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Episode nineteen of The Square Ball, recorded on 7 December 2010, brought Dan Moylan, Michael Normanton, and Daniel Chapman (Moscowhite) together for a programme shaped by a run of draws, the ongoing uncertainty around Bradley Johnson, and an unlikely moment of notoriety for one of the show’s own.
White Watching covered three results: a 1-1 draw at Norwich City on 20 November, a goalless draw at home to Reading on 27 November, and a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace on 4 December. The Palace result broke the sequence and provided some relief, though the episode’s conversation kept returning to the broader pattern of a side that was accumulating points without quite convincing.
Bradley Johnson’s transfer situation dominated the talking points. The midfielder had attracted interest, and discussion of what his departure would mean — and what his retention would require — took up considerable time. The panel examined the contractual dynamics and what the saga revealed about the club’s ambitions under Simon Grayson.
The FIFA World Cup vote — England’s failed bid for the 2018 tournament having been decided in the days before recording — made it into the episode. The panel’s reaction tracked the wider sense that something had gone badly wrong with the bid and the Football Association’s management of it.
The episode’s most distinctive moment involved Ken Bates: the Leeds United chairman had named Michael Normanton directly in the official matchday programme notes, a pointed gesture that the panel addressed with a mix of bemusement and characteristic defiance. It was a reminder of the adversarial relationship between TSB and the club’s ownership at the time, and of the programme’s willingness to say out loud what others in the Leeds media ecosystem would not.
A seasonal thread — the episode’s title a nod to the Radio 2 segment in which listeners share personal songs — ran lightly through the episode, giving it a slightly looser texture than the two preceding it.
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