Author: martin

THE Big Interview has been influenced by Steve Archibald on more than one occasion. It was his time at FC Barcelona and decision to settle in the city at the end of his career which helped me choose to move there myself in 2002, while Steve had impacted my life already, as a favourite striker at that other great footballing mecca: Aberdeen.

In the first part of this interview, Steve talks about his Pittodrie career, his talented team-mates and, of course, the manager who would lead them all to the league title in 1980. It was inevitable that Fergie would get a mention . . . or Mr Ferguson, I should say, as Steve will explain.

But he does not simply look back on those glory days, and it is fascinating to listen to Steve take a forensic view of the centre-forward position – breaking down the role of a goalscorer.

Steve told the tale of his time in England, but that part of the interview was lost as a result of some technical problems during recording.

To make amends, I can tell you that Steve is in the process of writing his autobiography and I pledge to go back and do a ‘Spurs only’ Big Interview with Steve to coincide with its publication.

Enjoy!

MUSIC and football. What else is there? Like football, music makes the world a happier place. So it was inevitable – essential, even – that The Big Interview would touch on music.

Like football, good music moves me, sometimes so much that I am carried out of my seat and on to a stage for a spot of karaoke.

Singing some of my favourite tunes is one of the great passions in my life and a number of my guests have joined in on The Big Interview, taking the mic to reveal their go-to anthems. We have learned that Eddie Howe likes to belt out A-ha; Hermann Hreidarsson has all the moves to be a convincing Elvis impersonator – and the white jumpsuit to match – according to Harry Redknapp; and Chris Waddle counts Mr Brightside and Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell among his karaoke repertoire.

And there’s more, more, more. Chris talked about performing on Top of the Pops alongside Spurs team-mate Glenn Hoddle, winning over everyone who saw them. Except Morrissey.

That just proves that the lines between football and music are blurred, which is hardly surprising – music is part of football culture. It always has been and, hopefully, always will be. Indeed, Ring of Fire was the soundtrack to Liverpool’s Champions League run in 2005, essential listening in the dressing room as the Anfield side went all the way to the final.

Not every team has had such good taste, of course, and we now know that Carlo Ancelotti tried to introduce a few Lionel Richie love ballads to Real Madrid’s match day playlist.

The Italian was often thwarted by his assistant Paul Clement, and Ancelotti’s choices would not have gone down well with another Englishman, Terry Butcher. He is a real music lover, and a metalhead who once sang backing vocals for Iron Maiden at a gig in Edinburgh.

It is a claim to musical fame which has been rivalled only by Gaizka Mendieta – now a headline act in his own right, putting on gigs around the world.

Those stories have now been remixed to create the second Big Interview clip show. So turn us up to 11, sit back and enjoy!

SIGNING FOR Real Madrid would change everything for Steve McManaman. The move turned him into a league champion and Champions League winner, but it also transformed the way he played the game.

In part two, McManaman talks about reinventing himself as a holding midfielder to better serve a team which included the likes of Luis Figo and Fernando Redondo – a player McManaman still considers a great, even though injury crippled the Argentine’s career. There is also an appreciation of the roles performed by Ronnie Whelan at Liverpool during the 80s, and Sergio Busquets in the current Barcelona side; fine support acts to some of the biggest stars in the game.

Zinedine Zidane gets a mention, too, although not as you might expect. Listen to how this World Cup winner often looked lost during the early days of his Madrid career – before finding himself emphatically with a certain goal at Hampden – and why Claude Makelele was regarded as the most important player at the Bernabeu.

When Makelele left it was the beginning of the end for that Madrid team, as McManaman explains. He also knew that it was time to move on, and he knows how to tell his story. I think you’ll agree.

Hello and welcome to the first in the series of Big Interview clip shows. We decided to pick out some themes that snaked through season 2015-16 of The Big Interview, and see what our guests had to say on them.

Often in these interviews, players’ names come up and I have to divert from the questions I have in front of me and find out more about them. These are the mavericks – footballers who can get us out of our seats with one flash of genius.

Not many mavericks can tell you how they do it – but Chris Waddle can. The former England winger takes us inside the mind of a maverick – how he perfected the technique that made fools of defenders from the Sunday Leagues to the San Siro; and what it feels like when the pressure to entertain becomes a burden.

Who better defines this term ‘maverick’ than Paul Gascoigne? We’ll hear from three footballers who give us three different perspectives on the genius of English football in the 1990s: Michael O’Neill, who found himself taken under Gazza’s wing as a young player at Newcastle; then Alan Pardew tells us what it was like to man mark Gascoigne during the pinnacle of his career. Finally Waddle tells us what happens when Gazza has time on his hands and a box of eggs at his disposal.

And last but not least… Eric Cantona, who came into English football like a comet in 1992. Waddle knew exactly what was heading our way, having shared a dressing room with Cantona at Marseille. At Leeds United, both Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister saw the impact the Frenchman had on the team that would win the title in 1992.

Enjoy!

Graham