A Diogo Jota tribute – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Today we pay tribute to Diogo Giotta, a wonderful footballer, and by all accounts, a lovely guy who tragically died in a car crash along with his brother Andrei Silva last week.

He got married less than two weeks ago.

He has three small kids.

It's so utterly heartbreaking and shocking because we view sports stars so often as invincible and it has such an impact on fans of all the sides he played for because we do feel like we know these people that we've never met.

Beyond that, our complex relationship with the Club World Cup continues.

Dynamic pricing, a terrible and freak injury to Jamal Musiala, but at the same time, some great football matches.

There's PSG beat Bayern and Rail beat Dortmund.

Chelsea into the semis too, while they'll play Fluminese.

We'll do some transfer stuff and then we'll talk about what we can talk about regarding the multiple rape charges against Thomas Partey.

And then back to the football.

Perhaps it's the ultimate sign of progress that England's women can put in a tournament performance so reminiscent of their male counterparts.

Even if Serena Viegman wanted to release the handbrake, the French wouldn't let her.

They were very impressive.

England weren't.

As always, we'll answer your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Jonathan Wilson, hello.

Morning, how are you doing?

Yeah, good, thank you.

And from the Racing Racing Post, Mark Langdon.

Hi, Max.

And joining us to talk about Diogo Joshua as well, Craig Hannan from the Anfield Route.

Craig, thanks so much for coming on.

I know you're at an airport and you're busy, so we really appreciate your time.

All good, thank you.

Let's talk about Diogo Jotta then,

who died last week in a car crash in northern Spain, was killed alongside his brother, Andre Silva, when the car they were traveling in veered off a road.

He leaves behind his wife, Ruta Cardosa, who he'd married just 11 days previously, and three young children.

The news broke just as we finished Thursday's pod.

It was one of those moments that stops you in your tracks.

Liverpool posted a beautiful and heartbreaking film of him playing, talking about the game.

And one of the final clips was him kicking the ball about with his kids on the Anfield turf.

I mean, Craig, it has obviously been a very difficult three days for everyone involved in that football club.

Of course, the family.

It's hard to process, isn't it?

It really is.

It's something that I can't think of that's happened in my lifetime.

You know, the one thing that I continually think about is not about the footballer that we've lost it's about the person it's about you know the mothers who's lost two sons it's about the wife and the kids who've who who've lost their their dad and their husband and you know the the thing that i continually think about is the picture of them in their wedding just two weeks ago you know you see diogo stood with his young family his incredibly young family and his wife and they're looking at their their family their brother will be in the in the crowd as well and the one thing when they look at each other they all think they have is time as a family they've got time to grow old together to to experience life together to watch their kids grow up together but that's been stolen from them and that's the that's the heartbreaking bit about this it's it's less about the footballer that we all loved and and he was a footballer that I enjoyed watching he gave me incredible moments incredible experiences big goals and big games but it's the it's the person that's been lost there yeah you're obviously closer to the club and the city and and to to the players as well.

And it is so often said when somebody dies that they were a great person.

But from what everyone has said and from all those tributes craig you really are left in no doubt that this was just a really good guy yeah absolutely the anfield trap um i interviewed him a few times and uh he was incredibly warm he gave answers that weren't the the standard footballer answer you know he would he would tell you what you really thought there was once when we spoke to him about he scores the winning penalty against leicester in the cup and and knocks them out and leicester had sung a few songs about liverpool that he didn't like and we didn't like and and diogo very much showed them uh at the end what he thought of them and you know he talked about that openly and said I heard them singing songs and I wanted to give it to them so he was he was someone who you know was

you know incredibly warm and generous with his time and and just a just a really really nice fella and that's the the thing that comes across as you say it's you know it's it's him as a person as much as as much as the footballer that you know the players will will will really sort of miss you see it in the in the tributes that were paid to him across Instagram by the players you see the turnout at his funeral and how many sort of of his ex

you know the pros that he sort of played alongside with have turned up.

You know, um, Andy Robertson's, I don't know if you've seen Andy Robertson's, Andy Robertson's brilliant.

There's a picture of Diogo and I think it's Andy Robertson, Queevin Keller, Connor Bradley, and then they're at the race, and they're at Cheltenham with all the other staff.

And it's just Liverpool staff.

These aren't players.

And that just sort of shows that there was no one sort of Diogo wasn't too big for anyone.

It was like, if he's your mate, he's your mate.

And so, yeah, there will, you know, he was a brilliant guy.

Andy Robertson says, yeah, I want to talk about my mate, my buddy, the bloke I loved and will miss like crazy.

I could talk about him as a player for hours, but none of that feels like it matters right now.

It's the man, the person.

He was such a good guy, the best, so genuine, just normal and real, full of love for the people he cared about, full of fun.

He was the most British foreign player I've ever met.

We used to joke he was really Irish.

I tried to claim him as Scottish, obviously.

I even called him Diogo McJotter.

We'd watch the darts together, enjoy the horse racing, going to Cheltenham this season was a highlight, one of the best we had.

The last time I saw him was the happiest day of his life, his wedding day.

I want to remember his never-ceasing smile from that magical day, how much he was bursting with love for his wife and family.

I can't believe we're saying goodbye.

It's too soon and it hurts so much.

But thank you for being in my life, mate.

And thank you for making it better.

Love you, Diogo.

And I guess, Wilson,

is that thing that we

feel two things.

One, we feel sports stars are kind of invincible because they are, you know, the sort of physical zenith.

And one, that we feel we know them.

Yeah, I mean, I guess there's two slightly sort of paradoxical things there.

So, on the one hand, they exist in this other play and they are sort of superheroes, that they are

something

beyond human, and yet at the same time, you do have that sense of intimacy, that you do feel you know them, because you go to see them every week or you see them on TV every week, and you have that sense of their struggles or their triumphs.

And I'm sure anybody who saw those pictures of his wedding, you know, as a Liverpool fan or somebody who's seen him play over the the last few years,

would have felt sort of a moment of happiness for him.

And then,

you know, I think the point Craig makes that there's such a sense of a new phase beginning of possibility and potential.

And for that to last 11 days, doesn't it make it more tragic?

Probably not, but it sort of underlines the tragedy of a life lost so young.

uh with you know three kids a wife other family yeah he was some player mark i mean

a sort of understated, underrated, brilliant movement, brilliant in the air.

I mean, so much of his game was just like pure timing, I think.

Yeah, I think you know, if you were kind of building a football specimen, like he kind of wasn't the quickest, wasn't the tallest, wasn't the strongest.

And yet, when he played, um, he was so difficult to stop.

And I think that what you said there about the timing and he's he runs into the box and he's intelligent and to know where the space is, and he's, you know, the finishing was outstanding.

I remember seeing him play for Wolves when that kind of Portuguese revolution was just starting

at Molyneux.

And

he was loved there as well before he moved on to Liverpool.

And

very versatile player, would impact big matches

as well.

And

you know, just I'm quite cynical when kind of celebrities when they die and kind of this public outpouring because i'm so you don't know them um and yet this did feel very very different i mean when i heard the news just had to sit down um for a while which um

shocked me really that it kind of impacted me in that way and um you know i thought robertson's tribute yeah was it was difficult to read it was great to read but it was difficult to read um at the same time keller hurt um as well and yeah just so sorry for everyone involved yeah I mean, you said the same thing, Barry.

I mean, we've just finished recording, and just that it was like a punch to the guts.

Yeah.

I mean, I can't really

do better than what anyone else has said, just with regard to Andy Robertson's post, which broke me.

I wish he had been Irish.

Yeah.

Craig, I mean,

like you say, it's so hard to, or I don't know if it feels right to talk about his greatest moments in a Liverpool show.

People talk about that, you know, that goal against Spurs, which at the time I I was pretty disappointed about,

and a goal against Everton as well.

Yeah, look, he had massive moments in a Liverpool shirt.

There's a lovely tribute, and

someone

had printed it out and lay it by Anfield, and it said the words, just get Jot on.

And it was this idea of the Ogo Jota would just fix it in the big moments.

If you needed a goal, you know,

someone mentioned the instinct there.

He was a goal storer that people would liken to Robbie Fowler in terms of his ability just to put it in the back of the net at at times.

Sometimes it's untidy,

but just a brilliant finisher and a brilliant player.

And, you know, he's had so many moments.

You know, one of my favourites is I was in the way end at Goodison when he scores the third against Everton and he does the BB Shark celebration, and that was for one of his kids.

You know, it was right in front of the OA end.

He obviously has the Spurs goal.

His last goal for Liverpool is against Everton.

It's in the Merseyside Derby.

It's in a game where, you know, it's difficult.

It's a Derby.

We need a spark.

We need a player to ignite the the the the the fixture and and he does that he comes on it's the most diogo jot a goal by the way it's the shimmy it's the drop at the shoulder it's a bit untidy but it's a great finish and he was a he was a brilliant footballer and you know over the past sort of five or six months i think it's come out one of the reasons why he was driving was because he couldn't fly because he'd had um you know some work on his lung which he'd obviously been struggling with over the past five or six months so this was a a player that was 28 years old who had just won the league for Liverpool, who had won the League Cup and the FA Cup of Liverpool and played such a pivotal part in that season where, I mean, it's the near-quadruple season that people talk about it, but they win two cups and Diogo's pivotal to that journey.

And, you know, he's had so many great moments, but there was a real sense that there was so many more to come.

And that's where a lot of the sadness comes from him as a footballer.

It's that he had so much more to achieve, both at Liverpool.

He'd already done so much in his career.

He'd fought his way to the top.

This was not a player who,

when he was at his youngest, was the greatest in every age group and was destined for the top.

This was a player that fought his way to the top and found himself a Premier League winner and had so much more to do in the game.

Yeah, and you know, huge impact at Wolves as well.

Move to the championship, absolute star and getting them promoted.

A mate of mine, Martin, a Wolves fan, completely broken

by and

such the relentlessness of football is that Liverpool are starting preseason.

I think today, I think they're staggering it or changing what they're doing.

But it will be incredibly hard for those players as well to focus on football.

And, you know, it is worth remembering that every human life is equal, isn't it?

His brother was in the car as well, 25, played youth football at Porto, senior football in the Portuguese lower leagues at Gondomar, the club local to his family.

He'd recently graduated from university in business management.

And look, Craig, we bollock on about the football family a lot.

And sometimes

it feels disingenuous.

But Liverpool as a club, of course, have experienced

very sadly tragedy before, and they will do everything they can, not just to commemorate it you know in in the games between now and the start of the season when the season starts but to help the family as well i'm sure

yeah massively um i mean there's talk of of the number 20 shirt being retired you know there will be tributes when the when the fans come in you know like you say it's such a short period of time until i think they're back in training on tuesday properly we're on tour in in in three weeks in japan and hong kong um and football moves so fast a lot a lot happens in three weeks in football but three weeks is no time to grieve is it really so um it's going to be a really sort of difficult journey for the players for the fans you know football fandoms irrational isn't it you know we we travel all over the country on coaches and and buses and and you know we spend all of our money watching these players and we sing songs about them at them um and and this is a footballer she said that i've never met i don't know but i feel a connection to because while i never met him i spent every weekend with him you know and because he gave me all of these moments so it's going to take fans a bit of time as well but the players it's just so difficult if Liverpool were to start the season poorly this season I don't think any fan sort of looks at it and thinks like you know there's there's going to be sort of no pressure or nothing like that from us it's going to be very much like everyone needs to take their time because this is a this is a momentous thing that's happened and and it's going to be difficult to to process for the players and difficult to um there's going to be a difficult grieving process for them um craig thanks so much for coming on really appreciate your time today mate thank you Craig Hannon there from the Amfield Rap.

Just before we end part one, on the subject of each life mattering the same, a number of you got in touch and thank you for doing so about Mohanad Fadil al-Layh, a Palestinian footballer who also died on Thursday after being wounded in an Israeli attack on his home.

People are saying that we would rightly be paying tribute to Diogo Jota, but we should not ignore Mohanad's death.

The Palestinian Football Association said in a statement, a drone fired a missile at Mohanad's room on the third floor of his home, causing him to suffer a severe skull hemorrhage, which led to his death.

The association noted that the footballer attempted to travel outside the blockaded strip to join his wife in Norway before the outbreak of the war.

He was prevented from leaving, not able to see his family.

His death brings the total number of athletes killed during Israel's 600-day war on Gaza to at least 585, 265 football players within the 57,130 Palestinians that have been killed in the last 21 months.

Wilson, you wanted to talk about a couple of players as well who also sadly lost their lives.

Yeah, so Sir Peter Rifai, who's Nigeria's goalkeeper when they won the Cup of Nations in 94, people might remember him.

You know, that part of that great Nigeria side of the 90s.

Yeah, he died the end of last week.

And John Clark, who was 84, who was one of the Lisbon Lions, who won the European Cup with Celtic in 67, he also died the end of last week.

So

yeah, we should also remember them.

Absolutely right.

And we'll be back in a second.

Hi, Pod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the Remarkable Paper Pro.

We already know that Remarkable's the leader in the paper tablet category.

Digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting.

The remarkable paper pro move.

Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all your notes, to-dos, and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin, so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office, like maybe a football journalist, Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, Mike.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

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It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So the Club World Cup then, the semi-finals will be PSG versus Real Madrid, Flumenesi versus Chelsea.

I guess, Barry, the main talking point is the injury to Jamal Murcial

in a really entertaining game between PSG and Bayer.

Cleared out by Donna Rummer.

And I mean, if you haven't seen it, I would recommend not seeking it out.

If you have, it's one of those sort of David Boost type injuries.

Um, probably puts his World Cup next summer in jeopardy.

And much as I think a lot of us want to blame the Club World Cup for everything, I'm not sure you can for this.

It seemed very much like a freak injury to me.

Well, you can only blame the Club World Cup insofar as it happened during the Club World Cup, but I think it was a total accident.

Donnaroma went for a ball that I think it was up in McCann.

I was trying to shepherd out over the the byline, but the ball looked like it wouldn't make the byline.

So, Donnaroma decided to intervene.

Muciala decided to intervene.

Donnaroma got there first and kind of took out.

Muciala,

he also got the ball.

I don't think there was any intent whatsoever.

It was a very unfortunate accident.

Donnaroma was quite distressed afterwards.

Manuel Nor was critical of him after the game.

But I think Noyer, the point he made not particularly well, was that in a tournament like this, you don't need to go for the ball like that, you know, and even risk such a thing happening.

So I think it was just one of those things.

It turns out Muciala has a fractured phibia and a dislocated ankle.

So that's going to be

six months before he's even back on an exercise bike, you can imagine.

That's just my

guess.

But

so

he might make the World Cup, but it is a very unfortunate thing to happen to him.

Maniel and I said it was a situation where you don't have to go in like that.

That's risk-taking.

He was prepared to accept the risk of injuring his opponent.

I went to him and said, Don't you want to go and see our player?

It's a matter of respect of going there and wishing the guy all the best.

He then did it.

Fair play is always a part of it.

I'd have reacted differently.

As Barry said, Mark, that feels

like that is harsh on Donna Rummer.

Yeah, I think emotions were running high after the game.

And

maybe you don't always think clearly and logically when you talk and a kind of microphone is thrust in front of you.

I mean, Donaruma was basically in tears once he kind of realised what had happened on the pitch.

So there was no doubt in the fact that he was sorry that it happened.

Vinton Company afterwards sort of

was more sensible in terms of

saying that Donaruma wasn't to blame.

It was just a really unfortunate incident incident for a player that has suffered from a lot of injuries.

When he plays and he gets into a rhythm, he looks like he's one of the best players in the world.

And it's just been really unlucky for him that you just haven't seen enough of that.

And he came into the tournament not fully fit and then has

got an injury that, as you said, is going to rule him out for much of next season as well.

So you can only wish him all the best and you know, a big blow for him and for buying really.

But it will take away from what was a brilliant game of football, actually.

Yeah, and actually, Wilson, the last 15 minutes was sort of ludicrous.

Yeah, a good game that suddenly kind of became something that had that happened in

a World Cup or Champions League, we'd have been talking about for weeks.

Uh, because it's you have suddenly

we still can if you want, Wilson.

I mean, it's up to you,

yeah.

Yeah, the two red cards, which sort of I think were both red cards, but sort of came from nowhere, which obviously makes it much harder of a PSG against Real Madrid in the semi-final.

But I mean, I was sort of thinking, Neuer's complaints, like that challenge was nowhere near as bad as Neuer's foul on, well, they're not even giving us a foul, a challenge on Iguain in the 2014 World Cup final, where he flies out at head height.

So

I think...

I think football does have an issue with keepers

clattering into players,

they get more leeway than an outfield player would.

And

maybe to an extent, that's just about understandable if they're not going with their feet.

Yeah, that was not by any means one of the worst of those.

You'll see

whether there does need to be a bit of a conversation about how

goalkeepers can challenge the ball in a way that doesn't potentially endanger opponents.

But fundamentally, I think it's a freakish thing.

I suspect the fact that Upper McConaughey was so close made it more likely to happen.

But

it's obviously something to do with the angle where his foot was planted.

I sort of suspect you see that kind of thing a thousand times because the leg isn't on the ground.

The player sort of flips over and you don't really even think about it.

So, yeah, I think

just hugely unfortunate thing.

Whether it then starts to affect

how European clubs look at the Club World Cup, is

you know, and I totally get it's not about the Club World Cup, but equally, if you weren't playing the games, it wouldn't happen.

Is it worth playing in a tournament or investing fully in a tournament when you don't really need it, don't really want it, when those risks are there?

And maybe, irrational as it may be, maybe that does start to play into the thinking.

Yeah.

I mean, the BSG goals were nice, Barry.

And, you know, Akimi's work for the second is ridiculous.

It is.

It was quite extraordinary.

So

they're a goal up, two men down.

Byron Munich are throwing the kitchen sink at them.

And they break up field.

Neves

is on the ball.

Dembele is on his outside.

Neves shuffles the ball out to Dembele spanks it off the crossbar.

PSG recycle it and Ashraf Hakimi basically.

This is about 97 minutes into this game.

Everyone's knackers.

He dribbles past three players and tees up Dembele, who scores into the bottom corner.

Still room for more drama because Bayern Munich get a penalty which is then overturned.

But yeah, a remarkable goal, especially considering they had two men fewer than Byron at the time.

And, you know, one imagines if it had gone to extra time, Byron would have won because they had the two men and everyone was very tired.

Real Madrid beat Dortmund 3-2 in the other quarterfinal on that side of the draw.

And great bit of injury time this game had, Mark.

It did, yeah.

I mean, it was sort of felt like it was just drifting for much of the game.

Real Madrid raced into two-goal lead, and Dortmund didn't sort of play with the belief that they were going to get back into it.

Maybe a bit there what Jonathan was saying, where you kind of just accept your fate and don't need to push too hard and wonder if it's all worth it at that stage.

And then Max Bayer pulled a goal back, make it 2-1.

Killing Mbappe, who'd come on as a substitute, scored a...

great scissor kick volley.

I think it might have been easier to have just headed it in, but it was

a great moment for Mbappe, who's been injured

or absent for most of this tournament.

And then there was still time for Garrassi to score from a penalty where Hoyson, who's been very good so far since he arrived from Bournemouth, was sent off for fouling him in the build-up.

And

I think it's like 90 plus 8.

Sarbitz had an effort, fantastic, brilliant stop from Courtois down low to his right that kept the game from going to extra time.

And yeah, for most of that sort of 90-odd minutes, minutes, Real Madrid were really comfortable.

I think they're the most interesting team in this competition, really, just to see how Xavi Alonso

is getting on with them.

They've been quite fluid in formation so far, played with a back three, they've played with a back four to a many.

It's kind of playing a hybrid role at times when he starts in defence and then moves into midfield.

Gonzalo Garcia has kind of broke through really in this tournament.

Yes, who is he, please, Mark?

He's a young striker that was playing for the Castilla side.

I mean, Xiabi Alonso likened him to Real, which is about as high praise as you're going to get for Real Madrid.

I think Alonso likes the fact that he works hard up front, unlike maybe some of the others that he's inherited within that team.

And he actually, without naming names, he said it's very important that all of the players are interested in all of the phases.

So

I'm not sure who he was maybe aiming that at.

But yeah, so I mean,

Gonzalo Garcia will be one of those that will have been pleased that we've got this tournament on because it's enabled him to push himself into the limelight.

There's talk now that maybe Real Madrid will sell Rodrigo and that there should be more opportunities for him this season.

I think Arde Goulaire has done well.

Another one that Alonso has kind of brought into the team that didn't get much in terms of action under Carlo Ancelotti.

So a big step up in quality.

They've beaten a couple of European teams in the knockouts in Juvan, Brusha, Dortmund, but Paris-San-German are on a different level to those two.

So without Heisen, yeah, it will be interesting to just see how Real Madrid go.

But I think, yeah, in terms of the tournament,

they're probably the team I'm watching the most, just with one eye on what happens for the season ahead.

Chelsea Flimenesi, the other semi-final, then Chelsea beat Palmeis 2-1.

Nice to see Cole Palmer.

I think the commentator was saying he hasn't scored.

He scored one in 25 or something not very good, Wilson.

And this was sort of a classic Cole Palmer goal, wasn't it?

Oh, the finish was just one of those really clever finishes where the keeper ends up looking a bit daft, but clearly, yeah, Palmer knows exactly what he's doing.

I saw loads of talk afterwards that, oh, yeah, looking forward to seeing Palmer and Esteval playing together.

Yeah.

Are they going to be able to play together?

It feels quite same-y.

I mean, maybe if you play with the sort of two inside forwards, maybe they can.

But I suppose, I suppose, if you think about it, Chelsea don't really have any wide attackers, so maybe they will be

forced to play two narrows.

I mean, this, that's

the

Jamie Gitton signing, you know, moving on potentially Madowika is just astonishing.

Is Gittens better than Madowick?

Chelsea seems to treat players in the way you would treat, I don't know, like an iPad, that you buy it, you keep it for a few years, and its processing power started to go, the battery started to go, there's been new developments, you buy a new one, but there's sort of this process of decline.

And you just accept, yeah,

it's at its peak the moment you get it, and I don't know, maybe you install your particular apps or whatever, and that first sort of six months or so, that's when it's at its best.

But after that, you're really just managing the decline and you just have to get a new one.

Whereas I would like to think a football club would get a talented young player and then coach them.

I don't know if anybody's heard of of this, coaching.

It's a thing that people used to do.

Yeah.

Where does that work in the iPad analogy?

Take it to the Mac store.

It works in the analogy because I don't think an iPad is a player.

I think they're differences.

Right.

Okay.

I think one of them is a bit of technology with obsolescence built in and one of them is a human being.

And I understand in the modern world, the difference between a human and a product can often be it's difficult.

I understand your confusion.

I think you could argue that if you have an iPad that is perfectly functional and adequate, and then you get a new, slightly more expensive, shiny,

newer iPad, you do have to spend the best part of a day getting that iPad up and running.

It takes time.

You know, you have to do all the installing of apps and all that crack, takes ages.

Whereas you could avoid that by just sticking with the iPad you already have, which is doing the job perfectly well.

Well, especially if you've sort of, and again, I now realize I am using analogy again.

If you've souped up the iPad, if you've coached the iPad, why would you then give it to one of your rivals in using iPads?

We give it to the totally football show.

I give it to Jimbo.

Here's an iPad for no reason.

Or maybe because they're looking at Wanyeri, aren't they?

For Mad Away, they're looking at Wanyeri.

So it's like Jimbo's got an iPad and I've got an iPad, and we both just want to swap them for no fucking reason.

You would not know from this conversation that I've recently left an iPad on the Year of Star, and I'm very much thinking about iPads.

It is worth talking about Esteval's goal, Mark, because there's contention in the Football Weekly ranks.

Producer Joel says he dinks it, like he's trying to cross it, back across the goal.

And I'm saying that is a brilliant finish.

Where do you stand?

Which one of us knows nothing about the game?

Well, it's not a dink.

A dinky

chip or lob-type effort.

I wouldn't call it brilliant either.

I'd be blaming blaming the goalkeeper.

I thought that.

Oh, come on, that's harsh.

I thought he pawed for the goal.

I didn't even realise that there was debate as to how good it was.

I mean, when I saw it, I was just like, oh, you know, this further proof that Chelsea needs a new goalkeeper.

But clearly, Barry, I've hurt you there.

I think Joel and Mark should both be sacked immediately.

That would, Barry, that would mean we just had Wilson talking about iPads.

Yeah, that'd be fine.

No, I think there's no question.

It was definitely a shot and a very good shot.

And I think it's, I mean, I'm not Robert Sanchez's greatest fan, but I think it's very harsh to blame him for that one.

Yeah, I think so.

Fluminesi beat Alhalal 2-1.

So they are flying the flag for all non-European teams.

My only note from that game is that Tiago Silva plays for Fluteminenza.

I didn't know that.

And their keeper Fabias 44.

He made one brilliant save.

Producer Joel says we have mentioned Tiago Silva a few times.

Barry is also sacked.

Dog eat dog.

One man show.

Brilliant.

Exactly.

On this sinking ship.

Hercules scored the winner.

I think Conor McNamara was on commentary.

That's a great name to yell for someone who scores a winning goal, isn't it?

Hercules.

It almost doesn't get better than that.

So they are through to play Chelsea.

It was quite a laboured finish from Hercules, I thought.

Very good.

Did that deserve more praise?

No.

Conor McNamara actually went, oh, when you're in Orlando, who better than Hercules to score with the certain amusement park down the road?

And I actually,

it shows how petty a man I am.

I wasn't quite sure Hercules was a Disney character, went and checked.

And yes, he is.

So apologies, Connor.

Adam Craftsman, the latest twist of FIFA Club World Cup pricing strategy.

72 hours ago, standard admission for the first semi-final, Chelsea Fimanese, was $473.90.

By yesterday, it was $44.60.

Now it's $13.40.

Those who bought on Wednesday paid 35 times a multiple of the price today.

He then quote-tweeted that to say, I may have triggered a spike in demand as these prices have now soared to $22.30.

Something wrong with that.

Well, we're in the States, the Gold Cup.

Mexico beat the USA 2-1, not without controversy, Mark, but defeat for

Maurizio Pochettino.

Yeah, started the game well enough.

Chris Richards put the US in front.

By half-time, Mexico were definitely the dominant side, equalized through Rao Jimenez, and wasn't much surprised, really, they managed to get the winner through Edson Alvarez.

US are not at full strength for this tournament, but yeah, the controversy was around a hand-ball

call or non-call.

Pochettino was convinced that the US should have had a penalty.

Mexican defender fell on the ball and put his hand on it at one stage.

I feel like it would get given more often than not, but I'm not gutted that it's been sort of just allowed to play on because it's not a deliberate action.

It feels like a penalty is incredibly harsh at that point for what was just somebody.

stumbling over really but Pochatino was definitely worked up.

There's a lot of work for him to do and he'll be hoping that some of those players that missed out on the Gold Cup, Pulisig being that the biggest of those, that's able to have a much bigger impact next summer.

But

yeah, it wouldn't be the first host team to go into a World Cup with a lot of question marks.

Most have managed to at least get some kind of respectability once they've got there.

But yeah, they need to improve.

Well, it is very much a sort of second string US side, isn't it?

I mean, Pulisig, obviously, but there's also, I think there's 12 players who were in the provisional squad for this tournament.

There's definitely got like Weyer,

Dest, yeah, there's a few others that definitely would have been in that starting 11.

So there's 12 were in the in-club World Cup squads.

So they've lost 12 for that plus injuries.

Just talk about transfers briefly.

Chelsea, we've done Chelsea, I guess, confirming Jamie Gittins.

They've sold Kepa to Arsenal, the Mad Wakey rumours, and Wanyeri as well.

Arsenal, we won.

I've signed Zubimendi from Rails Sociedad, which we all all knew was going to happen, a deal worth almost 60 million.

Talk to Advancing with Yokarez as well.

Hasn't gone to pre-season with sporting.

Very, very disappointing if they do actually get a classic number nine.

What will we talk about when they've got a number nine, as opposed to do Arsenal need a number nine?

But feels like they are doing the things they need to do.

Yeah,

and

if they do get Yokarez,

I'm not convinced

he's exactly what they need, but he's clearly a very, very good player.

And

I would go from, if they've got Zubibender, they've got him.

I would go from giving them very little chance of winning the Premier League to giving them quite a decent chance of winning the Premier League, I have to say.

George says, I really enjoyed Max's article about how there are no surprise transfers anymore, right above an article about Kyle Walker's extremely surprising transfer to

top trolling from whoever does the website.

There it is.

Transfer news has lost its sense of wonder in era of my sources tell me.

And then Walker Seal's shock 5 million move from Man City.

Yes, that

didn't help my case.

I mean, it is Wilson quite interesting to see that signing for Burnley.

Yeah, it is.

I mean, they obviously think he's still got something to offer.

And I think maybe we're too quick to write off players who are no longer good enough for the very elite.

But

his experience at the newly promoted side, even if he hasn't got quite the pace he used to have, I mean, he hasn't suddenly become a slow player.

He's just become a slower version of what he was, which wasn't an extremely quick player.

So that's still probably a fairly quick player.

But I mean, Burnley's fullbacks aren't going to be bombing on next season, I assume.

You know, they'll be sitting quite deep.

So

I think that's, I, yeah, I don't see why that wouldn't work for them, as long as they're not expecting him to be the Kyle Walker of old, which I'm sure they're not.

All right, a statement signing from Birmingham to get Kyogo Furyhashi from Celtic as they launched their campaign to get to the Premier League.

Right, we're going to talk about Thomas Party.

Susie Rack, the Guardian's women's football correspondent, was going to join us for part three to talk about England's pretty dismal performance against France.

We'll do that in a minute, but I wanted to get her involved in this conversation as well.

She joins us now.

Hey, Susie, okay.

Hey, you get me on to talk about all the great news.

Yes, I am.

I am sorry.

I know you've written about this.

So the news broke on Friday that Thomas Party has been charged with five counts of rape, one count of sexual assault.

The allegations relate to three women who reported incidents between 2021 and 2022.

He's been charged with two counts of rape of one woman, three counts of rape of a second, and one count of sexual assault of a third woman.

He will will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on the 5th of August.

Jaswat Narwell of the CPS said the Crown Prosecution Service has today authorised the prosecution of Thomas Party for multiple counts of rape.

After carefully reviewing a comprehensive file of evidence, our prosecutors have worked closely with officers in the Metropolitan Police who've carried out the investigation to review the evidence and advise on the appropriate charges.

We remind everyone that criminal proceedings are active.

The defendant has a right to a fair trial.

We know there will be significant public interest in this announcement, but it is absolutely vital that there is no reporting, commentary, or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.

Party's lawyer said in a statement, Thomas Party denies all the charges against him.

He's fully cooperated with the police and CPS throughout their three-year investigation.

He now welcomes the opportunity to finally clear his name.

Given that there are now ongoing legal proceedings, my client is unable to comment further.

An Arsenal spokesperson said, the player's contract ended on June the 30th.

Due to ongoing legal proceedings, the club is unable to comment on the case.

Obviously, there are things we can't talk about, as mentioned above.

The criminal proceedings are active.

We've got a lot of emails from Arsenal fans, including this one from Matty, who said, Dear Max Barry and team, long-term listener of the pod, first time I've engaged in this way, but feel compelled to.

I'm an Arsenal season ticket holder and regularly go with my mum and dad.

Our family have supported the club through the generations.

I'm really struggling to be an Arsenal fan today.

How Arsenal Football Club, the exec, the manager, the PR team, thought it appropriate to play a player who'd been arrested multiple times and released on bail on rape charges beggars belief.

I find the statement the club gave on Friday pathetic to hide behind the legal proceedings and to actually put it in writing that the player is now out of contract with the club is disgraceful.

This from a club that has been at the forefront of the women's game for decades and do excellent work engaging in minority communities.

Fans of most clubs have to put up with a lot of things out of their control that are unpalatable.

See for Arsenal, the Cronkies, Emirates sponsorship money, visit Rwanda, but this is on a different level.

I really hope Arsenal fans engage with the club on this and demand better.

The whole episode has been depressing.

The behaviour of Arsenal, the banter other fans have by singing songs at him, the online defenses of the club by people I find it difficult to reconcile as Arsenal fans, all seeming to neglect the most important issue here, the awful ordeal the alleged victims have been through, all the best.

Matty.

Susie, I just wondered what your thoughts were.

I mean, that's a really strong email, and I very much agree with it.

I wrote a piece in July 2022, which was about the Premier League club of the unknown arrested player knowing of the rape allegations from the previous autumn.

So it's not like they weren't aware of it, made repeatedly aware of it over the years.

And

what I find jarring is that we've seen other clubs suspend players and while investigations are ongoing and Arsenal didn't.

And some of the statements that, you know, Mikel Arteta has made along the way about what a great player he is and how, you know, overcoming adversity and all of this stuff

are just

really tactless.

Even kind of social social media posts where, you know, to promote matches where he's used as the as the image for those.

I mean, just little, like, small-level decisions that they've made that I just think really jar with clearly what has been taking place off the pitch and what they've been fully aware of.

Um, so I think it's hugely disappointing.

I mean, obviously, I'm an arsenal, I've sat here wearing an

Arsenal Women Champions of Europe t-shirt.

Like, it's

like been an extremely disappointing episode for the club, and I don't think they

this will go away for quite some time.

I think there's a lot of disquiet amongst fans about the way the club have handled him knowing that these allegations existed.

Um, and I know there were legal complications, but I don't understand how other clubs have managed to suspend players

when they've been arrested and uh and you know, kind of be under investigation for this kind of level of allegation versus not in this case.

Um, so I think that's quite confusing and deserves at least some clarity, but also

yeah, like really sort of beggars belief.

I mean, we can't prejudice a trial.

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty and everyone deserves a fair trial, Barry.

But we can say that the burden of proof for employers

is different to a court of law.

Andrew Mangan, better known to many as Ars Blog, wrote a very eloquent piece about this.

And the undercurrent of simmering fury from him was

very palpable.

He's not happy at all, and really, really disappointed in the club.

The club have said it wouldn't be appropriate for them to comment on the case.

People aren't asking them to comment on the case.

People want to know why Party was allowed to continue playing.

People want to know why they spent all of last month trying to negotiate a new contract with him, which

ultimately didn't come to pass, and that it didn't come to pass because they couldn't agree financial terms.

That's, you know, why didn't they just let his contract run down and then go right see it?

They have questions to answer.

Mikel Artes has questions to answer.

The owners, all the PR staff, everyone at the legal team have questions to answer.

And those questions aren't going to go away.

They will have to answer them at some point.

And

it's difficult to see how they will answer them.

adequately.

He's been arrested seven times.

You know, there's multiple women accused him of terrible, terrible crimes.

So, as you say, the burden of proof is nowhere near as strong in a workplace as it is in a

court of law.

So, they could have done something, you know.

Yeah, I think there's questions to be asked of the club for sure.

And that's, you know, what we're sort of able to discuss in a little bit more detail at the moment, because obviously, it doesn't

kind of get in the way of

the legal case that's ongoing.

But I think there also has to be questions of the CPS2 and why it's taken this long.

You know, we're talking from sort of 2021 to 2022 for charges to actually be brought.

And I think there's, you know, some broader points here about how long alleged victims of sexual abuse are having to wait through the legal system and the failures of the legal system to support alleged victims of sexual abuse through this process.

And also the level of evidence required just to reach charging is really, really high.

A lot of cases don't even get to that stage.

So yeah, that it's taken this many years to get to this point and the Arsenal have been able to just kind of keep playing him because of that, it feels like a very, very long time for

that to happen and for Arsenal to sort of be able to just sort of continue as is until it has reached the stage of charging, which, you know, so I think, yeah, obviously the criticism of Arsenal is completely fair and I agree with it all.

But I think there are also wider questions to be asked as well, which, you know, we can't necessarily ask in extreme detail at the moment.

But I think as this, as this case rubbles on, will, and when it concludes, will be very, very kind of heavily scrutinised.

Yeah.

I mean,

I've written about this as well.

And it's hard to write about because you sort of can't really talk about anybody when you're writing about it.

I guess the CPS would say, look, conviction rates are so low, what, 1%, I think, of cases that come to them that they want to be as sure as they can be that they have a case.

But as you said, we will find this all out in the fullness of time.

All right, that'll do for part two.

We'll do England's defeat to France in part three.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So England lost their opening game of Euro 2025, 2-1 to France.

I mean, Susie, they were good for 16 minutes and they could argue about some decisions.

And they did some great getting it launched for the last 10.

But if we're honest, I don't know about you.

I thought for most of that game, they were pretty abject and, you know, so inferior to France.

Yeah, it was so, so, so sloppy.

Um, passing the midfield.

I think, I mean, Lauren James, we saw in the first sort of, you know, kind of five, ten minutes how good she can be, but she faded after that.

And when you take, when you put her into that midfield and you take an Ella Tula or a Grace Clinton out, you really disrupt that midfield three that have some real chemistry.

And I think the midfield can be completely overrun, out wide,

just yeah, completely unable to cope with the French wingers.

And as you say, really poor.

I think Jess Carter in the mix zone afterwards was really good.

She was really honest.

She just went,

it's extremely uncharacteristic for so many players to make so many mistakes at the same time.

But we did, and we need to be better at that and stuff.

And one of the questions I was asking before the tournament, quite a lot of players, is the fact that there was no room for not being very good in the opening game.

Because in 2023 at the World Cup in Australia, they played Haiti, won 1-0 through a penalty.

It was not a great performance, and it was Haiti, but they got through and they won it.

The last Euros 2022, it was Austria in the first game, who, you know, much better team than Haiti, much higher up the world rankings, rankings, but still one of the lowest-ranked teams in the competition.

They scrape through that one, Nil.

So, like, their record in terms of sort of settling into major competitions isn't that great.

So, I kept asking the question:

Are you ready to like hit the ground running?

I think that's why they had the Jamaica Friendly the week before to sort of almost give them a little bit of a building to

a big game.

But, yeah, they've put themselves in big, big trouble.

And I think there's a real

realistic prospect that by the third bed game by the england wells game both teams are out which is obviously going to be an abject failure for the reigning champions not to get that far yeah with a little asterisks of how hard the group is were you surprised susie because like it just looked like france were technically better physically better more organized as you said that down the wings you know cascarino with almeida behind her like so good on that side um uh baltimore on the other side i just i don't know if you were surprised at the difference in quality between the two sides.

Completely.

I did not expect England to look like a team that hadn't played together.

There wasn't, you know, sort of no,

like Chess Carter, I think, took quite a lot, and Lucy Bonds took quite a lot of flack, but they were sort of very much left alone.

The, you know, Leah Williamson and

Alex Greenwood were quite narrow in the middle at the back.

And like, there wasn't a huge amount of protection there.

There wasn't a huge amount of covering.

Hemp is generally quite good at tracking back.

I didn't see any real evidence of that.

Beth Mead, too.

Like, it was just all over the place.

And that's, it is, as just kind of said, really uncharacteristic for that team and the way they play.

The thing that concerned me the most, because obviously everyone can have a bad day doing it in your opening game with the Euros against France is not the best idea.

But the thing that worried me the most is they didn't seem to really have an answer to it or a way of getting themselves out of it.

I thought the subs came too late, coming in the 60th minute, the first lot of subs.

Bringing Michelle Adjerman on was a good idea, but it was like with five minutes to play, um, and she didn't really have enough time to sort of settle into her first major tournament, let alone kind of impact the game,

you know, definitively.

So, you know, give her give her 15, give her 20 minutes.

You know, she's 19, like give her

a shot to do something because it wasn't working.

And I think that there are problems there in that they just weren't, they just didn't seem to have an answer to a quick dynamic.

The French press was really strong.

Yeah, so I just thought it was all over the place.

And yeah, so I was really, really surprised by that.

But at the same time, England haven't been great for some, they've not been as good as the Euros since the Euros, which is a bit of a problem.

Even the World Cup, they were quite fortunate in the games they played and the teams they faced.

The performances until quite late in the competition weren't that convincing.

And they're now being caught out for some of the problems that

haven't really gone away.

A lot of the media are sticking the boot into the team over that performance.

And if they lose against the Netherlands, they'll get an absolute shoeing.

And those players aren't used to being criticised.

And Serena isn't used to being criticised.

How do you think they will deal with it?

Probably not very well because they aren't used to it.

And even small criticism can

trigger some unhappiness.

But I mean, I imagine that, like...

if they go out in the group stage

after two games, they will be the biggest critics.

As, you know, it's cliche.

We're the biggest biggest critics of ourselves is what players say but i imagine they probably would be like i think the criticism would be pretty fair um

yes obviously there are caveats of how tough the group is the retiring players and all that kind of stuff but at the same time you know it would it would be an abject failure to not get out of the group i think i i i i sort of said like repeatedly before the tournament that nothing can go upwards forever in a perfectly straight line and there are going to be ebbs and flows in the growth of a team um but not getting out of the group stage would be disastrous.

I mean, it's be very different to the quarterfinals or the semifinals, which I think, whilst it wouldn't be amazing, would be more forgivable because they're on a journey to be ridiculously cliched.

I mean, I can confidently say that we are not the fiercest critics of this podcast.

I think

it's worth pointing out.

So, like, wholesale changes for the Netherlands game or just be better?

A bit of both.

I think, ridiculous as it sounds, you know, kind of a pre-tournament, I wouldn't start Lauren James.

I think it's too disruptive to the midfield unless you're going to put her out wide in the front three,

where she has played quite a lot as well, so that you maintain her creativity on the pitch because you're just disrupting that midfield free and their flow and their dominance, which has been really, really strong.

So I'd play Ella Toon or Grace Clinton, and either have LJ Wider and coming in.

And then I think there's a big debate over whether you play Jess Carter or Niamh Charles a left back.

England has struggled with producing decent left backs coming through generally.

You know, Rachel Daly, who is a striker, was playing there at the last Euros and the World Cup.

So it's a position that they struggle with.

I don't think either Carter or Charles have like covered themselves in glory in the past few games.

But I don't expect more changes beyond that because, again, like it was really uncharacteristic.

Like we know those players are good and they don't just suddenly become bad in one game.

So I think it's going to be interesting to see i i again if it's not looking good i think they've got to make substitutions early and i think that was a general criticism it was quite interesting listening to millie bright and rachel daly's podcast rachel daly was saying like for the first time

when you're in camp you're not you're not really aware of the noise around things like substitutions in a game and when they're made and the fact that serena always makes them after 60 minutes rachel was saying i didn't i hadn't even realized and uh she said when i was watching it i i realized that um oh oh wait a minute i i get it i get it now I see it I see why everyone is shouting for it because I'm here shouting at the TV for it too yeah so interesting which was a really weird weird take to hear from someone who's been in that environment has literally been part of it

so yeah it's gonna I think that that's gonna be a really really kind of interesting aspect because so many thought that they just left it too late and stuck too true to sort of a formula I said it in the intro, but perhaps it's the ultimate sign of progress that England's women have delivered a performance so reminiscent of England's men.

Substitutions too late, Can't find a left back.

Tippy tapping it about the back.

Get to the final third.

Can't do anything completely open.

Someone yelling, I don't know, get the hand break off, Serena.

Elsewhere, I mean, look, the Netherlands beat Wales 3-0.

Meadermas scoring a brilliant goal just before half-time, and then it was pretty straightforward for them.

I mean, it's always good when the hosts do well, Susie.

So it's good to see Switzerland beat Iceland last night 2-0.

You know, just give us a sense of the vibe and the atmosphere.

We had Chris Paros on the radio yesterday saying it's great, although a mediocre pizza costs £32.

I did wonder if that's what it said on the menu.

But like, is the vibe good?

I got fleeced for some sun cream in town yesterday.

That cost me about 30 quid for a tiny bottle of Fact 50.

It's like agonisingly expensive.

The atmosphere has been fantastic.

What's really impressive, actually, about the just, I'll come back to the Swiss, but the England Fan Zone, which is run by the FSA and the Free Line S's, has been supported by the FA this year.

And so they've put loads of money into it.

And it looks fantastic.

It's not just, you know, previously, it's sort of been them doing it themselves with a a bit of sponsorship from outside companies and, you know, just in a bar with some like magazines to give out and a few flags and things like that.

Now it's like a proper massive installation, and you can go and you can hang out there and you can get drinks and things.

And it's, it's really cool and it's got a really great vibe.

So, like, that's really good from an England point of view.

Swiss-wise, it's been fantastic.

I was at the opening game in Basel, and I didn't expect it to be that loud throughout a match.

It's weird for international women's fixtures in that, like in these bigger stadiums, you generally have quite a lot of new fans, you know, particularly in a country like Switzerland, where you know, they don't get big attendances, and the biggest attendance is like 10,000 for a women's match prior to this tournament.

You expect it to be fairly quiet because people don't necessarily have a chance yet or know them, or and are listening and thinking, oh, you know, little kid is thinking, oh, I can hear some people trying over there, I'll learn that for next time, kind of thing.

So, generally, it's quite quiet at sometimes at some of these big games.

It wasn't, it was like completely like loud throughout, which is like quite unusual and quite cool.

And they had a fan march that was like sort of similar to the Dutch through the streets to get to the stadium and things like that.

And they're just creating a really good atmosphere.

It's, you know, they're really up for it.

And I think, you know, the group, the draw for the group has been incredibly generous to them, but they should get out of it.

And like, it's obviously always good for the hosts to sort of progress, not just from like the football point of view, but like when you're talking women's football in terms of like development of women's football in Switzerland, it's taking people on a journey with them, which helps grow the game, as we saw in 2022 in England.

So it's great for me from an Arsenal fan perspective because Leah Volti has been playing phenomenally well as well, which is nice to see.

Of course, Women's Football Weekly is on three times a week throughout the tournament.

So download that, subscribe to that, wherever you get your podcast.

Finally, Wilson, many congratulations.

Newlywed Jonathan Wilson.

Candid says, what was the table arrangement at Wilson's wedding?

Talk us through it.

And also, before we went on air, you began a great anecdote regards Barry.

So, and a black pudding.

No, that was only the beginning of it.

I've never seen Barry as happy as he was the day after the wedding.

Like, whatever had happened on the day of the wedding, he was

as gleeful, as joyous, as full of joie de vive as I've ever known him.

It begins, you know, we're having breakfast the day after the wedding, and he's at the table behind me, and I hear him summoning over the wait list.

I'm like, oh, God, what's happened?

And he just wants to tell her that the black pudding is the best thing he's ever eaten.

And he made a point of saying, and I'm saying this as an Irishman.

I don't know if the Irish have a particular affinity to the black pudding.

So it's the best.

But black pudding, which is Doreen's black pudding, is

the best thing he's ever eaten.

He then goes to what he describes as one of the top ten pubs I've ever been to.

The Crown Posada in Newcastle.

Great city, Newcastle.

I've been there before, but lovely city, I have to say.

We're very critical as a football team.

The city is great, and the Crown Posada pub, fantastic.

We then have an excellent curry,

the stragglers from a wedding.

There's eight of us.

And as we're walking back to the metro station afterwards, you've got the metro line to one side, walking down the street, and there's some back streets down to the left.

And I don't know why, but those back streets, the wheelie bins are lined up.

With unbelievable precision.

They're just the straightest things you've ever seen.

They're like cars cars on the grid at the start of a Fallen One race.

And Barry's just looking down there going,

It's one of the wonders of the world.

I've just never seen anything like that.

So that's how happy he was.

But the sight of some.

It must be like 50 or 60 wheelie bins lined up perfectly straight, street after street after street.

He's so on top of the world.

He's describing that as one of.

It's the equivalent of the great

hanging gardens.

The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbeck.

Oh, well, look, congratulations, Wilson.

Thank you very much.

Had a great day.

I have to say, it was a fantastic wedding.

Great setting, great company, great food.

And Wilson has, I think, an entirely deserved reputation for being tight.

There was a free bar all day and all night.

Fantastic.

How to please Barry in two easy steps.

But because he couldn't let me have that,

on the weekend of my wedding, he couldn't let me be the generous one.

He insisted, like a complete prick, on paying for the curry for everybody the next night.

He snuck it off just before other people left and went, I'm paying for it all.

So that was that's my wedding.

No, no, thank you very much.

It was very much appreciated.

A performative act of generosity just to outdo Wilson.

And two of the people there are regular pod lists from Copenhagen, Licky and Morton.

So,

yeah.

Thank you very much for coming.

I hope you had as lovely a weekend as we did.

All right, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Barry.

Thank you.

Thanks, Wilson.

You asked about the table plans.

It was the Hungry team that beat England in 1953.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Of course, it was.

Don't list them.

Thank you, Mark.

Thank you, Mark.

Tears, Susie.

Nice job.

Thanks.

Fubble Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.