Son signs off at Spurs and the Football League kicks off – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Two weeks to go until the Premier League season starts and one of its recent greats says farewell.

Sun Hyung Min plays his last game for Spurs in Seoul before heading off to LA.

Feels like perfect timing, but certainly the end of an era.

Curling it in from either foot from the edge of the box, running past every Burnley player twice.

The Alexander Isaac story carries on.

Eddie Howe says he knows nothing.

Liverpool say they'll walk away while Benjamin Sesko considers coming in to replace him.

There's Callum Wilson to West Ham and Wolves signing Wolf.

That is very good of them.

No weeks to go until the starts of League One and League Two.

A wonder-free kick helps Cardiff to victory.

A happazone goal helps Luton to victory while Plymouth lose at home to Barnsley.

In League Two, there's Tannoy requests for a qualified ref in Shrewsbury, Kamikaze keeping from Barnett and Cambridge United make a mockery of the frauds at Not the Top 20 with a ruthless demolition of Cheltenham.

Brackets 1-0.

Also today, Fitbar Corner returns as Celtic clinch the title.

Martyr, 70 years old, scores a banger for Brazil in the Women's Copa America.

All that plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today from Not the Top 20, Ali Maxwell, welcome.

Hello.

Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hello.

And good morning to Dan Bardell.

Morning, Max.

Let's start then with Sun Hyung Min saying he'll leave Spurs after 10 years.

He played his last game for the club in their one-on-one draw with Newcastle in Seoul yesterday.

Joined from Bayley Verkuzen in 2015, scored 173 goals in 454 appearances.

Got the golden boot joint in 21-22.

His partnership with Harry Kane, the best in Premier League history, going by goals and assists set up for each other.

Spurs all-time leading assist maker.

captained the Europa League victory in May.

Sort of feels, Barry, like absolute perfect timing for this guy.

Yeah, I think it is perfect timing.

You've run through his achievements there, just the bare numbers.

You could probably add that he's a brilliant ambassador for the club.

Everyone, he seemed to get on famously with all his teammates.

They all loved him.

The fans loved him.

He was always very appreciative of them.

Never caused an ounce of trouble trouble that I can remember anyway.

Occasionally the lip would hang down if things weren't going his way, but pretty minor stuff.

And there's been a visible drop off in his performances in the last season or two, particularly last season.

He's not as quick as he used to be, not as decisive as he used to be.

I'm sure the two are related.

He has decided...

to leave before he's been pushed out the door, which I think is the best way for it to go.

He still has plenty to offer a team

that doesn't play in a league that's quite as energetic and frenetic.

Looks like he's off to LAFC.

So good luck to him.

He's been a really important player for Spurs over 10 years.

I know they've only won one trophy, but he and Harry Kane were sort of the public face of Spurs.

And unlike

Harry, I suppose he's won a trophy, so it could be argued he was slightly more important for them than Harry Kane, which is not to do Kane down, but yeah, it is the right time for him to go, I think.

You mentioned what a nice guy.

There's that amazing footage of TNT when he's sort of done an interview and then he sort of sort of shakes everyone's hands and then places the mic.

No one has ever laid a microphone down more carefully than he does on the table in front of the pundits.

I wonder, Dan, if because he's been such a constant.

Trying to work out sort of where he fits in, you know, your Premier League greats list.

I wonder because he's just always been there for this time, or because it's harder to judge legendary status when it's right there rather than 10 years ago or 20 years ago.

If perhaps he's sort of better than we think he is.

Yeah,

I think he's been a superb player over the 10 years.

I think, if I remember correctly, he had a little bit of a difficult acclimatisation to the Premier League, but once he did acclimatise, he never really looked back.

He was such a reliable finisher, a reliable source of goals, always a player that worked hard.

He was a nice player to watch with his speed and his finesse and his trickery as well.

Son.

So I think when you're picking kind of Premier League legends, we're probably all guilty of, well, did they win the Premier League?

Did they play for one of the top teams?

But Tottenham, obviously, as we've said, didn't win very much and haven't won the Premier League.

But they were a very, very good team when Son was kind of at the peak of his power.

So whilst he probably wouldn't be getting into my all-time Premier League 11, I think to say after giving 10 years to one single team and the amount of goals he scored and the amount of moments he's given us, I think he must be in the realms of being a being a Premier League icon.

And I think he's one of those players as well that kind of fans from every team like.

And that's hard, hard to do in the modern day, especially with social media.

And like Baz says, if he goes to LAFC, I think it's quite funny because he'll go there and join a former teammate, Hugo Loris.

We've just spoke about how nice he is.

Hugo Larry's the only person he's ever fell out with.

And yet he's who he's going to link up with in his next club, probably.

I'm sure they've forgiven each other.

Yeah, he gets, you'd put him in the all-time great squad because good to have around the place, you know, in a

good dressing room.

But also because he's probably the best ever both-footed goal scorer in the Premier League.

I'm pretty sure the stats bear that out in terms of players who've scored a certain amount of goals, let's say 80 minimum, and then the percentage of those goals that they've scored with their weaker foot.

And it's something that I'm weirdly obsessed with, the idea of both-footedness and why more players aren't that.

Because, you know, there's so many different aspects of technical skill, aren't there?

But it strikes me that that's the one that basically opens up, basically doubles your possibilities on the pitch, on the ball, particularly as an attacking player.

Well, actually, all over the pitch, wherever you play, if you're in more of a passing role, it opens up all the areas and angles that you can pass to.

But from a goal-scoring point of view, and from Son's role in particular,

if you're facing up a defender and

it doesn't matter which way you go, if they can't stop you getting a shot off and you're equally good at shooting with both feet, it's just incredibly potent.

And that's what Son has shown over such a long period of time.

And I still don't think there are that many contenders for anyone currently to match him.

So that's the thing that, you know, on a footballing level, I remember the most.

As you say, Max, so many amazing goals, but almost two kind of, what would be the word, almost two trademark goals.

Like go down the outside, left foot, hard and low across the keeper, or cut inside, right foot, he can do the curl into the far corner as well.

An amazing goal scorer.

And I think, Max, when you talk about all his amazing goals,

arguably his finest achievement in the Tottenham shirts was that miss against Manchester City, which more or less cost Arsenal the title.

It's a very good point.

If it had been question time, Ali, I'd have stood up and applauded you when you talked about the lack of two-footed players because it just is sort of mind-blowing that you train all day and yet there are just so few players who are just equally adept.

And you're right, because he could bend it in from 30 yards with both feet.

That one where he does that step over.

You know he's going to do the step over, but he still does it.

And then he has space to take a shot with his left foot.

Anyway, have fun in LA.

He'll be missed.

In the same game, James Madison looked like he did the same knee he did last season.

He looked really sad, and that is a real blow, especially they missed out on Morgan Gibbs White as well.

So in that 10 position, they have agreed to sign Jail Poligna on a season zone from Bayern Munich.

Could make the deal permanent for £27 million.

That dance seems very sensible.

Like, you feel like Paulina,

he didn't have a brilliant time at Bayern.

Obviously, their centre mid is pretty competitive, but like he was brilliant for Fulham, Paulina.

Yeah, probably a victim of circumstance at Bayern Munich at a managerial change and a manager that wants to play football in a different way to the one that signed him and probably went a year too late to Bayern as well.

I think he was supposed to go the season before to Bayen.

It didn't happen for whatever reason.

But in Premier League terms for Fulham, when Fulham came up, he was a big reason why they were able to establish themselves so quickly in the Premier League and why they were never really in relegation trouble.

And every time he wasn't on the pitch, they did struggle and I thought they'd struggle without him.

And actually, actually, they did okay.

But I've been saying for a couple of seasons, I think Tottenham are crying out for like a genuine bona fide number six and he's just just a brute isn't he gets gets so many yellow cards if I remember correctly at Fulham but he will he will sort them out he will give them a bit of stability and with a manager that probably is going to concentrate a little bit more on defensive stability I think he'll be a really really important player for them and sometimes we look at teams signing players at 30 30 plus and I think Jiao Paulinia is 30 as being a problem but I think a little bit of experience in there a little bit of know-how for Tottenham I think that will be a good thing And I think that's a good sign.

Quite the understatement in a little bit more interested in defending

compared to the previous manager.

Let's talk about Alexander Isak then.

Newcastle rejected Liverpool's opening bid of 110 million.

Newcastle won 150, apparently.

Liverpool claim they're willing to walk away.

Seems like Isak wants to walk away.

He's been training with Rails Sociedad after his thigh strain, which was a bit of a tell sign, isn't it?

To go and just train with some.

To be perfectly accurate, Max, he's been training at rail social okay on his own got it he hasn't been training with rail society noted noted it's still a bit of a sign isn't it if you go to another training ground to do your burpees or whatever um you've been really enjoying this this is the kind of transfer drama barry that really gets you going uh during the off season well it's it's turned into the big sag of the summer and newcastle are having a disastrous window at the moment they've been very publicly rejected by mattheas Kuna, James Trafford, Brian Ombuemo, Jiao Pedro, Hugo Ekatike,

Dean Hussain and Liam DeLap.

So that's not great.

Seemed like you're enjoying that list there, Barra.

I am.

I'm not going to lie.

But

they have signed Anthony Alanga for 55 million.

There seems to be general feeling that's too much for him.

But if it works out, it'll be fine.

That's not a problem.

They don't have a director of football as things stand.

And their fans are up in arms because,

like Villa fans and Forest fans,

I think to a lesser extent, Deverton fans, they're annoyed that they think the deck is stacked against them.

And to a certain extent it is because of PSR.

They're not allowed.

spend their owners have all the money in the world but they're only allowed to spend what their club earns so that those are the rules Now, you could argue that their club aren't maximizing all the streams of revenue available to them.

You know, they don't have a stadium naming rights deal, I think, training ground.

Uh, they don't have a sponsor for that or kit and various other avenues of revenue that they're not exploiting.

But anyway, so now Liverpool have come in for Isaac, who is on, I believe, 125 or 150 grand a week, which is clearly a lot of money, but he could get a lot more elsewhere.

They rejected Liverpool, what they feel was a low-ball offer from Liverpool, and Liverpool have said they're prepared to walk away.

But now, interestingly, David Ornstein, who works for the Athletic and doesn't get much wrong when he's talking about transfers, he's reporting that Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia have identified Darwin Nunes at Liverpool as a priority target.

So Al-Hilal are

owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

Newcastle are owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

So if Al-Hilal were to buy Darwin Nunes for Liverpool, that would give Liverpool extra money with which to bid more for Alexander Isa.

I think Newcastle fans are starting to find out that that being owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund isn't as hiccup-free as they thought it would be.

So

I would be surprised if Liverpool walked away.

I think they'll make another bid.

Obviously, Newcastle are now seem to be in a battle with Manchester United to sign Benjamin Sesco.

And

if they end up losing out on Isaac, or if they end up losing Isaac and missing out on Sesco,

it will have been an absolutely disastrous window for them.

And this was supposed to be the one where they took a major, major step forward.

And the manner in which Newcastle is being run, I think a lot of their fans are getting very concerned, annoyed.

And they're, yeah, it's a mess at the minute.

Dan, 24 hours ago on the radio, we were having a discussion about PSR and, you know, the...

the point that Newcastle and Villa, specifically, because they have money they could invest, but can't really spend it all.

and barry asked you what would you you know what would you have instead and you weren't quite sure i just wondered in the last 24 hours if you'd managed to work out what should happen like should should i mean there will be fans of villa say or newcastle who just say you should be able to spend everything you have and just chuck it all put it all out there which doesn't seem right but i can totally sympathize why clubs slightly below the you know the highest revenue generators get frustrated when you could go i mean villa have done barely anything in this window yeah i mean i'd like to thank barry again for uh asking me to solve psr on the spot on a show i didn't even know i was coming on

before that was really really kind of you i've still not got any any major thoughts on on what you what you can do now but it almost feels like some some teams are happy to to just stand still and be in the premier league year in year out and that is that is okay that's that's those clubs prerogative that there'll be clubs that are quite happy to be in the premier league every single season no danger of going down and just being there and getting the money villa newcastle Forest, I think now as well.

They want to move up.

They want to challenge the elite.

But the way that the rules are, they absolutely cannot do it now.

I'm not saying Villa, for example, haven't spent money because we have.

But the difference in when we've got owners that want to spend money and when Chelsea and City had owners that want to spend money, they were able to do it.

They're able to build their brands, build their teams.

And now they're superpowers.

their revenue is reflected in how much money they were allowed to spend back in the day when they were taking over.

We've never been able to get to that point.

We've sold so many players, but the rules still don't allow us to compete.

So I think if you've got wealthy owners that can prove their wealth, we have a fit and proper test for owners when they come into varying degrees of success.

If an owner wants to invest more than the club earns, if they can prove they have those funds and it's not going to put the club in any disarray, then I don't know why there can't be some form of dispensation for that.

That would be the only thing I'd say.

Ali, I thought it's interesting from an EFL point of view.

Is that you know the PSL laws, and correct me if I'm wrong, you know, it's quite hard to have the same rules for a club in mid-table and league two and the top of the Premier League when they're just entirely different beasts.

Yeah, they are, they are very different beasts.

I mean, the spending at the very top of the game does have an impact on the lower down the pyramid.

And there are some who sort of think, well, just ignore the EFL when we're talking about Premier League spending.

Let them do what they want and the EFL can kind of govern itself.

And if the clubs want to achieve sustainability, then that's, you know, they should be doing that off their own back.

I mean, the difficulty is at that level is that the Premier League's money and wealth has attracted so many people to buying not just championship clubs, although that was the initial wave, but now League One and League Two clubs

quite often with the stated aim of reaching the Premier League, which is not impossible, but might as well be at this point.

And what they do is instantly raise the cost level of their club.

And what that does is make that club entirely dependent on that owner who may down the line, and it can be five, ten years down the line, but it has happened quite a lot.

Not decide that they either can't or won't foot the bills anymore and leave that club in huge distress.

But also it means that the average costs of league two and league one are so much higher, that the wage bills are so much higher because the teams challenging for it are just dragging everyone up with them.

And even sort of sensible owners who don't have millions to spare are finding it really difficult to compete at all with like the median of the league that they're in.

So that's how you know the absurd spending at the top of the game impacts the game down at a lower level.

I have no idea what to do with PSR, but I think Dan's points are

pretty valid.

thing about the pub Saudi Public Investment Fund having so many fingers and so many many different sporting pies is that, you know, last season they chucked, I was at 100 million at Villa for John Duran.

Chelsea have won the Club World Cup, which is bankrolled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

That's earned them 100 million.

Villa and Chelsea, they're direct rivals of Newcastle.

So I wonder what Newcastle fans think when they see this happening.

And

I think, I think what's going to happen is Liverpool will eventually get Alexander Isaac and Newcastle will get 100, 110 million and Harvey Elliot.

And everyone can say, yes,

we won.

We won the window.

Yes.

I didn't want to see the lovely welcome video for Aaron Ramsdale, who I think is a good signing for Newcastle.

Sort of like some old Geordie granny sort of saying, you know, how we're come down here, pet.

And as long as you you work hard, you'll be fine.

And Aaron Remsdale sort of watching the video.

Um, and he seems like a sweet guy, and it's just a

nice bit of content.

He is a lovely guy.

He's a bit of a joner, though, isn't he?

He's now been relegated three times with three different clubs.

Who was called the relegator?

Roger Johnson.

Roger Johnson was known as the relegator.

What a moniker to have as a footballer.

And Newcastle Strike and News West Ham have agreed to sign Callum Wilson, who left Newcastle last season.

I was very excited about Wilson and Ings until I learned that Ings left this summer.

It is a pay-as-you-play deal for Callum Wilson, which I guess isn't so bad.

You know, if you're a West Ham fan, you're not going, oh, we've signed another.

It's sort of like a, it's where a farm, it's like a farm for animals, isn't it?

You know, he's gone off to the farm as Callum.

Anyway, if he's good and he plays, he is good if he's fit.

And so it could work out quite well.

West Ham are in serious, serious trouble.

Yeah.

Oh, I think.

Look at the shape of their squad.

They've lost a lot lot of experience, which I know people will say players come to the end of their contract, players that are in their 30s, but there's stability in the dressing room to consider.

And when a lot of those players have moved on as well, the players that have been there for a long time, I look at that mishmash of players.

I think they're in for a...

a long, long, long, tough season, West Ham.

Yeah, which feels like one of the constants in life, doesn't it?

I feel like West Ham should be in for a long, long, tough season.

It feels right.

You know, I'd be nervous that Everton will have a great season.

It just, we won't know what to do with ourselves.

Wolves have signed a player called Wolf from AZ Oakmar, which which is excellent news.

Could they get Ricky Rand Wolfswinkle?

Could they get Wolf from Gladiators?

Could they have an entire front three of Wolf?

Didn't have a Wolf previously as well, John DeWolf.

Was John DeWolf?

I don't know.

Back in the day.

I'm sure they had a centre-back called John DeWolf.

Back in the day.

Showing my age here.

I'm sure they did.

Just quickly on Villa, how are you, your current vibes, Dan?

A bit bored of the transfer window because we're not really doing anything and it feels like everyone else is buying loads of players, but it is what it is.

I think Villa will sign players.

They're just being opportunistic.

I think they've learned from the January window where they were able to get Ascensio and Rashford in and kind of get their season up and running and went on a magnificent run and nearly got top five and went well in the Champions League and the FA Cup I think because of the rules they've just got to keep their powder dry for as long as possible but they've probably got the feelers out for a few players but Villa will do business but it'll all be towards the end of the window I think they'll they'll start the season with the kind of the team they have now which I'm okay with because it's a good team and as long as Ernie Emery is is there, I've never really got any huge worries.

The manager is the most important person at Aston Villa.

The manners are a genius, so Villa will never be too far away from the top six as long as he's at the helm.

So I'm not massively worried.

It would be nice to buy some players, but it is what it is.

Sound like one of those fans just happy to be in the Premier League.

That's your prerogative.

It's totally fine.

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll do the beginning of the League One and League Two season.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Jordan writes: Hi, Max and Co.

I recently saw that the live shows are returning after a long-awaited break.

Much to my delight, I instantly logged on to buy tickets for me and my girlfriend, who I have now converted into a Barry Glendenning fangirl, only to find that the show is on whilst I'm in Turkey.

I'm devastated at this revelation.

May I ask the team to move the show to suit my needs for any days aside from the 5th or the 12th of September?

Or alternatively, I'll have to cancel the whole holiday.

If not, adding another date would make my year.

Thanks, Jordan.

This is the only date.

You could fly back for one night and then fly back again.

We could move the show to Istanbul or Badron or wherever it is.

Yeah.

He could live stream the show to everyone at his resort.

It'll have a big screen, won't it?

You're all inclusive.

That would be good.

I don't know how big we are in Turkey.

Anyway, Jordan can't make it, and Mrs.

Jordan can't.

But you can.

We're playing the Troxy.

It's a million-seater, so there probably are tickets still available.

Theguardian.com slash football weekly.

We are live streaming it so everyone on earth can watch it and have a nice time.

We'll announce the panel in the next few days.

And you can find out all the details on the description page of the podcast, on our Instagram, our Blue Sky, or TikTok accounts.

The AFL's begun, Ali.

Yes.

You must be excited.

How did you feel League One and League Two began?

Well, yeah, I felt very excited.

It's a bit weird, the split start to the season, the championship start

this weekend.

That's not happened as long as I can remember.

So it did feel a little bit odd.

But I was very excited when Luton and Wimbledon kicked off on Friday night and we were served up an absolutely honking game for them.

Wasn't it terrible?

Which felt apt.

Luton coming down, obviously, twice in a row from the Premier League to League One now

looked like a team that has a lot of very good defenders and midfielders but still hasn't worked out what they're going to do at the top of the pitch.

Wimbledon came up from League Two having had the best defense in League Two but with concerns over basically player quality and chance creation of their own, stepping up a level, and defended brilliantly and absolutely deserved a point, but couldn't really get close to Luton's goal.

And conceded what was a comedy-owned goal right at the end for Luton to steal really a very undeserved 1-0 win, which I think had the neutrals pretty disappointed.

So, yeah, I mean, that was the start of the weekend.

And then it was more entertaining on Saturday afternoon, particularly in League One, which I think this year looks genuinely quite exciting from a neutral standpoint.

Birmingham getting 111 points last season was absolutely incredible, but it meant that from a competitive standpoint, the league never really got going hugely.

And I think this year it looks pretty open.

So yeah, it was a good start.

I like that own goal, just the fact that it looked.

It took like 20 minutes to go in, and everybody knew.

And you could just be like, Oh, those wimbles and they're so late on going, ah, you're not serious, are you?

Um, yes, and like the teams that went down, the other teams that went down, Cardiff came from behind to beat Peter, didn't they?

And that free kick was

if you haven't seen it, Ruben Colwell.

It is like it's an absolute, it's a, it is, and I don't like the phrase knuckleball, even though that's what it is, but it is the ultimate knuckleball, isn't it?

It is, yeah.

That the way that he strikes the ball, almost sort of cutting across it, like you're trying to sort of slice a golf ball on purpose, is very,

very hard and very unusual.

And it seemed crazy that it went so powerfully and straight via many, many wobbles into the top corner.

It was incredible.

And because it was...

quite out quite far out wide as well so the keeper was probably expecting a cross it was just absolute perfection and pretty apt as well Colwill I'll just quickly say is one of my favorite young players in the EFL someone who although he's probably now 23, which these days isn't considered that young, hilariously,

you know, he's an attacking midfielder who is six foot four, six foot five, but has, you know, the close control of some of the best at EFL level.

Has been one of those young players that's not.

quite become a superstar and everyone's been waiting for it for three or four seasons but Cardiff themselves have just been quite a poor team at championship level with a lot of different managers and now they've got a manager in Brian Barry Murphy who's just been working at Man City for the last three or four years with Cole Palmer and others under his tutelage in their sort of PL2 team.

And I mean, it all lines up pretty well, I think, for Colwill to suddenly become, well, easily...

should be the best player at League One level if he can hit his straps and starting with a 30-yard free kick while wearing the armband for your boyhood club with your brother playing in midfield next to you who's even younger was a pretty cool way for Cardiff to start the season.

Anything to catch your eye in League One, Baz?

I'm interested to see how Huddersfield got on this season.

They've spent a lot lot of money they brought in alfie may for 1.3 million i think which is obviously a lot of money for for that level they got off to a good start against layton orin 3-0 win alfie may scored a penalty so he's off the mark uh plymouth argyle i've kind of a soft spot for because uh james dart and our our one of our editors is a fan we occasionally go to plymouth games when they're in london i'm always amazed at how many fans Plymouth can bring to London for a school night game.

Tom Cleverly is in charge of them now.

Didn't get off to a very good start.

They lost 3-1 at home to Barnsley.

It was quite a fractious game.

Cleverly got booked.

There was a bit of a melee at one point near halftime, I think.

But yeah, Plymouth were 2-0 down, got back into it.

and looked like they were going to rescue a point and then Barnsley, who are managed by Connor Hoorahan, who's ex-Villa, isn't he?

Yeah, ex-Villa and Plymouth, in fact.

Oh, okay.

I didn't know that.

Conor Hoorahan's in charge of Barnsley, so they won that game.

And then, yeah, Bradford back in league one.

They beat Wickham Wanderers in front of a crowd of, I think, just over 20,000.

Yeah, there was one amazing save in that in that Bradford-Wickham game as well, which is worth digging out if you have a lot of time on your hands.

And look, a good win for Stockport over Bolton, Ali.

in a sort of there, you know, that was a yeah, that was a playoff six-pointer already, wasn't it?

Yeah, it did feel like that, and it was an entertaining game.

I think, I don't know about you guys, I don't know how often this happens in the Premier League, but in the EFL, like the dream for me watching a live game as a neutral is when you instantly get the sense that both teams are trying to win rather than one team sort of sitting back and trying to hit on the counter, maybe happy with a point.

It feels like at the top of the game, you get quite a lot of games where it's very clear who the team that should dominate is, and that's kind of pattern of the game Albeit the the you know the games between the very top teams are always absolute carnage at the moment

And yeah, this was this was the sort of league one version of that where both both teams came with real attacking intent Bolton looked to the better side and Stockport went in one up at halftime Their manager said we would have been lucky to be level and instead we were ahead and we didn't deserve it and I think it you know it reflects to me that stockport have moved up the food chain so quickly from the national league to a league one promotion contender and their manager Dave Challener is so impressive with how he manages everything.

But I think the way that he spoke about the game, where they'd just beaten Bolton 2-0, Bolton, one of the biggest teams at the level, also a promotion contender.

And, you know, he was doing that thing where he was like, we didn't even play very well.

Pretty disappointed with the performance.

We can get so much better than that.

And I always think for opening day, that's actually, that's quite a cool thing to do, I reckon.

Win 2-0

and be like, nah, a bit disappointed, actually, guys.

So yeah, Bolton fans were furious with that.

Now, Ali, let's get another serious business.

Do you want to apologise now for putting Cambridge United 18th in League Two after our demolition of Cheltenham in the game of the day at the Abbey Stadium?

I watched it.

I confess I was on a nap walk when the goal went in.

Louis Apparay, who I wrote a column about, he scored a goal.

So I'm going to write 20 more columns about him.

See if they can all get past the sports editor.

I've done another Louis Apparay column.

But a great win for the Mighty Us, Ali.

Presumably your headline from League Two.

Yeah, I suppose given that we had Cheltenham finishing second bottom,

on paper, the 18th place team.

He's a six-pointer.

A relegation six-pointer.

Yeah.

But also kind of the 18th place team winning 1-0 at home to the 23rd place team feels about par, I'd say.

That's almost exactly what I expected.

And the fact that it was a sort of

tap in from a rebounded shot and you kind of huffed and puffed and struggled to...

blow the door down otherwise.

I think it was basically exactly, you didn't learn anything that didn't already know here.

No, we love apere on the pod mainly because on his wikipedia page his name is louis george p aper just the initial p good which throws up all sorts of mystery but also because he's a kind of french scottish striker who with a terrible he actually looked quite good he looked quite good what was it a terrible goal scoring goal scoring record but but but

but uh works very hard for the team brings others into play like you know we i'm on a bit of a mission uh on our pod to try and change the way that people think and talk about strikers because we're still in an era where people want a 20-goal a season striker.

And in the EFL last season across 72 teams, only two players scored more than 20 goals.

Wow.

And only one of them hit 20 goals without any penalties.

So like in the modern game, and it's dripped down from the Premier League, like there aren't very many pure goal scorers.

And the ones that are tend not to play very much because they don't do very much else.

Because if they were good at goal scoring and they were really quick and really strong and really good at bringing others into play, they play for Premier League teams.

So yeah, someone like Apere, I don't think he will score 20 goals for you, but I think he might help Ben Knight, for example, or Sally Kaikai score 10 goals each.

And then in the aggregate max, you've got a great attack.

But actually, what's interesting, I think, and this is the point I didn't really write about Louie Apera.

I'd never heard of the guy.

You know, came into a video going, we've signed this striker, but didn't actually give his name.

And I was like, this is a lot of presumed knowledge.

It's just a man in jeans kicking a ball could be anywhere i could have found him on the street is the point it's the sort of and you must have find this frustrating the way you view footballers at this level is uh you know these are shite and these guys are unbelievable footballers right they you know they are just so when you think about how competitive it is and we talk about the number of players that actually make it from academy level and whatever you mentioned ben knight who who actually played for city under pep and you know made his debut in the community shield like it is interesting that you watch these players who are who are simultaneously living the dream because they're being paid to play football, but they're not, they're not, they were the best at some point in their life.

They were the absolute best at this, and now they're sort of trying to come to terms with fact that this is their life.

And sometimes you're just basically, if you're a centre-forward in league two, a lot of it is just shuttle runs.

It's like you know, twice a week, you do 90 minutes of shuttle runs and you might get two chances.

And this is the dream, but it's an odd dream, you know.

For sure, and that's why I think I haven't done this scientifically and run the numbers, but that's why it certainly feels to me anecdotally.

Like, most League One and League Two strikers that start games consistently and are considered first choice, many of them would have come up from non-league rather than drips down from Premier League Academies.

And I think a large part of it is that mental side of the game is

the harsh realities, if you like, albeit it's a bit of a cliche of League Two football, of shuttle runs and of being that sort of player that Neil Harris wants rather than someone who

is really, really strong technically, but has never wrestled with Michael Morrison for 90 minutes.

It's really, really interesting.

And that's where the English game has a bit of an issue.

Would I call it that?

I think probably, I think it will rear its head more and more over the next five years.

The PL2 academies have so many players at any given time between the age of 17 and 20, and there aren't enough spots for them to drop down into the EFL because the record of PL2 players dropping down isn't that good.

And EFL clubs for the last five years have been going well surely if we can get the guy released by Brighton well he'll certainly be good enough for us in league one but but the hit rate isn't that good because I think it is such a culture shock and also because these guys are generally on like some of them are on 10 20 grand a week even nowhere near first team football so then trying to play first team football for a league two club on two grand a week or three grand a week, there's this huge, huge disconnect at the moment.

And I think there's going to be a generation of players currently in their kind of early 20s who might find it really, really, really tough, but who are currently on unbelievable contracts living an unbelievable life without getting anywhere close to playing first-team professional football.

Yeah, that's interesting.

So they'll just be this sort of amazing set of technically brilliant footballers that have to just go and be what street footballer.

You know, they'll all become...

Well, they'll be playing in the baller league.

Yeah, no, no, you're probably right.

Some Classic League 2.

Barnett's new keeper getting caught dribbling out and his manager throwing him under the bus after the game uh shrewsbury bromley the ref got injured so the fourth official went to refs so the tannoi they said is there a qualified referee which is a very low stakes is there a doctor or even lower stakes than is there a pilot on this plane isn't it we need somebody who knows the laws of football and obviously everyone in the crowd thinks they know the laws but they actually don't um just the ladies on sheffield wednesday efl's increasingly concerned about wednesday's financial situation at their ability to fulfill their opening championship fixture they've got a senior squad of 14 players, more set to leave.

I mean, it feels allie like we're sort of barreling towards claps.

I mean, the one silver lining, you know, is Barry Bannon committing to the club.

You sort of feel what a hero this guy is.

You know,

he's the string quartet on the Titanic.

But like, it is incredibly nervous times for them, isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely.

I haven't seen any major updates post-weekend yet, but

the Wednesday fans were given, yeah, as you say, kind of a rare moment of joy and of feeling like they matter for the first time in a long time because Bannon signed a new contract.

I'm absolutely sure he could have got a contract with another championship club, but he's been there for a long time and this level of loyalty or this show of loyalty, if you like,

because I still a bit confused as to how he's got a contract, how the club are purporting to

promise that they can pay him given how many issues they have had and are still apparently having with paying players in full and on time.

But for Bannon, it's not like he doesn't understand the situation.

So he obviously feels it was still worth it for him.

And I think for fans, you know, you want to see any signs of loyalty that can in any way reflect the loyalty that you show for your club.

And these are increasingly hard to find from players, from managers, certainly from those who run your clubs.

And so for them to have seen Bannon resign, just an amazing thing over the weekend.

And yeah,

I'm not someone that has a lot of hope when it comes to owners like the Sheffield Wednesday owner.

They don't necessarily seem to operate with the same sort of logic or desires that we all have to sort things out pretty quickly.

And so I'm very, very concerned.

And obviously, the season starts for Wednesday this weekend.

So I think a lot will probably happen over the next week or so.

The Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy's called for the immediate sale of Morecambe to avoid a quote heartbreaking closure.

In an open letter to Jason Whittingham on Friday, she said, I'm writing to you to express my deep concern at the serious and worsening situation at Morecambe Football Club.

The uncertainty and misery now facing this proud club, its fans, players, staff, and the local community is heartbreaking to see.

Tomorrow we're doing a future of football, football finance special with Philippe and Kieran Maguire.

So we will cover all of football's existential crises, which will include these, of course.

And that'll do for part two.

Part three, I'll begin with Fitbar Corner.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly to Fitbar Corner, Barry.

And a welcome return to the Scottish Premiership and a welcome return to Russell Martin to top-line management.

And he was in a big old mood, wasn't he, Baz?

Yeah, Rangers got their campaign off to

start on Saturday and they drew away Motherwell.

Now, it would be fair to say that Rangers fans were not unanimous in their approval of the announcement that Russell Martin would be taking over their club.

He got through the Champions League second-round qualifier against Panathan Icos.

Lucky to do so, I would say.

Certainly haven't seen the second leg of that.

I think they were very lucky.

But they got through.

That's the main thing.

So

you got the feeling that will buy Russell some time.

And it seems to have bought him three days.

So they go to Motherwell.

They're ahead.

They draw.

I watched some of this game.

And

Rangers were spookily reminiscent of Martin Southampton.

A lot of possession, but with very little intent or purpose.

Kept playing the ball out from the back and then losing it on the edge of the final third.

And you're going, oh, this is all very Southampton last season.

But after the game, they got a draw, it's not the end of the world.

But after the game, Martin took an absolute flamethrower to his players.

He praised two Cyriel Dessers and Lyle Cameron, and his praise for them was interpreted as a dig at the two players they replaced on the hour mark, Danilo and Mo Diamende.

But yeah, he spoke about players needing to, you know, shelve their egos, talked about them just jogging about with little or no purpose and was scathing in his attack which seems

uh I mean nothing he said was untrue but go through them so publicly after just one league game it's it's a dangerous game but we'll see how that works out for us it's hard to know where to go after that doesn't it yeah like it's a it's a it's a big card to play and and the thing what what i what struck me about his his i'm going to say rant but inverted comments, because it wasn't a rant.

It was very eloquent, very measured.

He never raised his voice.

So it wasn't

that he just lost his temper and was

mousing off in the heat of the moment.

It was a very, very eloquent coruscation of his team.

And then

Celtic.

They started their campaign yesterday.

They beat St.

Mirren, 1-0 with a late goal from Luke McCowan.

Not a particularly impressive performance from them either.

And I think Celtic fans are very concerned about the state of their team as well, because

on the face of it, their squad looks conspicuously weak compared to last seasons.

They've lost Nicholas Kuhn, who's gone to Como.

Jota is out long term with an injury and

they haven't replaced Kyogo Furahashi, who left last January.

Adam Ida is their main striker and the consensus at Celtic Park seems to be that he's not good enough to be their main striker.

They need a couple of wingers.

Kieran Tierney started for them yesterday, played well, but of course went off injured because that's what Kieran Tierney does, plays well, then goes off injured.

Don't know how serious that is.

The Celtic Board are sitting on loads of money.

They've plenty of money to spend, but seem very reluctant to do so.

And it looks like Brendan Rodgers might be starting to lose patience with them as well.

His contract expires in the summer, and as things stand, I don't think anyone's expecting him to stay on or sign an extension.

Best of the rest are probably going to be, it'll be between

Harts, Hibbs, and Aberdeen.

I guess Harts have this new investment from Tony Bloom, the Brighton owner, and they're using his analytics model, Jamestown Analytics.

So it'll be interesting to see how things go for them this season.

Hibbs under David Gray only lost, I think they were bottom of the table in December and they only lost two of their final 20 games last season and ended up finishing third.

So can they kick on?

I say best of the rest.

I think there's a chance Rangers might not finish second or indeed first.

So there could be a vacancy in second place for Harts Hibbs or Aberdeen if any of them step up.

And

the two promoted sides are Livingston and Falkirk.

They're expected to struggle, but I do note that Dundee are favourites to go down at the moment, before, or were favorites before a ball was kicked.

So that is

feedback at the minute.

Many thanks, Barry.

Now, Dan, I don't know how closely you've been covering the women's Copra America

or if you decided to have one week off watching football.

But I did put, did you watch it?

I put in the group Marta's equalizing goal.

I thought she was older than 39, but apparently only 39, Marta.

But Colombia four, Brazil four, and Brazil won on penalties.

But in the sixth minute of injury time, at Colombia with a 3-2 up, and Marta dance scores.

And I mean, just an absolutely brilliant goal.

Yeah, we're Max Rushdon's texts.

We're all alert.

I saw that come in and I promptly clicked the link that you sent me.

What a strike.

What a goal.

Roberto Carlos-esque was wasn't it the power in power in that drive and that the pressure in in that moment to basically save your country it was a an incredible strike and an incredible moment and i'm not massive of people talking about 39 like it's old because that's how old i am but yeah a legend of the game yeah it's a it's an it's an amazing and it's a classic half volley and it goes in

looks like you know when you see when you see goals from south america in from the 80s you know big box got they're they're all like this you know it just absolutely just hammers it home.

It's such a brilliant, brilliant goal.

So well done to Brazil.

I've got a recommendation.

I've got a recommendation which is linked to this.

Doom scrolling yesterday, which normally doesn't chuck up the goods that I'm after.

I managed to come across someone had tweeted a compilation of Phenomeno Ronaldo when he was playing for Corinthians when he was very old and very visibly overweight and still

absolutely incredible.

And I would guess if you were to search on X Ronaldo Corinthians, you would see the same compilation that I did and probably get the same level of endorphins that I did.

So yeah, would recommend if we're talking about legendary Brazilian attackers.

Speaking of good videos on X, Indranil says, who of the Victoria's under-21 men's football team will be a breakout star in the Premier League?

Ali, you follow the under-21s closely.

There is an amazing video of you in the stands.

We weren't sure if you wanted to talk about it or not because you didn't reply to

the tweet.

But it's at full time and you do some proper football fan.

Yeah, fuck off.

We've won.

I absolutely loved it.

That could have been anyone.

And the fact that that person was wearing a not the top 20 branded cap,

again, which have sold in their ones

could have been absolutely anyone.

Yeah, no, I did go to Bratislava along with a look-alike, clearly, and saw us beat the Dutch in the semi-final, which I absolutely loved.

As you could see, I love covering the under-21s.

That was the third of the last four, I think, maybe the fourth of the last five that I've been out to watch.

It's always great fun.

And the team under Lee Carsley are so much more fun than the team under A.D.

Boothroyd that I had to watch for a couple of tournaments beforehand.

You surprise me.

Honestly, I absolutely love Lee Carsley.

He's an incredible bloke and coach.

And that team, you know, did the business.

In terms of stars, gosh, I mean,

Elliott Anderson was absolutely unbelievable.

All tournament.

Harvey Elliott obviously was very, very good.

And, you know, I feel like if you've played 150 games for Liverpool and you're 23, you possibly shouldn't be allowed to play in the under 21s Euros.

But we benefited from that.

Ethan Waneri had a few flashes off the off the bench, but didn't impact things that much.

I think Liv Ramento is exceptional and he was playing.

So, yeah, I mean,

we're in very, very good hands

in the main.

And although James Trafford didn't play,

he was still eligible for the under-21s.

And I'm really fascinated to see, A,

whether he'll be starting for Man City.

And if so, when.

And B, how will that look?

Because clearly last time at Premier League level, he struggled in a Burnley side that gave him a lot of shots to face.

But playing for Burnley last season in the championship, he put together the best goalkeeping season I've ever seen, certainly at second tier level.

So I'm really intrigued to see how Trafford goes.

I'm really pleased because when he moved to Burnley, a lot of people were questioning the transfer fee and it's been completely justified.

And interested from an England pod point of view, at what point he properly starts to challenge Pickford for the gloves, because my assumption is that Pickford will remain England's number one until after the World Cup next summer.

But if Trafford is starting for Man City, does that put more pressure on Pickford given that Tuchel is obsessed with players playing at the highest level possible?

And you can't play much higher than being city's number one.

We did receive an amazing email from Sholto.

We were talking about getting in

people doing their PhDs and academic correspondence.

We can't read it out because it's so long.

It's one of those emails that Barry would start rolling his eyes and saying, This is the end of the podcast.

You can't read this out.

It's quite densely academic, 2,000 words long.

But it argues the case for listening to Football Weekly while working on your PhD.

Maybe I'll just record it and then

one of those audio-long reads.

We can just read it out.

The summary is the hypothesis, a higher XFW, expected Football Weekly, correlates with a higher probability in thesis completion and more impactful ideas.

There's reams and reams of acknowledgements and there's like a glossary and an index and look, thank you so much for putting all that work in.

Does rather prove my assumption that

PhDs are a lot of work goes into them and nobody reads them.

If you want the full thing.

This is very much a case in point.

If you want the full thing, email weekly at theguardian.com and we will reply with it.

And uh, or just wait for it to appear in uh several peer-reviewed journals.

Um, or maybe Barry can read it out for the halftime show.

Uh, or maybe when people as people walk out of the Troxy in September, Max, I feel like if Sholto wants a distraction from completing a degree, surely you would recommend a copy of Championship Manager 97, 98.

I'd go 90, championship manager 90, never better than championship manager 93.

S.

Claridge races clear.

Wow, he slides it past the keeper, but somehow misses.

James says, Dear Max Barry and podcast crew, I'm one of those terrible people who work in advertising.

I recently included a short clip of Max's unbelievable parallel park in a meeting about great social media content.

Ever since, I've been asked repeatedly to make sure our client presentation includes the parallel park guy.

I guess no one I work with watched the Soccer M Glory is, while others have had to figure out what's our version of the Parallel Park.

Whenever we get to that slide, I take great pleasure in leaving a 10-second GIF of Max's Parallel Park on the big meeting room screen for as much time as possible, constantly rotating between your gleeful face and the immaculately parked Subaru.

No one believes you actually parked it.

I promise I did.

All the best, James.

Thank you, James.

I very much enjoyed that.

Glad to see.

Glad see the cutthrough is happening.

That's the thing.

I don't know what, how do I benefit from this great social media content?

It just, that's it.

That's the benefit is that.

You get no material benefit.

You just, you know, it's the glow of knowing that people loved your parallel park.

it's a great park honestly i just it's really really i was on cloud nine for a long time and now look we're doing a football finance future football special tomorrow um so if you have questions um about dodgy sponsors or the fate of football or the lower leagues or the premier league or parachute payments or all that stuff football weekly at theguardian.com or on instagram blue sky uh in the spotify comments where joel says you can also be nice about the podcast if you like i haven't read the spotify comments that sounds fun could make a song out of them.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Ali.

Cheers, Max.

Thank you, Dan.

Thank you.

Cheers, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

We'll be back tomorrow.

This is The Guardian.