Between The Lines with Melissa Reddy

When we look back at perhaps the most challenging season in English football history, we probably won't remember the goals or the games. This was the campaign of meaningful action, of meaningful change.On our final episode of the season, we take another look at some of the biggest stories we've covered over the last year and hear from expert voices, to see what progress has been made. From tackling social media abuse to head injury protocols and the policing of fans in light of the recent protests, this season's off-field developments may be the catalyst in football's quest for a fair and sustainable future. Thank you for joining us on this season of Between The Lines. Enjoy the Euros and we'll see you next season!***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Football may have undergone its most seismic shift ever over the last few weeks. The threat of European Super League finally materialised and had evaporated just two days later, blown up in a blaze of fury from an unrivalled unity of football stakeholders.In its wake, the debate around football club ownership has spread across all corners of the game. Who owns the game's biggest clubs? How did they get here? And what are their motivations behind owning what should be a representations of their communities?We speak to two men who are experts on modern football governance; Joshua Robinson, author of 'The Club', talks us through the modern history of Premier League club ownership and the culprits behind the Super League. At the other end of the spectrum, Exeter City chairman Julian Tagg explains the benefits - and drawbacks - of their fan ownership model.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In March 2019, Leigh Nicol - then playing for Charlton Athletic - was made aware that her iCloud had been hacked and some intimate footage had been shared online. In an instant, her life was shredded and she struggled to see how she could piece it back together. Leigh joins us on Between The Lines to discuss her gradual journey towards recovery. From contemplating suicide and leaving her bed only to be sick, to the help she received from her family and the Charlton staff, Leigh hopes that sharing her story will prompt other discussions of mental health in football. It is something that isn't spoken about enough – join us as, with Leigh now serving as an inspiration and an example, we shine a light in football's darkest corner.If you've been affected by anything we've discussed in today's episode, help is available. Visit checkpointorg.com to find resources available in your area.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For ages, women in football have accepted the unacceptable: sexual and verbal harassment, constant questioning of their abilities, their work cut down by accusations of having intimate relationships with players and managers, not feeling safe in their surroundings and being passed up for opportunities. Prompted by an article in The Independent sharing my personal experiences, the wall of silence was shattered with so many women sharing their stories. Soccer Sunday’s Bianca Westwood was one of them and she walks us through her reality, which makes for uncomfortable but important listening. Dotted throughout this raw and long overdue episode of Between The Lines are the voices of other women in the industry painting a picture of their experiences. No more silence, no more women feeling like we don’t belong in football.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What was it like to be the first signing of the Roman Abrahomovic era at Chelsea? How much can playing under such contrasting managers - Jose Mourinho, Rafa Benitez, Brendan Rodgers, Mark Hughes, Kenny Dalglish, Roy Hodgson - affect how you function in your position? How did the role of a fullback evolve during his near two decades in the game?Glen Johnson joins us to answer all these questions and drop a whole load of knowledge along the way – ever wondered what’s it like to fundamentally disagree with a manager and have them shout at you for a whole half during a match? Well, listen on to find out!***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remember a time when VAR was being pushed for to reduce the time spent talking about refereeing decisions? The technology is in, but the focus on the officials has never been greater, taking the spotlight away from the football itself and leading to death threats for the men with the whistle. In this episode, former Premier League ref Mark Halsey describes the horrific abuse his family was subjected to, but he also admits the standard of officiating in the top-flight needs to improve. He argues that VAR conversations should be made public, a view shared by Peter Walton and Ref Support’s Martin Cassidy. We discuss every issue surrounding officials in detail, from the problematic handball and offside laws to where the blame lies for a drop in England’s refereeing level.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Football has been altered in so many ways due to coronavirus, but the game - the form of players, the record of managers - is still being discussed as it was pre-pandemic. There has been little to no willingness to appreciate all the different circumstances that those tasked with entertaining us are facing and the ways in which it can affect performance. From dealing with personal loss publicly, to feelings of guilt, isolation and fearing for the future, leading sports psychologist Tom Young joins us to delve into each change those in football have had to adjust to and the impact it has had.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi everyone! Just to let you know, this week's episode of Between The Lines will be available this Friday.In the meantime, why not listen back to some of our previous episodes? You can hear from the likes of Alex Scott, Mauricio Pochettino, Daniel Sturridge and Roberto Martinez to name a few!Make sure you're subscribed to Between The Lines in your podcast app and join us again this Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are recovery tackles celebrated more than being in the right position to make an intervention? Can a mistake at the back actually come from the right decision?On this episode of Between The Lines, we get stuck into the art of defending - a topic discussed so often, but seldom with deep understanding and appreciation of the role. Joleon Lescott, who was Player of the Season twice at Wolves and Everton before lifting a pair of league titles with Manchester City, is our expert guide on being a centre-back - from outlining the fundamentals of being a great defender to pointing out the mistakes we make in analysing rearguards.He also explains why Rio Ferdinand at Manchester United is the best the Premier League has seen in the heart of defence, gives his reasons why a fit Virgil van Dijk is currently number one in the game and breaks down the effect of Ruben Dias at Manchester City. ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At 28, René Marić is already established as one of the sharpest coaching minds in football. He is the assistant manager to the coveted Marco Rose at Borussia Mönchengladbach, but his path to being in the dugout was anything but conventional. Marić was a tactical writer for a small German blog, whose work was noticed and used by Thomas Tuchel. Premier League clubs hired him to break down Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp’s pressing games while he did player recruitment profiles for two of the biggest data-driven teams. Marić talks us through this journey, giving us an education on the true definition of tactics. He also explains why players will always be more important in football than the manager…***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Billions of pounds exchange hands during transfer windows, but there is never a guarantee that a mega-money signing will adjust at his new club regardless of how pedigreed he is as a player. Moves in the market have always been viewed through the prism of the deal itself: who is the target, when will it be agreed, how much for and how long for? But on this episode of Between The Lines, we delve into what can help make transfers successful: player welfare. If you've ever wondered how some footballers hit the ground running at their new clubs or why talented ones flop, a lot of the answers are provided by our three guest experts: a head of recruitment, an agent and one of the pioneers of player welfare in the country.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The man in charge of Belgium’s golden generation is the final guest of 2020 on Between The Lines in one of the most engaging, enlightening and wide-ranging interviews around.The Spaniard shares his expansive experience in football with us: from navigating English football’s lower leagues as a foreign player while studying for two degrees, establishing a legacy at Swansea, surviving and succumbing to relegation with Wigan, the best and loneliest of times at Everton to taking on one of the most exciting jobs in the game.Roberto talks about the importance of players getting an education, reveals why homeschooling his young daughters is harder than finishing third at the 2018 World Cup, stresses the need to protect the English pyramid and calls for greater emphasis on welfare in football.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Raúl Jiménez suffering a fractured skull brought football’s negligence of head injury prevention and care back into the spotlight. But, as we explore on today’s episode of Between The Lines, the game has long been aware of the research on the long-term effects of such trauma and the solutions to minimise its risk. It has chosen to press on with shoddy protocols and the only update it has offered - the trial of a permanent concussion - is unhelpful and a distance behind other sport.Ryan Mason, who was forced to retire after a similar injury aged just 26, joins us to discuss how traumatic the experience was for him and his family. He is pushing for changes along with Dr Willie Stewart, the neuropathologist who proved football’s link with dementia and spells out just how serious the problem is. In tandem with our other guests, the pair spotlight why head trauma can be a matter of life or death and how football can help make the game safer for players.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam Lallana has morphed into a guiding light for young footballers, whose development both as players and people he is so keen to help along. But in this episode of Between The Lines, we travel back to his pre-teen years when he was starting out at Southampton's academy to understand what has shaped him as a footballer. The midfielder talks us through his battles with an irregular heartbeat and ulcerative colitis, the feeling of being in the way when you're injured as well as the increasing demands at the elite level now. From the age of 12 to the current point in his life, happily playing regularly for Brighton, Lallana charts his career and shares lessons he learnt from Mauricio Pochettino and Jürgen Klopp, while relating why setbacks have shaped all his successes.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Melissa Reddy and a selection of esteemed experts for a brand new episode of Between The Lines, as we unpack one of the most important, yet largely unexplored topics in football: the prejudiced policing of the game’s fans.If you go to a match in the UK, you are seen as a public disorder threat before being viewed as a person. A lot of the legislation governing football policing is bad, outdated and rushed, rooted more in the 1980s than the reality of going to a stadium in 2020. From how easy it is to be hit with a banning order to explaining why you can drink at music concerts, the cricket, rugby or other mass events but not in view of a football pitch, our leading panellists pull back the curtain on a great ill of English football.We speak to former police superintendent Owen West, researcher Geoff Pearson and the Football Supporters’ Association’s Amanda Jacks about all the issues with the way the national sport is policed and how we can all help force change.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

His journey from England goalscoring extraordinaire to one of TV's most esteemed presenters has made him a household name - but how well do you know the real Gary Lineker? We're joined by the man at the forefront of televised football on today's episode of Between The Lines!From trading goals and some of the biggest individual accolades in the game to bossing the coverage of it on our screens, that’s still not enough for a man who has chosen to use his gigantic platform to publicise humanitarian issues. Oh - and he’s a great cook too! Gary sits down with Melissa for an in-depth chat about life post-football, his entry into presenting and his thoughts on the current political and social challenges this country is facing.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Melissa Reddy for a brand new episode of Between The Lines, as we welcome a man who has scored more than a century of goals and remains one of the finest English strikers of his generation: former Liverpool, Chelsea and England forward, Daniel Sturridge!Daniel joins Melissa to look back over a storied career where he has forged a unique path, on and off the pitch. From scoring in European finals to starting a record label, we hear how Daniel has dealt with the undue pressure placed on footballers with interests away from the game. He also talks us through his troubles with injuries, staying in shape during his break from the game and what he can still bring to clubs looking for an elite striker with plenty to offer. ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode of Between The Lines, we delve into the toxic, often harrowing world of social media abuse in football. From racism suffered by many of English football’s black players to the sexism directed at females working in the game, Melissa is joined by a host of informed voices to explore how these manifest online and what we can do to eradicate it.These include former-player-turned-pundit Alex Scott, who shares her personal experience with online hate speech, as well as media lawyer Matt Himsworth, the PFA’s Jason Lee and researcher Bertie Vidgen. Each guest helps answer the questions we have about social media abuse: why aren’t the platforms doing more to guard against it, are accounts truly anonymous, how do you successfully take trolls to court and what can we do to create a healthier online experience?***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the first episode of Between The Lines with Melissa Reddy, a new podcast bringing you unrivalled insight and fascinating stories from some of the biggest names in football. Today, Melissa is joined by former Tottenham, Southampton and Espanyol manager Mauricio Pochettino and his trusted assistant, Jesus Perez. The pair discuss how their professional and personal lives have changed since leaving Spurs, reveal the important factors they'll consider when choosing their next club, and underline why a human touch is central to their approach. Mauricio and Jesus also share their reaction to watching Spurs' new All Or Nothing documentary, and their surprise at only featuring in the first 25 minutes of episode one!***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!***  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Between The Lines is a podcast that talks to the biggest names to discuss the subjects most interesting to fans including the behind the scenes insight that underpins everything across the top of the game.From Premier League managers attempting to coach their team while dealing with personal tragedy, to the thorny subject of online abuse and trolls, and from world-class footballers pursuing other interests away from the game, or attempting to bounce back from career-threatening injury, listeners will learn something new in every episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.