PSG demolish Real Madrid, transfers and a proper England win – Football Weekly Extra

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, Proper English.

That's how Serena Wiegman and the players described a brilliant win over the Netherlands in a, quote, narrative-changing performance.

It was the polar opposite of the France game.

The Lioness's first to every ball, making the Dutch looking pretty average and getting their Euro 2025 campaign underway.

Lauren James did some excellent repaying the faith with a brilliant early strike and a great performance.

Also in Switzerland, a wonderful moment for Wales and Jess Fischlock.

Their first goal at a major tournament.

Not enough to trouble France, but something to remember nonetheless.

Over at the Club World Cup, how many times do you want to watch that Tony Rudiger miskick?

PSG demolish Real Madrid to set up a final against Chelsea.

There's transfer news.

Arsenal lining up Madweke or Eze or both.

Spurs agreeing a fee for Mohamed Kudas.

Paul Watson's World of Football takes us to Kazakhstan, Finland, and the far reaches of somewhere called Ireland.

And I appear to have made a huge mistake when discussing eating ribs in diners in America's Midwest.

All that plus your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glen Denning.

Hello.

Hello, Max.

I thought you might follow FIFA's lead and get Michael Buffer in to go, let's get ready to rumble

why would I do oh did he I didn't see that pit yeah I didn't see the uh oh god yeah I mean I'm so glad

that didn't get that didn't get to my highlight speed Nikki Bandini hello morning Paul Watson welcome hi Max and joining us uh from uh Zurich I presume unless you've gone somewhere else quickly after the game yesterday Tom Gary hey Tom Good morning, Max.

No, Zurich is where you find me very happy as an Englishman after last night's night's performance.

Yeah, and I mean, it made a mockery, that performance, Tom, of people who might have spent a long time on a podcast yesterday predicting the fallout had England lost.

But, you know, there's nothing to see here.

It was so much better, wasn't it?

Yeah, it's the performance that we've known these England players are capable of for a really long time.

We've seen it in flashes, and it's why we get so frustrated when we see them play poorly against France, or when we see them lose in Belgium or sort of limp to a lackluster draw against Portugal a few months ago because we've known that they're capable of playing football like this.

And to be honest with you, it was as a reporter reporting on England's women's team, it was one of the great evenings, you know, sun shining, happy crowd, every England player putting in a good performance, 4-0 against the Netherlands.

It's sort of exactly the kind of

idyllic scenario that you might imagine that it would always be that easy to go and watch England.

I thought they were great to watch.

And they talked in the bull up about this kind of proper England, this phrase the players have apparently coined around grit and determination and getting stuck in, as well as also being purposeful with the ball.

And it actually really summed it all up.

They were all they were winning their battles, they were winning the 1v1s.

Carter and Stanway, for example,

just completely outfought the Netherlands with the intensity.

And there were so many good performances.

We could talk about Hannah Hampton's distribution, which was fantastic.

We could talk about Russo's wonderful movement and work rate up front to get three assists and overall their best performance probably since the World Cup semi-finals.

semi-finals they were they were terrific yeah proper england it's almost impossible not to say in cock me isn't it proper

feels like they this thing that they decided they wanted to sort of build as a narrow and it could right it could become a thing right um what did you make of the performance nikki yeah i mean it was it was brilliant wasn't it i i was wondering obviously with with lauren james scoring the opener and bloody brilliant opener too like i was wondering if tom thinks it's oversimplifying to say that that move of pushing her out to the right was just the right one for getting a bit more of that balance in the midfield because it felt like that was the big talking point, wasn't it, after the first game?

Was whether or not the team would just have a bit more,

I think, options in midfield, perhaps, because she was drifting out to the right anyway in that game one.

So letting her just play out there and use that space, and obviously she cuts inside to score.

But it felt like the balance was a bit better.

Well, yeah, that was the big talking point from the first game tactically.

Whether

Srina Igma maybe had got it wrong by playing Lauren James in the number 10 against France, who's very, very energetic and sort of intense midfield.

And

moving her out to the right-hand side worked to perfection because it kind of enabled Lauren James to go and do her thing, cause the Netherlands left back Esme Brooks all sorts of nightmares.

And in the centre instead, we had Ella Toon, who was working really hard off the ball, was always giving options and just looked, it looked, the balance looked a lot better.

I also like the tweet they made in the back where they uh in the France game had had Jess Carter at left back.

As a right footer, that must have been quite awkward for Jess Carter to play against one of the best wingers in the end of SL and Delphine Cascarino.

They shifted it round this time so that Alex Greenwood was left back and Carter was in the left central back role.

And they both looked very comfortable by comparison.

And

I think England probably now finally found their back four combination that they'll stick with.

They have had a left back problem for a generation.

You probably have to go all the way back to maybe Rachel Unit.

It was the last time England had a left back who made the position their own for a period of multiple years in a row.

If you think back to the Euros three years ago, it was Rachel Daly, a striker who was playing at left back.

We've had brief spells where it's been Demi Stokes had the role for a little while, but generally, even when England made the Euros final in 2009, Casey Stoney, a centre-back, was at left back.

And they've had to wait a long time.

But I would hope now that this is the back four they will stick with for the tournament because the balance looked significantly better.

Yeah.

After the game, Jess Carter was asked, you know, why were you switched?

And she went, I don't know.

I was just told to go there.

So I went there.

And I thought that was sort of a great explanation.

I remember Serena Viegman was.

It was proper England.

Yeah,

exactly.

It wasn't it.

I don't know.

Just go there.

Don't ask any questions.

She also said, I don't ask any questions because I just trust what Serena Viegman tells me.

And I suppose that's quite a good way to be.

Unless Serena Viegman didn't want to say, Did you watch the France game?

That's sort of you know,

that's quite interesting, isn't it?

Um, I mean, that Lauren James strike bass was so perfect, wasn't it?

And such an important moment you sort of feel after everything that had been said after the first game yeah england

the players i i mean we were very sceptical yesterday and part of me wanted them to lose just

to see what would happen next out just out of curiosity part of you wanted them to lose because you're baz and you always want england to lose i was gonna say well no let's not tell that i want the england women or the england men's team to lose i want the england cricket team to win i don't care about the rugby team and the women, I'm pretty ambivalent.

But they insisted they would deliver and they did.

And

Lauren James is their standout player.

She set the tone, arrowed in that beauty from the edge of the box.

And I think Andreas Juncker, the Netherlands coach, he he seemed quite shell-shocked afterwards.

And he said we weren't expecting this.

We thought we'd be able to give them a a game and we just weren't.

And he didn't seem to have any explanations as to why the Netherlands were so poor.

But

I take my hat off to England.

They were hugely impressive.

So we've seen what they're capable of against France, and we've now seen what they're capable of in a better way against the Netherlands.

And

they do show bounce backability in the face of setbacks.

And this was another example of that.

Yeah.

For context, Tom, like France, the Netherlands, and England, because if you watch this, you just, you know, and if you'd come from having not watched the women's game until major tournaments, you'd say, well, that France are obviously that much better than England and they're that much better than the Netherlands.

But is it not that simple?

Because

I thought England made the Netherlands look as bad as France made England look.

Yeah,

but you're right, though, that coming into the tournament, all three were relatively...

perceived to be relatively even and and certainly that was reflected in the nations league meetings that they've had.

You know, last summer, France won 2-1 at St James's Park and then England went and beat France 2-1 in St.

Etienne a few days later.

And they were quite closely fought matches.

Similarly, in the previous Nations League cycle, England had lost narrowly in the Netherlands, and then England had beaten the Netherlands 3-2 at Wembley.

And all the contests were quite close.

So I came into this tournament thinking, goodness, this is going to be fantastic.

There's going to be these head-to-head games between France, England, and the Netherlands that could all be on a knife edge.

And as it's turned out,

there's been a thoroughly deserved winner in the two we've seen so far.

The Dutch media attitude was fascinating last night.

It was quite tetchy.

Junckers, of course, leaving after the tournament to be replaced by the England assistant, Ayan Vierink.

He's made it clear he's not particularly happy about that.

I don't think he really wanted to leave.

But the Dutch media were criticising him last night.

Some even asking him,

wouldn't you be better off to accept that you're not as good as these teams and approach games more conservatively?

He then needed a bit of back and forth, sort of insisting they were still in a world-class world-class bracket.

But the tone of it was clearly very,

very

sort of, yeah, dejected to say the least.

And I was very surprised how poor the Netherlands were in terms of creating chances.

Miedemar barely had a sniff and they didn't start Danielle van der Donk, which didn't go down very well at all with the Dutch media.

So

maybe England caught them at a good time, but I still want to go back to how good that England performance is.

And can I just throw one shout out for that pass from Hannah Hampton, the goalkeeper for the first goal, which reminded me of sort of a professional golfer playing the perfect drive off the tee where she managed to kind of dissect that gap between four Dutch players.

A bit like finding a very narrow line between three bunkers and a tree.

And it was just the perfect ball out from the back to pick out Russo.

And kind of criminal that she doesn't get an assist for a pass like that, isn't it?

No, it was.

She strikes the ball beautifully.

I would say what the one Dutch centre-back's doing, sort of trying to to win that ball when it's obviously they can't i thought was sort of pretty woeful defending but yeah her distribution actually was is a key part of her game isn't it tom and she did that brilliantly yes and it's it's one of the things in in her armory that served in her favor when i think serena viewa was choosing who would be her number one goalkeeper for this tournament because there are still other elements of her game to improve on whether it be maybe some of the aerial work or the set pieces but her distribution is is really seen as outstanding and that that was helpful to england's game last night i was surprised how often england played long balls.

They had huge success going over the top, didn't they?

Behind the Dutch defence.

And then we all thought at halftime, well, surely Juncker's going to perhaps change tactics a little bit, maybe play a deeper line or maybe just be more alert to the idea.

But then again, second half, England was still finding Russo with balls over the top, pacing behind the centre-backs.

And

yeah, tactically, Viegman sort of got one over her old colleague there.

And they're very old friends, Juncker and Wiegman.

And they spoke a lot about that in the build-up.

But she,

I would say, came out on top significantly on the tactical

battle between the two head coaches.

Absolutely.

I feel like in amongst that, maybe she's my Arsenal buyer shame, but proper shout-out needed for Alessi Russia with a hat-trick and assist as well.

I mean, she was flipping brilliant leading the line, and um, yeah, I just uh felt like we hadn't given her enough enough love yet for that.

No, no, you're totally right.

It's interesting, Paul, isn't it, with tournament football how quickly you can go from this is a disaster to, oh, we're we're going to win the thing isn't it yeah and i did i did want to have you know a little word there that i i get saying england were disastrous against france like it was by no means how you want to start your tournament and i think for about 70 minutes that game it it was pretty disastrous but my feeling was that there was a comeback and then at the end i i genuinely think that could easily have gone to 2-2 had you know the game had another 10 minutes i think england were the ones who were going to score so in a way like i think it was just one of those sluggish starts to competitions that that you know, a team will have sometimes.

But I do think if that game had ended 2-2, people wouldn't have been talking in, obviously, wouldn't have been talking in these disastrous terms.

And then it kind of sowed the seeds for this, the start of this Netherlands game where they just came out and had obviously got rid of the nervousness, maybe the sense they weren't quite physically ready for this.

And they were just brilliant.

So I don't know.

I think there was a slight overreaction, in my opinion, to how bad the France game was.

You know, France is a very good team.

It's a bit of a group of death.

And they just started a bit sluggishly, I thought.

And Russo did have a a goal dislodge right at the start of that game, right?

And goals change games, obviously, always.

So yeah, I think that's, I thought that as well, a little bit, a little bit of every action to that one.

Tom, is there anyone else you want to pick out?

I thought, you know, Georgia Stanway was really open about how she didn't play well in the first game.

And I don't know.

I thought.

I thought, I don't know.

I didn't hear every reaction.

I thought England were really bad in that opening game.

And Stanway said she wasn't good enough.

The team weren't good enough.

And she did play really well in that game last night.

And actually, her goal, even if it was deflected, was a key moment, isn't it?

To be too up going into the break yeah well stanway you look like a different player to me but we have to remember that she hadn't played very much football since christmas she'd been out with a knee injury and was only just sort of coming back after the end of her club season with buyer munich she was only just coming back into fitness with the internationals at the the end of may start of june so perhaps she needed a game like the france game just to kind of build up that match readiness against france she was being beaten off the ball she lost almost all of her jewels she she looked a little bit sluggish compared to the the intensity that we were seeing seeing from Ghioro and Kashawi with France.

And then last night, it was completely the opposite.

Stanway looked like she was first at every ball.

She wasn't giving the Dutch midfield any space at all.

And then the first-time finish for her goal was so emphatic.

And Enin needed that quite badly because they've been so on top in the first half.

It would almost have been a bit of a travesty if they hadn't gone in 2-0 up.

So to get that goal before half-time was crucial.

And I must say, Stanway spoke superbly in her press conference on Monday, sort of set the tone for England's performance in that she said, We know we weren't good enough.

Like, we know we deserve to go home if we play like that again.

We're going to sort it out.

You know, we have going to demand high standards.

We're going to be, we're going to be gritty.

We're going to be, as she called it, proper England.

And she was excellent.

I also want to say how well Lauren Hemp played against her Manchester City teammate, Curtin Kasparai, who probably went to bed and had nightmares about Hemp last night.

She looked like she was going to beat her every time she went one-on-one downning has left and that was the kind of stuff we've been hoping to see from hemp for a long time we we could praise all of the we could all praise all of the 11 i really do think that um it's a long time since they played that well

and maybe there was a slight overreaction but i i have to front but it's just because we know what they are capable of and we we do see it every now and then so when we don't see it it's it's kind of exasperating and maybe we're a bit maybe we're a bit unfair to expect them to be at their best all the time but when they play like last night that's why we that's why we say that you know england are capable of going on to win the tournament because they are they are good enough you know they've beaten spain this year they they've shown last night that they can be right at the top of their game and i i hope now they can stop that streak they're on a streak of win loss win loss win loss win loss win so now we don't want them to go back to the loss in the next game but uh there's no reason why that should happen now they they they should take confidence going forward tom says how frosty will the atmosphere be in the mead midemar household right now i mean i think it's quite interesting tom isn't it they're partners and clearly they'd have played against each other i guess last season once meed ama left arsenal and that's probably more like they're in camp now that's probably more in club football that they would probably end up you know in the same house after the game and must be sort of strange to be an elite sport and to play against each other and live together.

Yes, and particularly for two players who are such high-profile stars to their teams.

Meedermar was asked so many questions about this in the pre-match press conference.

and she essentially said that their golden rule as a couple was that they would never talk about matches like this.

So she said we I would never know whether or not Beth is starting.

She will never know what our plan is and so and so and so and so but it must be quite hard, must be quite tempting to discuss things surely.

You know, as a couple, you would talk about the game.

It would be, what are you up to tomorrow?

Well, oh yeah, I've got a game on.

But I did, I kind of loved what Midamar said pre-match that if it's a bad day for Beth, that's like a good day for me.

If I have to do something that hurts her tournament, I don't care.

I'm here to win for the Netherlands.

Now, clearly, it didn't work like that, but I did quite like the way she brushed off all those questions.

I think people were almost expecting her to say something along the lines of that she would go easy on her partner.

Her mind was absolutely not.

No,

if I have to tackle her, I'm going to go full in, etc.

So I sort of respected that a lot, but it's it is an unusual thing in competitive sport.

You know, couples in in the women's game are relatively common, but to be in the opposing sides like that is a very unique situation.

And clearly,

one part of that mead Midamar household will be very, very happy now.

Meedamar, to be honest with you, I barely noticed her in the game.

I was doing player ratings for the Guardian website and I made notes on all the players and Meedamar's little column was like almost blank.

After

60 minutes or so, I realised, oh gosh, I haven't got any notes on Midamar.

I sort of turned to Susan next to me and we agreed that she hadn't really been in the game.

So I hadn't forgotten anything that she'd done.

But yeah,

you're right to flag it because it is

such an unusual, interesting psychological concept in elite sports.

Yeah, I mean, they probably get bored of the questions, but I think it is quite interesting.

Did you go full the keep and give Midamar one out of ten or something?

Or were you more generous?

No,

some of you will know our Football Social Products editor, Marcus, who's very lovely.

And he advised that a one or a two is almost unheard of on Guardian football ratings and very frowned upon.

So I think I might have actually generously given Miedamar a five, but there were quite a lot of Netherlands players who

you could have given a three or a four

just because they performed so poorly as a team and it was striking to see them make three changes at half-time.

That sort of...

panic button mode of the triple change and i yeah nobody in the in the dutch team got higher than a six Let's just put it that way.

Joachim says, When was the last time you saw someone celebrate a goal like the Welsh team scoring their first ever goal at a major tournament?

Paul, it was so wonderful.

And I don't think it's patronising to say like that.

I just think it was such a glorious moment for them.

Yeah, and the fact that it would be Jess Fishlock to score the goal, you know,

we always have this cliche if you couldn't script it, but genuinely, if anyone ever deserves to score a goal in any game ever, it's Jess Fishlock scoring that goal.

With the

contribution she's made to women's football in Wales, it's almost hard to think of another player who who you could say the same for in at that level you know she's um so yeah i was i was absolutely delighted especially because it looked like it'd been disallowed which i was like you know it seemed like the gods are just saying there's no magic yeah but no um what a moment and actually i i didn't know a lot of this i i've come to this fresh and i know a lot of people will know this but i was reading about the the battle that the Welsh women's team had to even exist and how recent that was.

And this, it's a brilliant piece actually

that I read by Megan Fruinger in, I think it's the Athletic or the New York Times about the fact that these three women, Laura McAllister, Michelle Adams and Karen Jones, had to write a letter that they kind of went in to basically fight to have the right to have a national football team.

And the fact that was so recent, you know,

it's kind of incredible how far Welsh football has come.

And regardless of any result on the pitch, it's an incredible moment, moment, I think.

And what a perfect moment for them to score that goal.

Yeah, she uh she made her debut 19 years ago in Switzerland.

It's almost an argument for VAR, isn't it, Barry?

It's almost all the things that are bad about VAR.

Without that, then this goal wouldn't have stood.

Yeah, but at least they got to celebrate it twice.

So

that's one benefit, I guess,

from the fact that it was almost chalked off.

I don't think anyone from Wales was expecting much.

It's Jess Fischock did an interview for The Guardian before the tournament.

And I've seen various other interviews she's given.

And she's all about, look, we've broken through a ceiling.

Welsh girls can watch us and see what is achievable.

And as recently as 20 years ago, this...

this kind of thing wasn't achievable.

And I've seen various packages TV stations have done from the Wales camp and they almost can't believe the luxury

and

the way they're being treated.

They've got this lovely coach, lovely hotel, lovely camp.

And they're clearly not used to that because this is their first major tournament and they're going to want more and more of it.

Yeah.

Tom, I think William Wilkinson, their head coach, she's Canadian.

I think she's really impressive, Tom.

She's really well thought of in coaching circles in terms of the way she sets teams up.

I think she speaks very eloquently and said all the right things in this tournament about Wales and Welsh football and what it means.

And the players in the team think really highly of her.

The way that they and their sort of people close to them talk about her when the microphones aren't on is quite reassuring.

They're really complimentary about her.

So Wales have...

got the blueprint now to kind of build something to get to future tournaments.

The challenge they're going to have is that they really need a bit more quality up top if they're really going to start to threaten some of these teams in tournaments going forward.

We know they had a supremely difficult draw so I don't want to be too harsh on them but there is clearly a big big gap

from France, Netherlands and I suspect we will see a big gap when they play England on Sunday.

That said, I was so happy that Seedem get a goal.

You will not find anybody in global women's football who wasn't smiling when they saw that Jess Fishlock was was the person who got that first goal for Wales.

She's kind of given her heart and soul and her whole life and career to this team.

And as Barry was alluding to there, you only have to go back, I think it was the qualifying campaign for Euro 2005 when Wales sort of pulled out and didn't take part in the qualifying because of a lack of funding and resources.

And the FA essentially said that they weren't prepared to stump up the cash for things like away qualifiers in

Kazakhstan or wherever it might have been, you know, they weren't prepared to fund it.

So the difference to now is fantastic to see.

And they can hope, even though they will exit this tournament early, I hope that the legacy is going to future tournaments and it starts the ladder of something a bit more special.

Guardian Women's Football Weekly is out three times a week during the Euro.

So listen to that.

More of Tom if you like Tom.

Oh, your hand is up, Barry.

Yes.

Well, no, I just wanted to ask Tom.

I don't know if they've always been there, but it's only in this tournament that I've noticed England have an annoying brass band.

And I wanted to know if their annoying brass band is the same brass band as the one that follows the men's team or have they got their own annoying brass band.

I believe that it is the same personnel who travel around for both the men's and the women's

in very dedicated fashion.

They're not to everybody's taste.

The one they've been doing is

to anyone's taste?

Hey, come on.

We know Tom's too nice to do this.

He wouldn't give anyone below a five.

He's not going to criticise a brass band, is he?

Can I say I do quite like the

twist on that tequila song, you know, where instead of saying tequila, they've been chanting Serena.

And that works quite nicely because it's sort of for a saxophonist, isn't it?

And instead, it's for playing on the brass band.

But I know what you mean.

There have been games when I've just...

sat there thinking oh please would the band please just shut up but i didn't mind last night i didn't mind because it was just such a it was a lovely atmosphere all the way through the evening.

So and a shout out to the Dutch as well who did a sort of a two-mile walk to the stadium

which behind a bus.

The bus, I would say the only way to describe it was the bus was playing sort of 90s disco party anthems and ABBA back to back all the way through to the stadium.

But about 4,000 Dutch fans were having a great time.

And it was clearly illegal not to wear orange because every single person was in orange, which I love to see.

But yeah,

maybe I'm being on the fence too much, but I might join Barry and say I'm not a fan of the band.

There we go.

Okay, cheers, Tom.

Thanks for coming on, mate.

Great to see you all.

Take care.

Tom Gary there out in Switzerland.

And that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll do PSG Demolishing Real Madrid in the Club World.

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Max here.

Barry's here too.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So PSG 4, Real Madrid 0.

I mean, PSG were brilliant, took the lead in the sixth, could have been two up by that time anyway.

Courtois making a couple of saves.

And who isn't here, Barry, for some real slapstick Real Madrid defending?

Yeah, this was a demolition.

PSG won 4-0, could have won by double that amount, I think.

And Real Madrid, quite apart from being demolished by PSG, didn't make life easy for themselves because you very very high-profile comedy mistakes from

Asencio and Antonio Rudiger.

Rudiger's air shot was just something else.

There'd be

pub footballers all over the country looking at that, going, oh, yes, thank God, it's not just me.

But I think it's critical to notice that, or to make the point that those mistakes were forced.

He was under pressure.

He was being pressed and harried, and that's where the mistake came from.

I expected PSG to win this game.

I didn't expect them to win as comfortably as they did.

A harrowing evening for all of Madrid players and Javi Alonso, who's been given plenty to think about after six games in charge.

And

he has a big problem now.

He said after the game, I leave here with lots of certainties, and next year will be different.

This game and this competition has told me lots of things about what we are, what we need to improve, the changes there will be.

And he's probably learnt good things about his new team and he's learnt

bad things that

and there's going to be fingers pointed at Vinicius Jr.

and Killian Mbappe.

They are a problem.

Not every team that Real Madrid, almost all teams that Real Madrid will face will not be as good as PSG.

but their disinclination to put in the graft when their side doesn't have the ball is a problem.

Yeah, and it's so fascinating, Nikki, that, because you, we sort of alluded to it yesterday, but when you think about great forward lines that press,

like Salah and, you know, when the Salah Mane Famino three, right, and even the front three from Liverpool last year, but but they are brilliant footballers who also did the work and actually thought by having to get Mbappe into this side and obviously trent Trent was injured, so Valverde goes into right back.

So there's fewer, there's not as much legs in midfield, but Gula goes deeper.

He's been really good playing off the left.

Mbappe isn't bad at football.

Like, we know that, right?

It's so ridiculous to say he's the problem.

He can't be the problem, but he kind of is the problem.

Well,

I think we'll see.

I do think Cheppy Alonse said it well when he said after the game, this is not the start of 2025-26.

This is the end of 24-25.

And to be honest with you, like this whole tournament, and I think this has been part of my problem with it, there's many problems I've had with the tournament, but one of them is definitely the feeling that, especially now, especially now that

Chelsea have seen off the last non-European team, it's like, well, well, I know Paris-Saint-Jama are the best team in Europe.

They've shown me they're the best team in Europe.

They smashed everyone in the Champions League.

So now it's like, okay, well, here we are seeing a story that I already knew.

they won the final 5-0 and Real Madrid got beaten by Arsenal, who got beaten by Paris-Saint-Germain.

Of course, it doesn't always work like that in football.

Of course, like a team can beat a team and someone else

can go the other way.

Like, it's not that simple.

But also, it kind of is that simple with this Paris-Saint-Germain team because they were so emphatically the best by the end of that tournament that I don't feel like I'm learning a lot new about that.

So, I think that the fact that they were much better than Real Madrid didn't shock me.

I think that Jabbi Alonso is entitled to say, look, this was, I showed up and I went straight into this.

Now I've got the summer to go and actually start doing my work properly.

I think that's all totally fair to say.

I do think there are huge questions

for Jabbi.

And I think that this is kind of even

when I talk about it not being you, this kind of feels like it's just the forever narrative of Real Madrid.

Real Madrid are always the club, have been the club since, as long as I can remember watching them.

They are

the Galacticos Club.

And of course, they have times when it's a bit more or less, but still the narrative of this club is the great individuals more than the great collective, whereas PSG's narrative right now is very much about the collective.

And I think that what will be really fascinating to watch is whether Xiabi Alonso can impact that in a different way.

Because actually, when you look at certainly the recent history of Real Madrid, the managers who've achieved the most in terms of winning things are the ones who've been a bit more laissez-faire, who've been a bit more able, like Elangelotti or Zidane, to go, you know what, you're all really great.

I'm going to take a slight step back and let you guys be really great.

Whereas Jabby Alonso is much more hands-on, is going to want them to play more like a collective, is going to try and make them into more of a team that will put that work in and be a bit more selfless for each other.

And we'll see how that plays out.

There's been all the, up till this point of the tournament, there's been all that positive noise about how hands-on he is in training.

We'll see what that looks like.

I don't know.

I don't know if it's just me.

I don't know if it's because the Euros are on and I'm more excited about them.

I don't know if it's something else.

It's really impressive how good PSG are.

It's not to stop being really impressive.

Luis Enrique has done incredible work there.

I just don't know that this feels like it's a news story.

It feels like this is just the story that...

we already covered

and now we're just almost getting it like rubber stamped or something.

I don't know.

No,

you're allowed to not be that bothered about the World Cup.

Like it's it's sort of weird when big games are happening.

You think, well, this is, I'm obviously excited to see this game.

And then I don't know what time it starts.

And am I going to watch all of it, et cetera?

I mean, the third goal was beautiful, Paul.

I was a bit sad that Ruiz didn't hit it first time.

It was one of those moves that, you know, he scored.

You can't criticise him.

But I just wanted it to be bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, rather than.

oh don't slow it down mate but yeah that's something to work with in training there i think if i was going in i'd be like

forget that win never do that again

There's a manager, isn't there, who I can't remember who he is, but who would always tell players to hit the ball immediately, regardless of which foot it came to.

And one player who he was coaching scored a wonder goal, but had taken an extra touch to avoid hitting it with that foot.

And after the game, instead of any congratulation, he just went in and was like, never do that again.

So that player.

That's what I would do, Max.

Yeah, that's John Beck.

substituting Steve Steve Claridge for cutting inside.

I think he might have scored, but it didn't matter.

I I mean, it is worth just re-emphasizing if you haven't seen the goals, the first two, Raoul Ascensio.

It's not just dawdling on the ball.

He basically just turned himself off for about five minutes.

And Dembele's there.

And I think Courtois said, like, something like, I pointed at Dembele and said, he's good at pressing.

Like, he didn't know, you know.

And then Rudiger's miskick.

It does look very much like someone who has never played football before.

But we've all been here saying, oh, this tournament's unrelatable.

You know, this is the most relatable thing I've seen in the whole competition.

Rudeker's miskick was Chelsea.

His reaction to it was like, Might it be like, oh, I have this vision of the ball moving and it hasn't happened.

And you just stand there and display.

Well, I think he just touches it with his left foot before he tries to kick it with his right.

It's one of those classic.

And then you might, the worst is when you do that and pull a muscle because you've kicked nothing and you're sort of like you're expecting something there.

Oh, delightful.

Paz, do you give Chelsea any hope?

No, I don't.

Look, Bayern Munich gave PSG a decent game.

That could have gone either way, I think.

Chelsea needs to have a look at that one and see what did Bayern Munich do right.

A suggestion, Moyes, Casado may be injured.

And I think if he misses the final, then forget it.

But PSG have a habit of overrunning teams in midfield, so that's something Chelsea needs to address.

A half-fit Casado.

Is a half-fit Casado better than a no-Casado?

I'm not sure who would come in.

If PSG have an off day, yeah, Chelsea could beat them.

But on the face of all available evidence, you'd have to say it's PSG's, they're going to win this.

Like, their goals come from everywhere.

They've had 11 different goal scorers in this tournament, 10 from their own players, or 10 of their own players have scored at least once.

And I think an own goal from Seattle Sounders.

That's remarkable.

Like, remarkable.

Just they're so dangerous in every area of the field.

People are starting to talk about them in the same glowing terms as Peps

sort of 2011 Barcelona side that, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say they're almost that good.

There's no weak link in that team.

I feel like I want to come back in having been so like down on it and just reinforce that, I mean, from PSG's point of view, this is amazing.

And also like...

Yes, I can sit here and say, well, we know they're the best team in Europe and we do.

But I mean, what a summer to make of it where you're almost like crossing off the list, like all the people who you wanted to stick this point to.

Oh, Leo Messi, who of course had his infamous moment where he basically, when he was at PSG, told Vetina, you're not good and you're dragging me down.

Well, Vetinia sticks that in his face within to Miami, and almost it looked like drove Messi to the point of trying to punch him.

Oh, Kili Mbappe, who thought he was better off going to Real Madrid.

Well, get stuffed, smash you for now.

I mean, they really are doing the global tour of sticking it in everyone's faces, how good they are.

And they are really good.

I mean, they are exactly as Baz said.

I think this is a generational team coming together.

And I think that when Louis Enrique at the end of the game says, oh, Dembele

deserves to win everything, they deserve to win everything.

They deserve to get these trophies.

I'm not trying to rein on their parade at all.

Like, they are,

as a team, spectacular.

And the football they are playing is absolutely brilliant.

And while I am a bit like,

perhaps, maybe I'm just again um too jaded from a full season maybe it's because again I think the Euros deserves to be the number one story right now and and we led on it obviously today um I uh I can still appreciate that the football is brilliant and look there was like three million views on the um highlights of this game when I looked on YouTube this morning so other people are clearly far more uh excited about it so don't don't let me being a Debbie Downer kill that.

I think your point is really, but Nikki, I think your point is exactly right in in that like it feels like a story that's done like okay they're the best team in the world we got that before it's like after this do we need a universe club world cup in which they again beat everyone

oh you'd love that all over let me take you to the outer reaches of zargon i've watched this team 500 times and we're like tough place to go here we go i see what you're pushing for here tune on a tuesday night tough place to go but but you know what i mean yeah it's the equivalent of like you know do we need to keep reinforcing the point this is a fantastic team and i i don't think you're overly negative, Nikki.

I think it's, yeah.

Nikki, I just wanted to ask you about Luca Modricter AC Milan.

His last game for Real Madrid, not a perfect one for him, but him in an AC Milan kit feels nice.

Yeah, it feels like a throwback almost to that

chapter where we I feel like early in my career, one of the things I was just writing about relentlessly was Milan Lab and how they get these older players in and turn them into

get another few years out of them.

I kind of love it.

It's certainly going to be really fun to watch watch him playing in Serie A.

It's an intriguing moment for me lane with Allegri back there and seeing what his project's going to be like.

We're getting a few of those very, very big names who are at the tail end of their careers in Serie A this season, of course, with De Bruyne at Nathley as well.

So look,

as long as Luca Modric is playing football, I'll enjoy watching Luca Modric play football.

He's a fun player to watch, and we'll see what impact he can have.

All right, that'll do for part two.

Part three.

We'll do some transfer stuff.

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.

So apparently, Arsenal have made contact with Chelsea over signing Noni Madweke.

Chelsea won about 50 million.

They're apparently in for Eze as well.

So yeah, we can roll out the Wilson iPad analogy from Monday's pod.

So Nikki Arsenal's transfer business looks starting to look quite good, isn't it?

Zubi Mende.

Yokores not over the line yet.

Norgard seems a sensible signing.

And then it can't be both Madweken, as it.

I don't know.

But like, how are you feeling currently?

Yeah, I think

maybe a lot of Arsenal fans, certainly I am still kind of waiting to just.

Jokarez gets done or a striker gets done.

It feels like all of this stuff around the outside, outside, it just feels like, is that the point?

Is that what we're supposed to be most worried about?

What was the biggest issue for this team at key moments last season?

It felt like to me it was the absence of that number nine and just that reliability

putting the ball in the net.

So I think until that one gets crossed the line, it feels like maybe it's it's pessimism that goes all the way back to things like the Luis Suarez incident where you feel like a transfer is going to get done and then it doesn't.

There's this almost expectation with Arsenal that they'll find a way to not do this deal that seemed like it was done and uh and it will all go wrong um and i think that even with someone like my dweke there's this feeling of okay but like could we do the important business first and then and then maybe we can we can do this as well but yeah like that they they are certainly um spending certainly spending the money certainly um

It's not a passive summer, is it?

It's a summer that speaks to, okay, we've recognized that things need to be done and we need to show that ambition.

And I think

that's encouraging.

But yes, I really want to see the number nine get across the line personally.

I think there are lots of neutrals thinking, wouldn't it be hilarious if Arsenal didn't manage to get a number nine by the end of the window?

Spinola says, have Spurs just bought Rule Fox Mark II?

All dribble and no end product.

Agreed a fee of 55 million with West Ham for Mohamed Kudas.

Set to have a medical.

No player completed more dribbles than the Premier League in the last two seasons.

But where did he dribble to, Paul, in that West Ham shirt, I suppose is the question.

I messaged Lars last night going, is he good?

And maybe that's a sign if you're having to ask that.

But I suppose, you know, Thomas Frank and Tottenham is different to playing for West Ham.

He's a wonderful player.

Yeah,

I really rate him, actually.

I think he's a really good player, but

I do get the point of the end product.

I think he's a decent signing.

I think they're perhaps overpaying from the figures that I'm seeing.

quoted but that's pretty much across the board what everyone's doing for every player and i'm also very old so when i see a figure for a transfer, I'm still looking at it as if it's 1996.

And Alan Shearer is worth 14 million.

Over three-quarters of a million.

And you're like, what?

This is mad.

Yeah, what?

What are you doing?

But yeah, I know, I actually think he'd be a pretty decent signing.

And also, Raul Fox, please, let's not have any disrespect to Raul Fox.

What an absolute legend of a player.

Tottenham apparently also exploring a move for Johann Wisser from Brentford.

They had been linked to Mbomo, but he appears to be going to Manchester United, although they can't agree on a fee at this stage.

Barry Sunderland have spent big again.

Chenzdine Talby from Club Brugge for 20.5 million.

One of the fastest players in Europe, apparently.

Right, I thought you were going to say that signed Simon Odinga from Brighton, which is the one I saw.

Mr.

Have they?

Yeah, Mr.

Club Bruggerman, Speed Merchant, completely passed me by, I'm afraid.

Oh, and Odinga, I think, is a great signing.

He's a really good player.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I've gone from

certainties to go straight back down to, hmm, this is not bad.

A few good signings here.

And now I'm convinced some of them are going to be up there juking it out for the title.

Yeah.

And all that's happened in the space of about a fortnight.

Yeah, 150 million quid

that they will have spent.

They've signed a left back, Reynildo Mandava on a free from Athleti as well.

So, yeah, exciting times at the Stadium of Light.

Robin says, I hope Barry is psyched to be talking about the legal minutiae of Leon's non-relegation and what it means for Palace.

Yeah, so Leon will play in league next season after the French side won their appeal against relegation.

Could affect Palace's chance of playing in the Europa League next season.

UEFA could rule on Palace's situation by the end of the week.

I did see somewhere that they could,

I mean, it's not fudging it, is it?

But they could swap Palace and Forrest.

So Forrest go into the Europa League and Palace going to the Conference League.

which I guess Palace could win.

So it could end up being good, but on the face of it, feels bad.

But anyway, let's just wait and see what happens with that.

Paul Watson's World of Football.

The Champions League has started, Paul.

Yeah, it was a long wait, Max.

38 days, a full 38 days.

What phase are we in now?

Well,

these are the preliminary round games.

So

the first game was in the eighth biggest city in Finland.

And it was Cups of Finland against Milsam Orhe of Moldova.

They were the first game to kick off in the Champions League.

The first team to be eliminated will be next week.

And because of the fact the games aren't scheduled parallel, it will be one of Kirat from Kazakhstan or Olympia Ljubljana from Slovenia will be the first team to be eliminated.

And they'll go out before most teams have even sort of got back from pre-season training.

They'll be out of the Champions League.

But Kirat made some headlines in this one because they had one fan at their game against Olivia Ljubljana.

And all the players went up into the stands and gave this guy a hug.

And

they had a shot that looked like a team photo, but it's just this one fan in the middle.

And they're all hugging him.

And the reason is, not because they got a rubbish away support, it's because the distance from Almaty was about 6,000 kilometers.

So he's a pretty hardy guy.

And potentially...

If Santa Clara from Portugal, who play in the Azores, like in the islands in the middle of the ocean, if they were to meet Kairat, the distance there would be 8,103 kilometers.

That would be the biggest,

biggest away trip

possible in Eurepha, if that happened.

It reminds me of when I did Fantasy Football League with Paul Merson, and we would get,

we'd just say it was free tickets for, you know, audience members to come.

And I think like Michael O'Neill was a guest and like the entire, every Northern Irish person in near London came.

Like it was enormous.

And most guests, you'd get a few.

And I, and, and there was one show where one person turned up in the audience and it was like oh like we almost didn't want to tell the guest and i don't think i should name them it doesn't feel fair that

you know this is the audience we just sort of gave him a like a pair of headphones and like a you know like a like a just something to make him look like a clipboard to make him look like he was just part of production so it didn't look like there was just one person coming to watch this guy talking about his life and his career uh Anyway, Jimbo says any mention of Shelburne v.

Linfield would be appreciated.

You wanted to talk about this game, Barry?

Yeah, this is an interesting one.

So, Shelburne are the reigning champions of the League of Ireland

Premier Division in the Republic of Ireland.

Linfield are the champions in Northern Ireland.

They got drawn together in the first qualifying round.

So, it's a two-legged tie.

It's worth 1.7 million euros to the winners.

The losers get 960,000 and go into the conference league qualifiers.

So that that's doesn't it sounds like peanuts, but that's big money for those kind of teams.

Shamrock Rovers were in the

conference league or Europa League last season.

They got nearly seven million euros for getting to the knockout stages.

But what was interesting about this was Shelburne were managed by, until very recently, by Damien Duff.

And between

the draw and

the game, he resigned

after

a very public and corruscating takedown of his players and what he perceived to be their lack of motivation and effort in a game against Cork City.

So his assistant and very good friend, Joey O'Brien, formerly of Bolton Wanderers and West Ham, he's now in charge of Shells.

David Healy, Northern Irish legend, he's in charge of Linfield.

So they met last night in the first leg at Tolka Park in Dublin, which is a stadium I used to visit very frequently when Shamrock Rovers were sort of tenants there when they were homeless.

And

it's Shelburne are halfway through their season or more than halfway through their season.

This was Linfield's first competitive game of the season.

So Shelburne were expected to win because they're just more fitter, more match sharp and whatnot.

And they did win 1-0

and were the better team.

But it's nicely poised for the second leg going back to Belfast.

Paul, you wanted to mention TNS.

Yeah, well, I wanted to mention

no fewer than two Welsh clubs having shirt-related issues this week, which is pretty amazing.

TNS, the New Saints, the Welsh champions,

they had this moment in their game which went quite big on social media because you could see um the the guys on the touchline scribbling a number 18 in pen on the back of a shirt to give one of their players who ran on and what had happened is um they they had an injury to rory holden and he got blood on his shirt so he wasn't allowed to come back on with this shirt with blood but the only shirts they had on the sideline were blank shirts so they had to have a number on him so they literally just wrote it on in pen and pushed it back on, which was great.

It caused a lot of confusion.

People were trying to work out who was he?

Is he some mystery player player they've like bought on the spot or something but it was just the same guy and the other one that that's happened uh is a brilliant one is there have been pictures circulating of uh pennebont's team about to play against uh kauno zalgiris in lithuania having to go shopping at the equivalent of sports direct because the airline have lost their luggage so they've all had to buy i think they've got they probably have their team shirts i think but they've all got to buy new boots so they were they put a post on social media saying like you know uh team arrive tick airline lost luggage x uh players have worn in new boots tick so they're like genuinely having to do what you know everyone's done over the years how did they get played yet that's um that's two tonight actually

tonight that's a conference league clash got it so yeah two welsh

teams having sort of logistical issues because new boots you want to you know you want to get in the bath you know you've got a mole onto your feet you've got to do all of that stuff that's gonna there'll be some blisters there'll be some blisters tonight in uh Lithuania.

Was it in Lithuania?

Lithuania, yeah.

Talk to me about a Finnish team with a Scottish coach and a sausage obsession.

Yeah, so this is SJK Saino Yockey in Finland and their boss is Stevie Greave.

He's a Scottish coach, very relatively young still.

Didn't actually play football.

One of these coaches who came through, very data-driven, like a great kind of tactician.

He's doing an amazing job.

at this club.

They're playing K.I.

Klachzvig of the Faroe Islands.

But the thing that caught our mind when we did the Sweeper podcast is that Sino Yochi have this thing called the Sausage minute and it's because they um they have a like tie-in with a meat company that if a team scores i think it's in the 78th minute if they score in the 78th minute of any game everyone gets a voucher for a free hot dog for the next game so when it gets to that minute of the game the crowd are all yelling sausage sausage

and apparently it even starts to impact the team's tactics like i i think i saw an interview go for it where they're like yeah like there's a pressure on them to launch shots in the 78th minute it It like it actually impacts the

tactics of the game.

So, yeah, they're playing, yeah, as I say, Kaya Klaxvig of the Vera Islands.

And it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

That's

tonight as we record.

So, if that's so good.

I mean, we should get Mark Langdon one of those shirts.

Yeah,

the 78th minute.

About the 75th minute, you start just doing it quietly.

Sausage, sausage.

Minute by minute by minute.

Who are Bruno's Magpies?

Bruno's Magpies.

They are widely known as the best pub team in the world.

They are Gibraltar's powerhouse.

They've just signed Rudiger.

They've just signed Tony Rudiger.

Yeah, they'll be scouting him.

They were, because they were technically founded by an 18-year-old in his grandparents' pub, which is Bruno's Bar in Gibraltar.

Since then, they've gone from strength to strength to strength and become, you know, one of the biggest clubs in Gibraltar.

They're in Europe.

pretty much every year.

And they're playing against Paida of Estonia.

And one question from Moonlight Hanger says,

was that a go-karting track behind one of the sides of the pitch where Floriana were playing Haverford West County, which I always just thought was a service station, in the Europa Conference League first qualifying round?

This is surely testing your knowledge here, Paul.

The go-karting tracks of Floriana.

I've got to, I'll be totally honest, I don't know, but the annoyance is that Lee, who presents podcasts,

was at Floriana last year.

So he would have been able to tell you.

And if I had been able to let you know that, I would have sounded like I knew everything about every stadium in the world.

But I'm not going to try and pretend I know.

No, I don't.

For more stories like this,

listen to Paul on the excellent sweeper podcast,

which is brilliant, Paul.

Thank you for doing it.

And everybody go and listen to it.

Adam says, dear Max and co, longtime listener from the States, love the show.

I fear you have misled your listeners about a crucial element of American food culture.

In a recent discussion of the Club World Cup, you said that players had an unusual amount of freedom between matches.

You suggested that they could go to a Midwestern diner so they could drown in ribs.

This is frankly terrible advice.

A Midwestern diner is no place for ribs.

Stick with eggs, hash browns, coffee, pie, etc.

If you want ribs, you have to go to a barbecue joint, preferably one in a building that looks like it might fall down in the next strong wind.

There are some top rib destinations amongst the host cities, including Nashville, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

I hope that in writing this, I might save fans and perhaps players from a disastrous rib-based decision.

In the spirit of international friendship, Adam.

And I should say not the only rib correspondence we got.

There were many people telling me how incorrect I was.

The best barbecue when I was in, living in the Midwest, Kansas, was in a gas station, literally a gas station.

Right.

So good.

Whenever me and Mrs.

Rush and we did drove through the middle of the States, and she loves a diner, like the aesthetics of a diner.

So she wants to go to every diner, but she hates everything on the menu.

She's so excited to be in there, to be on those, you know, those.

the red table that's stuck there, the booths.

And then there's, there is no Pokeball.

You know,

there's no tuna salad.

Anyway, yes, Barry?

I've always been amazed they haven't taken off over here, those kind of diners with the, you see in movies and whatnot, with the booths and the counters and the bottomless cup of coffee.

If I had one nearby my house, I would eat breakfast, dinner and tea in there.

Or breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Sorry.

I'm not sure you should have every meal in a diner.

Without wanting to upset the diners of the Midwest or any part of the United States.

I think every meal would be pushing it.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Paul.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks.

Cheers, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

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