Football Language Cliché: If you’d offered me that‪…‬ Learn English Through Football

The learn English through football podcast explains the language of football: the words, phrases, and cliches used in the game. This week, we look at a cliché that is used especially at the end of the season: If you’d offered me that… . You can find a transcript of the show below, which is great for learners of English to practice listening and reading skills. Teachers of English can also use it to create activities, such as fill in the blanks, true/false, comprehension questions, sentence ordering activities, etc. You can also check out our massive glossary of footballing phrases here. We have hundreds of previous posts and podcasts too on our website. All  can access these resources for free.  Let us know if you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

Learn English Through Football

DB: Hi there everyone. I’m your host on this football cliché podcast brought to you by languagecaster.com. The place for all learners of English who love the game of football and want to improve their English. I’m based in Tokyo, which is enjoying some beautiful May weather. I wonder if it is sunny over in London, where the other member of the team, Damian, is based?

While it might be sunny here, myself, and probably Damian, are a bit more gloomy, the opposite of sunny, after both our teams, Liverpool and Tottenham, had some poor results over the last few weeks.

May is the crunch time in the leagues in Europe and it’s a time when fans of all the clubs who cannot win the title or a European trophy start to reflect on their team’s season.

And that’s why on this week’s podcast, I’ll be talking about the football cliché, ‘If you’d offered me that...’ A phrase used to try and see the positives when the season doesn’t finish so well.

Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (a Liverpool fan)

DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was from a Liverpool fan. Right, time to kick off with a great football language cliché.

If you’d offered me that…

DB: At the beginning of your club’s football season, what did you expect? Did you think your team would win the league? Win a cup? Finish in the top half of the league? Avoid relegation? Beat your local rivals? All fans look ahead and imagine what a good season would be.

At the end of the season, fans look back at their team’s performance and decide whether it was a good or a bad season. Very often, how a team finishes the season, the last four of five games, can influence how we feel about the team.

In my team’s case, the end of the season is a bit disappointing. Liverpool are out of the race for the title, they were knocked out of the Europa League at the quarter final stage, and the team has looked tired and Klopp, their manager for nine years is leaving.

How to use the cliché

DB: But on the positive side, they have won the League Cup. They also will qualify for the Champion’s League; last year they missed out in fifth place. They have some good new players, and at one point in the season, were playing for a quadruple – the league, the two domestic cups, and a European trophy.

This is where we use the cliché: If you’d offered me that. The full phrase is ‘If you’d offered me that at the beginning of the season, I would have bitten your hand off’. I would have bitten your hand off, means I would have taken the offer quickly with no questions.