Anthony Elanga’s solo special stuns Manchester United: Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Another win for Nottingham Forest as Champions League football is starting to look like a formality at the city ground.

Anthony Langer's wonderful solo goal enough to beat Manchester United, who are kind of okay.

How nice to see Bakayo Saka back for Arsenal, scoring and smiling after coming off the bench as the Gunners beat Fulham, although Gabrielle is injured, and Wolves beat West Ham, pretty much ensuring that the relegation spots are done by the start of April.

That race for fifth place better be good.

Also, today, Chelsea comply with PSR by selling their women's team to themselves.

While Daniel Levy tells Spurs fans to expect more of the same, which should go down well, there's some big results in cup competitions across Europe, some EFL, and the big Mark Langdon butterpie question.

All that plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hi, yeah.

From the Racing Post, Mark Langdon.

Hello.

Hi, Mance.

We'll get to the butterpie, which was introduced by Johnny Liu in his article about Preston.

Welcome, Johnny.

Hello.

Let's begin at the city ground then.

Another win for Nottingham Forest.

Another win closer to Champions League football.

10 points clear of Newcastle in sick.

They have played two games more.

I mean, we should start, Barry, and welcome back, Barry, after your holiday with the only goal of the game.

What a brilliant goal.

Hey, Barry.

Yes, it was a brilliant goal.

And it made for a textbook Nottingham Forest win.

Score first, score a goal on the break,

then sit back in a low block with a six at the back and don't let the other team score against you.

A wonderful goal by Anthony Langer.

Much has been made of the fact that he was at Manchester United and was let go by Eric Ten Hag, I think it was, for 15 million.

And that's probably a shame for United because I think he would probably fit into Ruben Amerim's preferred system very nicely.

But he's a forest player now.

And what a signing he's turning out to be.

I did see reading Ben Fisher's match report, it was put to Ryan Yates afterwards that he had provided the assist and he'll be credited with the assist with his thumping header from the six-yard box at a manufacture, I think it was a corner across from Fernandez.

And then Elanga pounced on the ball, showed a clean pair of heels to two United players who were chasing him.

Alejandro Garnacho tried to tackle him and was very weak in his challenge and probably should have fouled him and taken a yellow card, but he didn't.

And with Masraoui backing off him and backing off him and backing off him, Elanga eschewed the option of passing to Morgan Gibbs White, who was up in support and just fired into the bottom corner.

Brilliant goal.

I think he covered 90 meters in nine seconds or 80 in nine, something like that.

85.

Right, 85.

In nine.

In nine.

So that's that's pretty quick, but it was a brilliant goal and a textbook for us goal.

With a football as well.

Yes.

It's a really good point, Johnny.

With the ball, 85 meters in nine seconds.

The thought that, you know, you would put him, you'd stand him next to quite a lot of good athletes and they wouldn't have a football.

And he would beat them in an 85-metre sprint is ridiculous.

Well, we saw what Usain Bolt could do with a football at his feet.

Lots of pace, but not great touch for a big man.

It is a classic Forrest performance, a classic Forest goal.

I mean, I think, look, the reason that Alangepus was let go by United was that, you know, he wasn't playing the sort of football.

United aren't playing the sort of football that Forrest are trying to play,

which, you know, isn't it's, I think there's this view that of Nuno ball that, you know, the forwards just kind of sit back and soak up pressure and then

hit you on the counter, that it's like, that it's like really basic backs to the wall kind of stuff,

which is, it's just wrong.

You know,

I read an article in the Telegraph, I think, going about Nuno's training methods.

And they practice for exactly those.

So they have training sessions where they have basically have no midfield.

It's just the centre-backs and the forwards.

And they practice getting in behind the back line.

They practice that that first ball,

the transition,

the movement and the runs and all of that.

So all of this stuff is drilled to perfection.

And the way that Nuno also he kind of switches to

Ayena's injury and he brings on Murato, switches to a back three, basically goes five on five against United in their own defensive third.

That stuff is, it's smart.

That's just a smart tactical move.

So yeah, people who describe this stuff as kind of dour simple football, I think you can survive in the Premier League playing that way, but you don't get to third unless you have kind of serious, serious brains to go with your brawn.

Yes, who was it?

And I think I've said it before, but described Usain Bolt's first touch as

having a first touch like a trampoline, which I just thought was so

good.

That Ryan Yates assist up there with Jan Vertongen for Hyung Min Son against Burnley, or Steve Lomas, who claims an assist for the Georgie Kinkladze Man City goal, and also claims an assist because he did an overlapping run for, I think, Trevor Sinclair, who crossed it for DiCanio for that volley, that brilliant volley.

And the Argentinian guy who passed the ball to Maradona.

He scored that goal.

After that, Mark, I mean, not a huge amount.

Man United had a lot of the ball, had a few chances until really Murillo clears the ball off the line and sort of celebrates in sort of Bonucci Chiellini style.

And fair enough, right?

Such a big moment for them.

Yeah, it was.

It has a feeling, Forrest,

like when Leicester won the Premier League, where

the results are not going to be quite as spectacular as that.

They're not going to win league, but just where everything does feel like it just fits nicely for them.

So, as Barry alluded to earlier on, you know, I think it's 23 times now they've scored the first goal in Premier League games out of 30, which then enables you to play on that counter-attack and be so devastating.

And the block off the line there with the last kick was just another sort of moment that might have gone differently in another season.

The ball just bounces slightly

weirdly off Maguire's foot and it might go into the corner rather than cleared.

I felt with United actually that they played reasonably well if we're judging them kind of on this season and the standards that they've set, which have not been particularly high.

But up front, there's an obvious dearth of talent.

Xerxe didn't do much.

Hoyland runs around without looking particularly effective.

And actually, of all of their centre forwards, it was probably Maguire that managed to cause most problems, which says a lot, I think, when he was sort of brought on as that emergency lump for the final few minutes.

It's such a great line.

Emergency lump.

Yeah, Amrim said of Harry Maguire and putting him up front.

We can reach the final third, but we have to put the ball in the box.

It's hard to make the combinations.

Harry Maguire, when he's attacking set pieces, is maybe the best player in the team.

Inside the box, you're not a defender.

You are a striker.

Put one man who is really good in there to score the goal.

Did you like Harry Maguire up front, Barry?

Yeah, I mean, he was more effective than Xerxe

or Hoyland.

He had more touches than Xerxe.

I think he was on the pitch for six minutes or something like that.

Missed one good chance and had that one cleared off the line.

If you got more power behind it, you know, you might have got a draw.

Maybe they deserved it, but the bar is low.

They have played a lot worse this season, but they weren't good last night.

Johnny, have you seen, are we starting to see patterns from MRM?

Are we starting to, you know, are there green shoots that United fans can look at and be excited about, or not really?

I thought they would be a lot better than that after the international break, to be honest.

I think we've been seeing green shoots for a while.

You know, you go back to the FA Cup game at Austin and you know, well, okay, we've there are green shoots here.

There have been moments of promise.

There have been hopeful passages.

There have been little glimpses of how, you know, how the whole machine is going to work.

But I think

what is still gumming it up, basically, is,

well, first of all, not good enough personnel, not good enough recruitment going back many years.

And I think, you know, there's a kind of Bruno problem there as well.

I think the fact that Amarin demands this sort of, you know, it is a collective endeavor.

And yet, partly through through reasons of his own brilliance and his own adeptness at just wrestling games and winning them single-handedly it has basically become a bruno fernandez show you because you know you see him taking pot shots from from all over the area from for outside the area you see him trying like incredible things and i don't want to be too hard on him because he's he's an he's an amazing player to watch and you know i think for a neutral he's one of those players you really you know love to see play but i think if you're a united fan you're wondering what what what do you what does he do when he's not winning the game for you on his own what what do you do when bruno's not you know he goes 17 games without a goal like he did at the start of the season is he

what is he taking from the rest of your team like somebody like garnacho who i think i've seen garnacho coming in for a lot of criticism from united fans online overnight Garnacho, until Amarim comes in, I think he's on something like seven out of 18.

He's basically their most productive player in terms of goals and shots and quality of shots.

And since Amarim comes in and the team basically gets retooled around Bruno, he's on, I think, 2 and 28.

It's about finding that balance.

I think Amarim is basically on the right track, but

I think he needs to rebalance that team a little bit because I think the centre of gravity is becoming sucked a little bit too far towards Bruno.

And I think the players around him are suffering a little bit as a result.

Yeah, these are the kind of games United rely on Bruno to pop up and get them out of jail.

And Forrest dealt with him fairly well yesterday.

Ryan Yates had him on a very tight rein, so if you can stop him, that's a huge part of getting the better of United.

Ruman Amarim has said that Fernandes will be going nowhere this summer.

It's not going to happen.

I've already told him he's been linked to Real Madrid.

I mean it's interesting what Johnny says there Mark isn't it because obviously if he's not there at the club then they have to really rethink this but he it sort of would feel insane to let him go given his contributions.

Yeah, I think a lot of United's problems though come from not having that centre forward.

So Bruno Bruno then takes on extra responsibility and does them crazy shots from outside the area because he almost feels like he's got to do it all.

And um, you know, when you haven't got that centre forward and focal point to the team that I think would make a massive difference to Manchester United, I'm struggling to sort of recall.

Like, when was the last time they had like a real elite forward?

Um, that

Deion Dublin, come on, yeah, maybe, maybe, um, but it's been a while since they've um sort of had that person up front.

And, you know, Xerxe, I don't think he's going to be that person.

Hoyland, they signed.

He was too early in his sort of career, really, to do what he was being asked to do.

And maybe they've ruined him.

Hopefully, he can come back.

But it's a long way back from where he is.

And actually, Amarin mentioned this after the game in terms of a language with the pressure of playing for United and how it's different playing for Manchester United than maybe it is for Nottingham Forest.

And somebody like Hoyland, I think, is struggling

with that, you know, with what comes with being that United player.

If I was Amarim, I would sort of stick by that and keep Bruno Fernandez and then sort of build out other areas of of the team.

But I like the fact there that he's going nowhere, he's staying at United.

That maybe is a a symbol of what United are, that, you know, he they're going nowhere, he's going nowhere.

I wonder will Fernandez want to stay there?

That's the question.

I mean, it's all very well for Amaroo to say, you're going nowhere, but he might want to go somewhere else.

He might be sick of it.

He was linked with Real Madrid.

And if I was looking at Real Madrid, thinking, like, what do they not need?

It would be Bruno Fernandes.

They drew 4-4 last night against Real Sociedad.

And Angelotti was saying, we're really unbalanced.

We've got great attackers, but it's not working out defensively.

And I'm not sure Bruno would solve those problems either.

No, but Trenton Alexander Arnold will sure up the defence and will add nothing to their creativity, of course.

Just quickly on Forrest, Johnny, before we move on, it is worth pointing out, they don't rotate a lot.

I think what one changed from the Bryant game, and

that game went so long, like these guys must be exhausted.

And to keep delivering, I think lots of us thought they would fall away because he doesn't rotate a lot and because their squad is small.

And that is like huge credit to them for just getting out there and still being able to run.

Right, yeah.

I mean, and obviously they got 120 minutes in the legs from Saturday night in the cup.

Yeah, I think

I I don't know how long he's going to be out for, but also, you know, they were without Anderson Adoy last night, they were without Chris Wood.

And I think, you know, you just have to

put that down to the culture and the ethos.

And

I guess the togetherness that Nuno has created.

You know, he talks a lot about interconnectedness and interdependence, this idea that

you're a part of a whole.

It takes the time to get to know individuals.

He's not tactically dogmatic in the sense that he builds his team around what is going to empower the player to play at their best, whether that's

the role that they play on the pitch or how they need to be handled after the pitch or around the club.

And I think that you're seeing the benefits of that.

This is clearly a squad that is just really together, that is prepared to go to war for each other.

The way they cover for each other, the way they make sacrificial runs.

Even the way that Gibbs White, for Alanga's goal, he basically makes a decoy run.

He makes a a sacrificial run he knows that he's not gonna get the glory but he's he's creating space for a language so a langer can get the glory that that's the kind of selflessness that i think has been the hallmark of them this season that is what is allowing them to i think reach levels that probably they didn't even know that they had in them Let's go to the game at the Emirates Arsenal 2, Fulham 1.

Mark, how nice to see Bukayo Saka just on the pitch, scoring and smiling.

He is good for football.

It was a very big smile.

And yeah, it was good to see.

Seven minutes after his introduction um, sort of scored the goal that took the game away from Fulham.

Like, there'll be much more to come from Saka as he gets full fitness, but just the confidence, I think, of scoring that goal.

But the lift that he gave the crowd, and that was what Arteta mentioned afterwards: that you know, the stadium had gone a bit quiet, and um, you know, the Saka's return was celebrated almost as loudly as the goal, um, because it is so important to what Arsenal are trying to do.

And you've got this massive game coming up against Real Madrid next week.

And to have Saka back, whether he's fully fit or not, we're not sure.

But

a sort of 75, 80% Saka is better really than what Arsenal have got elsewhere.

He's one of the best players in the world.

Any team would miss him.

And

he comes back and delivers straight away.

Barry, do you think Martinelli meant that as an assist?

that sort of flick?

I mean, if he did, it's unreal.

Or do you think he was just trying to sort of kick it vaguely towards the goal?

Is that not the same thing?

No, I think if you're just trying to help it on sort of aimlessly, but with the sort of dream that we'll end up in a goal, that's different to like Gootie playing this no-look reverse pass through to someone to score.

I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt because he was having such a good game.

He absolutely roasted Timothy Castagne.

It's one of those times you actually feel sorry for someone.

And Castagne is a good player.

He's had a good season.

But I think Fulham showed the sort of fatigue Forrest didn't.

It was a very, very tired, leggy performance from them.

They only lost by a goal.

Rodrigo Munes missed a sitter,

but it was a very straightforward Arsenal win.

And it wasn't a particularly good game either.

But yeah, I'm prepared to give Martinelli the benefit of the doubt.

Just on, I mean, that Mooney's header is an incredible miss, but just on Saka, Johnny, and him being back for the Real Madrid game, do you start him or Wanyeri?

Or it depends on Saka's fitness, or do you find a way in a sort of England style of getting them both in the team?

Because Martinelli was brilliant last night, and neither Wanyeri or Saka, well, they both play in the same spot, and they don't play on the left as well.

Yeah, I think obviously if Saka is fit, you know, like Mark says, if Saka is 80 or 90% fit, you play him because

of, you know, the quality, the pure quality is.

And also the way that he

makes the players around him better, the way that he absorbs defenders and creates space often for the likes of Martinelli on the other side.

I think Arteta didn't need to leave Ranieri on the bench

for the last game.

I think he's obviously

not going to be shy about doing that.

So if it's a straight choice, I think it's a fairly simple footballing decision.

Gabriel got a hamstring injury.

We obviously don't know how bad it is.

But if it is bad, that is a big blow mark.

I'm just trying to sort of weigh up: is Saka returning, does that outweigh Gabriel being out, or given the other players they have,

what's this done to the pendulum of how they'll do against Real?

Well, ordinarily, you'd say the Arsenal have got enough centre-backs to cover it.

It's the one area where they're not exactly short.

But Timber also went off with a problem that didn't look quite as serious as Gabriel, and they also had some other injuries in that position.

I don't know is the answer, Max, as to which one, you know, getting Saka back or Gabrielle out,

which is

more influential to the Real Madrid result.

But I do think that at centre-back, the partnership between Toliba and Gabriel is so important to what Arsenal have done, really, you know, under Arteta in the last couple of years.

And while they've got good players, that understanding just won't be there.

And you're coming up against Vinicius and Killian and Bappe and Rodrigo and the runs from Bellingham from Deep.

I think it's a big problem for Arsenal that if Gabriel is, as we expect, going to to miss the game i mean judging by his own reaction he's gone uh you know that's a six weeker you'd imagine by hamstring prognosis i'm no doctor max but i'm saying he won't be back this season fine i see if you based on the hamstring injuries that you have seen and the facial expressions yes the players make when they're going off the pitch you would put that at six weeks it'll be interesting to find out fortunately in a couple of months all the football finishes and we can get to the exciting transfer window.

Mikel Ateta's saying that Arsenal are due for a big window, Johnny.

Now they brought in Andrea Berta as a sporting director, who obviously did quite well, bought lots of good players at Athleti.

Does this excite you?

No, I find the Andrea Berta stuff

quite interesting.

People basically delving into his business background.

and saying, well, you know, he did this with this and

therefore he will do this.

And people getting really excited about the stuff he did at a desk in a suit.

And

this is the new frontier of football, right?

Where these guys, you know, partly, I think, this is because

football has become so

on the pitch, at least, it's become so systematized and industrialized.

Sam Wallace, again, wrote a good piece about this in the Telegraph at the weekend about how there's actually fewer and fewer stars on the pitch.

You have Harland, you have Salad, but mainly, you know,

your Kanes and Bappes, you know, Belligams, they play elsewhere.

And

into this void, I think,

this is just me, my opinion, has flooded this whole tranche of sporting directors and

set piece coaches and David Coots, who basically the alternative search for main characters in a league where it's increasingly hard to identify who the protagonists are.

But, you know, we kind of want to feel that there's some kind of genius hand behind this.

And into this void steps Andrea Uberta.

He's going to do things in a suit at a desk, maybe with a phone, maybe with a laptop.

We don't know.

We don't know what device he's got.

But

he's going to make Arsenal great again.

I am as interested in anyone as knowing

what business Arsenal are going to do this summer.

I think it's fairly obvious what they need.

We've been talking about it for like the last year.

They need a striker.

It'd be great if he didn't know.

We're going to assign some more 8-10 hybrids and see how that does us.

Maybe that's his stroke of genius.

But yeah, I think it's fairly obvious what Os will lead.

It's fairly obvious where they need to be doing it, where they need to be doing that business.

It's just a case of getting it done, right?

Yeah, I mean, I suppose there are good ones.

I mean, I don't know who your favorite is, Mark.

I'm a munchie man, if you were to push me, but like, he is good at it.

Like, it's like any job, right?

If you have a good structure and good recruitment, however, you do it.

And the small director seems to be a person that does that.

Yeah, it all depends, though, to what influence you've got, what you're working towards, you know, how influential was Simeone in, you know, in all of this.

Was he the one just telling the sporting director what he wanted?

And, you know,

I mean, who wouldn't listen to Simeone if he sort of grabbed you by the throat and said he wants Jell Felix?

You'd just go and pay the hundred million like Atlantico did.

Do you think when a signing came through, Simeone would sort of run in his tight trousers up to Andrea Berti and sort of like cup his balls and just like do one of his big sort of manly celebrations in that office.

Sorry, cup his own balls or cup

the other guy's balls?

No, I mean the way Simeone normally says.

I'm not sure what kind of HR departments they have at football clubs, but

that does seem inappropriate

behaviour.

Yes.

You know what I mean.

His own, of course.

But thank you.

Everyone needs a pedant Barry.

You've been missed.

No one's played that role while you've been away.

Anyway, Mark, sorry, I stopped you mid-flow.

Yeah, so I think it's all to do with the relationship between

various parts of the board, isn't it?

And so the sporting director,

the coach, and whoever else is there, they need to work together.

And so it's more about that relationship will be between him and Arteta and how that works, I would have thought, rather.

Because we do see an occasion when sometimes a sporting director will just go above the head coach and just sign whoever they want.

And you get these club signings.

I think Antonio Conte referred to Jed Spence as a club signing rather than somebody he wanted.

And that didn't make the player feel too great.

Arteta's excited.

Jocarez is being strongly linked with a move to the Emirates.

And I just couldn't believe that Barry was excited by the potential of Jokarez to Arsenal because he usually has the Johnny Lew approach to transfers.

He's not excited at all.

And yet, in the WhatsApp group yesterday, he was the one speculating on

Jokarez to Arsenal and how we needed to discuss that.

I wouldn't say I'm excited, more intrigued insofar as, and this links with the conversation about sporting directors, I suppose.

I do think there's a lot of smoke and mirrors around the role.

I don't know who the sporting director of Brighton is.

I can't think who it is off the top of my head, but they appear to be really good.

If you're bringing a sporting director and the first order of business is to try and get Gokarez in, I mean, Gokarez has already played at Brighton, Swansea, and Coventry, and he's like a goal machine now in Portugal.

Why isn't he already at a Premier League club?

That's, you know, if all these talent scouts and sporting directors are as clever as we're led to believe, why is he in Portugal and not here?

There may be a very good reason.

I don't know.

Have you seen the compilation clips of Jokerez?

Well, you know, they're soundtracked by some ominous music.

Jokarez, goal machine, welcome to Arsenal, welcome to, you know, whatever.

And

he's just galloping into space he's you know brushing defenders aside smashing the ball in from 20 and you think okay well are Arsenal also going to be buying an extra 40 or 50 yards of space at the end of their pitch for him to run into because I you know I haven't watched quite a lot of Arsenal he's not going to get those sorts you know that sort of space those sorts of defenders or you know given given the the massive referee and conspiracy against Arsenal the 18 penalties that he scored for for sporting this season so you know which is not to say I'm not you know I'm not busting the Yokohama's myth or anything because I don't watch him every week, but

I'd be really intrigued to see how those goals and those kinds of performances translate to a league, a much higher quality league, where you are not going to get anything like the sort of space or opportunities that he's getting at sporting.

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll begin at Molyneux.

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Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question: play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

As a Wolves beat West Ham 1-0, Stratton Larson's third goal in two games, his 10th of the season.

He was very happy about it.

Huge result for them, Mark, and another nail in the coffin of the boring end to the Premier League season.

You'd struggle to imagine a situation where Ipswich or Leicester are capable now of clawing back the deficit on 12 points now.

Are you suggesting Southampton Merchant still?

Sorry, I'd forgotten about my table only goes to 19 that I've got here.

So, yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't think Leicester will get another 12 points this season.

Its witch, I probably assume that Luton plucky, but just not quite good enough in both boxes.

And yeah, it does look done.

I was pleased for Wolves more because

I found Kunya's behaviour fairly disgraceful at times this season, particularly when he got sent off in the FA Cup game and you know, then gets ruled out for four matches, four matches that really were going to decide Wolves' Premier League fate.

And you know, he just left them and you know, abandoned the rest of the team.

He's by far their best player, and yet Stran Larson comes in and scores the goals that look like they're going to keep them up.

And Pereira afterwards referred to the fact that Wolves are a team, and you know, Cunha, I think, very much in it for himself.

Um, and

the ones he's left behind have managed to secure safety it looks like and yeah really big win not a great game probably thankful being in the UK that this one wasn't shown live it didn't didn't look like a classic in the two minutes of highlights that I saw the spectacles that Matthias Kunha left behind there were lots of cut there were about as many cutaways of him as there were action on the pitch actually

in an interview with the observer he he said that he's told Wolves that he needs to take the next step and fight for titles in his career which he subsequently says has been misinterpreted it's impossible for the player to be honest in an interview, knowing that everything can be taken in any way he wants.

I don't think a lot of people read the interview.

I don't think that people have the correct interpretation.

Of course, the point was talking about wolves, to show everyone how happy I am to be here, to play for this team, to play for these teammates, and of course, give back all the love they give me.

Ambitious players, of course, we want to play for something more to put this club in another level.

And of course, me and my teammates will give our all to achieve this goal.

Barry, thoughts?

Well, it's not uncommon for players to give interviews during international breaks and then have to roll back on them to say, oh, well, it was abroad and everything's been taken out of context.

But this interview was with the Observer.

He has rolled back and said his own comments that he clearly made were misinterpreted.

Look, he signed a new deal to insulate Wolves.

from the sharks who will invariably be circle or inevitably be circling at the end of the season.

He may well move on, but at least now they'll get decent money for him.

So I don't think that's a very big deal.

As Mark alluded to, he's a terrific player, but his behavior is not great, and he did leave his team in the lurch.

I think he's missed three games, and they've taken seven points from those games.

So

they've

got away with it because we thought when he got suspended, that might

open up the relegation battle again, but it hasn't.

Footballer makes comments and then pretends to regret them is not really news, is it?

Sometimes like a clean break is is like the best thing.

Sometimes, you know, clearly there's like a divergence of outlook there and you know

they want to have a clean break, have a fresh start, maybe even win things.

And so it's just good for the observer that they managed to secure this

Matthias Cunha interview shortly before they go into their new ownership.

We should credit Vito Pereira, Johnny.

I'm not sure where.

I think Wolves might have been in the relegation zone when he turned up.

They were, I think they've got 20 points in the 14 games games they've played in the league since he arrived.

Yeah, 54-point pace, I think.

Basically,

like over a 38-game season, he's on 54-point pace, which is, I guess, like sort of eighth, eighth, ninth.

The caveat being that obviously we know about Wolves's fixture list, yeah, the horrific fixture list that O'Neil got handed at the start of the season.

Pereira then basically benefits from the from the upswing of that a little bit.

That said, you know, he is, it is very clearly a different animal to to

the Wolves that we saw earlier in the season, where they were almost kind of acquiescing to defeat halfway through games.

There was a fight to them, there's a unity to them.

The way that, you know, players like Jean Gomez and Andre and Belgarde and Larson have just clearly come on.

They've clearly improved under Pereira, who, you know, everywhere he's been, has done quite well.

He's done pretty well everywhere he's been.

And he does it, you know, I guess through being pragmatic and being flexible and a slight counterpart to the team they were playing last night.

West Ham, we don't need to spend a lot of time on them now.

You know, they are in 16th, not a whole lot to play for.

A bit sad for Max Kilman to, you know, for his

foot to be the thing that Stran Larsen's shot hit to go in on his return to Molyneux.

And Evan Ferguson was pretty toothless, so much so he was replaced by the actual toothless Nicholas Fulkerugh.

Did look slightly more impressive, hit the bar.

Emerson could have scored the rebound.

Thomas Suchik had a big chance later on, so they could have got something from this game.

Tonight, Mark, the Merseyside Derby

at Anfield.

Obviously, the last one was very exciting with that Tarkovsky volley late on, but

this doesn't matter to the title race.

I heard some people yesterday saying, you know, Arsenal's win means the title race is still alive.

What do you think?

Well, if Liverpool were to lose to Everton at home,

the gap would be nine points.

Arsenal have got to go to Anfield.

They win at six points.

No, you're right.

No,

it probably doesn't matter, but Liverpool will want,

you know, they want to win every game, but for the reasons you've mentioned there about the revenge, what happened in the last Merseyside Derby, but also fairly bad run by their standards this season out of the Champions League.

a real no-show in the League Cup final against Newcastle, deservedly lost that.

All the noise around Alexander Arnold leaving.

I think Arnaslott will want a performance from his team just to get them back to the standards that they were showing, I don't know, say six weeks ago, where they looked relentless and wondered whether they were going to maybe win the Champions League Premier League and also the League Cup.

It's just slowed down slightly, but I would expect them to beat Everton at Anfield.

They usually do.

Southampton Palace, Bournemouth, Ipswich, Brighton, Villa, Newcastle, Brentford, and Man City, Leicester.

Just, Barry, when you saw Erling Harland's face as he walked off the pitch, how many weeks did you think he'd be out for?

I think that could be his season done.

He might come back maybe for a,

if they're in the NFA Cup final, he might be on the bench and

come on late doors to try and rescue an equaliser,

despite being not fit enough.

That's my prognosis there.

Okay, well, Pep says doctors told him five to seven weeks, but I suppose they hadn't asked you yet, but still, there's a significant amount of time.

I mean, with the Gabrielle injury, I'm also going on the grimace on his face and the manner in which he pulled up, followed by his reaction

as he walked off.

City's medical staff would be like examining him on the treatment table.

They've got all these microscopes and they've got all these scanners.

And Holland's going, why are you looking at my face?

Like, literally, do you have to have a look further down?

No, no, no, no, we just need to study the wrinkle marks here.

I like the idea of putting Erling Haaland's head under a microscope.

It's sort of large enough, isn't it?

And then suddenly it zooms in just in the petri dish.

Chelsea plays Spurs on Thursday night.

Garris says, Please draw a contrast between Tottenham's financial statement and Chelsea's.

Levy saying Spurs spending has to be sustainable, and Chelsea selling their women's team to themselves to circumvent PSR again.

Whether the rules meant to make the game fairer are worth the paper they're printed or not.

Let's deal with Chelsea first.

They appear to have complied with the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules through player sales by selling the women's team to the club's parent company.

So they announced they'd turned last year's pre-tax loss of 90.1 million into a pre-tax profit of 128.4 million for the financial year ending the 30th of June, 2024.

God, I'm boring myself reading out accounts.

But anyway, because of their repositioning of the highly successful women's team.

Johnny, what does this mean?

It sounds a bit like when they sold a hotel to themselves.

Why can't I make luck to money selling stuff to myself?

Yeah, I mean, there is this kind of, I suppose there's a view out there that they're that they're basically financial sleight of hand but it it's not this is a this is an actual financial transaction and it's quite a significant one really it's it is the women's team which is

frankly the only successful chelsea team at the moment basically being parceled on this is the this is the like the women's team who i think already you know i was at the the Champions League quarterfinal at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night and it is strike it is quite striking how little women's team branding there is at a stadium that is

putatively theirs, right?

It doesn't feel like a home for them at all.

And I think this sends out a very clear message that the women's team will always be expendable

if it's going to save the men's team of a PSR fine.

I think that the message it sends is

if you're...

uh in that chelsea dressing room if you're if you're working and in the in the you know the structure of the women's setup i think i think it does set a pretty clear message of where you stand in the um in the hierarchy of things.

Would they argue, I mean, one, look, Chelsea have been so successful, so clearly Chelsea are putting more into their women's team than a lot of other teams.

And two, that there may, we've had this conversation before, and correct me if I'm wrong with this specific, because this does look more PSR-led than splitting them up, that actually some women's teams actually want to be

like run separately from the men's team.

And there are actually advantages to that.

Yeah, I mean, there is, like,

none of this precludes any of that from happening.

None of this precludes them from, you know, and

this wouldn't have been the case when they were under the, you know, owned by the same company either.

They've always been able to diverge and synergize on whatever areas.

I'm sure it's in the rules.

I'm sure, you know, Todd Bewley and Beidad Egg Bali and, you know, sitting in their boardrooms going, hey, suckers, we found a way around your rules again.

Cupping each other's balls while they do it.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, I think, you know, to bring it back to Spurs, who are another team that have kind of said, you know, neglected their women's team for very different reasons, I give them credit, at least for trying to play the game that exists, rather than trying to find ways around it or trying to subvert it.

You know, you can say what you want about Levy and his investment.

It is a strategy.

It is an attempt to play by the rules of the game and the spirit of the rules as they exist.

I think that's probably about as far legally as we can take it.

Yeah, I mean, Max, it's important to remember, Chelsea aren't making money by selling women's teams to themselves.

So you couldn't make money by selling your own children to yourself.

But

they're still making 200 million a year operating loss in the last four years.

But I wonder now, will Arsenal and maybe Manchester City look at this and go, ooh, maybe we could sell our women's teams to ourselves because their women's teams are presumably quite valuable.

Producer Joel says, did Chelsea sell parts of the training ground of Cobham or the town of Cobham?

Daniel Levy says, I often read calls for us to spend more.

This is regarding Spurs, of course, given we are ranked as the ninth richest club in the world.

However, a closer examination of today's financial figures reveals that such spending must be sustainable in the long term and within our operating revenues, our capacity to generate recurring revenues determines our spending power.

We cannot spend what we do not have and we will not compromise the financial stability of this club.

Indeed, our off-pitch revenues have significantly supplemented the lower football revenues this year, testament to our diversified income strategy.

There's nothing wrong with getting money in by Beyoncé doing our concerts and the go-karting and you can do the walk, can't you, up the top of the stadium and various other aspects.

But what Daniel Levy has not addressed is the fact that the wage to turnover ratio is, I think, it's the lowest in the Premier League, certainly one of the lowest in the Premier League.

And that

headroom to make that better and to improve the squad, which will then improve the revenue that you would get because you'd finish higher up the league.

You have more chance of being in Europe, maybe the Champions League.

Tottenham are now getting swallowed up by it's not even the sort of big four or five in terms of sort of wage spenditure, Newcastle, Aston Villa, teams like that are kind of jumping ahead of Tottenham and just showing more ambition in that area.

I think the last time I was on talking about this,

I've become a face of Levy Out.

It went quite, I think it went viral on Instagram.

So when I go to Spurs now, I've got these people that are sort of, you know, certainly did the

Lango.

So

I wouldn't be kind of, you know, among the most angry Tottenham fans at what is happening.

But when you see...

kind of some of the players that have left in the last couple of years harry kane hugo lorice hoiberg would have been on um you know a decent wage, I would assume.

Eric Dyer would have been on good money, you know, he was a seasoned England international when he would have signed his last contract.

Like those players have not been replaced in terms of wage bill with the same calibre or pedigree of player.

They've been signed by young players with potential.

And I don't disagree with the kind of Bergvau and Archie Gray.

I think that they are

the future of the club and

sensible signings.

But they need to be supplemented supplemented with some help

with senior players.

It's quite clear,

for instance, that they needed a proper reserve goalkeeper.

They didn't sign one until it was too late in January.

The midfield position, in terms of sort of who plays defensive midfield, is

being a mess.

Rich Alison

just can't be considered the proper backup.

He's always injured.

So they went into the season knowing that.

And we're asking Solanke to almost play every Premier League and Europa League game at the pace that he does.

Just, you know, he was always likely to break down.

So I think they've just cut too many corners and have paid the price for it.

I hope you go viral again.

You're in a nice shirt.

So, you know, you'll do well, I think.

Good numbers.

Barry, you wanted to make a point about the broadcasting or lack of it.

It was briefly touched on in the UK.

So,

I mean, obviously I'm in Australia.

I could watch whichever game I chose, or I could watch a kind of goal rush where they focused on one and showed you the goals from the other.

What were you served?

Well, here in in the uk if you're a law-abiding citizen like i am you can only watch three of these games over the three nights uh because only one is televised legally each night by sky or tnt

and i just sort of fed up that i pay i think about 1300 quid a year for various tv subscriptions that I need to watch as many top-flight games as I can

and loads of my mates like loads of my mates and acquaintances I'm not that popular pay £60 a year for a moody stick that they put in the back of their television and they they can watch every single television channel in the world that is illegal but uh i i feel hard done by and i think i'm entitled to and anyone else who

plays by the rules is entitled to feel hard done by and maybe that's just me being moany but um yeah it just doesn't seem particularly fair i it's a very first world problem i appreciate but sure sure and it feels different this than the 3pm blackout right i mean i think they're very different things but yeah on a night where yeah there was league one and league two football but at a night where there is a premier league game um maybe you should be able to watch all all of them but this is the 3pm blackout right this is the because the it was a 3pm game that then got moved because of the crisis

so that's that so the 3pm blackout still applies, even though it's 7.45 on a Tuesday.

Got it.

The 7.45 blackout.

Okay.

But it doesn't totally apply because there was a game, right?

So that's why it's, you know, like, if there is a, if there are no games,

3pm Saturday, fair enough.

But if there is a game, why don't you have three?

I guess is the point.

Anyway, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll begin talking about the cups in Europe.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

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Coach, one more question.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Mark, yeah, some big cup games around Europe last night.

Guess we should start in Germany, shouldn't we?

Laborkus are knocked out by third-tier Armenia Bielefeldt.

Yeah, and the fourth title.

So that was semi-final.

The German Cups are in the final.

played Stuttgart or Leipzig.

Find out the winners of that game tonight.

The fourth Bundesliga team that they've beaten on this run to the final.

First time they've ever been into

a cup final as well.

Shocking result for Levakus.

And I mean, Granite Zhaka, always the ones you least expect, was rowing with supporters after the game.

In Germany, it's customary to go over to the Ultras after a game and particularly if you've had a bad result, result, kind of

just front up to it.

But it got quite tasty between him and

a guy that I don't know, he looked like he had a drum or a microphone or something.

But Shaka was certainly not just quite different things.

Well, I couldn't quite,

I think there was just there was everything in the vicinity.

He had some paraphernalia, he had a cymbal on each knee and a guitar and a mouse organ around his neck.

Yeah, and so you know, Shaka is not a shrinking violet, is he?

Yeah, he didn't just accept it.

Terrible result for Bayer Levikusen, but brilliant for Armenia Bielefeld, and I suppose really for the German Cup.

And an opportunity now for them to, as a third division team, to win a trophy.

I watch highlights of this, Mark.

Armenia Billefeld Stadium, it didn't look very third division.

Are they kind of fallen giant?

Yes, they were in the Bundesliga a couple of years ago.

They've had a double relegation

on their CV in the last couple of years.

So, yeah, they wouldn't, you know, not like a pub team, like a regional team, but

that would be why.

But certainly, wouldn't have expected to have reached this stage.

Union Berlin, Freiburg, and Werdebremen have already been knocked out by them before Leverkus.

And so, yeah, sometimes you get lower league teams that will have a bit of a flu grunt through to the latter stages, but certainly not been the case with this one.

Di Tasse hat es maggie nicht ferloren, I believe, is the possibly the German for the cup hasn't lost its magic.

Whereup, talk us through the rest of it, Mark.

That was obviously the big story.

Um, Levikusen going out to a third division team.

The best game by a mile was Real Madrid for Real Associated four.

So Real Madrid progressed 5-4 on aggregate after extra time.

It was a a a chaotic game where real madrid going into the last 10 minutes were actually on the verge of being eliminated due bellingham managed to score for them the game eventually went into extra time and rudiger got the the winning goal defensively

they were a shambles real madrid um angelotti said as much afterwards but they are frightening going forward and that was with Mbappe not playing.

Young Brazilian striker Hendrik was the one leading the line.

And his goal, if you haven't seen it, is definitely one to check out.

There is an outside of the boot pass from Vinicius that is just a delight.

And then he follows it up with a chip.

And that's what Real Madrid have got in their locker.

I don't know if you've heard it before, Max, but they're capable of winning games when they're not playing at their absolute best.

Yeah, so this was one of those occasions where in front of their own crowd, they're able to sort of pull it out of the bag despite not playing well.

And there will be encouragement for Arsenal from parts of what went on in that game.

And then PSG nearly went out of the French Cup to Dunkirk,

second division Dunkirk.

They were 2-0 down at one stage, just about to go into half-time.

Dembele scored a goal on the stroke of half-time, which then obviously settled PSG down.

Marquinhos equalised soon after half-time.

So it's like, you know, after 44, 45 minutes, it was 2-0.

After 48 minutes, it was was 2-2 and then there was only ever going to be um one winner so psg um you know you you can forget your armenia belefeld fairy tale stories that the real fairy tale comes in psg reaching a you know another looks like french cup i bet uh bet psg were happy to get out of there um you uh uh you did give hendrick an h um just in case anyone wondered if jeff hendrick is now jeff hendricks now like uh you know they could do with maybe another midfielder could do with a solid midfielder really they've they've got too many forward players.

So maybe

someone to just run around a bit and get the ball back.

Can I just say for the tape, I think that was another really good joke by Johnny Lou, but I wasn't totally focused because I was about to do my Endrick Hendrik.

So quite often, Johnny delivers a great gag that doesn't get what it deserves.

And I suspect that was that moment again.

So can I just say it's Dunkirk, isn't it?

Right, I see.

Yeah, pretty happy to get out of there.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, it is good, and it deserved more.

And I apologise.

It's all right.

It's okay, good.

Good night for Birmingham in League One who won at Bristol Rovers.

Second place, Wrexham, were held at Mighty Us.

And now we're just 10 points from safety with six games to go.

It's in our hat, maybe it's not in our hands.

Third place, Wickham, were held by Bottomside Shrewsbury.

Charlton won again.

They could get automatic.

Imagine the scenes in producer Joel's house.

Tom says this has to be worth a minute or so.

Swingdon beat AFC Wimwood 2-1 in League 2.

And they scored a penalty in the 90th minute and a penalty in the 95th.

And it's worth watching the highlights just for how sad the AFC Wimbledon players were about both penalty awards.

I think they probably were both penalties.

They are down to fifth AFC Wimbledon.

Walsall still top.

Got a last-minute equaliser at fourth place.

Doncaster, Port Vale now level on points with Bradford.

They're second and third after Port Vale beat Bradford 2-0.

Johnny, you've written about the Baller League this week.

What is it?

Is it the future of football?

Should we all be terrified?

Are you a baller?

I don't know.

I haven't watched it.

I haven't watched it at all.

Basically, it's not something you watch, but it's something that basically pops down, it comes along on your algorithm,

your algorithm.

Yeah, it is, it's terrible.

I mean, it's just a load of influencers and ex-League One players just running around.

And occasionally, there'll be a Klaxon and

there'll be some sudden rule change where, I don't know, your keepers aren't allowed to use hands, or it'll be one-on-one or three-on-three or whatever.

And the teams are all owned by influencers apart from one, which is weirdly owned by Gary Lineker and Micah Richards.

You know, it's just a load of celebrity fame influencer slop content slop.

But

it is basically addressing a question that elite football, I think, has swerved for quite a long time, which is if you price out the next generation of fans, where are they going to go?

And it's really interesting, you know, if you listen to the guy, Felix Stark, who's the CEO of Baller League, where he sees...

you know, his rival, he sees the rivals of Baller League as things like League of Legends and Fortnite.

He wants it to become the UFC of football.

And, you know, maybe this doesn't work, but people are going to keep trying as long as football remains this kind of gated enclave.

To Western Super Mayor, Mark.

And you had a scout watching this game against as they played Hornchurch.

And Luke Coulson scored his hat-trick goal.

And it's quite the hit, isn't it?

Yeah, so my nephew watches Hornchurch home and away.

He's had some rotten old trips this year to Tolkey and Truro and stuff like that.

So

they were 3-2 down, down, sent the goalkeeper up for a free kick.

And the Western Supermare player Coulson cleared it essentially from his own penalty area.

And

with no sort of goalkeeper, or even usually keep a defender sort of back, don't you, on the halfway line if the goalie does go up.

Not on this occasion.

And the ball just kind of rolled in from a clearance

into the empty net.

Yeah, so it's not often you see a goal from the opposition penalty area.

and it's not as spectacular, maybe, or as grand as it sounds, but yeah, was it 80 odd metres?

So, I mean, I reckon the Elanga.

It's faster than Antonia Langer.

Yeah,

I don't think Normchurch goalkeeper's quite as quick as a Langer.

Certainly not with a football, anyway.

Sam says, hi, Max.

I loved Johnny Lou's piece on Preston North End, and I'm in total agreement with Lars about what a football club should be.

Your reference to other boring football clubs, Reading and Gillingham, however, led to a sudden, terrible feeling of self-doubt.

As someone someone who was born just outside Preston, before growing up in Gillingham and then going to university in Reading, is it possible that I'm the most boring man in the country?

Could it also be that my recent narcolepsy type 1 diagnosis is related?

Have the doctors got it wrong?

Perhaps I'm simply too boring to sustain consciousness.

My wife has refused to comment.

Keep up the excellent work.

Best wishes, Sam.

Yeah, well, look, we enjoyed that piece, Johnny.

It was a good piece about

the point of football and what the point of a football club is.

And it did refer to butter pies and obviously mark langdon as our food expert and as someone who famously got into butter during lockdown i believe it was and just discovered butter

barry barry says has mark ever had a butter pie could you johnny just explain the butter pie to those that don't know what it is Okay, it's a Preston snack.

Delicacy is probably pushing it.

It's a pie.

It's layers of potato, butter, salt and pepper.

Sometimes you find it with cheese, but I think that's seen as highly irregular behaviour.

And yeah, it's actually

a Catholic, you know, a lot of Catholics didn't eat meat on a Friday, so hence the butter pie.

It's cheap and cheerful and freely available to the working man and woman.

Mark, have you had a butter pie?

And what are your thoughts?

Well, I'm a working man,

never had a butter pie, but Johnny has definitely sold it to me.

I mean, it's got everything you'd want.

I would hold the cheese, I wouldn't go for a cheese in a pie, but all of the other ingredients sound exactly what you'd want

to be served up on on a Friday.

I would just say, though, that there is a big north-south, I might not be allowed in my sort of pie mash shop if I start bigging up the northern pies, because I think there is a bit of a north-south divide in terms of who does the best pies.

And we're very proud of our pie mash in sort of East London.

But

I'd give in to a butter pie.

I'd give in to a butter pie.

The north are not losing the pie debate.

I just think we can't.

I just think you've just got to let them have it.

But, you know, I'm happy to be.

If you can stick butter and potato in anything, you're onto a winner.

So, yeah, let's go for it.

I do just want to address this because a lot of Preston fans took this the wrong way.

They thought I was calling their town bland and boring and whatever.

And I think it's the butter pie is

Preston in that it's quite mid-table tea.

But the butterpie is also English football in a nutshell.

Can this local thing that you can't upscale, you can't derive this massive profit margin from it, can it still be allowed to exist?

Can the market still allow this thing that is quite good to survive because it provides sustenance to local people?

And I really hope it can.

Yeah, I did notice you were getting a bit of shade from Preston fans on social media.

And it did seem like a lot of them had completely missed the point of the article.

Boring has bad.

I mentioned Reading.

Reading fans would love a bit of boring.

They'd love a nice boring stable club moment there's nothing wrong with being boring and sustainable self-sustainable that's what this pod is boring but self-sustainable that's what we aim for uh and that'll do for today thanks to everyone by the way who when i uh uh was trying to work out what a coat maker was called said coat maker when in fact a tailor might have helped in that situation but like you can't know everything um uh lots of people commenting on spotify apparently uh producer joel is now asking for nice reviews of the pod so go on wherever you review the pod.

Apparently, we need to do it sometimes.

You know, give us lots of stars and say we're great.

But, you know, I didn't do it in a fawning way or a desperate way, hopefully.

Or just say boring but sustainable.

Five stars, that'll do.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Mark.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Barry.

Thank you.

Thanks, Johnny.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Daniel Stevens.

We'll be back tomorrow.

This is The Guardian.