The 1997/98 season with comedians Andy Kind and Jamie Sutherland

[00:00:00] I wasn't married then, I didn't have kids then. Football was everything and I'd seen Arsenal win the league as a child and now I was just an adult, just an adult and it just felt insane, it felt brilliant.

[00:00:12] And then when Tony Adams scored the fourth, the ultimate insult isn't it really? You know Steve Bold and Tony Adams and that summed up the day didn't it? Tony Adams, not only was it bad enough that he'd been going out with Caprice, you think his shots were over?

[00:00:30] Hello and welcome to When Football Began Again, the podcast that takes a nostalgic look at the Premier League era. Today's show is a step back into the archives as we do one of our season deep dives. We are up to 1997, 1998 and the Premier League season. I have two

[00:00:50] guests, an Arsenal fan and an Everton fan, two key players in this season's drama, Andy Kind and Jamie Sutherland who will be with me very shortly. Before we do that, a big thank you and welcome to everybody who listened to the show, downloaded

[00:01:06] the show, watched the show last week on Oldham Athletic. It was one of our biggest episodes so far, lots of Oldham fans joining the show, lots of new subscribers this week. Welcome along, I really hope you enjoy the show and enjoy the back catalogue we

[00:01:20] have as well. It was also the tightest vote that we had for our Premier League of Nations Hall of Fame for the greatest ever, Bolivian. Just the choice of two players, I will reveal

[00:01:33] the result of that at the end of today's show so do hang around at the end of the show. In today's show with my two guests we do also cover the Premier League's greatest

[00:01:44] Bulgarian and that is already live on the When Football began again, Twitter slash X channel if you want to make a vote for that. Here what my guests have to say very soon. But let's get into it then, Andy Kind and Jamie Sutherland both of whom are comedians,

[00:02:02] they're lovely guys and both got very fond memories of this season. Andy is an Arsenal fan and it means I've got to ask him one or two slightly uncomfortable questions for me. As a Spurs fan we did not have a very good season this season, neither did Everton

[00:02:19] either so really it's mainly Andy getting to gloat over me and Jamie for much of the episode. But let's face it that Arsenal team probably was worth gloating about. There are a few technical issues on Andy's side, his camera and sound just for a small

[00:02:37] portion of the show is a little bit off. You may, if you're very eagle eyed even notice if you're watching on YouTube that at one point he pretty much changes location halfway through one of my questions at the power of technology in the edit.

[00:02:52] Other than that it's a great episode and lots to pack in. There is the arrival of Wenger, the departure of Eric Cantona, a very sticky season for two Premier League main stage in Spurs and Everton and well it ends in tears for the three promoted sides.

[00:03:11] Let's get into it. 1997-98 with Jamie Sutherland and Andykind, enjoy. Joining me today two fans who had a particular interest in this season as did I both making their debuts on the show. It's Andykind and Jamie Sutherland. Welcome Lance how you both doing okay?

[00:03:33] Thanks for having us. Looking forward to the crowd as I warm up. Doing stretches, European warm-ups going on on the screen. Well let's start with you Andy, you are an Arsenal fan. Take me back to the beginning of the summer of 1997 what was this like for you?

[00:03:53] I don't think we were that optimistic actually it just felt at the time like United basically had a monopoly on whatever they wanted and obviously we brought in Bergkamp and we brought in Vieira. So as an Arsenal fan we thought

[00:04:08] we're gonna do well, we'll probably get into Europe but I don't think there was any real sense at the start of the season that we were gonna win the league because no one knew whether Ronaldo was any good, no one knew whether

[00:04:19] Overmars was any good but no one thought they were gonna win the league other than United. They were just dominant. That picture you've got on the screen with Overmars and Petit. Petit's probably my favourite

[00:04:30] ever Arsenal player but we didn't know that at the start of the season because no one has heard of him. So absolutely incredible recruitment going on for Arsenal in that summer and how did you become an Arsenal fan? What was your first match?

[00:04:40] Why are Arsenal the team for you? Yeah so I remember in 1987 when I was in infant school I was getting into football we weren't allowed to play in infant school, you weren't allowed to play with tennis balls in the playground so we used to kick stones around

[00:04:54] like it was Victorian times and all my friends were Liverpool fans and I didn't want to be a Liverpool fan so I said to my dad who should I support? He said well I quite like a team called Arsenal, their nickname is the Gunners and for a six-year-old

[00:05:08] to hear that the nickname was the Gunners that was it for me. So my first ever match watching on TV was the 1988 Little Woods Cup final which we lost to Luton and I don't think I watched all of it but I remember sort of

[00:05:23] Arsenal losing which they did but then from the start of the 88-89 season which is not a bad season to start supporting Arsenal, if properly I was absolutely wrapped by then and just obsessed with it. My first match at

[00:05:35] Highbury was at the end of the 88-89 season where my dad had booked the tickets thinking well they'll win the league on this day, this is the day they'll win the league but they'd completely fallen apart so we played

[00:05:47] at home to Derby County and lost 2-1 and Dean Saunders scored to go so I cried on my dad's lap obviously within a couple of weeks we'd won Anfield and won the league. Jamie same question for you, you're a huge

[00:06:00] Everton fan I know you work at Goodison Park as well quite a bit let's go back to August 1997 first. We were in that sort of transition period where we had some players who had won trophies being successful and then it was trying

[00:06:14] to keep up with the others and some strange signings came in and Howard Kendall was back and that was his third time really and he'd been away for a long time and I'm not saying football had moved on but the Premier League

[00:06:27] certainly had moved on and people like say for example Arsenal were getting awesome vengour who some of the players described as Mr Bean because he didn't look like the stereotypical English football manager but then that I think this season from the start of it we thought we'd be

[00:06:45] alright you know we just plod on we weren't going to pull up any trees etc but if you look back in history of the Premier League this was the season that changed it forever because what Arsenal venga did was change the game he

[00:07:01] brought sports science into it and a lot of us traditional older clubs were being picking up the trophies we caught a little bit off guard by what arson venga did and then from that moment on we were playing catch-up and a lot of things

[00:07:16] changed so if you look back this was a key season and a lot of clubs changed their direction after this season just to try and clear up because Arsenal changed it the season for us

[00:07:26] well it didn't end well did it but we stayed open that's a story that is on a loop every so often Howard Kendall it wasn't to be and this was his final time as manager

[00:07:36] and take us back to why Everton had teamed for you your first game growing up we didn't have a choice yeah it was in Liverpool you were either blue or you were red and it was

[00:07:45] wherever your family decided and that was it my side was the blue side and the good and the bad and you just took it unfortunately you know Liverpool have had more wins big trophies European nights than Everton but I'd never change it I'd never change it so we'll

[00:08:04] start with the battle at the top of the league the season kicks off with a 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Manchester United in the charity shield United are victorious after scoring all four

[00:08:15] of their penalties in the shootout past Dutch debutant Ed De Hoij a man who is bravely persevering with a mustache well into the night is and indeed eventually into a new millennium before we get

[00:08:25] into the title race let's take a look at a few of the surprise runners and riders Blackburn Rovers rolled back the years under Roy Hodgson the English coach who made his name abroad and

[00:08:33] brings a daring new style to the Premier League as Rovers topped the early season table but seven past Sheffield Wednesday and are even sat second on Christmas Day before falling back to an eventual sixth place finish Leeds United rejuvenated under George Graham are challenging at the right end

[00:08:48] of the table for the first time in several seasons while finishing fifth while Jim Smith's Derby and Martin O'Neill's Leicester are mainstays in and around the top six for large suede's before falling back into mid table by the season's end Chelsea and Liverpool put in the

[00:09:03] sort of challenge that's typical of their late 90s eras great to watch lots of goals all neatly summarizing a 4-2 Super Sunday winner and field for the Reds against the Blues in one of the games

[00:09:12] of the season ultimately both are still some way off the pace of the two mainstays in the title race Manchester United and eventually as we'll come to Arsenal rocked by the shock retirement of Eric Cantona defending champions Manchester United had Teddy sharing them into the mercurially

[00:09:27] friend shaped hold up front an opening weekend season return to White Heart Lane for his debut a missed penalty doesn't spoil his day as Nikki but and a Ramon Vega own goal ceases new team

[00:09:38] take all three points he gets off the marker Everton in a 2-0 win later that month Jamie how do you solve a problem like Eric Cantona leaving and is it with Teddy sharing them

[00:09:49] and we don't solve a problem like Eric Cantona leaving because he's irreplaceable isn't he when he first came into Manchester United the current squad weren't actually sure because of the issues that he'd had at Leeds but he soon bettered in showed his strength you know people like

[00:10:03] Lee Sharp talk about him you know he was it he was a different level he's a different class he's a once in a in a lifetime sort of player so you're never going to replace him but

[00:10:13] then you do need to find goals assists playmakers in other areas Teddy sharing them was just an absolute diamond wasn't it because he's one of those old war horses he'd seen it everywhere he knew where the goal was things like missing penalties missing open goals they don't face

[00:10:32] people like Teddy sharing because he knows he's going to get six chances in a game if he misses three he's still got three to go it doesn't get beaten down does he tell you sharing I mean

[00:10:42] he just knows right there'll be another chance in 10 minutes I'm going to take that one I'm going to take that one if it's two or three games he's not bothered he what a masterclass of a sign and

[00:10:52] to get a player like Teddy sharing him by the way yeah yeah he doesn't necessarily have the most spectacular season this season still chips in and people start to label him as a little bit

[00:11:02] of a failure at Manchester United he couldn't make that step up and then of course we know what happens the following season but yeah he comes in and it's a tricky season I think for

[00:11:11] Alex Ferguson replacing Cantona years later a letter that Ferguson wrote to his outgoing player came to light I'll read you a little bit of an abridged version as it does have a tinge

[00:11:23] of the teenage love letter to it dear Eric some months have passed since we last spoke and I felt I should write to you as a mark of the respect and esteem in which I hold you

[00:11:32] when we started training I kept waiting for you to turn up as normal but I think that was in hope not realism and I knew in your eyes when we met at Mottram your time at Manchester United was over

[00:11:42] although I still feel you should have taken both your fathers and my advice and taken a holiday before making such a major decision he tells him to keep this fitness then says I'm sure you've

[00:11:50] seen we've signed Teddy sharing him the equivalent of I've got a new girlfriend now before adding that they still need a top class striker at no offense taken Andy Cole he continues if I

[00:12:00] was younger I suppose I would look at it differently but from a personal point of view I've not won the European Cup and it does get to me at times I keep hoping that I'll discover a young

[00:12:10] Cantona it is a dream the equivalent of copying and pasting the lyrics to Adele someone like you at this point he finishes as I close this letter I would like to hope that we will have a chat

[00:12:19] to drink or a meal together soon I know the club has written to you about the forthcoming dinner and I hope you will manage it but that's not the most important thing for me it's to

[00:12:27] remind you how good a player you were for Manchester United and how grateful I am for the service you gave me I will never forget that and hope you won't either you're always welcome here if

[00:12:35] you just pop in unexpectedly for a cup of tea just for a chat as friends that would mean more to me than anything Eric you know where I am if you need me and now that you're no longer one

[00:12:45] of my players I hope you know you have a friend good luck and god bless yours sincerely Alex Ferguson Andy I know he's got a reputation for the hairdryer and all that but that is

[00:12:56] sort of beautiful isn't it it really is beautiful isn't it I've never heard that before I've never heard that letter read before yeah really touching because you know Ferguson doesn't mince his words even now there are certain players who he still wouldn't speak favourably about even though they

[00:13:12] were great servants from Manchester United so yeah that's that's nice and Cantona was was a terror I mean there were so many there were so many players reunited down the years when you heard them read out on the team sheet when they were playing against you just

[00:13:29] chill down your spine he thought well any one of these six or seven could score and if you know if you keep if you keep Cantona quiet well you know Lee Sharp will get a hat

[00:13:40] trick or something and then you've got gigs and then Beckham and Skolls and then later on Cole and your interesting wasn't it that he's talking about not having a top-class striker and slightly dissonanty Cole and the following season when they brought him to out York they won

[00:13:56] the Champions League and Cole was absolutely insane when Ferguson was United manager I couldn't stand him but because everyone's quite nostalgic and we're all terrified of getting older we tend to sort of canonize the past so anyone associated with a time when we were younger

[00:14:13] makes us feel really warm and comfortable so I have a sort of weird abstract fondness for Alex Ferguson now because it reminds me of a time when I when I wasn't halfway through my life

[00:14:28] yeah huge a huge compliment from an Arsenal fan there definitely so Arsenal do win an early season classic at Filbert Street a Dennis Bird Camp hat trick containing one of the Premier League eras iconic 90s goals as the flying Dutchman better as a goal scored against Spurs the

[00:14:42] previous season by killing the ball over the top knocking it over the head of Matt Elliott and placing it beyond Casey Keller who knew he'd surpass it yet again in the world cup against Argentina by the season's end Ian Wright breaks Cliff Bastian's goal scoring record for Arsenal

[00:14:56] though not quite as quickly as he'd have liked his record equaling 178th goal for the Gunners comes against Bolton and he strips off his shirt to reveal a night fair saying 179 just done

[00:15:07] it thankfully he's just five minutes premature as he adds a second to reach the 179 mark before hitting 180 with a hat trick Arsenal go top of the table in late September as the goals of recent

[00:15:17] editions Mark Overmars and Nicholas and Elka combine with a thunderbasted at Stanford bridge for Nigel Winterburn to keep the points coming in on being asked of their title credentials Venga says all these teams can fight for it the most consistent will win it Manchester

[00:15:31] United have an advantage as they know they can win it Andy we'll talk about Dennis Bird camping a bit but Ian Wright's reign as Arsenal's top goalscorer would be eclipsed by another Talisman Frenchman within a decade but what does he mean as a player to Arsenal fans?

[00:15:45] He's so so much it helps that he's still visible and he's still a massive gooner because I think you want your players to support the team one of the reasons why it was so

[00:15:57] galling for Ashley Cole to leave for Chelsea was not just that Arsenal were as good as Chelsea but they were supposed to be a boycott Arsenal fan I wouldn't have done that

[00:16:07] I wouldn't have left to go to Chelsea I mean honoree was insane and arguably and I would say this arguably the best player of the Premier League era but he also had you know Vieira and Youngberg

[00:16:18] and Perez and Burke out for a long time Ian Wright played alongside Colin Pates and Andy Linnigan and Ian Selly and David Hillier and got those goals he basically won us the cup winner's cup

[00:16:34] in 1994 even though he didn't play in the final he was absolutely insane and you know it's interesting you can watch some old goal compilations from the 90s and you think well this player's

[00:16:46] like you know Paul Goddard and you think well Goddard wouldn't be a Premier League striker now and Marco Gabbia Dini and things like that but then you see Ian Wright's footwork and his pace and

[00:16:58] he would still be an absolutely top class striker when you think of Arsenal in the 90s I think most Arsenal fans yeah we think about the double but we think about Ian Wright because if it wasn't for

[00:17:12] Wrighty we wouldn't have got to the point where Burkham would have arrived anyway because we would have been lower lower middle table and there was a time where if Arsenal were going

[00:17:22] to score it was going to be Ian Wright and he did it he did it all the time I love him. An incredible underdog story as well wasn't it playing in non-league and kind of came up through the ranks he kind

[00:17:30] of came to football a little bit later a professional football a little bit later and still had an incredible career Manchester United's first defeat of the season comes at Ellen Road where Roy Keane's attempted foul on Alfinger Harland leaves the Irishman with damaged knee ligaments that

[00:17:43] will keep him out for the season a furious Harland displays his anger to the striker Manchester United captain as he lays on the floor I'm sure that's the last we'll hear of that particular rivalry then on November 9th a Teddy sharing embrace reverses the damage of

[00:17:57] early goals for Patrick Vieira and Nicholas and Elka in a full blooded first half at Highbury David Platt's towering header seals all three points late on to move the gunner second and within a point of the defending champions Andy that afternoon felt like the moment Fergie

[00:18:11] realized there was a proper challenger to his supremacy around in arson venga what your memories of that game I remember it really really well that was the point where I thought we can win this league and interestingly by December I changed my mind again because we went

[00:18:26] on I'm sure we'll get that we're in our terrible run of form but yeah when we beat United I thought yeah no we can we can do this we and I remember sort of the following day I was in sixth one

[00:18:35] at the time and just picking up the papers and just constantly just looking at the score over and over again because again you didn't beat Manchester United you just didn't beat them so to win and to win having had that you know despicable human being Teddy sharing

[00:18:50] them score against us for the you know 900th time I mean even scored against us when he went to Portsmouth he was about 39 think we're sharing him because he was always 32 like even when he started

[00:19:00] this career he was 32 there's probably there's probably youth team pictures of him when he was in the youth team like he's 32 that was the moment when Arsenal fans and certainly me thought

[00:19:13] we can win it so I have a wonderful memories going to school the next day feeling like a king it's a huge result by Christmas Day Arsenal's title aspirations do look in tatters though as you mentioned his defeats at home to Liverpool and surprise title contenders Blackburn

[00:19:26] and on the road at Hillsborough in Pride Park leave them 13 points off the pace and close to neighbours Spurs in 18th than Manchester United in first believe it or not Fergie's men do their best to keep it interesting for the neutral though coming off a six game winning

[00:19:39] streak after the Arsenal game to lose at home to Leicester and away at Coventry as well as their traditional annual defeat at the Dell by the 2nd of March Manchester United are 11 points clear

[00:19:49] of Arsenal with just 10 games to play also do have two games in hand but after the gunners dropped points against West Ham and Phil Neville briefly embodies Marco van Basten to get his first

[00:19:58] goal for the club in a 1-0 win at Chelsea one bookie pays out on Manchester United's title win early while many others stopped taking bets such is the confidence in their lead a fortnight later and Arsenal do the double over their title rivals with Mark Overmars scoring

[00:20:11] the game's only goal to close the gap to six points with three games in hand to leave their fate in their own hands for the first time it's an incredible turnaround Peter Schmeichel goes up

[00:20:21] for a corner in the final minutes of that game against Arsenal and tweaks a hamstring attempting a slide tackle on his way back and misses the next few games as a result Raymond

[00:20:29] van der Huy's in goal for their Champions League quarterfinal exit to Monaco a few days later Jamie what rarely spotted moments in football bring you joy other than a goalie going up for a

[00:20:39] corner which I think we can all agree is is an absolute delight back in the day when you used to get the occasional stray dog just running on the pitch I think there was nothing more

[00:20:49] enjoyable because stadiums are much more wide open with gates in corners and a dog could just go what is that a ball and no people would rescue the dog you're thinking where did the dog come

[00:21:01] from and where's it going now and you would I think that's a sad thing that's missing from football today is that the the occasional dog getting cheered on by the crowd as it

[00:21:10] went round with the ball when was the last time Super Sunday had a Labrador or a streaker it just hasn't happened this is what needs to happen fantastic it could never be a Labrador

[00:21:21] that to be like traditionally it was like a black scabby dog that was just surprised as so yeah streakers are old dogs in football that's what we need although Everton Everton does still

[00:21:35] today have what's called the gooders and cat okay right so because teams now have the lights on the pitch at night to help the grass grow then there's no way warmer than being sat on their

[00:21:49] tyres or underneath underneath those lights so we've got the gooders and cat being photographed many a time wow okay and Andy if you've got any of these what comes to mind I like it when

[00:22:01] some a player scores at both ends i don't know why Tony Adams used to do it once a season he'd score he'd score in the right end and then score an own goal i just love that i think

[00:22:14] something really charming and noble about that and Andy another subkeeper who has an absolute storm of a month is Alex Manninger who steps in for David Siemen keeps six clean sheets in the

[00:22:25] seven games he plays and wins the Premier League Player of the Month when Venga joined your sub keeper was John Lukich an agent John Lukich how important was it to have a keeper of Manninger's

[00:22:34] quality behind David Siemen well some things just seem written in the stars don't they Manninger did okay the following season but then very quickly fell out of favour as did Christopher Ray upfront sometimes it just feels scripted doesn't it we lost Birkhead we lost right we had

[00:22:51] Ray and Analka up front Analka was only 18 and yet we kept winning Manninger came in at well and with Manninger nobody had heard of him for him to come in and replace David Siemen was

[00:23:02] just left everybody feeling a little bit anxious because we hadn't heard of any of these people they'd been brought in as reserves not as not to fight for their places but just to be reserves

[00:23:11] and that's what happened but Manninger was insane and that battle of Old Trafford was basically Manninger gate and he just he made some unbelievable saves if it was a computer game and you were

[00:23:22] playing as Manchester United you would have turned it off because it was it was obviously scripted it was obviously scripted but again that was an odd it was Arslan never scored at Old Trafford in the Premier League and so when Birkhead headed it and Analka headed it

[00:23:35] and then Overmars went scurrying through and put it into the net it was unreal it was it was literally unreal again a real moment where actually you know Manninger United had been paid

[00:23:45] out by the bookies and all of a sudden Arsenal are very much back in the title race. Venger says Manchester United have a small advantage with points on the board a bruised Alex Ferguson claims

[00:23:54] the Gunners will drop points before the end of the season it's inevitable he says when asked how his rivals will deal with the pressure he adds well they've never been under pressure

[00:24:02] so let's see how they handle that now Arsenal do handle the pressure as they continue to win Fergie's men drop points against familiar foes Liverpool and Newcastle in April it all means

[00:24:12] Arsenal go top of the table for the first time since October after beating Wimbledon 5-0. Six weeks earlier bookmakers have paid out on Manchester United now they trail the Gunners having played

[00:24:23] two games more and are needing snookers a 2-0 win at Oakwell and a 1-0 win over Derby means just three more points from their final three games will seal the deal with trips to

[00:24:33] Anfield and Villa Park to end the season a home game on Super Sunday against relegation haunted Everton who've dropped into the bottom three at the worst possible time thanks to results elsewhere 24 hours earlier offers the chance to win it in front of their own fans a billage

[00:24:47] own goal a brace from Mark Overmars and Tony Adams in the 89th minute seals a 4-0 win and the Premier League title is lifted at hybrid that same afternoon Andy as you say of all moments that feel scripted in football Tony Adams striding through beating the offside

[00:25:03] via a through ball from Steve Bold is surely one of them what are your memories of that day at hybrid and let's face it maybe the 24 hours that followed I remember running around outside my house

[00:25:17] for my parents out in Newcastle underline waving my big arson or flag wearing this wearing this top which fortunately still fits because everything was extra large in the 90s so it fits snugly now

[00:25:27] I again I loved it and at that point we knew we were going to win and Andy Gray said I think on Super Sunday there's only one team going to be attacking today and it's not Everton

[00:25:38] I was in that quote um I remember it so well and it felt inevitable and we scored quite early what was good about Overmars' second goal and then the Adams goal was the first two goals weren't

[00:25:50] title winning goals if you like you know the billage own goal was an own goal and then Overmars' first goal sort of hit the keeper and just trickled into the net so there wasn't that sense of adrenaline from the goals so Overmars' second and then Adams' clincher

[00:26:05] were proper suitable fitting moments and yeah I just I was elated because for me you know I didn't I wasn't married then I didn't have kids then football was everything and I'd seen

[00:26:18] after win the league as a child and now I was just an adult just an adult and it just felt insane it felt brilliant honestly just still I would love to go back to that day

[00:26:31] yeah that is a real moment even Tony Adams to be the one and the troubles you know that Tony Adams had had in the past an incredible story I mean Jamie from an Everton perspective your present

[00:26:42] at a part of your route don't really want to be at we're going to cover Everton season in more detail shortly but how was that afternoon from your perspective I mean are you

[00:26:50] just like going we're looking doomed here well I remember that watching that game in the globe the pub just down the road and it was predominantly there's probably only three of us that were

[00:27:01] Everton fans it's a it's nearly that at that time was mainly made up of Manchester United fans so for a very rare occasion the whole pub was cheering Everton on with just hope and belief

[00:27:14] and then the reality then we had belief until the whistle went and the game started and then quickly realized you know we were under it you know we were now this was an arsehole team that

[00:27:27] were never going to back down and it was it was it was real very quickly and then when Tony Adams scored the fourth it was just like the ultimate insult isn't it really you know Steve Bolden Tony

[00:27:40] Adams and he just think that that summed up the day didn't it Tony Adams not only was it bad enough that he's been going out with Caprice you think his shocks were over you know but what a captain

[00:27:54] he was by the way you know and he did say didn't he that you know he would run through Brick Walls for that team and he literally did it which ended up within him prison yeah he drove through

[00:28:05] Brick Walls yeah well he was it he was a great captain he was a great leader and all that you can look back in it now with you know sort of fond memories because Everton stayed up that season

[00:28:16] you think it was probably a fitting end to that game for him to score that goal and for him to get the trophy and that being at goodness and park on a couple of occasions now and seeing people

[00:28:27] win the trophy win the league and yeah it's not easy to watch to be honest with you seeing somebody lift the trophy you know when you're when you're playing them and just thinking oh only

[00:28:37] that was us you know but I think going into that game what would have started that season would have been people doubtful even Arsenal players would have been doubtful can arson venga get us over the

[00:28:49] line but going through January and February even the biggest doubters in that Arsenal dressing room would have been a believer in arson venga then and he was starting to tell them players see

[00:29:00] it's going to plan then they had ultimate belief and also as well what arson landed that season the dietary changes the focus on fitness that had never been there before if that arson if that

[00:29:11] would have been 10 years earlier arson would have just faded out with fatigue and mental drainage but now you've got a manager who's set them up to last the entire season so going into that running

[00:29:25] they were never going to wane was they and ultimately we paid the price four and a half on that day 10 years 10 years previous to that they would have been in paddy power putting bets on us

[00:29:35] throwing away the title that's what he's 10 years ago because the culture changed isn't it you know his motto was chew to win chew to win that's what I used to say when the players

[00:29:45] you know in the past they just have a steak and chips and you would just eat it but he had all these little fine details of you've got to chew your food so it's like baby food so that you've

[00:29:56] got the ultimate benefit from that food and the energy would last year so little things like that it's all about percentages they always talk about one percent in sport one percent being the difference

[00:30:07] and he found that difference in the percentage to get him over the line unfortunately for everton we were probably like a lot of Premier League teams still in the crossing over from

[00:30:16] the old school footballers who would like a pint and it's getting towards the end of the season where are you going on all day and but in a scrap and you know we thought we could scrap possibly

[00:30:27] you know years gone by we probably could have beaten Arsenal up beat literally beating them up and got a scrappy win but they'd gone past that point hadn't they you know these french players coming in they were dancing round as and they probably helped Tony Adams last longer

[00:30:42] that famous Arsenal back four that they had their careers extended certainly by venga and probably by the players around them Arsenal are league champions they do lose the next two as it happens although it's likely half of them are still hung over during the four-nil defeat at

[00:30:54] anfield a few days later despite vengour's new fitness regime Manchester United do beat leads and barns to give a flattering look to the table in the end but this is an implosion by their own high standards and those four points in five games between christmas and february

[00:31:07] as well as failing to pick up a single point against their title rivals proves fatal and that is the title race for 97 98 so we're going to move on now to the top goalscores from the season a few familiar names in

[00:31:24] from earlier seasons in the Premier League and one or two new players who will continue to make an impact in the seasons ahead here's the top 10 in full 10th it's quite a low scoring league

[00:31:35] actually at this season so paolo one-shot makes it into 10th for darby with 13 goals darren hooker being nine with 14 andy coal john hartson with 15 apiece jimmy floyd hassel bank who's joined lead kevin gallagher making an appearance in joint fourth for blackburn with 16th

[00:31:52] and denny spur camp with 16 as well the three-way joint top goalscores for this season are chris sutton of blackburn deon dublin of coventry city and michael owing of libra pool who scores 18 goals despite only being 18 himself lads deon dublin jointly wins his one and only golden boot here

[00:32:13] what is unique about him in this season's top 10 though so out of those 10 players there's something unique about deon dublin this is this is this is quite difficult but let's see if you get anywhere

[00:32:26] close isn't it that he did it for two different clubs that might be the next season might be next season i think do you know the answer cal i do i do know the answer is it that he was hosting

[00:32:38] homes under the hammer part time yeah i'm gonna say there was probably a high percentage of headers or open play there's gotta be something in gin that so it's they're both well they're

[00:32:56] they're both good guessers homes are maybe less so it's actually and i i just thought this was quite bizarre he's the only player in the premier league's top 10 goalscores this season who was also in the

[00:33:09] top 10 the previous season shearer drops out um there's andy col wasn't in the previous season in the top 10 so there's this real kind of changing of the guard there's no robbie fouler

[00:33:20] this season for like the first time so actually there's a real sort of a bunch of quite you've got burgh camp um darin huckabee pallow one chop a few new players coming in so he's the only

[00:33:30] player to being the the top 10 premier league goalscorer's two consecutive seasons andy denise burgh camp becomes arsals main talisman in the same season the embrite breaks cliff baston's gold scoring record as we mentioned and before tiaryon rejoins i mean he arrived in the

[00:33:45] premier league at time when there was this influx of overseas talent how important was it players like him zola cantinar ginola lived up to the height because at the time i think i

[00:33:55] recall there was a lot of criticism about foreign players coming in that the premier league was selling the soul of english football and also just how good was he well yeah it was important wasn't

[00:34:03] it and it was interesting because reoc bruce reoc brought him in uh alongside david plat and he had a fantastic first season and again he without burgh camp there probably is no title winning side

[00:34:14] because he was sort of the magnet of the track to the other players even though he struggled early on i don't remember feeling annoyed that all these i think we got annoyed when sort of

[00:34:25] weird low level foreign players came in like arsala brought in a guy called alberto rodriguez mendez from second division germany and that was weird but no when the zola's and the cantinas

[00:34:37] and the ginola came everyone was happy about that because it it made you feel good it made you feel like we were the best league in the world and you know seria had been the best

[00:34:45] league in the world at that time and so just that's why everyone watched football italia because that's where the good players were so for arsala who'd been for an arsala fan who'd been watching john harcind christopher wamirop front uh with glenn helder on the wing to suddenly have

[00:34:59] denise burgh camp come in it was like something on championship manager it was like a where you sort of you make an offer and they just accept it and all of a sudden denise burgh i'm

[00:35:09] saying was it was real life championship manager so no one was that bothered and actually whilst for a while i think we definitely did see the negative effect on the english national team

[00:35:23] that's not the case anymore where we've probably got the best group of youngsters in the in the world so it's probably worth it in the end burgh camp was he was he was special and he

[00:35:33] was probably his best season but he had a really good season 2002 2000 2001 2002 as well and yeah just just an icon yeah a huge player and a proper premier league legend um jamie duncan furgusson's 11 goals don't quite land him in the top 10 this season boyhood everton fan michael

[00:35:50] owing whose dad terry also briefly played for the toffees does explode onto the scene we've already discussed burgh camp who did support spurs as a kid is it about time fifa brought in

[00:36:00] a rule where you have to play for the team you had a replica kit for on your 10th birthday well if that was the case and it was the case for fans and supporters then i had then i'd be banned from

[00:36:13] goddison because when i was 10 i got a live pill kit for christmas wow and it survived 48 hours that's all that kit ever survived because the backlash from the bigger family circle

[00:36:27] i mean dad was just happy to buy it for me i'd had enough i just wanted to be achieving someone on and winnings things and i got the live pill kit crown paints

[00:36:37] and there was a life lesson to be learned over those couple of days and it was i swapped it with a kid around the corner whose mum and dad had been to spain and brought him back a snide

[00:36:46] barcelona kits who really wanted a live pill kit and i ended up by new yers eve wedding a barcelona kit and he he took the live pill kit so yeah but there's been a number of

[00:36:57] live up i think was steve michael owing and steven gerrard as well everton fan money famously in 1987 pitches with the league and charity shield so harry gore as well carrie was an everton fan

[00:37:13] yeah yeah i think we should have first pick on them yeah well that's it i mean there's possibly a swap between harry kane and denise bergham and robby keith's gonna have more clubs than

[00:37:24] germaine pennant so moving on to the relegation battle now it's another season where pretty much every side in the bottom half is within a sniff of the relegation battle at one point or another

[00:37:36] sheffield wednesday park company with david pleat in october with the owls bottom of the table peter shrieves oversees a five nil win over bolton in caretaker charge before ron act kinson's second coming at hillsborough begins with the two nil win over title hopeful's arsenal

[00:37:51] wednesday rise to lower mid table where they remain for the rest of the season at new castle who've challenged for the title every year since their return to the top flight of all frequently looking over their shoulders this season a serious injury to alan shearer and some

[00:38:02] intriguing transfer business from kenny dalglish signing a 36 year old ian rush for starters leaves the magpies fighting at the wrong end without ever really looking in danger of getting sucked in shears returning january sees him assist to mori ketzbaya in his first game back

[00:38:17] who promptly takes his shirt off and kicks the shit out some advertising hoardings for no apparent reason at coventry and southampton so often scrapping at the bottom both finished this season in comfortable with table while wimbledon missed the goals of dean holdsworth and end the season

[00:38:31] with five players tied for top scorer with just four goals each but still do just enough to never really look in trouble there are five teams though who spend most of the season trying to avoid the trapdoor of three in newly promoted barnsley palace and bolton alongside

[00:38:47] and this is where andy feels smog and me and jaymey wins a little everton and spurs who have a combined 62 years of uninterrupted top flight football between them going into the season

[00:38:56] records that will look very precarious for much of this year jaymey everton are f a cup winners in 95 they finish sixth in 96 under joe royal what happens in these couple of years to leave

[00:39:08] them on the brink like this the senior play is aged the experienced players the players who'd won things at age and the recruitment in the new players wasn't at the level as to what we'd add so

[00:39:22] we brought in like you're on about the international imports you know when they were reliant on those pages and maybe the the scout in net work you know a lot of the time you

[00:39:33] mentioned eam rush going to new castle well that wasn't because new castle wants to be in rush that was because kenny dalig leash just dragged his mate and a lot of that was still

[00:39:42] in like that's how football was there was a lot of nepotism wasn't there you know i'll bring me mate in i'll bring such a deal do a job and football was moving on very very fast and

[00:39:52] we got caught out once you get sucked in if you haven't got play you know if you've got winners winners are winners but you put winners in a losing situation they don't know how to battle

[00:40:02] themselves out of that because it's a different mindset that's needed you can't bring academy players through you know we've got the likes of dany caramati john austin etc to put them in a firefight

[00:40:14] you know i was on about before when i said teddy shellingham's going to get six chances and he'll know if he misses three three he's coming but when you're in a relegation battle and you've

[00:40:23] got young strikers up front and the whole stadium brought just size because you've just missed an opportunity the pressure on those younger players it's just too much and then the

[00:40:35] skate to take the chances because they don't want to be the one that missed the open goal etc so we got sucked in we went backwards with the manager our kennel still the greatest manager

[00:40:47] everton have ever had we should have moved forward at that point but we didn't we went back we're roasting to glasses hoping that he would recreate the magic and and he didn't yeah yeah absolutely and andy i can't believe i'm asking you this question

[00:41:03] but of all people but arsenal finish 11 points behind spurs in 1995 they're two points 22 points and then 34 points ahead of them by the end of this season in the seasons that follow what was happening at arsenal that wasn't happening at tottenham in that period well it was the arrival

[00:41:19] of st tottering comes day which is a day you'll have heard of um where which hasn't happened always but he's been brought back recently where um it's the day of the season where tottenham

[00:41:31] can no longer finish above arsenal so uh that was the you know that was very kicked off i think and probably here we have to give some credit to roi hodgeson who is now a sort of Howard kendall

[00:41:44] figure isn't he because he is sort of a bit outdated although he's done quite well at palace but um roi hodgeson was was actually before vengar in changing the diet and stuff which is

[00:41:55] why he took a average blackburn side and ended up finishing in the in the top six he was like vengar he got that continental approach to diet and health it just didn't

[00:42:04] quite fall for spurs and you just don't really know do you know like when you watch old games on sky or on youtube and you see the lineup from a team that finished me a table and think

[00:42:16] what are some amazing players there the problem is you're you're thinking about those players when they were at their best and they might not have been at their best when they were in

[00:42:24] that team so ericsson and van der waart playing the same team for spurs and bail why didn't they win the league well they weren't peak so i don't really know and i don't really care what wasn't

[00:42:33] happening at spurs i think it's i just think it was funny um and so it serves them right they were making terrible choices weren't they he he basically tried to get a bootleg arson vengar in christian gross didn't he thought you didn't press the spurs fans by saying

[00:42:52] look i came on the tube why are they not paying you enough mate just come by car but vengar was vengar was a genius i feel about vengar in the way that jaymy feels about howard kendall you don't

[00:43:03] want them to have got to the point where they're no longer the best but the fact is that in their generation at that time they were the best and that's all you can ask for you know it's like

[00:43:14] looking at old you know old comedians now are the are the two would the two ronnie sketch show be popular these days probably not but in the 70s it was the best there was that's all you can do

[00:43:25] vengar was was amazing for so many reasons and it was it was him that was the the difference and of course he had that sort of scouting network which nobody else seemed to have no unless they were

[00:43:39] on tv no one knew about these players but vengar knew that lower league french players that's where he got onry that's where he got anelka that's where he got a pati and to a lesser

[00:43:47] extent remi guard and gilgrimondi but um yeah he brought in these absolute stars he missed out on on goal locante at the end of his career and he should have got him but that's that's for another

[00:43:58] podcast yeah yeah that's a few a few episodes in the future absolutely um newly promoted barnsey get their first ever season of top flat football off to a dream start when neil redfern puts them in

[00:44:09] the lead against west hammer oakwell on opening day but john hartson and a first premier league goal for frank lampard i'm sure that's a lesson we'll be hearing of him means the hammers leave

[00:44:17] with all three points redfern is again on the score sheet as they get off the mark with a one nil win at crystal palace in midweek but they're on the end of more than a few tongkins as the

[00:44:26] season progresses shipping five against arsenal six against chelsea and west ham and seven against manchester united they do beat libra pool one nil anfield but it's a three two defeat in the return

[00:44:37] fixture when they're reduced to eight men that takes the sting out of a valiant survival push the danie wilson episode we've recorded by the way on this show is a great account of that

[00:44:48] crystal palace attempt to replicate the middle's protactic have added a uventa start of their ranks in a bid to survive with similar results atelio lombardo isn't quite as prolific as ravinelli was the previous season but chipped in during the opening weeks to leave the eagles in the

[00:45:02] comfort of mid-table at the turn of the year it will be a different story after christmas a delayed takeover bid steve koppel moving upstairs and a failed attempt to recruit terry venables to the managerial hot seat means lombardo who is later joined by former uve

[00:45:16] teammate michelle padevano is bizarrely installed as player manager seemingly against his will according to some reports i'm captain of the titanic screamed the headlines as the italian takes over the ship while in the dressing room vaderian ishmael is asked if he'll draw me like

[00:45:31] one of your french girls by teammate neil shippily and that's that joke does come with some quite uncertain mental imagery if you've got the time on your hands and bolton begin the season in their brand new state of the art re-box stadium eventually at least with their

[00:45:45] first game being the fourth of the season against everton jerry taggert's header should have opened the scoring with tv replays clearly showing the ball had gone over the line but referee steve lodge remained unmoved and the game finished goalless i'm sure that'll be purely

[00:45:59] academic between everton and bolton by the season's end and alan thompson penalty against spurs will be the first actual goal scored at the new stadium after their second game against man united also finishes goalless and the return of howard kendall isn't enough to

[00:46:13] prevent everton spending the entire season in the bottom third of the table and a significant chunk of it inside the bottom three a rare highlight comes when danie cadamartre announces himself to the gooderson park faithful with a superb solo goal in a two-nil win during the

[00:46:26] merseyside derby how important those three points will prove to be by the season's end i mean jamie we've talked about the gulf that's grown between spurs and arsenal during this season the rise of danie cadamartre and michael owin and where their careers will eventually go is

[00:46:40] perhaps a bit of a metaphor for everton and liverpool too for the shortest time he looked like a world beater at the academy didn't he he did and i was i was with him last week actually

[00:46:50] um he really well yeah um he's still doing well it's probably yorkshire bloke isn't he but i think that goes to show the the difference in in freedom and plays being able to express themselves that

[00:47:01] if you're a team in the top third you can take and missed opportunities don't count don't count for much if your other players around you don't mop them up you have liverpool

[00:47:10] have missed an opportunity with michael owin but then there's robbie fauna there to pick it up and he'll score a goal so when you're a young player like danie cadamartre then he couldn't express

[00:47:20] himself he's gonna he's gonna get frustrated he had all the talent in the world he should have been you know up there as one of the best premier league forwards but it didn't work out

[00:47:31] for him and i think that's because we was in the in the bottom third and then other striking then you start chopping and changing you can't drop dunk and figs and he's always going to be the

[00:47:40] the number one choice there so he was never given a you're a starter you are our faiths in you and you're gonna play the seat when you're fit you're gonna play the season it was never that it

[00:47:50] was come on with 20 minutes to go or you'll start the game and come on come off after 60 so every game is like you know when you walk on on stage and some some shows you have that knot

[00:48:03] in your stomach because there's a couple of stark do's in and you're sort of waiting you're anxious because you're waiting for something to happen around the room whereas other times you walk on

[00:48:12] and you feel so relaxed it's all warm it's friendly it's welcoming and you feel like you can just breathe easy in and take your time and deliver your best version of you and i think that's what

[00:48:21] happened with danie cadamartre yeah very very good comparison and he looked absolutely fantastic during this season red locks anymore by the way he's completely bald but his son plays up front for sheffield wednesday at the moment is his third academy 14 yeah nice nice okay i

[00:48:41] wonder if eddo hoy still got the mustache do we ought to just do like a style a style comparison well you mentioned lombardo just before it seems weird looking back at the old footage of plays

[00:48:53] like lombardo because you would never have a man yeah if a man was bald he'd look like Andy as in yeah he'd move it off but lombardo was going around like suddenly that he had all the bits at

[00:49:04] the side and he was like he was ready to order the pint in the book was retained you know yeah exactly looked like a 1960s young executive didn't he but like who would have a really

[00:49:14] difficult child or some creepy uncle it's probably only about 20 probably about 28 or something but he just looked a lot older and that was the thing and i don't know why this i this is a phenomenon

[00:49:25] which i don't understand and i don't know quite how it faves down but the era of footballers looking like old men through the 70s and 80s they i don't know whether it was just

[00:49:38] the moustaches but they all looked like old men and then all of a sudden they looked like young boys again and i don't know where the join is there's a phd in there somewhere footballers ageing badly on twitter is a an incredible account that shows this of just

[00:49:54] 25 year old man who looked like your granddad i mean ian rush is a famous like how old was ian rush ian rush was never was never 20 rape harla's another one if you see rape harla's old youth team

[00:50:05] sotnam get rid of jerry francis and replace him with little known swiss manager christian gross who arrives brandishing his tube ticket as his first press conference to a luke warm response like a prop comic on a new material night gross's trusted fitness coach fritz schmitt is denied

[00:50:21] a work permit and he loses his first game in charge picks up three points ever and sorry about that jaymey before losing six one at home to chelsea and four nil at coventry prompting

[00:50:31] captain gary mabbett to publicly state his side were in a relegation battle as spurs dropped to 18th as the christmas decorations are going up that's when a return for yurgen clinsman just in time for a one-one draw with arsenal reignites hopes of survival his first goal back in

[00:50:45] lily white comes in a one-nil win against west ham in january converting his yinol across in typical poachers fashion andy it pains me to admit it and we've kind of already covered it but clearly

[00:50:55] alan sugar has spotted arson venger doing a decent job down the road he's tried to follow suit as an absolute absolutely right i know i've mentioned championship manager a couple of times now

[00:51:04] but it was it was my first love it was certainly my girlfriend of the 90s um but it was like when championship manager first came out there was only a few players from overseas that you could buy

[00:51:17] and and so anyone with a slightly foreign sounding name was probably a good player like you just thought oh he's got a slightly african name i'll buy him and he'll be a wonder kid or something

[00:51:27] i think what we saw with christin groves was the equivalent of that sugar just thought oh he's a foreign manager foreign managers are good now so we'll bring we'll bring him in and it wasn't just

[00:51:36] that he was a bad manager he looked he looked so miserable and dower yeah he did a pretty decent job actually in his in his future career he did not work at tottenham uh i think that's fair to

[00:51:47] say as the business end of the season approaches chrystal palace of the first side down a three-nil defeat at home to manchester united in april's enough to end their one season return les ferdinand

[00:51:57] is on the score sheet for the first time in seven months for spurs against new castle and then chips in again alongside yogan clinsman who bags four as spurs run right at wimbledon twin six two and

[00:52:07] secured their place in the premier league for the following season as well barnsley leads spurs at halftime with four games to go in a match that would have lifted them out of the bottom three

[00:52:15] had they held on instead collin coldwood's equaliser was a turning point for both sides and their one and only season of top flight football still to this day has ended at

[00:52:24] thilbert street a few weeks later all of which leads us to an epic final day between bolton and everton bolton's five two win over palace in their penultimate match gives them genuine hope

[00:52:35] as they climb out of the bottom three for the first time since christmas with a game to play meanwhile everton's two wins in 14 which includes that capitulation at hybrae in the title deciding match the previous week means that they go into the final weekend with their

[00:52:48] fate outside their own hands with everton needing to better bolton's result gareth farrelly seventh minute goal against coventry a team used to find out day drama themselves but not usually in the supporting role settles the nerves at goodison there's pandemonium when news of jan lucaviali

[00:53:05] 73rd minute opener against the trotters filters through to make john austers miss penalty seven minutes later from time look academic that is of course until deon dublin's 89th minute equaliser for coventry suddenly a goal for bolton is all they need to stay up leading to remarkable

[00:53:22] scenes at stanford bridge with chelsea fans cheering them on they come close before jody morris's breakaway goal leads to booze from the home side at their own team scoring chelsea settle things and everton's 40th point of the season is enough to keep them up on

[00:53:36] goal difference cue scenes of jubilation at goodison everton live to fight another day jay me you may i may have increased your heart rate just reliving some of that it isn't the

[00:53:46] first time ever and do that to your nerves it won't be the last what are you going through on a day like that watching your team when you know that relegations on the line obviously at the

[00:53:54] time of recording this that's never happened to everton but does it compare you've seen your team in a cup final as well does it compare to a cup final winning a cup final describe it for

[00:54:03] us um in the in the sense of it also relief yes but in terms of when it happened the first time against covency or that day against covency and we stayed up there was jubilation because it was

[00:54:16] like it was like this was an accident we we will never be it again we've just fallen our standards have slipped and we're down there and we'll be we'll be all right it's happened a couple of times

[00:54:27] since it happened last season um it's the it's the worst feeling ever to be honest with you you go into the game you want to go the game but you don't want to be there but if you're

[00:54:38] not there um you don't want to miss it it's it's all the mixed emotions that go a lot of bolt and fans will pinpoint the disallowed goal at the Reebok that we played that that should have

[00:54:50] stood because we went down they went down on goal difference but then you're kicking to play that what the butterfly effect you know if that goal had gone in now ever that game ones have been

[00:55:00] the same the rest of the season ones have been the same but it's the worst feeling in the world when you when you go into a game knowing you're on a poor run of form and people go yeah but

[00:55:11] we should be covency or we should be i mean i don't even know what dion dublin was doing up there in the 89th minute we were we were all just like well why has he done that like no wait what's

[00:55:21] sporting about that and he actually runs away proper celebrating by the way we were absolutely flattened when he's we were just in disbelief like why would dion dublin going why would you

[00:55:33] do that but of course the professional sportsman you know in the same way that jody morris took off and setting calm everyone's nose but it's not a good feeling you don't want it sometimes you've

[00:55:43] resigned yourself to the fact sometimes it's easier to get relegated with three games to go and go to the last game of the season when you're looking at your phone and you're looking at the maths

[00:55:54] and you know sky do it now so you've got instant access using using your mobile but back for that covency game you've got you've got some fellow four rows down who's got a radio

[00:56:06] and you're trying to believe that what he says is true oh there's been a goal as then the pockets start jumping up and you get all those false alarms all the way through and

[00:56:15] it's not nice it's not nice at all no a stressful experience but everything do survive and it is the three newly promoted teams barnsley bolton and crystal palace who returned from whence they came okay we're going to take a short break from 97 98 now to put another player into

[00:56:37] our premier league of nations hall of fame what we do on this show is we pick the greatest player from each nation represented on planet earth in the premier league we're doing it alphabetically

[00:56:49] and this time we are up to bulgaria now at the time of recording this there have been nine bulgarians to appear in the premier league i've shortlisted the top four but special mentions to strikers boncho guenchev and svetislav todorov who made a combined 109 premier league appearances

[00:57:06] scoring just 13 goals between them so i'm sure they'll forgive me for me not shortlisting them instead your shortlisted four are martin petroff the 2006 bulgarian footballer of the year who played in five countries with more appearances in england than anywhere else for manchester city

[00:57:23] and bolton his international debut came in 1999 when he replaced his idols risto steutschkopf in a game against england he was sent off for two yellows nine minutes later and left the field in tears but would go on to win 86 caps or is it radiston kisyshev who made 179 relatively

[00:57:43] unspectacular appearances for alan kurbisley's chart on the athletic side of the 2000s aside from being a reliable and regular starter for the addicts between 2000 2007 his most memorable moment was perhaps scoring against rivals west ham he won 88 captains national team and was last seen

[00:57:58] as under 19's coach at his hometown club churno marettes burgas i hope i've said that correctly or is it stilliam petroff the all-time bulgarian record appearance maker with 105 caps he followed martin o'neill from selting park to villa park in 2006 where he'd eventually become captain

[00:58:18] he once scored a volley from just inside his own half against darby county and was player of the season at villa park in 2009 and inducted into the hall of fame in 2013 after an enforce retirement following a diagnosis of lymphoblastic leukemia following his recovery he later became

[00:58:34] a coach at villa or is it dimitar berbertoff the joint top scorer for bulgaria with 48 goals in 78 appearances he spent five years at spurs striking up a telepathic partnership with robby keen and winning a league cup before making the move to alex vergeson's manchester united

[00:58:51] where he won two premier league titles and a golden boot in 2011 he did finish his premier league career with 19 goals in 63 appearances for fulham leading him just six strikes short of the exclusive premier league 100 club a man who was rarely hurried he was once booked for taking his

[00:59:07] shirt off after a goal to reveal a t-shirt that said keep calm and pass the ball to me something full of manager martin yall said was not the brightest thing to do and he finished

[00:59:17] his career in the indian super league with karala blasters under the management of former england goalkeeper david james berbertoff complained of james's observed tactics which is fair enough when you consider that james played him as a defensive midfielder so gentlemen you've heard

[00:59:34] our four options um who is the greatest bulgair in the premier league era is it either of our petroffs is it kitschershev or is it berbertoff let's come to you first jamey i'm going to go

[00:59:46] berbertoff because he took the opportunity to take the step up and join manchester united and again to for a player to make that he could have stayed at tottenham being a folk hero being

[01:00:00] loved forever scored the goals took the plaudits but then to go to manchester united at that time then he's got to make a fair the leap and to make that leap in in such because you don't you

[01:00:13] don't get time to settle in at manchester united at that time you're not getting eight games just to bed in he hit the ground running the fans loved him and he went on to be an all-time great

[01:00:25] if you can hit the ground running while a slightly laconic um you know stroll which is all he ever did he didn't run too often did he berbertoff but he was an absolute delight he did he

[01:00:34] ghosted past players yes yeah yeah you always yeah you always just didn't really look like he was trying while also looking absolutely magnificent so yeah there's yeah certainly a bit of the

[01:00:44] cantanar about him as well i think andy what about you well this is a bit like asking you know what is the best form of travel is it a space rocket b horse and cart c walking

[01:00:57] um it's obviously berbertoff and he was arrogant but he had the skill to go with it unlike a certain nicholas bentner who were claimed to be the greatest striker in the world

[01:01:13] but wasn't so yeah he was great he was great wasn't he and he did well everywhere he went and he was he was in the bird camp mould because he was never gonna sprint past three players

[01:01:24] and lash it in but he was sort of bird camp sharing a monthly combination and yeah he was a great player seemed like a nice chap as well nice pair of curtains on him so um yeah i'm going

[01:01:36] surprise surprise i'm going with berbertoff well sometimes it does seem like a slightly clerical option but let's we're gonna put this on twitter or whatever the hell it's called if it still exists by the time this episode goes out for a poll check our social media channels

[01:01:51] we'll put it out for you to vote home you've heard of the lads think dimitar berbertoff is a unanimous choice as our greatest ever bulgarian premier league player okay we're gonna now come to some of the major transfers from this season

[01:02:07] mark over mars and emmanuel patty are arsenals key signings while paul mercen drops a division to join middlesbrough manchester united bring in heiningberg from blackburn and teddy showing them from spurs graham lasso's big money move to chelsea is offset by the

[01:02:20] bargain acquisitions of gustpoye and torre andre flow while paul insurize back in england anfield this time alongside oeven leonardson and danie murphy the emergence of michael owin who will become england's youngest ever international against chile a few months after his 18th birthday

[01:02:35] also sees stan collymore makeway departing for boyhood side aston villa david ginola sorts the northeast for north london and is followed soon after by les ferdina and who joins old manager jerry francis once again at spurs the ink is barely dry on the contract for allen

[01:02:50] cheeris offers a serious injury leaving new castle looking light up top uh kenny delglish aside gets a dad's army tag as he stamps his image on his new side bringing in stewart pierce ian rush and john

[01:03:02] barnes as well as gary speed to murry ketspire alessandro pastoni shea given and yondale thompson robbie elliott and peter beadsley to bolton and john beresford to southampton are just some of the other key men from the keegan era to depart all three newly promoted sides don't do

[01:03:19] quite enough to stay where they are despite dean holdsworth leaving wimbledon for bolton ashley ward swapping darby for barnesley he's another former guest by the way he talks about that move quite a bit and atilio lombardo who leaves the event as for crystal palace that

[01:03:32] well-worn path bolton do also had south african international mark fish and friend of the show neil copse of their backline suggesting if you buy a man of fish it won't make much difference

[01:03:41] but if you teach a fish to play with cox they'll still go down on gold difference definitely wasn't worth it andy it's easy to say it now but adding over mars and pati to this

[01:03:53] arsenal team that's really found a balance between the old and the new is a master stroke how quickly did it become obvious that they were just two real key missing pieces for this team

[01:04:04] yeah very very quickly particularly with over mars and the moment for pati was the battle old trafford where he and viera were like a wall and it was after that that i got have i got it on

[01:04:14] here no but on my next arsenal top i got a pati 17 on the back and again along with young bergen paul mercenie been my favorite three arsenal players of all time jayme do you remember when

[01:04:24] you got merc to sign my book for me by the way i did yeah it was a few yeah he used to come to dinner he's about 12 years ago now but yeah it was that point because we'd never had a

[01:04:36] defensive midfield like this i mean football wasn't played like that anyway but we'd never had a holding midfield like pati or viera and they were like a war and then they they would win it

[01:04:48] and then they'd spray it to over mars or give it to burkham and he'd knock in over mars it was just so exciting it was like a sprint relay team it was sort of the the raniere model or raniere

[01:04:59] used that sort of model when he won the league with lester that but that sort of 424 attacking was just incredible it's so fun to watch and then when we brought an alcar in again an alcar

[01:05:10] on over mars on the same team you just thought well just there if it goes behind their defense we will score that was incredible i loved over mars i loved him so much and i love pati it's

[01:05:21] a shame that neither of them were there for very long and they both went to bar sir but yeah beautiful people incredible recruitment for marshal that season jaymeet by contrast everton lose andy hingcliffe and eventually gary speed to what will effectively be two relegation

[01:05:36] rivals actually in the end they replace it with slavin billich don hutchinson gareth farrelly john oster the emergence of dany cadamato's we've discussed as well as a welcome bonus i mean this

[01:05:45] is all off the back of such a promising 96 97 is there a feeling that maybe everton are being left behind by some of those clubs who are investing the tv money more heavily or just

[01:05:56] investing it more correctly well you look at the the biggest of those transfers was john oster wasn't it one and a half million so that was the biggest transfer at that time for everton

[01:06:05] it was a lad who looked 12 at the time even though he was a grown man and even to this day looks 12 it was a good player it was a good player we got i think it was grimsby we got him from but

[01:06:20] you know there was no big marquee signings and what we were doing we were getting rid of some of the the older guard if you will some of the more experienced heads the never south all left

[01:06:29] during this season as well and you say inch cliff and speed and it was it was quite clear when you look at the list of the ins and outs at everton that we weren't spending big and it's no wonder

[01:06:42] we ended up in the situation that we did we're going to move on now to the goal of the season from 97 98 as ever it's a season of absolutely fantastic goals i've tried to short

[01:06:53] list it down to what i think i may be the best for and it has actually got quite an arsenal theme as we'll get to special mentions first for full backs hitting screamers which is always enjoyable

[01:07:03] in dean gordon and nigel winterburn and acrobatic efforts from benny carbony marcus and paulins but as i say there's definitely a theme to this list so is your goal of the season denny spur camp versus lester the dutchman scored a similar goal against spurs the previous season he'll

[01:07:19] score arguably an even better one for the netherlands against argentina the following summer but he does to matt elliot what gaza did to collin henry with two wondrous touches to get the ball in

[01:07:28] the air to take the lester defender out of the game from there he places the ball into the bottom corner beyond kasey keller who throws his hand up in the air while elliot has his hands on his

[01:07:37] head part disappointed part disbelieving or is it kevin davis against everton known as a bruising center forward the young south hampton striker begins a mazy run inside his own half before beating half the ebbing team and sidefoot in the ball into the bottom corner or is it patrick

[01:07:54] vierre a strike against manches united pure quality from the frenchman in a huge match in the title race a corner half cleared by united is struck first time from the edge of the box across the

[01:08:03] face of gold and into the top corner it maybe just tweaks the underside of the crossbar for bonus points or is it tony adams against everton a long busting run through midfield steve bold puts him through and he controls it would you believe it screams martin tyler as

[01:08:20] adams puts the cherry on top of the cake for arsenals first title of the premier league era so that's three arsenal goals and one against everton sorry about this jaymey i'm going to come to you

[01:08:30] first out of those who's your goal this season or i've missed one i'm going to go for the denis bear camp purely because of the the skill i've discounted any screamers by the way long-range screamers because i think that's completely pure luck because we don't show the

[01:08:47] screamers that missed i like to go with the the actual i think goal of the season should be one that's made with intent all right and i think bear camp the way he brought it down the way

[01:08:59] tenders play it inside out and then crucially before he strikes the ball into the net he just has the cheek to take one final touch calm as you like in the six yard box

[01:09:11] and then pops it in under no point does he look stressed as to the position he's in and that shows the quality of that player and the intent and everything about it just oozed

[01:09:24] complete another star you're absolutely right he's absolutely ice cold which is remarkable for a bloke who would shit himself on a Ryanair isn't it like if you can't tap into it can't tap into that

[01:09:37] when he when the when the seatbelt sign comes on but he's ice cold in that moment as the ball comes over i forgot all about the playing yeah yeah wouldn't they drove him to matches and things

[01:09:48] in europe see now could have a play if you're going to be that goals i'll play for you but i don't do flights yeah and i'll ask you then yeah all right andy uh which is your goal this season i mean

[01:10:02] i'll be absolutely amazed if you go for kevin davis no but i do love that goal though um i i i so the bird count one i wouldn't put it in my top 10 arsenal goals of all time actually it was amazing

[01:10:14] but actually my favorite arsenal goal of all time sorry jamey was in right against everton in 93 at hybride where he lobs it over day watson's head lobs it back over davis watson's

[01:10:26] head and then lobs it over south south hall and so i think the thing with um the bird count goal is he gets sort of eats a bit of a wrestle whereas righty's just ghosting around everton i'm going to go for

[01:10:38] the veera goal actually because i think that was an extraordinary shot if you look at the angle that his body is and the and the ball is on the pitch how did he get it there and obviously

[01:10:48] that put us two nil up and veera had to go off after that because of his celebrate he's injured himself and said we had to go off people forget that bit so that was his last thing

[01:10:56] of the of the of the day and that's why he brought on david plant who scored the winner i'm going for the veera goal because you know it's just easy to say bird camp isn't it any other year

[01:11:06] it would be matt leticiae who surely scored the most amazing goals of anyone for about 10 10 years to an absolute genius my favorite non arsenal player of all time is leticiae but i'm going for the veera goal yeah yeah matt leticiae is normally a regular feature in this

[01:11:23] in in this bit but yeah not as many not as many this season so and we'll put the link to the best goals on youtube in the description of the show so you can go and have a look yourself but you've

[01:11:35] heard what the lads think we've got a vote for patrick veera and a vote for denise bird camp okay let's look at the managerial changes of the season in the dugout howard kendall returns to everton for a third spell stockport county manager dave jones replaces graham suness

[01:11:51] at south hampton ron atkinson gears up for another relegation battle as he replaces david pleat at hillsbury november and top num slow start to the season under jerry francis goes even slower under christian gross the beginnings of chelsea's ruthless managerial policies born when ken bait

[01:12:06] sax rude hullett with chelsea second in the premier league and out of anton in several cut competitions he's replaced by jan lucca vialli who wins two trophies as player manager before the season is out wiccan boss john gregg rey is the surprise choice to replace brian little in

[01:12:21] february with aston villas slipping towards the drop zone he wins nine of his 11 games in charge to lift the villains from 15th to 7th that is a run of form that will continue into next season

[01:12:30] while chrystal palace move steve coppelt a director of football replacing with atilio lombardo for a bit as player manager and finished the season with the joint managerial fever dream of ron nodes and rey louington roey hodgson is recruited from inter via malmo and the swiss national team

[01:12:45] and has an immediate impact in improving the fortunes of blackburn rovers jamie if ever there was a sign that football has moved forward at a frightening pace in the last quarter century it's the realization that roey hodgson was 1997's answer to pep guardiola isn't it yeah and he

[01:13:01] had gone away and learned his craft and came back so he'd been part of pritch's football gone away seeing the different styles and then he's come back and look what he did with you know

[01:13:10] blackburn was sort of still living off the back of the the walker years you know so there was still a bit of a buzz around blackburn but there wasn't much they sort of faded and for him to

[01:13:21] come back and do that and then he create he'd go on a bingler manager and he was brought back last season just to help it was a crystal palace so we had the skills of being a foreign

[01:13:31] manager because he'd been abroad but he could communicate in pure english which a lot of managers would use translators at that time and maybe you know we talked about christian gross before maybe he had amazing ideas but just couldn't deliver it in the way that he so

[01:13:47] passionately wanted to where there's roey hodgson was that wonderful hybrid i think you could call it yeah yeah i've got to say in defense of christian gross actually and i mentioned it earlier that his fitness coach who he'd always worked with was denied a work permit and

[01:14:01] that was one of the reasons that christian gross said he didn't work at spurs because he didn't have his fitness coach next to him and andy the mercurial player manager is still very much in

[01:14:10] fashion in 97 98 with hullet viali and lombardo all called upon to varying levels of success which current or former premier league players would have been the most disastrous player managers had they ever been given the keys to a dog out merson yeah again one of my favorite ever

[01:14:28] players and and i love him as a pundit but no he wouldn't have made it a good manager i don't think he did manage so didn't he and i don't think it went well a war saw wasn't it was it war saw

[01:14:39] he managed war saw he didn't want to i think the manager was sacked before the game just didn't turn up the chairman took him aside and says you're going to be the manager

[01:14:48] he acts his phrase his actual words where i can't manage myself and the the port they sent him out there does as player manager the the one i think it was 45 nil first game was like the

[01:14:59] messiah returns it's all mason this and but as the season went on he was so out of his depth he just couldn't he just couldn't cope with it and he wasn't he he was told to be managed

[01:15:11] he didn't want to be the manager and it wasn't long after that he quit yeah but i will tell john gregory you mentioned before he was the astin villa manager and i'll tell you this because

[01:15:19] andy likes paul mason there was a game when paul mason was playing for villa and in the first half i think they were one nil down and john gregory like a lot of managers would go in the stands

[01:15:29] with their earpiece in and he'd left the stand to go to the dressing room two or three minutes before the whistle at halftime because he's gonna he's gonna slaughter these players by the way

[01:15:39] as soon as they've come off that pitch they're gonna get slaughtered and as the players have all come in he starts on all the plays and he starts on mason what he hasn't taken into account

[01:15:47] is that on away from the stand to the dressing room paul mason scores an equaliser so on to the individual awards for this season denny's bird camp is both the players and writer's

[01:16:01] player of the year michael owing wins young player of the year and premier league player of the year arson venga takes the manager's award the team of the season the pf8 team of the season then in

[01:16:11] goal is nidale martin of leads united right back it's gary neville of manchester united at left back it's graham lasso of chelsea gary palaster and collin hendry are in the middle this

[01:16:23] is gary palaster's seventh vote into the pfa team of the year by the way so i think you probably can guess who buys the rounds um at the at that day um right midfield is david beckham

[01:16:36] left midfield is ryan gigs nicky butt and david batty in the middle and then up front michael owing and denny's bird camp were voted as the strike force by their fellow professionals andy in fairness they probably voted for this around the same time the bookies were paying out

[01:16:50] on man united to win the league but palaster butt and batty over adams viera and over mars what are your thoughts on that or even pati or even actually ray parlor instead of beckham

[01:17:02] on the right because ray parlor had an amazing season and it was i think it was beckham's reputation and you know iconoclasm that uh that got him there so now i mean i i think you can make a

[01:17:12] case for any of the arsenal team being in that in that team of the year but certainly no no pati over batty no viera nicky butt maybe tony adams but certainly mark over mars on the left

[01:17:26] yeah and i think it just because you promote gigs sometimes jayme ron gigs you tend to book the people who are who are visible you tend to book the people who you sort of know

[01:17:37] and it was it may be a bit maybe a bit of that you know there was just sort of mystique around gigs and and and beckham but i'd have over mars and and parlor they won the league

[01:17:48] yeah i think they vote for it in about march don't they so there's probably still a 10-point gap at that point and jayme michael owing in the pfa team of the year over michael madar

[01:17:57] surely an admin error i mean michael madar i mean that just sums up the the signings doesn't it you know he was just this big tall frenchman whose wife hated livin at livepool it was never that

[01:18:13] when you talked about signings earlier that was where we were at that point so but nigel martin you mentioned there were a goalkeeper he was i think probably one of only four everton players in the history because he wasn't playing for everything at that time

[01:18:26] who has two first names has his name wow that wasn't where i was expecting that to go that's incredible yeah no but i'm i'm not dropping this in i'll mention this tomorrow because i'm actually interviewing nigel martin

[01:18:43] tomorrow whit neville south all so i'll remind nigel that he was in their play in that squad of of that year exactly 97 98 for a rejuvenated leads team yeah head of seamen a head of schmichael

[01:18:54] a head of valix manninger for a brief spell so uh so yeah absolutely okay let's summarise then the sixth season of the premier league era arsonal sealed the league title for the first time in

[01:19:06] seven years and they're 11th in total in arson vengas first full season in charge the frenchman also becomes the first overseas manager to lift the trophy manchester united finish a point back as runners up but secure champions league football for 98 99 so fingers crossed lads uh liverpool

[01:19:23] chelsea leads and blackburn are the sides completing the european places alongside aston villa who qualify through the fair play league which is a bit like failing your gcs but getting a certificate for 100 attendance at the bottom of the table barnsie on the wrong end of the

[01:19:39] division's biggest home in away defeats of the season losing six nil oakwell to chelsea and seven nil at manchester united on their way to relegation alongside bottom place crystal palace who qualify

[01:19:49] for the intertoto corp on account of being the only english side to apply bolt and wanderers complete the trio of relegated sides being the three most recently promoted as their near identical record with northwest rivals everton could only be split by the five additional goals they've conceded

[01:20:07] newcastle spurs wimbledon and sheffield wednesday all finish on 44 points just four points above the trapdoor an ominous sign of things to come for at least two of those sides by contrast the three sides relegated from the premiership the previous season finishing the top three of the first division

[01:20:24] only chart and athletics penalty shootout victory over sundaland in an all-time classic player final prevents the teams lining up for 98 99 mean exactly the same as 96 97 prompting fears that the gulf between the premiership and the football league is becoming a step too far arsenal

[01:20:40] complete the double with victory in the f a cup final with goals from mark over mars and nicklas and elka in each half enough to see off newcastle united while chelsea and middlesbrough play out

[01:20:50] a repeat of the previous season's f a cup final in the coca cola cup with the score line also ending two nil to the blues although this time after extra time rail madrid and their 32 year

[01:21:01] wait for a seventh european cup lifting the champions league trophy against uventus two of the competitions emerging top scorers will soon have fairly contrasting spells in north london as well with monaco's tiere on re and dino kiev sergi rebrov backing seven and six

[01:21:16] goals respectively in the ua for cup into malan beat lazio three nil in an all-italian final at the party prance with ronaldo on the score sheet in a contrasting evening to the one he'll

[01:21:26] have in paris for brazil just a couple of months later jane franco zola's 71st minute winner within seconds of being brought on by player manager lucaviali so chelsea lift their second cup winners cup in stock home beating stock guard one nil some of the bigger news stories during

[01:21:42] this season the death of two of the world's most famous faces princess diana and mother tereza occurred just a week apart bill clinton denies sexual relations with white house inter monica lewinsky the governments of britain and ireland signed the good friday agreement

[01:21:55] on northern ireland and antony gormley's angel of the north is installed in gateshead david beckham and victoria adams announced their engagement and the first episodes of south park and dorsens creek are released with differing rates of longevity alongside the final episode of sign felt at the

[01:22:12] cinema in 1997 the full montia's the uk's number one film taking over 40 million pounds at the box office and beating global number one men in black into second place jurassic park the lost world 101 dalmatians evita and batman and robin were some of the other films making the

[01:22:27] top 10 and the music charts it was another eclectic mix in the top 10 with chumble wombers tub thumping say oh by the tally tub is nat liam bruleus torn perfect day by the ever prolific various artists an aqueous barbie girl all outsold by elton john's upbeat ditty candle

[01:22:45] in the wind to date it remains the uk's biggest selling single of all time at just short of five million copies a record that will likely never be broken do either of you still

[01:22:57] have a copy of candle in the wind lads no no it's not nobody's admitted to that in their record not even on my Spotify playlist thank you and that brings to a close the 97 98 season

[01:23:08] before we let you go we're going to have a round of play your apps right this is the game we play on this show where i give you two players you have to tell me who you think made the most

[01:23:19] premier league appearances according to premier league dot com it kind of is whoever's in control with board at the end we've had a few rounds where someone's got all the way to the end

[01:23:29] and then lost it right at the end so it's up in the air um it's got a 97 98 theme um we're going to start with one player who's featured in this show today and we'd

[01:23:40] mentioned him a few times you're going to tell me how many premier league appearances and that's going to dictate who has control of the board all will make sense whoever the controller of the board is after 11 players is our winner winning precisely nothing we're starting with dany cadamatery

[01:23:55] so i'll um let's go to you first andy what how many appearances premier league appearances do you think dany cadamatery made in his career 90 gone for 90 okay jamie what would you say um i'm not being geeky but i think his all-time appearances forever to my 92 and that's gonna

[01:24:17] i'm sure that's going to include cup games so i'm going to say premier league 650 so i've got to say the knowledge from both of you is absolutely incredible it's actually 93 premier league appearances so you're remarkably close jamie uh andy that that does mean you

[01:24:37] take it all that means is you've got the choice of whether you take us away or you let jamie beat down a path for you and stealing it at the end what do you want to do no i'll start come on why

[01:24:47] not okay don't so our first place dany cadamatery with 93 appearances is our next player higher or lower than dany cadamatery's 93 frank le berth frank le berth um higher higher is correct 144 appearances and 17 goals um frank le berth of course which in english is frank the beef which was

[01:25:14] a rather contentious issue of the day as it happens um our next player is tumoury ketsbaya higher or lower than le berth's 144 lower lower is correct 78 games eight goals and one advertising hoarding ruined our player after tumoury ketsbaya is ramon vega higher or lower than ketsbaya 78

[01:25:38] oh higher higher is incorrect it's actually 64 appearances across five seasons for spurs scoring seven times which means for the first time the control of the board switched over to you jamie ramon vegas 64 appearances is our next player higher or lower john oster higher higher is correct

[01:26:01] 104 appearances for eviton sunderland and redding our next player is atilio lombardo higher or lower than john oster lower lower is correct 24 appearances and five goals for crystal palace all come in this season uh our next player is dion burton higher or lower than 24

[01:26:22] higher just higher actually surprisingly a bit more quite a bit higher 119 appearances wow for darby and then portsmeth later on scoring 22 times uh dion burton's 119 is our next player higher or lower tony coty oh it will yeah higher higher yeah obviously significantly more top flight

[01:26:46] appearances but also higher premier league as well 220 appearances and a fairly prolific 78 goals in there he played in the first nine seasons of the premier league for eviton west ham and lester where he made his final top flight appearances aged 35 our next player i think

[01:27:03] we are four from the end here uh jose demingas uh higher or lower than tony coty's 220 lower lower is correct 45 appearances for spurs across four seasons most of them has understudied to david yinola our next player francis jeffers higher or lower than demingas as 45 higher

[01:27:26] higher is correct 119 appearances and 25 goals for arsul eviton and charlton and blackburn the fox in the box made his debut this season aged just 16 we've got franny jeffers on 119 our next player steven hughes lower lower is correct very confidently as well 78 appearances for

[01:27:48] arsul and eviton he did come back with charlton a few years later but made no further appearances what that means is we go into our final player and all you can do now andy it's like watching the

[01:27:58] final penalty is sit and watch at this point it's all in jaymey's hands steven hughes 78 appearances is our final player higher or lower garith farrelly lower lower i absolutely love the confidence what would you've gone for andy uh higher you've gone higher jaymey our final player

[01:28:19] garith farrelly is indeed lower 61 appearances for eviton and bolton he scored twice that goal at goddison being the only goal for the toffees on his week at fort as well what an important

[01:28:32] goal it was i love that confidence jaymey i've never said that was that was denny's bird camp esk and he is he's quite a legal executive these days is garith farrelly right yeah yeah works in law

[01:28:44] wow where to follow on the twitter he's very knowledgeable what a what a what an eviton cult hero i'm sure lads it's been absolutely fantastic having you both on the show jaymey let's start with you first off your incredible effort and knowledge extends to

[01:28:59] you are a regular at goddison park hosting the lounges you've got your own podcast or your fantastic comedian tell us where we can find you and all these different things finding funnies is our podcast

[01:29:10] and if you go to that sort of instagram or twitter then you'll find all the other links so that's finding funnies with myself and steve royal every thursday family friendly you can play play it

[01:29:20] in the car with the kids absolutely marvellous as well and i'll put the links in that in the description so you can find that too and andy what about you well my comedy special was

[01:29:29] recorded in may and that is available to watch in its entirety for free on youtube at andy kind comedy and that's worth a watch and i'm also now on tiktok at andy kind three which is basically the

[01:29:44] beheaded survive show from youtube split up into little sections so tiktok andy kind three youtube at andy kind comedy marvellous and yeah two fantastic comics both well worth a follow and if they're playing your local comedy club anytime soon do go and see them lads it's been a

[01:30:01] pleasure reliving 97 98 with you thank you both very much indeed thanks mate so that was andy and jayme discussing 1997 98 with me i enjoyed that for the most part it was not a season to

[01:30:18] recall for spurs fans or everton fans but very much a season for arsehole fans and the beginning of a fantastic and successful new era which we will be covering in a lot more detail

[01:30:32] in future episodes can't wait for that now on to last week's episode and the premier league of nations hall of fame the greatest bolivian results are in jayme marrano and marcello marrano the

[01:30:47] two players he says checking the notes because i did cock up the vote on twitter on one of the players names i'm not saying these two players didn't make a deep and lasting impact on me in

[01:30:56] their premier league careers but they were the only two available and it was a dead heat 50 50 in the vote unprecedented since we started doing these votes so they both go into the premier

[01:31:10] league of nations hall of fame normally i would make a ride joke about this being a glorious achievement in their premier league careers but unfortunately for these two it probably is up there having played a combined 19 premier league appearances between them so marcello marrano

[01:31:25] jayme marrano you are both in the premier league of nations hall of fame representing bolivia you heard what my guests think about the greatest bulgarian player i can tell you i did actually

[01:31:36] launch that vote earlier on x and it is tighter than you think they were both unanimous about dimitar berbatov you can go and make your vote if you're listening i'll watching this live

[01:31:46] you are able to go and place your vote on x for the next few days i will reveal next week who the bulgarian premier league of nations hall of fame player is you'd think it's going to be berbatov

[01:31:58] the vote suggests it's going to be a little bit tighter go and place your vote now and speaking of next week's show i can't wait for this i have been teasing it for weeks and weeks now i have

[01:32:11] clive tildesley on the show the voice of itv football for the best part of two decades i recorded this back in the very late summer a couple of months ago now i'm going to release it in two parts

[01:32:23] because the interview was just so long and there's nothing i want to cut from it so the first part of my chat with clive tildesley will be on the channel next week before ending the series with

[01:32:36] clive tildesley again the following week and that's when we'll be taking a short winter break where i can get more episodes in the bag i've already got some fantastic guests lined up and some fantastic interviews already recorded so please as ever hit subscribe find me wherever

[01:32:52] you get your podcasts and subscribe on there to leave a rating share it with your friends work your way through the backlog while the show is on arrest follow us on social media

[01:33:02] as well i'm starting to put a little bit more content out there it's not just uh votes to find out who the greatest ever bolivian is there's bits of retro football on there sharing some of the

[01:33:11] fantastic football accounts so do find us on when football began again social media as well all the links for the social media are in the description for the show so please do go

[01:33:23] and find us there where you can also buy me a coffee if you've enjoyed the show so much and want to make a small contribution to the running costs i'd hugely appreciate that but

[01:33:31] the main thing as ever please subscribe share it with your friends let's keep growing the audience i have huge plans for the future and i'm so pleased to have so many of you coming along

[01:33:42] and those numbers growing every single week as well it really does mean the world so thank you if you're one of the people who's shared the show got in touch left a comment it's

[01:33:51] really lovely kind comments in the last few weeks as well about how much you're enjoying the show which really really does make it all worthwhile as well so thank you so much

[01:34:00] so next week i can't wait i hope you can't either join me again then where we will talk to clive till they find out all about his career his time at itv his love of football

[01:34:13] his little side hustle he's got going at the moment which is really becoming quite a significant hustle and everything else including him telling me that fifa isn't real that was a form of moment i can't wait to share it with you see you next week

[01:34:28] until then thank you for watching thank you for listening i'll see you back here with clive tiltly