Hosted byColin Shindler, Patrick Barclay, Jon Holmes
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 footballruinedmylife@gmail.com
Since we received positive feedback after our first re-run episode with one of the three founder members of this podcast, Paddy Barclay, we thought you might like to hear again Paddy talking about derby matches. One of the pleasures of making a podcast that does not depend on its topicality is that we can reintroduce subjects which remain perennial debating points. Paddy was well placed to comment on the bitter sectarian rivalry of Glasgow as Colin Shindler was on Manchester’s equally intense but not as violent internal conflicts. Jon Holmes of course has to travel to Nottingham to find a local derby which strains credibility though not as much as Crystal Palace’s derby with Brighton at the far end of the A23. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This week Colin Shindler and Jim White open the postbag which is predictably full of scorn for the owners and operating officers of Manchester City… but also includes some well written observations on the state of football and football supporting in this country. We have an intelligent audience, and the postbag reflects that intelligence with very little of the emotion and bile that accompanies the game online and on radio phone ins. There are complaints too about the way we ignore the lower leagues and don’t give enough credit to the young players of today. And there’s a surprise guest appearance of FRML’s most consistent critic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode Colin Shindler and Jon Holmes talk to the author Dave Tomlinson about his book Doing A Leeds. Even by the standards of traditional football chaos, what happened to Leeds United between 1996 and 2005 constituted a financial, football and psychological roller coaster. The Elland Road club ascended at breathtaking pace to the Champions League semi-finals and plunged almost immediately into a nightmare of bankruptcy, relegation and a fire sale of the outstanding players who had got them onto the top table of Premier League and European football. David O’Leary seemed to be the manager of the future, he and chairman Peter Ridsdale forming a winning team before the latter abruptly sacked the former and was then ejected from the board he had been running. Plenty for both panel and listeners to get stuck into – like a Norman Hunter tackle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Since we’ve had two weeks off from the Premier League (and the Championship) in order to wallow in beating up Croatia and the Czech Republic as well as losing (as is our tradition) to Spain, we thought you might like to hear again the familiar, engaging voice of Patrick Barclay who took strong exception to Jon Holmes and Colin Shindler as they dismissed the Nations League as a sop to the demands of television and the financial greed of UEFA. Listen to Paddy as he berates the other two who are nostalgic for the old Home Internationals when England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland played with themselves. One side sees a desperation of the television companies and UEFA to ensure that no summer passes without an international tournament, leading to player burnout and spectator indifference. The other side sees a sensible arrangement that abolishes pointless friendlies, gives every match a purpose and ensures that the weaker sides play each other and are not just cannon fodder for the big boys. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this edition, Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Jimmy Mulville are talking about one particular phrase and its meaning within football. Never Go Back is a particularly poignant phrase for two of the panel when it’s used to refer to two of their heroes - Malcolm Allison and Howard Kendall. The other name which crops up immediately in the conversation is Kevin Keegan who went back to Newcastle when it was owned by Mike Ashley and left quickly when he realised that it wasn’t the same club he had managed a decade earlier under the more benevolent patronage of Sir John Hall. It applies to players too – players who had achieved great things at one club return to the same place at the end of their careers to find they simply cannot reproduce the magic of those early years. For Colin the phrase also evokes the sad memory of his old City hero Francis Lee returning to Maine Road with the club in the doldrums in the 1990s only to be driven from the chairman’s office by the fury and yes, the hatred of those supporters who had once been his greatest fans. All supporters will have their own nominations for this topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In a change to our usual podcast, we bring you a special edition of Football Ruins My Life in which we consider the leak at the end of last week that Manchester City have apparently been found guilty on 114 of the 115 alleged breaches of Premier League rules. Not so much a discussion as a series of opinion pieces offered by Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes and Jim White. Very much from the heart, as well as the head. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
There is an initial resistance by the panel to the question: can you build a team around one player? The instinctive response is one of scorn and derision – I mean how do you build a team around Peter Shilton? But then the World Cup arrived and along came Messi to suggest that this was a perfectly viable topic, particularly as his performances aroused our memories of Maradona in Mexico in 1986. Frequently we read of managers attempting to lure a very good player to a new club with the promise of building a team around him. That must sound very enticing to an easily influenced if talented young player, but does it mean that the said manager is going to sign inferior players so that the sun at the centre of his future universe will shine more brightly? So how do you successfully build a team around one player? Colin Shindler, Jim White and Jon Holmes discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This week Jon Holmes, Colin Shindler and Jim White are talking about one particular player – and one manager and one club director and one club chairman and one trade union official and one television executive and one presenter and one analyst and famously on one occasion, one linesman... none other than the Bearded Wonder that was Jimmy Hill. That simple list of his achievements and the different roles he played within football indicate what a unique individual he was. It’s regrettable that in later life he became something of a caricature and a figure who could be easily mocked with his pointed chin and his cross of St. George earrings. Yet no single figure made a bigger impact on English football in the second half of the twentieth century than Jimmy Hill. It was Hill who suggested three points for a win which stopped both teams playing for a draw twenty minutes from time. He never received the honours that his innovations merited and his final years suffering from dementia made for a sad end which Football Ruined My Life is determined to correct. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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 footballruinedmylife@gmail.com
Show details
Creator
Colin Shindler, Jon Holmes, Paul Kobrak (and the late Patrick Barclay)
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