIlvanney or even the local paper’s reporter than of the stilted television interview on those rare occasions when the match was actually covered by television. With the change in reading habits has it actually changed the nature of the job of a football reporter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The One With Michael Crick – Football And Nationalism 06.03.2026 51mnt

This week Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler are joined by the investigative journalist Michael Crick whose appearances down the years on Newsnight and Channel 4 News have made him a familiar face on our television screens. Despite being a friend of Colin, he is a longtime supporter of Manchester United, having had the decency to grow up in Manchester. In this episode he talks about the power of nationalism and how it has affected the game at both club and international levels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

130. Do Football Crowds Reflect The Society We Live In? 27.02.2026 52mnt

There was a time before 1966 when crowds were a lot friendlier and less angry than they are today. Supporters of opposing clubs stood together on the terraces and policing was relegated to one copper on a horse outside the ground as you came in. Crowds in the immediate postwar years were large and though the grounds were already starting to crumble, club directors saw no need to spend money updating them. The food and drink were mostly disgusting and toilet provision was virtually non-existent. But there was no hooliganism and nobody got stabbed or was hustled to hospital with a dart sticking out of his eye. Omid Djalili, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes ask what does that tell you about society in the early postwar years? And why did it change? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

129. The Matchday Experience 20.02.2026 46mnt

Andy Hamilton, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler ask the question “Has the match day experience improved over the years they have been going to watch football?” You would think the answer would be that of course it has. We all have a seat, the food, whatever the price, couldn’t be worse than it was in the 1960s and ‘70s, we are never caught in those frightening swayings on the terraces and the clubs appear to want to turn football into some weird version of show business. But… why don’t we see those marching bands on the pitch any more and what happened to Arthur Cager, the man in a white coat on a stand conducting the crowd in Abide With Me and She’s A Lassie From Lancashire before the start of the Cup Final. Is this new awkward marriage between show biz and football something the crowds really welcome? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

128. What Happened To All The British Managers? 13.02.2026 43mnt

The television interview with a British manager after a match has become quite a rare bird, although recent events at Manchester United and Chelsea have slightly altered that perception. Prior to those appointments, Eddie Howe, Sean Dyche and David Moyes flew the Union Jack and we currently also have Rob Edwards and Scott Parker – though their stay in the Premier League looks destined to be over in May. For some time though, Match of the Day has felt like a procession of foreign managers brought in by foreign owners. It seems that the only way to become a British manager in the Premier League is to be promoted from the Championship. Colin Shindler, Jim White and Jon Holmes ponder how this situation has come about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

127. Which footballers have been influential, either consciously or unconsciously, in affecting or impacting their nations positively (or negatively)? 06.02.2026 42mnt

Recently we had the Africa Cup of Nations with that absurd ending rescued by the grown up behaviour of Sadio Mane. During the course of the competition we were constantly reminded of how much Mo Salah means to the people of Egypt. However, Omid Djalili, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes also look at the downside. When Luis Suarez was sent off for biting for the third time in the 2014 World Cup after taking a mouthful from the shoulder of the Italy defender Georgio Chiellini – they wonder whether the people of Uruguay were sympathetic to the way Suarez’ assuaged his hunger pains or whether they were properly embarrassed. Football throws up heroes and villains on a regular basis. How much impact do their actions have on the perception of their country? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

126. The North-South Divide 30.01.2026 47mnt

When the Football League started in 1888 there were six clubs from the Midlands and six from Lancashire. Now look at the Premier League. Of the current 20 clubs, nine come from the effete South of England, in other words almost half. Jon Holmes, Colin Shindler and Jim White discuss whether this is a North-South divide or a London-versus-the-rest-of-the-country divide. We know to what extent football is ruled by money and we know that the North-South divide is a slightly euphemistic way of describing the disadvantaged North versus the over privileged South. So much is self-evident. But is this increasing concentration of wealth in the southern half of the country a good thing or a bad thing for football?” Listen to the podcast and let us know what you think (and where you live!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

125. Our Most Depressing Defeats 23.01.2026 47mnt

Colin Shindler asks Jon Holmes and Andy Hamilton to relive their football related nightmares. They are forced under forensic questioning to remember what they had hoped they had buried forever in the deepest recesses of their memories. In other words, those defeats which evoke the very darkest of thoughts. They don’t have to be 9-0 thrashings to do that. They can be games when you’re 1-0 up and coasting and then two stupid, stupid, stupid goals in stoppage time turn victory into defeat. There can be narrow defeats in important games or games decided by the insanity and incipient blindness of the match officials. Either way you leave the ground wondering why you bothered getting out of bed and coming in the first place. The Football Ruined My Life audience knows exactly what that feels like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

124. Those We Have Lost In 2025 16.01.2026 52mnt

This week Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Jim White pay tribute to some of the players who died in 2025 plus two journalists and one referee. As most of our listeners are probably in their 60s and 70s, the deaths of players like Billy Bonds, John Robertson and perhaps above all Denis Law bring to the surface fears about our own mortality. If you loved the football and the footballers of the 1960s and 1970s, when our love for the game was sealed, you probably find, as we do, these deaths to be particularly poignant. Those we are talking about in this edition are many and varied, famous and unknown. They include a player who kickstarted my second career, a goalkeeper who made 5 appearances and spent nearly all of his 10 years at my club in the reserves and a centre half who scored an own goal in three consecutive games. Isn’t that worth commemorating? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices