The toughest EFL Championship season ever? - The Sports Agents
episodePreviously titled “The toughest Championship season ever? - The Sports Agents” — renamed by the publisher on Sep 14, 2026
Transcript
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What’s the core argument about who really owns football today?
This is a global production. We are at the mercy of uh billionaires and big business and broadcast companies and look we work for them as well. So again there's a hypocrisy here, right? Just don't take the piss out of us.
My reticence and my feeling that this is just taking it all too far is is actually nostalgia. It's romanticism. Football has already sold out.
To think that sport belongs to fans now is harder and harder to explain. You can't say that, I pay your wages.
A fan looks different now. A fan is somebody who can be commoditized, can be sold to, can increase revenue.
Fans across the world are there to be exploited. If it ever gets to a point, especially domestically, where the price of tickets is too high, then we'll start to see stadiums becoming more and more empty.
Hello and welcome to the sports agents. Hello, Mark. Hello, Nadum. Very lovely to see your faces. We're welcome.
Hi, Gabby. Three of us back together. Who would have thought? Never thought it's gonna happen again.
Oh it hasn't been that long.
I've been listening to you. I've been listening. What's it been? Two weeks? Yeah. Is it only two is it two weeks since that hang on. I've actually got I've actually opened my diary to try and work out when the World Cup final is.
I think it's four it's four sports agents. Two and a half. Yeah, 'cause the Monday after the final we had our uh final debrief, didn't we? I was on a rooftop in New York. Do you remember that one? That's not that long ago. You see the world of sport moves at such intensity and fast paced. You know, I was dying to listen to the podcast the other day thinking this'll be the end of Gianni Infantina. No, it wasn't. It turns out he lives to fight another day, you know. So, um yeah, I've been I've been an avid listener. Avid listener over the last couple of weeks. It's been lovely.
Newcastle have a new manager. Yeah. Since since you were both last on.
I know. It's it's it's exciting. The most uh or the biggest number of new managers in the Premier League ever at the start of a season.
Well, do you know what? On on on that last pod, the last pod that did where I was on my own, I was s I was saying that I was thinking the b my biggest challenge at the start of a new season, particularly um when you do Saturday afternoons and you're doing all the goals and round the grounds on and so forth, my biggest challenge is trying to remember what grounds are called because they invariably will have a new and and I often A new sponsor and I often go back to the old grounds 'cause I just cannot be bothered trying to learn, you know, the latest, whatever it is. But this time, Premier League managers will be pushing Round renaming numbers. I genuinely don't.
Especially as quite a few are not particularly proven at the highest level. Haven't been on our radar Nadem, would you say? There's a couple that are interlopers.
Yeah, I would I would I would totally agree with that. And it's gonna be very interesting because I don't think from the top half of the table we've seen this many changes in terms of management. You know, like uh you've got the longstanding ones in terms of like Arteta, no I am Una Emri and so on, but all these other coaches behind are like relatively new. Will they do a good job? Will they not? But I've got to reveal something as well about myself to be honest. When it comes down to football and summer transfers, I do not keep track of them until Like the week before the season starts. And I've started to look recently, I'm like, ooh, when did that happen? They went there? What did And I'm supposed to be the expert on this and like, oh yeah, of course.
Mm, that saga, yes. I remember that one very well, yeah, sure. Hmm. I'm gonna be back in these first few weeks, I apologise in advance.
So when when uh when will you go through all the transfers then? When will you find out that Erlen Haaland has left City? Oh, when did he leave? Sorry. Yeah.
Do you know, to be honest, I'm basically being led by, say, the the major like notifications that pop up on my phone and like Tonali for a hundred million is a significant one, you know, uh Gimmare, all that stuff, the collapse of Newcastle United.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What’s the core argument about who really owns football today?
0:02–6:34
2
How do fans‑turned‑commodities affect ticket pricing and stadium attendance?
6:34–17:35
3
Why do the hosts claim football has already ‘sold its soul’ to billionaires and broadcasters?
17:35–25:44
4
What’s the story behind Lincoln City’s rise to the Championship and the role of the FA Cup run?
25:44–33:33
5
How did Lincoln City CEO Liam Scully get into football and what early experiences shaped his career?
33:33–36:30
Speakers
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