Les Ferdinand: Football's Toxic Culture, Wage Battles, and Lessons from Newcastle and Spurs (E342)

I always felt whenever I played for England, every time I played, it was my last opportunity, it was last opportunity, and it was never really given a what I felt was a fair run in the squad. I knew what I wanted, I knew how to how to get there and so on and so forth. But the one thing Jerry Farcis did was put an arm around me and I didn't realise that I needed that. And when I went in the change rooms, I thought I sat there and I sat there for ages and I was I was sitting there and I was thinking, do you know what? Wherever I've gone, I've just tried to do my best.

And that's all you can do sometimes, do your best and hope your best is good enough. That is the voice of Les Ferdinand, a true Premier League icon, a man who has a unique journey from non-league football to becoming one of England's top strikers all the way to the boardroom behind the scenes in the game. Along the way, just scoring 149 Premier League goals. He played for some of the biggest clubs in the country, including Newcastle United and Tottenham. But his time at QPR was seminal to the career that he enjoyed.

I think it's fair to say Serles is a fitting nickname for this guy. Oh, absolutely, Jake. This is a rich, revealing and rewarding conversation. He talks to us around his observations on football today and almost the corrosive impact of how much too much too soon can have on young players. He talks about growing up in the shadow of Grenfell and then going out to Turkey and what that taught him at a young age.

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