Welcome back to another Through the Turnstile meets ‘The Footballing Brain’ an innovative way to add additional challenges to your favourite game, be it FIFA or Football Manager. I personally don’t need any additional challenges as I struggle to do well on either without throwing in more obstacles in the way!

However, if you are not like me – this could be the perfect way to both challenge yourself more and also grab some extra memorabilia on the way too. You never know you might be introduced to your next favourite team.

Lets go!

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Q) What is your earliest memory of watching football ?

Going to Old Trafford when I was maybe 5 years old, and my dad said before we walked out on the concourse, remember this as you’ll never get to walk into OT again for the first time, and remember I did. Theatre.

Q) What does it mean to you today and how has that changed over the years?

I love going to Old Trafford, that feeling never really changes, stepping out from the concourse, just electric. Don’t get to go as much as I’d like to anymore but when I do, in the stretford end with my mates, it’s almost europhic when it’s bouncing and the reds are playing well ( not that often as of late).

Q) Now i know you sometimes go to support your local team, how do you find that experience?

Going watching the Rams (Rammy United) is always a good laugh! We always joke about how we’re going to buy it one day when we can afford it and try to work out the process between us, we reckon about £200k-£400k but honestly we have NO IDEA… Cans of carling for £2.50, decent pies and sausage roll and some pretty bang average football, but a good watch all the same. Bury FC we’re in Rammy’s league this year after there liquidation their starting again and flying up the ladder and Rammy pushed them all the way.

We went to Gigg lane which is a pretty serious stadium to watch Bury vs Rammy on Boxing Day which was absolutely mint! They sold it out! Bury won… We watched the playoff recently, loads of the lads went down, to cheers the rams on but after a very lacklustre game it finished 2-1 to the opposition who were Scouse I think! There’s a good sense of community at non league footy, everyone pitching it for the love of the game, quite wholesome really, the opposite of how the big clubs are run, obviously though… money talks and I’m no cynic so don’t really blame them!

Q) Non-League football is on the rise, can you see why this is?

And I’m glad it is, just based on what I said at the end of the previous question! I think the reason behind the rise is just social media and the growth of people making video content on non league football, shout out to stuntpeg who makes some seriously good non league videos!

Q) Was you always into football management games and if so what were your favourites growing up?

Both and Gallie, our other Co-founder were FIFA kids growing up and never played football manager games until recently, and we’re still no good at it really!

We met in high school and the first 2 years of high school for me were the glory days of FIFA and I smashed it! Countless div 1 titles on ultimate team, selling my team every 3 games because “we needed to freshen it up” simpler times, great games.

I lived with Gallie for a while during COVID and we had rooms opposite the corridor from one another, both doors open, both grinding career mode, mine with Bury and his with Bolton( who he supports) and we just play all day, but it’s got it’s constraints FIFA and FM just opens the door to the football nerds paradise

Q) Football manager is of course the biggest of them all and has been for some time – what is your history with the game?

Like a said previously we’ve only just really started playing it, I used to watch Doctor Benjy FM on YouTube doing his Glory Hunter series which is really what got me into it, he doesn’t make videos as much due to his mental health, I wish him all the best and I really hope one day he comes back to making content as he’s brilliant.

We both downloaded the game at similar times, I remember my first save was with Derby county as Rooney had just taken over or been sacked, can’t remember , got repaired first season and sacked it off for a while, I’ve dabbled since but honestly just can’t find the time to play, so the product we sell actually is from a bunch a noobs who just watch content creators play the game as we’re shit!

Q) A big challenge that a lot of content creators take on is the Non-League to Premier League, the idea of taking a team from non-league to the top is the dream – who from the current national league would you love to see in the Premier league one day?

I’d probably say Altrincham as it’s no to far from my house so I could pop down for a bit of local action!

Q) How did the idea for ‘The Footballing Brain’ come about?

Me and gallie love footy! Galiie even more so than me to be honest!

We used to work together in a local restaurant, and we would talk a oi it all day but after a while we would exhaust everything and begin quizzing each other. All day we would be quiz and quiz, belling pass the 12 hour kitchen shifts.

Eventually we thought why not put these questions out on Twitter, who doesn’t love a good bit of football trivia, so we did and The footballing brain was born. Our goal was to gain traction and create a community of football trivia enthusiasts and then develop a board game once we had saved up some money, we have instead pivoted into the mystery football shirt space and tried to make it our own with our FIFA and FM specific packs! We did do footy quiz nights in Manchester for a while which at first did great, we would sell 80-100 tickets a time and have great prizes like shirts, footies, £100 cash and we loved it, we wouldn’t make much money but it was our way of giving back to the community that supported us on Twitter. In the end, naturally the ticket sales fell off as the hype had died a bit and we stopped after our Christmas footy quiz this Christmas just gone, but we will be back for another Christmas one this year! Bigger and better than ever!!

We do still have plans to make a board game as we have a football trivia podcast on Spotify and YouTube and we still post as much as we can on Twitter to stay true to our roots as of course we need to make money to keep the business running but also we do just love footy and we would hate for people to forget that!

Q) What can people buy from your store?

Standard mystery boxes for adults and kids which guarantee no English clubs unlike a lot of these other mystery box companies!

Spice up your save/career Mystery boxes where you get Challenge cards for the save, a match attach pack for a transfer challenge, an envelope for the team you’ll be managing reveal! An FM booklet for the FM pack and you can upgrade to have the shirt of the team your managing too!

Tic tac toe puzzle book: 50 pages of footy tic tac toe played and created by us here at TFB, great gift for any football fan.

Q) What is your personal favourite challenge that you guys offer?

Sunday League Football. Duration – Every Season Any games that fall on a Sunday, must be played as follows; Some Form of 4-4-2. Two Target Forward’s, No-nonsense CB’s* ,Cross Early, Much More Direct passing. You can add more to this but must stick to Sunday league, route one theme. *(physicality over pace for EAFC)

Q) What has the feedback been from your customers so far?

Everyone has absolutely loved it! Especially some of the creators that we have partnered with to get the word out, shout out to all of them, BigRobbo was a big player for us and a lovely guy! Check out his content if you haven’t already!

Q) With FM26 (hopefully) around the corner after the disappointment of FM25 not being released, is now the best time for people to buy their pack in preparation for it?

That’s a great question! The answer depends on how everyone plays the game to be honest! We personally think the beauty of this product is that you can play right at the start when the game has got loads of hype and also when the game starts to die down in prep for the next years game, it’s an absolutely fantastic experience to play with our pack and would urge anyone to get involved, even if I am biased!

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PARKS TO PITCHES !!

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