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Episode 217: WILDCARD Wednesday! My DAD was a pro footballer!
72 Plays25 days ago
Southampton – Today Greg takes us on a journey through his family history, and how his Dad used to be a professional footballer.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Southampton, part of the Global Sports Podcast Network. My name is Greg Elliott and today, as always, joined by my good friend and wonderful co-host, Zach Ingo Finch.
00:00:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
How you mate? You alright?
00:00:24
Zak
Yeah, all right. It was good. Saw you in person today. We actually did a bit of of office work. Had bit of an office day. Had some good food. Caught up with one of our ah good friends. Yeah, it was
00:00:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, it's been a good day. yeah ah Passing chips in the night when it comes to office work, but there we go, that's... ah
00:00:38
Zak
good day.
00:00:39
Global Sports Podcast Network
The way it goes.
00:00:39
Zak
It's just like that sometimes, mate, innit?
Wild Card Wednesday: Exploring Family Football History
00:00:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
It is Wild Card Wednesday today and we thought we'd take a small step away from the very busy goings on this week as we head towards fixture release coming tomorrow.
00:00:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
We've got some great episodes coming up when we talk about what fixtures we're most looking forward to and reacting to that but today... ah I thought to take a trip a bit down you know the history of my family of football. we've We've alluded to it on the show in the past that to you know i'm i'm really the until I started working on this podcast I was the only member of my family that hadn't in some capacity ah done something to do with football.
Elliott Family's Football Legacy
00:01:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
So it's ah it's quite a long and storied history. and So I thought I'd touch on that a bit. And I've got some, you know, some great history to touch on.
00:01:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah had and some email correspondence with the ah club museum for Charlton Athletic, who my dad used to play for. So I've got some fun stuff from his contract that we'll get to a bit later on. But I guess like as far back as the history I know,
00:01:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah My granddad was the first of my family to really so become successful in football. he was ah semi-professional, I believe, for Gravesend.
00:02:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
And his first contract, his wage was ah high for the time. He got paid £3 week. LAUGHTER
00:02:17
Zak
That's mad. What day? It's just incomparable, innit?
00:02:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:02:25
Zak
£3 a week to being paid out. Obviously, I understand that's adjusted for inflation because that would have been... that when would you know what sort of like time period that was?
00:02:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, so that would have been almost... In fact, he would have been playing basically immediately post-war. So he would be like 1947, right around then.
00:02:42
Zak
Damn.
00:02:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah
00:02:47
Zak
That's crazy.
00:02:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
He went straight out of the Air Force and yeah straight onto the football pitch. say and then you know then So that was Gravesend. That was where he you know he met my nan during the war and...
00:03:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
they have a long story history and he was from Albrook eventually, but went up to Gravesend because that was where Nan was from. and then they both moved back down to Eastleigh and because he was from Albrook, obviously Saints fan. And that's the connection, you know, then you follow your dad's team and then he follows his dad's team and that's it. We're just from the very get go, we never stood a chance, but then, um,
00:03:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
Then, yeah, later on in life, you know, he had my my dad who his first job when he finished school it was he went and took on an apprenticeship at Charlton
Uncovering Family History Through Football Memories
00:03:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
is actually what he did.
00:03:41
Zak
Interesting. So he literally always worked in football then. So it wasn't like... it Because I didn't know if it was sort of... He joined later. It was a semi-professional. You see how it is nowadays, right?
00:03:52
Zak
Where they all they all kind of... they're They're in football from like eight. Like a lot of them even younger, right?
00:03:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yes.
00:03:59
Zak
Like I look at... You've been training up your boy from an early age. And sort of that they all seem to start from... It's the first and only thing they ever do. But I thought that was kind of rarer with ah with people sort of, well, like, you know, players way back when. So to go and to do an apprenticeship immediately afterwards crazy.
00:04:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, I think it was pretty uncommon, to be honest. He, um, he, I think he considered himself very lucky.
00:04:26
Zak
Yeah, I bet.
00:04:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
Um, And we'll go into some of the bits, but like this all of but by the time sort if he settled down and had me, um he was quite a bit older and he was working for, I think, Fourboys, like a shop, a chain of shops locally as like an area manager. So he was sort of long past football.
00:04:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
And so it was only... after we lost him unfortunately, that got his, I got a huge book that him and his mum, my nan, collected of lots of newspaper cutouts and trimmings from all of his time and all of his games as he sort of progressed through the world of football.
00:05:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I just, I had no idea. But his, I've got a team sheet from his debut here. So he he started off as an apprentice And, uh, you know, they didn't have academies and stuff back then, but he would, you know, go in and shine the first team's boots and do all of the kits and, you know, whatever apprentices did back then.
00:05:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
Uh, but his debut, I believe, or at least from the first, uh, sort of team sheet that the club historian at Charlton could find him on, uh,
00:05:42
Global Sports Podcast Network
places him in 1965 when he would have been 16. sixteen sixteen
00:05:50
Zak
Damn.
00:05:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
um and he yeah he started for Colton who were playing in white shirts with red yokes, which is just an amazing piece of lost history. Whoever called short shorts yokes.
00:06:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
And they were playing against... ah Brighton in his debut. ah
00:06:14
Zak
That's crazy. Because like, especially you think now, like Brighton being like a powerhouse, but they're quite an established Premier League team. Charlton are now on their way back up to the Championship, being led by a former Saint. So we're very sort of aware of them. And, you know, growing up, Charlton were a Premier League team.
00:06:30
Zak
um, for, you know, when when I was younger. so yeah, it's just, it's kind of nuts that there's like this, this almost hidden piece of history. And as you said, like when you were growing up with your dad, obviously I knew your dad used to take you to football and stuff, but had he just had his job right as area manager of football, and then not said anything to you, would you have ever known really?
00:06:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:06:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:06:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. ah look Like, yeah, like we talked about it a bit, but you it was just never really like, like came up like my nan had in her living room, a photo that I've still got. I believe it's up in my lounge of him as a young professional footballer doing keepy uppies with a football.
00:07:08
Global Sports Podcast Network
and And, like, it's a proper, like, when you think of an old school football, like, ah like a leather.
00:07:13
Zak
hang Like the old like brown leather ones.
00:07:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. And, um but it was just like, was just like, oh, yeah, dad used to play football. I'm sure everyone's dad used to play football.
00:07:22
Zak
yeah Yeah, but but yeah that's the thing, right?
00:07:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
You just never think of it
00:07:25
Zak
Because it's like everyone's everyone's dad had like a trial at West Ham or Leeds or something like that, right? That's like that's a common thing that you hear from people there's people I know who's like, yeah, well, I would have made it professional if it wasn't for my knee injury at 21. In some cases, that might be true. like Who am I to say?
00:07:43
Zak
But it does seem like an embellishment that a lot of people kind of put out there. And yet, with you, it was sort of like, the more I discussed with you, where I was like, hang on, so your dad actually was a professional footballer?
00:07:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yes. Yeah.
00:07:54
Zak
It's like, oh, I'm a granddad. Granddad was semi-professional. I'm like... That must have been like 40s, 50s, like trying wrap my head around all of that information. And like, it's it's kind of crazy. And the fact that you've got all of that history, though, is is a nice reminder. And the fact that, you know, I think that we were looking back at some of the older episodes
The Importance of Historical Records in Football
00:08:15
Zak
of the FA Cup. Do you remember those?
00:08:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah yes
00:08:17
Zak
ah And we were looking at like some of the some of the statistics they found, right?
00:08:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:08:21
Zak
Like the amount of the size of the crowd and some of the information they had. And like, this person was subbed off after 15 minutes for this reason. And it's the fact that it's like so well recorded that you could just like, if you wanted to chase down all of the information, you theoretically could chase down all that information.
00:08:37
Zak
And that's like, I guess a wonder to have because a lot of people think about that and can't.
00:08:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. Well, on all this, well,
00:08:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
And aside from the photos that I've been sent from the the historians at Charlton Football Club, this was a couple years ago, was in communication with them. ah They got so a pretty good breakdown, which after the break I'm going to share with you because actually there's an amusing tidbit from this very Brighton game that I'm looking at the programme of where he's in the start in XI.
00:09:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
But we will get to that after a message from our partners at Bionique.
00:09:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay, and we are back. So, ah yeah, so they have sent me a little breakdown from their history of a bit of their, like, scouting information about my dad and what he achieved in his time at Charlton.
00:10:00
Zak
Oh God, it's so strange.
00:10:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah So it's got that he was born, so Ray Elliott, born in Eastleigh, educated ah Derby Road Primary School and Toynbee Road Hot so Secondary School, Eastley School boys, played for Hampshire School boys and played for the Pirelli Youth Team in Southampton, which is, you know, just nuts. Which, you know, I'm sure that a lot of our listeners who are Saints fans are...
00:10:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
has some connection to Eastleigh and will know that everyone in Eastleigh has some connection to the railway, Pirelli or Ford. Like that's just, that's just Eastleigh history. He signed as a Charlton amateur for 1963 as an apprentice and became full professional in on the 9th of July 1965.
00:10:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah For the youth, the Charlton youth team, the Colts, in the 62-63 season, 63-64 season and 64-65 season, ah he played four combination matches where he scored one goal and he played in six Metropolitan League matches where he scored one goal.
00:11:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
He was a striker, so, you know, that's still still best statistics than some of our strikers put up these days, so...
00:11:22
Zak
NEEEHEHEHEHEH
00:11:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
He played 11 combination matches and scored nine goals and 21 league, Metropolitan League matches where he scored eight goals in the 64-65 season.
00:11:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
And then you the the debut was actually for the reserves in this programme I've been sent for ah from the game on the 27th of February 1965. It was in a stormy match against Brighton Hove Albion. It was a three o'clock kickoff on a Saturday and he got sent off.
00:11:57
Zak
Oh, it's almost like I know where you
00:11:58
Zak
and your boy get it from. You should edit it out that other bit.
00:12:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah and then in the 1965-66 season so this was the year he became professional ah he got 28 combination matches with 7 goals and 7 metropolitan league matches where he scored 3 goals ah It actually says from his scouting report here, Ray's father Stan is a former Gravesend player and has reported to once have had a trial for Charlton, which even reading this back now, ah I didn't remember that.
00:12:32
Zak
That's nuts.
00:12:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah And then he transferred ah in 1966 in March. He transferred to Exeter City. ah where he signed a contract, a one-year contract.
00:12:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah He played 28 league games and scored three goals.
00:12:50
Zak
so that's that So I thought, because i've ah i've it's been it's been a long time, Greg, and I've been your friend for for many years. I've never asked your dad's name. So whenever I would Google your surname, turns out basically there are thousands of thousands of people with the surname Elliot.
00:13:05
Zak
um
00:13:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:13:06
Zak
So like can I Googled him a second ago, and the first thing that's come up is an archive from Exeter Football City Football Club with a with a, I don't know if you've seen this link, with a literal like bio of your dad. It's crazy.
00:13:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
No, that is crazy.
00:13:17
Zak
And a photo. and i And I can pull up this photo. And listeners can't see. But I can pull up this photo and compare it side by side. i'm like, yeah. ah
00:13:28
Zak
That's so weird.
00:13:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, it's it's crazy. and then ah And so i i've you know ah lost my dad at quite a young age, I would touch before.
00:13:37
Zak
Hmm.
00:13:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
And so so specifically when I was becoming a father, I sort of had this deep need to go and find out more about my dad because I only had my memories of my dad and none of it was about football.
00:13:47
Zak
Hmm.
00:13:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
um And so I reached out to to all of the football clubs he played for. So in he played for um he went on after Exeter to play for Paul Town.
00:14:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
He also played for Yeovil. And I reached out to all the clubs and actually it wasn't until a couple of years after I had sort of been reaching out to these clubs that I actually got a reply from Charlton.
00:14:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
And Charlton are the only clubs so far who have <unk>ve got back to me. And I'm not saying that I've been chasing this on a ah regular basis. In fact, this this correspondence with Charlton was... Well, it was in 2020, actually.
00:14:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
So it's, um you know, which was a time of a lot of reflection for a lot of us.
00:14:32
Zak
Mm-hmm.
00:14:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
So it's pretty clear. But but yeah, it's it's fascinating to have gone through. And I'm going to touch on after the break, the the one time that it really became sort of apparent to me.
00:14:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
um how big of a deal it was in his life. ah But first, a message from our partners at Zencaster. Here at the Global Sports Podcast Network, we spent a lot of time selecting our delivery platform, and Zencaster came out the clear winner.
00:15:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
With 4K video recording from your phone and AI editing that automatically removes all those ums and ahs, it's super easy to start a podcast that sounds great and is delivered efficiently. If you're ready to tell your story, check out the link in the show description to learn more about Zencaster.
00:15:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay, so we're back. I also wanted to touch upon ah famous family story ah because obviously my dad had me when he was quite a bit older and I have ah an older brother, an older brother a much older brother.
00:15:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
and the Famously, as ah his mum was giving birth to him, my dad was there and present for the birth and then immediately hat to leave to go and play in a football game.
00:15:54
Zak
Because you hear those stories and you're like, that's crazy.
00:15:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
yes Yeah.
00:15:59
Zak
And you sort of see like, oh, congratulations.
00:15:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:16:01
Zak
You hear about these kind of things, you know, that happened during games. It's like this player today has had to like disappear off and he's just just come back. He's not slept at all. But he managed to score a goal or whatever.
00:16:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. ah that's Oh yeah, I can't remember if he he nearly didn't make the berth because he had been playing and was rushing to the hospital, or if it was the other way around, but it was a tale of family legend and often hilarity.
00:16:11
Zak
And it's just so strange because...
00:16:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah But what I actually wanted to talk about was ah the the time that it did become
Personal Football Memories and Family Legacy
00:16:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
apparent to me. So it was, I remember the day so vividly. It was my first ever away game and it was at the Valley and it was Charlton versus Saints. And we'd been going to St. Mary's quite regularly at this point, sort of as as often as we could.
00:16:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
And, uh, you know James Beattie was in the form of his life, scoring goals left, right and centre for us. it was ah It was good times. And my dad had managed to use one of his contacts. And it turns out that one of the attacking midfielder, I believe, of his team that he you know played at the Charlton Colts with for the all these seasons was a man called Alan Peacock, who at the time was the assistant manager for Charlton.
00:17:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah which was was crazy, right? Like, that's ah that was the moment that blew my mind. I'm like, oh, like, it was a big deal. Like, Charlton are a big club, and do you have someone who's still involved in the club.
00:17:33
Zak
Yeah, it's not it's not like...
00:17:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
and um And he managed to arrange it for us, and we went up and we met with him really early before the game, and um but got to go and walk around the valley and got tour of the dressing rooms and of the pitch.
00:17:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
And, um, and I don't know, obviously it's, it's, this was at this point, maybe 15 ago.
00:17:51
Zak
Fascinating.
00:17:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
but um But as you come out of the dressing rooms at the Valley, there's a huge long corridor all the way down to the tunnel. And it's just a straight line. And on both sides of the walls, before it gets to, obviously, the pitch and the tunnel, they have all of the team photos of the Charlton first teams through the years, all the way back.
00:18:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
And so we were doing this tour and we were just, you know, looking around. And he's like, oh, look. there's your dad. I'm like, just in this team photo, in the tunnel of the valley, like the most mind blowing experience.
00:18:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
And yeah,
00:18:42
Zak
It's fascinating because it's it's a job that there's not a lot of people that do it, mate. There's such a small percentage of people that go on to get to that dream. And then it's um it's fascinating because obviously then the years later, like the careers after football nowadays, you've got punditry and all that kind of stuff. And back then they would just go back into society, right?
00:19:02
Zak
And then you've just got all of this history and legacy and it's it's incredible.
00:19:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:19:05
Zak
And shout out to club historians. I found it, as somebody that studied history as a degree, I understand the value of historians. And also like one of the things I think that really upset me when Manchester United started making cuts was they cut their club historian.
00:19:17
Zak
And it's it's things like these personal stories that like make that kind of stuff so important.
00:19:21
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:19:22
Zak
Because you know you you have somebody that's able to provide you with this information and a connection to you your loved ones, that you know your your dad who you'd lost, and to be able to give you sort of that that information.
00:19:33
Zak
But to be able to have the that moment in a stadium where it just like literally blew your mind, this like it's just incredible, man.
00:19:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:19:41
Zak
That's so good.
00:19:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:19:42
Zak
That's so cool.
00:19:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. don't know if it was um or how organised it was or if it was just because we were there. But we also obviously went and looked around the club shop and then we found like this book of Charlton through the ages and there was in that book as well.
00:19:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
And it was just... And then, you know, I got to go out on the pitch and we we stood on the pitch and then, you know... it's like, oh, you know, your ticket's good for hospitality.
00:20:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
You can stay up in the hospitality area if you if you want.
00:20:12
Zak
Thank
00:20:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
And then at that point, my dad was like, well, he's in his Saints shirt and you're not going to shut him up. So we've got tickets in the away end. I think we we're probably best out there. And, you know, and and that's the core memory, like that mind-blowing experience. And also standing on the exact spot on the pitch on the Valley that James Beatty scored the winning free kick from when we won 2-1.
00:20:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
like It was just like such a core memory of that game. and um Yeah, it's amazing. ah It just really blew my mind.
00:20:44
Zak
But it' it's the thing, it's incredible because it's things like that as well that, like, we with the job that we do, we're quite privileged to be able to get opportunities to go to stadiums and Premier League stadiums far more than most people, ah you know, other than a but maybe maybe a pitch invasion that happened the other year.
00:20:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
That was like the moment where the penny dropped.
00:21:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:21:06
Zak
There's there's not really a lot of opportunities you really get to go into the playing fields. And it's like, and I remember you saying, oh, I'm really annoyed because I didn't go into tickets to play on, like, unspecific ground.
00:21:17
Zak
And I'm like, but this year you've managed to play at Luton. You play at St Mary's every year. You've had this opportunity to, like, stand on, you know, especially back then where you would have been younger.
00:21:21
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:21:26
Zak
Like, you probably didn't expect it as much. And, yes, it's fascinating.
00:21:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
Not even a little bit, because because like it was he'd also like done such a good job of underselling it to me as well.
00:21:31
Zak
Fascinating me. LAUGHTER
00:21:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
cause He's like ah like, I'll take you on your first away day, we'll go up to Charlton. I used to play for Charlton, it'd be quite cool, maybe we'll see if we can hook up with anyone there. And it was just the most incredible day.
00:21:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
And, like, I remember all of it so vividly because, actually, we were supposed to... um we were supposed We were on, like, a week off and we were supposed to come back from Wales a day earlier and we didn't. And then we got held up.
00:22:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
And then, so, like, we didn't get back from Wales the night before until, like, 1 o'clock in the morning. And he's like oh, got to get up at 6 to get down to Cholton on time and drive there. And I just, like, remember the whole day so vividly. Like, it's such a core memory. And it's just...
00:22:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
Like genuinely mind blowing. But
00:22:20
Zak
I'm just, yeah, but I'm so happy for you to have that memory and to have, you know, to have the access to information and to be able to to experience this and and and like know what your dad did.
00:22:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah.
00:22:29
Zak
and And it's like, it' it's silly stuff where we talk about why football means a lot and it means a lot of things to different people. And like with you, clearly you have a connection to you to your dad there.
00:22:40
Zak
and obviously a connection to your boy as well. And you yourself, like as as much as you might not to think, well, I didn't go into football.
00:22:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:22:46
Zak
You did at one point, you know, do a lot of wrestling when you were younger. That was your, like, that was your, like, sport of choice, right?
00:22:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
and Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:54
Zak
That was, that was where you decided to go down instead.
00:22:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. 100%.
00:22:57
Zak
But it's, yeah, it's, it's like, it's fascinating. And, And even the even the clubs he went to after, like, obviously, Saints fans will be familiar with Pool Town well. That's where Charlie Austin played when he first started and broke through.
00:23:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:23:08
Zak
Like, Exeter, I've got family there. Everybody's heard of Exeter City and, you know, even Yeovil, right? Like, they're a classic sort of non-league team that you always try and bring up to the Premier League.
00:23:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:23:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:23:17
Zak
It's it's all these and all these things.
00:23:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
hundreds and
00:23:20
Zak
it's Yeah, um I think it's amazing.
00:23:21
Global Sports Podcast Network
and look I've got no doubt in my mind that we probably have listeners, uh, you know, amongst you who are of a certain, uh,
Intertwined Football Histories with Extended Family
00:23:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
you know, vi a certain vintage, uh, that may well have seen my dad play football back in the day.
00:23:32
Zak
demographic.
00:23:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
um and in fact, you know, as, as a real sort of nice point to touch on to a sort of come full circle, um, Football became very important again in my life when I met my wife because my wife's dad was the the biggest ah West Brom fan and I have had hundreds of programmes from his travels where he used to travel all around the country watching West Brom um before he sort of moved a bit closer to to here.
00:24:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I have many great memories of going to St Mary's with him to watch... West Brom games and other games and famously the worst game of football he said he'd ever seen live which was St Stoke which was honestly impressive because he was a West Brom fan like
00:24:26
Zak
you
00:24:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
but um but actually we did the maths and worked it out and actually we we worked out that he had seen my dad play football in the 60s against West Brom ah for Charlton in one of the games.
00:24:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
Just ah like a crazy, yeah, absolutely bad.
00:24:47
Zak
Man, it's like the six degrees of separation, mate, isn't it, as well? All that kind of, all the connections you've got. But yeah, it's it's it's wild.
00:24:53
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's it.
00:24:54
Zak
And like, you know, you imagine trying to explain to your dad now that you do a daily podcast around Southampton Football Club.
00:25:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:25:01
Zak
and Like, we talk about football on a daily basis and how much of an impact that it has on our lives as well as everybody else's, you know, and and how it is more than just a game to a lot of people, i think.
00:25:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:25:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
And, you know, that's it. And that, I mean, that was just my granddad's living room, right? The daily talk about Southampton wasn't a broadcast thing. That was just what we did every day when we popped round Nance to see granddad. Like, that was it.
00:25:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
I mean, that and how much we'd won or lost on the horses, but that's a story for another day. ah That's a whole different family hand-me-down.
00:25:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
But look, I mean, all of this, and that's just the the one club that I've been able to get any information that he played for. um And so, look, if if anyone's listening and has any links to to any of the other clubs, any Exeter or Paul or Yeovil links...
00:25:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
I managed to find anything they want to hit me up with. Hit us up on the GSPN Daily Southampton socials. we would I would love to see it. I can't wait to see if anything comes from it. But even if it doesn't, I'm so happy that that I've got those memories and that link. And I guess that you can see and understand why Southampton and football mean so much to me. Because it's literally just just in the blood. You can't help it.
00:26:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
No one, but let's face it. No one chooses to be a Southampton fan, right? in like Yeah.
00:26:29
Zak
You know, you're you're right. like none None of us choose our tuesday to put ourselves through pain of last season, right? And I think i think you're right.
00:26:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
But that's what makes it so special and so great that we all are.
00:26:36
Zak
But...
00:26:39
Global Sports Podcast Network
We all have that link and I'm sure that, you know, every single one of you listening has, ah you know, maybe not as quite a wilder story, but definitely those links to family and why it's so important in that community.
00:26:53
Global Sports Podcast Network
So, ah let us know them in the socials. It'd be great to hear.
00:26:56
Zak
Yeah.
00:26:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
Uh, why are you a Saints fan?
00:26:57
Zak
Fascinating.
00:27:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's, that's the, uh, the question we want answered. And we're, we're, we're not trained therapists, but we're open for all of that. Uh, but we come with it.
00:27:11
Zak
I just wanted to say, mate, on behalf of myself fan and the people that are listening, um it's been a privilege to to hear this.
Reflecting on Family Legacy and Gratitude
00:27:17
Zak
And, you know, it's it's a lot of a lot of personal information, but it's information that's that's fascinating. um it's It's important. I'm glad that your dad's story can be told and and, you know, that that information is there for you. And, you know, these these memories that, you know, they're There's something really, really important and special to you.
00:27:35
Zak
And I think it's it's worth acknowledging that thank you for for giving that to us and having ah and being allowed, like allowing us to reflect on that and experiencing it with you. Because yeah, from from my perspective, like I've specifically never asked you too much about it in recent times when you were like, I think we're to put an episode together.
00:27:53
Zak
So I didn't want to like spoil myself. And yeah, it's a fascinating. And um I'm just really, really glad you've got those memories. and And thank you so much for sharing with us because I really appreciate mate.
00:28:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah and it and it's great and I hope that um ah my aim is to take my kids away to the valley hopefully this season um and see if we can find any of that stuff see if we can walk into a club shop and find a picture of my dad that would be that would be insane just to bring it full loop and pass on those same experiences to my kids. That's the hope.
00:28:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
faster's to hope But yeah, well, well thank you.
00:28:31
Zak
Amazing. Thank you so much, Greg.
00:28:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thanks, everyone. It's been a bit self-indulgent, but I've really enjoyed the trip ah through history. Thank you, everyone, for listening. ah Yeah, let us know your stories on all the socials. We'll be back tomorrow, and we're coming back, Saints. We're looking forward to our most exciting fixtures as we get into fixture day.
00:28:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
ah And I'm just going to tell you now, Zach, I want to know who you want to join the Carabao Cup, so get those answers prepped.
00:29:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
But until then, we'll be back tomorrow.
00:29:01
Zak
Good kids.
00:29:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thank you, everyone. Bye.