Football Ruined My Life podcast | Listen online for free

136 episodes

134. Underrated Players
27/03/2026 | 42 mins.
This week Omid Djalili, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler discuss the sort of player who should have played for their country but never did, players who lacked the ebullience to stand out from their more aggressive and extrovert team mates and players - wherever they operated in the football pyramid. Players who were the unshowy but reliable… who got the ball, made ground and passed accurately to a colleague in space. On
a fictional level the list would start with Blackie Gray who did all the donkey work for Melchester Rovers and provided what we now call the
assist for Roy Race, who scored all the goals and was credited with the
fancy title of Roy of the Rovers. Today’s edition is all about the Blackie Grays of this world. To be fair to Gary Lineker he always credited Peter Beardsley as the creator of many of his goals for England. Listen to discover who else is regarded as underrated in this way.
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133. Did Young British Players Come Into The First Team Faster Than They Do Now?
20/03/2026 | 47 mins.
This week Colin Shindler, Andy Hamilton and Jon Holmes gather to discuss whether there are more 17 and 18 year old players coming into the game than there used to be in the postwar years. Has the abandonment of the A and B sides and more significantly the reserve leagues – like the Central League and the Football Combination – changed things for the better? Can young players learn much by sitting on the bench watching the first eleven play or would they learn more by playing games in a reserve team? How effective are the academies in speeding talented youngsters into the first team?

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132. Have Newspaper Football Journalists Lost Their Influence?
13/03/2026 | 44 mins.
It’s the view of Football Ruined My Life that many football supporters used to buy broadsheet newspapers specifically to read Geoffrey Green or Brian Glanville or David Lacey or Hugh McIlvanney – four hugely respected titans of the art of writing about football matches for the next day’s paper. In this edition, Jim White of the Daily Telegraph joins Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler to explain why his own career has coincided with the long slow decline of the influence of the football journalists. There was a time
in the glory days when television knocked on the door politely and managers were much more afraid of Glanville and McIlvanney or even the local paper’s reporter than of the stilted television interview on those rare occasions when the match was actually covered by television. With the change in reading habits has it actually changed the nature of the job of a football reporter?

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The One With Michael Crick – Football And Nationalism
06/03/2026 | 51 mins.
This week Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler are joined by the investigative journalist Michael Crick whose appearances down the years on Newsnight and Channel 4 News have made him a familiar face on our television screens. Despite being a friend of Colin, he is a longtime supporter of Manchester United, having had the decency to grow up in Manchester. In this episode he talks about the power of nationalism and how it has affected the game at both club and international levels.

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130. Do Football Crowds Reflect The Society We Live In?
27/02/2026 | 52 mins.
There was a time before 1966 when crowds were a lot friendlier and less angry than they are today. Supporters of opposing clubs stood together on the terraces and policing was relegated to one copper on a horse outside the ground as you came in. Crowds in the immediate postwar years were large and though the grounds were already starting to crumble, club directors saw no need to spend money updating them. The food and drink were mostly disgusting and toilet provision was virtually non-existent. But there was no hooliganism and nobody got stabbed or was hustled to hospital with a dart sticking out of his eye. Omid Djalili, Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes ask what does that tell you about society in the early postwar years? And why did it change?

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About Football Ruined My Life

When Football Ruined My Life started back at the beginning of 2023 it was the new podcast about old football. In it, distinguished football journalist Patrick Barclay joined with Colin Shindler, author of the best selling Manchester United Ruined My Life, and the Super Agent Jon Holmes (think Gary Lineker, Peter Shilton, Tony Woodcock etc.) to talk about football as it used to be in the days before the invention of the Premier League. For over 80 weekly episodes, the podcast viewed those days fondly - though not uncritically - in comparison to today's game, which it views critically though not unfondly. And it welcomed everyone who wants to remember Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Charlton, Brian Clough and Bill Shankly and the days when you went to a Football League ground to watch your football and didn't wait for it to arrive on television. After the tragic and untimely death of Paddy Barclay in February 2025, Football Ruined My Life took a break to consider how (and if) to carry on. In May 2025 it has returned, with a panel of stars to make irregular appearances to join the regulars, Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler. These now include writer and producer Andy Hamilton, television executive Jimmy Mulville, the sports journalist and columnist for the Daily Telegraph Jim White and stand-up comedian Omid Djalili. But the feel and raison d'être of Football Ruined My Life remains the same. Still nostalgic? Yes. Still well informed? Certainly. But above all, it continues to glory in the football of our youth when the game seemed charmingly innocent, full of skillful, good hearted, kindly men like Norman Hunter, Ron Harris and Peter Storey. Join us every week for a romp through the 1960s, 70s, 80s and beyond that will warm you like a cup of scalding hot Bovril. Produced by Paul Kobrak. Contact the team at [email protected]

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