Is Sesko a good fit for Manchester United and who will win the Championship? – Football Weekly Extra

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Manchester United looked to have won the race to sign Benjamin Sesco.

Does Sesco, Cunha and Bumo suddenly look like quite good?

Or will they all arrive at Old Trafford and go backwards?

That means Newcastle miss out on another player while Alexander Isak isn't allowed to the Newcastle United barbecue.

Not the barbecue.

Elsewhere, Villa sign a striker and Everton sign a manor house.

We'll look ahead to the championship that kicks off with promoted Birmingham against relegated Ipswich on Friday night.

Also, today, Russell Martins Rangers get back on the horse.

We'll pay tribute to George Costa and discuss the popularity of the name Barry.

And we'll answer your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Ben Fisher, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Lars Sivitson, hello.

Hello, Max.

And good morning, Barry Glenn Denning.

Hello, Max Russia.

Let's start then with Benjamin Sesco.

Manchester United look like they're going to get their man paying 74 million to RB Leipzig for Benjamin Sesco.

Fabrizio Romano tweeting he'd reached total agreement, absolute total agreement with Manchester United on personal terms, and he wants to join Manchester United.

Before we discuss discuss why would you join Man United when any other team wants you,

Lars, tell us a bit more about Sesco because we've heard it's, you know, along with Yokarez, we have heard this name so many times this summer, but there are probably a lot of people listening who haven't seen a lot of him play.

Yeah, so he's very tall and he's fast, fast for his size, fast in general, and he hits the ball really well.

So that's exciting things for a striker.

He came through the

Fizzy Drink Empire.

He came through at Abiy Salzburg.

And obviously, when he he came through there, you had a very tall blonde forward who ran fast for his size and would hit the ball really hard.

And I think there were a fair few people who would look at that and go, hang on, we've seen this story before at Salzburg.

So clearly, people were very excited about him.

And the expectation was that he was going to go to the Bundesliga and completely blow the league away.

And in the first season, he was good.

He had 17 starts, 14 off the bench for Leipzig, scored 14 goals, you know, going along at a good, good clip.

But last season, 13 goals of 30 starts for Leipzig, which is not amazing for a center-forward in the Bundesliga.

But Arby Leipzig were mostly crap.

So, again, as a striker, if your team is crap, it hurts you, right?

It's harder.

So, he has, I think the phrase a lot of people are going to, which I would concur with, is that he has all the tools, right?

He's got size, he's got speed, he can really wall up the ball.

I think it's entirely plausible that he can score a lot of goals in the Premier League.

I just balk at the price tag a little bit because you're paying, like, that's for me,

if you're buying a striker out of the Bundesliga at that price, you want someone who is who is the finished article and is the real deal.

And I don't think he's that.

He kind of feels like he should have had a breakout blow-up superstar season this year and then that didn't happen.

And then you go and pay 75 million for him.

That feels a bit odd to me.

And you know that if you're a United fan, you know that two teams who typically get this right more often than your team does, Arsenal and Liverpool, have both signed a striker in this window.

Arsenal looked at Sesco and the price and thought, nope, not doing that.

We're going Joker as Liverpool were prepared to pay that kind of money for a forward for the Bundesliga, but they went Freikatika instead of Sesco.

United are apparently now pulling the trigger in this kind of deal.

I think it's very plausible that he will score goals.

I think he's an upgrade on Rasmus Highland.

I just...

I'm puzzled by the price a little bit, especially when we know that United have other things to do.

Like that midfield needs some help.

And you've already signed a lot of money.

I've spent a lot of money on Kunyan and Buemo.

You're going to spend a lot of money on Sesco.

Hmm.

Allocation of resources.

I have some questions, but the player is good.

Yeah.

I mean, they spent, what, $64 on Hoyland, I think.

And it was plus $8 million in...

add-ons.

I presume they haven't had to pay any of those add-ons.

I don't know what the add-ons were.

There are comparisons to be made with Hoiland in the sense that he was another tall, blonde guy who you said he has all the tools.

But maybe his scoring record before this isn't as good as you would want.

Now, I do think Sesco is better.

At that kind of money, I would want someone who is like 100% slammed on.

Let's go.

And I don't quite feel that way.

But he can definitely...

Yeah, I'm hedging my bets a little bit.

There is a bit of fence sitting going on because I just think he will score goals.

And I don't want to look too stupid when that happens.

But

there are voices at the back of my head that just screams, this is a lot of money for a guy who isn't completely the finished article and did go missing a fair bit last season.

Sure.

And I guess that's the thing.

You can't take the money out of it.

But when you take the money out of it, Barry, and you look at Kunya and Bumo and Sesco,

that does seem quite.

That's quite, you know, if I saw that, you know, when they go the Man United starting lineup, I'd be like, that is a good front three.

It is a good front three.

If Reuben Amarim can get a tune out of them, I

think Reuben Amarim will be a good manager for Manchester United.

I'd imagine he sells the club very well to, or his project very well, to prospective signings.

And

Manchester United clearly have a pulling power that Newcastle don't.

The biggest one being that they can afford to pay players more money in wages than Newcastle can.

There is talk that...

Players don't want to go to Newcastle because Newcastle is a very isolated city and the picture painted by some people is that it's some sort of medieval hovel.

I mean, I was there during the summer.

It's very nice.

If I was a footballer, I'd be happy enough to live there, no problem.

But

Manchester United clearly have this massive reputation.

It's a club these young European players are more familiar with, and they have a history of winning things, which

last season's carabout cup aside, Newcastle don't.

Yeah, I suppose that's...

Pete asked this question, Ben, which is, I know money is obviously a factor, but why do players still want to sign for Man United?

Do they not look at the number of promising careers that have stalled in the last decades?

Or does the level of confidence required to be at that level make them think they can buck the trend?

And that's quite an interesting point.

I just wonder how many players go, this seems to be a graveyard for promising footballers, or I'm really good at football.

Why don't I, I'll be good for them.

Yeah, I think it's that ego thing that you get with managers.

You know, when managers take a job, when Ruben Amerin took the Manchester United job, I know the timing was a little bit forced from his side.

I know he wanted to take over not mid-season, but I think it's probably the same with players.

And especially those ones who have grown up, you know, sort of maybe the back end years of United being this sort of huge force.

It still naturally has that pulling power.

But I think there's players back themselves.

I think, you know, Cunha and Mbremo, as examples, will think, I can go and replicate what I've done at Wolves and Brentford, respectively, at Old Trafford.

What a place to do it when it's all kind of tickety-boo.

And I imagine Benjamin Sesco quite likes the idea of being sort of spearheading that.

But it does feel

I suppose every signing is a gamble, but it feels so important given the kind of framing around Amarim.

You know, we've heard him in pre-season say he wants to beat United for 20 years.

Well, he's going to need to start really well.

The pressure's going to be on.

I do think it probably helps Sesco say he doesn't, say he signs and it doesn't quite happen straight off.

You'd like to think Cunha and Imbremo have goals in them.

It's not like they're sort of wingers that provide for strikers, if you like.

You know, their numbers are really impressive last couple of seasons.

So that may help as well.

But yeah, United's a strange one, isn't it?

Because it has been basically a basket case for a while, and yet they kind of keep getting away with it because players still want to join them.

They've still got that, you know, the global kind of brand and everything that comes with that.

The ability to pay wages.

But yeah,

it's going to be pressure on from the first game.

And actually, you make the point, Lars, the questions you have about what happens behind those three, right?

What is the midfield?

Well, this is the thing, because I'm just kind of assuming the fact they've gone big on both

Buomo and Cunha, and they won a number nine, suggests to me that they want a striker, and then Cunha and Buemo behind them, which I guess means Bruno Fernandez, central midfielder, is the planned this year.

And I just think if that's your front three and Bruno is one of your two in the middle, the guy next to him is going to have an awful lot of stuff to do.

Like,

that can't be Casemiro, I don't think.

And it probably can't be Ugarte either, based on what we've seen so far.

And it's going to be a tough one for Kobe Mainu.

They've been linked with Carlos Baleba from Brighton, which I like a lot because he runs a lot.

He covers a ton of ground.

But also, Brighton are going to want a huge fee for him.

So, again, you can only sack so many cleaning ladies, you know,

to find this money.

It's going to be tricky.

One other thing I just want to add on Tesco.

He does like the wall-up one from distance.

Like, he's one of those who hits the ball really well and is not afraid of letting fly from sometimes from long ranges.

Now, you already have Bruno, who does love a speculative hit.

And you've got Kuna.

Absolutely loves that.

So I do think United, whatever happens this season, when we get to the sort of end of season goal of the year compilations, I'm expecting United to show up good there with like wild shots from distance.

But the downside of that is you might also be spending a lot of time watching players kick the ball into the stand for no discernible reason from about 20 to 30, you know, 30 yards.

So there's a downside to that as well.

Whatever happens, you'll have a good montage, Manchester United fans.

Meanwhile, you sort of touched on this, Barry, Newcastle.

They're really struggling to bring players in.

Alexander Isak, he was ordered to train separately with his teammates and to stay away from a lunchtime training ground barbecue, which is just a lovely tiny sort of bit of information saying, wow, you can't go to the barbecue.

And the idea that he'll go,

I love sausages so much that maybe I, maybe I won't sign for Liverpool.

Well, apparently it was a barbecue for players and their families and none of the families turned up because they all wanted to go to the Manchester United barbecue instead.

Is that right?

So we presume he's that goes and it does leave this issue for Newcastle.

We've touched it already, you know,

where they sit in Piff's pecking order because, you know, like it looks like Nunes is going to, Darwin Nunes is going to go to Al-Hilal, or they're certainly in talks.

And, you know, they've accepted Nunes' wage demands.

What sort of demands could you have that

Saudi League has to meet them?

Because normally the wage offer is quite...

You've met my demands.

Pretty much an interesting position that Newcastle find themselves in.

Yeah, their fans are really frustrated, and a lot of them are blaming all this on PSR.

I would say, look, I don't have any sympathy for them.

I think it's hilarious.

But I can understand why others might have sympathy for them.

But you can either cry about it or you can challenge these rules by taking legal action.

You can ask your owners to stop funding other clubs, like

directly or indirectly, like Liverpool or Chelsea.

Or you can generate more revenue by using the avenues that are available to you that you haven't yet exploited.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Man City, according to the last set of accounts they each released, they spent more wages than Newcastle generated in revenue.

So

Newcastle are constantly going going to be playing catch-up.

It's going to be very difficult for them to break up this red cartel that their fans get so annoyed about.

But there are things they can try to do.

And on Tuesday, I suggest, you know, try to be smarter, be more like Brighton.

But they don't have...

a football director.

They don't have a chief executive.

Eddie Howe seems to be in charge of transfers as well as trying to coach the team.

His nephew is involved in some way.

I don't really know what that kind of arrangement is.

So

while they are being hamstrung to an extent by PSR, they are certainly not making life easy for themselves at all.

And it now looks

if they don't get Sesco.

They seem to be Nicholas Jackson seems to be on the radar, bringing him in from Chelsea.

They they seem to have a stunning lack of imagination when it comes to recruitment.

It's just who does everyone else want?

Well, we we'll go for them as well.

But that that's what happens when you don't have a recruitment department that's fit for purpose.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I just quite like to see Newcastle take that kind of hard line barbecue approach to the whole thing in the sense that

as Baz said, you know, it seems like they're sliding down this list of targets.

You know, quite clearly, Nicholas Jackson or whoever may may be next isn't number one, wasn't number one, probably wasn't even two or three.

At what point can Newcastle say actually, you know, to Alexander Issa, actually, it's just not, it's not going to happen this summer.

You've got, I think he's got three years left on his deal.

He's a Newcastle player.

Yes, he wants to move.

And I suppose ultimately the reality is you can't have a player unhappy.

And, you know, no doubt there'll be the transfer requests and all the bits and pieces.

It can come down the track.

But I just wonder, at what point did Newcastle say this just isn't going to work for us?

It felt like maybe Sesco was the one where if we could get him, okay, we'll make it work as long as the price for Isak is right and healthy, you know, pushing 150 million, huge, huge money.

But at what point do the Newcastle actually say, well, no, it doesn't work for us.

You're our play.

You've got, I think, three years left, at least two on your contract.

And that's how it is.

And the reality is that, you know, he's going to get a move down the line.

I just wonder, I think that would be quite empowering for the club, especially in

a kind of moment, in an era, as Barry said, with these PSR rules where they feel so frustrated that they can't strengthen to actually kind of take a bit of a stance, really.

And they might have to take a hit down the line.

But as I said, maybe it's just wishful thinking because player power kind of rules.

I quite like going full barbecue.

I think that's quite a good, it's a nice phrase.

Moving on, Villara have signed nice striker Evain Gussand for 26 million plus 4.3 million in add-ons.

Anyone, Brackett's Lars, know anything about this guy?

He's fine.

I think that's a perfectly acceptable squad player purchase.

He puts himself about.

He's got

decent sort of physical attributes.

Not an incredible goal scoring record.

Scored 12 for Nice last season, but had

eight assists as well.

And I think like as a squad addition to give it, because of course they haven't really had a good sort of backup option to Jolly Watkins since Duran left for Saudi, have they?

And they had some loan signings, of course, they brought in.

But as someone who can take some minutes off of Watkins and be an option, I think that seems kind of sensible.

Everton, David Moyes at one point said they needed 10 players.

They're in talks with Jack Grealish, apparently.

They've had a bid for Tyler Dibbling rejected from Southampton.

They've signed Chelsea's Kin and Drewsbury Hall.

All Ben seem like quite good ideas to me.

Yeah,

I find Drewsbury Hall a little bit underwhelming, if I'm honest.

It's quite a hefty hefty fee.

I mean, I suppose that's j just what the reality is when you look at what Leicester paid for Harry Winks and Ollie Skip, you know, who were pretty unremarkable last season.

So maybe I think it's 28 million.

Maybe that's just

what it costs these days for a player of that kind of ranking.

But I really like Tyler Dibling.

I think that is going to be an interesting one.

I know for a fact Spurs were deemed to be sort of front of the queue by other clubs who were pursuing him.

Certainly at the turn of the year.

Now we know obviously Spurs have gone for kudos.

That would suggest that you know they probably wouldn't go in for Dibling this summer, but he has got lots of admirers.

I think it's just a case of who actually wants to take the risk and push the button because he had such an amazing start.

That little kind of, I'll never forget his debut at home St.

Mary's, St.

Mary's, at home to the United.

It was just sort of spectacular.

And then since then, he hasn't had too many moments, basically since Russell Martin left.

Russell Martin had this great, struck up this great relationship with him.

And,

you know, I was chatting to Will Steele last week and he was saying, you know, there's a players these days are very different, even when he started coaching.

And he used Tyler Dibney as an example and said, you know, he's he's quite unique, he's quite quiet, he's quite reserved, and there's nothing wrong with that, but we need to manage people differently.

So, if David Moyes feels that he can be the one to get out of him, it'd be, it'd be, I think he'll be a great signing for somebody who can just go and sort of let him off the leash, as it were.

So Elsa, it's better signing.

Son to LAFC or Muller to the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Lars, what do you reckon?

Maybe I'm obviously biased in this case, but I do think Son, like, he's lost the touch of pace, which was an issue in the Premier League.

He couldn't get away from defenders.

He was struggling to make space for himself to do the things he usually does.

I think in MLS, he should still get plenty of shooting opportunities, which is the thing he should still be able to do, right?

There's no reason why he can't still hit the ball the way he's been doing.

So, in the sort of more chaotic world of MLS, I think he can make an impact.

But this, I'm super

curious about Mueller, right?

Because Mueller isn't really a kind of player who will like pick up the ball and do something incredible on his own.

He's always someone whose added value has been famously his interpretation of space, famously popping up where you least expect him,

which has been very useful for Bayern.

Like I've seen a lot of Bayern games in the Bundesliga where they've had like 65% possession and they just can't break someone down.

And then suddenly Mueller finds space out of nowhere and does something.

Does that translate to playing for a much worse team?

That's not going to create as many chances?

I don't know.

But then again, as I said, the MLS is a little bit chaotic.

So maybe his way of like

finding space in the chaos will come to the fore there.

He's also obviously a great competitor,

famously very vocal on the field.

I'm very fascinated to see how that goes.

Again, talking about the compilations, I'm expecting Son to show up.

You know,

people

on this side of the water very rarely watch MLS, but we do see like highlights of Messi doing stuff and big go.

I think you'll see a fair few.

Like, look at this screamer Hyung Min Sun scored last night when you wake up and you log on to X.

You know, this, I can see that happening.

Very curious about, I'm going to have to watch some Vancouver Whitecaps games going forward, which is not a sentence I've said out loud before, I don't think.

Well, watch them and let me know how they go, please.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Thursday, the 11th of September.

We're playing the Troxy in East London.

We've checked, Barry, and it's enormous, which we noticed the last time we played the Troxy.

So we need you.

Think of everything we do for you for nothing.

Is that too desperate, Bass?

Did that sound desperate, Barry?

Or, you know, it's about time listeners pulled their finger out.

I do think it sounds desperate, but I think you make a fair point.

You know, we deliver this part three times a week.

You get to listen to it.

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So buy a ticket.

Show your appreciation by buying a ticket.

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Thursday, the 11th of September.

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Yes, tickets can be purchased by heading to theguardian.com/slash football weekly live.

The panel to be announced very shortly.

We're in very serious contract negotiations

with

those panelists, but it will be announced.

Well, if it's very serious contract negotiations, it's got to be Winston.

I can't say I can't say anything yet.

Uh, we've signed an NDA, but you might be right.

Anyway, um, yeah, go to that website, theguardian.com/slash football weekly live.

Just find our Instagram, my Instagram, or Guardian Football Weekly's or whatever.

And you will come and have a nice time.

Um, the championship starts this weekend.

Obviously, leagues one and league two started last weekend.

Uh, Birmingham Ipswich on Friday night, Ben.

I mean, you obviously covered the AFL in depth for the Guardian.

It's a great game to start the season, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a blinding game and partly because Birmingham are trying to do what Ipswich did a couple of years ago now in terms of winning back-to-back promotions to the Premier League.

Birmingham are kind of unashamedly ambitious.

It's kind of, you know, it's going to upset a few people, I think, put a few noses out of joint.

They really are.

Yeah, they're going for it.

They've signed, I think, the 10 players at the last count.

That's probably ticking over into 11 or 12 as we speak.

They've obviously got a load of of momentum.

Chris Davies, in his first managerial job, had a record-breaking season, 111 points out of League One.

I mean, it was just far too easy for them, but credit to them.

They're coming up and

they want to mix it with the parachute payment teams, you know, in terms of those teams relegated from the Premier League, one of those being Ipswich.

Who I was saying in the week, I feel like they kind of got relegated with a bit more grace than Leicester and Southampton, even though they only won one league game this calendar year, which is, you know, know, not really loads to get too excited about.

But I just feel like Leicester and Southampton, there was so much else going on.

And Ipswich still have probably the core of the team that came up last time.

They've got a strong squad and also they've got Kieran McKenna.

And I think there's a lot to be said for that consistency.

You know, this time last year, we thought Kieran McKenna was maybe going to Chelsea, Manchester United, you know, have the pick of his clubs.

So I think the fact he's back in the championship with a team he knows, which is probably a better team than he got up last time.

Well, it is, it is a better team.

I think

they'll be really fancied as well.

So yeah, Birmingham Its, which is a great game to start.

Just be interesting to see which kind of A-listers

the Birmingham Entourage bring with them this time, because I feel like we're going to see a bit more of that this season.

We saw last season they brought Beckham to the Wrexham game.

And

yeah, there's definitely that kind of stardust around Birmingham.

As I say, they've got really grand plans, but it'd be interesting if they can kind of back it up.

Just so interesting you talk about,

you know the the bringing the a-listers and i think you know legacy football fans are like god you know this is it's pointless but someone was telling me and and and i

i i hope it's accurate that the wrexham do you remember that wrexham knotts county game i think ben foster saved a penalty that was on tnt that got more viewers than like an average premier league game on tnt

right which is sort of astonishing

well they i mean like you joke but it's still astonishing now that it's not the level of football.

Like, actually, these, you know, the sort of entertainment, documentary, showbiz part kind of matters in a way that I think,

like, intrinsically in my heart, it makes me sort of bulk a little bit, going that that shouldn't be right.

But it does help, right?

You know, like, there's a reason, right?

Why famous people advertise shit.

I guess that's, you know, that's, that's the truth of it.

Yeah, I did an interview with Tom Wagner, who's the Birmingham chairman, who's, you know, the guy probably coming up with a lot of these ambitious soundbites.

He was saying, like,

i don't know the wrexham rivalry they've created last year and this kind of the both clubs kind of on the rise in the american kind of backing he's like lots of other clubs want in on that because it because of that max because of the kind of crude bottom line basically there's a clip in the recent documentary that birmingham

have been filming last season where Wagner congratulates the team on victory over Wrexham and then he says actually I need to go back upstairs because there's a thousand people up there that I need to spend money money on the club.

And yeah, that's the reality of what we're looking and working with.

It makes me think, because I've always kind of said, in my opinion, I think football is more a soap opera than a sport.

And I think the popularity of football is more to do with all the storylines around it and all the stuff than what actually happens on the field.

I've always said that, like, for throughout, and I've always felt that's a very clever thing to say and been very happy with myself.

But then now, when I see the clubs that are turned into actual soap operas become as popular as they have, and that completely overtaking the actual football.

I feel like maybe that was not a clever, I mean, maybe it's true, but it's true in a way that I'm no longer comfortable with.

I think you're right.

But then, if it became a complete soap opera like Neighbors, it would be better than football.

So, then, you know, if we go to the other side.

But how far away from that are we really?

Again, when people are watching teams from

that tier, because they appear in a very slickly produced television show, and that's kind of attracting them much more than

the more sort of the actual sporting drama higher.

It's always been this sort of increasingly, there is a tug of war between like, is this a sport or is this just a content mill?

And as much as I don't want to be too sarky about it, because anyone who goes into a place like Wrexham or a place like Birmingham and contributes something and creates enthusiasm and brings investment, I don't think we should look down on that just on principle, because I think it's a positive thing.

But the whole vibe of that thing is there's something that doesn't sit right with me for some reason.

Sure.

Well, I mean, like in Neighbours when they had Bouncer's Dream, you know, that was when I think Neighbors jumped the shot.

So in one of the episodes, you know, if Kyogo Furahashi has a dream about something and they put that before the game, then maybe we'll say that.

That's when it's gone too far.

I mean, he's an interesting signing, Barry, isn't he?

I almost corrected you on the last pod where you said they'd signed him from Ren.

Because I was like, no, they've signed him from Celtic because I'd missed an entire part of his career.

But it's a brilliant signing for a Hashi, I think.

It'd be fascinating to see what he does in the championship.

Yeah, it's a weird one.

I don't really understand what happened there.

He left Celtic for Wren in January, signed, I think, a three-year deal, and now he's at Birmingham City.

And he didn't really play for Wren.

I think he made maybe five or six appearances or something.

So Ben might know what happened there.

I'm afraid I don't.

Just lots of interesting stuff in the championship.

I think there's 11 different managers have taken charge of clubs since the end of last season.

It's a very unforgiving league, so one presumes that probably six or seven of them will be sacked by January.

There's a real high turnover of managers in the championship.

I was looking at the

favourites to win it, the favourites for relegation.

Wrexham weren't listed in either.

Lots of people saying this is a season of consolidation for them.

I have a feeling they might

get another promotion.

I've said since they got promoted from the National League, I could see them in the Premier League within three or four or five years, or four to six years.

And

I wouldn't bet against them making the playoffs, scraping through.

And there is zero doubt in my mind that

they will be a Premier League team, you know, before too long.

Snoop Doggs, an investor, he's joined Luke Romodrich.

What a midfield that is.

Snoop and Luca.

Luca holds and just says, you know, do what you like.

You've got a free roll, Snoop.

Very language.

Luca holds and

Snoop for shizzles is nizzle.

Well, Ben, of those, I mean, the rest of the miss because it is interesting, right?

It's interesting.

Keith and Moore signing.

They always go for like a big old, you know, does that mean Stephen Fletcher's done his

old target man job or could they play Moore and Fletcher?

I don't know.

Conor Cody in as well.

Louis O'Brien from Forest.

Josh Windas.

Yeah, Windas as well.

Brian Hardy.

That's good signing, I reckon.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

So they've made interesting signings, man.

If I had to bracket Wrexham before they signed Kiefer Moore, and not that it should all be about one player, but I do feel that is a significant signing.

I think that's a great signing in that system, in that team.

As you say, feels like, you know, we've seen Paul Mullin do his turn.

Fletcher,

you know, Kiefer Moore,

I think, will score.

double figures for Wrexham this season.

And I think, you know, together with that, you know, that spine, the new spine they've got this season, potentially, Danny Ward, Cody, Lewis O'Brien, who's probably the pick of their signings, you know, who turned down, could have gone back to Swansea, gone to Wrexham.

You know, he's basically in the peak of his career.

This is a player that, you know, got to the playoff final with what Huddersfield a few years ago.

Forrest then signed him, didn't really use him.

He ended up having, you know, a couple of loans.

But now I think he's going to be settled again.

I think that's a great signing midfield.

Then more up front, I think a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have been as sort of hot on them.

I don't think they would go down, but i don't think they would necessarily trouble the top six but i do think their recent business means they could certainly find themselves looking up rather than down marty sevuentes is in at leices uh will still in at southampton ruben sellers in at sheffield united what of those appointments who do you think is you know who is best placed do you think well i think will still is probably the most intriguing appointment you know this is somebody that we've been aware of for a little while because of his track record in France.

Obviously, at 28,

he became, I think, the youngest coach in Europe's top five leagues.

He's got profile and now it's, we haven't seen him in England before.

He's not actually lived in England before.

He's English, but he's not really, yeah, he's not really done it here before, apart from managing Preston under 14s when he was on a college course.

Spent a bit of time with him last week.

He's a really interesting guy.

Keen to kind of get away from the sense that he was just sort of tapping the space bar on his laptop playing football manager, then landed in Liga and then, you know, here he is.

I think he's done a bit more than that.

But he has got a job on his hands because, as always is the way with these clubs that are relegated from the Premier League, the squad is so bloated.

You know, Leicester as well, for example, took 32 players on their preseason tour to Austria.

Southampton, it's the same.

There's a lot of people who you think won't be there in September.

You know, we've already mentioned Dibling, many others.

But yeah, I think Will Still is interesting.

Him and Sifuentes, obviously, and you, and that's why I think Ipswich might be best served just because of that consistency.

But yeah, I think Still is definitely intriguing.

Yeah, at Sheffield United, it was a really messy end for Chris Wilder.

His sort of January recruitment was ultimately kind of what he paid the price for.

Made a series of loans and won a big signing, Tom Cannon.

None of them really worked.

The Sheffield United owners want to push this kind of data-driven recruitment, which is thrown up some left-field signings from Eastern Europe, which I don't think Chris Wilder was too enamoured with, but was kind of happy to sit tight to a degree.

Ruben Selez, presumably, has said he will work on that basis.

Did a great job at Reading.

We obviously saw him in Southampton in the Premier League with Southampton.

Did a great job with Reading when they were, you know, having all sorts of financial issues.

But I do think,

I don't know, they've just lost Amma Hodsich as well, the big defender, who's a big sort of pillar for them.

Kiefer Moore, even though, you know, I don't think too many Sheffield United fans would be too disappointed to see him go.

But that is two pillars.

That's two pillars.

I mean, that's the whole thing falling down, isn't it?

Yeah, that's that yeah, they he's got um Louis Barry in, who would be interesting, scored loads of goals for Stockport.

But yeah, but he went on loan to whole undersellers last season and didn't really do it.

So it'd be interesting to see if he can perform.

But yeah,

I'd be more doubtful about Sheffield United, I think.

Baz, who else interests you?

Well, Rob Edwards has taken over at Middlesbrough,

who have been out of the Premier League for quite some time now, and Ryan Mason at West Brom,

he's left Spurs

where he was Angel's assistant, and he's been at Spurs for quite some time.

So, I'm curious to see how they'll get on.

Sheffield Wednesday already looks absolutely nailed on for relegation.

Will they even be able to field a team?

That's going to be interesting to see in a sort of rubbernecking

fashion.

And yeah, I think

Edwards Zabora could be interesting.

And

we don't really have any idea whether Ry Mason is any good or not as a manager, but we'll find out, I suppose.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And who are along with Sheffield Wednesday then?

Who do you think will struggle?

Hull.

I think Hull and Sheffield Wednesday are both up against the three-window ban in terms of paying fees for players.

Both clubs are appealing it, but it remains to be seen if they

overturn it.

Sheffery Wednesday's actually been turned into four, so that's actually until June 27 so if it wasn't bleak enough already it certainly is there as Barry says I mean there's it's been quite a depressing week for Wednesday or weeks you know the fans have united but behind the team behind the club they're going to protest they've sold out the away end they're going to protest first five minutes of the game they're planning on not being in the

in their seats basically to kind of give off the impression of what it would look like if Wednesday weren't here.

Obviously Barry Bannon has said he'll stay put.

Not expected to be any problems with registering him because he's a player already there.

And they will work with the EFL in terms of registering players, I understand.

So it's not a case of they can't add to the squad full stop, but it's going to be very tricky because of all the financial reasons and limitations under Chancery, who we are told is trying to sell the club and the EFL are working with him to sell the club.

Here we have another example of an owner who has just got to a point where seemingly he can't fund the club, he can't meet the obligations.

You know, there's creditors, HMRC, wages going late, three months running, you know, fans are turning up to the training ground trying to provide staff with stuff to get them through their day and you know food and drink.

It's not how it should be.

And it will be interesting to see what happens beyond Sunday because, yes, they're going to play Sunday, but how long can this go on for?

I suppose

that's the question and that's the concern really, because it can't yeah uh the efl did release a statement you know saying a lot of things you said ben that they are you know they are working they're in daily contact with the club um they are engaging with the supporters and they talked about the confidentiality of of some of the meetings with the trust that was after that video that we spoke about uh where uh you know one supporter said they weren't really helping at all so the efl are saying that you know they are

doing everything in their powers to help Sheffield Wednesday, even if the, you know, some of the supporters don't necessarily see it that way.

Well, the thing is that they might be doing everything in their powers, but their powers are very limited.

So, of course.

Anyway, that'll do for part two.

Part three will begin by paying tribute to Georges Costa.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, mate.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, very sad news

out of Portugal.

Former Porto Captain George Costa died at the age of 53.

He had a cardiac arrest at the club's training centre.

He led Porto to Champions League glory under Jose Mourinho in 2004.

He won 50 caps for Portugal.

Spent a season on loan at Charlton in the Premier League in 01-02.

If you remember, he was, it was him and was it Jonathan Fortune?

It was Costa Fortune, with the centre-back.

With Luke Luke Young at right back as well.

So So it was the

Young Fish Cost of Fortune is what it was.

Yeah, yeah, no, it was, wasn't it?

Yeah, there was a really, you might have seen Jose Marino giving a really emotional

press conference when he just said,

it's part of my history that goes.

This was Jose Fenobache's press conference head of their game against Fire Nord.

Of course, I'm very sad, but I'm here because if he could speak with me now, he would tell me, come on, do your press conference tomorrow, play the game and win, Mr.

Forget about me.

That would be Georges.

So that's what I'm going to do.

Try to do.

Do my my job today, do my job tomorrow, and cry afterwards.

Porto said throughout his life, both on and on the pitch, George Costa embodied the values that define FC Porto: dedication, leadership, passion, unshakable spirit of conquest.

He left his mark on generations of fans.

Yeah, look, some player, Lars, wasn't he?

Yeah, no, I mean, he obviously most remembered probably for being part of the defensive

back to centre-half pairing with Ricardo Cavalio for Jose Mourinho and his Champions League-winning Porto team.

And the fact that his nicknames were

the animal and the tank gives you an idea what kind of defender he was, like fully uncompromising.

It is very odd that he ended up spending a year on loan with Charlton Athletic, but that was because he fell out with the coach of Porto at the time and he

needed to play football because of the World Cup coming up the next summer.

So he spent a year in South London, which I'm sure would have been quite an experience for everyone.

And was just

the thing Mourinho also said, he was the kind of captain who would,

as Mourinho called it, clear out the trash or something.

Like he was someone who could police the dressing room for you.

You know, he was a man's man, an old school captain who, you know, the

coach's general, all this sort of stuff.

And was back at Porto now as a director of football under the presidency of Andrei Viaspoas.

So, yeah, obviously, very, very sad for him and for his family that he's gone at an age of 53, which is horrible.

Yeah, absolutely.

No age at all.

Elsewhere, news that former Arsenal Metrovilla Thomas Party, this is the Guardian writings, poised to join Villa Rales.

Upset fans of the Spanish club.

Around 800 have signed a petition urging a halt to what's been described as the darkest day in the club's history.

Party appeared in a London court on Tuesday, charged with five counts of rape relating to two women and a charge of sexual assault against a third woman.

The alleged offence is said to have taken place in 2021 and 2022 when Party was playing for Arsenal.

He was granted conditional bail on Tuesday.

The chief magistrate said he understood the 32-year-old would soon be moving to Spain.

Villaralov agreed to sign him on a one-year deal with an option to extend by 12 months.

Party's lawyer, Jenny Wilcher, has said previously that he denies all the charges against him, and he welcomed the opportunity to finally clear his name.

On the pitch, Rangers, I don't know how many Championsee qualifiers there are.

I presume once you'd done one, then you were like, you were okay.

But they've got another one now against Victoria Pilsen.

They won 3-0.

Good goals in there, Barry.

I thought, yeah, well, they've already beaten Panathanikos.

They're now 3-0 up against Victoria Prison after the first leg.

If they win this, they will go into a play-off against Arby, Salzburg, or Club Brugger.

And if they win that, they will be in the group stage of the Champions League.

Just to clear that up for you, Max.

Thank you.

But

yeah, they've

got this young lad called Jaidi Gasima, who who has now scored four goals in four games for them.

They've all come in the Champions League qualifiers.

I thought he got two good, great ones last night.

First one was a beauty, nice passing move in which he latched onto a through little weighted through ball into the box and sent one past the keeper just inside the far post.

And his second was a lovely header.

They came either side of a Cyril Deser's penalty.

I thought it was a soft penalty or it shouldn't have been a penalty, but they got it anyway.

So they're 3-0 up, looking fairly home and hosed going into the second leg.

And I think everyone last night was interested to see who Russell Martin would drop after

taking what Chris Sutton described as a machine gun to his team after their opening day draw against Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership.

James Tavernier and Nicholas Raskin seemed to have been the ones who had the big finger of blame pointed at them.

But after the match, Martin said, look, you can read into it what you will, but it's no big deal.

We're going to have a lot of games.

I will pick teams depending on what I feel we need on the pitch.

And my team,

I think they're at home to Dundee on Saturday.

And he said, I'll probably pick a different team again when we play Dundee.

Obviously, if they don't beat Dundee at Ibrox, all hell is likely to break loose.

But once again, Russell has bought himself some more time,

which I suspect that's what he'll be doing for a lot of this season.

Yeah, possibly.

They're also excited about a winger called Ant-Man, which is not Paul Rudd.

Yes.

Not Paul Rudd.

It is a guy called Oliver Ant-Man, who they signed from Go-Ahead English.

Also in the Champions League qualifying last night, we mentioned Fenabacho.

They lost 2-1 at Fire Nord.

Ben Fika beat Nice

away 2-0.

And Lars, you were saying it's so interesting that these teams have to play these incredibly important games at such an early stage of the season.

Yeah, it is mad, but I do understand that in order to have many routes into the Champions League and for it to not be a Super League, you do have to have some kind of qualifying stage.

It makes sense.

But you do end up with a situation where for a lot of these teams, it is their most important games of their season, like full stop, because of the money and the prestige that comes with being in the Champions League.

And you get them in early August.

Like, it's completely bizarre.

There's no time to prepare so you get uh benfike beating uh sir jim radcliffe's other team nice uh 2-0 in france in the first leg so bad times for so jim uh shocked to see dante lining up in defense for nice still he's 41

it's incredible i mean he made his i think he's been playing senior professional football has he has he has he hit his has he hit his yeah i was thinking about that max but i decided we're kind of that that's for the other pod isn't it i mean we're too good for that sort of thing but dante has been playing professional football since 2002, which is remarkable.

I mean, he's still there.

I was looking at the highlights this time.

I haven't got the wrong highlights.

He can't possibly be.

But there he is.

And yeah, Fenod beat Fenobacha.

The only thing I just want to flag up while we have time from the wacky world of Champions League qualifiers.

So, Kayirat Almaty from Kazakhstan beat Slovan Bratislava 1-0.

First leg, Bratislava could turn it around.

But I just thought this was remarkable.

They scored with a 90th-minute injury time penalty put away by their striper, dostan uh satpaev who is 16 years old they put up a 16 year old kid to to take a 90th minute penalty in a champions league qualifier he was born in august 2008 uh which is horrendous thought dansei dante had been playing for seven years

i mean he was already a grizzled professional also um in in the heart of defense for bratislava as you should know by now is guram kashia the georgian national team captain who is a foot who is a football weekly listener gama joba guram if you're listening But I just think he's 38 now.

If you're a 38 year old center half and you're set to mark a 16 year old, it's a bit of a long night of the soul, isn't it?

That like 90 minutes of thinking like, am I still, I'm still doing this?

Didn't watch the game.

Maybe Guram did a tremendous job.

I hope you did.

Maybe you guys can turn it around in the second league.

Brian says, I'm getting married to Nikki on Thursday, the 7th of August, as is today, four years to the day after our first date near Chelmsford in Essex.

What is my second chance of love at 50?

I've listened to you through the rough times of a divorce and through the great times of this new relationship.

I love listening to you and your various panels of experts.

It brings multiple joys, multiple joints of joy to my week.

He says, I've had a vasectomy, so feel part of the club.

I'm also very much aware Barry brings hope and joy to all newlyweds and was hoping he could do the same for us in Thursday's pod.

We get married in Berry St.

Edmunds on Thursday.

Oh, you could go to Rollerberry and roller skate your way to the reception, have a reception in the local village in which we bought a house together in January this year.

Nikki's not a football fan, quite the opposite.

So, anything Barry can say to convince her to love the game like I do would be much appreciated.

I look forward to hearing the Premier League preview and your pods by the pool in Lake Garda on our honeymoon.

Oh, I'm jealous.

Love to you all.

Regards, Brian.

So, yeah, Brian and Nikki, Barry.

Brian and Nikki from Chelmsford in Essex.

I'm going to say Brian's got gleaming white turkey teeth,

a hair transplant.

He wears trousers that don't quite reach his ankles, no socks.

A A Mazda sports car.

A Mazda sports car.

The house they've bought is red brick, in an estate,

three bedrooms,

very nice house.

It's got those

pictures on the wall with motivational live, love, life.

Yeah.

Slogans on them.

Live, love, life.

They've got probably a Doberman or an XL bully.

Just from Chelmsford.

I mean, this is absolutely, this is

this is disgraceful discrimination.

Sherlock, Sherlock's band.

It's their day to day.

I now have an image of, I also have an image of Nikki in my head, but it's her special day.

It's her day, Brian, not yours.

It's Nikki's day.

And

I hope that they have a lovely day.

And

who do you, who are we thinking

Brian supports?

He's probably Gooner, isn't he?

Or a Spurs fan.

I have no idea.

Yeah.

and but anyway yeah I hope they have a lovely lovely day and

do you think they met on Love Island or no he said

I don't think they I don't think they have he they met when he was 46 I don't think and I am 46 myself I think the days of me being asked or me applying and accepted to go on love island are gone I think it'll be an

have you tried I've never tried I think they should have a love island for unattractive middle-aged people like me Yes.

I think I'd be good on it.

There's a lot of sitting around doing nothing.

Maybe you would be good.

I'm very good at sitting around doing nothing.

Yeah, I was going to say

as I said it.

Tom says,

question for Barry.

Any comment on this?

It is a graph with the name Barry in the UK going from 1920.

It's not a very detailed graph, but 1920s.

through the 40s, 60s up to today.

And it has not many barriers.

And they're like a sort of normal distribution.

About 1965, 1970, lots of Barries.

Now into 2025, not many Barries.

Do you have any thoughts, Barry?

Do you think you, given your profile, you could start a new?

Are we waiting for the first Barry?

You know, because we've had lots of weddings, not a few babies, but no one has yet to say we've called our son Barry after Barry Glen Denning.

Well, given the amount of vasectomies we've had, I'm not confident of having too many more babies.

But if you look at the famous Barries, there's Kyogan, White, Humphreys,

Manilow,

Bonds, Bannon,

Gibb, Sheen,

Barry John, and of course, Barry Glendenning.

We may be low on quality, or quantity.

Sorry, we may be low on quantity, Max, but we are very, very high on quality.

I can't disagree.

And that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Ben.

Thanks, Max.

Thanks, Barry.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Public Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Bill Phil Maynard.

Back on Monday.

This is The Guardian.