Nessun Dorma Retro Football Podcast

Martyn and Rob are joined by Rob Fletcher (aka 90s Football Writer) to pick their England XIs from a storied decade. As well as reaching the semi-finals of Italia 90 and Euro 96, England were involved in a true World Cup classic at France 98 and reached Euro 92 when it was still an eight-team tournament. Let’s not dwell on what happened when they got there).

Some players were mainstays for large parts of the 1990s: Paul Gascoigne, A...

With the 2023 World Cup entering its final week, Martyn, Gary and Rob are joined by Jonathan Hungin and Andrew Miller for another cricket draft - this time the fondly remembered 1992 edition in Australia and New Zealand.

It was the first World Cup with coloured clothing, white balls and Powerplays at the start of the innings. After a wretched start to the tournament, Pakistan’s cornered tigers roared to victory, beating England in a...

Nessun Dorma ventures into new territory this week, with Martyn and Rob joined by two special guests for our first ever cricket episode. Jonathan Hungin and Andrew Miller, who worked with Rob at Wisden.com at the turn of the century, join us to draft their XIs from the memorable 1999 World Cup.

The list of players includes all-time greats hitting the heights (Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Rahul Dravid, Wasim Akram, Allan ...

Martyn and Rob are joined by Rob Fletcher, author of 1992: The Birth of Modern Football, and Ally Bain of Retro Football Analysis to pick their teams from a classic European season. Marquee picks include Raul, Oliver Kahn, Gaizka Mendieta, Fernando Redondo, Patrick Kluivert, Mario Jardel, Roy Keane, Luis Figo, Rivaldo and Jaap Stam.

A reminder of the rules of the Nessun Dorma draft:

* Each player can only be picked by one person. Whe...

Martyn, Gary and Rob are joined by Rob Fletcher, author of the superb 1992: The Birth of Modern Football, to draft their teams from the inaugural Premier League season. Marquee picks include Eric Cantona, Alan Shearer, Paul Ince, Paul McGrath, Les Ferdinand, Steve Staunton, Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs.

A reminder of the rules of the Nessun Dorma draft:

* Each player can only be picked by one person. When Eric Cantona has gone, he’s gone...

It’s a big one this week: France 98, a tournament full of great games and all-time-great players. Martyn, Gary and Rob are joined by the Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg - who worked with Glenn Hoddle on his autobiography, Playmaker - to draft their XIs from the balmy, barmy summer of 1998.

A reminder of the rules of the Nessun Dorma draft:

* Each player can only be picked by one person. When Ronaldo has gone, he’s gone.

* Players are judge...

This week’s draft is a challenge: picking an XI from England internationals of the 1980s. Martyn, Gary and Rob are joined by… nobody, and that’s probably a good thing because it's hard enough finding 33 players, never mind 44.

A reminder of the rules of the Nessun Dorma draft:

1. Each player can only be picked by one person. When Bryan Robson and Gary Lineker have gone, they’ve gone.

2. Players are judged solely on their form for Engl...

We’re going draft daft over the next few weeks, with a mini-series devoted to arguing over the best XIs from various tournaments, seasons and eras.

We start with English football’s summer of love, also known as Euro 96. Martyn and Rob are joined by Mike Gibbons, whose When Football Came Home is the best book around on that tournament, and Jonathan O’Brien, author of the definitive European Championship history.

The rules of the draft...

Gary and Rob talk to Martyn about his book Revolution: Rangers 1986-92, and how Graeme Souness changed Scottish football when he became player-manager at Ibrox. It was a perfect storm, and for a short time Rangers had a pulling power that not even England’s biggest clubs could match. Souness was prepared to rip up traditions - and pick fights with just about everyone - in his attempt to continue lifting trophies after hanging up hi...

Welcome to the Nessun Dorma Book Club, a kind of sporting Late Review but without Tony Parsons.

The premise this week is simple: Mike, Gary and Martyn bring a football book that made an impact on their lives and explain why.

From the definitive and myth-shattering history of West German football and the instant window into the past provided by Panini to a delve into the world of sports psychology at a time when Sven-Göran Eriksson wa...

Welcome to the inaugural Nessun Dorma Draft, in which we each pick an XI from a particular tournament, season or era. Given the name of our podcast, we had to start with a trip back to Italia 90.

Martyn, Gary and Rob are joined by Mac Millings to pick their XIs from a tournament full of superstars.

These are the rules:

1. Each player can only be picked by one person. When Andy Brehme has gone, he’s gone.

2. Players are judged solely on...

In the last episode of our Euro 88 special, Martyn, Gary and Rob are joined by Jonathan O’Brien to discuss the final in Munich and the tournament as a whole.

They look at whether the suspended Oleg Kuznetsov would have changed the game, why we remember the Netherlands so fondly and whether a goal as extraordinary as Marco van Basten’s can create the illusion of inevitability.

Both Euro 88 semi-finals were intriguing culture clashes. The first match, in Hamburg, was loaded with historical significance. West Germany v Netherlands evoked the 1974 World Cup final and even the second world war. A good (if slightly overrated) match had a savage late twist that went straight into European Championship folklore.

USSR v Italy did not have the same mutual enmity, but they were also a study in contrasts. The Soviet...

By the final round of group games, Euro 88 was effectively a six-team tournament. Denmark and England were already eliminated and barely had any pride left to play for.

Group A was concluded with simultaneous games on Friday night, just a week – and a lifetime – after the tournament had begun. The hosts West Germany played Spain in Munich, with the likelihood that the semi-finals wouldn’t be big enough for the both of them. West Ger...

Euro 88 was only four days old when the second of group games began, but our old friend jeopardy was already running amok. After a nervous start, the hosts West Germany took on an ailing Denmark in Gelsenkirchen. A few hours later, also in Group A, Italy met Spain in what was felt like a de facto quarter-final.

Then, on Wednesday afternoon, we rushed home from school (or, in Gary’s case, grabbed a seat in front of a 15-inch TV with ...

Our look back at Euro 88 continues with the first round of group games. On Friday 10 June 1988, the tournament kicked off with a tense match between West Germany, the hosts and favourites, and a vibrant young Italian side.

The other Group A game took place the following afternoon, a thrilling if slightly shambolic contest between Denmark and Spain. There were five goals and a fair bit of controversy, but the highlight for English au...

A new series of Nessun Dorma starts with the first part of our deep dive into Euro 88, the last major tournament in Europe before the big bang of Italia 90. Martyn Ramsay, Gary Naylor and Rob Smyth set the scene for a much anticipated tournament. “Whatever happens,” wrote David Lacey in his preview for the Guardian, “the 1988 European Championship should set new standards on the field.”

Martyn, Gary and Rob discuss where football wa...