Season 1987/88 Episode 1 - The Game That Changed Football

After a long wait, Mike, Mac and Gary return to do battle as Martyn is the ultimate judge of their sporting knowledge and strength of argument in choosing the strongest line up from the sporting year of 1986. Sportsman, Sportswoman, Team, Single Achievement, Surprise and Minute of Action are the categories. Will Maradonna be picked first? Will Gary educate us with some obscure story? And will someone please think of Fatima Whitbread? Let us know who you think should have won! If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for less than £5 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If the 1980's was a high peak for FA Cup Finals then 1988's version arguably made the most impact. Communications Director for AFC Wimbledon now and loyal fan when the biggest waves were emanating from SW19, Marc Jones joins us to retrace the steps of a famous cup run, to argue that the 'fairytale' tag is a little unfair, how the club fostered that dressing room spirit and overcame the loss of their leader in the summer of 1987 and go on and make history. If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for less than £5 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The book club is back at the same time, by sheer coincidence, as European football. Martyn's guest this time is Dan Williamson, whose previous works have focused on South American football but this time is a lot closer to home. It is 35 years since Manchester United won the European Cup Winner's Cup in Rotterdam and the two discuss the run, its significance, the importance of the beaten finalist in mythology and why it was such a false dawn for English football in Europe in the 1990s. Dan's book can be found here https://amzn.eu/d/05GCyRX2 If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for less than £5 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Not for the first time, Milan was the city powering change in the game of football. Did season 1987/88 see the birth of the finest club side of all time? Martyn and Dominic Hougham discuss how the shoe salesman assembled and moulded a legendary team, how the Scudetto was won - and lost - and how the impact of this season on the modern game is still being felt now. If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for less than £5 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the eve of the 1987/88 Scottish season, few pundits gave Celtic any hope of having a successful year for their 100th birthday. Four of their best players had disappeared for bigger leagues and they had called upon an old hero to take the reins after getting two clubs relegated the year before. But Billy McNeill would draw upon the emotional resonance of the season, along with some clever signings, to bring their rivals down a peg or two and claim a sensational double Lawrence Donegan and Martyn relive a fascinating season in Scottish football with some highs on the pitch and some disgraceful lows on the terracing. If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for only £3 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

During 1987/88, the world's oldest football competition would officially turn 100. Suffering insecurity in a post-Heysel world, the Football League pulled out all of the stops to remind everyone of their prestige. A game between the champions of England and one of Europe's big names to show UEFA how well fans could behave (but not one against the champions of Scotland because they feared that they wouldn't), a convoluted mini-tournament that high profile managers could barely turn up for but before all of that the best of the Football League would take on the best of the entire world at Wembley. Could the main man be persuaded to join them? How many would turn up to boo? Mike talks us through a fascinating and telling bit of football history. If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for only £3 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Graham's Arsenal seemed set to retain their League Cup under a beautiful spring Wembley sky as an interesting final reached the final ten minutes following the familiar script of the underdog going ahead, failing to get a second and getting reeled back in before the end. What happened next defied all narrative norms and created the high point for Luton Town's enjoyable stay at the top flight. Luton fan and former radio presenter Steve Moore is with us to talk about the impact of Ray Harford, the potential of an unlikely Wembley treble and how important it is to make the most of your time in the sun. If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for only £3 a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Martyn and Mike get together to remember the life and impact of Kevin Keegan. Inspired by Patron Kevin Alexander's collection of questions, the guys ponder how much of his charm was linked to glorious failure, what he was like in person, how he was a second wave trailblazer in his career and how different Nessun Dorma would be without him. If you want these weekly bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for only $3.99 a month (less than 75p a week!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

‘The European Cup has become a historical anachronism … it is not modern thinking,’ remarked Silvio Berlusconi when Diego Maradona’s Napoli were pitted against six-time European champions Real Madrid in the very first round of the competition in 1987/88. ‘It is economic nonsense,’ he said, ‘that a club such as Milan might be eliminated in the first round.’ He wanted the security of more games and turned to a Saatchi & Saatchi executive to design a European Super League to put pressure on UEFA. The man behind the idea that led to the Champions League and the Premier League was Alex Fynn and he joins Martyn to chat about his reasoning, having his head turned by Berlusconi, the background to such a climate of change in football at the time and why the idea hasn't died.  Martyn also proposes his new format and awaits UEFA's response.  If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for only $3.99 a month (less than 75p a week!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We round off season 1986/87 with one of the turning points in late 20th century English football as a favourite son returned to Highbury to restore a faded country house. Jon Spurling joins Martyn to discuss the original choices before Graham, how he set about reconnecting Arsenal with its past, some signs of what was in store in the future and that first silverware on the board even when Ian Rush had scored the opening goal... Jon's book on the era is All Guns Blazing and can be found here https://amzn.eu/d/0c0DV54h If you want weekly exclusive bonus shows, join our Nessun Dorma community chat, want your episodes without ads and a couple of days earlier or just want to support the podcast, then head over to ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/NessunDormaPodcast⁠⁠⁠ where you can subscribe for only $3.99 a month (less than 75p a week!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices