The Old Spice Boys: Recent Episodes
Neil Harman and John Richardson
The Old Spice Boys is the sharp, zesty football podcast that will awaken your senses like the finest fragrance. Welcome to the best in conversation, comment and a splash or two of controversy presented by Neil Harman and John Richardson. Each week they engage with the great names of the game to provide the sharpest of football insight. Neil and Ricco are a couple of established writers who have done the hard yards, befriended those at every level of the game and know what makes a terrific interview. Football people know them, respect them and love talking to them. The Old Spice Boys podcast will help you relive unforgettable moments, discover untold truths, and engage with favourites from across the eras. It's an unmissable addition to your football conversation.They will be launching on August 6, just in time for the new football season when the crowds will be back and anticipation at the highest levels for years.You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you download your podcasts. Among their first guests will be Ian Rush, Gordon Taylor, David Platt and Harry Redknapp. Like you, they can't wait for the new season and a new podcast experience.
Welcome back for another Old Spice Boys podcast. We’ve gone upmarket this week because we have someone who has just been awarded an MBE! It’s a delight to welcome former Sunderland defender Gary Bennett whose tireless work as an anti-racism campaigner was duly recognised in the New Year’s honours list.
It was a proud moment for Gary and his family and well deserved for someone who has been a model professional on and off the pitch and now having reached the age of 60 shows no signs of slowing down.
We’ve known Benno since 1984 when he joined Sunderland from Cardiff City. Always a dream to interview during his 11 years with the club and is still one of the main men to go to for his views on attempting to stamp out racism in the game – something that sadly has still not in 2022 been eradicated.
He was one of the first players to get involved in Show Racism The Red Card campaign. He has been and still is a mentor to many aspiring young coaches and is heavily involved with local charities in the North East.
Welcome to final Old Spice Boys podcast of 2021. We’ve had some remarkable guests since our launch in August and aim to bring more exceptional football folk to you as we grow in 2022.
Now is the time to pause and reflect. We are within reach of Christmas Day and into the usual frenetic period of the football calendar when form fluctuates and there seems to be no time to relax and take in the true meaning of the season.
Except that more and more footballers are confident enough to proclaim their Christianity and celebrate the birth of a child in a manger who changes lives and alters perceptions.
We have two very special guests today. Gavin Peacock was a gifted forward who played over 100 times for Newcastle and Chelsea in the 1990s and similarly for QPR at the turn of the century.
He became a Christian in his teens, has presented Songs of Praise on the BBC and is now a pastor at the Calvary Grace Church in Calgary, Canada. His autobiography, A Greater Glory was published in May.
Jason McCarthy is in his third spell at Wycombe Wanderers as a wing-back or full-back, has two young children as is utterly devoted to the word of God. I have seen close up how much his Christianity means to him and it is truly life affirming.
This is the end of Season 1 of the Old Spice Boys podcast. Our penultimate guest in 2021 is Howard Wilkinson the man who led Leeds United to the First Division championship title in 1992 , the final season before the Premier League came into its gilded existence. To date, he remains the last English manager to lift the trophy for finishing top of the 92 clubs.
Howard Wilkinson has plenty of achievements to his name, not least as someone who, in their first full season as a coach, masterminded the tactics and style which inspired three different clubs to the old First Division, Notts County, Sheffield Wednesday and the aforementioned Leeds to earn promotion to the First Division
As FA Technical Director he was instrumental in the planning and development of English football's first National Football Centre. He later had spells as caretaker manager of the England senior and U21 teams.
Wilkinson is currently the chairman of the League Managers Association.
On this week’s Old Spice Boys’ podcast, we’re joined by the man who managed some of the most expressive football teams of the nineteen seventies, eighties and nineties.
Few people from the present generation have left an imprint on the game as indelible as that of Ron Atkinson, aka Big Ron.
Ron talks about
- Why it wasn't easy to leave WBA and join Man Utd
- Signing Bryan Robson for £2m and why Sir Matt Busby resigned
- What he thinks about modern recruitment and tactics
- Why Charlie Nicolas, Terry Butcher and Gary Lineker never signed for Utd
- How he helped Norman Whiteside get picked so young for Utd and Northern Ireland
- How Ole was so close as a Utd manager but unlucky
- Why Pogba is better suited to European football
There is no one alive who watches more football and bets on more football than Harry Findlay.
Harry may be instantly recognisable for his co-ownership of Denman, who twice won the Hennessey and whose 2008 Gold Cup victory at Cheltenham is legend among its pantheon of races and he’s famed in Ireland for owning Big Fella Thanks, one of that country’s foremost champion coursing dogs.
But Harry knows his football, inside and out.
Harry’s talks about
- Tips from the man who watches more football than anyone else. He knows as much about soccer in Belarus as in the U.K.
- Why Brighton and Brentford have the best owners in the Premier League.
- Educate yourself on how to bet properly. It can save you fortunes.
- Don’t get caught up in the world of accumulators as promoted by Jeff Stelling and Ray Winstone.
- How betting in small amounts can give us much satisfaction as a huge wager.
Join the award winning sports journalists Neil Harman and John Richardson as they talk with Darren Ambrose and Alan Smith about their time at Crystal Palace.
They also talk about
- The immediate impact of Patrick Viera, can he store the "Crystal Palace Way?"
- The old players such as Geoff Thomas, Andy Gray, Ian Wright and Gareth Southgate
- Why Gareth Southgate could have been a travel agent
- What next for Gareth Southgate after Qatar World Cup
- What will happen to Newcastle under the mega-rich Saudis?
- The abuse of managers via social media, why it has spoilt the relationship with fans and the press.
- Can Eddie Howe build a 'Geordie Way' like Bobby Robson and Sir John Hall?
The Old Spice Boys podcast has a distinct Mancunian flavour this week, even if our two guests hail from Aberdeen and Newcastle.
Martin Buchan captained Manchester United for most of the 12 seasons he played at Old Trafford under four United managers, Frank O’Farrell, Tommy Docherty, Dave Sexton and Ron Atkinson. Martin made 456 appearances for the Reds, and won 34 Scottish caps, playing in two World Cup Finals.
Dennis Tueart had two spells at Manchester City, playing 224 times in light blue and was later appointed as a director of the club in the time before it was swallowed up by the mega billions of Abu Dhabi. His overhead kick with which won City the 1976 League Cup against his hometown club, remains one of the most fabled in club folklore
In the history of this local rivalry, United have won 77 times, City 55 and there has been a regular diet of been controversies and shall we say, collisions - George Best and Glyn Pardoe, Roy Keane and Alf Inge Haaland spring readily to mind.
Fast forward to November 2021 and the current Premier League table has leaders Chelsea five points clear of third placed City with United a further three points away in fifth.
City – who lost at home in the League to Crystal Palace at the weekend - play in the Champions League group stages tonight against Bruges. United were twice rescued last night by Cristiano Ronaldo in Atalanta, for a 2-2 draw. United’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is facing a daily discourse as to whether he’s up to the job.
Join Neil Harman and John Richardson as the talk to Paul Stewart an English former professional footballer who played top division football for Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, and was capped three times at senior level for England in the early 1990s, also winning the FA Cup with Tottenham Hotspur.
"When I look back, I played in that FA Cup final. I scored a goal, I played for England, they should have been the two happiest times of my life, but I didn't enjoy them.
I didn't enjoy them at all. And, it's subsequently, when I joined Liverpool, the drugs carried on, and I know that you say in your intro that through injury, but to be honest with you and I wasn't taking care of myself in any way, shape or form and one can't be playing at the top when you're taking drugs and drinking as much as I was, during my time at Liverpool.
And that I'll always regret because. I genuinely think I could have gone to Liverpool. And, I played, I think 32 games, maybe I think I could have played 321, and done really well there, but I was completely gone by then. And I was doing things off the field that I shouldn't have been."
Join Neil Harman and John Richardson as the talk to Rick Parry the current chairman of the EFL, the former chief executive of Liverpool, the original CEO of the Premier League and a board member at New York Cosmos.
Rick talks about:
- How long would the Football League survive if there wasn't a dramatic reset of football finance?
- The dangerous absurdity of the Premier League parachute payments
- The latest on Derby County, currently in the hands of the administrators
- Why a World Cup every two years would be a catastrophe
- Are there enough people in the English game with the vision to secure its future?
Listen to Neil Harman and John Richardson aka The Old Spice Boys as they talk with Super Agent Jonathan Barnett the chairman and founder of ICM Stellar Group, one of the most powerful management companies in the world of football. Indeed he represents, among many hundreds of others Jack Grealish and Gareth Bale.
They talk about:
1) Why the biggest three agents in world football are getting together
2) A World Cup every two years? It’ll never happen.
3) On taking care of Jack Grealish, Gareth Bale and his many other footballing clients.
4) If FIFA run the world game, why do they refuse to talk to the men who represent its major assets, the players?
5) From helping make money for two Pakistani cricketers to the dominant force in football.
Listen to Neil Harman and John Richardson aka The Old Spice Boys as they talk with Chelsea, Arsenal and Stoke Legend Alan Hudson who was the cock of the walk along the Kings Road in the early 1970s and played his football with a delightful, uninhibited swagger.
Alan Hudson was born in Chelsea and his boyhood dream was to play for Fulham, who rejected him. He signed for Chelsea and was a galvanising spirit at Stamford Bridge, before becoming arguably the best piece of business Tony Waddington ever did as manager of Stoke City when he moved there in 1974. Waddington described his talents as “the working man’s ballet."
They reminisce about
- His love of the bright lights - in hospital as well as on the field of play
- Why playing for Chelsea meant the end of his England career under Don Revie
- The day that the Stoke-on-Trent fire brigade flooded the Victoria Ground.
- If this player had started in every match at the Euros this summer, England would have won the trophy.
- How he only overcame not playing in the 1970 FA Cup Final for Chelsea 27 years after the event.
Listen too Neil Harman and John Richardson aka The Old Spice Boys as they talk with Spurs Legend Steve Perryman.
They talk about
- What it was like to play for Bill Nicholson, the simple philosophies that made a great manager
- The story of his lone England cap and why he wished he'd never won it.
- Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, which one of them used to ride a horse to football training
- Why he isn't an admirer of television pundits who have no idea what it is like to be a manager.
- On Roger Hunt and Jimmy Greaves, two of the great strikers who have recently left us.
For our eighth Old Spice Boys podcast we talk to one of the game’s league of gentlemen. The last time Newcastle United lifted a trophy, 52 years ago, Frank Clark was in the side. When Nottingham Forest first won the European Cup under Brian Clough ten years later, Frank Clark was in the side.
He would later be both manager and chairman of Forest and would also manage Manchester City for two years in the late 1990s. Now, as a highly respected member of the executive of the League Managers Association, Frank helps guide today’s managers through the peaks and troughs of their careers.
Introduction:
On this week’s Old Spice Boys podcast, we’re speaking to a football pairing almost as famous as we are. As BBC documentary series 'Fever Pitch' this month features the birth of the Premier League, we’re delighted to have as our guests the two men who steered us through those formative years and are still at the heart of the sport, Richard Keys and Andy Gray.
Richard the anchor and Andy the analyst were at the heart of Sky Sports innovative, game-changing coverage of live football in the UK 30 years ago. Today, based in Doha, they present for Bein sports with the same, evocative blend of comment and news.
We welcome Richard and Andy to the podcast as the Premier League starts to take initial shape, the Champions League bubbles into action and new managers, like those at two of Andy’s former clubs, Everton and Wolves begin to bed in.
Show Notes:
- The advent of Sky Sports drove one leading manager to refuse to let his players speak to the company for the first year of its existence. Who was it?
- Why the Qatar World Cup should deliver a permanent winter break in English football
- Which current Premier League boss should not have to put up with his job any longer?
- The moment Andy Gray, who had just become the game's most expensive player when he joined Wolves from Aston Villa in 1979, walked barefoot across a Birmingham street.
- Rafa Benitez and why Everton shouldn't have appointed him,
For the sixth edition of the Old Spice Boys podcast, we enter an area of football where most are not able to tread – that of the men and women in black.
The world of the football referee is largely impenetrable to the rest of us. They arrive at a ground, they officiate, they depart and are never obliged to offer a word of explanation for their decisions.
Today, we have as our special guest Keith Hackett, a former English football referee, who began refereeing in local leagues in the Sheffield, South Yorkshire area in 1960.
He is counted amongst the top 100 referees of all time in a list maintained by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).
Keith refereed the FA Cup final between Spurs and Manchester City 40 years ago, spent a decade on the FIFA list and then became the first man to lead English referees into the world of professionalism.
Keith also talks about:
1) Chartering his own plane to referee a match in Europe
2) Telling Mike Dean he'd make him a professional referee
3) Who wound Gazza down?
4) Why he didn’t send anyone off in the infamous Arsenal - Manchester United brawl.
5) The absurdities of VAR
Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco' Richardson as they talk to Gary Lineker about his amazing career in football and his equally stellar career in media.
Gary talks about:
- FC Barcelona's recent implosion.
- Saving his beloved Leicester City Football Club and the winning title season
- Which player he prefers Messi or Ronaldo and why?
- Which current player reminds Gary most of himself playing today
- Gary's thoughts on England Managers - Bobby Robson, Graham Taylor, Terry Venables, Gareth Southgate and which was his favourite.
- Gary's new game show
football #oldspiceboys
Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco' Richardson as they talk to Joe Royle about his amazing career.
Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco' Richardson as they talk to Rodney Marsh about his mercurial career.
Rodney talks about
- Dennis Law's recent announcement that he has dementia.
- What the American Football authorities are doing to protect young players
- Why the PFA hasn't helped players in the game
- His time at Man City and his thoughts on Grealish & Kane
- Why England mistreated its Mavericks like Marsh, Hudson, Osgood, George, Currie, Le Tisser and Hoddle and most recently Grealish but why they built a team around Gasgoine.
- Why there are no English managers at the top of the game.
- Moving to America and nearly signing for Elton John's team.
- Messi coming to America and starting his own franchise team like Beckham
Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco' Richardson as they talk to David Platt about his distinguished career.
David talks about
- Grealish being the first £100m player in England.
- his close friend Roberto Mancini and how they built the 2012 title-winning Manchester City side.
- that goal in Italia 90 and why he feels England didn't win. He talks about his England career under Bobby Robson, Terry Venables and Graham Taylor.
- his unique insight into the mindset of a penalty taker under high pressure and how England at Euro 2021 could have learnt from his experience.
- his time in Italy and his return to England under Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
- Mancini's winning mentality at Euro 2021
BACKGROUND:
- David Andrew Platt (born 10 June 1966) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
- Born in Chadderton, Lancashire, Platt began his career as an apprentice at Manchester United only to later move to Crewe Alexandra where he began building a reputation as a goal-scoring midfielder.
- At the age of 22, he signed for Aston Villa where he gained the attention of the then England manager Bobby Robson, with whom he soon made his debut. At the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Platt increased his reputation by scoring goals with both head and feet, whilst displaying good technique, passing abilities, and high work rates. According to Rob Bagchi in The Guardian, Platt "seized Bryan Robson's role with riveting aplomb." His performances in the World Cup earned him a move to Serie A club Bari in 1991.
- In 1992, Platt moved to Juventus, where he spent one season. Platt continued scoring goals for England, playing in Euro 92 and 96. Despite his efforts, England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. In 1993, he moved to Sampdoria where he stayed for two seasons before he returned to England to join up with Arsenal.
- Platt was at the London club for three years, featuring in the Arsenal side that won the Premier League and FA Cup Double of 1998. Platt went on to manage Sampdoria and Nottingham Forest, as well as England's Under-21 team.
Join them next week, 19th August, when their guest will be West Ham, Manchester City and England midfielder
Join Neil Harman and John 'Ricco" Richardson, The Old Spice Boys, for their new podcast. This is their sharp zesty football podcast that will awaken your senses like the finest fragrance.
Welcome to the best in conversation comment and a splash or two of controversy. Each week they speak to the great names of the game.
They are a couple of football writers, who've done the hard yards and befriended those at every level of the game, football people know them, they respect them and they want to share their experiences with you.
With the Old Spice Boys podcast, you'll relive unforgettable moments, discover untold stories, and engage with your favourites from bygone era's. It's an unmissable show. They'll be kicking off on the 6th of August in time for the new season when the crowds are back, the anticipation has never been greater.
You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you download your podcasts or visit their website. www.oldspiceboys.footballOur first guests will be the legendary Liverpool and Wales striker, Ian rush, the controversial chief executive of the players union Gordon Taylor, the former England captain David Platt, and the mercurial Harry Redknapp.
Like you, we can't wait for the start of the new season.
Produced by Sam Sethi - Made In Head