0:00

This podcast is part of the

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Acast Creator Network. Today's

0:32

podcast, Tony of Tony's Pyre Mash comes down

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and feeds us all. Sid addresses rumours that

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he was a secret footballer and we dig

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out an old 442 interview from

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the ginger and the ester. Hello

0:47

and welcome to that Peter Crouch podcast with me

0:49

Peter Crouch. Got no tourists, SID and Chris Stark

0:52

with me and a very special guest. Tony's

0:55

Pyre Mash. How are we? Yeah, really well,

0:57

thanks for having me. Mate, you know what,

0:59

this one came about because SID,

1:01

I think you asked me the question, what's the

1:04

best, like who feeds you the

1:06

best and what club feeds you the best? And I said

1:08

West Ham because of your Pyre

1:10

Mash. Yeah, thanks mate. Honestly, me and it.

1:13

And we've had it today, haven't we? We've had

1:15

a little go today. And your first time trying

1:17

Pyre Mash? Well, Pyre Mash liquor. I've never had

1:20

liquor myself and it's, I mean obviously it's amazing.

1:22

I feel like I need a nap. Two

1:24

Pyre Mash there. And

1:26

that's the standard order, isn't it? Two Pyre Mash liquor.

1:30

Yeah, it's the only way to do it, mate. So

1:33

we wanted to give you a bit of a shout

1:35

out really because this is something that people won't realise

1:37

or might not realise how

1:39

people like yourself go and get involved in a football

1:42

club that they love. And it can

1:44

be quite hard to do that with a small,

1:46

small, relatively small business like yours. Yeah,

1:49

I mean starting off straight away, I have to show a

1:51

little bit of gratitude to my dad, putting

1:53

in the foundations in Wolfram Abbey's shop. It

1:56

opened 30 years ago now and it

1:58

wasn't always a big deal. good as it is today. He

2:01

stood out looking outside the window thinking

2:03

is it all worth it and like any

2:05

business it takes time and

2:08

he put that time and effort in and

2:10

it's given us the foundations to

2:12

take this wherever we

2:14

like and grateful that

2:17

the first step was West Ham

2:19

United three years ago. Covid.

2:22

No work. Hospitality was the

2:24

first to go if I'm correct and

2:28

I saw a friend in Tesco's she

2:30

worked for West Ham and I just hold her to her I said get

2:33

me in or out of the stadium anything I will take anything

2:36

so we left and I got back to work

2:39

three weeks on and she gave me a call

2:41

and she just said listen come

2:43

up and do a taste test and we went

2:45

up there with my dad again he yelled my

2:47

hand through the whole thing and without him I

2:50

don't believe that I would have got here today

2:53

and they took to it really well and

2:55

it went from there you know. But now

2:57

you're doing Pyomash for some of your favorite

2:59

footballers as well. It's unbelievable and I can't

3:01

thank them enough for the support like when

3:03

I turned up and you know I'm

3:06

quite a big guy I'd like to think

3:08

so but when Pete cuddles me I'm credible

3:10

I'm relaxed I'm feeling at home I met

3:12

with a smile and you know you can't

3:14

thank people like yourself enough for helping you

3:16

along the way because you can't do it.

3:18

Yeah so there's a picture obviously of most

3:20

of the time I've been down whenever I'm

3:22

doing West Ham games I'm usually kind of

3:24

like on the side of the other team

3:26

really so it'd be West Ham Tottenham or

3:28

West Ham Liverpool so it wouldn't be a

3:30

club that I've played for but it's always

3:32

Carlton and Joe there and Carlton and Joe

3:34

introduced for him obviously and they're like look you've

3:37

got to get the Pyomash Carlton you know brings

3:39

me up obviously on Medium top top man and

3:41

then yeah we're sitting there and you've got to see

3:43

there's a picture I think I've took it on my

3:45

on my Instagram on my Twitter of you of

3:48

the Pyomash and you know the microphone there and

3:50

the game one it's like the best view in

3:52

the house I think it has I get here

3:54

she's lovely I want you to put in Pyomash

3:56

watching the football guys calling it work yeah

3:59

it's a mess The marriage of Aiden Heaven

4:01

though, is it? Pyre Mash, obviously up to

4:03

Park on the new stadium, you know, they

4:06

all look after their own. It just seems

4:09

like it's just meant to be. Dream come

4:11

true. Even like I say, I will have to

4:13

add this as well. Joe, Colton, Jules,

4:15

we can carry on mentioning the names. Without

4:17

the support of you guys, it's not brought

4:20

to the front of the table at a

4:22

talking point. Yeah, that's with TNT,

4:24

right? So, like, Colton, Joe

4:26

and Jules, we went on that Europa League

4:29

journey, like, you know, the conference journey and

4:31

then the Europa League journey. And

4:33

the kind of Pyre Mash was a kind of, it

4:35

was a signature, wasn't it? Like, for every game,

4:37

every home game, and then obviously you get to

4:39

the final and it becomes a kind of, you

4:41

know, and then I got involved in it really,

4:44

jumping on the bandwagon, and I'm like with Joe

4:46

and Colton, a good welcome mind. But

4:48

like, it just went amazing. Well, it became

4:50

kind of the dish that, you

4:53

feel like it led you to victory. I mean,

4:55

look, personally, maybe it was a little bit of

4:57

good luck since we've been in there, it's our

4:59

third year in West Ham, and, you know, we're

5:01

looking strong. So

5:03

maybe we need to send a couple down to

5:06

the boys in the changing room, shall we? You

5:08

see, I do love this, because I think any

5:10

excuse to talk food and football is an amazing

5:12

thing. Footy-scranner's a topic is, and

5:14

no, this isn't a whole episode about Pyre

5:16

Mash, but maybe we... No, we just wanted

5:18

some. We

5:20

just wanted... For full transparency here,

5:23

Tony got in touch and was like, oh, we'll

5:25

bring you some Pyre Mash. We were like, well,

5:27

absolutely. And we've just invited him on the podcast

5:29

because he's such a top bloke. And I think

5:32

it's an amazing story setting up and all these,

5:34

especially smaller businesses that set up at football clubs

5:36

and trying to, you know, because

5:38

you feed a lot of fans and

5:40

all of that, there's a lot that comes with it.

5:42

Yeah, I mean, even again, with that, you have to

5:44

be grateful that even the support from

5:47

the club and the company that we work along

5:49

with, you know, the general manager, the head chef,

5:52

you can't do it once again on your own. So

5:54

they allow us to come in and get fresh. They

5:56

could have said, you know, no, but they

5:59

do. And they make... sure that they're giving the

6:01

fans the best experience possible as well. So

6:03

what more could you ask for? All right

6:05

well Chris is going to try a jelly

6:07

deal before you go. Crouchy's just come from

6:10

Debye I believe it was on his holiday

6:12

so it's great to have you back in

6:14

the building Crouchy and as a treat

6:16

you can have a lovely jelly deal. I

6:18

don't know, I love you. I love you

6:21

Paul. I've never had one though so at least your first

6:23

time debut. It's

6:26

the way it wobbles. Can we go small please? Give him

6:28

a big one. No I'm not figured, no I

6:30

know it's going to be hard for him. I'll

6:33

play it there. I'll try and cut it up a

6:35

little bit. I don't know it feels a bit, a

6:37

little celebrity now. You need to... That's a bit... I

6:40

think the full thing. Good

6:43

man Pete. Michael

6:48

worked with that. Yeah? That's actually

6:50

a lot. Man

6:53

nice, I don't mind jelly deals. I'm going

6:55

to go straight in here, this one here. I

7:01

thought that was going to be horrendous I'll be honest. They

7:04

were right, they're good stuff. Yeah it's good fish, it's good

7:06

for you. Alright Tony we should

7:08

say thank you so much for bringing in the

7:10

Pyomash and if you are a West Ham fan

7:12

then obviously go check out Tony's

7:14

Pyomash. Where did you say you were today?

7:16

Yeah so we're in the hospitality bowling lounge,

7:18

we're in the current blue lounges at the

7:20

top, we are in entrance C and now

7:22

currently just broke through to entrance A and

7:24

K which now enables all of our

7:26

West Ham family to get to us. So if you

7:29

haven't tried it already it would be a dream come

7:31

true to come along and give it a go. Nice.

7:34

Thank you so much. David Beckham likes it right? Yeah

7:36

I mean look that's where it all started. Back

7:38

from Wolfram Abbey 20 years ago now and

7:41

he's got a good relationship with my dad.

7:43

And he comes in regularly? Yeah he loves

7:45

it. He absolutely loves it. He's

7:48

a bit like you Steve, he does like

7:50

the jelly deals. Nice. I love it. He

7:52

loves it Tony. Yeah thank you. Yeah as

7:54

well if you are a small food company

7:57

working at football grounds feel free to. Get

8:00

both of the podcasts. Whoever

8:02

you love more. I've

8:30

been at Brentford this morning. Brentford

8:33

training ground. Yeah. With

8:35

TNT Sports. Myself and Joe Cole took part

8:37

in training. But like when I

8:39

say training, we were in the manager's office. So

8:41

they couldn't take any cameras in there, but we

8:43

could be privy to like how they discuss 8

8:45

o'clock in the morning. What they're going to do

8:48

for the session. Who's injured. So interesting. Actually, you

8:50

did proper training. You're not just watching. You went

8:52

behind the scenes. It's

8:54

basically films. Like behind the

8:56

scenes. As a footballer really. I

8:58

mean it will come out in TNT soon, but it

9:00

was absolutely brilliant. Honestly. So you've never experienced

9:02

that as a player. You've

9:04

never seen what the prep and what goes

9:06

in. Goes into it a lot. You've just

9:08

been on the other side where you get called into a

9:11

meeting and they'll show you. They do a run down of

9:13

post games. They basically analyse the Villa game. So

9:16

I've got in there and we've done

9:18

the team meeting with the coaching staff.

9:20

And obviously they're planning the session. Then

9:23

I'm having breakfast with the players. It's

9:25

all access. Then

9:27

we've gone into a team debrief. Obviously the cameras

9:29

weren't allowed in, but me and Joe were allowed

9:31

to just sit in. And they're kind of debriefing

9:34

the Aston Villa game. All the

9:36

players are so engaged. You can see why. They've got

9:38

a good setup there. All

9:40

good people. Great people that run Brentford as well by

9:42

the way. Thomas Frank all the way down. All

9:45

his staff. So accommodating. But then

9:47

we joined in training. So I've got the monitors

9:49

on. Full on Brentford kit.

9:51

What was the GPS tracker? GPS tracker. We looked

9:53

at our data after. We

9:56

all liked it all after. How did you fair? Did

9:58

you have a play? I did. So

10:00

apparently the intensity, the

10:02

sprint intensity is measured from 5.5

10:04

and my top speed was 5.56.

10:12

That's good isn't it? Does that mean you're in

10:14

range? It's measured from 5.5.

10:18

So you've 0.6 over the starting point. Well

10:22

by the way that you were for an intense sprint. But

10:25

then again I travelled a lot of

10:27

distance. So my game when I played...

10:30

Did you say this to the manager? Yeah

10:32

I did say this. I said like it mirrors actually when I

10:34

was 24. Because

10:36

I was never, most forwards stay

10:38

on the line and they're explosive.

10:40

They go. But

10:42

they don't run a great deal of

10:45

distance. Whereas me I'm the exact opposite. Because

10:47

I'm not explosive. I have to find a

10:49

way so I would basically cover a lot

10:51

more ground just trying to get that little

10:54

bit of space to

10:56

get the chance to score. So

10:59

yeah I wasn't too concerned with that.

11:02

So by the way that you walked

11:04

through the door to record here. It

11:07

looked like you put a shift in because you were... I can't

11:09

move now. Well

11:12

I thought it was going to be like a little box. But

11:14

we went straight into like... I thought

11:17

it was quite intense really. I loved

11:20

it but my back went into spasm

11:22

kind of half way through. But I

11:24

did, you know, my pride and adrenaline

11:26

just saw me through. But

11:29

now my back is stiff. I

11:31

guess the question that everyone's going to

11:33

be asking though is... Is this a

11:36

potential move to Brentford? The comeback is

11:38

hard mate. I was getting into Thomas

11:40

Frank and said look I'm available. It

11:42

might be that one game last

11:44

10 minutes that you need something different. And

11:46

I can be that something different. Well it won't be a sprint will it?

11:49

No it won't be a sprint though. No I'll

11:51

be hanging around the box. Sniffing

11:53

something out. It's a great

11:55

day and thanks to Brentford for having us. Before

11:57

we move on did you... Did

12:00

anyone go, did anyone go partial or did you take any?

12:02

One of the coaches went past me, yes, Kev. I

12:05

asked to give him a shout out, Kev, like, really, really

12:07

good coach, him and Justin, is what especially, who we dealt

12:09

with today. But Kev,

12:11

yeah, he kinda went past me, and

12:13

I kinda lashed out,

12:15

yeah, I took him down. But

12:18

he got his own back, cause he make me,

12:20

about five minutes later. It's just quite funny, you

12:22

have come in limping, as Steve said, but you

12:25

seem weirdly, you're

12:27

buzzing like boyin' about the whole experience.

12:30

I thought my footballing days were behind me, I was like,

12:32

look, I'm never gonna get to where I was. But

12:35

then I played today, and actually, when

12:38

it was so much sharper than

12:40

anything I've done for the last five, six

12:42

years, cause it's a Premier League training session,

12:45

and I actually found that easier.

12:48

It felt like it was wrapped into you, you haven't got

12:50

time to think, you have to touch your pass, you know

12:52

what I mean? Whereas sometimes the charity games, you try and

12:54

take the piss, you try and do things that you'd never

12:56

normally do. Whereas in that, I'm just trying to shift the

12:59

ball, and not lose it. I see

13:01

what you mean, the speed of it, and

13:03

say, knock in charity, I just mean that, because

13:05

it's slower, it makes you in a weird kind

13:07

of way, it's not, you're slower

13:10

for it, and the same way that you're doing

13:12

this training, it's unlocked

13:14

that thing that, it's probably been a bit

13:16

dormant in you. Totally dormant since I retired,

13:18

really. It's just like, you know, it's

13:21

quicker, you don't wanna give the ball away,

13:23

it's competitive, and I'm not

13:25

trying things beyond my means. You know, like if I

13:27

play the charity game, I

13:29

get the ball off Ollie Mears, I

13:32

roll my foot over the ball, we try and pass it

13:34

50 yards, and the far end says,

13:36

you know, buy a jammer. I'm like. Do

13:42

you know what I mean? Yeah. So I

13:45

was thinking, we just felt a bit more, kind

13:47

of, a bit sharper, and it was better for

13:49

me, and I think it works better. But you

13:51

seem quite motivated. I'm fighting for it. So

13:53

this is what I mean, can you do it? Joke

13:56

aside, could you? Well, I did 15 minutes

13:58

a week, and I'll see you in a few minutes session today. can't

14:00

move on

14:02

that basis, no. But you know, we'll be out

14:04

for the last 5.10. I reckon I could

14:06

make a difference. I don't

14:11

want to say it, but it could

14:13

happen. I'm available. I reckon

14:15

I need two weeks training and I'm back

14:17

stronger. I've got a bit of fitness news

14:20

for you as well. You might be able

14:22

to help you with that as well. Banging

14:26

mine is Pi Mash Day as well. And you know, I've also

14:28

been saying I've been trying to do a little bit of fitness

14:30

as well. You'll be pleased to

14:32

know two things on this. I managed to

14:34

play round of golf. I think it's like my

14:36

third ever round of golf now at Luton. Who?

14:39

Who? Who? Very nice.

14:41

Most of the... Luton. Yeah, but it's lovely down

14:43

there. But it was lovely as hell. Like the

14:46

whole place? Yes. It was like high

14:48

winds where I was playing as well. But I thrashed

14:50

it round. I didn't bother scoring it because it was

14:52

fucking pointless. I was on the sides most of the

14:54

time. But you know, we'll get there eventually. Some point

14:56

in the summer, we'll be good to do a game

14:58

altogether. We've got to. Yes, 100%. Definitely. But

15:01

the major bit of fitness news is, do you

15:03

remember a few weeks ago we were talking about

15:05

Slender tones and how my wife had suggested maybe

15:08

it'd be good. I can't remember quite the context of it,

15:10

but was like, would I be interested in getting a

15:12

Slender tone? I think her way of describing it

15:15

was, I think we should both get Slender wheeze.

15:17

You know, you looked at her six pack of

15:19

words. She's not saying wheeze. She's

15:23

advising you to get a Slender tone. Well, Slender kind

15:25

of heard that and have sent in the

15:27

relevant Slender tones. Yeah, look,

15:31

anyway, it's here. Right. Okay,

15:33

so this is like a Slender belt round in your

15:35

abdominal area. Which is a massive pie mass. I can't

15:37

be bothered to do it now. Yeah. And

15:40

then you put these little pads on it as well, by

15:42

the looks of it. And you too

15:44

could have abs like that. So

15:46

I think what we do is we... Are we

15:48

going to try this? Are we on the next...

15:50

I think next pod we don't mention anything. But

15:52

next pod, when you listen to it, we will

15:54

all be wearing a Slender. We'll all be vibrating.

15:56

Yeah. We'll just be working off pie and masher

15:58

today. Okay, all right today's

16:01

podcast what we talking about yesterday

16:03

We're talking about journalist kind of football

16:05

is relationships with the with the media

16:07

You know we talk about it like

16:09

we're in the media now But

16:12

I don't know it was very kind of us and them

16:14

back in the day certainly with the England squad It was

16:16

you know, I know it's been talked about in the heart

16:18

on about but it was very different

16:20

I believe probably to how it is now. I

16:22

think there's a lot of constructive Journalism

16:25

now maybe there's a lot of you know

16:27

diving into it and the course is criticism

16:29

But I don't know if this criticism like

16:31

there potentially was When we

16:33

were playing and it went it was always

16:36

borderline nastiness. Yeah. Yeah. No, I

16:38

agree. I agree It seems like the you're

16:40

right. I think it seems now that they

16:42

want to be really paddy with all the

16:44

clubs They won't have a really good relationship

16:47

So they would like what you've done today in terms of getting

16:49

in For TNT and and

16:51

sort of you know getting your teeth

16:53

in behind the scenes that everyone wants to

16:55

that next Sort of next best

16:57

thing so it seems there's much more

16:59

friendly approach now There's no sort of twists and

17:02

turns whereas before and you always wary of something

17:04

that you said that we might get taken out

17:06

of context Yeah, I think I think I think

17:08

it's definitely a two-way street, you know, like it's

17:10

easy for players I think of that era to

17:12

just go ah, you know the press

17:15

the press It's there all the nightmare and at times

17:17

they were you know, they were very hard on me

17:19

at times They've been hard on you know, we've seen

17:21

it with lots of other players Bolstow

17:24

I think as players we were taught

17:26

to be really guarded and in turn that pissed off

17:29

a lot of journalists Just a lot of newspapers and

17:31

love it was very much like you don't come here.

17:33

You don't come here We speak to you when you're

17:35

ready will be two hours late for it and that

17:37

just pissed people off And I think it was very

17:40

much a two-way a two-way street You

17:42

look at some of the managers like didn't want you

17:44

doing anything outside of the training round that was wasn't

17:46

controlled by them And in

17:48

turn that kind of made it very

17:51

fractious. And I think I think now people

17:53

are very Aware

17:55

of how they can promote themselves,

17:57

you know players clubs For

18:01

instance, me going down to Brentford

18:03

today, everyone was

18:05

brilliant and we'll get a great piece out of that

18:07

that's brilliant for everyone. It's great for TNT,

18:10

you get the access

18:12

behind the scenes, but it's great

18:14

for the club to

18:16

portray that they're a club that everyone

18:18

likes to be around as well. So

18:20

people can see both sides of it.

18:23

It's a lot to get into on all this. Do

18:26

you think when you talk about that kind of

18:28

us and their mentality, do you

18:31

think now that social media is so

18:33

prevalent and a kind of some

18:36

would say like a cesspit or a

18:39

town square of just

18:43

anyone's opinions and especially on, let's

18:45

call it football Twitter for a minute, that

18:48

kind of place where people can just throw stuff

18:50

out there and it'd be a bit unsubstantiated off

18:52

in its room often, it's just made up for

18:55

likes and clicks. Do

18:57

you think journalism in

18:59

football takes on a new importance and that

19:01

clubs have to protect it more to kind

19:04

of keep it as an official source that

19:06

comes from the club considering everything's like the

19:08

Wild West now? Yeah,

19:10

I think so. The thing

19:13

is when I think

19:15

of journalists and stuff like that, obviously

19:17

it was very much like when we were not playing for

19:19

England, you just go out and you do a press conference

19:21

and you try and say nothing. You're

19:24

almost trained in that one. You're trained in

19:26

not saying anything, not giving a sound, not

19:28

giving a headline. If you get through that

19:30

without having a big headline, it's like you've

19:32

won and obviously they

19:35

want the exact opposite. But

19:37

then I've done pieces with people like

19:40

Graham Hunter, Jonathan Northroff, Sam

19:42

Wallace, Oliver

19:44

Hull. To be honest, all of those

19:46

journalists that traveled to England, you got to know them a

19:48

little bit. And actually, you know, they're

19:51

very knowledgeable about the

19:53

game and they're actually right. They write good pieces

19:55

and interesting pieces that you want to read. And

19:57

that's why they've been at the top of the

19:59

game. So long and you could pinpoint them couldn't

20:01

you after a game because like whether it was through

20:03

an open zone or There's

20:06

more open zones in chambers a football wasn't it?

20:08

We had to go through the like the corridor

20:10

after and they'd all be there one of the

20:12

line rather than a Premier League game It

20:15

would be then just all bunch into a

20:17

corner, but you could hit you could sort of pinpoint He

20:20

thought a really good piece of a week or I've done a

20:22

piece of me and it was constructive It was good and you

20:25

go Each on a few people

20:27

this one is you cut you can off pick and

20:29

choose who you want to yeah well Well, you know

20:31

what yet? You end up kind of you'd

20:33

know who they were and and and you'd

20:35

know Kind of

20:38

who to avoid you know and and that

20:40

was you know, they work there were certain

20:42

Journalists that that obviously don't like

20:45

you to play I had a kind of agenda against you as

20:47

to like I'm gonna kind of son

20:49

bring him down and it was it was it went

20:51

beyond Opinion when it

20:53

turned into like it like I say an agenda

20:55

of like let's get him out the England squad

20:57

and I think Journalists at that

20:59

time probably had enough power to do that. I don't think

21:02

they Maybe have the same same

21:05

power now But you know people like like

21:07

actually probably listen to you know,

21:09

Jamie Carriga's and Gary Neville's, you know more more

21:11

so than Than bat the

21:13

people who write the newspaper. It seems like smack

21:16

He said it seems like there's a

21:18

whole field of journalists now doesn't there you

21:20

look at different outlets beforehand It was just

21:23

mainly the the papers wasn't

21:25

it your usual papers a few magazines

21:27

here there Whereas now you've got an

21:29

array of things on social media the

21:31

athletic, you know newspapers Online

21:35

Outlets there's no social media side. They have

21:37

more followers than a lot of papers do

21:39

and it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah that's

21:42

weird that you can kind of generate

21:44

opinions can't you from yeah from

21:48

You know just setting up for something on social media and

21:50

if you get if it catches on and goes big you

21:52

can end up Making like kind of big

21:54

decisions, you know if all those big outlets get together

21:56

and start going right Eric ten holidays to go Yeah,

22:00

that's really powerful because you've got millions and

22:02

millions of followers. Yeah. Listen

22:04

to it. So let's talk about your kind

22:06

of lived experiences of dealing with the media.

22:08

So how often when

22:11

you saw the stuff that you're talking about

22:13

there, Crouchy, where you saw someone almost being

22:16

attacked or became the flavor of

22:18

the month for being targeted by

22:20

the press, as

22:22

teammates, would you then step in and

22:25

did you feel defensive of those

22:27

situations? Did you find that

22:29

sometimes you would stop, say, talking

22:31

to certain journalists because you

22:34

thought that they were attacking your team

22:36

or more importantly, your teammates, not just

22:38

yourself? Yeah, I think the more kind of

22:40

higher up you go and the more senior

22:43

you get or the more respected you

22:45

get as a player. Like I remember

22:47

certainly at Southampton, you know, when things

22:50

started kicking off for me, England happening,

22:52

Liverpool and stuff like that, like that's

22:54

when I became, I've kind of needed

22:56

a little bit more protection, really, because I could deal

22:58

with it, you know, that level. But then when I

23:00

get to that level, it becomes a national thing. Jamie

23:03

Redknapp and Harry Redknapp were unbelievable

23:06

around that time. Jamie had been

23:09

around for so long and he came to Southampton.

23:12

Harry was the manager. And then there was a few calls for me

23:14

to get in the England squad and they kind of backed me and

23:16

they knew how I kind of liked her. The

23:18

press could help me. So they were

23:21

very kind of protective of me. And then they were

23:23

really good with kind of doing interviews that helped promote

23:25

me to get into them, you know, because they were

23:27

very good at it. So you felt it was quite

23:29

tactical. I think they helped me. I think they helped

23:31

me a lot. I mean, Jamie, I think was the

23:34

first to say I could play for England and no

23:36

one had ever said it before. And I think Jamie

23:38

said that easily could cope with

23:40

playing for England. And I think

23:43

he came out and said that and everyone went, well,

23:45

like, you know, we've

23:47

got Rooney, Owen, you know, the foe.

23:50

And like, I didn't fit anything

23:52

that player was not wanting the player looks like.

23:55

So I think that's when, you know,

23:57

I think he really put it in there

23:59

for. minds and it was like this can

24:01

happen. So he kind of threw that out there,

24:03

did you find around that time where there might

24:05

have been question marks that you're talking about there,

24:09

did you notice team

24:11

mates defending you publicly

24:14

and how did that feel? Yeah, no, it

24:16

felt good, it felt good. I think you

24:18

really show people's characters when things are going

24:20

badly for you, you know what I mean?

24:22

Like for instance, I'm

24:25

just more current like Harry Maguire going through

24:27

his stuff, it takes a lot for a

24:29

player to come out and say properly

24:32

defending him, you know what I mean? Because they could

24:36

turn on you, if you do that,

24:38

I think you have to be very comfortable

24:40

in your own skin. I remember Steven Gerrard

24:42

and Jamie Carriga when I was at Liverpool,

24:45

kind of protecting me when I was

24:47

going through that really tough spell, it

24:49

takes a big character to step out of

24:51

the shadows and defend a team mate, you

24:53

know or a manager for instance who's getting

24:56

a lot of stick from the home fans to

24:58

come out and defend him and go no, no, he's our

25:00

man, takes a lot because you could

25:03

easily just not say anything, you know

25:05

what I mean? It takes a lot to do that. Easily

25:07

not say anything but also could

25:09

draw attention on yourself and if

25:12

you're aligning with someone that is almost fashionable

25:14

to not like at that particular time, did

25:16

you have that? Yeah, I think you get

25:18

that sort of siege mentality,

25:20

that's what it comes down to especially if

25:22

you can see someone having a bit

25:24

of a tough time or if someone's had

25:27

a personal issue off the field,

25:30

you know, that question would always crop up,

25:32

you know, because obviously they can't get to

25:35

the source, they'll say oh how's he been

25:37

in training or you know, is

25:39

his mind still on football because they want to get that

25:41

little scoop down to you to go no listen, he's been

25:43

spot on, you know obviously we're all here for him, we're

25:45

all trying to help him but his application during the training

25:48

the week has been spot on and today I thought he

25:50

was outstanding, you know, things like that, you just, you

25:52

always back your teammates and more so

25:54

sometimes managers because that's the hardest one

25:56

when they come for your manager and

25:59

you know the team's up for performing well when you're

26:01

thinking, you know, you'll

26:03

always get over the manager. And you read the stuff

26:05

that's out there about the manager as well, right? Yeah.

26:07

It's not like you're totally... I

26:09

think you can't... you wouldn't believe

26:11

how much players read

26:14

and listen to what's being

26:17

said. I mean, like, it's not... there's

26:19

this whole thing of like, oh yeah, we

26:21

just don't listen to it, we block it

26:24

out, we don't read it all. And

26:26

then, you know, and it hurts, then

26:29

it's negative. And

26:31

obviously, you know, you try and sometimes

26:33

when it goes getting too much, like, for instance,

26:36

you know, when I went for that spell that

26:38

I had was difficult. I just tried to not

26:40

look at it as much, but you still see

26:42

it, you can't get away from it. And

26:45

you know what's being said, no matter

26:47

what, and it's very hard to change that.

26:49

But I also have the people's names, I've

26:52

still got them in the back of my

26:54

head of like, you know,

26:56

a kind of hit list, if you know what I mean? Like ones

26:58

who were like,

27:01

went over

27:04

and went too far. You know,

27:06

I still got their bets in my brain and if I see

27:08

them again, I still... Do you

27:10

mean journalists? Yeah, certain people

27:12

like in... Or

27:14

pundits, that kind of thing. Yeah, people

27:17

who were vocal. Yeah, people that went

27:19

too far, yeah, there's a few... certainly

27:21

my mum won't let me forget them anyway. Really?

27:25

It must be someone's dad. Did

27:27

your dad get... Yeah,

27:29

he pinned one up, yeah, he pinned one

27:31

of the England journalists up in the toilet.

27:35

Because he basically, he just

27:37

described me constantly, I've talked about this before,

27:39

but he described me constantly as like a

27:41

beanpole, lanky, you know. So he started getting

27:43

personal. But literally, he was like, why... So

27:45

that just wasn't to stay, why? Why

27:48

do you call? You know,

27:50

why do you have to say lanky? Why do you have

27:52

to say, you know, six foot seven, hip man? Why

27:54

do you say striker? Do you

27:57

know what I mean? You wouldn't say, like, it's weird,

27:59

it was weird. We had figured at times

28:01

like diminutive striker or like for

28:03

the foe and like

28:05

beanpole towering hitman. Do

28:08

you know what I mean? It's always that kind

28:10

of description. So my dad just kind of had

28:12

it out with him in the

28:14

toilet one day. Did the journalism change? It

28:16

actually did. Do you know what? Do you

28:18

know what? He actually took it on board

28:20

and that showed, you know, I've

28:22

got a lot more respect for him because you

28:25

know what he just said, I just didn't really

28:27

think of it like that. You know, I

28:29

think sometimes people you don't think of kind

28:32

of footballers as human beings at times and you think that

28:34

their families are in the crowd when their songs

28:36

are getting sung. You don't think that

28:39

his wife and kid might be listening to it. You

28:41

know, you just do it. I

28:44

would think that's the worst thing about your job

28:46

actually. Or one of the one of the worst

28:48

things is the idea that there

28:50

is a kind of green light. Bear in mind,

28:52

you're basically you're good at football. That's really what

28:55

you're that's the base of your job.

28:57

But I think when you get to

28:59

a certain set of football, it just seems to

29:02

be that entitles papers or anything

29:04

to say to literally go at

29:06

anything, not just your job, your life,

29:08

anything. And I think this still exists, maybe

29:11

to not the same intensity. But I think for

29:13

some players, it really is that way. And

29:17

the weirdest and hardest thing must be knowing

29:19

that your families read that stuff or

29:23

or trying to protect them from reading that

29:25

stuff. But they've got a

29:27

lot of power. You think about journalism,

29:29

they've got a lot of power. They can start, you

29:32

know, from a molehill

29:34

into an absolute mountain, I mean, and get a

29:36

trend going. I remember back in the day, I

29:38

don't know if you had the same point with

29:40

this with England, it was half

29:43

that they was picking the team. Yeah,

29:46

yeah, yeah. I mean, they'd always put their style

29:48

down down and you're thinking that the managers near

29:51

enough, all the managers up till the last couple

29:53

probably was like, how much

29:55

would you pick that team because I can't get laid

29:58

free in the paint in the pressure for them. I

30:00

always thought the England team was always nailed on, it was always there

30:02

in the papers. They've

30:05

manipulated the manager's mind. There's always

30:07

one player that looked like the

30:09

press want in the team, for

30:13

whatever reason. Usually it's because that player is

30:16

generating so much interest from everyone else. At

30:18

the moment you say that player's Bellingham, right?

30:20

But before that we've had David Beckham, Jewi

30:23

Gaza, and it was like, well

30:25

I don't want to pick him, but you kind of have

30:27

to, because it's public opinion is so much. Glenn

30:31

Hodge didn't want to play him, did he? It

30:33

wasn't fitting into the team, but

30:35

the demand was so much to get him

30:37

in that you kind of had to. The

30:39

element of that with Grealish, I think as

30:41

well. Yeah, that's another modern one, where you've

30:43

just got to play him, we've got to play him.

30:45

Even now there's a cause for Fodence, got to play

30:47

central, got to build a team around him. And

30:50

it's like that's what public opinion is, what we

30:53

want, and invariably that's what the

30:55

public gets. Yeah. Yeah,

30:58

I always wonder as well about the source. You know,

31:00

they go, yeah, not so much, yeah, he's

31:02

journalists, isn't he? I suppose that are on TV channels, and

31:04

they go, we're on a deadline day, and they go, I've

31:07

just got a source, the inside source that

31:09

said, you know, this

31:11

player could potentially be on the cards to sign. I'm

31:13

like, who is that? The source.

31:15

Who's the source? Yes, it's every, have you ever

31:17

seen that about yourself, where a source has said

31:19

something? What about me? Yeah, but

31:22

then there's two things with that. You're savvy enough

31:24

to know that they can just say a source, and

31:26

basically cover the fact that there isn't one at all. Or the

31:29

other part of that, which is, well,

31:31

there's actually three options. There is no source.

31:33

There is a source that, and you're questioning

31:35

like, is this someone I trust? And

31:38

then the third option, which is actually,

31:40

you've leaked the story yourself, but want to keep

31:42

it anonymous. So you just say, just say it's

31:44

a source. Yeah. Well, things always

31:46

get out. Or, yeah. Things always get out, wasn't it?

31:48

There was a social guard one, wasn't there? Do you

31:50

remember when he told, saying there was

31:52

one or two players that was leaking stuff out.

31:55

I mean, he's officially saying. I didn't want the

31:57

captain's team. So I thought, yeah. But I mean,

31:59

for a manager, to say that. But you've

32:01

seen it, you know like recently it was Chelsea

32:03

where people got completely

32:06

down tools didn't it felt like

32:08

and there was leaks everywhere and

32:11

I mean that's happened at a few clubs isn't it? And it

32:14

does go on. Quite often players will tell

32:16

agents. That's what it is I think. I

32:18

don't think it's a player in specific.

32:20

I've no player would

32:22

go to, I don't think,

32:24

to ring up someone in the press.

32:26

I think they might tell their agent

32:28

and their agent might go that I've

32:30

had this. I was at

32:33

a club, I won't say what

32:35

won, there was a few.

32:37

And I got cues of

32:39

being a leak believe it or not. Did

32:41

you? No, this is Steve Snitchwell. Oh sorry

32:43

mate. It was only a cue. No, that

32:45

is what I am not. I

33:01

am not. No. Yeah,

33:03

the manager kind of accused

33:06

me of leaking stuff out. Sorry. So how

33:08

did you respond to that? Well

33:11

I usually just thought you were telling someone

33:13

in the press. Well yeah. You weren't right?

33:15

A categorically no. No, of course not. That's

33:17

not me. Because I think that if you

33:19

lose the trust of your dressing room with

33:21

your team players or your teammates then that's

33:23

it. You're done. And I was never one of them

33:25

players anyway ever. They were irrelevant of

33:28

whatever situation I was in in any club.

33:30

And yeah the manager sort of

33:33

half-scaled around it and you know

33:35

mentioned a few other players and you know

33:37

the confines of me and him said yeah

33:39

I believe there is a leak in the

33:41

dressing room. It could be coming from you.

33:43

I was like. Yeah,

33:46

it was huge. Where did you get that? Well yeah

33:48

I didn't like

33:50

it. Oh yeah, angrily. It was shock.

33:53

You must have been shocked. Yeah, I was yeah. Because that's

33:55

you know someone saying that you are a bit of a

33:57

snitch or a grass. That's horrible. It's

34:00

a, you know, that's the love, innit? Yeah. Do

34:03

you think they were saying that to everyone?

34:05

It's a horrendous tactic. No,

34:08

not everyone. Not everyone. So it was

34:10

a bit hostile by that time. Why don't we look at

34:12

it from their point of view? Why do you

34:15

think they thought you

34:17

were leaky? I have no idea. I

34:19

have no idea. I am

34:21

not leaky. This

34:23

is like traitors. It's leaky. Yeah,

34:27

I love traitors by the way. I can't get enough of

34:29

it. I am not a leaky. We should do our own

34:31

version. Who are you a faithful? Are you a faithful? I

34:35

am not Steve Leakwell. Five,

34:38

yeah. But anyway. Have

34:40

you watched traitors by the way? Yeah, yeah,

34:42

yeah. I'll give it. Over there, huddling in

34:44

the corner. Yeah, with the others. I won't

34:46

name them. Love.

34:49

Alright, so you just want it on record.

34:51

Like that's... Oh, a million percent. No. No

34:54

way. Do you think they found the traitor? Yes.

34:58

The traitor. They did. They did. The

35:00

cordial weaves that were coming. I know.

35:02

They did. Oh, they did. Fact.

35:05

Oh, right, okay. They know. Oh, that's good. Yeah.

35:07

So you're exonerated. So I've cleared my name. Wait,

35:09

do you think most clubs have

35:11

a traitor or not? No.

35:15

Maybe they always have a trinity. Well, the people, if they

35:17

leave on bad terms or bad ways, it's easy.

35:20

I've seen players do things to get out of

35:22

a football club. They will do anything. They're

35:25

the nasty ones. I don't think they're going to be

35:27

worse. I've been in a position as well. I don't

35:29

like the manager or you don't like certain players and

35:31

you know, you just get on with it. And you

35:33

don't... I don't think... I don't think... I

35:35

don't think you're going to get anything good that's ever

35:37

going to come out of leaking things

35:39

to the press. But they seem to get everything, don't

35:42

they? So, you know, everything comes out.

35:45

Well, there was a book, wasn't it? The

35:47

Secret Footballer. Yeah. And I

35:49

was actually the... Tout

35:51

of the two. Yeah, seriously. People

35:53

used to come up to me and go, are you the Secret Footballer? And I'd

35:55

be like, no. I can't

35:57

even read books. I don't even fucking write. I thought you were

35:59

in. Steve Brokewell. Listen,

36:10

I struggle in pick up lines. The

36:13

secret of football was... There was

36:15

a stuff where you could just say it was then.

36:18

No. Well, I thought it was

36:20

Dave Kitson. Why? Because

36:22

that was what people said. That is

36:24

the name that goes round. Yeah. People,

36:27

honestly, people thought it was me. I'd have random

36:29

ones come up. You'd take a footballer and be

36:31

like, no. It's not me. Did you ever get

36:33

asked if you were the secret footballer? Not

36:37

sure. Don't know what else to mean. I

36:39

think so. Anyway. But you

36:41

know what, listen, that was a great concept that, yeah?

36:44

And you know, it was a good idea. And didn't

36:46

he get like five bucks out of it? Yeah.

36:49

So... He's obviously done well.

36:51

Yeah, but was he a footballer? I don't know.

36:53

Well, that's the thing. He started in a bit of a

36:56

year, so he started to have an article in the paper,

36:58

wasn't it? The Guardian or something. Was it, yeah. He was

37:00

writing for The Guardian, saying the secret footballer. I think he

37:02

was caught on, didn't he? It was a great, great

37:04

concept. Yeah, I don't know if it

37:06

was Kits or not. He

37:08

talked about how footballers would spend their money

37:11

on trips to Vegas, Ibiza and Marbella. Including

37:13

once getting into a champagne war with three

37:15

Brazilian World Cup winners and ended up spending

37:17

130 grand. We do

37:19

this on the podcast. What?

37:22

What are we going to do on trips to

37:24

Vegas, Ibiza and Marbella? No, I mean, we talk

37:26

about this shit. No, all we need to do

37:28

is just hood up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We run

37:30

a fortune. Like the traitors. Like the

37:32

traitors again. Maybe we

37:34

just relivet another podcast. If you're eagle-eyed,

37:36

we'll take the shit off the walls. We'll

37:40

just take the secret podcast. We'll

37:44

just take the shit off the walls, and it's clearly

37:46

us. We're just with hoods on. You

37:49

could name your club, then. Has

37:53

the rapper come out? Yeah, I

37:55

think he... Because weirdly, I had

37:57

to record something for one of his songs.

38:01

I still don't really understand exactly what I was

38:03

doing, but I'm in one of them. They did

38:05

come out didn't they? They did come out, but

38:07

yeah, wasn't he a young lad? Yeah,

38:09

I'm not sure it was because at first it

38:12

was all these Bigger

38:14

names is the wrong way to put

38:16

it, but you know prominent playing Still

38:20

it was interesting. I think if you make

38:22

anything anonymous like that, I think it makes

38:24

it immediately more intriguing People want to know.

38:26

I mean the whole parts scenario You

38:29

know we didn't reveal parts name, and you

38:31

know that took off who's it all makes

38:33

sense And of

38:36

course you had the whole fake shake thing as

38:38

well That's a story and the kind of but

38:41

that was a different type of journey. That was yeah I

38:43

was I was part of England squad when that fake

38:45

shake thing came out on Sunday I think we I

38:48

think we met up on the Monday So

38:50

it was Sunday was like you know Sven

38:52

was on a boat in the Mediterranean

38:55

or Dubai wherever he was And

38:58

he was obviously meeting up with us news

39:01

the world reporter who thought was a shake for us

39:03

the villa Wasn't it and he was

39:05

gonna sign Bex and Rio yeah? I

39:07

think he was telling all this and they were just recording it all

39:11

And they put it out, and I thought we had this group

39:13

this meeting got called on the Monday, and I just thought oh

39:15

my god We could you know he's gonna resign and

39:18

he just he literally just did

39:21

not talk about it once and at the end

39:23

He just said and someone said what

39:25

about You know what

39:28

happened? He said the newspaper and

39:30

it and yeah, and he went oh He's

39:33

English funny Not

39:44

one fuck given I Was

39:47

like Blame no benefit

39:49

in the room like literally it just walked

39:52

us back. It's not just English so funny

39:55

Crazy, dude. She's done us crazy. I

39:57

just carried on. There's a bit of a history

40:00

of this with England managers in particular that

40:03

almost English journalists want to, you

40:06

know, immediately there has to be something on an

40:08

England manager. I just find it a little bit

40:10

self-defeating sometimes. Yeah, I think dependent on what it

40:12

is and I get it. Yeah, I think I

40:14

think things are very different now. But I just

40:17

think like kind of back then it would feel

40:19

like there was like stings all the time. It

40:21

just felt like we were trying to implode.

40:24

And you know, I've spoke to

40:26

like Dirk Hyatt and Rafa van

40:28

der Vart and certain players from

40:30

other countries like obviously that was

40:32

Holland. They were like, look, if

40:34

our captain of our national team,

40:37

you know, is in a position where he's drunk

40:39

or something like that, they want to put her

40:41

on and sneak him out the back door. You

40:44

know, whereas if England captain's drunk,

40:46

right, we kick him out in front and

40:49

try and take as many pictures as we possibly can, get

40:51

a load of pictures on our phone and everyone

40:54

sells it and goes, you know, this

40:56

England star disgraced. And I think that I don't

40:59

know, it's just saying in our makeup that

41:01

is that we do do that. And I

41:03

think other nations try and look after after

41:06

players. I'm not saying you should be out doing that.

41:09

We should be looking after our players doing things wrong.

41:11

But I just don't know, it's just a different mentality. It's like, I

41:14

remember one player telling me, you know, you

41:16

buy kind of like a nice car in this

41:19

country. And it's part of it. I quite like

41:21

about the English mentality of like, look at this

41:23

flash car. But there's also parts of it where,

41:25

you know, that same player went to America and

41:27

there's people with nice cars and they're like, Oh

41:30

my God, he must be doing really well to

41:32

have a car like that. You know what I

41:34

mean? In this country, we just key it and

41:37

go flash past it. We

41:40

do have to say there's good journalism as

41:42

well. There is. Yeah. Headline. If you've got

41:46

the list, well, I've got the list here

41:48

and there's one on there that I've wrote

41:50

down, which I remember as a kid and

41:52

it was absolutely brilliant. And it

41:55

was when Caledonian Thistle beat Celtic

41:58

and it was super Cali-arf and self-declaration. I'll

42:00

never forget that, I was about 16, 17,

42:02

I was a young pro, I was getting

42:05

the train up to Arsenal and looked at

42:07

the back page and that was the headline.

42:09

I thought that was just genius. You only

42:11

come up with them like, like seriously some

42:14

of them you go like that is yeah

42:16

that is top draw. Oh there's been some

42:18

great headlines and we should yeah because that's

42:20

the thing right we're talking that naturally some

42:23

of the conversation here goes naturally

42:25

to I think negative elements of journalism or

42:27

sports media and actually there's a lot to

42:30

be celebrated with it as you said earlier

42:32

Crouchy there's so many brilliant writers brilliant journalists

42:35

and some headlines can be just so

42:37

creative. Oh absolutely unreal. I also don't

42:39

think that you know daily sport shouldn't

42:41

be underestimated in this in this as

42:43

well you know some great headlines on

42:45

the daily sport. I've come across when

42:47

I walk past the newspaper stand obviously

42:50

this one here's a dummy

42:52

here old lady unable to

42:54

master bait at home. Context.

42:57

gold.com decided to lead to

42:59

this headline after Juventus obviously

43:01

nicknamed the old lady drew

43:03

with bait bozzer off. Nice.

43:05

Old lady unable to master

43:07

bait at home. He's genius.

43:09

It's an absolute scandal.

43:11

But again. They've made that work.

43:13

However it probably took them a

43:16

while. I don't know

43:18

I wonder if they think of that during the

43:20

game they've got I have got a golden head

43:22

on here please let this scoreline be as it

43:24

is. There's no last-minute goals that go in.

43:26

These are so good. That's so true

43:28

if you've got the headline already written

43:30

you're praying the result doesn't change right.

43:32

What about this one? This is Sky

43:34

Sports this one right? Keegan

43:37

fills Schmeichel's gap with Seaman.

43:41

For God's sake. I

43:44

fucking... Could

43:46

have just said Could have just

43:48

said They're after David Seaman.

43:51

Schmeichel's out to Seaman to see

43:53

if he replaces. I can't believe

43:56

it. Keegan fills Schmeichel's gap with

43:58

Seaman. Alright. Should we

44:00

stay on the childish ones? Do you want... Well

44:02

I like them, I like them. Nicks stay up.

44:05

Which was hot sauce at the bottom. Is

44:09

that headline? Yeah, that was after Sunderland's Cued

44:11

Survival in 2015. I'd

44:13

imagine Dick Avocale. Okay, Dick stay

44:15

up. Alright, Swedes

44:17

two, Turnips one. Obviously

44:20

outrageous. Remember this headline. Obviously this is

44:22

the picture of Graham Taylor as a

44:24

turnip. Yeah. And Sweden beat

44:26

us in the... You were

44:28

right too, was it? Yes. Yeah.

44:32

Bit brutal. What about this one bit

44:34

further down here? USA wins 1-1. And

44:38

it says the New York Post after the

44:40

USA drew to England in the

44:42

2010 World Cup. That's kind of

44:44

true, isn't it? It's the kind of win

44:46

for them. Yeah.

44:48

I was on the bench in that game. Great

44:52

headline this. Just

44:55

because of its randomness. This is

44:57

from Germany v Spain. Psychic octopus

45:00

unfazed by death threats, says keeper.

45:05

It's true. You know in major tournaments

45:07

where they get the animals involved. Yeah. But

45:11

suddenly if it gets through the

45:13

rounds, there's always going to

45:15

be one of these things that predicts it right because there's

45:17

so many right. From goats

45:19

to hovers to everything. Everything's

45:21

predicting for a tournament. So

45:24

statistically some will get further and further

45:26

into it. And then suddenly they look like

45:28

they are this kind of magical

45:31

thing that can predict it. Suddenly

45:33

they need security. Yeah. What's

45:35

the difference? I don't know what to put in death

45:37

threats. That's not on. That's not on,

45:39

is it? I've just seen one. I don't know if

45:41

you just read this one out as well. The

45:44

Benfica one, have you seen it? No, yeah, yeah. I've

45:46

just seen that myself. Can I actually

45:48

write this? Mm. Fucks

45:51

off the Benfica. eurosport.com

45:53

used this as

45:56

Benfica signed Angelico

45:59

fucks. Argellico. Argellico, not him,

46:01

is it? Oh yeah, Argellico. Argellico fucks

46:03

off his name, but could you write

46:05

fucks off to Ben Fica? But

46:08

spelt, is it? Was it? If

46:11

you said Sidwell off to Ben Fica, right, it'd be

46:13

fine. Yeah. So why can't you say

46:15

fucks off to Ben? That's what I mean. So can you write that?

46:17

I guess so. It's David. Fuck.

46:20

Fuck David. Oh, brilliant. Okay, well great

46:23

headlines. All good. Boys, I

46:25

want to do something with you both here. So

46:29

what I've done is I've managed to dig

46:31

out an old interview that you both did

46:33

many, many years ago. And I just thought

46:36

it could be a good snapshot of life for

46:38

you then. And we can compare it to now.

46:40

I'm not going to look at this. I

46:42

don't want you to have a look at it. All

46:44

right. Sid, you can have a look at the first one. So

46:47

the first interview we got here crouched. Do you want

46:49

me to interview it as me or me as Ben?

46:52

Yes, we see if the answers match up. Okay.

46:55

So answer it as then, as you think you were then.

46:57

So how, so 2007. 2007, I'm

46:59

a bit nervous here because I'm not, when I say

47:01

nervous, I'm playing the best football in my life. But

47:03

I'm right at the kind of top of my game.

47:05

I'm playing for Liverpool. I mean, Athens,

47:08

we got to the final in the Champions League in 2007. Just

47:10

won the FA Cup. I'm playing well for

47:12

England. So I got more

47:14

guarded, I'd say, than I am now. Okay.

47:17

Okay. So the interview at the time

47:19

was conducted by Rosanna Greenstreet. It was for

47:21

the Guardian. It was

47:24

a big interview, this one crouched. As you say,

47:26

a big part of your career. Okay.

47:30

So Peter, hi. Hi.

47:33

Thanks for letting me do the Guardian. What

47:37

is your greatest

47:42

fear? What's the context of your life at this point?

47:44

Are you married? No, no, no. I've just,

47:46

I've been with her for about a year. Okay.

47:50

Yeah, about a year. Okay.

47:53

Alsatians. You

47:55

got the old thing on. In

47:58

2007 you answered Alsatians. I

48:00

was playing for... Mate, this is something that

48:02

has gone on so many years now! We've

48:05

said it on the pod loads of times, haven't we? That

48:07

was my height of our station, Sis. Sis,

48:10

do you want to next question? Are you mission

48:12

the first one on purpose? Yeah, yeah, I think

48:14

pick and choose. Oh, right, okay. I like the

48:16

first one, though. I've got it, well... When were

48:18

you happiest? When was

48:20

I happiest? I think

48:25

I'm happiest when

48:27

I've played well and I'm at

48:30

home after a game. Okay,

48:34

close. This is the last time I scored.

48:36

It was only football at that point. Yeah,

48:38

yeah, it would have been football, yeah. There

48:41

was no life study. Okay, what

48:43

was your most embarrassing moment? So

48:46

I would have just done the robot

48:49

for Prince William. Maybe

48:52

that was pretty embarrassing. Yeah. I thought I

48:54

said that. It was your penalty

48:56

for England against Jamaica. Oh, for the Englander.

48:58

The hat-trick penalty. Yeah, over the box. Which

49:00

haunts you to this day. Yep, yep, still

49:02

does. Your most embarrassing moment. Would you

49:04

say that's still the case? No,

49:08

I think that was really embarrassing

49:10

at trial. I've done way more

49:13

embarrassing things. That's pretty embarrassing than

49:15

that. All right,

49:17

Peter, what about this one? What

49:20

is your favourite smell? I struggle

49:22

with smell, but I probably could smell back

49:24

then. What

49:27

is my favourite smell? Yeah.

49:31

I'm not really... That's not one

49:33

of my best senses, that. I

49:37

roast dinner. It is. It's not.

49:42

I swear my life I was... Shut

49:44

up, no way. I

49:47

swear my life I was having a look

49:49

at that. Okay,

49:51

so the 2007 question. What

49:54

would your superpower be? How do

49:56

you think you answered? I reckon

49:59

I'd fly. Did it

50:01

not fly for any reason? I'd

50:03

fly because I think it just makes things

50:05

a lot easier. You actually

50:07

ran with the pervious of all the superpowers

50:09

invisibility. I did I? Yeah.

50:12

I was probably more of a pervert. Sid?

50:16

There's one here, tell us a

50:18

joke. Oh, I'm hugging them. He's

50:23

already told us a joke. It

50:26

was 2007. I don't know if this gives

50:28

it away. Jamo told you it. It

50:30

can be anything. It can't be anything good then. Jamo

50:33

told me. Yeah, but you would never get it. Oh,

50:35

I'm not going to get that. Am I? Do you

50:37

want to tell me? Yeah, go on. My granddad

50:39

had the... My granddad had his

50:42

tongue shot off in war. In

50:50

war? In the war? In

50:52

the war, yeah. In the war. Sounds

50:54

very funny. He can't bear to

50:57

talk about it. And then you put, Kevin Gorrock, David James told

50:59

me that one. Well

51:01

done, Jamo. Who was I then? The

51:03

guardian. Who was I? The

51:05

guardian. Jesus Christ. What do you dislike most about

51:07

your appearance? I

51:10

might have broke my nose just then. I

51:14

broke a nose on my grey

51:16

tooth. It was the grey tooth.

51:18

Oh, I'm not going to be able to do

51:20

that. It was the grey tooth? It was the grey tooth.

51:22

Oh! He said, I had

51:24

a grey tooth, but I've just had it seen to.

51:26

There you go. I knocked out when I was a

51:29

kid by my sister. Yeah, so true. I

51:31

can't believe I got that. The grey

51:33

tooth gave me grief my whole life.

51:36

My sister ran in one day

51:38

and just branched it into me. My tooth went into

51:40

her head and just stuck in there and came out.

51:43

Half of it came out and

51:45

blood everywhere. And it just plagued

51:47

me for life. I had caps

51:49

on it and then it discoloured

51:51

and my mates used to rip me

51:53

for it and call me the grey tooth. And

51:58

then I've kind of had it seen to. since

52:00

I'd knocked out again and

52:02

I've been a problem all my life

52:04

that little tooth at the

52:07

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52:22

More at uh1.com. Alright, did

52:26

you enjoy that? Well I did enjoy that

52:28

actually, yeah. Do you know why that actually took

52:30

me back to 2007? I quite enjoyed

52:32

it. Good time for me. Do you know what, maybe

52:34

if anyone listening can find an older interview of either

52:36

of the lads as well, we can go back even

52:38

further in time. We've got one

52:40

here from Sid from 2003. We've got even

52:42

further back. Yeah, okay.

52:45

23, so I'm 21. Oh my God. So

52:48

Steve, this is an interview by Justin Barnes from

52:50

the May 2003 issue of 442. This

52:54

could be horrendous. Context

52:57

of your life at that point, please. 2001,

53:01

2003, I was, I

53:04

just finished pitch hiker's at Reading.

53:06

I probably just not long moved

53:08

to Reading. Yeah, I've just

53:10

got engaged maybe as well, 21. Alright,

53:13

well first question, who do you play

53:15

like? Who

53:17

do I play like? We need to answer as you

53:19

would have said. I

53:22

would have said someone like, I would have

53:24

come out of the house. I would have

53:26

said someone like Vieira, Brian

53:29

Robson. Vieira? You said

53:31

Roy Keane or Patrick Vieira. I'd

53:33

love to emulate them. Okay,

53:35

there we go. Yeah, there we go. There's

53:40

a lot of nice ones on here. Let's go with

53:42

this. Best player you've played with? Oh

53:45

wow. Because obviously you would have then gone

53:47

on to play with. Is that anymore? Surely

53:50

I must have someone like Arsenal, Dennis Bergkamp? Yeah.

53:53

Yeah, do you know why? Yeah,

53:57

f***ing slippers or double dates. What

54:00

is up, homie? Silky. It's touch and vision. He knows

54:02

where you are without looking. Yeah. Sounds

54:05

like an advert. I'll

54:09

just say, Sis did a massive flex earlier before

54:11

we recorded this podcast just before you got here,

54:13

Crouchy. We were talking about people who

54:15

get on the podcast. I hope I'm not breaching confidences

54:17

with this. And Sis was

54:20

like, because we put a

54:22

video on socials of you talking about

54:24

Thierry Henry. And Sis was

54:26

like, yeah, I think I might just drop Thierry a

54:28

message and just see if he fancies coming on

54:30

because that video had gone quite big. I was

54:33

like, I'm sorry, you got Thierry Henry on Rees number.

54:35

And he hasn't mentioned it. He hasn't mentioned it. We're

54:37

going to text him and see if we can get

54:39

him on the pod. Yes. Let's

54:42

do it. He's all out. He's the premier league's favorite

54:44

player. All right. Well,

54:47

this is toughest opponent. Remember

54:49

your 2003 here. Oh, this

54:52

is good. I'm not even playing

54:54

the premier league here. Good answer. Is

54:56

it a Premier League player? Well, you've got three players

54:59

mentioned in it. Two of

55:01

them are. Joe Cole? Yes, one. I

55:04

said Graham Kavanaugh. What did he say Graham

55:06

Kavanaugh? Graham Kavanaugh of Cardiff. Cardiff. He pulled

55:08

my pants down one game really badly. Yeah.

55:11

He played during my time at Brentford. He was everywhere. Ran

55:14

the game. Luckily, I had a second chance to

55:16

play it. Later that year, I did much better.

55:18

Yeah, it did. Wall up a player. We

55:21

know him now. I've

55:24

done him. Joe DeMaurice. Yeah.

55:28

Joe DeMaurice, yeah. Ask them reserves.

55:30

Ask them reserves. Chelsea reserves. That would have been.

55:33

There's a really nice answer you gave to your

55:35

biggest influence. You talk about your family, your parents,

55:37

your brother and sister. Yeah. Which

55:39

is really, really nice. This next question, what

55:41

is the best advice you've received? Fuck.

55:45

That's a great question now. Sorry,

55:47

I've just heard of what I'm doing. I'm

55:49

quite enjoying it. It gets slightly more eclectic

55:51

in question. It's a bit.

55:54

It's like, oh, no. I

55:56

have no idea. What

56:00

advice do you have received? I don't know,

56:02

say from my dad's maybe? Yep, from your dad's.

56:04

Well, if he talks off, be honest or I

56:06

don't know. Give everything.

56:09

Yeah, it's actually a really nice answer. You said,

56:11

from my dad, have a dream, push yourself to

56:13

the limit, always believe in your ability. He

56:15

said he owns a scaffolding company and I once worked for

56:17

a week with him, seeing how hard he

56:20

works, getting up at six in the morning, lugging

56:22

gear around, football seems a more attractive option. There

56:24

you go. Yeah, nice. Right,

56:26

let's go for the funniest part. Yeah, tunes.

56:29

Favorite tunes. Favorite tunes must be

56:31

a garage. It must be

56:33

a garage. Is it a

56:36

genre and then two artists?

56:40

It's not a genre. Solo male artists. Oh,

56:42

solo male. It's

56:46

just two genres. Is

56:48

it an R&B or a hip hop one? It's an R&B

56:51

and hip hop, yeah. Yeah. It's

56:54

not the story. It's

56:56

not the story. Surprisingly,

56:58

it's not notorious. R&B

57:02

and hip hop. Can't be Snoop Dogg or

57:04

P Diddy or somewhere. Yeah, you got P Diddy one.

57:07

Oh, that's not bad. That's bad. And

57:11

who else? 2003 is fine. Hip

57:14

hop and R&B. I don't know if you have one. Oh, sure.

57:17

Yeah. Oh, really? Oh, okay. They're

57:19

not bad, not bad. Eminem on the streets. Quick

57:21

one there. This is a cool one. Let's just

57:24

go on, dude. Eminem on the streets. Yeah, good

57:26

one. Eminem. Lyrics

57:29

are brilliant. Just tells you how it is. What's

57:34

my name? That's what he was saying. What

57:38

would you want from an artist? The real

57:40

one. Just cut more.

57:42

I thought we'd finish for this. The fun continues. What

57:45

do you spend your money on, young Steve

57:47

Sidwell? How much money? By the

57:49

way, before you answer this, because

57:52

the answer is kind of

57:54

ridiculous. What, how

57:57

much, like, you're on a bit of money by

57:59

then, right? No, really no.

58:01

Yeah, no seriously. I

58:03

could tell you when I signed for Reading I Was

58:07

on that contract they had 21 I put

58:09

him about 2,000 a week. Oh

58:12

really? Which is a lot of money. Yeah I'm

58:14

talking to football. Yeah. No, so yeah Yeah,

58:16

okay. You know what money you did have

58:30

It's like it's an old head on the old shoulders clearly

58:32

watches no no Property

58:39

no, no fucking washing

58:42

machine Just

58:45

clothes my girlfriend and I also save

58:47

a fair amount too with injuries in

58:49

football every pound your own could be

58:52

your life It

58:54

reads like you're selling life insurance You know

59:26

Yeah, it must have been Premier League. I hadn't

59:28

paid for him like then. Yeah, the Premier League

59:30

in five years I'll be playing in the family

59:32

hopefully and in a perfect world Arsenal

59:37

might buy me back again, and I'll wear that

59:39

famous shirt again. Oh, well, there you go. I

59:42

really enjoyed that Yeah, I was there. They could they

59:44

could be a lot worse those answers. I mean I

59:48

think that's a great I think you've answered all of them

59:50

with the media training that you've clearly both been given and

59:52

yeah Now they could be

59:54

a lot worse I think yeah, as I

59:56

said if you do happen to have any old football

59:58

magazines with interviews of the boys These. Sentiments.

1:00:01

May ah and then we can put

1:00:03

into of. The. It is like that

1:00:05

the stay in a state that applies to have a

1:00:08

bit of a bear with like the old my Space

1:00:10

pages of things. I'll let you know like this says

1:00:12

you have one know but either some silo. When I

1:00:14

was a kid it wasn't about that. Not decide if

1:00:16

your kid at school now and you're on might six

1:00:19

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1:00:21

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stupid dances dublin then schools skipped

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are made by a transfer

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money now. I

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known. This. Super Super are just

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give us capsule footballers as well but a

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few. There was one of Scotland's. To

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that that so recap some goalkeepers. You

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club it says denial is. And

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love him of overall pick them Up

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ever made me license by. Have seen

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him say hello to people and break

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1:03:41

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hundred yards you had a chokehold repeated

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out to the floor silo wanted a

1:03:47

broke memories of all that that's one

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of his as a club vaguely so

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that's to avoid him and of course

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as of admirers and Johnson as you

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know of seems about right. Or

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police by episode. So going into it,

1:04:01

enjoyed it, enjoyed it really really days

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ago so we got fed voted with

1:04:05

you know the palmer says we saw

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as hard as promised results not phenomenal

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job and enjoyed the pope. costs. Yeah

1:04:12

remember Friday podcast Lion Case yeah you know

1:04:15

unless we do a Friday podcast way predicts

1:04:17

three games that during the weekend and just

1:04:19

have a chap our old weekends football most

1:04:21

been going on got no many league going

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out is how to just give up at

1:04:26

a plot as well. Say that I got

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long swipe the next pope cost I comes

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out Friday where have you get to podcasts

1:04:33

and nuggets are the subsidies to was. Tired

1:04:49

of ads interfering with your favorite

1:04:51

sports broadcasts? Goodness. Ad

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1:05:14

Powers The loses. His

1:05:17

the sooner we. Put.

1:05:21

It on his own club that has real

1:05:24

strength. Discuss it is so them out

1:05:26

sounds that you actually want to launch. well

1:05:28

then let nicer that can. We are Frank

1:05:30

some club with me Maisie Williams and each

1:05:32

week we watch a film and then

1:05:34

comes together an obsessive rats or sometimes. Up

1:05:37

thing is later and she the way it

1:05:39

is always a lot to say and the

1:05:42

films that we pay it rains all the

1:05:44

way from like Nine Keys and No Teeth

1:05:46

Classics all the way up to new releases

1:05:48

are coming out every single week and sometimes

1:05:51

we callousness it picks up. And

1:05:53

we all work in the film industry

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sent me ladies in this and say

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we really less silica specific excel. The

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film was made. If me fall back

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to back then common. Have listened to

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Send Film club and remember absolutely everyone

1:06:06

is welcome in this club. He

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cast offs creators launch grow

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am one of us Everywhere

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a cast. This.

1:06:20

Episode is puts you were loaded pricks.net

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We'll the expos, the selling houses Chris

1:06:24

Concise House What did you do this

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or couldn't sell my house for? Love

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No money. croce three different offers I

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had all the last minute. So through.

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A. Turn my wife and said what can

1:06:35

we do to so this house every

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estate agent is filing us that odds.

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Hossa let's go to a Load of

1:06:41

pricks.net because what a load of pricks

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disease They were brilliant. Cloud C they

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so my house right away. The sauna

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barely caught up when a well dressed

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gentleman came along and offered me twice

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the asked price is would use loaded

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puts against odd years them every time

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currencies does to load of pricks. Thought

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that they will sell your house like

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no other. So brave So. Bricks that.