Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:07 — 8.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Blubrry | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | More
Football Language Cliche: If you’d offered me that…
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 cliche 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 by contacting us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Introduction.
DB: Hi there everyone. I’m your host on this football cliche 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 cliche, ‘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 cliche.
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 cliche
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 cliche: 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. It is like a dog snatching food from someone’s hand.
The ‘that‘, in ‘If you’d offered me that‘, is the offer of course, So, in my case, if someone had said at the start of the season, Liverpool will win the League Cup and finish in the top four. Would that be a good season? I would have said ‘yes’. At the start of the season, if you’d offered me some silverware and Champions League football the next season, I’d have bitten your hand off.
So the phrase has a time frame: At the start of the season. And it has an offer: silverware and Champions League football. The phrase also uses the third conditional form – If + had done + would have done.
Example
DB: Here’s another example from a Fulham fan’s comment on a Reddit thread on a Tottenham 2-1 win against their team in 2022.
“8 points on the board, top 10, and our only losses have both been close scorelines against top 4 teams. If you’d offered me that at the start of the season I would’ve bitten your hand off.”
In this case, the Fulham fan, although they lost against Tottenham, is pretty pleased with his team’s performance.
Alternatives
DB: You can also change bitten to snapped and say I would have snapped your hand off. Of course, the time frame can change, so you might say, ‘If you’d offered me that after our loss in the derby‘, ‘If you’d offered me that after Van Dijk’s injury‘, and so on.
Stinger: Your are listening to languagecaster.com (in Bahasa)
Goodbye
DB: Thank you for that message in Bahasa. Remember you can come along to languagecaster.com and leave a comment on this post or send us a message to admin@languagecaster.com. You can follow us on all the usual social media sites, just search for Languagecaster. Remember to like, follow, and spread the word.
And that brings us to the end of today’s short podcast where we looked at the cliche, ‘If you’d offered me that’. How about you? How do you feel about your team’s performance this season?
Thanks for listening and enjoy all the football. Ta-ra!
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
Glossary
If you’d offered me 5th place and a new way of playing and thinking about football at the start of the season I would have taken it!