Tim Spiers

speaker

2,293 appearances 13 recordings 2 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 6 Sep

Tim Spiers’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 13 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 6.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Athletic FC Podcast · What If… Guardiola never became a manager? · 30 Aug 2026 podcast

He was such an all-encompassing manager for a start, which is a bit of an outdated concept.

And also he sort of ruled with fear, which is also becoming more of an outdated concept.

So I'm not sure.

I think where he falls short, Ferguson, is if you look at his disciples, I don't know if that's something we'll get onto with Pep later, people like Steve Bruce or Solskjaer or Paul Ince or Brian Robson, no one really followed Fergie and had big success because

which makes you think, as in trophy winning success, which makes you think that he's sort of one of a kind.

But now we're seeing others influenced by Pep winning big trophies, which I think shows his sort of more immediate influence.

I mean, it's a big could.

But I think like the thing with Pep is when you've got non-league teams,

Trying to copy his style, you know, Barrow, Salona would be the sort of the best example.

That still like blows my mind that, you know, five tiers down and below people are trying to copy what this guy's done.

So that would suggest influential, in influential terms, he's the most influential.

I think it's probably a fair accusation in terms of like the programming of footballers.

Grealish is like the poster boy for that, really.

I think sometimes there can be a sort of a lack of room for individuality and like freedom of expression.

And that's, look, his record goes without saying.

So that's not necessarily a criticism, but...

But we have seen City players, like, struggle to reproduce their form, particularly on the international front.

Phil Foden would be, again, another sort of prominent example for that.

However, I mean, if you asked Grealish, like, would he prefer more of a free role and score a couple of wonder goals?

Or would he prefer to, you know, adhere to his manager's instructions for his 150 grand a week and win a treble?

Showing 241–260 of 2,293 · page 13 of 115