Football Between The Lines

This one starts with numbness and ends somewhere between catharsis and chaos. We talk about the unspoken contract you sign with your football club for life, why some fans walk away and why most of us never really can. Spurs being a mess, Palace perspective, watching football out of habit rather than hope, and how results hit differently when it’s also your job. There’s burnout, sleep deprivation, social media fatigue, managers losing the room, The Panenka being a crime against football, and why talking it all through with your mates might be the only thing that keeps you sane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We start with Spurs and quickly ask a bigger question. When football gets this dull, what are fans meant to cling to? We talk Thomas Frank, clean sheets that feel joyless, away ends singing old songs to stay sane, and whether pragmatism has gone too far. From Spurs to Chelsea’s chaos, Liam Rosenior rumours, Brennan Johnson, Sunderland’s madness and why xG both explains everything and nothing, this one turns into a proper chat about what football is meant to give us, and why so often it doesn’t. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re back after Christmas and Dan’s had the full festive experience: Palace losing, kids being sick everywhere, and the dreaded norovirus tidal wave arriving mid Christmas dinner. Lovely stuff. Then we get into a game of football that neither of us ever wants to think about again, VAR and the weird delayed offside stuff, and why Thomas Frank still isn’t winning Spurs fans over. After that it’s Brennan Johnson to Palace rumours, Calvert-Lewin suddenly turning into a six-yard assassin, Villa refusing to go away, and a proper listener message about teaching your kids what supporting Palace actually means. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We try to do the grown-up referee chat and still end up saying John Brooks had an absolute mare, even while admitting Spurs deserved the two reds. Then we get into why this Premier League season feels properly weird, why Villa have to be taken seriously in the title race, and why West Ham look like they’re sleepwalking into a relegation scrap. There’s also a bit on Dele Alli and how quickly it can all unravel, plus a proper chat about matchgoing fans versus global fans and why it does not have to be one or the other. We round it off with festive comments, Celtic’s magnet-gate, and Dan taking his six-year-old to Leeds away for a 4-1, which is either elite parenting or a safeguarding issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve got the most chaotic story of the year from AFCON as Cameroon somehow end up with two managers and two squads, with Samuel Eto’o doing Samuel Eto’o things. Then we get into Celtic’s absolute meltdown, the Venn diagram tweet drama, and Dundee United piling in with elite trolling. From there it’s fixture congestion, the Club World Cup injury bill, and why football and politics can’t be separated no matter how much we’d like them to be. Plus: a Christmas campaign that actually matters, a wholesome tech story from Selhurst, and we launch the movement the world needs… #GiveTheKidsAJacket. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices