Mark Critchley

speaker

1,840 appearances 10 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 8 Jul

Mark Critchley’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 7.

Appearances

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The Athletic FC Podcast · Was the USA's World Cup a success or failure? · 7 Jul 2026 podcast

I think he showed you can play football with a brain, and when you do, it's beautiful.

And his influence...

For me, the first thing that I ever remember about being coached to play football was when Bolton Wanderers youth team coaches came into my primary school.

And I remember two things.

They taught us the Cruyff term, which was the first thing they taught us.

And then we all got a free wagon wheel at the end of the day.

And that's not why he's like the architect of the modern game.

Absolutely not.

It's not the main reason, at least.

But it is our reason because his influence just stretches into every pore and every sinew of the modern game.

And so it's Cruyff.

Not great, but I actually was watching it again last night.

I was like, I'm going to practice this a little bit.

How was the wagon wheel?

I loved the wagon wheel.

Yeah, I think this is what else did we expect?

I feel like every conversation that we've had about Portugal on this podcast, even pre-tournament, has been centred around this question, this sole question.

And it turned out exactly as everybody predicted and expected.

I mean, a couple of goals against Uzbekistan, the penalty against Croatia, he got his first World Cup knockout goal, fair play to him.

So maybe not in that goat conversation for the best player never to win the World Cup.

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