”Cool as custard”, Reo-Coker's hanky-panky & football's reigning Great Entertainers

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Speaker 5 Absolutely incredible! He launched himself six feet into the crowd and Kung Fu kicked a supporter who was

Speaker 5 without a shadow of a doubt giving him

Speaker 13 Subtle 1980s Derby County references in FA Cup penalty shootouts. Nigel Rio Coca fumbles around for the proverbial footballing phrase for some mid-game pushing and shoving.

Speaker 13 The best use of the Ellis James stock crowd noise so far.

Speaker 13 David Walker's deep dive into the linear great entertainers title holders of English football, the least cool item of clothing ever worn by a top flight manager, and Richard Keyes drags a very reluctant Andy Gray into the mid-2020s.

Speaker 13 Brought to your ears by Goal Hanger Podcasts. This is Football Clichés.

Speaker 13 Hello everyone and welcome to Football Clichés. I'm Adam Hurry.
This is the adjudication panel. Joining me first of all is David Walker.
How you doing? And more importantly, how are the gorillas?

Speaker 3 The gorillas were great, top-class gorillas. I shook the hand of a two-year-old gorilla and fed a 42-year-old silverback.

Speaker 13 42. Still going.
Still got it.

Speaker 13 What's more, as if your birthday couldn't be capped even more, you got a shout-out on the big screen at Vicarage Road.

Speaker 6 I know.

Speaker 3 Yeah, that was nice.

Speaker 3 They gave me an aka on the PA.

Speaker 5 Oh, nice.

Speaker 3 They read my name out and said, happy birthday to, among other people, David Cameron Walker, aka D C W. Nice.
So, what a moment that was. What a week I'm having.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you are in real Danburn territory.

Speaker 13 Alongside you, he's back from Milan. What a weekend that sounds like, by the way.
It's Nick Miller. One last hurrah for the Sans Hero for you, was it?

Speaker 15 Yeah, they finally seemed to be knocking it down at some point. So, yeah, they couldn't have gone on without me visiting one more time, so I had to go.

Speaker 13 We are still, however, waiting for Deion Dublin to break his silence on what a Diodora passes, though. So all is not well in this world.
Still time.

Speaker 13 Hopefully, someone can put their tentacles out to Deion Dublin and get him to confirm that. Right, adjudication panel, this is going to be great.
Let's start with this.

Speaker 13 Nick, which food stuff is most famously cited for being as cool as in a penalty situation? Cucumber. Indeed.
And logical. Makes perfect sense.
This came from Joe Wills and Andy Cooper.

Speaker 13 It's from the BBC's coverage of Brackley Town's FA Cup penalty shootout win over Knotts County. Martin Fisher on commentary duty as Alessana Jata takes County's first spot kick.

Speaker 17 Alessana Jata, the Gambian International, against Johnny Maxtead.

Speaker 15 Jata looks as cool as custard and hits the bar.

Speaker 13 I mean, there's a double whammy here, Nick. We've got a commentator's curse and we've got cool as custard, which excites you more.

Speaker 15 It was it's all wrapped up into one kind of perfect little bows. But I suppose can you have cold custard? Yeah, you can, kind of.

Speaker 3 I don't mind a bit of cold custard, actually.

Speaker 13 Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, this could turn into a tweed discussion about food, Dave, but there are, you know, pun intended layers here. You could have cold custard in a trifle.

Speaker 13 You can have a custard tart, which could be eaten cold.

Speaker 13 Correspondent Andy Cooper said that his wife is from the home counties and she prefers her custard cold, where he's from the north and he prefers it warmer. So maybe there's a geographical thing.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Or does he have custard on his chips, does he? Or something?

Speaker 3 But where does it... I mean, if you think about cool as a cucumber, is that just a purely alliterative thing? Why were cucumbers cool?

Speaker 13 Well, they're very fresh, aren't they? I mean, they, you know, you put them on your eyes to, you know, just, you know,

Speaker 3 it's like cool. It's not, it's not a temperature thing, is it? It's cool.
It's like laid. He's as cool as a cucumber.
He is.

Speaker 13 Yeah, I know, but you know, of all the times not to be literal, you choose this one.

Speaker 13 Anyway, so, yeah, so we thought, you know, we thought this was a very curious situation.

Speaker 13 Cool as custard. But there is a story here, Nick, and it's a deep cut.
too. Martin Fisher is a Derby County fan, I discovered.

Speaker 13 And it is a reference to Trevor Christie scoring the penalty in a 2-1 win over Rotherham in May 1986 that secured Derby's promotion to the old Division 2.

Speaker 18 Not surprisingly, the success man at Vetchfield, Trevor Christie, is to take it. Six minutes to go, Derby County penalty, 1-1 the scoreline.
Christie looking as cool as custard.

Speaker 18 Comes back, 1-2-3-4 shoots!

Speaker 5 Goal!

Speaker 5 Goal! Go!

Speaker 5 That's nice. So there we go.

Speaker 13 At least there's an explanation here, Dave. That's the good thing.

Speaker 3 I don't think I've ever heard a countdown before a penalty before like that either, as well.

Speaker 6 One, two, three, four, shoots.

Speaker 13 Nice.

Speaker 13 So this became Trevor Christie's nickname. He became Cool as Custard Christie, basically.
But yeah, Martin Fisher just sort of... I mean, that doesn't feel like...

Speaker 13 Out of his remit, it doesn't feel like he's gone beyond his station there, Nick, to kind of impinge his Derby County fandom upon us because it was done so stealthily.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 15 I suppose maybe he'd been waiting all these years to roll that one out in a Derby game.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 15 But, you know, next best thing.

Speaker 13 Just to show my working here, Dave, I discovered that Cooler's Custard was a Derby County reference. Before I discovered Martin Fisher was a Derby County fan, so it all fell into place really nicely.

Speaker 13 But yeah, cooler's custard is not an accepted term generally. Google AI's first thing is, yes, it relates to Trevor Christie, which is fantastic work by Google's AI at the very least.

Speaker 13 But yeah, so a truly deep cut. Glad we got to that one.
Next one comes from Ben Nagel over in the US. He was watching CBS's coverage of Newcastle versus Spurs in the Carabao.

Speaker 13 And well, he describes this minor set-to between the players at St. James's Park.
Well, he gets there in the end. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 19 Six minutes to go. This is the game that kicked off later, and it's all kicking off, Nigel.
I love it. Go on, son.
A little bit of hanky-panky, as we say, going there.

Speaker 19 A little bit of handbags, as we say, but yeah, this is very feisty's compared. That's what you want to see.

Speaker 13 Hanky-panky is superb. I mean, slap and tickle with the boss.

Speaker 3 What's how's your father? Is that

Speaker 13 how's your father would be a good term for like you know as we were talking the other day Nick about a sort of an early reducer letting them know you're there it's just a little bit of how's your father letting him know you're there

Speaker 13 bring back um 1970s innuendo to uh um ambiguous footballing set twos but yeah hanky panky hadn't heard that for a while maybe he but maybe he's thinking well that they won't know either way over here in america i can just drop it in and it sort of sounds fine

Speaker 13 handbags he got there but um next one came from sam diamond it's wickham vs fulham in the carabelle the other night.

Speaker 13 Andy Bishop and Tony Gale on comms with a reference that's very much you'd expect from a man of Tony Gale's vintage.

Speaker 7 It's so difficult, you just gotta watch the ball. But if you watch his feet, it's a nightmare.

Speaker 7 Don't have to google Michael Flatley, kids.

Speaker 7 He ain't a player.

Speaker 7 What a dancer.

Speaker 13 That really rounds it off so nicely, Nick. What a dancer.
What a dancer Michael Flatley was, by the way.

Speaker 15 Yeah, instinctively, I would have liked to...

Speaker 15 By the way, but maybe that would have been too much on this occasion.

Speaker 13 Is it necessary? I mean, even excusing the lack of the flourish of the by the way, Dave, is it really necessary to sort of round that off with what a dancer?

Speaker 5 What a dancer.

Speaker 3 I know. The thing is, I suppose in Tony Gale's defence is no one's really taken Michael Flatley's mantle, have they?

Speaker 3 I don't know another famously fleet-footed Irish dancer since those days.

Speaker 15 I don't know. So I'm not a strictly watcher, but someone non-strictly who could have taken the mantle.

Speaker 13 None of the pros have really stood out as like, you know, the world's leading exponent of what it is they do. Who was the Cuban guy who was really good at ballet for a bit?

Speaker 16 Not sure.

Speaker 13 Well, if you don't know, Carlos Acosta, Cuban British ballet dancer.

Speaker 13 He was like the guy. He was essentially the Flatley.

Speaker 3 Different weight class, I suppose.

Speaker 13 But yeah, don't really know who's taken on that mantle. Who is the world's number one dancer right now?

Speaker 6 But it's more.

Speaker 3 I mean, you could find one of those, but it's very specifically with the feet. It's the river dance.
Irish jig feet thing that we're talking about here. We can't just have any old dancer

Speaker 3 for our tricky wingers.

Speaker 13 So yeah, double sympathy to Tony Gale there. One, there's no standout dancer to take on Michael Flatley's mantle, and two, Tony Gale is around 60 years old.
So that's that's double explanation.

Speaker 13 Right, um, time for footballers' names in things. Well, actually, this is Football Things

Speaker 13 in Car Adverts. Quentin O'Neill sent this in.
He says the new campaign for Cooper cars evokes a penalty decision that could have gone either way.

Speaker 8 One of them.

Speaker 5 It's one of them. It's one of them, isn't it?

Speaker 5 I mean, there's no other context.

Speaker 13 It just says one of them. Doesn't build, doesn't go anywhere, that advert.

Speaker 5 Nope. That's it.

Speaker 21 That's the end of the advert, as far as I understand it.

Speaker 15 You've seen them given relationships to some kind of discount.

Speaker 13 Seen them bought.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 13 One of them.

Speaker 6 Really good.

Speaker 3 Cooper cars can go either way. Left or right.

Speaker 5 Famously. Excellent.

Speaker 13 Really good. Dave's on form.
But is he on form in For My Sins Corner? It's been a while since we've done one of these, but this is going to be a competitive For My Sins Corner.

Speaker 13 I'm going to play you a clip from popular culture, and I want Nick and Dave to jump in when they think the immortal words of For My Sins are about to be uttered.

Speaker 13 This came from Danny Grant, and it is, of course, from the chase.

Speaker 22 Welcome back, everyone. Next to Face of Chase, it is Matt.
Welcome to the the show, Matt. Thanks, Brad.
From Lincolnshire. Whereabouts in Lincolnshire are you?

Speaker 21 Just south of Sleaford area.

Speaker 22 Okay, yeah, on the A1 there?

Speaker 21 Not far, yes? Yeah, not so far. Just across the area.

Speaker 5 And what do you do there?

Speaker 21 I'm a business development manager. In what sort of field? Construction, right? So we build big food factories or logistics warehouses, all that sort of thing.

Speaker 22 Okay, when you're not working, what do you get up to?

Speaker 21 Well, I do all sorts of things, but I'm a big Lady Gaga fan

Speaker 21 for my sins.

Speaker 17 She's amazing.

Speaker 5 Come on.

Speaker 13 Celebrate that with almost with a finger wag.

Speaker 15 Yeah, fair play.

Speaker 15 That was a.

Speaker 15 I should have got there, but can't fault Dave's victory in that one. Yeah.

Speaker 5 He feels worse, is he?

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I think he would feel like he should say that. I don't think he should, but

Speaker 3 he doesn't look like a typical Lady Gaga, like one of the monsters.

Speaker 5 Maybe.

Speaker 15 Maybe he thought her accent in House of Gucci has kind of taken the edge off. Yeah, maybe.

Speaker 13 But yeah, good, solid FMSC there.

Speaker 3 Not a big fan of Joker Foley Adeu.

Speaker 13 Right.

Speaker 13 Next up, listener Sam was watching season one, episode one of Britain's Most Historic Towns on Amazon Prime. Roman Chester, this one.
As this local expert talks about the gladiators who battled there.

Speaker 13 Listen carefully, right at the end.

Speaker 15 The specific class of person in the arena called a Venet or a Hunter. But of course the other thing that did take place was gladiators.

Speaker 15 Gladiator on Gladiator.

Speaker 1 And would they stop before anyone was seriously injured or again, could it be a fight to the death?

Speaker 15 There were fights to the death.

Speaker 15 Wow.

Speaker 15 Oh, wow.

Speaker 13 The versatility of the BBC crowd noise.

Speaker 3 I thought you were setting us up there for

Speaker 3 an ancient Roman bit of both.

Speaker 3 And then we get the earliest James Gold noise just chucked in at the end there. The earliest known usage in the Colosseum.

Speaker 13 They're both Very probably. The earliest attribution of this crowd noise.
Portsmouth versus Carlisle, 6th of May 1985, for a gladiatorial battle in ancient Chester.

Speaker 13 I mean, at what moment, Nick, during a gladiatorial battle, would someone go, gyow!

Speaker 15 Maybe like the first real

Speaker 15 drawing of blood, maybe?

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 13 A real beheading in the middle of the arena.

Speaker 3 I think, yeah, the final blow, I think.

Speaker 15 Maybe. The knowledgeable Colosseum crown,

Speaker 3 or maybe would it be simply the Emperor Emperor doing the thumbs up or thumbs down?

Speaker 5 Oh, maybe. That's good.

Speaker 13 That could work, actually. Yeah, the flow of the noise could actually work quite well for that.
But yeah, there you go.

Speaker 15 Just did anyone notice?

Speaker 15 Why was that guy giving an interview with a bit of Tupperware under his arm? That was very strange.

Speaker 15 Little box of sandwiches.

Speaker 5 One for the podcast.

Speaker 13 Listen, mate, it's a busy time out

Speaker 13 on the dig.

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 13 But anyway, yeah, that is my favourite use of the LS James crowd noise so far. Right, this next one came from Johnny Hall.
We were talking the other day about what

Speaker 13 sort of distinguishes a comedy-owned goal from a bizarre-owned goal. And the BBC headline for West Ham vs.

Speaker 13 Newcastle, mid-game, said Sven Botman scores a comical-owned goal to put West Ham 2-1 up against Newcastle. Dave, that wasn't a comical-owned goal.

Speaker 13 That was probably one of the least comical possible owned goals.

Speaker 3 No way a comical-owned goal. Just

Speaker 3 a real sort of corridor of uncertainty cross from Aaron Wam-Bissaka. Outstretched leg from Botman diverts it in.
Absolutely right to go for the ball and try and clear it, but it's just diverted it in.

Speaker 3 Nobody laughed.

Speaker 3 I don't think anyone would have laughed watching that scenario.

Speaker 13 It was probably one of the most boring types of own goal, Nick. I mean, there was a certain elegance element of spectacle to it, but yeah, not calamitous enough in any way.

Speaker 6 I don't think. People just don't think about these things.

Speaker 15 Yeah. Yeah, it's the point.
It's just the kind of instinct to go for the... But like,

Speaker 15 it's not a new thing. Some of the goals on own goals and gaffs weren't really that funny.
Just

Speaker 15 chatting over them and making riot signs.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you've got to pad them out, haven't you? Happens to the best of us.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 3 the thing is, though, this is a headline on the live blog, right? On the BBC homepage, whatever. So if you see that and you go, ooh, Botman scored a comic alone goal.

Speaker 3 I wonder what might have happened. How's he done this? And then you see it, you'd be really disappointed as well, wouldn't you?

Speaker 13 Really disappointed? I mean, yeah,

Speaker 13 I still hanker for moments like this, and I would have been let down. This next one came from JMC811 on Reddit.
It's Rayon Cherky talking about working with Pep Guardiola. He says it's very good.

Speaker 13 He's crazy like me, two crazy guys. We talk about everything.
It's unbelievable. Football is all my life.
I eat football. I sleep football.
I shower football.

Speaker 13 Nick, is that the first verb?

Speaker 13 Is that a new verb for experiencing football in your life?

Speaker 15 Absolutely. I mean, I suppose you could.
It's a way of saying you're kind of immersed by it because you're

Speaker 15 letting it run all over you, I suppose. I don't know.

Speaker 15 No, it's not what I have heard heard before. I didn't see it coming, but it sort of makes sense.

Speaker 3 If you use it in the context of eat, sleep, shower, repeat, it basically works, doesn't it? You know, better than his rave. Yeah.

Speaker 13 Yeah, I mean, Nick's immersive logic is good. I mean, it probably just harks more to the idea that

Speaker 13 it's part of your routine. But what is the hierarchy?

Speaker 13 If you take all of the sentiment, Dave, what is the hierarchy? Eat comes first. Yeah.
Eat, breathe, then sleep. Does breathe come before sleep?

Speaker 5 I eat, breathe, sleep.

Speaker 3 I think it's eat, sleep. Eat.
Sleep always follows eat, doesn't it?

Speaker 13 I think, in these situations, breathing's more important than sleeping, personally.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but it sort of implied, doesn't it?

Speaker 6 It's

Speaker 16 goes without saying.

Speaker 5 Drink, drink football?

Speaker 13 Eat, drink, I eat, drink, sleep, breathe.

Speaker 15 Football. Drink is a secondary one, but you can definitely throw it in there.
I mean, is live too much of a kind of... Is that too broad? Yeah.

Speaker 5 That's all things exist.

Speaker 15 That's kind of an umbrella term, is it?

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 3 He's suggesting that he's, you know, he's so into football that even in the shower, when when for many people, your mind may wander to all sorts of topics when you're in the shower, but he's still thinking about where he needs to be on the pitch at any given moment in relation to the ball and the other players in that system.

Speaker 13 I can sympathize with that. I do some of my best mental organisation in the shower.
Like, I think about what I'm going to be doing this week. Like, yeah, I really map things out.

Speaker 13 Anyway, next one comes from Tom Bason. Nick, he was watching Coronation Street the other night.
And someone was reading a newspaper in the...

Speaker 5 What's the public?

Speaker 5 The Rovers, sorry.

Speaker 13 And on the back of the newspaper was, was, um, Weatherfield County FC prepares for preseason friendlies.

Speaker 13 So my first thought was, okay, I'll try and think of a progressive reason for this. Maybe they've switched to a March to November Scandinavian model for their seasons.

Speaker 13 But that doesn't work either because they'd still be months away from the start of the next season. So, mad.
Absolutely mad. You know, someone's heads again are going to have to roll for this.

Speaker 13 This is like match of the day theme tune all over again.

Speaker 3 Have Weatherfield County just announced a lucrative preseason tour for the

Speaker 3 now.

Speaker 13 Don't like the word prepares here, if so, but it could be. Maybe they are announcing a money-spinning Far East jaunt.

Speaker 15 Maybe prepares extends to like booking the travel and the hotel in, you know, Hong Kong or somewhere.

Speaker 13 In-depth stuff from the local paper, then, if so.

Speaker 13 Enjoyed this.

Speaker 13 Merovech on Reddit says, Darren Fletcher on TNT Sports said that Mohammed Salah has joined the Mount Rushmore Liverpool goalscorers after becoming the third player to score 250 goals for the club.

Speaker 13 Surely if he's third on the list, he should already be on there.

Speaker 13 An infallible logic. Can you imagine Ian Rush's face on Mount Rushmore?

Speaker 15 Hang on, is there anyone on Mount Rushmore got a moustache? I can't remember who else is on Mount Rushmore.

Speaker 13 Must be really annoying to have to do the moustache on Mount Rushmore. Oh, do we have to do it? Can't we just do it when he shaved it off? Nope.
Now it has to be him. It is pop.

Speaker 13 Oh, dear. Excellent.
Excellent stuff for part one. We'll be back very shortly.

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Speaker 13 Welcome back to Football Clichés.

Speaker 13 A reminder that you can sign up for Dreamland for just $5.99 a month. For that, you'll get ad-free listening, two episodes a month of Dreamland, our exclusive show, and other things as well.

Speaker 13 Just go to dreamland.football clichés.com.

Speaker 13 And on that note, Dave, on episode 10 of Dreamland the other day, we were talking about how to play football the right way and the current swirling discourse about all that sort of thing.

Speaker 13 And we finished the episode by talking about the concept of the great entertainers.

Speaker 13 And certainly in English football, about who warrants that, who has ever earned that, and why. And you went away and did some extra work on this.

Speaker 3 Yes, I spent what turned out to be a few hours, probably by the end of it, on Friday night whilst birthday weekend, no less.

Speaker 3 Yes, whilst the doorbell was ringing unrelentingly with trick-or-treaters to the point where I unplugged the doorbell and just left it to the upstairs flat to take care of business.

Speaker 6 Go away.

Speaker 13 I'm doing statistical research for football clichés. Exactly.

Speaker 3 Yeah, so as I suggested on the pod, we suggested that when Liverpool beat Newcastle 4-3 in the 95-96 season in that famous game, they should have, or they could, if you like, have taken on the lineal title of the Premier League's great entertainers.

Speaker 5 So I've followed that through all the way to the present day.

Speaker 3 However,

Speaker 3 I want to ask you to something for your thoughts on this because I did it once and then I realized later on that I'd made what could be quite a crucial mistake. So my methodology was as such.

Speaker 3 Liverpool beating Newcastle 4-3, I thought there needs to be a bar.

Speaker 3 We have to have a bar of like, how do we decide when a team is entertaining enough or a match is entertaining enough to take the title, right?

Speaker 3 So I've said you have to beat the current holders in a game that has over 4.5 goals to use sort of betting logic.

Speaker 3 However, in the midst of doing it all, I sort of forgot the 4.5 goals thing slightly and awarded it a few times to teams that had won 4-0.

Speaker 3 So they don't meet the 4.5 threshold. But a 4-0 feels like that should be enough.

Speaker 13 I'm not allowing it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 I'm allowing it. Because the reason I went for 4.5 is I don't want a 3-1.

Speaker 3 A 3-1 doesn't count. But I think so.
You either win 4-0 or buy one goal in a game that's over 4.5. So you can win 3-2.
You can have a 3-2. You can't have a 3-1.
So we're going to go with my

Speaker 3 original workings then, okay? Okay. And interestingly enough, by the way, I did revise it and I got rid of the 4-0s.
And I ended up in the same place.

Speaker 5 Fucks.

Speaker 3 The route was different. The route was different, but the team at the end was still the same.
But anyway,

Speaker 3 we'll go with the original workings, okay? So here we go.

Speaker 15 You ready for this? Partner was out on Friday night, was she?

Speaker 3 So Liverpool beat Newcastle 4-3. They've got their title in 96.
Then 7th of February, 97, Southampton beat Liverpool 3-2 at Anfield. Nice.
30th of August, 97, Chelsea beat Southampton 4-2.

Speaker 3 Stamford Bridge. 21st of September, 97, Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-2.

Speaker 13 Are we doing all of them?

Speaker 3 We're doing all of them, mate. 6th of May, 98, Liverpool 4, Arsenal-0.
So Liverpool have it. And then, here's where it gets fun.
13th of March, 99, Derby beat Liverpool 3-2.

Speaker 13 Paolo Wanchop.

Speaker 3 Paolo Wanchop among the goalscorers.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And then

Speaker 3 Sunderland beat Derby 5-0 in September 99. Then they lose 5-0 a few months later in December to

Speaker 3 Walter Smith's Everton. Wow.
That famously entertaining team. Tottenham beat Everton 3-2 in September 2000.
Leeds beat Tottenham 4-3 again in September 2000.

Speaker 3 Then they lose 4-3 to Newcastle in December 2001. So they hold on to it for over a year, actually.

Speaker 3 Then Newcastle lose 5-2 to Blackburn in October 2002. Then they win it back.
They beat Blackburn 5-1 in March 2003. Then Newcastle lose 6-2 to Manchester United in April 2003.

Speaker 3 Man United lose it to Middlesbrough in February 2004. Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 5-3 in August 2004.
We need Charlie here, really, for some extra context.

Speaker 3 1st of February 2005, Arsenal to Man United 4, and then they lose again to Middlesbrough. In October 2005, Middlesbrough beat Man United 4-1.

Speaker 5 Then Arsenal.

Speaker 15 When you edit this, are you going to do that thing where you fade out

Speaker 15 and fade back in towards the end, or are you just going to go... Okay, well.

Speaker 3 We've got a long way to go. Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 7-0 in January 2006.
Then a month later, February 2006, West Ham beat Arsenal 3-2 at Highbury. Then Bolton beat West Ham 4-1 in March 2006.

Speaker 3 Same month, Middlesbrough back again. They beat Bolton 4-3.
Then Reading beat Middlesbrough 3-2 in the first day of the Premier League season in 06-07.

Speaker 13 Oh, well, I know where this is going.

Speaker 3 Well, no, sadly not, actually. Sadly not, because Arsenal beat Reading 4-0 a few months later before we get to that famous game.

Speaker 3 Liverpool beat Arsenal 4-1 March 2007, and then they hold on to it for three years. Wow!

Speaker 3 Before losing to Man United 3-2 in September 2010. Then, in the famous Why Always Me game, Man City beat Man United 6-1 at Old Trafford in October 2011.

Speaker 3 Then Man United take it back, beating Man City 3-2 in December 2012. Then Man City take it back, beating Man United 4-1 in September 2013.

Speaker 3 Aston Villa getting on the act in September 2013 as well, beating Man City 3-2. Stoke beat Villa 4-1 in March 2014.

Speaker 5 Yep.

Speaker 3 Then Man City beat Stoke 4-1 in February 2015. Man United beat Man City 4-2 in April 2015.
West Ham come back into the picture in May 2016, beating Man United in the last game at Upton Park.

Speaker 13 Oh my god.

Speaker 3 And then, and then, look, this is what it's all been building up to. Here we go.
On the 10th of September 2016, West Ham 2, Watford 4 at the London Stadium.

Speaker 5 Come on.

Speaker 5 Great entertainers.

Speaker 3 And then we lose it to Liverpool at Anfield 6-1 in a game that I was at, actually, on a cold Sunday in November 2016.

Speaker 13 Little did you know.

Speaker 3 Then Bournemouth beat Liverpool 4-3 in a notable game. I think that got game of the season recently in our submission from that guy who was picking out all the best games of the season.

Speaker 3 Burnley then come into the picture, beating Bournemouth 3-2, 10th of December 2016. Then Swansea beat Burnley.
So, you know, a couple of slug champions for us here.

Speaker 13 Slug detainers.

Speaker 3 Then they lose to Man United 4-0 in August 2017. Then Brighton beat Man United 3-2 in August 2018.
That was a year to the day since Man United won it. 19th of August 2017.
Seven years to go.

Speaker 3 Then 19th of August 2018. Fulham beat Brighton 4-2 in January 2019.
Then Watford come back again for their second championship. 2nd of April 2019, beating Fulham 4-1.

Speaker 3 Then we'd lose it to West Ham 4-1 because we played the second team the week before the cup final, the end of the season.

Speaker 5 That's Astrisk coming. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Then West Ham lose to Man City 5-0 on the opening day of the season, of the 19-20 season at London Stadium.

Speaker 3 Then Norwich beat Man City 3-2 at Carrow Road in September 2019 to take it before losing 5-1 to Aston Villa in October. Then Aston Villa lose 4-1 to Leicester in December of that year.

Speaker 3 Then Liverpool beat Leicester 4-0 on Boxing Day, December 2019, holding it until 2nd of July 2020. So

Speaker 3 they could have been, when we didn't know football was going to come back, they might have held the title forever.

Speaker 13 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 Before Project Restart came back, Man City beat Liverpool 4,

Speaker 3 Liverpool already won the title.

Speaker 13 Can you be in the Entertainers in front of an empty stadium? What's going on?

Speaker 15 I was just going to say,

Speaker 15 I personally would have eliminated all those games as not canon.

Speaker 5 Doesn't get to the point. Let's start again.
Okay, oh no.

Speaker 3 We're nearly there. Then Leicester beat Man City 5-2 in September 2020 before losing 3-2 to West Ham in April 2021.
And then just six days later, West Ham lose to Newcastle 3-2.

Speaker 3 Then Man City beat Newcastle 4-3 at the end of, towards the end of the season in May 2021. Then they lose to Brighton, I think, on the final day of the 2021 season.

Speaker 3 They lose 3-2. Then Brighton lose 4-1 to Man City in the next season in October 2021.
Man City lose 3-2 to Tottenham in February 2022. Then Tottenham lose 3-2 to Man United in March 2022.

Speaker 3 Liverpool beat Man United 4-0 in April 2022. Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-2 in October 2022.
Man City beat Arsenal 4-1 in April 2023. Tottenham beat Man City 4-0 in November 2024.

Speaker 3 And then on the 8th of December 2024, last season, Tottenham 3, Chelsea 4. Chelsea are the current great entertainers.

Speaker 13 Fair play.

Speaker 5 Liquid podcasting from David Walker.

Speaker 13 I mean, wow. So, yeah.
So, from Liverpool 96 to Chelsea 2025, that is the lineage of the great entertainers. Some will quibble that it starts before then, doesn't matter.
We had to start somewhere.

Speaker 13 Dave, can you break down this data for us in a way that is a little bit more digestible?

Speaker 3 So, I am slightly fearful that somebody on the Reddit will go, actually, I think you missed a game back in 1996, and therefore the whole thing's completely wrong.

Speaker 3 Well, so it could happen, and if that is the case, then fair play.

Speaker 3 But so, a couple of things to pick out: the longest reign, 1,268 days, which was Liverpool from the 31st of March 2007 to the 19th of September 2010.

Speaker 3 Man United and Man City are level with seven title reigns each.

Speaker 3 Right. According to this.
Liverpool on six, Arsenal on six, West Ham on four, punching above their weights perhaps.

Speaker 3 The West Ham way.

Speaker 3 Longest time between reigns, 9,940 days between Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal on the 21st of September 1997 and their eventual victory over Spurs on 8th of December 2024. The George Foreman of

Speaker 6 the situation here.

Speaker 13 9,000 days of hurt for the Chelsea fans.

Speaker 6 It was so boring.

Speaker 5 Wow.

Speaker 13 I mean, listen, fair play. No man is truly 40 until they've run through every result that met a certain amount of criteria over the space of 30 years.
Extraordinary stuff.

Speaker 13 So yeah, Chelsea, there for the taking. Who, I mean, Chelsea are probably ripe to have that title ripped from them this season, Nick.
Adventurous at one end, fairly fragile at the other.

Speaker 5 Yeah, could happen.

Speaker 15 Could well change hands a number of times, I suppose. Yeah, I was trusting you gonna keep be keeping track of this, though.

Speaker 3 I suppose I have to now, yeah, don't I?

Speaker 5 Yep, you're rod for your own back.

Speaker 13 Fantastic. Right, let's return to one of last week's questions.

Speaker 13 A listener asked about the extremely precise tipping point where an X-Pro's boot could be bought online for the exact original RRP of the boots themselves.

Speaker 13 We got into some incredible nuance about what level of footballer would be required here.

Speaker 13 Well, listener Charlie was browsing vintage, Nick, and stumbled across what looks like a very notable assistant referee. Their relative is selling this man's shirts on vintage.

Speaker 13 So Premier League referees shirts on vintage for £7.

Speaker 13 Charlie says I've done a bit of research and it's from the 2013-14 season. It would be ridiculous if this is match worn.
So, wow.

Speaker 13 So referees are no use for this debate because the value clearly goes down there.

Speaker 15 Yes, Yes, but is this

Speaker 15 do we have to kind of introduce something because I mean presumably those aren't commercially available, are they? So I don't know whether we need to

Speaker 15 because there isn't really a will obviously be a price or cost to the shirt, but there's no real kind of base level here. So we don't know what retail is.
Fair point.

Speaker 3 It can't be a replica. Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 13 Actually, yeah, so it must be match worn. Yeah.
No one's going to go to the trouble of stitching on the badges to a template.

Speaker 3 Maybe it's the sort of thing that actually should pop up in like an army reserve shop. Yes.

Speaker 3 They've They've got a few just little referee they've got a little referee section in there just in case anyone needs it. Seven quid.

Speaker 13 I hope he's hope he's given her permission to do this anyway. But I won't reveal the name because it just feels a little bit too intrusive to their lives.

Speaker 13 But yeah, it just reminded me, Dave, of the person who turned up to the Manchester Live Show in 2024 wearing an EFL referee shirt. Yes.
So there are people out there.

Speaker 3 Yep, fair play. You've got a referee shirt, haven't you, famously? What one have you got? World Cup 99.

Speaker 13 90. Italia 90, yeah.
That's true, actually. Yeah, no badges on it, though, so not match worn, I can confirm.
Right, here's a uh here's a conundrum for you both.

Speaker 13 As Vitor Pereira becomes the fourth managerial casualty of the Premier League season, George Whittle asks, I was thinking about the landscape of manager sackings and how their clubs are always described as underperforming.

Speaker 13 And it made me wonder, is there a season that could occur where every club is performing exactly to expectations and it would lead to no managers being sacked? Or is this never possible?

Speaker 13 For example, a set of newly promoted sides could all be relegated while putting up a fight and keeping their managers, or perhaps a long-serving fan-favourite manager could keep their job despite a relegation Thomas Frank at Brentford for example could the current Premier League have ended in such a way that every club would be just about satisfied enough to keep their manager or would there always be one team just not happy enough maybe a big six team with no European qualification would love your thoughts on this Nick is this possible like is it is this conceivable in the Maranakis era

Speaker 15 yeah I mean

Speaker 15 it would have to be a because you need

Speaker 15 with the example cited with with your Maranakis is around you would need someone to not just be like underperforming for the managers to get the sack, but like you're also kind of relying on no fallings out.

Speaker 5 True,

Speaker 13 let's assume that happens.

Speaker 13 So, league position-wise, I think it's doable.

Speaker 6 Forests are the wild card here, clearly.

Speaker 15 There's always going to be someone, if not the promoted clubs, who's happy with finishing like 17th? Who's like, well, you just want to get to the

Speaker 15 36 points or whatever the mark is now

Speaker 15 and stay up? Because

Speaker 15 your West Hams aren't going to be happy with that are they i think what you need is for there to be a team like watford in 2016 17 where we finished i think we finished 17th in the end but it was on the back of losing the last five games and we did then sack water matzari in the summer but you need someone to have to have been safe and they just they're happy to let the last month drift you don't need to sack anyone in that in that period i suppose you could that that what that thing could happen where ollie solshire was really good at this where he'd look look like he was going to be sacked and then he'd win a couple of games and stave it on life support basically yeah you kind of need about four or five teams in that sort of 17th and upwards bracket to just kind of do that on rotation for the for the whole season so you could you know a team would go five games without winning and then they pull a couple of results out of the bag and the manager will be safe totally doable it just it just requires a lot of spinning plates i mean and if you absolutely needed it you could have someone like a Spurs winning the Europa League and finishing 16th or something like that.

Speaker 13 So if you absolutely need it. But that would would upset the apple cart and so that would have ripples, it'd be the butterfly effect of the uh Premier League.
So, let's not dwell on that.

Speaker 13 But, yeah, George Whittle, it's definitely possible, but I refuse to map it out for you. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 3 I mean, the other crucial element to this is that you can't have any underperforming big teams.

Speaker 3 You need there to be a like really close, competitive race for the top four, maybe between five and six teams. But you can't have a Man United or a Chelsea languishing in the bottom half.

Speaker 3 Obviously, that's going to be a problem for them. So, you need everyone to be in their rightful spots.
Yes, for sure.

Speaker 15 And the five Champions League places does help with this as well.

Speaker 15 So you can, you know, even if it doesn't sort of doesn't look like you're going to finish fourth, there's a bit of a safety in it there as well.

Speaker 13 I agree. So yeah,

Speaker 13 I think there's enough in that league table to let everyone have a reasonable season.

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Speaker 13 Next question comes from Joseph Powell. Dave says, might you be able to offer some definitive rulings on take nothing away from the finish? A.E.K.

Speaker 13 Larnika's goal against Palace the other night came from a defensive error of a wayward pass followed by a cracking rifled effort into the top corner, which feels like prime take nothing away from the finished territory to me.

Speaker 13 I feel like I've heard it after deflected finishes as well, but if it's required a deflection to go in, surely that does very directly take away from the finish. I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts.

Speaker 3 I don't think, yeah, deflections.

Speaker 3 Because if it's taken a deflection, I mean, unless it's sort of arrowing towards the top corner and then takes a deflection and goes in the other corner.

Speaker 3 But surely, by definition, a deflected shot means you haven't executed the shot as well as you could have done, right? Because it's hit defender.

Speaker 13 I feel like you could still get this phrase, Nick.

Speaker 13 If a co-commentator has loved the goal enough at first glance and then has had to soften their analysis on the replay, I still feel like you might get a

Speaker 13 take-nothing away from it.

Speaker 15 Yeah, or maybe if there's a kind of defensive error involved there somewhere,

Speaker 15 you know, where the analyst is so preoccupied with

Speaker 15 the defensive error that they sort of don't notice the finish.

Speaker 15 And even if there is a kind of big deflection,

Speaker 15 they will say take nothing away as a sort of like a need,

Speaker 15 like an instinctive thing.

Speaker 3 I think he's right though. I think Joseph is right in that, yeah, surrendering possession in a sort of hapless fashion in your final third.
That would be like, oh, take nothing away from the finish.

Speaker 3 I mean, but you just, you know, it's criminal to give the ball away like that.

Speaker 13 Yeah, chronologically this works, Nick, because it's like the presentation of the chance was completely fortuitous. But yeah, that aside, everything that came after that was really, really good.

Speaker 13 So that seems to me to be the perfect situation for a take-nothing away. But I wouldn't rule out, say, a goalkeeper maybe perhaps could have done better.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 13 But, you know, still a great finish. You know, still have work to do.
Still to get, to dig that finish out, you know, take nothing away.

Speaker 15 The keeper's got a hand to it, but to take nothing away from the cash.

Speaker 13 Yeah, I'd accept that, yeah. Not a calamitous piece of goalkeeper, but got a hand to it.

Speaker 5 Take nothing away. Well, having that.

Speaker 3 I think that ruins it. Surely.
That completely undercuts the whole thing. If the goalkeeper should have saved it, it's not a good strike.

Speaker 13 I mean, okay, but if but if a goalkeeper did get a fingertip to it, but so you it would still be something of a caveat, but but we're not in the realms of should have saved it, but at least got a fingertip to it, but take nothing away.

Speaker 13 But then that wouldn't be enough to take something away from the finish, actually, Dave.

Speaker 6 So that's the tipping point. Oh, interesting.

Speaker 13 Okay. Well, yeah, great question and great analysis.

Speaker 13 Ross FJ writes in next, Nick, and says, one for the adjudication panel. Seeing Coventry top of the championship makes me hopeful to see them back in the Premier League.

Speaker 13 What's the ideal length of time for a previous prem team to come back and feel fresh? Is this just a length of time or do they just need to kind of shed their skin a few times?

Speaker 15 Yeah, that's interesting. I think how long was Sunderland away?

Speaker 15 That was like eight years, eight or nine years? I think so. They felt pretty fresh, I think, when they came back.

Speaker 13 They went down to League One as well.

Speaker 15 I was going to say, maybe you do need a kind of League One dip.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 15 to add a little bit of freshness to it.

Speaker 3 Coff have been in League Two, haven't they?

Speaker 5 Yeah. Shit, really? Bloody hell.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 15 They had that weird spell where they were playing at Northampton's ground and so yeah, they're they're incredibly fresh.

Speaker 3 Yeah, so they've been what, about twenty twenty years or pretty much, isn't it, since they were relegated?

Speaker 13 Twenty-five I think for Coventry, yeah. Twenty-five, yeah.
Yeah, they're way beyond the threshold. But yeah, they'll they'll feel fresh.

Speaker 6 They're overdue. Yeah.

Speaker 13 Yeah, a lot of people are going to be happy with Coventry being back in that respect, I think.

Speaker 3 So if you look at the championship at the moment, you know, the three relegated teams are underperforming at the moment.

Speaker 3 So you've got Coventry top, Millsburg second, Stoke third, Millwall fourth, Bristol City fifth, Preston sixth, Hull seventh, Charlton eighth. Before you get to Ipswich, you're in ninth.

Speaker 3 So that top eight, obviously, with the exceptions of Millwall, Bristol City, and Preston, who have never been, never been up there. Hull, I think, no,

Speaker 3 not been gone long enough, would feel a bit boring, I think. And they can just never be as exciting as they were first time round, can they, really? With Phil Brown and all that.

Speaker 3 Charlton would be, I think Charlton would be sort of a bit of Barclays mid-nostalgia for them if they came back up.

Speaker 6 No question.

Speaker 13 Yeah. Charlton are quite Coventry-ish in that respect.
Yeah.

Speaker 15 Yeah, and again, I have been down to League One. A lot of chaos.

Speaker 13 Yeah. A stadium that keeps, a stadium that keeps surprising you how big it is every time you realise.
Yeah, yeah. It's like, oh, God, it's not 22,000 actually.
It's fucking massive. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 13 I like that. Finally, over in La Liga, which is quite clearly the spiritual home day for managers dressing really, really badly.
If anything, this is where it all started.

Speaker 13 El Che's manager, Ada Sarabia, for his team's game against Barcelona at the weekend, sported a Beatles t-shirt.

Speaker 5 What?

Speaker 13 So it was the Fab 4 in cartoon style with the Beatles underneath it, a white t-shirt. This might be the naffiest thing a manager could possibly wear during a game.

Speaker 13 I have to say, I did some digging just to make sure this wasn't like in some tribute to somebody who was dying or something like that. I don't know.

Speaker 3 It's not a commercial tie-in or anything.

Speaker 3 Why would the Beatles be linking up with Elce?

Speaker 5 But I don't know. What a collab that is.

Speaker 15 Well,

Speaker 15 some more Beatles. The Beatles content machine is churning out some more stuff soon, so it could be.
Yeah.

Speaker 13 I mean, this, I mean, it was paired, Nick, with the classic La Liga standard issue faded grey jeans, possibly with some rips involved.

Speaker 13 Almost certainly, I can't see in the picture, but almost certainly some black trainers. Definitely going to be black trainers.

Speaker 15 I was thinking some white high tops, but they're not.

Speaker 13 Oh, yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe.

Speaker 13 Yeah, so either way. What is going on? I mean, this is unacceptable.

Speaker 13 This shouldn't be allowed. I mean, we've seen some loosening of standards on the touchlines.
Shirt and tie is clearly on the way out, and probably rightly so.

Speaker 13 But he kind of had the beats on this t-shirt.

Speaker 3 What should happen here is he should be booked for wearing the t-shirt, and then he has to take it off, and then he'll get another yellow card and off he goes. So,

Speaker 13 yeah, he should be booking. You should be allowed to show your support for

Speaker 13 giant bands.

Speaker 6 But yeah, it's just a shame.

Speaker 13 But anyway, speaking of the true greats from previous decades whose back catalogues we keep running over again and again, it's time for keys and grey corner.

Speaker 13 And we listen to the listeners, Dave, and it is indeed a triumphant return for the original Keys and Grey theme tune. Thank you to Bobby Goulder for his remixed effort.
It was a one-off.

Speaker 13 We enjoyed it on the tour, but it's we can't fix what isn't broken, can we?

Speaker 3 Yeah, is this our moment when, like, when Match of the Day messed around with the theme tune all those years ago? It is, I fear. Swiftly return to the old one and pretend that it never happened.

Speaker 3 But yeah, it was a great moment we played it at the live shows, at least.

Speaker 13 Nick, am I thin-skinned? Or do I just like to run an effective market research activity on Reddit? It might well be a bit of both, but it's good to have it back and all things are back to normal.

Speaker 13 Let's start with this. B and Sports were marking a big milestone this weekend, Nick.
It's their 22nd birthday. They launched as Al Jazeera Sport back in 2003, of course.
We all remember that.

Speaker 13 Strange landmark to mark, I would say. But they posted a load of birthday messages from a veritable who's who of football figures.
Ashraf Akimi, Jules Kundé, the Morocco manager.

Speaker 13 But can you guess, based on enthusiasm alone, which of these four Anglophone contributors is the one who works for Be In Sports?

Speaker 14 Happy anniversary to all Be In viewers from me, Oliver Klasner.

Speaker 14 Happy anniversary to be in sports from Ibera is it?

Speaker 17 Happy anniversary in the sports.

Speaker 14 All the best.

Speaker 17 Hello, guys. I'm Marcel.
Bessai.

Speaker 14 Happy birthday, B in.

Speaker 13 Why? Why do this for the big 2-2, Nick?

Speaker 5 Why?

Speaker 15 This reminds me of if anyone's ever seen the documentary about Radioheads meeting people is easy, which is basically a documentary of a tour, but it's also a documentary of five people having a very quite a slow mental breakdown.

Speaker 15 And there's a bit in that where they're all doing like radio idents.

Speaker 15 It's like, hi, I'm Colin from Radiohead, and you're listening to 95.4, and they're just unraveling at the same time, but hating every second of it.

Speaker 15 So yeah, the first three of those very much fit in with that. But I don't know, maybe this is just Marcel Dessai's personality.

Speaker 15 I received the most enthusiastic turn down for an interview I've ever had from Marcel Desai.

Speaker 15 He just basically said, I have no interest in talking about this topic, but he did so with more exclamation marks than I've seen from a very short message. So maybe he's just a very enthusiastic man.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he does seem to love life.

Speaker 13 But strange lineup of people, Dave.

Speaker 3 Well, so they had Oliver Glasner, Iberi Eze, Pep Guardiola, and Marcel Desai. So Palace, Arsenal, Man City.

Speaker 3 Clearly, they've used their international broadcasters' rights interviews to just get that little bit at the end of it, which...

Speaker 16 Awful.

Speaker 3 You know, you only get so many of them a season season or whatever, or you only get, you know, you'll only get Pep maybe once or whatever a season or something like that.

Speaker 3 And it feels like, it feels like a bit of a waste to me just to get them to do the little happy birthday thing. You can get them to do anything.
You can ask them pretty much, you know, within reason.

Speaker 3 You can ask them anything or whatever. You can have a bit of fun with them if you want, but you've just gone, oh, can we just, can you just read out this thing for our 22nd birthday, please?

Speaker 3 Yeah, sure, no problem.

Speaker 13 Well, Pep's going to be a lot. What? 22nd? Really? You want to waste that one?

Speaker 5 Do you really?

Speaker 16 You've got one shot at this. Guys, okay, I'll do it.

Speaker 15 He has has that same kind of expression on his face when, if

Speaker 15 a sky sports reporter or a journalist who he's decided is a complete dunce has asked him a tactical question and he does that kind of, oh, isn't that cute that they're asking me about tactics and formations and stuff?

Speaker 15 Oh, that's nice, isn't it?

Speaker 13 Completely phoning it in. But no, here's some real dedication for you.

Speaker 13 Here is Keesy plugging the upcoming Under-17 World Cup on Be In, and he and Andy Gray finally nail their international allegiance to the mast.

Speaker 7 Starting on Monday here in Qatar, which we like to think of, and I think it's a bold but accurate claim, at the home of sport these days, this

Speaker 7 small but powerful state of ours. That's a big tournament.
At the Under-17 World Cup, yeah. Stars of the future will be playing in that.
Some big names, Andy. Oh, you better believe it.
Trust me.

Speaker 7 We play Italy Monday, 1845, Max. Homework.

Speaker 7 Homework will beat Italy.

Speaker 5 We, Nick.

Speaker 13 This is it. Qatar, a we to them now.

Speaker 15 If it was anyone else, it would have the kind of vibe of, you know, a member of the Qatari royal family just standing just out of shot with their arms folded and just kind of staring hard at them.

Speaker 13 A lovely little addition to the sub-genre of Keezy praising Qatar. We've had lovely little country, we've had gorgeous little country, and now we've had this small but powerful state of ours.

Speaker 3 He's saying all this while he's holding a football under his arm. I mean, is it the official football of the under-17 World Cup? Do they have such a football? It's like

Speaker 5 the new World Cup ball. Maybe it's the new World Cup.
The new World Cup ball.

Speaker 13 We had a separate chat about that

Speaker 13 in which Andy Gray observed that he thought it was a bit small. Yeah.
Keyes he had to point out it wasn't pumped up.

Speaker 5 Oh, dear.

Speaker 13 But yeah,

Speaker 13 if you want to hear Andy Gray utterly bewilders, here is Richard Keyes right at the zeitgeist.

Speaker 7 Now concentrate, okay? Follow me here.

Speaker 7 Sunderland and Manchester United, six and seven.

Speaker 15 Go on. No? No.

Speaker 7 Six and seven?

Speaker 7 It's just been named as the word of the year

Speaker 7 by the ABC dictionary. Six and seven.
That's not even a word.

Speaker 7 It's two numbers.

Speaker 7 Six, seven. The word of the year.
Six, seven, the word of the year. What does it mean?

Speaker 13 It means so-so.

Speaker 7 It's a youthful phrase.

Speaker 7 Who invented that one?

Speaker 7 Well,

Speaker 7 I think Skrilla in a rap song from 2024.

Speaker 7 Doot-doot, I think it was the name of the song.

Speaker 7 Who put it on some boots? Well, it also applies to a Philadelphian basketball player

Speaker 7 who is six foot seven. So

Speaker 7 they put the song to some of his

Speaker 7 and

Speaker 7 it's become a youthful phrase, Andy, for, for you know

Speaker 7 yeah who who said six seven means this

Speaker 7 well you you just have to put your own interpretation on it to some degree yeah I'll put nonsense beside it then yeah what what it also means is in the know all right well that's definitely not me six seven six seven it it is the ABC in the ABC dictionary now it is the word right

Speaker 7 should be sacked immediately let me tell you six seven for goodness he should join Pereira whoever's the owner of that book should join Pereira.

Speaker 7 P45.

Speaker 13 Fuck me, Dave. They really strung that one out, didn't they?

Speaker 5 Fucking hell. Good lord.

Speaker 13 Both really enjoying their roles there, playing it very knowingly.

Speaker 13 Keesey doing the tapped in with the youth aspect. Andy Gray completely overplaying the doot.
Angry old guy. I don't want to hear doot-doot ever again.

Speaker 15 Keesy very much having read but not entirely taken in a mail online article about this kind of

Speaker 15 youth phenomenon.

Speaker 3 What's the ABC dictionary?

Speaker 13 I've never heard of that one before. Yeah, that's not even the Merriam-Webster, is it?

Speaker 13 Surely not even in the big four of

Speaker 6 dictionaries.

Speaker 13 They've been sucked in by a PR email.

Speaker 5 That's what's happened here.

Speaker 13 Absolutely classic podcast fodder or broadcast fodder is the word that's been declared the word of the year. And they've been sucked right in.
But yeah, wow. Poor old Andy Gray.

Speaker 3 Don't make him talk about 6'7. Yeah, you're right, actually.
You're right. That is the classic fodder.

Speaker 3 So this is almost a window into an alternate universe where post-Sky departures, you know, had they not been picked up by talk sport and then gone on to be in, perhaps they could have gone down another route where they ended up presenting like a local radio breakfast show somewhere.

Speaker 3 Yeah. And this is the sort of stuff they would have been talking about if that had happened.

Speaker 13 If they're on local radio in Coventry, morning breakfast radio exists on a diet of PR emails about things that have been declared something of the day. It's National Something Day today.

Speaker 3 Andy, we're going home.

Speaker 6 Beggars can't be choosers.

Speaker 13 But no, they're pure Qatar now. They're there to stay.
We know that for sure. Anyway, thanks to you, Nick Miller.
Thank you. Thanks to you, David Walker.
Above and beyond today, I'd say. Thank you.

Speaker 13 Thanks to everyone for listening. We'll be back on Thursday.
See you then.

Speaker 26 This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.

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