Morons: Recent Episodes
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Jon and Nic are back to talk about the final essay in Nic's recent series. They look at Martin Scorsese's most recent film The Irishman and talk mafia, Hegel and haggis.
The episode sees Jon and Nic discussing Nic's most recent essay in his coronavirus response series, the Flowers of Anxiety.
Enjoy!
Here's the discussion of the second essay in Nic's series.
Jon and Nic discuss Jarhead, Jean Baudrillard, unreality, war movies and much more besides.
Enjoy!
Jon and Nic are back to bring you a series of podcast episodes in tandem with Nic's five-essay series.
In this episode, they're talking Easy and Nic's essay on the unique Netflix series: Taking it Easy.
Do check out the essay - half of the proceeds that Nic makes will be going to help people who have suffered at the hands of the pandemic.
We'll be next week to talk Jarheador Midsommer. See you then!
Jon and Nic are back to talk about films beloved by people around the world and then trash them. Here they talk about Alien and then its sequel Aliens. Enjoy!
Jon and Nic are back to chat shit and their topic of choice this week is Robert Eggers, director of The Witch and, more recently, The Lighthouse. Plenty to talk about with Eggers and it may even have been the case that Nic persuades Jon that the film is one of the most important films of recent years. But you know.
Jon is joined by Ahmed Yussuf (and jilted by Nic Morales) to talk about The Farewell - a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Lulu Wang.
Jon and Jamie have a discussion about some of the ideological and intellectual undertones behind debates about VAR.
In our penultimate episode, we’re in the midlands with one of the Premier League’s nouveau riches.
Leicester City came from the relative poverty of a Premier League relegation battle in 2015 to winning the whole damn thing a season later in what was, without doubt, one of the finest moments of English football’s storied history.
But this vertiginous rise to the lofty heights of the Premier League’s elite had a strange effect on the club. The following season, Claudio Ranieri was sacked, to be replaced by Craig Shakespeare.
Shakespeare, it turned out, was also ‘not to be’ and so followed a succession of managers joining then leaving the club until Brendan Rodgers arrived at the end of last season.
Will Rodgers be able to shake off the curse of the 2015-16 title-winning season? Or is he simply its most imminent victim?
Today, we’re as far North as we’ll get in this series.
Newcastle has a famous footballing pedigree which is why the slow decline of the club in the last ten years has been all the more painful to watch. Owned by arch capitalist and almost universally despised Mike Ashley, the club has been run as a cash cow for a number of years with the owner doing just enough to milk it for profit.
Fans could hardly believe their luck when they managed to accrue the talents of Rafael Benitez and then keep him even after relegation into the Championship.
But even that silver lining was duly ripped out and sold for monies. Now, fans of the club face the prospect of a season under Steve Bruce, whose career win total is close to tipping beneath his career loss total. If things go as well as many pundits predict, then it could well happen this season.
So here we are. A beleaguered fan base. A manager who does not look up to the rigours of Premier League life. And a squad that leaves a lot to be desired. It could be a long season on Tyneside.
Joining us on the show today is a well-known face in the world of Newcastle United fandom: Harry De Cosemo.
Harry covers Newcastle and North East football for the Morning Star newspaper and is also a freelance writer for Football365, Planet Football and Eurosport among others.
In today’s episode, we’re back in London - just down the road from Fulham Broadway Tube Station at Stamford Bridge.
Under Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have had an up-and-down few years. As far as the present season is concerned, it’s something of a down year.
Despite Europa League success with Maurizio Sarri last season, a two-window transfer ban from FIFA for malpractice signing foreign under-18 players as well as Sarri’s return to Italy has left fans and pundits alike unsure of how successful a campaign they will have this time around.
If there is a silver lining, it is somewhat tarnished: club legend Frank Lampard here to oversee an influx of youngsters off the back of a curious debut season at Derby County.
Will Lampard save the day as he has done so often in the past? Or is there a danger that Chelsea could drop out of the top six if things don’t go their way?
Joining us on the podcast today is one of the biggest personalities in the football media: Amadí Thiam. Amadí is currently lead editor at Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing having previously been community manager for COPA90 US, social media manager for The Athletic Soccer, a feature writer for U.S. Soccer’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and an editorial assistant for Howler Magazine, among others. His career as a football journalist has led him to press boxes in stadiums around the country, but his true passions are digital content production and Chelsea FC. You’ve more than likely seen his gifs on Twitter and he also manages an account (@ClassicChels) which shares video highlights of Chelsea matches and milestones from years past.
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out Podcast, a podcast on football shirts. Each episode, I will take an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything about it. The design, the materials, the story. For episode 8, I am taking a look at the 2018-19 3rd Kit for Doncaster Rovers which was sponsored by CALM and designed by an 11-year-old! This is the 3rd year where Doncaster and CALM have come together and it has produced something wonderful! I spoke with, the Kit Guru to get his thoughts on the design, Ben Hawkey from CALM to discuss the kit, the partnership and the work CALM have been doing in football. I also discussed the EFL partnership and other work that Mind are doing with Jack Holloway from Mind, and finally, I spoke with Liam from Papyrus to give us some information on who Papyrus are and what work they do. If you enjoy the podcast then please rate and review the podcast, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Sheas. Feel free to follow me on Twitter, I can be found on @KittedOutPod, or email me on kittedoutpod@gmail.com. While you’re on a following spree, don’t forget to follow A Team Of John O’Sheas on @TOJOS_. This will be my last episode of Kitted Out that will be out on A Team Of John O’Sheas, I would like to say a massive thank you to Jon for allowing me to use his platform and all the support and guidance he has given me over the last 9 months!
For more info on where Kitted Out is moving to, please do follow me on twitter and I will update there! Thank you for listening. Social Media Links Kitted Out Podcast - @KittedOutPod A Team Of John O’Sheas - @TOJOS_ Football Media Podcast - @FootyMediaPod Jon Mackenzie - @Jon_Mackenzie Kit Guru - @FCKitGuru CALM - calmzone.net / @theCALMzone Mind - Mind.org.uk/football / 0300 123 3393 / @MindCharity Papyrus - papyrus-uk.org / 0800 068 4141 / @PAPYRUS_tweets
Today, we’re back in the capital city - in London's North West and Stratford.
It’s hard to talk about West Ham without mentioning their geographic re-location. Moving away from their home in Upton Park three seasons ago, the Hammers took up residence in the Olympic Stadium bequeathed them in the wake of London 2012.
This sort of casual dismissal of localism in sports fandom has become par for the course in recent years but West Ham’s story seems to offer a parable about the difficulties of a football club uprooting and making a new home.
Only now, three years later, do West Ham look as though they’re about to turn a corner. A new manager last season bolstered by an impressive window, the club looks like they could cement themselves in the race for ‘best of the rest’ this time around.
Could this be their most impressive season in recent years? Or could the influx of new names fail to gel and leave the Irons off the pace?
Joining us today is a well-known name from the world of West Ham fandom: Danny Lewis. Danny is currently working with Snack Media and has contributed to No Place Like Home and These Football Times, as well as various West Ham related websites and fanzines.
Today we’re heading to a part of the country that is under-represented in the Premier League: Norfolk.
Norwich aren’t exactly new to the Premier League but, when they dropped out of the top division of English football in 2016, no one expected them to be coming up again any time soon.
Two uninspiring seasons in the Championship followed and it looked as thought Norwich were more likely to head in the opposite direction.
But then everything changed when two men came into the club and turned it around: Stuart Webber was made Sporting Director and, early on in his tenure, he brought in Daniel Farke as manager. In two seasons, Norwich found their way to the top of the Championship table and barely looked back.
But will the sheen come off when they take their place in the Premier League next year? Or will they manage to overcome the odds and cement themselves firmly in the division?
Joining us today is an individual who will be familiar to many of you. Adam Brandon is a writer for popular fan site Along Come Norwich as well as being South American editor for World Football Index.
For his day job, he works in a consultancy role for Football Radar as the League Analyst for Chile, the country where he is based.
Today we’re in Wolverhampton exploring a club whose fortunes have changed drastically in recent years.
When Wolves dropped out of the Premier League in 2012 and then out of the Championship in the following season, no one expected them to be back in the top division of English football any time soon. But when Chinese firm Fosun International bought out the team and began forging a special relationship with Jorge Mendes, things soon turned around.
Now with Nuno Espirito Santo at the helm, the West Midlands team have made the top half of the table their own, being crowned best of the rest last season.
But will it last? Can they keep their spot just beneath the so-called Top Six? Perhaps they could even venture upwards?
Joining us today is a face that will be familiar to many in the Wolves-supporting community: Dave Azzopardi. Dave is the founder of Talking Wolves, a Wolverhampton Wanderers social media channel.
Today we’re nearly in London but not quite… which is how I would have described Watford in terms of the Premier League a couple of seasons ago.
Two years on and the Hornets have graduated into that coveted set of teams in the league’s middle class: the best of the rest.
An 11th place finish might not sound like much but, only two points off Sullivan and Gold’s vanity project, West Ham, and Watford are certainly in the mix. All of which is strange given that the writing seemed on the wall for Watford when their talismanic manager Marco Silva joined Everton before the season started. But here we are.
Can Watford consolidate and make themselves reliable midtable finishers? Or will they rest on their laurels and drop back into the chasing pack?
Joining us on the show is one of the biggest names in Watford FC podcasting – Mike Parkin.
From the Rookery End is about to head into its tenth season and has charted Watford's fairly unorthodox recent history from the brink of despair and possible bankruptcy all the way to the Premier League.
Mike Parkin is one of the original members of the team and has been watching Watford since the eighties. His first game was a home FA Cup tie with Walsall that ended 4-4 and he's been a hopeless Hornets' addict ever since.
Today, we’re back in the North West, if not in football’s birthplace then in the cauldron in which it was refined.
Burnley’s Turf Moor has, against the expectations of many pundits - professional and armchair alike, continued to enjoy Premier League football for the last three seasons. Each year, there are naysayers who predict the club to drop back into the Championship but it never happens.
Much of this is to do with their long-serving manager, Sean Dyche, who has dragged Burnley Football Club with him into the top division of English football and kept them there unrelentingly.
But will a fourth season be too much? Can they defy the odds once again? Or is modern football just too money-driven?
Joining us on the show today is Natalie Bromley, who is, amongst other things, a poker player, a lawyer and a self-confessed ‘feisty Claret’.
She is also the editor of the Burnley podcast No Nay Never and weekly Clarets Columnist in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
Today we head to the South Coast for one last time. Our destination is Brighton: a famously open city which extends its broad-mindedness to its football club.
Over the summer, the Albion have displayed a willingness to be progressive, sacking their manager Chris Hughton in favour of another manager, Graeme Potter, who they expect to be able to take the club further in the Premier League than his predecessor.
Potter comes with impressive seasons at Ostersund and Swansea under his belt and the Brighton faithful will be hoping he can translate these successes into similar positivity at the AMEX stadium.
But there is no saying that the success will come. Is this too much of a risk for a club who only narrowly avoided relegation last season? Is the problem with the squad rather than the manager? Or could this be just what Brighton need to cement their place in the Premier League?
Joining us today is a familiar face from the world of football media. Kieran Maguire is a lecturer in football finance from the University of Liverpool, where he teaches on the Football MBA course. He also pops up with irritating regularity on TV, radio and newspapers discussing club valuations, FFP and the lunacy of trying to make ends meet in the EFL.
Today we’re back on the south coast where a glut of teams have sprung up and made the Premier League their own in recent years.
No one expected this of Bournemouth but, since their arrival in the Premier League in 2015, they have quickly made themselves division stalwarts.
Last season started out their best yet with Eddie Howe and his side threatening to break into the top 6 in the early period. However, as the season drew on, they fell away, dropping to a disappointing 14th place in the end.
Will this season see any palpable change for the Cherries? Will they squeeze their way into the top half of the table this time around? Or is the Premier League just becoming too competitive?
Joining us on the show today is a familiar face in the world of Bournemouth fan media: Alex Deutsch. has been an AFC Bournemouth fan the majority of his life.
Often spotted on BT sport as a fan pundit and once described as 'former Ipswich Town' player by Jim White on TalkSPORT, Alex is enjoying the fun that comes with the national media's recent discovery that AFC Bournemouth do exist, having seemingly not done only seven years ago.
For today’s episode, we find ourselves back in Manchester… well… almost Manchester depending on how you parse Salford.
But the Manchesters City and United are not just geographically distinct but substantially distinct these days. Gone are the times when United used to dominate the Premier League and City used to languish… now the tables have turned.
Where City have won back to back titles, Manchester United are looking down the barrel of a future in which the top spot of the Premier League is almost too far away to see.
As the litany of managers continues as each one finds their own unique way to destroy the club, Manchester United find themselves helmed by a club legend who lacks any real managerial pedigree and a former investment banker who is good for business and little else, it seems.
So will this season but much of the same for United? Or can they drag themselves out of their existential funk?
Joining me to discuss all things United is one of the biggest names in the world of Manchester United podcasting. Richard Cann is a regular on the Red Voices podcast. Thank you for coming on today.
Today’s episode takes us back to Liverpool but to the other end of the colour spectrum.
In recent seasons, Everton have lived in the shadow of their cross-city rivals, not least since Liverpool started making it to Champions League finals and Everton could only struggle with Europa League fixtures.
But things aren’t all terrible for fans of the club. An eighth-place finish last season puts them in and around the sort of area that their fans expect them to be in. With investment and another season of Marco Silva, along with another poor showing from the big six in the league and Everton could creep into the upper echelons of the league hierarchy.
But is this all they have? Hope of other teams slipping up? Or is there something more concrete to hold on to?
Joining us today is a face that will be familiar to many in the Everton-supporting community: Mark Godfrey. Mark was the editor of the recently departed The Football Pink magazine and website and has been an Evertonian through thick and mostly thin for over 35 years.
He occasionally guests in other publications such as When Saturday Comes, the Everton fanzine When Skies Are Grey, and the Scottish football magazine, Nutmeg.
Today we’re back in the capital: in North London and the Borough of Highbury and Islington.
The Borough has seen a lot of upheaval of late when it comes to men in their 70s who can inspire young people around the country. But where Jeremy Corbyn is still at large, Arsene Wenger is now long gone.
Vampiric insurance salesman Unai Emery has had a full season in charge at the Emirates now and, although his tenure started off well enough, by the time the season drew to a close with an embarrassing Baku trip in which cross-city rivals Chelsea demolished them, the fan base was starting to grumble.
What will next season hold? Is it Emery’s last chance? And how did Arsenal become a club who are hanging onto the top six by their fingernails?
Joining us today is someone who will is a familiar face when it comes to Arsenal punditry. Lewis Ambrose is an Arsenal fan who, when time allows, dives into the team’s tactics for Arseblog.
This week’s episode takes us to a city that hasn’t seen Premier League football for over a decade. Sheffield has a storied history of first division footballing successes but its been some time since the city had a representative at the top table of English football.
Back in 2006/07, it was Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United who had their turn at being the highest placed Sheffield side in the league structure. It lasted a year and, to this day, Warnock maintains that it was all Carlos Tevez’s fault.
This time around, the club has a markedly different feel. Chris Wilder has carried the club up two divisions and got them playing a smart, tactically astute football with a minimal wage bill.
Will Wilder succeed where Warnock faltered? Is the Premier League a step too far? Or will the last season set up the Blades to cause a shock?
Joining us today is one of the luminaries of the Sheffield United fan media. James Socik is better known by his twitter name Blades Analytic. Starting out as a self-described “fanalyst” he now works for Peterborough United as a data recruitment analyst.
Today’s episode carries us back to the North, to one of the country’s biggest footballing cities.
Things are on the up in Liverpool with both of its Premier League clubs enjoying relative purple patches in recent years. The red half of Liverpool, though, has had the better of it with Jurgen Klopp’s side picking up a Champions League title in their second consecutive final.
In the Premier League, though, it was a different matter: 97 points, it turned out, not being enough to take the trophy off Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
So as next season looms, the question becomes: have Liverpool hit their ceiling? Is there anything that they can do to knock City off their perch? Or should they focus their efforts on yet another Champions League final?
Joining us today is a familiar name from the world of Liverpool football media: Andrew Beasley. Andrew is a freelance football writer who specialises in looking at the statistical side of the game. He is also the site editor for the website twelve.football.
Today’s episode carries us down to the South Coast. Now, for many of us, Brighton notwithstanding, the South Coast hardly conjures up an image of hip and trendy. But five years ago, Southampton Football Club had garnered themselves just such an image, with a savvily run youth academy and a club blueprint that had many neutrals impressed.
In recent seasons, this image quickly fell away and, by last season, had reached its nadir as Mark Hughes arrived at the club. From the ridiculous to the sublime, this season saw Southampton got from nailed on relegation candidates to potential reclaimers of their former reputation as a savvily run club.
The catalyst for this change was Ralph Hasenhuttl, newly arrived from RB Leipzig. With a summer under his belt, will the Austrian be able to push Southampton back up the table to where they used to find themselves? Or has the landscape of the Premier League changed so much in recent years that it will be an uphill struggle?
Joining us today is a familiar face from the world of football media: Alex Stewart. Alex is head of strategy for Tifo Football, the best football channel on YouTube. He also produces tactical content for Tifo, appears on the Tifo Football podcast, and has written widely about the game for various outlets.
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out Podcast, a podcast on football shirts. Each episode, Ollie Shepherd takes an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything about it. The design, the materials, the story. For episode 7, he talks about the 2015 Hearts Of Midlothian 3rd kit which, famously, printed all the names of the Foundation Of Hearts members. Not the first of its kind and surely not the last, Ollie also look at similar honorary kits as well as a discussion on fan ownership in football. He spoke with Richard Johnson, novelty kit extraordinaire, Stuart Wallace, chairman at The Foundation Of Hearts, and Alex Stewart from Tifo Football to discuss these topics and even more! If you enjoy the podcast then please rate and review the podcast, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Sheas. Feel free to follow me on Twitter, I can be found on @KittedOutPod, or email me on kittedoutpod@gmail.com. While you’re on a following spree, don’t forget to follow A Team Of John O’Sheas on @TOJOS_. Social Media Links Kitted Out Podcast - @KittedOutPod Richard Johnson - @FootballAttic Stuart Wallace - @srwallace1 The Foundation Of Hearts - @The_FOH Alex Stewart - @AFHStewart Tifo Football - @TifoFootball_ A Team Of John O’Sheas - @TOJOS_ Football Media Podcast - @FootyMediaPod
Today’s episode sees us visiting the capital city for the first time in this series. Our visit, though, takes us across North London from the famous arch of England’s national stadium to the perhaps equally endearing cheese room of the as yet unnamed New Tottenham Stadium.
Spurs fans have a funny habit of complaining about everything to do with their season whilst coming in the top four of the Premier League and making it to the Champions League final.
Of course, their complaints are fully justified when you take a look at the list of incoming players at the club last season. Not a single penny was spent by Daniel Levy last summer, making this season’s escapades all the more impressive.
But will things change this time around? Could there be money in the bank? Could Spurs sign… heaven forbid… a real living breathing central midfielder to bolster their bit part Sissoko-infused central area?
Joining us today is one of the finest minds that Tottenham Hotspur can call its own. Nathan Clark is a Spurs fan, tactical analyst and member of The Extra Inch Podcast
This week’s episode carries us to the Midlands, to a stadium that hasn’t seen Premier League football for three years. Home of the Peaky Blinders, Birmingham boasts its own Peaky Blinder, Jack Grealish, who is the star of today’s team: Aston Villa.
Having dropped down into the Championship in 2016, Villa fans thought that their return to the top table of English football was a matter of course. But a 13th place finish and then a play-off final loss had them rethinking things when the season started.
Even midway through last season, their Championship credentials seemed guaranteed for another year until Dean Smith’s side went on a ten-game unbeaten run which set them up for play-off triumph and a glorious return to the Premier League.
But what awaits them in the top division of English football? Is it straight back down or can they hang on and cement their place in the league that their fans see as their rightful place?
My guest this week is one of the biggest names in Aston Villa fan media - James Rushton is the editor of 7500 to Holte, a Villa fan site and podcast hosted by SB Nation.
We start our journey around the Premier League in the geographical North not just of England but also, appropriately enough, of the Premier League itself. Last season, Manchester City managed what few other teams have managed in Premier League history: winning back to back titles in the division.
In Pep Guardiola’s three years at the club, Manchester City have become something of a cheat code. This season, they picked up all of the domestic trophies available to them. Only the Champions League eludes Guardiola.
But where the on-pitch is going swimmingly, the off-pitch leaves a little more to be desired. As Manchester City have made the Premier League Top Six less competitive, there have been increasingly concerning stories about the mechanisms by which this success has happened coming out in the press.
What does this mean for Manchester City fandom? Are City effectively unbeatable? And does it even matter?
Joining us on this episode is one of the biggest names in the world of Manchester City punditry. Nico Morales is a freelance journalist whose work has been featured on The Ringer, The Athletic, Howler Magazine, StatsBomb, FanSided and his own medium.
At the end of an eventful season, Jon Mackenzie and Jamie Kemp look back over Leeds United's 2018/19 season using statistical analysis and with an eye to tactical systems.
They look at the season as a whole before breaking down each area of the team to assess them, look at Marcelo Bielsa's first season in charge and discuss what needs to be done over the summer to set the team up for next season.
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out Podcast, a podcast on football shirts.
Each episode, I will take an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything about it. The design, the materials, the story.
For episode 6 I talk all things Women's Football in prep for the 2019 Women's World Cup. The competition is groundbreaking as most teams competing in the competition will be doing so in different designed kits to the men! Takes on traditional kits have got kit nerds like myself excited for the future of kit kind!
I spoke with, Suzy Wrack, Pete Blackburn, Carrie Dunn and Phil Delves about the World Cup, the growth of women’s football and the fantastic kit designs we will be seeing in Summer.
If you enjoy the podcast then please rate and review the podcast, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Sheas. Feel free to follow me on Twitter, I can be found on @KittedOutPod, or email me on kittedoutpod@gmail.com. While you’re on a following spree, don’t forget to to follow A Team Of John O’Sheas on @TOJOS_.
Social Media Links
Kitted Out Podcast - @KittedOutPod
Suzy Wrack - @SuzyWrack
Pete Blackburn - @PeteBlackburn
Carrie Dunn - @Carriesparkle
Phil Delves - @Phildelves
A Team Of John O’Sheas - @TOJOS_
Football Media Podcast - @FootyMediaPod
This week, Jon speaks to Katie Whyatt of The Telegraph about her experiences working for an outlet that has just rolled out the first dedicated Women's Sport section.
Before that, Jon and George cover the news in football media this week, looking at:
- Telegraph Women's Sport
- Copa90's new business model
- The media coverage of the Moise Kean racism incident
- Apple News Plus and the future of content subscription
- Other headlines in the global media.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out Podcast, a podcast on football shirts.
Each episode, Ollie Shepherd takes an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything about it. The design, the materials, the story.
For episode 5, he travelled up to North Yorkshire to talk with members of AFC Bedale to discuss their meaty kit. The team, sponsored by Heck Sausages, have a kit this year based on a hot dog. This shirt has a charitable side to it, with the club making sure 25% of every shirt sale went to Prostate Cancer UK.
Myself, Bedale locals and Richard Johnson discuss the kits, the charitable causes as well as novelty kits throughout the years to see what is weird and wonderful about them.
If you enjoy the podcast then please rate and review the podcast, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Sheas.
Feel free to follow Ollie on Twitter: he can be found on @KittedOutPod or emailed on kittedoutpod@gmail.com.
While you’re on a following spree, don’t forget to follow A Team Of John O’Sheas on @TOJOS_.
Social Media Links
@FootballAttic - Richard Johnson (Twitter)
@AFCBedale - AFC Bedale (Twitter)
@KittedOutPod - Kitted Out Podcast (Twitter)
@TOJOS_ - A Team Of John O’Sheas (Twitter)
Hello and welcome to the twenty-third episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, we’re going off-road a little as I get exclusive access to the cast and directors of a new film, The Keeper, which tells the story of Bert Trautmann.
In the course of the podcast, I give my own opinion of the film before speaking to the Director Marcus H. Rosenmuller and actors John Henshaw, Freya Mavor and David Kross about their experiences of making the film.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
We’ll be back next week with another interesting guest from the world of the football media. Before that, though, it’s the director and cast of The Keeper.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the twenty-third episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to James Montague – freelance journalist and author.
In the course of our conversation, we talk about his experiences of investigative journalism across the world of football, corruption and intrigue within the beautiful game and slow journalism and its compatibility with football.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
We’ll be back next week with another interesting guest from the world of the football media. Before that, though, it’s James Montague, investigative journalism and the seedy side of football.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the twenty-second episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Dr Jonathan Ervine – senior lecturer in French at Bangor University.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss French football, its media, the role that football plays in French identity, French club's trepidation into esports and the future of the football media.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
We’ll be back next week with another interesting guest from the world of the football media. Before that, though, it’s Jonathan Ervine, Academia, French football and Esports.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the twenty-first episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Chris Sweeney – feature writer at a number of newspaper and magazines, and author of Mad Dog Gravesen: The Last of the Footballing Mavericks
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the book itself, the experience of writing a monograph-length work, and the practicalities of publishing.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we’ll be talking to Jonathan Ervine, senior lecturer in French at Bangor University. Before that, though, it’s Harry Robinson, VAVEL and the art of podcasting.
Enjoy!
After a brief hiatus, Morons is back and the morons are back.
Much of the sort of stuff you should have come to expect from us now:
- Bit on writing
- Bit on Pep Guardiola's development
- Bit on Manchester City vs Chelsea and the title race
- Bit on Manchester United vs PSG
- Bit on half spaces
- Bit on IKEA as a food outlet
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out, a podcast on football shirts.
In each episode, we take an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything interesting about it. The design, the materials, the story.
For Episode 4, Ollie Shepherd talks to many people from the LGBT community about their experiences as a football fan, what it means to see the pride flag at stadiums and tied to the game we all love. There is also some discussion on the 2015 Rayo Vallenco and Deportivo Guadalajara rainbow kits issued by Kelme and Hummel.
He spoke to people involved in the game to people who can be found in the terraces to try and cover all areas of the game and fandom.
If you enjoy the podcast than please rate and review the podcast, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Shea’s.
Feel free to follow Ollie on Twitter: he can be found @KittedOutPod, or email me on kittedoutpod@gmail.com. He’ll be happy to speak to anyone.
Social Media Links
Greg McLean - @Gregmclean92
Jon Holmes - @Jonboy79
Di Cunningham - @Prideinfootball
Chris Paouros - @SpursLGBT
Peter Tatchell - @PeterTatchell
Kitted Out - @KittedOutPod
Ollie Shepherd - @OllieShep97
A Team Of John O’Sheas - @TOJOS_
So we've finally gotten around to doing another film episode like we promised.
We're a bit low on the ground for various reasons but this didn't stop this one being a great chat about the following films:
The Damned United
Good bye, Lenin!
Die Welle (The Wave)
Hanna
Pan's Labyrinth
The guest and chooser of these films was Chris Brammer (@Brammered).
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the twentieth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Harry Robinson – Head of Content at VAVEL and host of the Manchester United Weekly Podcast and the United Through Time Podcast.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the work of VAVEL, the ins and outs of podcasting, and his experiences of working within the media as a young person.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
We haven’t sorted a guest for next week as of yet but be assured the podcast will happen. Before that, though, it’s Harry Robinson, VAVEL and the art of podcasting.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the nineteenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Ryan Baldi – Senior writer at Football Whispers and author of The Next Big Thing.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss his experiences of working for Football Whispers, the ins and outs of writing a book, and his experiences of working within a number of different publishing models.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
We haven’t sorted a guest for next week as of yet but be assured the podcast will happen. Before that, though, it’s Ryan Baldi, Football Whispers and the Process of Book Publishing.
Enjoy!
You can either look at this as a late episode or an early episode...
This week we spend a lot of time talking about journalism. Sorry.
- We begin from Spygate
- Rapidly divert to talk about whether or not the MSM gatekeeps
- Go back to Spygate
- Talk about the changing face of football in terms of galactico culture
- Have a chat about elite players becoming used to playing for 60 minute shifts
- Talk about Copa Mundials.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the eighteenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Dan Orlowitz – football writer for the Japan Times.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss his experiences of working within the Japanese media, the differences between Japanese and western media, and whether or not the AFC will ever achieve parity with other associations worldwide.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we’re talking to Ryan Baldi about the process of writing and publishing his book The Next Big Thing but, before that, it’s Dan Orlowitz, Japanese football and its media culture.
Enjoy!
Happy 2019! What better way to celebrate than by listening to the dulcet tones of two of the football media's best-paid stars...
Well anyway - we are back!
Lots to get your teeth into this week:
- Water filtration methods
- Pep Guardiola and Racism
- Manchester City vs Liverpool
- Jon's New Newsletter
- Marcelo Bielsa
- On genealogy of managers
- Ethical consumption (www.patreon.com/tojos cough)
There's other stuff in there too but Jon's ill and struggling to concentrate.
Peace!
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out, a podcast on football shirts.
Each episode we will take an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything interesting about it. The design, the materials, the story.
For episode 3, Ollie looked at the 2005 Stand Up Speak Up kits released by Nike to bring awareness to the campaign with the same name. Nike released kits to 5 teams in total as well as creating replicas to raise money for the campaign which ran from 2005 to 2008.
He chatted with Gustavo Thomas about the kit he has, George Starkey-Midha about the work Kick It Out are doing, Kadeem Simmonds about racism in football media and familiar voice Nico Morales about racism in European football.
What is being done? What role does the media take and why, in 2018, is this still an issue?
If you enjoy the podcast then please rate and review the podcast, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Shea’s. Feel free to follow me on twitter, I can be found @KittedOutPod, or email me on kittedoutpod@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to speak to anyone.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Gustavo Thomas - Portugal Match Worn (Facebook)
George Starkey-Midha - @GStarkeyMidha (Twitter)
Kadeem Simmonds - @KadeemSimmonds (Twitter)
Nico Morales - @Nico_OMorales (Twitter)
A Team Of John O’Sheas - @TOJOS_ (Twitter)
Hello and welcome to the seventeenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Jonathan Cable – Lecturer in Sport Journalism at the University of Gloucestershire.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss his experiences of working within academia, the trends that have emerged within the sports media industry over the last year, and the way that Raheem Sterling has been covered by news outlets during that time.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
We will be taking a week off over Christmas but we will be back the following week with more exciting guests. Have a great break!
We're back and two became three. We're lucky to have David Cowlishaw on the podcast today, he of Stoke City's parish.
Fun was had by all except for Dave but we covered some topics.
- Stoke City
- Who are the worst team that Nick has seen (May overlap with the previous section...)
- It gets a bit hazy from here...
- We talked about the Copa90 Copa Libertadores final
- And encouraging reading amongst children(?)
- Oh and we had a bit about the Borussia Dortmund free kick routine
- Thanks for David!
Hello and welcome to the sixteenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Benjamin Roberts – author of the book Gunshots & Goalposts, a history of football in Northern Ireland.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss his experiences of writing a first book, the self-publishing process, and what he is doing differently as he prepares his second book for more traditional publication.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be speaking to Joe Cable about lecturing journalism, Raheem Sterling and racism in the media, but before that, it's Benjamin Roberts, book publishing and the history of football in Northern Ireland.
Enjoy!
Yeah yeah. We're back. Breaking into your podcast aggregators like a bad dream.
We talk, as always, about a lot of stuff in this one:
- Racism in the media - our thoughts
- Chelsea vs Manchester City - is it a blueprint?
- What the hell do we do if Liverpool win the league?
- How to motivate yourself for writing?
- We need new topics...
- Jon's Ferguson-esque managerial stint with Cambridge University Women
- We beg for money (www.patreon.com/tojos) cough cough
That's about it folks!
Hello and welcome to this sneak preview of Kitted Out episode 3. In this short chat, I speak to Kadeem Simmonds about racism within print media, looking at heavy links to Raheem Sterling and why he seems to be under such scrutiny.
This seemed right to release after he was racially abused by Chelsea fans on Saturday the 8th December after City lost 2-0. Following this, Sterling came out with a statement on his Instagram blaming the newspapers for the treatment of black players and, to some extent, he has a point.
I hope you enjoy this chat and look forward to the full episode. I aim to have it out for Christmas! Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review and thank you for listening.
Social Media
Kitted Out - @KittedOutPod (Twitter)
Kadeem Simmonds - @KadeemSimmonds (Twitter)
A Team Of John O’Shea’s - @TOJOS_ (Twitter)
The Football Media Podcast - @FootyMediaPod Twitter)
Hello and welcome to the fifteenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Paul Hyland – a freelance journalist who has just completed a PhD in Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss his experiences of moving from academia into football writing, the benefits and crossovers between the two and the ways in which literature can inform football.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be speaking to Benjamin Roberts about football in Northern Ireland and the experience of writing a book, but before that, it's Paul Hyland, academia, football writing and the place of literature.
Enjoy!
Jon and Nick are back and there is plenty to talk about up to and including:
- the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bishey Shelley
- the circulatory system after extensive amputation
- Arsenal football club
- Liverpool football club
- Jon's trip to Glasgow to meet 'the fans'
- Marcelo Bielsa and Pep Guardiola
- Music and musicality
- Jon's medical conditions
- Other things
This podcast comprises the text of a paper given by Jon Mackenzie at the Football Collective’s annual conference in Glasgow 2018. I hope you enjoy the paper. If you would like a copy of the text, please email Jon at: jonmackenzie@gmail.com.
Hello and welcome to the fourteenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Richard Whittall – freelance journalist and football writer.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss his experiences of working with the North American football media context, long form and analytics writing, and the responsibilities of the media in detoxifying dangerous football environments.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be speaking to Paul Hyland about literature’s place in the football media, but before that, it's Richard Whittall and life in the North American football media.
Enjoy!
Psssst.... guess what... you never will so I'll tell you anyway...
We've only gone and got Nathan A* Clark on the podcast this week.
We talk about Spurs
The ethics of supporting a team who are bankrolled by disgusting regimes (Nick)
Should young journalists be deferential to the higher-ups?
Why is pitching so grimy?
Red Dead Redemption 2 - again - but only because Nathan was actually playing the thing the whole time...
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out, a podcast on football shirts.
Each episode we will take an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything interesting about it. The design, the materials, the story.
For Episode 2 Ollie Shepherd is joined by Alan Siegel, Adam Hurrey, Alex from Soccermarkt, Sam Stejskal, Dane Hinchy and Josh from Box2Box to discuss everything around the 1994 USA kit worn while hosting the most successful World Cup to date.
Was it a nice kit? Why denim? What were the impacts of the competition both on and off the pitch? All questions no one has asked but ones we will answer.
If you enjoy the podcast than please rate and review the podcast, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Shea’s. Feel free to follow me on twitter, I can be found @KittedOutPod, or email me on kittedoutpod@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to speak to anyone.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Alan Siegel - @AlanSiegelDC (Twitter)
Adam Hurrey - @FootballCliches (Twitter)
Soccermarkt - @thesoccermarkt (Twitter)
Sam Stejskal - @samstejskal (Twitter)
Josh Warwick - @_box2box (Twitter)
Dane Hinchy - thefinalthird (Instagram)
Hello and welcome to the thirteenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to three journalists who work within the women’s football media: Suzy Wrack, Sophie Lawson and Anne-Marie Batson.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss their experiences of working within the women’s football media, its crossover with the wider media, and the future of reporting on the women’s game.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be speaking to Richard Whitall about football media in the American context, but before that, it's Suzy Wrack, Sophie Lawson, Anne-Marie Batson and the women’s football media.
Enjoy!
Oh hi-dee hi there! Welcome back to the Jon and Nick Podcast for Admirers of the Art Form known amongst some Particular Circles as Westerns.
Just kidding. We actually talked about football a lot in this episode. That's because we asked you lot to give us talking points.
Anyway this is what it looked like:
- Some Buuuuuuuster Scruuuuuuuuggs thoughts
- Brands Brands Brands
- Internation football mini-section:
** Nations League
** The impact of the Nation-State on football
** Death to Capitalism
- Responsible football
** Death to Capitalism
- NFL-style shirts
** Death to Capitalism
- Any Other Business
** Death to Capitalism
ENJOY!
Hello and welcome to a special episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I've been bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
In this mini-episode, I talk to Alex Bryson, an assistant producer with Sunset and Vine, about the EFL broadcast package that was announced on Monday. In the course of our conversation, we talk about the background to the deal, the various complaints that have been aimed at that process that the EFL has undergone, and look forward at the probable after-effects of the agreement.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Later this week, we will be featuring a roundtable discussion on women and the football media but before that, it's Alex Bryson, the EFL broadcast package and the future of the Football League’s media presence.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the eleventh episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media.
This week, I'm speaking to Matthew Barrett – founder of the social enterprise Goal Click.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the function of Goal Click, how it’s role as a social enterprise works, and look at how it fits into the media landscape.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be featuring a round table discussion on women and the football media but before that, it's Matthew Barrett, Goal Click and the place of social enterprise in football.
Enjoy!
Oh look! It's the new look Morons podcast with a very special cameo from Kolby 'you'll think you're going to mispronounce it but you'll get it bang on' Kuwitzky.
We're going to make a film special a more regular feature so buckle up and enjoy our long chat about Western films. In the course of the episode, we talk:
- Noam Chomsky for Old Men (Jon doesn't make this joke once in this episode) and There Will Be Blood - which one are you?
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Kolby has a Hobsbawm moment
- The Hateful Eight - Tarantino is not/shit (delete 'not' as appropriate)
- Unforgiven - What's the deal with Clint Eastwood?
- Some other Westerns
Enjoy my dudes!
Hello and welcome to the tenth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Chris Sutcliffe – host of the Media Voices podcast and freelance media journalist.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the wider world of media, Media voices and media journalism, and talk about how the football media fits in within this more generalised context.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be talking to Matthew Barrett, co-founder of Goal Click. But before that, it's Chris Sutcliffe, the world of media and football’s place within it. Enjoy!
We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Did you miss us?
Anyway, this one is a mammoth. We started off talking about football. A bit of Leeds and Bielsa and stuff like that. We rebuffed the Honey Stone. But before we knew it, Nico went off on a long sermon about being a football writer and Jon had to pull it back by talking about westerns (the movie). Tl;dr - we are now a film podcast. Hope that's ok.
Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the ninth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Andrew Flint – head of content at Ronnie Dog Media.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the Russian football media, Andrew’s experiences of the World Cup in Russia, and the work of Ronnie Dog Media, a new media company operating with an interesting model.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be talking to Chris Sutcliffe, co-host of the Media Voices Podcast. But before that, it's Andrew Flint, the football media in Russia and the ins and outs of Ronnie Dog Media.
Enjoy!
Oh hai. Jon and Nico here. With another carefully cultivated podcast which will fit lovely in your audial passageways and lull you gently to sleep when you're lying in bed.
Topics of conversation this week include:
- Jon tells a long story about Andrea Radrizzani which doesn't have a punch line
- A long chat about The El Clasico (does it even matter to call it that for one?)
- Some sort of chat about Red Dead Redemption 2
- Jon complains about being inundated
- Jon complains about life in the North
- Other things
ENJOY! I COMMAND YOU!
And now for something completely different...
Hello and welcome to Kitted Out, a podcast on football shirts.
Each episode we will take an in-depth look at a different shirt from throughout the years to discuss everything interesting about it. The design, the materials, the story.
For this episode, host Ollie Shepherd is joined by Ben Sutherland, Claudia Huxtable, John Devlin and Phil Delves as they look at the famous (or infamous) 2004 Cameroon one-piece kit worn during the African Cup Of Nations in Tunisia.
Why was the shirt controversial? How was it put together and how did they get on? We hope to find out.
If you enjoy the podcast, then please rate and review, subscribe to A Team Of John O’Sheas' platform on your podcast aggregator and follow us on Twitter @TOJOS_.
Ollie can be found @Ollie_Shep97 or at kittedoutpod@gmail.com. He’ll be happy to speak to anyone, especially about football kits.
Guests:
Ben Sutherland - @bensutherland
John Devlin - @TrueColourKits
Phil Delves - @phildelves
Next episode - USA's 1994 World Cup kits
Hello hello! Just your couple of friendly morons here to talk to you about a bit of football, a bit of hyper-masculinity, a bit of football media and then a bit more football when we're really meant to be wrapping things up.
Running order today is:
- Chelsea - Manchester United - Mourinho (again...)
- Manchester City as a phenomenon
- Is Bernardo better than KDB? (Nico goes all clickbait on us)
- Something about LeBron (I forget what)
- Issues with hyper-masculinity. Jon tries to argue around using the language but then realises he's being ridiculous.
- How do you operate within the football media whilst also having high standards about how the media should operate?
- Back to football: Ross Barkley? N'Golo Kante? Wtf Chelsea's midfield...
- Arsenal: lol
Enjoy!
In a week in which Jon and Nico didn't watch any football, they bring you a podcast that mentions a fair bit of football...
Look out for:
- Con(n)or McGregor and the UFC
- Alexis Sanchez is bad
- Ronaldo vs Messi? Why has no one pitched these two together before?
- A film that Nico watched but Jon didn't
- Jon killed Neil Armstrong
- Any other business
Another week closer to death, another episode of Morons.
Lots for you to get your proverbial teeth into this week. Jon and Nick talk about:
- Why is The S*n so shit?
- How do you structure your writing?
- How do you write cover letters?
- FOOTBALL (Manchester City vs Liverpool)
- FOOTBALL (Chelsea)
- FOOTBALL (Arsenal)
- Jon explains Fortnite
- Male pattern baldness
- Jon explains UFC
- Fascism is a Bad Thing
- Some concluding poems
Fin
Jon and Nic are back.
Jon has been ill.
He can't remember what they talked about in this episode.
Something about baths.
Mourinho (again ffs).
Chelsea.
Ethics maybe?
Football.
Things.
Enjoy x
Hello and welcome to the eighth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Mark Godfrey – founder and editor of the Football Pink.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the origins of the Pink, the various ins and outs of running a fanzine and website in the present day, and what the future of the football media will look like for them.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be talking to Shireen Ahmed freelance sports journalist and co-host of Burn It All Down about the protest in the football media. But before that, it's Mark Godfrey, The Football Pink and the place of fanzines in the football media.
Enjoy!
Oh look! It's only football's version of the Joe Rogan Experience but without the Joe Rogan experience. Dangerous ideas explored but with very little hard-hitting interviewing along the way.
This week, Jon and Nico are joined by a third Moron, Jamie Hamilton, who comes to us as an emissary of aforementioned Rogan - Joe - to offer something of a defence.
During the course of the discussion, we talk:
- Jon defends Flat Earthers as 'more scientific in some sense' than the rest of us.
- We talk about Jonathan Wilson's PSG piece in which he goes in two-footed on Neymar.
- Nico basically cries lamenting how toxic masculinity has ruined elite football. Typical.
- We talk a bit about Nike's advertising campaign. Nico and Jamie seem alarmingly happy to just swallow the lies of Late Capitalism but don't worry - Jon keeps them on the straight and narrow.
All this and more beside in this week's episode of Morons!
Hello and welcome to the seventh episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Alex Stewart – Head of Strategy at Tifo Football.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the way that Alex helps to situate Tifo Football at the cutting edge of the football media, how Tifo have evolved in recent years, and what the future of the football media will look like for them.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be talking to Mark Godfrey founder and editor of The Football Pink, about the place of fanzines in the football media. But before that, it's Alex Stewart, Tifo Football and the place of video content in the football media.
Enjoy!
OH EM GEE - It's the Morons Show!!!
In a week in which we learned that Bert and Ernie are making the beast with two backs, Jon and Nick are here to get a little bit Sesame, a little bit Street about the world of football.
We talked about a bunch of things:
- A new football website on the block (we wish them well)
- Sean Fennessey and why we refuse to believe that life at The Ringer isn't all Hypnotic, nude Bill Simmons and orange peel
- A little bit about boring media stuff (Would you become a member of a great sports web space?)
- Pochettino gets analogical and the British Press go into meltdown
- Why Jonathan Liew should go to America
- Are football players stupid or are they just boring (Thank fck 14 y.o. Nico didn't have Twitter)
- Other stuff.
Enjoy! Moron love x
Hello and welcome to the sixth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to George Starkey-Midha – a Media and Communications Officer at Kick It Out –football’s equality and inclusion organisation.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the role that the media plays in Kick It Out’s attempts to educate individuals and respond to instances of discrimination within the world of football.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod.
Next week, we will be talking to Alex Stewart about Tifo, a media company producing animated videos and changing the face of the football media. But before that, it's George Starkey-Midha, Kick it Out and the Role of the Media in the fight against discrimination. Enjoy!
Jon and Nick. Jon and Nick. Here to fulfil all your footballing needs that you didn't know you had. Jon and Nick. Jon and Nick. Football. Football Jon and Nick.
We're back! And we've been talking about lots of things that you might not expect to hear on a football podcast up to and including:
- How does narrative affect us? AKA What does Karl Marx have to do with Serena Williams?
- Do we only like Marco Silva because Paul Merson hates him?
- Where have all the young sports media talents gone? Long time passing
- Is Ronaldo producing more Tories?
- Why can't the media talk about national identity in any kind of nuanced way?
- Why was the mainstream coverage of Manchester United Women's first game so shonky?
All this and much more besides on this week's episode of Moronssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Hello and welcome to the fifth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Ahmed Yussuf – a digital producer at TRT World and a co-curator of the anthology “Growing up African in Australia”.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss football in Australia, the football media there, black bodies in football and the challenges facing people of colour in the media.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, you can follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod. You can also follow Ahmed on Twitter @ahmedyussuf10.
Next week, we will be talking to George Starkey-Midha about the work of Kick It Out – football’s equality and inclusion organisation. But before that, it's Ahmed Yussuf, the Australian football media and black bodies in football. Enjoy!
Oh hey! It's Nic and Jon back to shoot the poop.
They talked for too long this week (although they promise they didn't talk in the third person for any extended amount of time. What they did talk about was:
- Subscription models in the football media and why they will/won't definitely work/not work
- Why writing is a bollock (and you should find a good editor)
- Lucas Torreira the storied medieval boy-king
- How do you Like and RT? Curating a Twitter account
So when you put it like that, it doesn't sound like much but we promise you that we really spun out the content. If you listen you will definitely not be any less disappointed than you usually are.
If you want to follow us, we're on Twitter @TOJOS_ and then Jon and Nic can't actually put their handles in here because underscores do funny things to the formatting. Sorry.
Morons love x
Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Stefan Bienkowski – a freelance football journalist and co-founder of The Two Point One – a Scottish football website.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the Scottish football media, the subscription model as a means of monetizing a website and the future of the football media as a whole.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, you can follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod. Stefan can be followed @SBienkowski and The Two Point One can be found @TheTwoPointOne.
Next week, we will be talking to Ahmed Yussuf about black bodies in football and the football media. But before that, it's Stefan Bienkowski, the Scottish football media and subscription models.
Enjoy!
Jon and Nick have recorded Morons Season two Episode two for your enjoyment.
This season we're going back to basics and just having the two of us on chatting the shit.
Today we talked about a lot of disparate topics but here's some of them:
How was your birthday, Nick?
Is there a place for colloquial tactics writing?
Writer's block and Marcelo Bielsa
A bit of Brian Glanville Looking for an Idiom
Manchester United vs Tottenham
Nick and Jon cater to their many fans
Also we're still on the lookout for budding podcasters who have creative ideas about football and want to share our platform. Get in touch with us on here or slide into @JonMackenzie or @NicoOMorales DMs.
TOJOS love x
Hello and welcome to the third episode of the Football Media Podcast which is part of the Team of John O'Sheas network.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Dr Dan Parnell – senior lecturer in Business Management at Manchester Metropolitan University.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the role of academia in football, the relationship between academia and the football media, and spend some time discussing Dan’s chapter on Sporting Directors in a recent anthology.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, you can follow us on Twitter @FootyMediaPod or, alternatively, you can follow the Team of John O’Sheas network @TOJOS_.
Next week, we will be talking to Stefan Bienkowski about the Scottish context within the football media, subscription models and his own website TheTwoPointOne. But until then, here’s Dr Dan Parnell and the phenomenon of football academia. Enjoy!
Jon and Nick have recorded Morons Season two Episode one for your enjoyment.
This season we're going back to basics and just having the two of us on chatting the shit.
Today we talked about a lot of disparate topics but here's some of them:
How do you talk interestingly about Jose Mourinho?
Should we call out Maurizio Sarri more for his homophobic remarks?
Is All or Nothing, the Manchester City documentary, a Bad Thing for the football media?
How do you write interestingly about median footballers?
(Who is Andrew Surman?)
Also we're still on the lookout for budding podcasters who have creative ideas about football and want to share our platform. Get in touch with us on here or slide into @JonMackenzie or @NicoOMorales DMs.
TOJOS love x
Hello and welcome to the second episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Josh Schneider Weiler – a podcast producer who runs the This Football Life podcast.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the history of football podcasting in the UK, examine how it has changed in recent years and look at how consumption will change going into the future.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, you can follow us on Twitter @TOJOS_ or, alternatively, you can like us on Facebook at A Team of John O'Sheas.
Next week, we will be talking to Dr Dan Parnell about academia’s place in the football media before moving on to talk about his research into Sporting Directors at football clubs so make sure you tune in then. But before that, it's Josh Schneider Weiler and the phenomenon of Football podcasting. Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to the first episode of the Football Media Podcast on the Team of John O'Sheas platform.
I'm Jon Mackenzie and, across the course of the new season, I'm going to be bringing you a weekly podcast that seeks to open up the often-murky underworld of the football media. Each episode will bring you an interview with an expert in as many diverse areas within the industry as possible. We've got writers, authors, artists, journalists, broadcasters, event co-ordinators, lawyers, commentators - if you can name it, we've got it.
This week, I'm speaking to Conor Ketley - a Business Development Executive for the sports business events company Leaders in Sport. As part of his job, Conor has to keep his finger on the pulse of the sports media industry and so who better to talk to about Eleven Sports' recent acquisition of the UK broadcasting rights for La Liga and Serie A.
In the course of our conversation, we discuss the history of TV broadcasting of football in the UK, analyse how it has changed in recent years and look at how consumption will change going into the future.
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with your friends, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes in order to help us gain exposure and, if you are a social media person, you can follow us on Twitter @TOJOS_ or, alternatively, you can like us on Facebook at A Team of John O'Sheas.
Next week, we will be talking to Josh Schneider-Weiler about the phenomenon of football podcasts so make sure you tune in then. But before that, it's Conor Ketley and TV Broadcasting of Football. Enjoy!
We're back and it's lit. We've got the final three teams from the Premier League's top six for you...
But first - Nico wanted to talk to you about the Community Shield, a match in which Pep Guardiola didn't use the 3-5-2 that Nico had previously promised he would use...
The segue from here to Chelsea was natural and so we discussed Maurizio Sarri's new charge, their midfield three in particular but also how Sarri will differentiate himself from Antonio Conte in terms of the positional play we should expect to see in the attacking areas in particular.
Next, we discussed Liverpool - a team who are slowly transitioning towards a more efficient brand of football under Jurgen Klopp. We also talked about their midfield three and thought about how their brand of pressing football will be tweaked going into the new season.
And last but by no means least, we talked about Unai Emery's Arsenal. What effect will a new manager - whoever it is - have on the squad? Are they, in fact, something of a sleeping giant? Should we expect big things?
All this and much more beside in this week's episode of a Team of John O'Sheas...
Oh hello there... Guess you must be tuning in because you heard it's the beginning of a new Premier League season and Jon and Nico are back with two very special guests to preview what lies ahead.
With one Nathan A Clark on board, we also allowed everyone's favourite Portuguese expert Tiago Estevao to come on too on the proviso that he sat in a cupboard in the next room (sorry about the sound quality).
In part one, the chaps discuss:
- Manchester City
- A formation change?
- Where does Mahrez fit in?
- How important is Fernandinho?
- Is Vincent Kompany past it?
- Will City make a title defence?
- Manchester United
- Why are they so shit?
- Why is Jose Mourinho so regressive these days?
- How do you free Paul Pogba? Do you even need to?
- More stuff on how bad Mourinho is...
- Tottenham Hotspur
- Have they signed any players yet? (no)
- Is there anything to be positive about? (no)
- Shifting to a 4-1-4-1 formation
- Is it bad if Harry Kane is injured? (yes)
- How many inches in a foot
- Is Ben Davies a centre-back? (maybe)
- How does South Korean National Service work?
- Why is Erikson not dead yet? (magic)
All this and more beside on this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
Oh no it isn't! It's only James Yorke and Euan Dewar from StatsBomb here to talk to Jon and Nico all about statistical analysis of football.
The topics are diverse and range from:
- What is the relationship between football analysis and the media?
- Does the stats community have any responsibility to the wider public?
- How do you go about building metrics?
- Would the world of football statistics benefit from more tactical expertise?
All this and much more beside on this week's episode of Morons!
This week, Jon and Nico are joined by two of the masterminds behind the Tifo Football phenomenon: Alex Stewart and Seb Stafford-Bloor.
The episode is dedicated to the art of football writing within a more basic context of sports writing in general and the discussion roamed freely up to an including the questions:
- Why do we write about football? Why do we read about football?
- Is football too one-dimensional to write well about?
- Why does it feel as though there are fewer genuinely literary treatments of football?
- What would you change about sports writing if you could?
All this and more beside on this week's episode of Morons.
This week on Morons, Nico Morales has a flat-tire problem leaving Jon Mackenzie all on his own to deal with the hosts of soon-to-be-award-winning podcast Who Are Ya? - a podcast that travels around the country speaking to fans from any club from the men's or women's game.
Through the course of the podcast, they talk:
- The origins of Who Are Ya pod
- The ideas behind the podcast itself
- How issues like format and sound quality affect the final podcast
- The effect being independent has on a podcast
All this and much more beside on this week's episode of Morons.
Enjoy!
Your favourite Morons are back with another addition to the swamp in Nathan Clark (@NathanAClark).
In what was meant to be an episode which focussed on football tactics, we actually strayed far and wide through the wonderful world of football media discussing, amongst other things:
- The Real Football Fan Show - has the media let us down in offering "authentic" fan culture in the form of a bastardised Arsenal Fan TV?
- Match of the Day - do we, the watchers of the Premier League, deserve better punditry than we get?
- Punching down - why is it so prevalent in football media?
- How does the mainstream become homogeneous?
All this and much more on this week's episode of Morons.
Enjoy!
This week's episode sees two Morons become four. Nico and Jon welcome Ceylon back as well as debuting a special guest Steven "Not a real chicken" Chicken.
In the traditional Media Watch style, they talk about:
- Stats, stats, stats: Who is Kevin Durant and why is he wrong about stats?
- How much should a journalist or football expert know? Should they watch every game?
- What is holding back minority individuals from participating in the sports media?
- How will Manchester United's proposed women's team affect the women's game?
All this and much more besides on this week's episode of Morons!
In the first of our Media Watch podcast series, our two protagonists, the Morons, take you on a journey through 'Football Twitter' asking such profound questions as:
- What is football Twitter?
- Is Pep Guardiola in the wrong when he speaks out for Catalonia?
- Are West Ham fans SJWs or simply hooligans?
*Why are men still misogynist?
And much more besides!
Enjoy!
The concept is simple: two morons talk about football with little thought as to whether or not what they say is too stupid to be discussed.
Except we can't even do that properly - this week we're three morons talking about football fandom. Jon, Nico and Ceylon turn their collective attention to the question of the way that football is followed in modern society:
The conversation takes them over many variegated topics:
- How does the way fans perceive of football being negative or positive affect the game itself?
- Does bias affect the way we watch the game and, subsequently, report on it?
- How do we make the world of football a more inclusive space for those who aren't comfortable within it?
- Are there right or wrong ways of supporting a club?
- What happens when your club is controlled by a company who pumps money into it?
- What is with those Twitter accounts called things like @RonaldoisGod?
All of this and more beside in this week's episode of Morons.
Enjoy!
The concept is simple: two morons talk about football with little thought as to whether or not what they say is too stupid to be discussed.
This week, Jon and Nico turn their collective attention to the question of football managers:
In the second part of a two-part episode, the conversation takes them through the coaches of the teams in the top six of the Premier League.
Episode two covers Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola with topics of conversation ranging from football philosophies, the psychology of management, why management is more than just thinking well, and many more.
Enjoy!
The concept is simple: two morons talk about football with little thought as to whether or not what they say is too stupid to be discussed.
This week, Jon and Nico turn their collective attention to the question of football managers:
In a two-part episode, the conversation takes them through the coaches of the teams in the top six of the Premier League.
Episode one covers Arsene Wenger, Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp with topics of conversation ranging from football philosophies, differences between leagues, how managers modify their style season to season, and many more.
Enjoy!
The concept is simple: two morons talk about football with little thought as to whether or not what they say is too stupid to be discussed.
This week, Jon and Nico turn their collective attention to the question of the football media:
What is the point of the football media?
Do we in the football media even know what we are doing?
What can be done to make post-match interviews more interesting?
Why does anyone give a shit about transfer speculation?
Does the English media dominate the global conversation?
All of these questions and many more beside on this week's episode of Morons.
In 1965, the football writer Brian Glanville wrote an article about the state of British sports journalism. At the outset of the piece, he distinguished between two forms of sports journalism within the British context: the ‘more sensitive popular writer’ who ‘knows that almost every piece he writes is a self-betrayal, a selling out to the cruel machine which has produced him’ and ‘the quality writer’ who is ‘writing for an informed minority when, given the wide reference of his subject, he should be speaking to the generality’. ‘What is wholly lacking’, he writes, ‘is an idiom which will throw a bridge across the two cultures, avoiding, on the one hand, bathos, which is the nemesis of ‘good’ sports writing, and on the other stylised vulgarity, the nemesis of the popular school.’ Fifty years later and that bridge remains for the most part undiscovered: the British sports writer still finds themselves looking for an idiom.
In the course of this podcast series, we are going to join in this search for an idiom. Bringing together specialists from around the world, we will take on the topics that are often ignored about the way the game is thought about, spoken about and played. Be it the epistemology of scouting, the creation and preservation of narrative, or the shadow world of capital that underpins the global game, each episode will seek to bring to light some aspect of the beautiful game and raise it to the level of scrutiny.
In this episode, we’re talking about what it is that we, as fans, expect from football. Joining us on the show today is Kolby Kuwitzky. Kolby is, in theory, a writer. He should probably start doing that again. In the meantime, he mostly bakes cakes and tries to sound intelligent on Twitter. Having supported Arsenal since before they were available to watch on American television, he sometimes, in the darkest depths of their annual November swoons, wonders if those were not, in fact, the days.
In 1965, the football writer Brian Glanville wrote an article about the state of British sports journalism. At the outset of the piece, he distinguished between two forms of sports journalism within the British context: the ‘more sensitive popular writer’ who ‘knows that almost every piece he writes is a self-betrayal, a selling out to the cruel machine which has produced him’ and ‘the quality writer’ who is ‘writing for an informed minority when, given the wide reference of his subject, he should be speaking to the generality’. ‘What is wholly lacking’, he writes, ‘is an idiom which will throw a bridge across the two cultures, avoiding, on the one hand, bathos, which is the nemesis of ‘good’ sports writing, and on the other stylised vulgarity, the nemesis of the popular school.’ Fifty years later and that bridge remains for the most part undiscovered: the British sports writer still finds themselves looking for an idiom. In the course of this podcast series, we are going to join in this search for an idiom. Bringing together specialists from around the world, we will take on the topics that are often ignored about the way the game is thought about, spoken about and played. Be it the epistemology of scouting, the creation and preservation of narrative, or the shadow world of capital that underpins the global game, each episode will seek to bring to light some aspect of the beautiful game and raise it to the level of scrutiny. In this episode, we’re talking about the ideas of simplicity and complexity in football. Joining us on the show is Nico Morales. Nico is a freelance journalist and host of the Weekly Rondo podcast. His work has been featured on NBCSN and he currently writes the occasional piece for ESD analysis and his own medium. We’re also joined by Nathan Clark. Nathan is a Spurs fan, a tactics writer, a video analyst and occasional numbers dabbler.
In 1965, the football writer Brian Glanville wrote an article about the state of British sports journalism. At the outset of the piece, he distinguished between two forms of sports journalism within the British context: the ‘more sensitive popular writer’ who ‘knows that almost every piece he writes is a self-betrayal, a selling out to the cruel machine which has produced him’ and ‘the quality writer’ who is ‘writing for an informed minority when, given the wide reference of his subject, he should be speaking to the generality’. ‘What is wholly lacking’, he writes, ‘is an idiom which will throw a bridge across the two cultures, avoiding, on the one hand, bathos, which is the nemesis of ‘good’ sports writing, and on the other stylised vulgarity, the nemesis of the popular school.’ Fifty years later and that bridge remains for the most part undiscovered: the British sports writer still finds themselves looking for an idiom. In the course of this podcast series, we are going to join in this search for an idiom. Bringing together specialists from around the world, we will take on the topics that are often ignored about the way the game is thought about, spoken about and played. Be it the epistemology of scouting, the creation and preservation of narrative, or the shadow world of capital that underpins the global game, each episode will seek to bring to light some aspect of the beautiful game and raise it to the level of scrutiny. In this episode, we’re talking about how it is we should think about football. Joining us on the show is Archie Cornish. Archie is a student at the University of Oxford where he is writing a PhD on the concept of allegory in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. He is also an Arsenal fan. Bringing these two aspects of his life together, we talk about how our ideas about football develop and whether or not thinking about football is even important.
In 1965, the football writer Brian Glanville wrote an article about the state of British sports journalism. At the outset of the piece, he distinguished between two forms of sports journalism within the British context: the ‘more sensitive popular writer’ who ‘knows that almost every piece he writes is a self-betrayal, a selling out to the cruel machine which has produced him’ and ‘the quality writer’ who is ‘writing for an informed minority when, given the wide reference of his subject, he should be speaking to the generality’. ‘What is wholly lacking’, he writes, ‘is an idiom which will throw a bridge across the two cultures, avoiding, on the one hand, bathos, which is the nemesis of ‘good’ sports writing, and on the other stylised vulgarity, the nemesis of the popular school.’ Fifty years later and that bridge remains for the most part undiscovered: the British sports writer still finds themselves looking for an idiom.
In the course of this podcast series, we are going to join in this search for an idiom. Bringing together specialists from around the world, we will take on the topics that are often ignored about the way the game is thought about, spoken about and played. Be it the epistemology of scouting, the creation and preservation of narrative, or the shadow world of capital that underpins the global game, each episode will seek to bring to light some aspect of the beautiful game and raise it to the level of scrutiny.
In this episode, we’re talking about the future of football biographies. Joining us on the show is Andrew Downie, author of Doctor Socrates, a biography about the footballer Socrates who went on to captain the famous Brazil side in 1982. Andrew was born in Scotland but has spent most of his life as a foreign correspondent in Mexico, Haiti and Brazil. He now writes about sport for Reuters news agency. We are also joined by Alex Stewart, a creative consultant for uMAXit football who produces tactics and stats pieces for them. He also writes regularly about Football Manager with Iain Macintosh, and has been published in The Guardian, The Blizzard, and on the BBC.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
It is a dark time for football podcasts… Although Mark Lawrenson has been destroyed, the mainstream media have driven the independent broadcasters from their online platforms and pursued them across the galaxy.
Evading the Guardian Football Weekly, a group of individuals claiming to be freedom fighters and led by James Richardson have established a new podcast which is basically exactly the same but which will bring in even more money for the mainstream media types.
Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, throughout the summer months, our heroes have continued with their weekly football podcast which answers the questions that no one is asking and certainly no one is paying for.
By slowly covering in depth all twenty teams in the Premier League, our little band of rebels have managed to capture a little corner of the football podcast market.
But now, with the Great Podcast War of 2017 entering its bitterest period of fighting, they have chosen once again to buck the trends of mainstream journalism and chart a potentially disastrous course… they have chosen to return to their in season format and risk ruining all the good work they have achieved.
Welcome to A Totally of John O’Sheas Season Two, a series which we are calling A New Hope…
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
It is a dark time for football podcasts… Although Mark Lawrenson has been destroyed, the mainstream media have driven the independent broadcasters from their online platforms and pursued them across the galaxy.
Evading the Guardian Football Weekly, a group of individuals claiming to be freedom fighters and led by James Richardson have established a new podcast which is basically exactly the same but which will bring in even more money for the mainstream media types.
Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, throughout the summer months, our heroes have continued with their weekly football podcast which answers the questions that no one is asking and certainly no one is paying for.
By slowly covering in depth all twenty teams in the Premier League, our little band of rebels have managed to capture a little corner of the football podcast market.
But now, with the Great Podcast War of 2017 entering its bitterest period of fighting, they have chosen once again to buck the trends of mainstream journalism and chart a potentially disastrous course… they have chosen to return to their in season format and risk ruining all the good work they have achieved.
Welcome to A Totally of John O’Sheas Season Two, a series which we are calling A New Hope…
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re heading up to the North East to the only remaining Premier League team in the area. With both Middlesbrough and Sunderland falling out of the division last season, Newcastle United passed them on the way back up having spend time doing penance in the Championship following a woeful season the year earlier. Despite managing to hold onto their manager, Rafael Benitez, Newcastle made harder work of the Championship than they might have liked, only topping the table as a result of Brighton failing to win on the final day: an achievement only made less impressive on the realisation that the club spent a massive £57 million in the summer transfer window before the season began. This summer, the Magpies’ spending antics have been somewhat more muted, with only a smattering of players brought in from markets around Europe. The question is: will this be enough for the club to make a solid return to the Premier League? Or will there be some yo-yoing before they get there?
Joining us on the show today is a well-known face in the world of Newcastle United fandom: Emil Franchi. A devoted Toon fan who has followed the club through thick and thin, he also writes for the fanzine “Black, White and Daft”. When he’s not following Newcastle, he works as a DJ for Rather Good Radio where he has developed a wonderful radio voice which breaks through on occasion in the course of this episode.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
No one really knows where West Bromwich is. If the Premier League table is anything to go by it is probably slap-bang in the middle of the country. Obviously, the clichés about West Bromwich Albion are legion: we could mention the pathological need to obtain 40 points and no more, their seemingly endless supply of aging centrebacks or their baseballed-capped manager who has his own unique style of football: Pulisball. This is mean-spirited, though, especially given the remarkable nature of what the club has achieved in recent years. Of course, to suggest that West Brom’s place in the top division of English football is not justified would be to ignore the clubs long and illustrious history. One of the 12 founding clubs of the football leagues, the club has only sunk into the third tier for a short period in the 90s. What is so extraordinary about the clubs is the manner in which they have kept their place at the top table of English football in the last decade where money has become everything. More recently, this has everything to do with the inventor of Pulisball – Tony Pulis. Taking charge in 2015, last season Pulis managed to drag the club into the top half of the table despite having only spent the paltry sum of £22.5 million. But does this 10th place finish represent the ceiling for the Baggies? Or can Pulis get even more out of them next season and push them higher up the table?
Joining us on the show today are two legends of Albion fandom: Andy Caulton and Andi Purewal. Andy Caulton, from Burton-on-Trent, has been a Baggies fan since 1970 and unquestionably still wallows in the halcyon days of Cunningham, Regis and Batson. Despite living in New Hampshire for 15 years, he flies home every season to watch West Brom play although he isn’t exactly lucky in that regard: in the last 5 seasons he’s only seen the team score a combined 2 goals! Andy appears regularly on SiriusXM, a national soccer channel in the US and writes a weekly blog on West Brom for the Premier League Panel website. Andi Purewal is from Birmingham and has been a West Brom fan as long as he can remember. A home season ticket holder, he also travelled regularly to away games until last season. Working as a boxing and football correspondent for the Birmingham Mail, his articles have appeared in The Times, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Mirror.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re heading off one last time for a final holiday jaunt on the south coast. The meteoric rise of AFC Bournemouth is nothing short of remarkable. But for a brief flirtation with the second tier in the mid-80s, the club had been solidly cemented within the third division for most of its not ephemeral existence. This would all change with the arrival of Eddie Howe (albeit an arrival that was followed by a departure and then a second coming). Howe, with his Roy of the Rovers good looks, soon had the Cherries flying up the league structure and eventually they found themselves in the Premier League in 2015. Many expected them to immediately drop back down but, against all the odds, Eddie Howe has settled the club into a comfortable life in the mid table of the country’s highest division. The question is: where will they go from here? Are they here to stay in the Premier League? Or will this be the season where they finally struggle for survival?
Joining us on the show today are two luminaries of the world of AFC Bournemouth: Tom Latchem and Alex Deutsch. Tom is a journalist and broadcaster who presents talkSPORT Extra Time on Friday nights. When he isn’t working, he’s usually travelling to Bournemouth, where he is a season ticket holder. A third generation Cherries fan despite having grown up in Shrewsbury and London, Tom has been supporting the club home and away for around 30 years - although he anticipates that may change this coming season when he becomes a first-time dad in September! Alex has been an AFC Bournemouth fan the majority of his life. Often spotted on BT sport as a fan pundit and once described as 'former Ipswich Town' player by Jim White on TalkSPORT, Alex is enjoying the fun that comes with the national media's recent discovery that AFC Bournemouth do exist, having seemingly not done only five years ago.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re back in London Town as we visit the club who most recently won the Premier League. You might be forgiven for thinking Chelsea Football Club were founded in 2003. That was the year that Roman Abramovich bought out the washed up London club. However, fans of the club will no doubt swiftly remind you that, before their Russian sugar daddy turned up on the scene, they had a rich pedigree and history that included a league win in 1956 and a few domestic trophies dotted around through the years… Still, you can hardly be morally scrupulous in football anymore so it’s hardly worth singling out Chelsea for mockery. What makes last season’s Premier League triumph all the more impressive is that Antonio Conte took a squad that has been emotionally ruined by Jose Mourinho and made it into a title winning side. Now cobbling together a team of players like N’Golo Kante, Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa might not seem to be the most difficult task facing a Premier League manager. So the question is: will Conte be able to repeat the feat next season? Or will the meglomillions being spent by Premier League clubs be too much for him to think his way around?
Joining us on the show today are two individuals whose names will be well-known amongst Chelsea fans: David Chidgey and Benjamin Wills. David, aka ‘Stamford Chidge’ presents and produces the Chelsea FanCast podcast, voted Football Blogging Awards Best Podcast in 2012 and 2015. He runs chelseafancast.com; writes for the most popular Chelsea fanzine cfcuk, is a weekly columnist for football.london and contributes regularly to TalkSport; BBC and ITV. He is currently the Chairman of the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust. Ben, although currently doing freelance work covering Swindon Town, tries to watch as much Chelsea as possible, which Sky Sports' top team favourability helps with immeasurably. He fell in love with the Blues, specifically Gianfranco Zola, in 2000 at the age of five which he thinks should save him from jibes of being a plastic, but that is not working out so far.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves back in Liverpool although in the red half this time. The Northern city is a great place to be for fans of football at the present moment. With Everton pushing up towards to top 6, Liverpool found themselves back in the top 4 after a couple of season’s absence. That said, it wasn’t quite the breeze that it might have been and, in the end, they rather crawled over the finish line. But with Champions League qualification assured, the club will hardly care about that now. With Jurgen Klopp going into his second full season, though, the fans will really be looking for some improved from the side. Defensive frailties last season are yet to be addressed and the club’s transfer policy this summer have seemed to have caused more harm than good. So in many respects, this season is the reckoning: will Klopp succeed in silencing his critics? Or will this season prove to be his ruin?
Joining us today are two familiar names from the world of Liverpool football media: Chris Williams and Andrew Beasley. Chris is a UEFA Accredited Football Journalist and Host of the Runner podcast on The Anfield Index. Beyond this, he writes for thisisanfield and is a contributor on the Gegenpressing pod, FutbolgradLive’s Bundesliga podcast. Andrew is freelance football journalist who has written predominantly in the area of statistical analysis. His articles have appeared on website such as Anfield Index, lfchistory.net, and EPLIndex.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re back on the south coast and the ever growing enclave of Premier League sides. Southampton, along with Portsmouth, were the original purveyors of south coast Premier League sides. Yet where both fell away from the top division for a while, it is only Southampton who have made it back. Becoming the prototype for football clubs seeking to achieve mid-table security during the nascence of New Football, Southampton are often spoken about with a misty-eyed idealism by fans of clubs hovering above the relegation zone. Yet all is not hunky-dory in the land of fleece sweaters and ice cream cones. For the sellers club, you live by the move, you die by the move. A litany of departures have flowed through Southampton squad, making it seem more like an airport terminal at times. And it is not simply the players, it seems impossible for Saints to hold onto a manager for more than a year these days. With Claude Puel only lasting the obligatory year, Southampton are now headed up by Mauricio Pelligrino. For many of the fans, this cyclicality is tiring. The question on everyone’s lips, then is: will Pelligrino keep the club in its annual orbit? Or is this the season where they will finally break the curve?
Joining us today are two familiar faces from the world of football media: Alex Stewart and Nico Morales. Alex is a creative consultant for uMAXit football, writing tactics and stats pieces. He writes regularly about Football Manager with Iain Macintosh, and has also been published in The Guardian, The Blizzard, and on the BBC. Nico is a freelance journalist and host of the Weekly Rondo podcast. His work has been featured on NBCSN and he currently writes the occasional piece for ESD analysis and his own medium.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves in the capital city for the last time. It’s appropriate that we end our tour of the London clubs at West Ham because, for better or worse, they play all their home games in the London Stadium – the stadium build for the 2012 Olympics. In fact, things turned out for the worse almost immediately and the Hammer spent most of their season wishing they hadn’t made the move. Five out of their first six matches in the league were promptly lost and, in the end, the club stuttered to a finish just into the bottom half of the table. In fact, had there not been a race to the bottom in the Premier League last season, West Ham might have been in more trouble. So what happened to the boundless optimism of last summer when the team were excited about having an electrifying young manager who had pushed them up to 7th in the table? Was last season a complete waste of time? And where do they go from here?
Joining us today are two well known names from the world of West Ham: David Blackmore and James Jones. David is a multimedia journalist @ ITV This Morning. Presenter, broadcaster, award-winning campaigner & PR consultant, he founded Blowing Bubbles, a West Ham Fanzine in in 2012. James is Editor in Chief of FootballFanCast.com and founder of WestHamWorld.co.uk. A long suffering West Ham fan since the mid-90s, he once demanded that his Dad buy him a shirt with Marco Boogers name on the back, as he was convinced he was going to be a star. He’s never had a name on the back since in fear of further humiliation and disappointment.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves once again in the capital of the country. Arsenal Football Club are one of the oldest football clubs in the city, being the first club from the South of England to join the football league in 1904. Since then, their pedigree has been assured: only getting relegated once and completing the 20th Century with the highest average position in England. In 1996, the club appointed Arsene Wenger, one of the most divisive men in football, as their head coach. Three Premier League titles followed along with seven FA Cups. Yet all is not well in the London borough of Islington. For despite his unparalleled success at the club, there are still those who call for him to leave, a movement which has culminated in the ubiquitous Wenger Out signs that appear at grounds around the country in the hands of fans or, even on occasion, being flown from behind planes paid for by the supporters. In more recent Premier League seasons, a clearly-defined formula has emerged: at some point, Arsenal will hit a bad run of form which will prompt the supporters to call for Wenger to be removed, the club will tank until a point at which they realise that Wenger is not, in fact, leaving and they rally behind the team until they manage to scrape a top 4 place and a spot in the Champions League. Last season was no different except for one important regard: this season, Arsenal missed out on the top 4 for the first time since Wenger started his tenure. So here we are: Wenger still hasn’t left. Arsenal are out of the Champions League. Is this the season which will be his last? Or will he just continue blithely on?
Joining us on the show today are two individuals who are essentially the antidote to Arsenal Fan TV. Kolby Kuwitzky is, in theory, a writer. He should probably start doing that again. In the meantime, he mostly bakes cakes and tries to sound intelligent on Twitter. Having supported Arsenal since before they were available to watch on American television, he sometimes, in the darkest depths of their annual November swoons, wonders if those were not, in fact, the days. Justin Salhani is a freelance journalist based in Milan, Italy focusing on populism & far right politics, refugees, and football culture. He is also the founder of Guerrilla FC.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves at the home of the only Premier League side in Wales. Promoted into the division in 2011, Swansea City joined Stoke City as the clubs with the inauspicious honour of being the only promoted teams to never be relegated. Of course, other teams have joined them now, but Stoke and Swansea pioneered the way in becoming dependable Premier League sides, albeit with Swansea generally doing it more attractively than Stoke. The Swan’s achievements were generally attributed to a finely-tuned infrastructure which allowed new managers to be brought in with little disruption so that, in the event of a successful manager being poached (or an unsuccessful one sacked), the club could continue in a generally upwards trajectory regardless. Until, that is, the wheels came off last season. The only club to go through three managers in the season, Swansea sacked Francesco Guidolin, replacing him with Bob Bradley, whose tenure never really progressed above ‘nose-dive’. The only positives arrived when Paul Clement came on the scene along with all the experience that working as Carlos Ancelotti’s assistant brings with it. The result was impressive: rock bottom when he joined, the team eventually finished a respectable 15th. The question remains: was this just a managerial blip bringing Swansea back to their level? Or will Paul Clement continue to take the club up the table?
Joining us today is one of the biggest names in the world of Swansea City fan media. Steven Carroll is the editor of the Swansea Oh Swansea fanzine and a regular on the popular JackCast podcast. Swansea Oh Swansea Fanzine has gone from strength to strength since publishing its first issue, a free 24-page magazine back in January 2010. Steven has been editing the publication for a number of years now, a responsibility he balances along with his appearances on JackCast and attending Swans matches as the owner of a season ticket which he has held since 1997.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves in the blue half of Liverpool. Across the past couple of decades, Everton have been experiencing something of a purple patch in which, but for a few seasons, they have been finishing consistently in the top half of the table. Now, after a couple of dud seasons at the end of Roberto Martinez’s tenure, they find themselves returning to their place amongst the best of the rest, finishing 7th in the league just outside the newly demarcated top 6 that has appeared in the last couple of seasons. With Ronald Koeman now in charge of the club and a place in European competition, there is a level of positivity about the club, not least due to a frenetic spending spree in the summer transfer window. But it is hard to know what is next for the club: the gap between the top six and everyone else has never been wider and it seems unlikely that Everton will bridge this gap in a season. Is the only goal consistency then? Or should Everton target cup competitions in order to give their fans the glory they crave? Joining us today are two faces that will be familiar to many in the Everton-supporting community: Mark Godfrey and Chris Smith. Mark is the editor of The Football Pink magazine and website and has been an Evertonian through thick and mostly thin for over 35 years. He regularly guests in other publications such as When Saturday Comes, the Everton fanzine When Skies Are Grey, and the Scottish football magazine, Nutmeg. Chris is a writer and blogger who runs therussianlinesman.com and appears in other publications, not least Mark’s The Football Pink, from time to time. Born in the late eighties, he has only really encountered Everton at a low ebb, but hopes that that’s about to change.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves in a Northern town that has never before enjoyed Premier League experience. Which is not to say that Huddersfield Town has not pedigree: in the 1920s, they won the first division three times in a row – a record shared with Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United. It has been some time since Huddersfield were in the top division of English football though. Even as recently as the early 2000s, the Terriers had dropped into the fourth tier and were headed for administration. Things only started looking up for the club with the arrival of Dean Hoyle in 2009. After getting Huddersfield promoted into the Championship in 2012, Hoyle’s next stroke of genius was appointing German-American, David Wagner, as the head coach. It took him just 2 seasons to get the club into the Premier League, winning promotion in through a play off final victory over Jaap Stam’s Reading. So here we are: Huddersfield are the highest placed team from Yorkshire in the English league structure. But will it stay that way? Or will next season prove that it is becoming increasingly improbable that newly-promoted sides can survive the Premier League?
Joining us today are two luminaries of Huddersfield Town fandom: Greg Marah and Dan Fowler. Greg is one of the founders of Thrice Champions, where football art meets the occasional blog and a monthly football podcast. With a background in journalism, Greg currently hosts the podcast and isn’t adverse in causing some debate on social media. Dan is a long suffering Town fan of over 25 years, and very occasional blogger on the business side of Huddersfield town at Thrice Champions.He moved from the North to London over 10 years ago but remains a season ticket holder and active away fan.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves in the midlands, visiting the home of one of the most remarkable clubs in Premier League history. In 2016, Leicester City and their coach Claudio Ranieri stunned the football world by winning the Premier League title in a season immediately following a relegation battle. If this was not unlikely enough already, considering the Premier League against the background of its 25 year history, it was only made more impressive that this happened at a point where the globalisation of football had made the game a rich person’s plaything. Of course, the only way was down for Leicester, although few perhaps saw the downward spiral coming quite so quickly as it did: not least Claudio Ranieri, who was sacked midway through his second season. With Craig Shakespeare now at the helm, it’s difficult to know what the long term strategy of the club now is. Bouyed by the financial riches that have been showered on league champions, will they cement their place in the top half of the table? Or is there still an air of uncertainty surrounding the Foxes?
Joining us on the show today are two of the biggest names in Leicester City podcasting – Pete Selby and Rob Hayes, the co-hosts of For Fox Sake podcast and Match Day AD commentators at the King Power Stadium. For Fox Sake comes to you from Alan March Sport Ltd and is unscripted and unprepared as Pete and Rob take an alternative look at Leicester City with help from their loyal listeners.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer months, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re back in the country’s capital city. Named after the famous exhibition on the site of whose ground they used to play, Crystal Palace have more recently established themselves as regulars in the Premier League. Having spent much of the 90s and 2000s in the second tier of English football, Palace are now enjoying a 4th consecutive season at the pinnacle of the football leagues. However, this dependability in the league has certainly not been matched in the dugout: you have to go back to 2009 before you find a calendar year in which Palace didn’t appoint a new manager with eleven managerial changes taking place in the last 5 years alone. With Frank de Boer now at the helm, the Eagles will no doubt be hoping for a respite from this frenetic turnover. But will he reproduce the form that led to Ajax winning four Eredivisies in a row? Or will he simply repeat the embarrassment of Inter?
Joining us on the show today are two luminaries of Crystal Palace fandom. Richard Foster is a freelance sportswriter and author, mainly about football. A regular features contributor for the Guardian, he also written for Sky Sports, Football League, a variety of websites like Set Pieces and plenty of Palace fanzines like Five Year Plan, Hopkin Looking To Curl One as well as match reports for sponsor Mansion. He also appears regularly on radio - talkSPORT, Radio 5Live, BBC Radio London - especially when Play-Offs are in town as he has written the definitive book - The Agony & The Ecstasy – on the history of the competition. Richard’s first Palace match was 18th October 1969 & all he can remember that there was a very angry man with bright red hair who was swearing at anyone who came close to him. His next book The A-Z of Football Niggles published by Ockley will be out next month and features a variety of stellar contributors including the one and only Kevin Day. Kevin Day is a comedian, writer and broadcaster. He has performed on many continents and written for people ranging from Dave Allen to Kevin Spacey via Ronnie Corbett, and he is well known as "that bloke who bangs on about Palace all the time". Obviously awards don't matter but he wants you to know that he won a Sony Gold award as part of 5Live's coverage of Cheltenham and he was nominated for a BAFTA in 2016 for writing A League of Their Own.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re heading North to the home of one of the oldest football clubs in the United Kingdom. Formed in 1882, Burnley Football Club were one of the original 12 clubs in the football league, going on to win the first division on a couple of occasions. Since then, however, they have had more downs than ups and, at one point during the 1980s, they were in danger of falling out of the football league altogether. Since then, they have been slowly making their way back to the top, becoming a yo-yo club which has, in the last season, managed to maintain a consecutive place in the Premier League for the first time in its history. Is this it then? Have they made the Premier League their rightful place for the time being? Or is it just a matter of time before they drop back down into the second tier?
Joining us on the show today is Natalie Bromley, who is, amongst other things, a poker player, a lawyer and a self-confessed ‘feisty Claret’. She is also one of the main contributors for the sole podcast dedicated to Burnley Football Club, the No Nay Never podcast . No Nay Never began life in 2010 as a blog, open for any Burnley fan to write about any viewpoint. Three years later, a podcast was added which soon proved to be a hit amongst Burnley fans. Always pushing the boundaries, in October 2016 No Nay Never published their first special podcast exploring LGBT attitudes and representation in football, in response to Andre Gray’s ban for homophobic tweets.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves in the capital city focussing on one of the city’s most mercurial football teams. As fans of Tottenham Hotspur have become all too aware, their side has a habit of moving from the sublime to the ridiculous so much so that the phrase ‘Spursing it up’ has now entered the parlance. But as these fans will also tell you, the sublime in every way overshadows the ridiculous. In the words of their legendary manager, Bill Nicholson, ‘It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.’ In recent times, under the tutelage of Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs are now finding themselves in the heights more and more frequently. Having become Top Four regulars in the last couple of years, they are generally accepted as being the most exciting team in the Premier League last season. Blending youth and experience to perfection, it would not be unreasonable to tip them for the title next season. But there is always the hazard of ‘Spursing it up’ lying at the back of the supporters’ minds.
Joining us today are two of the finest minds that Tottenham Hotspur can call its own. Simon Ravenscroft researches and writes in philosophy and theology at Cambridge University, working most recently on the theme of laughter, perhaps partly as a way of dealing with the tragicomic nature of being a Tottenham fan. He inherited his attachment to Spurs from his father's side of the family, and is young enough that he cannot remember Tottenham winning anything other than League Cups. He therefore has low expectations, in both football and life, but does expect moments of great beauty every once in a while, usually from long-haired Frenchmen called David. Jonty Leibowitz is a third year Historian at Cambridge, a long-suffering Spurs fan and a believer that AVB should have been given more time. He is a regular at White Hart Lane and is, due to the wonders of late capitalism, 37,042nd on the season ticket waiting list.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we find ourselves on the south coast of England in the footballing city of Brighton and Hove. Over the last few years, there has been somewhat of a renaissance amongst the football clubs of the south coast with Brighton joining Southampton and Bournemouth in the top flight of English football for the first time since the 1980s. A successful season in the Championship saw the Seagulls vying for promotion as early as September and, in the event, extremely unlucky to miss out on the top spot in the league. But that was then and this is now: over the Summer months, Chris Hughton and his team will be giving last season very little thought as they focus their efforts on the Premier League. Will they fare the same way as their south coast rivals and cement their place in the division? Or will they be struggling to keep their place at the top table of English football?
Joining us today are two luminaries from the world of football media. David Hartrick is the man behind Ockley Books, an author, some time writer, former IBWM editor and one of the men behind @OneBallForGazza too. He's currently working on his second book and is also going to be blogging through Brighton's first Premier League season in form or another. Jonathan Harding is a German football expert who has lived in Germany for nearly enough years to swap a soon-to-be-unhelpful English passport for a German one. He is a writer, broadcaster and long-time Seagull fan.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
For this episode, we’re heading into that holy of holies circumscribed by the M25 to Watford. No one is entirely sure exactly where Watford is… but one thing that everyone is sure of is that they aren’t envious of Watford fans after last season’s showing. Fulfilling their stereotype as a yo-yo club, oscillating between the Championship and the Premier League, Watford are now well and truly on the downward cycle and once again threatened to drop out of the top division of English football. In the end, 40 points proved to be enough for them, although the same cannot be said for their manager, Walter Mazzarri, who looks like Alex Baldwin wearing a Dustin Hoffman mask. Fortunately enough for Watford, an eligible manager finished in the spot below them and was all to happy to ditch his club to take Mazzarri’s still-warm seat in the dugout. So is this it? Will the Pozzo’s, Watford’s owners, have done enough to reverse the downward spiral? Or is it more of the same next season?
Joining us on the show are two of the biggest names in Watford FC podcasting – Mike Parkin and Kieran Theivam. From the Rookery End is about to head into it's eighth season and has charted Watford's fairly unorthodox recent history from the brink of despair and possible bankruptcy all the way to the Premier League. Mike Parkin is one of the original members of the team and has been watching Watford since the eighties. His first game was a home FA Cup tie with Walsall that ended 4-4 and he's been a hopeless Hornets' addict ever since. Kieran Theivam is an emergency loan presenter for From The Rookery End, making appearances for wider discussions and to give input on Watford Ladies FC. Beyond this, he is the editor of the Women’s Soccer Zone and regularly writes for SheKicksdotNet and Equalizer Soccer.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re heading back to the city in which we opened this podcast series: Manchester. Set in the heart of the North of the country, Manchester boasts two sides both alike in dignity. However, this has not always been the case: less than twenty years ago, City dropped into the third tier of English football. A few changes of ownership later and the club are now back at the top of the highest division of English football with a couple of Premier League titles under their belts. Of course, it is fairly unlikely Manchester City would have been able to achieve this recent success without the handy financial backing of Sheikh Mansour. This gives Manchester City the curious privilege of having been both a “sleeping giant” and a “plastic club” within recent memory. But this ambiguity of identity is what make City so interesting: even after an extended period of time back in the Premier League, the club are still coming to terms with how to express itself. On the field it is no different: a new manager touted to be amongst the best in the world had what can only be described as a disappointing season. Will the next season see City finally adopting a coherent personality? Or will they continue to drift?
Joining us on this episode is one of the biggest names in the world of Manchester City punditry. Nico Morales is a freelance journalist and host of the Weekly Rondo podcast. His work has been featured on NBCSN and he currently writes the occasional piece for ESD analysis and his own medium. Thank you for coming on today.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed.
In this episode, we’re heading up the M6 to the No Man’s Land of the Premier League: Stoke on Trent. Now Stoke City may bear the inauspicious honour of never having been relegated from the Premier League but, truth be told, a relegation battle might inject a little bit of fun into the life of the fans of the Potters. Now before you start composing strongly worded emails, it was one of our guests today who suggested that quote/unquote “there is a case to be made that Stoke are the most boring team in the league”. And he’s not lying: since arriving in the Premier League in 2008, Stoke have consistently finished between 9th and 14th in the table making them little short of metronomic. The question is, then, where do Stoke City go from here? Should their fans be resigned to midtable mediocrity? Or is there more that the club can do?
Joining me this week are David Cowlishaw and Chris Brammer, the founders of the Wizards of Drivel Podcast. Since they began in May 2016, the podcast has gone from strength to strength, even gaining national attention for the #DeployNgoy campaign, a joke that went too far. Dave has written for When Saturday Comes and The Set Pieces, but both he and Chris treat the pod as a hobby, fitting it in between less interesting real life demands like working jobs and raising children. The third Wizard, Ben Cartwright, has joined Dave on a new project - Who Are Ya? A new monthly podcast offering an in-depth documentary on a different club every month.
It has become something of a received wisdom within the present day that the mainstream media exist as the pinnacle of what is possible in sports journalism. Whilst it is not in our interest to reject this assumption, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we believe that some of the most perceptive insight regarding the top teams in the country comes from the fans themselves. In the course of this podcast series, we will be bringing together some of the most influential fans from across the Premier League to give you the low-down on the teams that they watch week in, week out. We’ll look back over the season just gone, try to get a handle on the transfer activity that rumbles on through the summer month, and look forwards to the next season which, as always, seems to creep up on us with ever increasing speed. This week, we’re taking you North to the heartland of Premier League football. The City of Manchester has dominated the top division in English football ever since it broke away from the football league in 1992. One club in Manchester, though, has enjoyed a period of dominance unlike the other. Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United won an unprecedented thirteen Premier League titles and unquestionably played his part in fashioning the division into one of the best in the world. But following his departure, the club has never attained the same level of achievement. With the arrival of Jose Mourinho in 2016 it seemed as though the club could have finally catalysed and begun an upwards trajectory. However, only a League Cup and a Europa League victory have ameliorated the embarrassment of a sixth place finish in the league. It seems, then, that next season is the real acid test for Jose Mourinho’s United. Is he still worthy of the title The Special One? Or is he now just The Special One-One draw? Joining me to discuss all things United are two of the biggest names in the world of Manchester United podcasting. Paul Ansorge is the co-host of the globally acclaimed United Rant podcast which has thousands of listeners around the world and, when he isn’t hosting podcasts, he is also the Manchester United correspondent for Bleacher Report. Alongside him, we have Richard Cann, a regular on the Red Voices podcast who can also be found writing on the well-regarded Red Mancunian website.
9 months ago the three of us sat together in a room in Cambridge and talked about our predictions for the Premier League. We said some patently wrong things, some patently silly things, some things that kind of happened. But that was not the most important thing that happened that day. For that day, we brought together a Reading fan and Huddersfield fan… and in so doing, we made the most prescient prediction that we could have made this season: we accurately predicted the teams in the Championship Play Off final. So before you send us strongly worded emails about how one of the Team member’s claim that “central defensive midfielders don’t win you titles” is objectionable and barely worthy of public consumption, then just remember that we knew… we knew… the rest was just show biz…
All this and more besides on the week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
Here at a Team of John O’Sheas we are for the many despite only being listened to by the few.
At this election time, we feel the need to lay out the core values of this podcast. Do we have a strong line on defence? What about justice? Health? International trade? In this episode we will set down our main ideas in the clearest possible terms. We’ve had the Ed Stone. Get ready for the John Stones. NB. This podcast does not endorse terrible jokes. We also retain the right to flip flop on our major policy ideas. This is a joke about Tories.
Once we have done this, we will be discussing our ideal cabinet members. Will Chris Kamara be our Minister for Communications? Will Arsenal Wenger be our Minister for Exiting Europe?
All this and more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
In a week in which the Tories announced a dementia tax and then, curiously, forgot about it, all in the space of a week, the team are back to lose the election that is the world of football.
This week the episode is all about you. Over the last few weeks we asked you to send us in your Questions that No One is Asking so that we could answer them on the show today. We’ve picked the best five to answer and the best of the best will receive a free copy of one of Guillem Balague’s books on Pep.
Once that’s out of the way, we’ll be moving on to Organised Fun which, this week, is a return to the old classic Just a Minute. Ceylon and Geeson will battle it out in the course of 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Geeson’s been practicing his inaugural speech for his Stars in their Eyes 2017 Tony Blair act so Ceylon has her work cut out.
All this and more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
In a week in which Jose Mourinho claimed that a semi-final match against Celta Vigo was the ‘most important match of Manchester United’s history’, the team is back to spout the bollocks that is the world of football.
Narrative, narrative, narrative. That’s all we bloody get these days. Far be it from us at A Team of John O’Sheas to suggest that the actual football we watch should be enjoyable in some way. Now it seems as though the players have left it to the media to add the finishing touches to their playing style. Conte is now the greatest manager for thinking of playing 3 at the back. Arsenal want Wenger out until the point at which they realise he won’t be out and then they want him in in order that they might do well enough that when they get him out in the summer it’ll be all ok. Tony Pulis gets to 40 points and then stops playing – says the media who basically wait until Tony Pulis gets to 40 points then publish articles on how he only gets to 40 points EVERY SEASON. Marco Silva is a great manager despite Hull going down. Paul Clement is a shit manager despite keeping Swansea up. And lets not even get started on the European leagues.
This week, our question is this: does a proliferation of media narratives about a football league indicate that the league is in a terrible condition? Well… it will be the question when we finally work out what a narrative is in the first place…
All this and more beside on this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
Gary Lineker once quipped that “Football is a simple game: twenty two people run around after a ball and after 90 minutes the Germans win.” A similar thing could be said about podcasts: in every podcast, three boring middle-class white men go around chatting balls and after 60 minutes no one wins.
As such, we feel as though this week we should turn our hands at something that actually approaches a specialism for us: the capacity to boredom. This week, we’re doing a Countdown Episode trying to determine the 7 most boring people in football… The boring persons football pundit has organised fun for us yet again. He’ll pit Will ‘Tedium’ Geeson against Patrick ‘Ennui’ McCloskey. I’ll be surprised if we – let alone you – even make it to the end of the show… All this and more beside in this week’s episode of a Team of John O’Sheas
In a week in which another European country resisted the temptation to drop out of Europe at the earliest possible stage, the Team are back to focus their efforts on the second-rate competition that is the world of football. For the first time in our history, the French are being governed by a man who shares the name of a tin pot fashion brand. Having run as an individual candidate, Macron is now facing Le Penalty of having to fill positions in his team. This is a really tenuous link to today’s question which isn’t looking at French politics at all but raises the issue of the difficulty of filling positions in a football team. Is it easier to find good attackers or good defenders these days? Should we do our best to keep certain players over others when it comes to the crunch? Is there a difference between left and right?
All this and more besides in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
In a week in which Harry Redknapp managed to wind down the car window of time, lean out and give two fingers to the gods of the EFL, the Team are back together to wheel their way through the deal that is the world of football.
Here at A Team of John O’Sheas, we sometimes tire of the rigid predictability of the football narratives. Jose Mourinho spoke some bollocks. Arsenal perked up at the end of the season. Spurs bottled it. Chelsea were destined to win the Premier League. Yadda yadda yadda.
In these times, we like to hide away in our happy format - What If – where we pose the most hypothetical of scenarios to try to pretend we don’t live in the country with a league that has the biggest discrepancy between expenses and watchability in world football.
This week, in celebration of the man who looks like a Madame Tassaud’s creation that has been left out in the sun for too long, we’re stretching the limits of modality by asking the question: What If Harry Redknapp’s parent’s had never met?
The thinking person’s football pundit has Organised Fun this week. He’s pitting two of the most sonorous voices to have ever appeared on the podcast against each other: can bass Will Geeson counter tenor Harry Bradford this week? That’s a choir joke.
All this and more beside on this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where each of the top 4 sides were falling over each other to avoid Champions League qualification, the Team are back to defer the responsibility that is the world of football.
One British team who is bucking this trend towards inadequacy is Celtic. Winning the SPL weeks before it was scheduled to finish, Brendan Rodgers is presumably ecstatic at his teams “outstanding character” etc etc etc. If ever there was a season in which it could be argued that Celtic deserved a tilt at the premier league it is this one then. The team looks at this, asking how Celtic would perform if they were given the chance to play at the highest level in England.
All this and more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
We live in troubled times. Arsenal aren’t going to finish in the top 4. Manchester United are. David Luiz made the PFA team of the year. Sam Allardyce would have won the league if he was managing Palace from the beginning of the season.
We live in a world turned topsy-turvy. What we need is a Strong and Stable podcast to carry us through these troubling times. You ask me why the world is the way it is? All I know is that a Strong and Stable podcast... A podcast that is Strong and Stable… is only guaranteed if you listen to this podcast… the Strong and Stable football podcast that answers the questions that people who want Strong and Stable podcasts are asking.
As part of our Strong and Stable episode this week, we’re returning to that Strong and Stable format: Make a Case. At the close of this troubling season, some players are looking for more Strong and Stable employment. This week, each of the panellists will have to make a case for why a randomly selected player should sign for another randomly selected club.
The Strong and Stable person’s football pundit, Jon Mackenzie, has Organised Fun this week. He’ll be pitting infamous cheat, Will Geeson, against Patrick McCloskey who is definitely not from Ireland.
All this and more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
In a week where Will Geeson still hasn't managed to free Ireland, the Team are back to ask who would in a fight between Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino?
Jon Mackenzie, the self-proclaimed thinking dickhead's football pundit, takes issue with this my da' is bigger than your da'-esque discussion and so will be doing everything in his power to railroad our analysis of Jurgen's potential for throwing jabs. He will be commenting on things like 'football' and 'Pochettino's managerial record'.
Ceylon Hickman, who we all suspect of secretly being a Liverpool fan, has a lot to say about Jurgen Klopp and will be attempted to explain his success on Merseyside over the noise of Will Geeson practicing his inaugural MP speech.
All this and more beside on this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
In a week where long-term-listener-of-the-show, Theresa May, paid tribute to the Team of John O'Sheas philosophy by giving us an election no one is asking for, the Team are back to take your minds of the snap nuclear war abyss that was this week.
The more hardcore listeners among you may remember that, a few weeks ago, we promised that we would not under any circumstances whatsoever ever bring you an episode on the PFA Awards. So our episode this week will be on the PFA Awards. We assure you that we bring you this episode because we believe it to be in our best interests and not because we are taking advantage of reduced ratings suffered by other episodes.
All this democratic illegitimacy and much more beside on this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
In a week in which the world was made aware of the grim reality of Tony Adams’ coaching style, the Team are back to crab around the pitch that is the world of football.
Speaking of let downs, today we’re looking at all those players who are let down by their team mates. Should Xherdan Shaqiri be in a team that is vying for the top of the table? Has Jermain Defoe done enough to come back in from the cold and into one of the big six teams? Is Riyad Mahrez good enough to win the Premier League? And what about all of these players in one team? How good would they be? Our question this week is: How high would an All Star XI from the bottom half of the Premier League table finish? All this and more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
In a week where the world stood on the cusp of World War Three, the Team are back to diffuse the ticking nuclear bomb that is the world of football. This week is the Team of John O’Sheas version of a football phone in. However, unlike the mainstream football phone ins, you don’t have to listen to Robbie Savage talking to Barry Bolderson from Woking about how Marco Silva should be sacked for being to foreign and provision made to bring Tony Adams in at Hull. Over the last few weeks, we gave you, the fans, the chance to suggest some Questions that No One is Asking of your own. We’ve ended up with a veritable smorgasbord of questions for the panellists to put their mind to today. There can be few podcasts in which guests travel thousands of miles to get the chance to participate. Kolby Kuwitzky is with us today all the way from Dallas, Texas. Like Olympians from totalitarian regimes, we fully expect him to dash off into the undergrowth after the show, but for the next couple of hours he’s all ours. America is a fun place to be these days. Yesterday Kim Jung Un told Donald Trump that even he thought that he was being a little jingoistic. It is difficult to think of people who love the idea of war more than Donald Trump. Will Geeson is on the show today – the man who, if you cut him, bleeds football. Filled with the passion that comes from a late Chris Wood goal away at the biggest stadium in the league at the second biggest club in the league, Geeson is going to be hard to control this week. The thinking person’s football pundit is back once again with the ill behaviour. He doesn’t know what this means. All this and more beside on this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas…
In a week where the BBC brought you a popular podcast about N’Golo Kanté, the Team of John O’Shea’s anti-establishment, counter-cultural movement is here to bring you a podcast about N’Golo Kanté.
We can assure you that our analysis of the great man shall be infinitely better than that brought to you by the BBC. The BBC, for example, could never offer the utter reasonableness of Chris ‘Reasonable’ Wagner or the total incomprehensibility of Paddy McCloskey. In fact, we are so confident in our superiority to the BBC that we recommend not paying your licence fee and instead donating the money to our newly established Patreon page.
You see, we're not just talking N'Golo Kanté - we're talking about N'Golo Kanté, Chelsea and Liverpool. We ask: Would Liverpool be top of the table if they had signed Kanté this season?
All this illegality and much more beside on this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas...
In a week where Manchester United managed to extend their unbeaten run to rise to exactly the same position in the league, we’re here to overspend the budget that is the world of football.
As one of the most underappreciated podcasts of all time, it’s fitting that we’re talking about players who are underrated. Presumably, however, for these players, being underappreciated doesn’t mean scouring audioboom analytics trying to persuade themselves that there are signs of sentient life out there. We’re focussing on the Premier League – yes… that’s right… the league where almost everyone is overrated. That’s just how we roll.
Chris Wagner has been described by some of the Paddys on this podcast as being ‘very reasonable’… however, the majority of us still think he looks like Chris Brunt. He’s back this week to wow us with interesting nuggets of information about transport law.
Ceylon’s also back this week. Any chance to talk about how Nathaniel Clyne is going to be the best wing back in the world and she’s there.
Patrick is here: Ireland’s answer to the question ‘who has looked into the abyss and seen it staring back at him?’. He’s here to talk about Lukaku without offering the reasoning behind his unhealthy obsession with him. Useful.
Jon’s Organised Fun this week. Kind of. If you kind of squint a bit. And try not to focus on it too much.
All this and more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas….
In a week where Arsene Wenger claimed there was only one team in London, we’ll be asking which capital-city-club is indeed the greatest of them all.
Basically, it’s going to be like in Gangs of New York… but instead of gangs, it’s football teams… and it’s in London, not New York… and this is an independent podcast, not a Martin Scorsese movie… and the closest thing we have to Cameron Diaz is Paddy McCloskey… but in every other conceivable respect, this will be almost exactly like Gangs of New York.
All this and more beside in this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
In a week where we decided that being medieval wasn’t simply good enough for the levels of inenquality within our beloved country that we also decided to declare war on Spain, the Team is here to trigger the fiftieth article that is the world of football.
Simon Paddy Patterson is back after many years of wandering in the wilderness. Although in this case, the wilderness consists of a squash courts and the wandering consists of exceptional footwork. He’s not watched a football match since he was last on so it could get interesting.
Speaking of hypotheticals, we’re introducing a new format into our opening segment of the show. It’s called What If and allows the Team to narrate an alternative history of football. We ask: what if the Eva Carneiro incident never happened.
Paddy is Organising Fun this week. We’ve decided to take a break from really easy quizzes that the Team members perform badly in, calling into question our ability to appear on football podcasts. Instead we’re crowbarring in a popular game show format by making it footbally. For copyright reasons, we have decided we can’t make any reference to this quiz. Instead, we’re calling it: Only a Sixty Second Period.
Jon Mackenzie is also here. That’s because he has nowhere else to go.
All this and more beside in this week’s edition of A Team of John O’Sheas...
In a week where everyone is still complaining about the bloody international break, the team are back to once again throw the lifejacket of premier league discussion into the bleak waters of England vs Lithuania.
For the Question No One is Asking this week, we’ll be probing into the question which underlies most of the problems of ‘Broken Britain’: whose Everton team was better- Ronald Koeman’s or David Moyes’? Expect plentiful references to Tony Hibbert, Duncan Ferguson, Marouane Fellaini, the utter purposelessness of life and the inevitability of an empty, painful death.
All this and more beside in this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
In a week where everyone complained about the bloody international break, A Team of John O’Sheas is back to bring you the Premier-League-based nourishment which all true football fans need. With three law students on the panel this week, we thought it appropriate to bring back our ‘Make A Case’ format. Will Geeson will make a case for wooly jumpers, choir singing and just good-old decent, wholesome living to be recognised as the fundamental rights of British citizenship. Scott McGrory shall be presenting the case for Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djemba to be awarded knighthoods for their service to the cause of football trivia. Finally, Paddy McCloskey will rant about things angrily in an incomprehensible accent for some time and then we will agree with him in case he threatens our families.
Just kidding. We’ll actually be making a case for Premier League clubs we should all adopt as our second favourite teams.
I’ll be organising fun this week. After last week’s controversy where Paddy blatantly allowed wrong answers to be admitted because apparently the segment is called, ‘organised fun, not organised accuracy’, I shall be attempting to restore order. There will be no alternative facts on this show. As Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink said when he won the Ballon D’or for almost single-handedly winning the World Cup for Romania: ‘the truth will set us free’.
All this and more beside on this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
People always seem to be talking about Paul Pogba these days. Which means we’re going to have to do a masterful retweaking of a question that everybody’s asking to make it fit our tagline. Don’t worry though. We’ve managed it. We ask: would Paul Pogba have been sacked by now if he was a manager. Do you see what we did there?
All this and more beside in this week’s episode of a Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where George Osbourne got all the jobs, the Team are back to celebrate the burgeoning inequality that is the world of football.
Is that… Chris Brunt… in the studio…. What could he possibly want? In fact it’s Chris Wagner – football’s answer to Chris Brunt – who hasn’t been on the podcast since he appeared on the second most listened to podcast we’ve ever made. Is this our response to dropping listening figures? Is there anyone even listening to this? Is there any meaning to anything? These, however, are questions that everyone is asking and are, therefore, off topic…
We’re giving some of the panel’s unpopular opinions this week. Which is good because we’ve got Paddy McCloskey on today… all of who’s opinions are unpopular. He’s joined by Ceylon who was given more than five minute’s notice today. The ever present Jon Mackenzie is here to make quorum.
Despite the recent debacle of the philosophy puns, Paddy is doing Organised Fun again this week. We never learn.
All this and more besides in this week’s episode of a Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where Jon Mackenzie has told me to stop saying "right", we're back with another Question that No One is Asking.
Right...
So our question this week is on technology: following Barcelona's triumph over PSG, Jon Mackenzie will be trying to convince Will Geeson, a man who was moved to tears by Sergio Roberto's late winner, that the comeback is tainted by injustice. Thus, we have a clash of ideologies. On the one side, the cold, wisened face of reason, Jon Mackenzie, advocating a more scrupulous eamination of the biomechanics of the offside rule. On the other, the poet-warrior Geeson, insistant on maintaing every blood and thunder element of the beautiful game. I will occasionally interject with anti-English sentiments.
All this and more beside in this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
In a week which saw the testimonial game for Jon Mackenzie's over 200 appearances for Corpus Christi College, we're here to celebrate the podcast's one year anniversary. Much like Jon's testimonial, we expect this episode to be full of silky skills, crunching slide tackles and, as requested by Will Geeson, for things to end with a gentlemanly shaking of hands and a rousing rendition of God Save the Queen before each heading home for a comfortable evening in the company of Radio Four.
Before that though, we're going to be talking about our ideal podcast guests. For the sake of brevity and listener sanity, we have each pledged to not mention our actual ideal podcast guests. So if you have come here for discussions of Peter Mandleson, Martin Luther or Martin McGuinness you might as well leave now.
After this Miles-Davis-esque creative, free-flowing harmony of thought, we return to the rigidity of Organised Fun. Paddy has organised fun this week so expect it to be unbelievable.
All this and more beside in this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas...
Towering at well over 6 feet tall, prowling around the box with an unparalleled arrogance, defying all expectations, a lethal finisher who is carrying his team through the best part of the season.
Though this description may most obviously bring up thoughts of Leeds Utd's Chris Wood, it could arguably also apply to the lesser known Swedish talisman, Zlatan Ibrahimović. This week the team will be considering how a Championship striker such as Chris Wood would perform if he played for a commercial machine-cum-football club like Manchester United. Are there important fine marginal differences in ability that define a 'top level' striker or are we simply slaves to the notion of a 'big name' star goal scorer?
All this and more in this week's episode of 'A Team of John O'Sheas'…
Only 10 months ago, Andrea Bocelli serenaded a triumphant Leicester City with classics such as "We Are the Champions" and "Nessun Dorma". The heart wrenchingly emotional set ended with Bocelli's own "Time to Say Goodbye". At that moment it was impossible to conceive that it would become prophetic.
Now the dream has faded, Ding Dong, Ranieri's gone. No more pizza, no more Kante, no more boxers on Match of the Day. The powers that be in modern football have struck back with a vengeance and our dear Claudio has paid the ultimate price. In the rat race that is football management in the premier league, a string of hopefuls are lined up to try and do the impossible and "Make Leicester Great Again". Could it be old Woy? Should we 'give it giggseh til end of season'? Could Shakespeare himself play his part in a true footballing tragedy?
This week the team are taking it in turns to 'make a case' for various candidates for the Leicester vacancy. To add an appropriate level of risk to proceedings, the contenders will be randomly selected using a powerful complicated number generator also known pulling pieces of paper out of a bowl.
The self declared 'older man's thinking football pundit' Jon Mackenzie is organising fun this week. As someone who grew up playing Tetris on a Sega MegaDrive let's hope he can provide a more up to date gaming experience today. Luckily for Will Geeson, fine linen jumpers will never fall out of fashion. He returns alongside Patrick McCloskey who has recently embarked upon establishing a clothing line for the podcast.
All this and more beside in this week's episode of 'A Team of John O'Sheas'…
We’ve gone through a bit of a turbulent political period of late. Brexit, Trump, the rise of the European right and whatever in God’s name is going on in North Korea. Luckily however, we have Paul Nuttall, who this week singlehandedly managed to achieve peace in the Middle East, find the Lost of Ark of the Covenant and create a cure for cancer… I’m joking. He didn’t do any of those things. And he never will. I genuinely struggle to think of a worse person than Paul Nuttall.
Will Geeson is back this week. Revived and motivated following his trip – sorry, pilgrimage - to the Peter Mandelson Heritage Centre he’s ready to join us in answering this week’s question no is answering and even fewer people will listen to: how will our beloved football look in the inevitable dystopia that will be the year of 2026?
This week, our quickfire question concerns football time travel. We’ll be asking which footballer corpses and careers we would resurrect from the underworld of Hades to our world of Trump. How would Pele fare in the era of post-truth football? Would he play even make the current Santos team in front of their present star striker, Paul Nuttall? Beckenbaeur, Beckham, Puskas, Jon Mackenzie… we’ll be talking all the greats who were once relevant to football. We’ll finish with Will Geeson’s zipless organised fun. Usually Paddy does organised fun. The English taking something from the Irish. Sounds familiar doesn’t do it? So long as Geeson lives, Cromwell never truly dies.
In a week where Manchester United managed to claw on to their 6th place in the Premier League, the Team are back to continue the shittest unbeaten streak of history that is the world of football.
From time immemorial, human kind has been attempting to transcend itself through the creation of beautiful things: the hanging gardens of Babylon, the Pyramids at Giza, the Colossus at Rhodes, the list goes on. Football is no different, boasting its own wonders: Joey Barton’s Twitter account, this podcast, the fact that Emile Heskey had a career at all… Our Quickfire Question this week challenges the Team to draw up our own list of the 7 Wonders of the Footballing world.
Paddy’s taking a break from Organising Fun this week. Curiously enough, Will Geeson is also absent. It’s almost like he cheats…. Anyway, Robin is doing it instead. So I hope you’re feeling Italian.
All this, and more besides in this week’s edition of A Team of John O’Sheas.
This week, our question that no one is asking is about cult heroes in football. We’re going to work our way around all the childhood heroes whose posters adorned our youthful bedroom walls. Since Will isn’t here, we unfortunately won’t be mentioning Peter Mandelson, but with the trio of myself, Robin and Paddy, strap yourself in for some serious nostalgia over Tony Yeboah, Arrigo Sacchi and Gerry Adams.
All this, and more besides in this week’s edition of A Team of John O’Sheas.
For our question that no one is asking this week, we’re turning the lens back to managers. Tiki Taka, GegenPress, Inverted Physios. With the footballing media constantly enamoured with one new style of play after another, you’d be forgiven for wondering whether, given the saying about old dogs and new tricks, football is a young man’s game. Naturally, Jon Mackenzie has something to say about this. Our question this week is, “Do top level managers have a shelf life?”
In a week where results in the top three of the premier league suggested that Antonio Conte has got hold of God’s leaked iCloud photos, the team are back to call “Photoshop” on the world of football.
My slightly dated intro is appropriate this week as we’re casting our minds back to pick the best years in the world of football. Jon will be selecting from the 1980’s, or as he calls it his “mid-life crisis.” Will Geeson has the task of choosing from the 90s while putting his teary eyed fondness for 1997 behind him. I’m taking on the noughties since that was the decade I’m old enough to remember but young enough that I couldn’t drink through. And finally, we’ve given Paddy McCloskey the 2010’s because we felt like not taxing his brain with a full decade.
Paddy’s once again rustled up some organised fun for us to tackle. I hope I won’t come to regret that last crack in the unlikely event that there’s some sort of score related dispute we need him to weigh in on. This week the team play for one of my mother’s coveted homemade flapjacks. Cake based submissions from listeners should be directed to Patrick McCloskey, The Londonderry Fun Dungeon, Northern Ireland.
All this, and more besides in this week’s edition of A Team of John O’Sheas.
Do you ever find yourself judging the ever burgeoning numbers of people in gilets who are populating the terraces of football grounds around Britain? If you do, then this is the podcast episode for you.
The Team discuss what exactly it is about some forms of football fandom that makes us feel uneasy - is there any justification for this? should we react against it?
All this and more beside in this week's episode of a Team of John O'Sheas...
In a week where a conciliatory tone was struck and people from all walks of life came together to celebrate tenets of love and tolerance, the team are back to bring some much needed fear and uncertainty to proceedings.
Speaking of which, Paddy McCloskey is never one to shy away from a backwards and unfounded claim about what he describes as foreigners in “his country.” After Gary Linekers typically jingoist twitter commentary on Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool’s exit from the FA Cup, Paddy wants to ask if overseas managers do struggle in adapting to the unique requirements of the British leagues. The Sun was not available for comment.
For a man to whom even the most complex of challenges comes easily the thought of having to really try in any task sits uneasily for Jon Mackenzie. This desire to merely tread water in life is what draws him to Paul Pogba, but is the punditocracy at large right to point out that Liverpool’s gloriously remunerated reserve side should at least look like they’re busy while slumping to another home defeat, this time against a team comprised of what I’m assured were literal wolves.
Ever the voice of positivity and optimism, I’m going to devote my minute on the soapbox to a glowing endorsement of Bastian Schweinsteiger’s conduct. After a difficult year the midfielder put in a great performance on Sunday and should be praised, especially considering the far less upstanding contributions of certain players with far lesser reasons to feel aggrieved at their treatment. It’s important to recognise this display of moral fibre when confronted with so many petulant and exceedingly arrogant characters.
Will Geeson makes up the numbers this week and along with Jon and I, he’ll be taking on McCloskey’s newest edition of organised fun. The winner this week will take home a copy of Paddy’s new autobiography: ‘My Life in Morris Dancing, The Patrick McCloskey Story’ All this, and more besides in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
After a weekend in which an unverified-but-definitely-larger-than-ever group watched on while Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of America, and another unverified-but-definitely-insignificant number of people marched in protest against Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of America, it feels as though we are entering a global struggle between right and left. Here at a Team of John O’Sheas, we’re keen to reflect the current mood and so we’ve thought of a question that reflects this struggle. We ask: who would win between a right-footed XI and a left-footed XI?
All this and more besides on this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas.
In a week where the podcast celebrated reaching 1.5 million listeners, the Team are back to disseminate the alternative facts that are the world of football.
Following the threats of the White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, we’ll be discussing a few Talking Points from the week in football.
As a man who supports Manchester United despite never having been to Manchester, it would be fair to say Paddy McCloskey still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. As a man caught in the battle between the two provincial states, however, it must be said that he understands power. He’s wanting to talk about the footballers who hold their clubs to ransom. Payet, Costa, Berahino. Can you think of anyone worse than these people?
Will Geeson is on the show today. The comfortable clothes denier and defender of rich white men from around Britain, he’s here to defend another much maligned rich white man, Wayne Rooney. Is the is the hype around the carpet headed buffoon of England justified, he asks?
The thinking person’s football pundit is here to regale you with tales that will leave your synapses tingling. In the last few seasons, Spurs have developed a habit of selling players who have then gone on to be much better elsewhere – why is that, he wonders?
Jon is giving Paddy a break from Organised Fun this week. Well. From organizing it. He still has to take part. It’s unlikely he’ll enjoy the mammoth Leeds United in the mid-70s extravaganza I’ve drawn up. Organised it may be. Fun it will not.
All this and more besides in this week’s episode of a Team of John O’Sheas.
Until this season, Steven N’Zonzi had had a fairly unremarkable career, spending the majority of his professional life at Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City. Imagine our surprise then when he exchanged cold Wednesday nights in Stoke for balmy Sunday evenings in Sevilla and turned out to be a fairly tidy little player. Our question this week tries to get to the bottom of this phenomenon. We ask: “How do you explain the Steven N’Zonzi at Sevilla phenomenon?”
In a week where Paul Pogba showed himself to be a handy football player, the team are back to the mammoth overspend that is the world of football.
Having taken legal advice from the CIA, we’ll be discussing a few Talking Points from the week in football.
“Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?” Sang Bono once, explaining to us the concept of poverty. Well we don’t have Bono but we have the next best thing, Ireland’s version of Bono, Paddy McCloskey. He asks: “Will they finish in fourth place at all?”
The thinking man’s football pundit, with his incredible breadth and scope, wants to take us to the Africa Cup of Nations. He wonders whether the massive discrepancy in quality which is on display there allows us to answer the question whether or not professionalism is having a negative effect on the beautiful game? Are we walking headlong into oblivion?
Will Geeson is back from his Christmas break. When he wasn’t arguing about the third way in the Labour Party, he was sat around in zipless jumpers watching continental football. Sevilla have caught his eye and he wants to know if there is evidence that there is greater equality in European football than there has been for a while.
Ironically, Paddy is Organising Fun this week.
All this and more besides in this week’s episode of a Team of John O’Sheas.
It’s been a long few weeks but we’re back. Bet you can’t wait.
In time honoured fashion, we’ll be discussing a few Talking Points from the week in football.
January sees the opening of the transfer window. It also sees Robin crawling out of his cave and into the light. This is a nice coincidence because Robin wants to talk about the transfer window – more specifically Dele Alli. He asks: is the rumoured Dele Alli to Real Madrid move conducive to anyone involved?
Speaking of transfers, here at A Team of John O’Sheas we’ve been going through some transfers of our own. Patrick McCloskey, the self-styled Bono of the show, has yet to return from his sojourn in the footballing wilderness that is Ireland – we’ve got Scott McGrory to replace him. Staying in the same vein as Robin, Scott wants to talk about the slow trickle of players moving out to join the Chinese Super League. Is there any conceivable excuse for why this phenomenon, he wonders? Or are footballers just money grabbing bastards? Some people are just so selfish.
Will Geeson isn’t here this week. Who cares? We’re bringing in Ceylon despite the fact that she hates football. She wants to talk about in-game commentary. She questions whether or not commentators have any responsibility to their audience?
She’s also Organising Fun this week. Paddy is so easily replaced.
All this and more besides in this week’s episode of a Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where no one cared about the FA Cup, we’re here to talk about the FA Cup. You can’t accuse us of sucking up to our audience. This week’s question that no one is asking will seek to rectify this: we ask, what can be done to stop the FA Cup sliding into oblivion?
All this and more besides on this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas!
Here's a question: is it fair to judge Paul Pogba's performances against the value Manchester United are willing to pay for him? This episode is all about the concept of value in football. We begin by looking through the CIES-developed list of the 50 most expensive footballers that appeared in the FootballFrance this week. Then we discuss what value actually means in football. We round off the episode with a 10 minute countdown in which we discuss a Cut Price XI that could give the most expensive XI a run for their money.
In a week where a number of secret agent players were behind enemy lines, pulling strings for their former clubs, the team are back to sabotage the world of football.
At A Team of John O'Sheas we're no strangers to crushing failure. So who better to discuss some of football's most disappointing transfers: we ask "Which players are in your Flop XI?"
Before that the Team will be discussing a number of talking points. Since none of these are on Marouane Fellaini I thought I'd just take a moment of reflection on his hilarious 100th appearance for Manchester United. Definitely an unfortunate return.
Will Geeson is back this week and as is custom he's torn between the head and the heart. He asks if the glory of a potential Champion's League win would be worth trading for relegation to the Championship.
Unlike Leicester, Leeds, the thinking man's football grandpa Jon Mackenzie's beloved club, find themselves at the right end of the table. He's also pondering the value of the Premier League, and wonders if it would live up to expectations in the event that they are promoted this season.
Normally I spend Mondays in a ditch off the M1 sleeping off a Bourbon fuelled weekend, but here I am catching some all together different Zs. Zinedine Zidane has confounded all expectations and his Real Madrid team, reigning European Champions, sit six points clear of their closest La Liga rivals. Is the success he's found as a manager simply down to luck and a ludicrously expensive and perfectly complete squad, or is quiet man Zizou actually a revelation in a world of huge personalities?
Ceylon, our token non-football fan has stepped into Patrick's shoes today for organised fun. She may not be Irish but at least she's ginger.
All this and more besides, on this week's edition of A Team of John O'Sheas.
In a week in which Jose Mourinho, like our very own Robin Sarfas, finally hit the bottle, the team are back together to sink into the ever deepening depression and decay that is the end point of the world of football.
Here at a Team of John O’Sheas, we pride ourselves on answering the questions that no one is asking. And this week is no different. This time, however, the team is pushing the very limits of what is acceptable by melding together Meme culture and footballing nerdery. The result, in case you are wondering, is marvellous. After all, we all dream a Meme of John O’Sheas.
Before that though, in accordance with the dictates of the Holy Catholic church, we need to get the boring bits out of the way at the beginning.
Paddy, everyone's favourite team member from an insignificant part of the world, is here to talk about Jose Mourinho. Unsurprisingly for a Man United supporter, he wants to argue that the FA is biased against United.
Oh Robin, My Robin is here to talk about Pardew. We think he's shite. Robin didn't used to but now he might be changing his mind.
Jon, the continental thinker's football pundit, is back once again to talk in the third person. Are RB Leipzig, he wonders, just like every other money-grabbing-bastard team in the world? Or is their something different about them?
Paddy organised fun this week. So at least something was organised.
Ceylon was here. And then she wasn't. Because she left.
All this and much more beside on this week's episode of a Team of John O'Sheas.
After another week of almost functional alcoholism, I’m back with the rest of the team for another hour of mildly interesting and occasionally pointed football discussion to distract you from the looming inevitability of death.
Speaking of edging closer to death, this week our resident old man and thinking man’s football pundit, Jon Mackenzie, has taken a break from accusing Paddy of involvement of various 1980’s crimes to ponder the complex world of Tottenham Hotspur. He asks: what is going so wrong for the white side of north London?
To be fair to Tottenham, they are hardly the worst thing happening in the world at the minute. Will Geeson wants to talk about the press’s reaction to Wayne Rooney’s scandalous drinking of wine – as an advocate of alcohol’s essential contribution to the flowering of humanity, I for one am sure that this is the most offensive headline the Sun has ever issued.
Finally, I’m going to talk about the barren wasteland that is the mid table. It is essentially football’s equivalent of the American rust belt and I want to address its issues before they band together to elect yet another former reality tv star hellbent on destroying the world.
All this and more on this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas
In many respects, this is the moment that this podcast has been working its way towards since its inception. You may think we care about the Premier League, the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga. We don’t. You may think we hate Steven Gerrard. We don’t. You might even think we enjoy guessing players or managers from the list of their clubs on Wikipedia. We don’t. In fact, there is little more that we would like to do than head up the A1(M) to Elland Road, stand in the Kop, sing Marching on Together, all the time staring lovingly into the eyes of Pontus Jannson. But can you blame us? After all, we’re all Leeds… aren’t we?
Today I’m joined in the studio by religious expert, Will Geeson who regularly graces us with his sermons on the main podcast and Corey Robinson, someone who is actually from Leeds.
After a week of total despair aka world cup qualifiers, the team are back to lose the popular vote that is the world of football.
Speaking of which, this week we want to talk about what it is which makes football so popular? Is it the beautiful way in which agents get rich off meaningless and often legally dubious transfers? The glory of the common fan being priced out of attending or even viewing games on television? Or the wonderful way in which a corrupt clique at the top of the game has skimmed fortunes by pimping out our most beloved tournaments to oligarchs and tyrants? We ask: “Does anyone actually enjoy football?”
The thoughtless man’s football pundit Jon Mackenzie unsurprisingly has a talking point related to Kevin De Bruyne. With both KDB and a resurgent Eden Hazard available for Belgium, Jon talks about how they fit together and how teams such as these get the best out of their players when they have such an embarrassment of riches.
Speaking of embarrassment, Will Geeson watched Senegal succumb to South Africa at the weekend. He asks whether spaces at the world cup are distributed fairly between the confederations and whether or not the World Cup should be the utmost pinnacle of football excellence or should focus more on spreading the game around the world.
I was drunk when I wrote this script and the part about my talking point is illegible. It was, like my life, promising before the alcohol kicked in. Oh well, best to fall back on talking about Italy then.
Finally, noted fun person Paddy is here bringing the Organised Frivolity in an effort to distract us from how sad everything is. Good luck there pal.
All this, and more besides in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where the free world threatened to vote itself into oblivion, the Team are back together to go on as normal and pretend nothing is happening.
In light of this, we're offering a slightly different format which will suit our inevitable future in the lead-lined bunkers that will be our dwelling places. We will begin with Organised Fun which, this week, will be run by Paddy McCloskey, UN Peace Envoy. [Insert joke here]
Then, rather than having one Question that No One is Asking, we're asking a series of five quickfire questions which focus predominantly on this week in the Premier League. The thinking person's football pundit will ask the questions and hopefully the rest of the Team will offer something in the way of answers.
All this and not much more beside on this week's edition of A Team of John O'Sheas...
After taking all three points with a thrilling tactical discussion last week the team are back with an unchanged line-up. Like Claudio Ranieri, will eschewing our former tinkering image at last bring the best independent small podcast named after a former Manchester United utility man of the year award we so desperately crave?
So often us fans are blinded by the glitz and glamour of what modern day football has to offer. With money and cosmopolitan football flooding the game it’s easy to take footballers for granted. But is the beautiful sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasting chance after chance blinding us to the reality of the modern game? Are footballers just people after all? The team asks “Should football take player welfare more seriously?”
The present day premier league fan pays a high price these days for some fairly mediocre punditry. Will Geeson asks if British fans are getting a bum deal paying this much with the number of games broadcast being so limited and the coverage so poor.
Sunderland are so meek these days that they can’t even get a comeback win against Arsenal, habitual kings of the self-destruct in a comfortable game button. Patrick McCloskey gets us talking about just why Sunderland are this awful.
The thinking mans’ football pundit, Alan Shearer, this week claimed that Sergio Aguero is the Premier League’s only world class player. Jon Mackenzie, our very own fence-creosoting northerner and only world-class podcaster debates this claim.
I haven’t drunk since Saturday so I’m in need of something fun. I quiz the rest of the team of historic penalty shootouts as that’s the next best thing to blacking out and waking up in a bike shed.
All this, and more besides in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where everyone was once again united in their hatred for… United… the team are back together to whisper in the ear of the opposition manager like the giant bellend that is the world of football.
This week was a real eye-opener for some of the team members. Patrick, on hearing the question, googled ‘the history of positions’ and ended up spending the rest of the week up to his ears in the Karma Sutra. We’re talking football though. Our question is, which position has changed the most within the modern game?
Before that though as the result of a massive breach of cyber security, we’ll be going through a number of talking points from the week in football.
Robin, McCauley Culkin through the eyes of an impressionist painter, wants to talk about England’s next Prime Minister, Gary Lineker. Once again politics has reared its ugly head in football and so we return to the perennial question: should football and politics mix?
Will Geeson, loyal Yorkshireman in perpetual exile, wants to turn our attention to another fiercely proud footballing area - Milan. Keeping up his reputation as a prize twat, Mauro Icardi has been riling the fans at Inter with the poorly thought through invenctive of his biography. Will sets things straight.
Norther Irish peace envoy, Paddy McCloskey wants to moan about Mourinho. And can you blame him. It must be awful being a United fan at the moment. Does a manager, he asks, every get outdated?
Jon’s turned his enormous brain towards organised fun as well this week. It’s only another one of his classic pub quizzes!
All this, and more besides in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where the return of the Premier League was hyped up to an even more hysterical pitch than normal following a particularly dire international break the team are back to lower the expectations of the footballing fandom at large.
Our question this week, in advance of Man United's inevitable 0-0 draw at Liverpool, we look at former Swansea managerial candidate and two-time match-winning head coach Ryan Giggs. We ask, how should his career progress from here? Before that, we'll each be bringing a talking point to the table and hopefully having some fun on the way.
Let's get the unpleasantries out of the way first. This week we introduce Will Geeson to the show and we'll be attempting to delicately broach the subject of Ched Evans recent acquittal on charges of rape. We look at the on and off pitch repercussions of this controversial ruling.
In lighter news, Jon looks at a resurgent Mario Balotelli. Seemingly revitalised after his transfer to Ligue 1's Nice we ask; is this the beginning of Super Mario's rise to finally make good on his potential? Or, like Jon himself, is he better off as a big fish in a small pool?
Inspired by the fugitive years of Colombian drug-lord Pablo Escobar, possibly after borrowing Nico Restrepo's Narcos box-set, Enner Valencia was fleeing police last week. I'll be giving you the low-down on this latest hilarious scene from South American football.
For organised fun this week we're taking you back to 2006 and seeing how well Jon and Will remember the crunch games from that year.
All this, and possibly more on this weeks edition of A Team of John O'Sheas
In a week where Manchester United fans were filled with an unnerving sense of deja vu, the Team are back together to lose to the minnow that is the world of football.
Speaking of ugly football, this week’s episode is a veritable celebration of aesthetics. Girlfriend and boyfriend combo, Chris and Marielle, join us to settle once and for all the age old question: who would win in a match between the world’s sexiest footballers and the world ugliest footballers?
This week’s Organised fun will continue the couples theme as we see if Chris and Marielle know each other better than Jon and Paddy do in a game of footballing Mr and Mrs.
Before that though, in line with Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-sugar legislation, we discuss a number of Talking Points from the previous week in football.
Marielle topped the Twitter poll this week, which is unsurprising given that she offered a different topic to our usual stolid affair of drugs in sport, Kevin De Bruyne and Serie A football in the 90s. She wants to turn our attention to the women’s game, asking whether or not women’s football could use more characters like Hope Solo?
As ever, the thinking person’s football pundit is here to amaze you with his endearing combination of profundity and wordsmithery. He casts everyone’s minds back to Sunday’s fixture between Watford and Manchester United raising the question whether or not Machester United should be starting to worry about their current lack of form.
Chris, football’s equivalent to Chris Brunt, is taking us right to the heart of Scottish football. With Celtic spanking everyone in the SPL but being spanked in turn in the Champions League, he wonders what real success constitutes for Scotland’s biggest team.
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
This week, the team have buggered off around the world: Jon is back at the flavelas of the North, Robin has gone to make his fortune in America, Migsy is off to Norway on a school trip to see the Arora Borealis, Nico has returned to run his drugs cartel in Colombia, Patrick is in Derry in a bid to unify Ireland, Scott is somewhere in mainland Europe, Ceylon is voluntouring in Myanmar, and Paddy is eating M&Ms in Cambridge. It may surprise you to learn that this podcast has now been running for six months. And even despite the fact that we generally chat bollocks and Robin appears on the show regularly, we have been slowly growing our listenership through that time.
Due to our summerly induced diaspora and as a celebration of longevity, we decided to make this a special episode. We’ve dug deep through the archives and found some of the unreleased material that has not been revealed until this moment. In the first half of the show, we’ve pulled together a number of the funnier out-takes for your general enjoyment. And to hear how much Jon goes through trying to record the show. In the second half, we have a previously unreleased question about the Away Goals Rule. Enjoy and thanks for all the support over the last six months.
In a week where an England manager finally had the guts to admit he doesn’t have a clue what he is doing, the Team are back together to underperform like the gracelessly aging midfielder that is the world of football.
A few weeks into what had been touted as potentially the best Premier League season ever, it feels as though we’ve already fallen into the numbingly inevitable: the clubs who have spent the most money are at the top of the table, Liverpool are gloriously inconsistent, Sunderland are still aiming for a point per game. Yet despite being widely heralded as potential title winners, Chelsea haven’t broken into the top three clubs in England: City, United and Hull. Our question this week touches on this asking: why aren’t more people talking about Chelsea this season?
Before that though, in line with Keith Vaz’s preliminary findings on the vice scene in modern Britain, we discuss a number of Talking Points from the previous week in football.
Trailing the faint whiff of beard oil wherever he goes, Paddy has pulled himself away from a fusion noodle bar in Soho for just long enough to talk to us about Atletico Madrid. Atletico were once hailed as the ultimate buying club – having a frenetic turnover of players but always managing to bring in new talent. But have things changed for Los Colchoneros?
The thinking person’s football pundit is back once again with the ill-behaviour. He wants to talk club ownership and the legitimacy of fan-owned football clubs in this day and age.
Do you remember the England football team from the Euros? Good. Because they are exactly the same as Big Sam’s New Look England football team. Sean Bartlett is here to discuss England. Someone had to.
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where Fergie Time was rechristened Jose Time, the team are back like Marouane Fellaini to rescue all from the crush that is the world of football.
Inspired by watching Tottenham at the weekend, we're getting hateful - our Question that No One is Asking this week is: who is in your Most Hated XI?
Before that though, we'll be going through a number of Talking Points:
Jon Mackenzie, the thinking man's football pundit, was too busy thinking about the Bundesliga to post up a twitter poll this week, so he'll be talking Germany for the meager two and a half minute slot.
In the continuing downward spiral that is Robin's life, he's now unemployed and what's worse, he spent some of his ample time of watching Spurs v Liverpool - a match so devoid of quality that it disproved his theory from last week that Championship games are more entertaining because they're more prone to errors. Instead, he suggests that pitches are now too small for teams at the highest level.
Speaking of the Championship, Tom McMinigal's better half, Sam Wimpenny, has watched his beloved Huddersfield Town soar to the top of the league. In light of David Wagner and Rafael Benitez, he asks, "Do Championship managers need Championship experience?"
Jon's turned his enormous brain towards Organised Fun this week as well. He'll have us guessing which players slot into Werner Herzog's All Time XI.
All this and much more beside in this week's episode of A Team of John O'Sheas.
In a week where our predictions of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s dismal failure and Liverpool’s meteoric rise to title contention look ropier Ryan Lochte’s Nobel Peace Prize chances, the team are back to vandalise the public bathroom that is football.
Another of our predictions which is looking far from assured, is the imminent and dismal relegation of Hull City back to the Championship from whence they came. With no permanent manager, a threadbare squad and a number of important amateur voices in football writing them off it looked bleak for the Tigers. However, with two wins from two under their belt, including an opening day victory against the premier league champions, we ask: “Could Hull City ‘Do a Leicester’ and win the Premier League?”
This week, the thinking man’s football pundit has used his phenomenal brain power to remember the email addresses and passwords for the most twitter accounts, and has thus won our talking point poll. He asks if the continuing professionalization of sports is making the playing field too level, and thus boring.
Having survived for an extra week on the meagre scraps of the Premier League, at last we can once again feast on the buffet that is Serie A. I’ll be giving a brief round-up of the opening weekend, talking the race for the title and discussing some notable players who don’t play for Arsenal.
Football punditry’s answer to a Walkman with a beard is back and he’s unsurprisingly doing his best to avoid talking about football. What’s not football and has loads of doping? The Olympics? Perfect! Paddy asks if Team GB’s funding model could be applied to improve the lacklustre fortunes of the England National Team.
It’s also fallen on Paddy to come up with some slightly better organized fun this week so presumably we’ll be seeing who can name the most winners of the Norwegian Tippaleagen or something equally as cool and obscure.
All this, and more besides in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where Leicester City remembered they were Leicester City, the Team are back to narrate the fairytale ending that is the world of football.
This season’s Premier League is being touted as the war of the managers. Over the summer, there has been such an influx of managerial talent that even Alan Curbishley couldn’t find employment. As a result, 8 of the managers in the Premier League have been at their clubs for less than 100 days. Gone, then, are the days of the long term manager and our question reflects this. We ask the question “Is there any benefit to having a long-term manager?”
Before that though, in line with the International Olympic Committee’s rulings on drug testing, we discuss a number of Talking Points from the previous week in football.
The thinking person’s football pundit is at the top of twitter poll this week. He’ll be asking whether or not this is the season in the Bundesliga where the one-horse race becomes a two-horse race?
After a few weeks of terrible content, Calum is back. He’s interested in Pep Guardiola. Perhaps too interested. He wants to know if the Team think that the quality of football punditry will improve now that there is a manager who uses… you know… tactics.
We don’t really know what Robin wants to talk about. Nothing new there. Probably Arsenal.
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
This week we’ve really gone for it. Jon’s canvassed all of his cool friends in real journalism, Paddy’s scoured the public libraries of Bushwick Brooklyn and even Robin's stayed sober for four hours to bring you a topic of discussion that no one else is talking about. There’s no point even guessing, such is the esoteric obscurity of our question this week: what’s going to happen in this season’s Premier League.
We’ll be predicting how the league table will look come May, discussing some of our “best and worsts” for the season, and answering the question “What will the 2016/17 season be remembered for.”
Having dismissed Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling as banal because it didn’t contain enough crosswords, the thinking man’s football pundit Jon Mackenzie wants to talk about the Championship. Like you, I was surprised that teams continued to exist following relegation from the Premier League but Jon claims this could be the best edition of the British second tier yet… or a season where modern tactics and an influx of cash ruin what was a consistently exciting scrum of a league.
With his commitments to the facial hair desk at Vice Magazine out of the way, Paddy returns to mainstream media, deigning to read a Guardian article. He asks, with studies suggesting juries presented with slow motion replays are more likely to return guilty verdicts, does this bias translate to a football context?
What’s that? Migsy’s evolving? No I’m not talking about Pokemon Go, despite the number of great balls in the room. This week we introduce Sam Wimpenny, Tom McMinigal’s more powerful and well developed form. Having conducted extensive field research involving seeing the first half highlights of one game Sam asks if Rafa Benitez is suited to Championship or if the loss of three points away to Fulham suggests that Newcastle will fail to catch em’ all?
Jon’s organised some more fun this week, hooray. Paddy, Sam and Robin will be taking on his three part premier league quiz to see who is the second most knowledgable member of the team.
All this, and more besides in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where Arsenal effectively managed to avoid signing Gonzalo Higuain for another successive season, the team are back to Wenger the transfer market that is the world of football.
Whatever else their sins may be, you can’t fault FIFA for being slow off the mark. Mainly because the Mark went out of circulation a number of years ago. This summer, they announced a raft of new laws – most completely superfluous but others well overdue. Not ones to accept the status quo, this week we ask what more could be done: posing the question “What would you change about the rules of the game?”
Before that though, in line with Melania Trump’s speech to the Republican Conference this week (or was it Michelle Obama to the Democrats eight years ago?), the Team discuss a number of Talking Points from the week in football. This week sees a new twist however. Fed up of editing endless Talking Points, Jon has introduced time limits. And a preferential voting system. Expect controversy.
This will allow extra time for some Organised Fun. This week, Robin and Paddy try to guess the players on Jon’s All Time Favourite XI.
Robin, football’s version of a three day hangover, has managed to win over the electorate in our Brave New World of Democratic Talking Points. He asks whether or not it was really Alex Ferguson who ruined Man united. Yeah. Edgy af.
The thinking person’s football pundit is back after a few week’s break from Talking Points. Jon raises the subject of Malcolm Gladwell’s distinction between weak link games and strong link games. Is it really the case that clubs should invest more in their weaker players in order to succeed in the transfer window?
Having dragged himself away from reading When Saturday Comes articles about the importance of half-spaces in a microbrewery in Portland, Paddy is back to burrow through the dirty laundry of the world of football. This week it’s state corruption in Spain and its benefits for La Liga teams that have Pique-ed his interest.
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where literally nothing happened we’re back to fill the void that is the world of football.
With our country under new management and Theresa May’s cabinet appointments about as astute as Marc Wilmot’s midfield appointments, we turn our attention to coaches. We ponder the relationship between manager’s playing and coaching careers, and pose the question: “What is your ultimate managerial XI.”
Not ones to break with tradition, this week the team have scraped together some talking points and we’ll be going over these in laborious and painful detail.
With the new TV money rolling in even faster than the pound can collapse, teams are spending willy nilly. Speaking of nil willies, Jon looks to see if Middlesboro’s transfer endeavours can help them remain safely mid-tablesboro this season.
King 'Content' Calum is back this week. We’ve already come to the conclusion that Ligue 1 is objectionable and not worthy of public consumption, but he’ll be addressing how such a mediocre league can produce so many of Europe’s top talents.
We all saw Ronaldo’s brief stint as manager of Portugal in the final of Euro 2016. In an era where the individual reigns supreme Sky asks how man-management has changed now that coaches are no longer always the biggest presence in the dressing room.
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where Ronaldo proved that he can sit on the sidelines while his team win a major international tournament, the Team are back together to flick away the moth that is the world of football.
Having run out of matches to try and persuade ourselves that international football is actually worthwhile, we find ourselves in a post-tournament malaise where we try to understand how Joe Allen made it into the UEFA team of the tournament before giving up, firing up our smartphones and losing ourselves in the world of Pokemon GO where at least some old comforts remain unchanged in the face of this Brave New World we find ourselves in. Why, we are left asking, has this competition been so bad? Our question this week wonders whether or not this has anything to do with omitted players: we Which missing players could have changed the outcome of Euro 2016?
Before that though, in accordance with the rulings of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, the team discuss a number of talking points from the previous week in football:
Having torn himself away from reading articles about Ivan Perisic in The Blizzard in a museli bar in Shoreditch, Paddy is back to talk about England managers. With the news that Allardyce is entering talks with the FA, he wonders whether the choice between Klinsmann and Big Sam is any choice at all.
One of the biggest faults of this podcast is undoubtedly the poor standard of the content that it contains. Fortunately enough for us, a saviour is at hand – Calum ‘Epic Content’ Macleod joins us today to talk about the Chinese Super League. As the migration Eastwards gains momentum, Calum wonders if this will change the Western form of the game irrevocably.
Robin, who we picked up out of the gutter, tidied up and plonked in front of a microphone for this episode, wants to talk Marcelo Bielsa. Not content with having left Marseilles after the opening game of his second season, Bielsa has now out Bielsa-ed Bielsa and has left Lazio before a game had even been played. Robin asks what is next for everyone’s favourite hipster manager.
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where the Euros are finally coming to a close, Jon and Robin are joining forces to bring you a special episode about the ins and outs of the tournament.
With one of the most mismatched draws in international tournament history, we’re going to begin the programme by looking back over the two semi-finals before looking forwards to the culmination of this European Championships.
Then, after the break, we’ll talk about the tournament in general, the highs and lows, teams to remember, and teams to forget, goals and not so goals, managers, players, fans, chants.
All this and more beside on this special episode of a Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where Hal Robson-Kanu forgot he was Hal Robson-Kanu for a few seconds, the Team are back together to over-perform in the international tournament that is the world of football.
After a format change that required degree level competence in mathematics to comprehend it fully, this summer’s European Championship left us with a knock-out stage so unbalanced that it made the rising levels of inequality in modern Britain look positively insignificant. In this week’s Question that No One is Asking, we try to decide where each of the semi-finalists would finish in the Premier League?
Before that though, in accordance with Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the team discuss a number of talking points from the previous week in football:
To begin with, at the risk of appearing like an actual football podcast, we’ll quickly recap the quarter final matches and allow Paddy to bask in the sunshine of four correct predictions.
Sky, who has nothing to do with the Murdoch empire, wants to talk about stats—football analytics are in vogue at present, but how useful are they actually in the grand scheme of things?
And as we approach the business end of the season, the Team’s own transfer market specialist, Simon ‘Paddy’ Patterson has all the up-to-date news on the ins and outs of the capitalist orgasm that is the transfer season.
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week in which there was an historic referendum in the UK, the England national side has finally complied with the will of the people - leaving Europe in double quick time. Accordingly, we are going to be Brexiting the mainstream chat as ever, asking the Team instead who are in your Hipster XIs of the European Championships so far?
Before that though, at the behest of Jean-Claude Juncker, the Team discuss a number of Talking Points from the week in football.
Having been too busy house-hunting in Rejkjavik to conjure up any doping allegations this week, Paddy wants to talk about England's ignominious departure against minnows Iceland.
Having been unfairly maligned for predicting that Iceland wouldn't beat any decent teams, Cristiano Ronaldo has turned his tournament around. Robin asks if he can drag Portugal kicking and screaming to the final.
Nico, pushing the boat out this week, heads to South America. He looks at yet another Argentinian failure and asks why Messi and co. find winning finals more difficult than a wet Wednesday night in Stoke.
On top of that, we'll be discussing our predictions for the rest of Euro 2016 and hearing from Jon about his trip to the EU all in this week's edition of A Team of John O'Sheas.
In a week where England managed to scrape five points from a group that included a Russian team well on the come down, the Team are back together to play the crossfield ball to Kyle Walker that is the world of football.
Football, football, football. We all love football. But do we really? Have we actually enjoyed watching Gareth Bale passion the ball into the goal from freekicks? And who, apart from their entire fanbase and the media circus who follow them, could find anything positive to say about England’s tournament so far? Turn your mind to the West, though and you’ll find an international tournament with way more Va-Va-Voom – the Copa America Centenario is currently being held in the US. Our question this week asks: is the Copa America better than the Euros?
Before that though, following the French security forces rigorous stadia protection policies, the team discuss a number of talking points from the previous week in football:
Our South American correspondent, Nico Restrepo, kicks things off with a question about late goals in the Euros – why have there been so many in this tournament, he wonders? And which are our favourite late goals within the history of football?
Taking a break from his time in The Priory, Robin inquires into the other 87 minutes of the matches in the Euros. Why, he asks, would you even bother turning the TV on until the last 5 minutes. And does this mean that international football has reached a nadir.
The thinking man’s football pundit, Jon, turns the Team’s attention to individual players in this summer’s tournament. Zlatan, Bale, Kane, Ronaldo – all players who are expected to do well but have in fact disappointed. Is there any reason why this might be the case?
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where it was revealed that Mike Ashley was running a company that made the Victorian period look like a progressive liberal utopia, the Team are back together to strip search the employee that is the world of football.
It's been some time since Manchester United were at their height under Sir Alex Ferguson. This week, the Question that No One is Asking turns our attention back to the 99 season in which United won the treble. Which members of the current squad would have made that team, we wonder.
Before that though, in line with the EU directive on work and pensions, the team discuss a number of talking points from the previous week in football:
Last week, we began by taking up Vote Leave’s challenge to predict the results of the games of the upcoming European Championships. We open this week’s episode by turning our collective mind to the second half of the draw and working our way through the remaining three groups.
Robin, back from a short stint in rehab, wants the Team to discuss Jamie Vardy and was happy enough to supply the vodka and the Charlie. Is the Vardy move to Arsenal wishful thinking on the part of Arsene Wenger, he asks, and is it even worth Vardy’s time going to North London?
All this and much more beside in this week’s episode of A Team of John O’Sheas.
In a week where Atletico Madrid were only Juan inch from not losing the Champions League final, Paddy, Migsy and Jon are back together to remove the shirt and reveal the abs that are the world of football.
As ever, they discuss a number of Talking Points:
- The £50 million question - The Team does the Euros
- Where should Atleti go? Is this the end of the road for Simeone's team?
They then move on to discuss the Question that No One is Asking, which this week is: Who should the next England manager be?
There can't be many Sheffield Wednesday fans in Ireland, but we've managed to find one. Join us as we talk to Rónan O'Reilly about everything Owls - his upcoming trip to Wembley for the Championship Playoff Final, the history of the club, being a fan in Ireland and much more besides.
In a week where Louis van Gaal was sacked at the only point in his managerial career and Manchester United where he didn't deserve to get sacked, Paddy, Migsy and Jon are back together to pull the hair of the clumsy Belgian that is the world of football.
As ever, they discuss a number of Talking Points:
- Raisin D'Etre - Where for United after Louis?
- Over the League-al Limit - Does English football need a restructure?
- 4-3-3? 4-4-2? Ahhh - There is nothing I can do...
They then move on to discuss the Question that No One is Asking, which this week is: What would a League of Champions look like?
He may not live in New York but Kolby Kuwitzky is certainly a football fan. The second episode of The Special sees us talking the general phenomenon of football fandom particularly as it manifests itself within the US. Kolby, a fan of Arsenal, Fiorentina and Dallas FC, speaks to us about life as a football fan (that's soccer not American Football) on the other side of the Atlantic. In the course of the discussion we talk Eurosnobs, MLS, the history of football in America and the overall fan experience.
There is an old German adage which claims 'All things have an end - except a sausage which has two'. This may be true of the Premier League season but is certainly not true of A Team of John O'Sheas. This week the team fields the centre-back pairing of Paddy and Robin protected by Ceylon and Jon in central midfield. The remaining seven players are conspicuously absent.
At the beginning of the episode, the Panini sticker book is out and we find the Team going head to head in a game of Face Swap. In what must be groundbreaking radio, Robin appears to be the only member competent at the game.
As per usual, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- Sweet FA - Is the inequality really being eradicated from the Women's game?
- Making a Rash decisi...? Oh forget it - Rising Star or Same Old, Same Old?
- Newcastle are now Benitez in the League... Fairytale of New Castle?
They then turn their attention to the Question No One is Asking which this week is:
What were the lowlights of the 2015/16 season?
It's been said that good things come in fours and this week's episode certainly gives proof of that fact. Robin and Jon are joined by the Team's South American correspondent, Nico, and the thinking woman's football pundit, Ceylon, as they step boldly into the new era of footballing dominance in which the little guy wins.
This week's Panini sticker book antics sees the Team go head to head in a game of Top Trumps, answering questions such as: 'Who looks most like a prisoner from Azkaban?'
Predictably enough, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- We're All Foxes Now - A Special Report from the King Power Stadium
- Dybala-t Papers Are In - Serie A as a better league than La Liga?
- 20,000 Premier Leagues below Europa - Can, Ibe any clearer?
- Intertoto? I've a feeling we're not in Europe any more...
They then turn their attention to the Question No One is Asking which this week is:
Who is the worst player to have a Premier League winner's medal?
In a week where Louis van Gaal gave everyone a lesson in Sexual Education, Migsy, Robin and Jon are back together to make hot, sweet, footballing love.
Starting early with the European Championship hype, the team have procured a Panini sticker book and this episode begins with a joyous return to a lost time.
In an almost Pavlovian feat of conditioning, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- Manage-a-trois? Louis van Gaal and Sex Masochism
- Kante's Critique of Pure Football - Why We Need to Look Beyond the Ball
- Oh Leicester, my Leicester! On the Etiquette of Glory Supporting
They then turn their attention to the Question No One is Asking which this week is:
Should clubs look beyond ex-pros in their search for a manager?
The first of our special episodes features an interview with Michael Caley, a pioneering football analyst who is currently the Analytics Editor of Howler Magazine. He writes for ESPN FC, the Washington Post, World Soccer Talk and SB Nation Soccer. As those of you who frequent social media will know, he is fast becoming the go-to guy for league projections, expected goals, and all around football analysis.
Rejoice! For the Prodigal Son has returned! Migsy is finally back from his work experience in the Big City and joins Robin and Jon for this week's Baroque pastiche of light and colour.
As ever, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- Pimp My Riyad - Did the PFA pick the right Player of the Year?
- In a League of their Owen - In which the media get a right Savaging
- MLS Congeniality? Will the Brits ever "get" soccer?
They then turn their attention to the Question No One is Asking which this week is:
Team for team, which is the best league in Europe?
With Paddy taking a well-earned break, we have two debutantes champing at the bit to fill his spot. Jake and Jack join Robin and Jon for this week's smorgasbord of footballing cornucopia.
As ever, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- Form, Iker Casillas and Table Topping Stuff (OK so we don't mention Casillas)
- A Pain in the Arse...nal - The Secret Diary of Jack Congdon, aged 20 and a 1/2
- From Borussia with Lovren - Jurgen-a get fed up with us talking about Klopp...
- Wes your Morgan gone? Leicester's Loyalty Conundrum
They then turn their attention to the Question No One is Asking which this week is:
How should Leicester City spend £50 million in the summer transfer window?
We're back to the original team this week - Jon, Paddy and Robin enjoy a glorious reunion around the mic stands.
As has become tradition, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- More like Investor City... The Financial Chicanery that Underpins Leicester
- I am De Bruyne and Only - Does Modern Football Suffer from a Fetishism of the Individual?
- From Borussia with Love - Dortmund from Klopp to Tuchel
They then turn their attention to the Question No One is Asking which this week is:
Who is the most underrated player in Premier League history?
With Migsy still in exile, the team subbed in the Rev Dr Simon Ravenscroft as a more than competent Spurs replacement. He joined Jon, Robin and Paddy in the underground bunker in which the recording takes place.
As is the custom, they discussed a number of Talking Points:
- Let's get the Boys on the Blaise - the Rise of PSG and What It Means
- Getting a Bonar: The Drugs Scandal at the Heart of British Sport
- The Red Nevilles? Will Gary Ever Be Able to Show his Face Again?
- The Hutton Enquiry: Was Harry's or Mauricio's Tottenham better?
They then moved on to tackle the Question that No One is Asking:
Do footballers have a Social Responsibility?
Migsy is off to make a name for himself in the big city for the next few weeks so we'll hold the fort for him in his absence. This week, its the original trio - Jon, Robin and Paddy - who are greasing the mic.
As ever, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Prem - A Potted History of Gloucester City
- Put Johans Together for Cruyff - Did Cruyff Turn European Football around?
- Hype-notised by England? Can't we just go into a tournament with our feet on the ground?
They then take up the Question that No One is Asking:
Who would win between France's Starting XI and their Subs Bench?
Robin was gravely ill this week and so it was up to Jon, Migsy and Paddy to steer the ship.
As usual, the team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- This is a Serious Show... Puns are Benitez - Revisiting Rafa's Newcastle
- More like Man Sh*tty - What does the future hold for Guardiola's intended?
- Klopp til you Drop? Are Liverpool's erratic performances the fault of their manager?
- In Search of Lost Time - Shouldn't football take a back seat when atrocities occur?
They then take up the Question that No One is Asking:
Who are the best current XI of uncapped England players?
This week Jon, Paddy, Migsy and Robin are on the panel.
The team discuss a number of Talking Points:
- I'm on the High Roid... - Drugs in Scotland
- Dead and Boro-ed? - Aitor Karanka's Woes
- Luka-coup? Is Romelu pulling the wool over our eyes?
- I Gotta Get Outta This Place - Players who thrive out of the Premier League
Before discussing the Question that No One is Asking:
Could Newcastle have got a better manager than Rafael Benitez?
(Due to a technical problem, the sound quality this week is not up to our high standards for which we apologise profusely)
The team discuss three points from the weekend's football:
- Palace and Pardew *Dimitri Payet and the French Invasion
- Two Yellows don't make a Red?
Before turning to answer the question no one is asking:
How good would a team of John O'Sheas actually be?