Jonny Gould's Football Fix

Jonny Gould

Morning Sports Fans! Welcome to Jonny Gould’s sports channel featuring interviews and reports from the Beautiful Game ansd beyond! Listen to Jonny on Fix Radio with your Fix of sport everyday!

  1. 06/14/2024

    All For The Love Of The Game: Peter Withe's story. Episode 1

    Hi, this is Jonny Gould. I’m a lifelong Aston Villa fan, born in the city centre of Birmingham.  My first game in 1977, was less than auspicious, a 4-1 midweek thrashing under the famous AV floodlights by a Dennis Tueart inspired Manchester City. But it got a whole lot better over the coming seasons and a key reason for that was Ron Saunders and his inspired signing of Peter Withe for a hefty half a million pounds from Newcastle in the summer of 1980.  His arrival lifted us from three consecutive flatlining seasons of 8th, 8th and 7th finishes to champions of England and the miracle of Rotterdam the season after.  All For The Love Of The Game is one of the best football autobiographies I’ve ever read. And Peter Withe’s story is one of sheer determination to succeed wherever that road took him - from Liverpool to South Africa, the USA, back home – and then out again to the Far East. And boy, did he succeed! At the very highest level: twice a league title winner, a European champion, who scored the winning goal in the final and a full England international. The champagne bubbles of his greatest moments have never quite receded for this Aston Villa fan!  It’s also a love story because Peter couldn’t have achieved any of this without his devoted wife Kathy by his side through the years. The game gave Peter mobility and life experience which would surely not have been possible had he never donned football boots. That’s another part of this great story. For any fan of Villa or Nottingham Forest, reading this autobiography is a must – but it’s also for those who want to understand what it takes to succeed at the top of any line of business, not just football. Author Simon Goodyear captures the drama and life decisions Peter and Kathy had to take with page-turning ease And it gave me this chance to present a four part series, sitting down with Peter to discuss it all. To think, the Liverpool-born striker succeeded at the highest level of club football with the two teams who disrupted the Reds’ domestic domination of the 70s and 80s, with Forest and then Villa.  Although he wouldn’t mind that much, he grew up an Evertonian! So let’s start where it all started. On Merseyside as an electrician on the docks.  Coming up in part 2 of All for the Love of the game, “why I left league champions, Nottingham Forest for then second division Newcastle” The All for the Love of the Game podcast is a Krafty Entertainment production in association with Radio and Social Media Broadcasting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    26 min
  2. 06/11/2024

    South African international Dean Furman and NBA's Michael Sweetney: fighting racism and intolerance in sport with the MAX Project

    Help Jonny by buying him a coffee here and seeing his other podcasts too Our two guests today are professional sportsmen from two different continents, cultures and sports, united in countering racism and intolerance in the sports industry. They’re part of Project Max, who’s MD Eric Rubin was with me in Amsterdam at the European Jewish Association conference, where he moderated a session on fighting antisemitism, racism and intolerance alongside Dean Furman, who played internationally with South Africa and Michael Sweetney, NBA Star for the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls.  Dean was one of only four professional Jewish players plying their trades in the English game during his career. At one point three of them were teammates together at Oldham! You’ll hear about that.  And he had a great career, starting off as a youngster at Chelsea, joining Rangers in Scotland with spells at Oldham, Doncaster and in South Africa with SuperSport United. Dean was born in Cape Town and left for Edgware as a child with his family, went to JFS.  He made his Bafana Bafana debut - against Brazil - in São Paulo! Opposite Hulk, Neymar, David Luiz Oscar and Marcelo. Also with us in Amsterdam was ex-NBA star, Michael Sweetney, who cuts a striking 6 ft 8 inches tall and 348 lbs. Mike's now assistant coach of the Yeshiva University Macabees Men's basketball team and head coach of the girls varsity team at New York's Ramaz School. Listen closely to his humility and in particular to the education he got at home from his own father. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    38 min

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Morning Sports Fans! Welcome to Jonny Gould’s sports channel featuring interviews and reports from the Beautiful Game ansd beyond! Listen to Jonny on Fix Radio with your Fix of sport everyday!