Football Daily - Karel Prince: Lie Detector - Danny Webber

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

This week, former Manchester United, Sheffield United and Portsmouth striker Danny Webber submits three stories from his football career. Did Webber really install security cameras and fingerprint entry access to join an exclusive Sheffield United dressing room society? Did former Chelsea manager Avram Grant nickname him "World Wide Webber" after being impressed by his football knowledge? Or did Neil Warnock leave a voicemail pleading with him to ignore his reputation and sign for Sheffield United? Armed with photographs, football knowledge and plenty of suspicion, Karel and Anita investigate every claim before Webber returns to reveal the truth. Karel Prince: Lie Detector is presented by Karel Prince and Anita Abayomi and is a Sport Social Studios production for BBC Sounds. Credits  Series Producer: Matt Tasker  Technical Producer: Tom Hinckley  Executive Producer: Jim Salveson  Photography: Tom Barker  Artwork: James Mobbs  Original Theme Music: WIZZFX  Commissioning Executive for BBC: Stevie Middleton  Assistant Commissioner for the BBC: Steve Trenchard

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Get more with BBC podcasts, wherever you listen. Be the first to listen to your favourite shows, like evil genius, good, bad billionaire, and You're Dead to Me, with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts ad-free with an Amazon music subscription. Yes, people, it's Carole Prince here. And Anita, buy me. We are the new resident fact-checkers here at the BBC.

Every week will bring you three wonderful stories from the world of football, two being lies, one being the truth from ex-pros, and using our detective and analytical skills, we're going to try and weed out the truth from the lies. Anita, you're ready to go? I'm ready. Let's do this one. Let's have a look at this. Right, DW.

I've got one, straight off. Go on. DW from Alpha. I thought it was double D. No, it's DW. Is it? Yeah, it's DW. DW's, Arthur's.

sister? Yeah, I thought it was... A sister or a friend? I think sister. Sister, yeah. Little sister, yeah. Little sister. I've got a natural footballer.

Danny Welbeck. Legend. Legend. One of my favorite players ever, man. Yeah? I truly love Danny Welbeck. What do you love about Danny Welbeck? Truthfully, it's his ability, like, to score the type of goals that not many

strikers can. Like, he'll, like, contort his body in certain ways, get a flick, get a volley. Like, he's not your... He's not just going to shift and finish. Yeah, it's like you can cross it in and you'll get that little back heel. And I think that's necessary. Interesting career as well. All right, let's open up the case files.

Ah, Danny Weber. Okay. Danny Weber. Daniel Weber. You're giving everyone nicknames. I believe he goes by Danny though. Yeah, but stop giving them nicknames. Okay.

Webs. Webster. Webster. Started at Manchester United. Okay. And as you can see, if you look in his youth career, it says Fletcher Must Rangers. That is like the pipeline.

to the Manchester United Academy. A lot of the players who come from South Manchester who play for Manchester United probably started at Fletcher and Moss Rangers. It's like, it's the breeding ground for United Academy players. Spellers like Man United, a few loans there, went to Watford, Shepard United.

There's actually a funny clip of him at Shepard United with Neil Warnock. Doing what? Neil Warnock is a walking me, mani. He's just a man. You can't die for three points. So he's, so the video, goes that he's in the changing room.

Yeah. And apparently he just didn't like injured players around him. Neil. Yeah, he didn't like the side of injured players in the changing room. His bad vibes. So Danny must have been injured and he's just sat there like in the change room. And you just hear him go, Danny, go get a shower. You're going to make me sick.

Oh. Can you imagine tearing your ACL and Neil's like, get out my sight, mate. Yeah, some managers are superstitious like that. Do you know, yeah, don't bring that bad aura around me? And then interestingly, enough, you know, as we fast forward, 2014 to 2016, Salted City. That was back when they were in non-league. Wow.

I actually was at the game that they beat Knott's County in the FA Cup, which was like, at the time, like a massive, like, giant killer. You were quite young then, though, weren't you? Yeah, without saying, yeah. Maybe I need to fact-check that. I met Ian Wright at that day. I've got a picture of me in him right from that day. I think you should show me that.

After this podcast, I think you should show me that. The pictures. I will check the case files for that. I'll send it to the people. and they can insert it back to my sources to see we can validate that claim. I don't lie, I don't need to lie. I'm just saying he was at Sautford City

at 2014, 2016. How old are you, like, 10? How old do you think I am? Hey. You think I wear a trench coat if I was 10 years old at that point? Yeah, I think you wore a trench coat when he came out of the room.

It was a leather jacket, actually. There we go, there we go. It was even in the summer as well. I'm a summer baby. Okay, this is Danny Webber at Port Smith. Okay. He was there from Twitter. 2009 to 2011.

This was a dark time for Portsmouth, by the way. This is around the time, like, they started going into administration in the Premier League. They had the points deduction, got relegated. I remember that. They went to preseason the next season, had about six players signed on. Jesus, I remember that. Yeah, remember, Portsmouth were like, in my childhood,

they were a Barcliffe team. They used to be big time, yeah. F-A Cup winners. And then after this, they end up in League 2 at a point. Yeah. And it's nice to see them back in the championship. next picture is Daniel Wernock

One of my favorite gaffers You know if Neil Warnock was Spanish or Italian and said the things that he said they would write books about the quotes that he does Give me your quote

Because if you put If you put a Neil Warnock quote Next to a Pep Guardiola quote Or Artetta quote You're not going to know who said what Artetta said Oh Edison invented the light bulb so we have to shine

or something like that And your Warnock said He said You gotta die for three points My Mrs could have played against you Do you know what? Fares Yeah

You just gotta add a Spanish accent to it And it'll be fine Oh What is that Is that hand sanitiser Or is that an alarm I actually don't know what that is I couldn't tell you

I'm looking at him pretty deeply And I couldn't tell you I see a finger I have no On a device We're going to hear out what it's said And then I'm sure we can work out what that is from there Let's try and use our brainpower

Why'd you like to make my life harder? Do you know what? Because I like, there's beauty in the struggle I always say that there's beauty in the struggle Beauty in the struggle There's no booty in the struggle There's beauty in the struggle I heard what I wanted to hear

All right, next one That's a security camera CCTV How did you get that from this one? Turn it sideways Other way Audio listeners She doesn't know which way a CCTV camera goes um uh it is a CCTV camera apologies apologies apologies

don't look at me like that no i'm just i'm just wondering if i don't know what i'm doing you don't know what a security camera is how are you supposed to surveil the truth and the lies if you can't tell i use my naked eye put some clothes on it then because it's clearly not working um i can't stand you and the last one is you should know this man very well one of my faves well one of my faves that i'd love to hate um i've I'm gone. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Was you a Chelsea fan?

I am a Chelsea fan. I was Moscow. I was Moscow. How was Moscow? Moscow. Moscow was traumatizing for me, actually. Thank you for asking. Thank you for bringing up my traumas. This is a man that once he took over Chelsea,

actually lost the league up final to Tottenham, of all clubs. Of all clubs to lose it to. Lost the championship final to Manchester United. Of all clubs to lose it to again. Lost the title race to Manchester United. Of all clubs. And I believe in that season was not, knocked out of the FA Cup by, do you know?

No, Man United. Barnsley. Barnsley. We got knocked out by Barnsley. Are you sure that was that season? Yes, it was. 0708. It was a season to forget for sure.

Yeah. But that's neither here nor there. We are talking about Mr. Danny Weber. And we've got three videos from Danny Weber, hopefully giving us some context to these photos, which I have no idea where it's leading us. So all we can do is roll the tape on the first one and hear what he's got to say.

Let's see. So when I joined Sheffield United. Oh, look at Webb's proper manking it. When I joined Seffield United. There was two dressing rooms side by side. So you go on the training ground, there was one on the right and side and the one of the left. The one on the left was the members' dressing room. So there's a guy called Rob Cosluck, one of the funniest people you'll meet in football.

And it's from the first day, he says, Webs, do you want to be a member? I said, well, what's a member? He said, well, if you buy a gift for the room, then, you know, there's lots going on in here. There's different pool table and all sorts he said you can be a part of this room so i said come on then right so i joined the members room and you have two weeks to buy a gift that if you gift's rubbish they throw you out so i'm thinking for days like me phil jaggy alka have gone in at the same time into that dress room we're thinking what do we buy so jaggs bought a table tennis table and i was thinking right what do i buy there was remember the beads that you have in your nan's kitchen there was those beads

There was a young lad that had bought dressing gowns with everybody's name on it. It was little novel gifts, but if it was acceptable to everybody, then he stayed in. It was a stereo, there was disco lights, they were all coming back to me. So I ended up buying a CCTV and fingerprint entry for that dressing room. It got accepted. So in that dressing room, there was two CCTV cameras and fingerprint entry forever remember. Wait, so if this is like a secret boys club, why are you buying security cameras? I don't know.

You surely don't want any evidence or what's going on in there. And why are you getting fingerprint scanner? It just seems a little bit extra. Okay, table tennis table I can imagine that was that 100, like what's that 2005 maybe or 2006?

Yeah. 100 quid maybe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably less. How much is a security camera and fingerprint scanner? I'm not even going to look at what it is now because I know we've got all sorts of biometrics

but back then, surely that's a pretty penny. When did fingerprint scanners even become a thing to just be accessible like that? It's been a while. Has it? Yeah, like, I mean, like in Mission Impossible, they were using fingerprints.

They were using eye scanners, so there's got to be fingerprint before that. That's mission impossible, though. No, but I'm saying like the technology was there for a while, so I'm saying by the time he's at Sheffield United, it's widely acceptable, no? Nobody said it was a good one either. Yeah, you're right.

Judging by the photo, it was definitely a cheap one, and I'll tell you that. But also, my thing is, it's not just buying the equipment. He said everyone had a fingerprint that was part of it. So do you need someone to come and, You have to set that up. And set that up. Yeah, you do.

And then you have to set up for new members. So the running cost of this seems quite high just to get in a room. You're looking at the running costs for a footballer. Yeah, and he was like, someone bought a stereo, someone bought disco lights, someone bought dressing gowns. But you bought surveillance. CCTV and fingerprints. I don't know, man. Danny, I don't know, man.

I thought the costs of it is absolutely fine. He's a football player, so he can afford anything. But it just doesn't make any sense regardless. I still feel like you wouldn't want to like overspend in comparison to other people. Why not? Because it's like, oh, like it's almost like you're begging to get in. Oh, oh, you're making it a safe space for everybody and you're showing everybody that this is a safe space. Hey, listen, I don't know.

Maybe he's extra like that because this is a very extra story. And did you see the way he was like, oh, it's all coming back to me now? Can't fool us. Yeah, but then he could be, it could be telling the truth. And I just think, I don't know why you would do such a thing. He could be. and if he is telling the truth, maybe we drop him a DM after

and asking him if everything's okay because I don't know why he'd be doing all of this. It's so extra. It was like 20 years ago. He's probably over it now. No, did you not see the way he said? It's all coming back to me as if it was a great memory.

I'm telling you, he believed that he did a thing there. That's what I'm feeling. Like, did he, was there surveillance stores? Corral, he is a footballer. Do you, like, is it like, yeah, mate, I need CCTV cameras. Oh, what's it for? The Boys Club in at Sheffield.

Firstly, I'm sure he didn't use this camera. kind of telephone. This telephone is probably made in like, what, the 30s? I don't know when it was made. My point is, I don't know how you go about getting it. I don't know where you get the number for someone that can get that. Unless it's the same person that did these houses, one. Actually in the day, football players had access to so many different things that we just didn't know about.

That's because you've got social media now. Doesn't mean back then they weren't accessing things that we didn't know. Do you know what I mean? You've got to think about it this way. When the ballers were going to the club and stuff, they only got caught on the newspaper. But then if you, if you, if you, if you're not, if you're going, But if they're always worried, because they always say back in my day, like, there was no social media, no cameras, whatever, whatever.

But then you've installed cameras in, like, what's supposed to be, like, the safe space of the thing. That's where it doesn't feel believable. Look, the story just does not add up to me. The story doesn't seem believable at all. But we've got two other stories to listen to, so we'll figure it out. Should we get into the second one and see if this one sounds a bit more believable? Yes, let's do it.

All right. Five Live Sports. So here's the first. Get more with BBC Podcast. wherever you listen. Be the first to listen to your favorite shows, like evil genius, good, bad billionaire, and You're Dead to Me,

with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts ad-free with an Amazon music subscription. Fricking you last. It lives on BBC Sounds. Smash straight back down the ground. This girl.

Here ball-by-ball coverage of the biggest competitions on the domestic and international circuits. It's a ball cricket and it's the huge. Huge one. Tis. Whosh. Settled that. Sorry, mate.

Cricket on five live sport. Oh, I'm living every ball of this. Listen on BBC Sounds. This is story number two. Let's roll a tape on this one. So I was playing at Portsmouth, and Avram Grant came in to who plays Paul Hart.

So obviously when the manager first comes in, you go shaking everybody's hand, and you sort of introduce yourself, and he's sort of familiarising himself with all the players. And when we went out on the training pitch, again, to break the ice a little bit, he sort of went around to everybody asking questions,

or trivia questions, general knowledge and a bit about football. And I've answered the first one. I've answered the second one. I've answered the third one. And then he turns around and says, oh, World Wide Webber. So I got the nickname World Wide Webber

off the back of Abram Grant's trivia questions when he first joined the club. World Wide Webber. It's Avram Grant. This is what I'm trying to think. It's Avron Grant that sharp to think of that on the spot. Because if you can't work out how to win a trophy at Chelsea, can you think of that in the moment?

That's a very good question. Probably not. You had Drug Bar, Lampart, Terry, Czech, Ashley Cole. You lost the Tottenham in a cup final? And Averham barely spoke English, didn't he? His English wasn't great. I don't know about that. I think he spoke English.

His English wasn't great. Worldwide. Yeah, but that's someone that would say World Wide Web in it. If, like, you don't speak English that great, you're more likely to say World Wide Web. No, no, you're not. WW. Exactly. You still say that.

When you say a website, you still say WWW dot in it, that's it. You don't even know how to do that for a while. Firstly, mind your business. Secondly, what's wrong we're saying? WWW. Because you don't need it anymore. I do that all the time.

WWWBBC. Dot UK. No? It's just BBC.comu. UK. So the older generation, you no longer need to use WWW. Are you calling me the older generation?

She's acting like it. Wow, Corral. Where's the last time you saw WWW dot written? Yesterday when I typed in W-WW-BBC.com. UK. H-T-T-P 4-4-slash W-W-W-Doh.

You were running a dial-up here, isn't it? You know how to type everything. Listen, I typed everything when I was growing up. But yeah, like, I think, yeah, a man of his age, Averham Grant,

would come up with that nickname. But whether he came up with it on the spot like that, I feel like it's kind of one of those where he would say it, or like, he would say it like three days later. Okay, think about... Is it, I've been thinking...

Think about Avram Grant as a person. I don't know him as a person. Hey, in one of the episodes, you knew Alex Ferguson as a person so now you know everyone's going on as a person, okay? Think of him as a person.

Does he sound like or look like somebody that will make that kind of joke? Yes. Because I think he would spend more time making jokes than taking training sessions. Play the third clip.

Play the third clip. Listen, I'm telling you, I think this guy came back a few days later and says, you know what? I've been thinking. But he said on the sport. No, that's what I'm saying.

I feel that's what of the differences. I think he's come back a few weeks later. He's like, you know what? I've been thinking, you're smart guy. World Wide Webber. Play the third clip, Corral, please. Let's not waste. Let's not waste that listeners time.

I just remember you don't need to use www. Okay, let's roll the tapes on Danny Weber's third story. Hopefully this one gives me more of a feeling that this is true. Because the first two, I've lost me. Okay, let's do it. So I was about 23 playing at Watford. And before the game against Preston at home, all the Preston lads got off the bus and one or two that I knew was saying,

Webb's are you going to Chef United? I knew nothing about it. Got on with the game. At the end of the game, Ray Lewington, who was a manager at the time, while I was in the shower, he said, oh, webs, can you see me in the office? So I went to his office and he said, look, Cheford United want to sign you. I don't want to lose you. But the situation is kind of what it is.

So I then kept getting this number call me And I knew it was Neil Warnock And at the time I didn't know Neil And I didn't want to play under Neil I played against his teams And I didn't think it was something It was going to suit me So two days went by

I kept ignoring the phone call Until he left a voicemail And he was basically The last voicemail was Webb's not as bad as everybody thinks I am Please pick up the phone son And then you know I felt guilty at the time

I picked up the phone, went to Sheffield United the day later, sat with Neil in the dugout, and we had probably 45 minutes where we spoke about ambition and ended up signing. So that was one where you never judge a book by its cover. I actually enjoyed a lot of time playing under Neil, and we gained promotion that season. You know what's funny about that story?

Go on. Regardless of if he stayed at Watford or went to Sheffield United he would have got promoted because they both got promoted Thank you for the fun fact Correll can we work on the case now

Yeah Thank you Jeez Louise Can I like to give you bits of information Because you could You know When you talk to your colleagues

Around the water cooler If that's what you guys do down there How old do you think I am What do you guys do in the break room I don't know Drink coffee I know you're a coffee addict So probably that

Like you can be like Oh, did you know that, and I all did bits of information, I give you, it helps. It helps. Your colleagues will actually like you after that. I don't need my colleagues to like me. Let's just solve this case, Carole. Okay, no more fun facts from me then, no worries. Let's get back to work for this episode.

All right, cool, cool. I don't really get the story. Oh. Because if he was playing for Watford. Yeah. And then Sheffield United wanted him. And then he said he went there the next day. Is this drawing the season or in, like, it can't be in the same.

summer. Well, it says from 2006. Wait, where's... Well, 2005, sorry. 2005? Yes. Yeah, but the, so Sheffield United got promoted in 2006. So the season he's talking about is his first full season at the club. It said he went on loan to Sheffield United. No, that makes a bit more sense. So he went halfway through the season? Halfway through the season. Yeah. From Watford. And then signed permanently the year, the season after. I think that's, I think that might be the true one, you know.

And Warnock said, oh, not that bad. I think that you would have to convince people of that. Because like if you've ever seen clips of Neil Warnock Oh, I've seen the clips. Especially like there's a clip of I think Danny Weber was even at the club at the time but like they play against Millwall and like he's giving it to the linesmen he's giving it to the players

he's giving it to Kevin Muscat and then I think they get a last minute equaliser or winner and he's like he's going down like walk around to the Millwall players going that's for Muscat that's for Kevin Muscat Oh my gosh So like he is that type of character

that I think if you play against him you'd be like do I even want to be in a change room with him We know Do you not remember the things? famous meme of after, I can't remember what match he was, where he came after the match, he just came to the camera. Yeah, it was against Chelsea. Was it against Chelsea?

It was, wasn't it? May, that was, that was quality. Was that, no, no, that wasn't after the game. That was, I think it was before the game. Was it before the game? And then after the game, that's when he goes up to the referees and he just loses it. He's a nutter. Like, he's a character.

And I think that's why I believe it. Because I think he, there's nothing in there that says, like, he didn't say anything outlandish. Yeah. It's more so. Do you know what? All of these stories are pretty safe, aren't they? Safe, and they're very safe.

You've had a long career as well, Danny. I don't know how like, he's got to have crazier things. But I know, I like it. He's a good lad, good teammate. He's protecting the people around him. Yeah, less of that. Less of that. Less of that.

Less of that. Less of that. I want the spice. I want the spice. Same. Do you think we need this fingerprint reader? Some, some eye scanners to access the real stories. Maybe he's behind a firewall on here.

Maybe. If I can guess the password, there might be three more stories that actually get our juices thrown a little bit. You can barely type your password on this computer, mate. Just forget about it. We're not accessing those stories. We're not. I mean, so we got to choose between security camera, worldwide web or Warnock sign me. Well, the best way we can look at it is a lie.

I think, right, the best way to look at it is say, let's say all three are true in some capacity. Yes, apart from World Wide Web. Which one do you think would have any detail change? to make it untrue just to make it slightly less true, if that makes sense. Okay, so World Wide Webber... I'm not having that. It never happened. I think if he did get it, it wasn't from Averram Grown.

It wasn't, yeah, word. It was probably like, I don't know, so calm. Do you know what it is? I can be in the same primary scores him and called him World Wide Webber. So we get into the reveal because I think that's a good place. Wait, but we haven't decided which ones we think. Oh, I thought with the third one. What, the third one?

Yeah, so we had the discrete camera. Go on. We had World Wide Web. Yes. And we had Neil Warnock signed me after I ignored it. So Neil Warnock is the truth. Yeah. Okay.

I'm going with that. I'm happy to lock that in. All right, let's get into Danny's reveal. So the story about Sheffield United in the members room was all the truth, apart from the last bit. I didn't buy CCTV cameras. And I didn't buy fingerprint entry. I don't think it was fingerprint entry back then. But I did buy a doorbell.

So that one was a lie. The story about Avram Grant coming, calling me World Wide Webber was also a lie. And the story about Neil Warnock and the voicemail was the truth. You know what, though? World Wide Webber. I rate buying a doorbell, though.

Why do you rate buying a doorbell? Because it's like, imagine you're inside enjoying yourself. I feel like a doorbell is more polite than knocking. Like, if you show up to someone's door, are you going to press a doorbell or knock? I knock at your door every single day, Corral. The way you knock is quite rude, actually. I'm not quite gently

It's a little... Nah, you knock, like... Well, we have pressing things to deal with, don't we? Yeah, but to be fair, it works. I think, yeah, I think I like the... Remember what I said about... I know there's truth in at least the first one. What would you have changed?

And I figured, like, the camera was... Yeah, yeah, yeah. The camera's a bit mad. But I did tell you, fingerprints, I don't think they were out back now, he told you. He's not actually World Wide Webber, so he doesn't know if they were there or not. I'll tell you, I saw it Mission Impossible

and that came out in like 2000. Mission Impossible and real life are two different things. Let me find out when it actually came in that we shouldn't leave on a clip hanger like that. Regardless, we would not have had access to it the same time as Mission Impossible did. Fingerprint scanner. That's what I'm typing for those listening.

We can hear the keyboard. Yeah, fingerprint scanners were first made available to the public in the early 2000s. And when was... What era was you talking about? 2005 Fair enough Yeah

I told you He's not Worldwide Webber He's just Weber Fair enough But yeah No I like that Doorbell Avraham Grun

As someone who saw him Up close Like he just know He's not that type of guy But you thought That he'd think about it And then come back And then say

Potentially He's not sharp like that I'm tell you I told you A man that can't win a trophy At Chelsea in the mid 2000s Cannot come up with that On the spot

Because that team just won trophies And he got West Hamlete Relicated Oh Sorry Hammers If you're listening In fact, you shouldn't... London football and Avram Grant

They just don't go together. They just don't. Don't go together. But yeah, Neil Warnock trying to sign him, I get that. Get it, yeah. Voice emails being persistent, I get it. And he had great times with him. Exactly.

So he was right. Good life choice, good life decision. Cheers, Webb. That is what I like to call an open and shut case, really. Yeah. Because... Nice and simple. It wasn't too much.

Yeah. Wasn't too strenuous. Yeah. You can have an early finish. Oh, fantastic. Brilliant. Well, that's case closed for me. It's close.

But thank you for your help. You're welcome. Every time. Come on. Every time. Such an easy day's work. Thank you to Danny Weber for his stories. I appreciate that contribution.

And thank you to all of you that are listening and watching from wherever you're watching and listening. If you do feel like there's anyone that slipped the net, anyone whose stories need analyzing, anyone we need to bring to the stage, bring to the table, bring to the computer that I clearly cannot use properly. Feel free to email us. I might not be able to click on it. Feel free to tellers on social media

I can do that because I use my phone and feel free to send mail by owl. Owls are an effective method of communication they were outdated by the technological age however nothing can stop flight but we can stop connection. So send

the owls I like that much sport today for all the goals as they go in up and down the league this is five live sports it's all right to the lights and for turn a floor To hold him. It's not to stop out.

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