Hoddle's Curse strikes again, the world-record fans' favourite & a saucy U-turn

9:21Adam Hurrey:Player's player, manager's player.

9:23Charlie Eccleshare:You know, for a left-back, Charlie, this is pretty impressive. Again, an attacking left-back, scored a few goals in his career, but to win, player of the year, almost at the first attempt at four consecutive clubs for a left-back, is incredibly good going.

9:37David Walker:There are some players and some positions, though. It depends as well how well these teams are doing. We'd have to look into that, because I do think if you're playing for a team that isn't doing that great, having a guy who's just really solid and has a good attitude and you know shows up, they do stand out. They're kind of like, you know, De Rigo's the only one trying sort of thing.

9:55Adam Hurrey:It's like, I think amongst middling to lower performing clubs, there's probably a disproportionate amount of goalkeepers who win player of the season. Yeah, possibly. But De Rigo won, it says here that he won the player of the year with Leeds in his first season, which was when they won the last first division championship before the Premier League. He was the player of the year in a title-winning campaign. Playing with Cantona and Batty and Lee Chapman and all that.

10:23Charlie Eccleshare:Is there an England player of the year? There isn't. There is an England player of the year.

10:26David Walker:But that's a good example of England because Ashley Cole was always the only player who'd come out of a major tournament with any credit. Because for an underachieving team, if you've got a tenacious left-back who's putting in solid performances, that looks way better even if it's an attacker who's put in okay performances that feels like a massive letdown

10:45Charlie Eccleshare:Tony if you're listening if you could fish out the little awards that you got for these I'm assuming those little sort of clamshell open up ones with the medal inside that you get are under nines I reckon it would be like that or the player on the plinth yeah player on the plinth you think I think either way

10:59Adam Hurrey:could be bigger could be bigger Watford's one's quite quite big actually I seem to remember the player of the year

11:05David Walker:okay well it'd be good if professional teams did like what Sunday league teams and do like club man of the year. You know, for the guy who gives the lifts and takes the kits and puts the nets up and all of that. I can see that. I can see Dorico winning that a lot.

11:17Charlie Eccleshare:Picks up all the bibs before kicking. Yeah. Anyway, down to the championship we go. Coventry 3, Middlesbrough 1 on Monday night. I want to boil it down to its purest levels of Gary Weaver.

11:28Adam Hurrey:Coventry City make the first move as they look to take back what was theirs. It's Hatchie Wright. Coventry City have found their Mr. Wright in front of goal again and Coventry City who have broken Borough Harps and stolen their dreams from them before now they're looking to try and destroy them again this is not done yet Haji Wright may have put Coventry out of sight big players, big moments, big nights and right now these are the nights for Coventry City and for Hachie Wright.

12:08Charlie Eccleshare:We've always enjoyed Gary Weaver Dave as a singles man basically like one-liners but I think this might be his first comprehensive album of work. None of those sort of individual bits stood out but as an entire 90-minute body of work just sensational stuff.

12:22Adam Hurrey:This is Gary Weaver's rubber soul. It was great yeah I mean like it's the biggest game of the season in the championship so far you know the two teams vying for for the top spot so he had to bring his a game as well there was no real like local rivalry derby things that he could lean into so he had to just play it straight but give it some and and he did do you think charlie the fact that it wasn't a geographical

12:46Charlie Eccleshare:rivalry meant that there was going to be never going to be castle chat never give you sort of

12:51David Walker:you know scaling the walls yeah although it's probably not stopped him before has it with some fairly obscure kind of imagined territorial rivalries but i think good on him it's good to expand his horizons you can't just rely on castles and battlements every time he's he's in another

13:06Charlie Eccleshare:barren run of flag planting though he hasn't planted a flag for a long time is that right he's a streaky flag planter clearly uh i really hope he hasn't stopped doing that because i want

13:16Adam Hurrey:it to continue um just on this game when middlesbrough pulled one back to make it 2-1 there was a great moment so it was one of those where the goal goes in and the ball sort of comes out and the Coventry defender just booted it away in anger so the Middlesbrough player there wasn't long left in the game so the Middlesbrough player wants to get the ball and restart the game obviously the ball's been booted away but what he does is he looks over and sees the ball on the cone and he runs over to the ball on the cone and takes that one back to kick off which I've never seen before which was nice

13:47Charlie Eccleshare:You weren't alone in enjoying that Listener Michael Cox messaged me to say I actually enjoyed that moment. It did nothing for me. But there you go. That's the subtleties of football sensations. But yes, certainly undermined the kicking of the ball away, which what is the motivation, Charlie, for a defender doing that? Because it looked in the moment like it might be frustration, but it's clearly you can't have the ball. And that's the minor satisfaction I'm going to get out of conceding here. I think so.

14:10David Walker:Yeah. Yeah. It's just like a little win. It's childish.

14:12Charlie Eccleshare:Should be a booking, really, shouldn't it? I always fear in every context where a player boots the ball, mostly Dave, when they've just scored and they get the ball back for some reason and they sort of literally volley it out of their hands into the stadium, into the crowd. And I just think, I don't know if that would be a booking because you're not really time wasting as such because, you know, there will be other balls. But sometimes it might just look a bit careless. I don't know. I always worry for players when that happens.

14:36Adam Hurrey:But I think a defender doing it is, in spirit, it's the same as delaying the restart if you did it.

14:41Charlie Eccleshare:Yeah, delaying your own restart. And play. it's your own time player anyway elsewhere in this game Matthew Hall writes in he was listening to this game on BBC CWR and ex-coventry goalkeeper Steve Agrizovic was on co-coms and on Hadji Wright's penalty that sealed the points Charlie he said um it's ice cold from right and you could have put 10 keepers in there and they wouldn't have saved it right one annoyed by the inflation of this the hyperinflation of this of this football idiom and two poor from an ex-goalkeeper to get overboard with this.

15:13David Walker:Yeah, I don't think we've had as high a number as 10, have we? Definitely not. No, that does feel like a lot. As you say, poor from Grisevic. You know better than anyone, if that's not the case. Of course a proud goalkeeper. Of course 10 goalkeepers would save it.

15:26Charlie Eccleshare:Also, it was a penalty into the bottom corner. I want this for a 35-yard bullet into the top corner. Poor. But I guess we're all getting carried away with Coventry's success. Philip Edwards writes in next, Dave, with a question. what minute and scoreline are we expecting fans to ask the manager to give them a wave

15:44Adam Hurrey:and is it more home or away oh let's take the scoreline first of all okay it needs to be comfortable like it needs you needs to be like are you potentially even in is it like a post dreamland situation you find yourselves like unexpectedly three or more goals up in the first half or maybe in like this maybe like on the hour and the game's just clearly clearly gonna win okay

16:08David Walker:yeah I think it's more like an hour 3-0 but also we should be clear because there is the this is the nice one where you're set where you're doing you're not taunting because there's also the other thing here is you're saying it's the opposition manager or to a player you hate doing away no this is sincere definitely this is a sincere you're happy yeah yeah I don't think it's quite dreamland because it's more jaunty and comes a little bit from not boredom but from a from a feeling of comfort whereas i think if you're in dreamland you're more just like your your reaction there is probably to be taunting the opposition than it is to be doing something like this this feels more run-of-the-mill but you know that the code of the technical area dave

16:48Charlie Eccleshare:sort of suggests that managers can't be waving at fans when the game is in you know remotely tense either so they no manager is really going to be accommodating this i think it probably is an away

16:58Adam Hurrey:thing as well in in that it's just a bit more playful like when you've got again it's like a maybe it's an unexpected away win you're three nil up you're cruising and you're sort of cycling you've cycled through all your songs you know yeah also you know the game state would need to be

17:14Charlie Eccleshare:such charlie that the manager is likely to be on the edge of their technical area for some reason or another now obviously you won't want to be doing it when they're five nil down and they're standing on the edge of the area because there's nothing more they can do but if it's a job done situation they're just standing there admiring their team's body of work i guess i guess you

17:29David Walker:know logistically that makes more sense yeah or they might have got up because they're applauding a player's track back to make a really good tackle at three nil you know and it's one of those that's what that's what we're about it's that attitude yeah and so they're up kind of on their feet at that point and you can you can jump on it then is it a new manager thing as well i would you does it does it matter could be but i think if it's also a beloved sort of you know that you have a bond with. Rising star, maybe.

17:56Charlie Eccleshare:Stock rising.

17:57David Walker:I would say as well, you do see an ear less of this than you used to. It feels quite old school. It's all eye pads now, isn't it? It may be more lower league where it is more kind of intimate, perhaps, the relationship between fans and manager. Not at Watford, of course. You can't have imagined... You can't have imagined...

18:14Adam Hurrey:Do this to Will Still's brother. Man United fans doing this to Fergie back in his 22nd season. Well, maybe they did. I don't know. Yeah.

18:23Charlie Eccleshare:I'm trying to think of the manager least likely to do the wave, but we won't get into that. Anyway, right, next up, I didn't realise that this might be the worst kept secret in football. It's never been in the worst kept secret in football conversation, but of course it's the worst kept secret in football because here is Mr. Dave Kitson. So I am the secret footballer.

18:43Adam Hurrey:I've never said that out loud before. There's been a huge amount written about it. it was an idea that came to me in a moment where I wasn't happy with where football was going as a whole and I needed an outlet to express it

19:08Charlie Eccleshare:and I needed it for my own mental health Why now Dave?

19:13Adam Hurrey:I'm asking you Dave You're asking me or him? It's a strange thing isn't it because it feels like you really have missed the boat on this one, mate. Like the time to come out and really capitalise on the secret footballer success was what, 15 years ago, probably?

19:28Charlie Eccleshare:Yeah, I'm trying to work out when the columns were. 10 years ago?

19:30David Walker:It was more. No, it was about 15 years ago. I remember reading the book in about 2012 or something, and it was really good. I do remember finding it very interesting. I mean, fair play.

19:41Charlie Eccleshare:I mean, he got, what, five books out in the space of five years? Did he really? Was it that many? Yeah, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17. Wow. Yeah, I don't know why he's chosen this moment to finally confirm it, but everybody already knew Dave Kitson. Yeah.

19:56Adam Hurrey:So thanks for that. I mean, there were conspiracy theories and people like amateur sleuths at the time trying to work it out. And I don't know, I mean, I don't know about you, but it was never going to be an absolutely elite top-level player. It was always going to be somebody who had a bit more of a motivation to do it and felt more comfortable doing it. But, I mean, Dave Kitson was never a tremendously satisfying reveal for me.

20:24Charlie Eccleshare:No, it never really, really tickled everyone's fancies, did it? Anyway, but yeah, good to have that out in the open. And this episode is brought to you in association with NordVPN. For those who don't know, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It secures your connection, protecting your personal information and online activity, especially on public Wi-Fi. A VPN can also make your phone or laptop appear as if it's in another country, which is great for accessing content while travelling. For example, over to Northern Ireland we go. This came from Mark Strange. Here's a moment from Cliftonville's 3-1 win over Bangor in the Northern Irish Premiership, despite one very dodgy back pass that took this Cliftonville fan behind the goal on quite the journey before a heroic goal line clearance saved the day.

21:06Charlie Eccleshare:That's a fucking train wreck. That's an absolute train wreck. Oh!

21:13David Walker:Come on, Joey!

21:17Charlie Eccleshare:Keep the faith, mate. Keep the faith. Absolute trien wreck. I loved it. So good. Trien.

21:25David Walker:Fucking trien wreck. I was playing recently with an Irish guy. I was like, I've put it on an absolute plate, which I really enjoyed.

21:31Charlie Eccleshare:It's a beautiful accent. One of the top accents. Crucially for that passage, Charlie, he needed to say it twice. To stick an absolute in there as well. And then for the goal line clearance to undermine it all. Just wonderful.

21:44David Walker:that's fandom in a nutshell isn't it that is that's why we love it and keep coming back to it

21:49Charlie Eccleshare:if you want to try nordvpn for yourself go to nordvpn.com slash cliches and our link will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan it's the best discount available there's no risk with nord's 30-day money-back guarantee and the link is also in the podcast description if you need it we'll be back very shortly and we're going to play happy hunting grounds the ladder

22:17oh look at that that is wonderful

22:24Charlie Eccleshare:welcome back to football cliches a reminder of dreamland 17 episodes of dreamland to enjoy now just sign up for 5.99 a month at dreamland.footballcliches.com you'll get ad-free listening of all of our episodes plus two episodes a month of dreamland our exclusive show other bits as well and we're also working on something very exciting for subscribers and non-subscribers actually which i think you'll love so stay tuned for that right happy hunting grounds the ladder many people have pointed out dave that we keep doing this at the end of the episode and people will know um with the remaining time of the episode how far we've gone so we've decided to move this to the start of the uh second half of the episode so here we go yeah a good

23:06Adam Hurrey:observation i feel like we need like a theme tune for the happy hunting grounds the ladder He's like a game show game showy bit of music at the start.

23:13Charlie Eccleshare:Not too jaunty, but not too suspenseful either. So if anyone could come up with something, that would be great.

23:18David Walker:Over to you.

23:19Charlie Eccleshare:Yeah, it needs to be sort of ascending in some form, doesn't it? Because it's the ladder. Anyway, we're going to try and go from difficulty level one to difficulty level 10 in Happy Hunting Grounds with a combination of Premier League club and Premier League away ground. And we're going to try and work out who scored for that club at that ground in ascending levels of difficulty. Let's start with level one then. Here we go. Charlie, you've been banging him in in training as well.

23:42David Walker:Yeah, in a good moment. So hopefully that will carry on to today. Let's do it.

23:46Charlie Eccleshare:Right. Let's start with level one. Who has scored for Tottenham Hotspur at St James's Park?

23:53David Walker:Harry Kane scored a consolation goal in a 6-1 defeat in 22-23.

24:00Charlie Eccleshare:That's what we wanted, Charlie, to get us off the mark.

24:03Adam Hurrey:Can we go deeper? Can we go Timothy Atuba? What year? We can. If you can remember the season. The Santini year. Was that the Santini season?

24:10David Walker:possibly it was I think if I had to say

24:12Charlie Eccleshare:sure about this

24:13David Walker:but I would probably rather just take the ball yeah yeah on his right foot with his wrong foot yeah yeah like the only time he used it

24:19Charlie Eccleshare:yeah yeah definitely horrible goal like completely unwatchable for me can't handle swingers with the wrong foot

24:25David Walker:with your wrong foot yeah your wrong foot phobia

24:27Charlie Eccleshare:play safe

24:28David Walker:but I just wanted to get that one in there

24:29Charlie Eccleshare:okay

24:29David Walker:yeah I think yeah that probably was 0-4-0-5

24:32Charlie Eccleshare:prefer to go with former Tottenham correspondent Charlie O 'Cosher in the recent season but anyway you're going for Harry Kane 22-23 he did of course score that consolation 49 minutes in that 6-1 defeat right so level two we go who has scored for manchester united at carrow road well firstly were there what oh wait they battered them didn't

24:54David Walker:they in 92 93 they were like three nil up at half time i think wow because it was when norwich was

24:59Charlie Eccleshare:still going for the title 92 93 suggests huge mclair cantona and possibly gigs i feel like gigs

25:05David Walker:I feel like on a counter, Giggs is racing through and it's like, United are running away with this, one of those type goals.

25:12Charlie Eccleshare:Giggs 92-93, you think. More recently, what are we thinking?

25:16Adam Hurrey:If we go with Giggs, there's a reasonable chance that he might have scored at Carrow Road again because of his longevity. But also, maybe not because he's not a prolific striker.

25:27David Walker:I feel like it's either Giggs or Sharp rounds the keeper and scores. I think it's Giggs. Sharp.

25:33Adam Hurrey:Sharpie.

25:34David Walker:Do you know the game I mean? I think they're 3-0 up at half-time or something mad.

25:38Charlie Eccleshare:Not really, but it does feel more sharpie at that moment. But that's really just a hunch. Yeah. And I always trust my hunches. I think it's Giggs. Should we go for Giggs 92-93? If we get the season wrong, we get to go again. Giggs 92-93. Norwich City 1. Manchester United 3. Goal scorers that day, Eric Cantona. Andre Kanchelskis. And Ryan Giggs. Got the opener after 13 minutes. Yeah, they were 3-0 up after 21. so to level three we go that's this level three is the best we've done so far i think here we go who has scored for nottingham forest at villa park early days i mean the percentage guess is

26:16David Walker:probably collie more in that 94 95 season when he absolutely banged them in and villa were crap that season and forest were really good don't remember villa park being in that highlights reel but it's not a bad shout but that has misled you before yeah with les ferdinand

26:32Charlie Eccleshare:No, we can't have 24-25. Scheringham was top scorer in the Premier League in the first season, right? For Forrest.

26:37David Walker:Yeah, but most of that was for Spurs. Really? Really? I think it was literally like one goal or something for Forrest. It certainly wasn't many.

26:44Charlie Eccleshare:And nothing recently springing to mind. No Taiwo Awani.

26:47David Walker:Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. You've got to go. So when have you got to go? Sort of either 22-23 or 23-24. Yeah.

26:54Charlie Eccleshare:Chris Wood, 23-24.

26:56David Walker:Yeah, last season was his big season, wasn't it?

27:00Charlie Eccleshare:Collymore, 94-95.

27:01David Walker:I mean, that's the percentage play, is Collymore. Because they had such a good season, and Forest... He had such a good season, Forest came third, and Villa were really bad that season.

27:10Charlie Eccleshare:Gibbs White, penalty taker.

27:11David Walker:So I think that makes the most sense.

27:13Charlie Eccleshare:But not 93-94, which was his more prolific season?

27:16David Walker:No, 94-95, because they weren't in... They were in Division 1 93-94. Yeah.

27:22Charlie Eccleshare:Ah, of course they got relegated. Okay, okay. Collymore, 94-95. Again, if we get the season wrong, we might play again. Here we go. Aston Villa 0, Nottingham Forest 2. Goal scorers in the opening minute from the penalty spot, Stuart Pearce. And after 70 minutes, Steve Stone.

27:42David Walker:It's a good process though. They won the game 2-0. You'd be backing Collymore that season to have got one of them.

27:48Charlie Eccleshare:Sad also to relay that Stan Collymore has never scored for Nottingham Forest at Villa Park.

27:53Adam Hurrey:Of course he hasn't. He's not going to score against his beloved Villa. No. Should have factored that in.

27:57Charlie Eccleshare:Yeah, should have factored in emotional resistance to scoring against your club. Level three remains our ceiling. That's crazy. Yeah, terrible stuff. We'll get better. We'll get better. Speaking of people falling short, here's Eileen Gu, Winter Olympic silver medalist in the slope style and big air at Milan Cortina, being asked a very football-y question indeed. Also, do you see these as two silvers gained or two goals lost?

28:24Adam Hurrey:i'm the most decorated free skier female free skier in history i think that's a

28:28Charlie Eccleshare:answer in and of itself i never considered that this might be asked charlie but it it's also a relatively logical journalistic question to ask i guess yeah yeah yeah it does

28:38David Walker:make sense does it yeah because it must be like does that feel like you haven't meddled almost

28:43Charlie Eccleshare:you know getting that silver um yeah but yeah this football it's very footbally construction isn't it Dave? I don't know if it could work in many other

28:52Adam Hurrey:sports. Well was she in the gold medal position and then dropped down to silver at the last minute or did she? That I don't know. Was she in bronze and got up to silver in the last minute? That's important.

29:01Charlie Eccleshare:In which case yes that's quite crucial to the question isn't it? Surely that would have inspired the question so yeah she can laugh at all for all she wants but it's good journalism.

29:08David Walker:Yeah haunting fake laugh there.

29:10Charlie Eccleshare:Yeah terrifying. Meanwhile lots of love Dave for BBC Alba getting the rights to some Serie A action eight games they've got featuring all Scottish players of course um and for the purposes of this they've revived the gazetta football italia theme tune for their coverage um is this okay how do you i mean a lot of people were celebrating this but i don't know can you just take someone else's iconic theme tune 30 years later has the has enough

29:35Adam Hurrey:time passed for it to be okay i think it's i know what you mean it's a bit on the nose isn't it but and i guess there'd probably there'd probably be it's really good for people of a certain generation obviously who will be loving it but there'll probably be lots of people watching it I've got no idea.

29:50David Walker:But I guess that doesn't matter. If it works, it works. And then for the heads who know it, it's a nice nod. For those who don't, it's fine.

29:57Charlie Eccleshare:For those who've been living under a rock for 30 years, Charlie, does it stand up as a theme tune to a newcomer? It probably does. Like, it's a very good piece of music. There's no question about that. I think so.

30:07David Walker:It's hard to know, though, isn't it? Because we're coming at it with sort of all the misty-eyed nostalgia.

30:12Charlie Eccleshare:Yeah. A tap-in for the makers of Serie A highlights on BBC Alba. But there are some moral and legal sort of angles here, Dave. First up, Neil Patterson, the Commercial Rights and Business Affairs Manager at the BBC says, I'm 42, so I love the Channel 4 show and I wanted it to be a nod to that. So respect. But he says the BBC has a blanket music agreement with a company called BMG and the theme song was included in that, so it was pretty straightforward. So they could have it. It's ours. It's like the Ellis James sound effect. Just stick it wherever you want. They own it. But classy touch, Charlie.

30:44Charlie Eccleshare:He continued, I get on well with Channel 4's head of sports, so it was a case of calling them as a courtesy to let them know what we were planning. Classy touch.

30:51David Walker:Yeah. Well, I mean, imitations and Zero's form of flattery and all that. Yeah.

30:55Charlie Eccleshare:So the highlights began with presenter Alego Henley, Dave, standing next to a newsstand outside of what I think was Torino's ground. But he wasn't sipping an espresso. That would have been too far, right?

31:08Adam Hurrey:Yeah. And then Jimbo's coming for you. That's image rights infringement, surely.

31:12Charlie Eccleshare:Yes. Yeah, the BBC don't own Jimbo's style, that's for sure. Now, on further football-related TV news, Charlie, these things always seem to start in the Netherlands for some reason. A reality TV show called Football Island is about to start, end of March, I believe, and a bunch of Dutch ex-pros have been dumped on an island and given football-themed challenges to complete while they sort of fight for their mock survival. So here are a few of the players involved. Frank de Boer and Ronald de Boer, completely inseparable, apparently. Richard Vitska, once of Blackburn, I believe. Wesley Snyder and Ryan Babel are amongst the line-up.

31:52Charlie Eccleshare:So, yeah, they're going to be stuck on an island and just be made to do football-y things completely incongruously.

31:59Adam Hurrey:You're right. So Traitors started off in the Netherlands first. And Big Brother. And Big Brother, yeah. So they are a trendsetter. So we'll see whether this does follow that pattern and comes to these shores. But the thing about traitors, obviously, they love doing a reveal to the audience that actually I'm the brother of this person or I'm the partner of that person. You can't really do that with a divorce, can you?

32:22Charlie Eccleshare:I would never have guessed. It's going to be so harsh when one of them gets dumped off the island. But yeah, I mean, the inevitable question is raised here, Charlie. When this inevitably gets brought over to UK TV, what sorts of players are going to get brought into this? I mean, the names just leap out straight away. Is this an O 'Hara situation? Is this a pennant situation? Because it feels very much so.

32:43David Walker:Yeah, pennant was who came to mind. Would John Terry do it? I mean, he's so keen to be loved. I can sort of imagine. I don't think it would be that hard a sell for him. Be like, you know, John, people love you. You do great. You're a winner. You could win this as well. A leader as well. It would be a Lord of the Flies situation, wouldn't it? Prove you're better than Van Dijk. Once and for all, JT. He's never won this.

33:05Charlie Eccleshare:Yeah.

33:06David Walker:Michael Owen?

33:07Charlie Eccleshare:oh i don't know maybe um phil neville you wouldn't get gary yeah no way gary definitely for sure but yeah phil maybe yeah but i fear for football island as a concept i don't know if it's quite gonna move over here now other developments back in june on this very podcast we heard this story next up cal writes in dave and says i just felt i need to share that the primary school i work in have recently changed catering company midway through the school year i found out yesterday that the new caterers have ordered the kitchen to remove ketchup as an option on Fish Finger Friday in an attempt to calm the kids.

33:42Charlie Eccleshare:I literally can't think of another scenario where ketchup may get banned. This is it. Schools. Wow. It's a whole new regime. This is it.

33:49Adam Hurrey:Who's come in? Well, don't worry. In six months' time, the new lot will come in and it'll be back on the menu. It's OK.

33:55Charlie Eccleshare:Cal writes in, Dave, and says, Our head chef retired and the new head chef has brought ketchup back because the kids like ketchup. This newfound freedom will surely yield higher SATs results come what may. you called it

34:07Adam Hurrey:fair play it's an easy win get them on side early doors

34:12Charlie Eccleshare:Jesus Christ yeah it's just great to see anyway speaking of saucy rollercoaster stories it's time for Keys and Grey Corner

34:33Charlie Eccleshare:Ford Super Sunday

34:38Charlie Eccleshare:What a blog it was this week, Charlie. I mean, of all the titles of his blogs, which are very much to the point, how many of them have been better than There Was No Low Block Going On In My House? I felt like we could have guessed what was going on there.

34:55David Walker:Yeah, subtlety is not really his writing style. It's quite a change of pace, though. I mean, when you guys trailed it to me, I was expecting it to be sort of along similar lines to what it is normally. But this was a bit of a departure, certainly the start of it anyway.

35:12Charlie Eccleshare:I'll make no bones about this, Dave. I was worried for all sorts of reasons about what was wrong with Keezy this week because he sort of hinted at some issues. But it turned out to be it's devastating and certainly tests your pace. In some way, I guess it's the equivalent of a high press. There's certainly no low block involved. It hit me like a train last Tuesday. At one point I found myself on the floor with stomach cramps so bad I actually thought I'd need medical help, but I resisted that. I've seen enough of the insides of hospitals this past year to last me the rest of my life. I'm talking about gastroenteritis.

35:43Charlie Eccleshare:My goodness, you know when you've got it. The pace of it, the par breaks alone are just so well-crafted. Great journalism. Oh, Kesey. I'm a storyteller, always have been.

35:58Adam Hurrey:He's had the shit so bad he couldn't shave.

36:05Charlie Eccleshare:what a line um but yeah hopefully yeah he's over it but yeah just a great start to the blog and um yeah after that it was back to business laying into pgmol as usual um poor old howard webb getting it from everywhere but from people who just don't have no idea what he actually does every day which is the funniest bit like nobody knows what he does keezy's new thing with howard

36:27Adam Hurrey:web is he's he's found he's obviously googled howard webb at some point and howard webb is attached to one of those sort of kind of vague speaking agencies yeah you can book him for any sorts of any sorts of talks and keezy's really honed in on this lately yeah as if he's doing it

36:43Charlie Eccleshare:all the time yeah too busy doing the after dinner circuit but the keeziness of the blog ramped up charlie he he referred to the picture that he posted of him with his heavy stubble and um said And can I thank those amongst you who responded to my tweet on Sunday, asking the question, to beard or not to beard? More than 200 ,000 of you took the trouble to reply. George Thompson has pointed out that it wasn't 200 ,000 people replying, it's just 200 ,000 people who viewed the tweet, and he's got completely mixed up with it. 200 ,000 people replied to the tweet. You're not Barack Obama, mate.

37:16David Walker:That would be an astonishing 200 ,000 people responding. They still love me. Still got it, Keezy Amazing

37:29Charlie Eccleshare:The problem is if it was 200 ,000 people, Dave We'd know what 199 ,000 of those replies would be And they wouldn't be fun to read

37:36Adam Hurrey:I've been wading through them all I will get back to you all individually Yeah

37:41Charlie Eccleshare:Bear with me Yeah, it's very close to the number of people who get in touch for the pod, actually So, yeah, good to know we're level pegging Anyway, all of that pales into insignificance compared to this tweet He said, what a great giraffe for mansfield i'm delighted for nigel clough he's one of the game's good guys there aren't many of us left so it's good to see one being rewarded this this all this needed dave was a fishhook emoji to go with it there's no way he's doing this without a glint in his eye yeah well he did put a little winky emoji in there he knows what he's doing oh wow i mean where do you start with this charlie like are we are we is there a dwindling number of good guys left in the game i'm not sure

38:19David Walker:what there are are they well they're probably of his sort of good guys you know like the the people who he considers to be good guys i do like a lot of them will have been marginalized he probably thinks or would have sadly passed away yeah is there a difference between a good guy and a good

38:34Charlie Eccleshare:operator oh definitely absolutely yeah a lot of the good guys that he sort of adores probably just do bugger all now they probably just play a bit of golf they're not operating in any way

38:44David Walker:but you could be a good guy and a good operator reedy's not a good operator nowadays no was he's Definitely a good guy. Yeah. Was he ever a good operator? Was he ever?

38:52Charlie Eccleshare:Great question. Good. It would be great to get a Venn diagram from Keezy. He's an operator in 1999-2000. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Tremendous midweek Keezy there. Thank God. Thanks to you, Charlie Eccleshare. Thank you. Thanks to you, David Walker. Thank you. And thanks to everyone for listening. We'll be back on Tuesday. See you then.