Manchester United hit the spot and Tamworth come so close: Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, a gentle trot through the varless, replayless FA Cup third round.

Manchester United somehow win on penalties at the Emirates.

Alte Bayendir, the hero saving in the shootout, as well as from the spot in normal time.

Arsenal, brackets, Kai Habits, had the chances to win it against the Stoic United, who had 10 men from early in the second half.

Then to Tamworth, who were so close to causing the upset, that chance in the last minute of injury time.

But still, bricklayers and university lecturers and players on each other's shoulders fixing the net.

One for the magic naysayers.

Plymouth caused the shock of the round at Brentford.

Well, we'll chat a bit of Moyes to Everton and Potter to West Ham, who was probably unlucky to lose his first game at Villa.

After picking out some highlights from the other ties, we'll do a bit on Barca, Hammering Real Madrid in the Super Copper.

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

On the panel today, Jonathan Wilson, welcome.

Morning, how are you are you doing?

I'm very well.

Thank you.

Hello, Nada Manuaha.

Hello.

I'm back.

And hello, Johnny Lou.

Hello.

I like I'm back.

Is that, you know, sort of as close to a Terminator 2

start that we've ever had?

Yeah, perfect.

Because people had been, yeah, had you been thinking, Nadan, that, you know, people had been wondering where you...

Well, it's funny you say that because I was at Villa Park when they played against West Ham and somebody in the crowd shouted, when are you next on Guardian Football Weekly?

And I usually say, listen, I don't know.

But I said, actually, it's on Monday, so yeah, there we go, perfect.

So, actually, actually, we had the perfect amount of time for people to want you back.

Yeah, that's what I said.

That amount of time for one person at Villa Park.

Um, let's start at the Emirates then.

Um, Arsenal one, Man United, one, Manchester United winning 5-3 on penalties.

Simon saying, I wasn't all that familiar with Altae Byendeer before this game, I knew more about his brother Ring, which took me a second, but then I really enjoyed it.

Um,

uh, could he start pushing Inanna for the starting position in goal?

This hero, 26 years old, he wasn't Fenobace for quite a long time.

So it's an experienced player.

He sounded so happy after the game, Nathan.

And look, he made two brilliant penalty saves and

two

brilliant saves during the game as well.

Yeah, he certainly did.

And I think the last time most people saw him was when he was playing in that crazy game against Spurs a couple of weeks ago where it was like, you know, let's just have a discussion about goalkeeping in the Premier League.

But he did very, very well in those moments.

And it's funny because from where I was at the game and for the first like 10, 15 minutes, like Amarim wasn't happy with him because he was asking him to like kick a goal kick on the field and he kept curling it out of play.

And I saw Amarim just looking at him like, oh my God, who is this guy in net for me?

But as we say, more importantly, he makes some saves and makes so many big saves in those moments.

And he gave his team belief.

Like the defense in front of him were doing well.

Everybody was working hard.

But you need your goalkeepers to actually put the work in to have their moments.

And he had those.

And the connection he had with the fans at the end of the match, you know, they'll remember that performance because to be honest, when he was out there to start with, I was sitting near to the United fans.

It wasn't like they were all chuffed to see him.

Let's just say that.

But credit to him.

These moments, they matter.

And that's a memorable game, not just for him, but for the club.

And now they can think, even as well.

Who scores the winning penalty?

Joshua Zerxe.

It's like, you know, it's that self-arc.

Everybody's happy.

United fans are happy.

The most dangerous thing in the world.

United fans are happy.

So, yeah, credit to him.

Credit to them.

Small Cassie says, are Manchester United not shit anymore?

I'm very confused.

If so, then their supporters must be like the kids at the the end of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, all shielding their eyes from the sunlight that they haven't seen for years while being imprisoned underground, hardly believing what they're seeing.

Are they, I mean,

how do we view United now?

They've had two really good results, Jonathan.

The ceiling of this team has always been quite high.

We knew that.

It was just

the stuff in between.

I mean, I think Bruno...

in his interview afterwards says something like why can't we play like that every week and that that has been that has been the problem getting that that consistency, cutting out the sloppy errors, and maintaining that intensity and that quality over

months

rather than an hour.

That's always been the issue.

But yeah, it was a

nice moment of redemption for a lot of those players.

And Bruno,

who has been, I think, fantastic, like genuinely

really, really, really great the last few weeks, played in this sort of slightly kind of strange, hybrid,

left-wing, central kind of role here, by the looks of it.

And

his finish, his finish for that

goal.

I think that that deserves a bit of love because we've seen that kind of chance missed in a million different ways.

But to hit it with that kind of power and precision with a ball coming across him at pace

was, yeah, he's been superb.

And that was a goal that really could have taken the net off.

Yeah, some good goals, actually, over over the weekend, which we'll talk about.

Um, Wilson, Arteza said, I think he said, if we played this game a thousand times, we'd have won 999 of them.

Um,

do you agree with that sentiment?

I mean, they did have a lot of chances.

I think the calendar's so congested to play it a thousand times as madness.

At what point, hang on, at what point would it start getting good again?

Like game 700?

You'd be like, right, I'm in now.

I remember this.

I mean,

he says this kind of thing quite a lot.

I mean, I was at the game at Fulham when they drew, and he said something similar there: that,

oh, yeah, they only had one chance, and they took it, and our job is to make sure they don't have any chances.

And his certainly, his, what he says after game seems very driven by data, by what are the probabilities,

what's the XG saying.

But the problem is, Arsenal are not living up to their XG.

anywhere near.

So, I mean, I think the XG yesterday was something like three and a half to a half in Arsenal's favour.

So, of course, they should have have won the game but equally the thing the arsenal do is miss chances and let in goals when they probably shouldn't uh the the game against newcastle in the carabao cup on the tuesday i think was the xg was something like 3.3 to 1.2 and they lost 2-0 against brighton the previous week it was 1.5 to 0.9 and they draw 1-1.

Yeah, the basic flow of the game might be in their favour.

That hasn't really been the problem for quite a while.

The problem Arsenal have this season and last season is that they just don't quite have that hard edge to take them over the line.

And once, you know, certainly once they missed the penalty, there was this sort of, and it's easy to say this in retrospect, there was a sense of inevitability about what was going to happen.

They were going to keep on missing chances.

And then when it came to the shootout, yeah, I was absolutely certain United were winning that.

It just felt incredibly inevitable.

I felt for Kai Havertz, Nadem.

I mean, he spooned a couple, didn't he, in such a kind of this is harder to miss than than

score type moments.

And

actually, he'd started this season really well and like scoring proper number nine goals, like sticking his head where it hurts.

And I'm sure I was saying, you know, he's done another, he's scored another goal like a number nine.

Can people stop having that conversation?

And then there's a day like this.

You sound like you quite like him almost on a personal level.

Is that fair?

Yeah, I'd like, yeah, I like his, I like a languid, like a languid guy with a good touch.

Yeah, I understand exactly where you're coming from.

And I'm probably closer to where you are than those people who put his face all over the internet yesterday and said oh he can't do anything in football anymore i i was watching the game and you know some of those chances dropping to him with all due respect like even if he's not number nine he should still be scoring those goals like i could go through the different positions a number 10 would probably score that a winger would probably score that maybe in a maybe even a defensive mid maybe even a former defender for queen sparr rangers could score that you know that's the sort of mentality that i have when i see those chances not naming myself but um you were thinking of david bards that's exactly what I'm thinking of.

That's exactly what I'm thinking of.

But I have to be realistic now because trying to figure out how to talk about him, because a lot of these chances are in really, really big moments and they are almost game-defining.

Because as Arteta talks about, you know, the XG and so on, I know so many people get so like angry when you hear XG pop up.

Like it's just trying to show you the context of some of those chances within a game.

And for him to not be scoring those where he's more likely to score than miss, you know, if the XG is like, was it above 50% or something?

I think it's a shame because are we going to talk about confidence?

Are we going to talk about competence?

I think the more times you miss some of these chances, people just start to believe that you can't score these goals at all.

And I don't think that's the case, but that's the belief.

And you can hear it in the stadium.

You know, he misses a chance, and everyone at one point is like almost enthusiastic.

Okay, you'll get another one.

But say after the game, they're in the dressing room or locker room, whatever.

For a team that's that good, that knows they could go all the way and win a trophy like the FA Cup.

It's not a case of like, say, for some of the teams I've played in where it's like, oh, unlucky boys, you know, we'll try try again next time.

We're just a bit unfortunate.

We'll take some of the momentum into wherever.

Well, no, you should be winning those games.

You're playing at home against the Man United side that, for as good as they were against Liverpool, hadn't won in five games.

You're supposed to be winning that game.

And you look at the chances, and you can't say, oh, it doesn't matter.

Like, it does matter.

Those moments matter.

If somebody made a mistake at the back and they lost, that matters.

Well, if somebody's not scoring a goal up top, that matters because that can also affect the game in that way.

So I think he's, I think he's good enough to score those.

But the more he shows like this, the harder it becomes to not sound like a crazy person saying that it's okay.

And it's the more questions Arteta faces about, well, why have you not got number nine?

But I flash back to a year ago.

Maybe there's a parallel here.

They got knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round.

Do you remember that infamous trip to Dubai where Arteta was being fed steak by Salt Bay or whatever?

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, then they came back and they went on like a 10-12 game on beaten run.

I kind of want for their sake to be like that.

But there's no Saka.

There's no Jesus.

Old Gaard was limping a little bit yesterday and the vibes aren't quite the same.

So I think haverts unfortunately for them he'll be remembered for that game and so much so that a lot of people forget that uh old guard missed the penalty as well i keep i keep forgetting that moment which you know says a lot about how haverts played yesterday the kai haverts paradox is that kai haberts will score you lots and lots of goals and look like a great striker up until the point where you actually need him to do that he because he's a player who um

who who fits into a system he combines with with with other players uh and he he works really well in a functional system the moment when you know as arsenal have i've lost all their kind of attacking threat and they need haberts to be that figurehead he's not a figurehead striker that and that's when it all kind of goes to pieces for him so he would actually be a really good uh you know you can see him tightening up in these moments because he the ball comes to him and he knows that this is this chance has got to go in and that is i know it's it's kind of strange to to say this about I've got a guy who literally scores a winning goal in a Champions League final, but the rest of his career, it's actually quite out of character for him.

He's the sort of player, certainly the sort of striker who is very much not putting in those clutch chances, but is contributing when the rest of the team is contributing.

If that makes any sense.

A bit like Ian Bell only scoring a century when someone else scored a century.

If I can introduce another paradox as well, last season,

one of the things we said was...

Arsenal's problem is they have no way of winning a game when they're not playing particularly well.

They don't have the striker who can suddenly turn a quarter chance into a winning goal.

And then what they did was post that trip to Dubai, they started scoring loads of set plays.

And you think, okay, the set plays are a way that they can win games without having to play particularly well.

And they've continued to score the set plays this season, admittedly fewer in the last few weeks.

But I almost now think the set plays are such a feature of how they attack.

And they take so long.

You know, each one is a minute build-up.

It stops them building the kind of rhythm and momentum that would enable them to win games without the set plays.

So the set plays, while incredibly useful, also have made them need the set plays.

The yoga paradox is there.

Yes, yes, Nadem.

Yeah,

what I would say is as well about that.

So as the game was about to start yesterday, I remember thinking about those set pieces and thinking about some of the great delivery that they've had.

But that delivery is coming from Saka and Declan Rice.

I think the people who were filling in to do it, in my mind, it wasn't as dangerous.

So the balls like Martinelli on one side and Odegaard on the other, like it's good, but it's not the same.

I think for all the goals that they were scoring, say, earlier in the season and last year, as you've rightly said, that service was landing literally like in between the posts, like near the six-yard box.

It's chaos.

But yesterday, some of them were a bit higher.

And also, I walked past, on the way to the stadium, walked past that mural of the set piece coach for Arsenal.

But the one that I saw,

and it felt really weird anyway.

But especially with a little right-angle, triangle, corner flag thing.

And I was like, all right, fair enough.

But then when I was watching the

United defend those corners, United Set Peace person was also on the side, showing them how they're supposed to be defending those corners.

And as a consequence, whether it's the service, whether it's the plan that they had, Arsenal were far less dangerous from those than they were when they last played them a few weeks ago, where it could have been anything from all those set pieces.

To be fair to Havertz,

he was the victim of that brutal headbutt from Agate

during the melee after the penalty was awarded.

I am a big fan of...

When someone's obviously not injured and then an opposition player tries to pick them up and they go dead weight like a toddler.

And it's just like, you know,

the shirt comes up and they flop back down to the ground.

But Paul did say, look, with the poor officiating at the Arsenal game, should a system where off-field officials can check decisions be considered?

Obviously, there was no VAR in this.

Lots of people who watched the championship, EFLA, just used to know VAR.

I wonder if it's hard for refs, Johnny, because they've got VAR and

now they're thrust into a game where they don't have it.

And it's a different.

Don't do it, Max.

Okay.

Okay.

I've asked the question.

It's too late now.

The oldest referee complaint in the book is consistency.

That's all we are.

I don't want the right decision for my team.

Consistency is all we're asking.

And I think

that's kind of relevant here, isn't it?

That

it does feel a bit like we should be pushing for VAR to just to be binned off entirely.

And

anything short of that feels like a really unsatisfactory compromise.

But do you think the officiating was bad?

I mean, I think the penalty was very soft but I'm not sure Varr would have overturned it because there was a little bit of contact.

I think it's clear and obvious.

The Martinelli offside in the first half is just the correct decision and I don't understand why we've tied ourselves in knots with things like phases of play and

play deliberately.

The point is the moment Gabriel Jesus plays that pass to players in an offside position, that's offside.

What Maguire does in trying to stop that pass is irrelevant.

The offence has already happened.

So I don't, I feel a bit sorry for Andy Madley because he got loads of grief at the Tottenham New Castle game the previous week when I'm not really sure he did much wrong.

He missed a couple of sort of fairly robust challenges and Joe Linton that Poster Cogley got upset about.

But the goal that he had loud Newcastle appears to have been the correct decision under the laws.

So

I think Andy Madley's had a couple of really tough games in the space of a week that haven't really been his fault.

Are you,

I mean, I'd be happy to get rid of Var if we had that capability now.

I like it flowing.

There will be mistakes.

There still are.

Oh, but

no, no, no.

Oh, gosh.

You're one of them here.

That's right.

I like mistakes.

No, you don't.

When it affects your team, no, you don't.

You see.

No, I don't like it when it affects my team, but it still affects my team either way.

Yeah.

To put it into perspective, so like, I don't think it was a penalty yesterday.

Especially, like, I look back, I was like, no, shoot, is that a penalty?

And tell you else who didn't was Harry Maguire.

And in that moment when he realized that, like, the pen's been given against him, he's probably spent the last few years thinking, well, this will clearly get overturned.

And maybe some people, you know, have thought that in the past and it's not worked out that way, even after a check.

But this is a sort of like side thing with the video assistant referee.

If there's a way for it to be checked, you all of a sudden don't probably have some of those headbutts and people getting thrown around and all sorts like that chaos.

That's the thing because people are more like on the field, even though you're sort of frustrated by the decision, you're prepared to wait because referee will say, we're checking it.

With the refere's saying, not saying we're checking it, unfortunately, like see, see my guy.

I don't mind a melee.

I don't mind a melee.

Well, of course you don't because

you're sitting in the stands, just like, oh, look at them fighting there.

Look at that.

But that took me to a dark place.

When I saw Maguire losing his head, I was like, oh, no, I remember being that person.

And, you know,

we could get rid of it, fine, whatever.

But then people, like, with the referee yesterday, so that decision was a thing, but I felt there was certain times in the game, and this isn't to do with the video assistant referee, but he felt like he was getting one or two of the smaller decisions wrong, and it was like consecutive.

So there was a bit of noise that was sort of building up in the game.

Like, for example, when Gabriel Jesus gets stretched off, it's probably from a foul on the edge of the box, Bruno Fernandez, like against Bruno Fernandez, sorry, on Bruno Fernandez.

And then Bruno Fernandez is so frustrated, he throws his boot to the floor.

Now he's getting yellow carded.

So now, like,

this group are angry.

That group's angry.

And I think for him yesterday, because I think he's a good referee, I thought there were times where maybe he was missing a few too many things that sort of build the momentum in terms of frustration.

And then you add in that penalty decision and we end up with that.

But Bud Varr wouldn't have changed that incident.

That's what I said.

Yeah, but that's what I was like leaning into again from the referee's sort of performance because I'd say some of the United people would have said he was bad, some of the Arsenal people said he's bad, like, but it wasn't necessarily for that decision.

So it goes beyond the VR because the VR discussion is one I think we can have.

But I thought just in general with the referee, I didn't think he was great.

Like he got Martinez got like a funny yellow card, I thought, and a couple of others, and before you know it, the game feels like it's a far more aggressive game than say it ever really was.

I mean, I think if you do get a book for dissent when the decision has been been,

when you are complaining against an injustice, which is real, it should be rescinded.

But I also get annoyed, even though I don't want VAR, when there's that corner given to Villa that isn't a corner.

Yes.

And we can all see it like that.

And then VAR can't intervene.

So I want VARN to intervene, even though I don't want VAR at all.

Anyway, that'll do.

Sorry, you want the referee to be better?

That's what you want.

But I don't mind mistakes.

We've already established that.

You know, we all make mistakes, don't we?

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two beginning in Tamworth.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, Spurs won 3-0 away at Tamworth after extra time.

You know, game delayed while a player's fixing the net, a 3G pitch.

Spurs having to request more chairs from a social club because they couldn't fit all their staff in a dugout.

A man called Tom Tonks launching long throws into the box.

I think Tamworth had a lecturer at Nottingham Trent, and someone who works at Zara and a brick bricklayer.

I mean, all good stuff.

It had it all, except Johnny, and you were there.

Tamworth didn't score that goal in the last minute of injury time.

Yeah, that was the only thing missing.

I mean, I was...

They didn't have room on their press bench.

I was basically stuffed at the back of the stand

with the Tamworth fans.

Oh, great.

So, yeah, it's great until you need a really clear view of the potential greatest giant killing goal in FA Cup history.

Yes,

it was a weird sort of day, really.

Yeah, there was all that stuff you mentioned.

You know, Tamworth are one of, I think, three part-time sides left in the National League.

So it is a really kind of increasingly rare matchup between these genuine amateurs for the most part.

with actual jobs that they're going to this morning and and yeah spurs that the millionaires and the the premier league um side and and you know it sounds like you know 3-0 spurs we're in pretty routine until you you know you look at the detail and they scored their first goal in like the 106th minute they weren't very good they were very good in in ways that were actually quite predictable they couldn't break tamworth down and and tamworth actually in terms of chances probably could have had as much of a of a shout of of winning that game in 90 minutes obviously they tired a bit they're not sort of physically conditioned like premier league players are they sort of crumbled a little bit in extra time

And I mean, the other thing I want to mention is the ticket price.

I don't know.

You saw that

Tamworth basically raised, as soon as the draw came out, they basically hiked their prices to like 40 quid.

Normally it's about 18 quid and it's free for under-10s.

And they hiked it to 40 quid for a seat, 38 for the terraces, and like 25 quid for kids,

which I think takes a hell of a lot of the romance out of it, if you ask me, the way that they're kind of

squeezing the the people who come and watch them every week um is there an argument there is there an argument johnny because there's no replays that you know they had to

you know they had to milk this golden cow for for all they could i think and i read somewhere and i'm if i'm wrong then forgive me that that the money that they made from this meant that they could make their manager a full-time employee like these are sort of big decisions for them no i mean this is this is a much wider argument i mean i i think that you know you say don't don't hate the player hate the game game, right?

And obviously, I think this is one of those instances where you could hate both.

It is a really cynical thing.

It is an understandable thing to do, but it is quite also a cynical thing to do.

And the thing about replays is it is kind of a lottery.

It is basically injecting, you know, game show jeopardy into what should be a sustainable financial model by which non-league clubs don't have to rely on

a ball coming out of a hat for their financial security.

I mean, Dagenham and Redbridge

got drawn against Millwall and would have made a whole lot less money out of that from travelling to South London.

Are they less deserving of this FA Cup windfall?

Interesting point.

And a lot of people have made the point, Wilson, that

if you don't have replays, don't have extra time either because that naturally benefits the fitter team with the deeper squad.

And so, you know, Tamworth had sort of earned the right to either have a replay or just have penalties there and then at 90 minutes.

I mean, I know there's sort of a movement against extra time.

I sort of suspect it's TV companies of dripping this out there because it annoys them, because it messes their schedules.

I like extra time.

As in what keeping up appearances will be on later.

Do you think it's that?

Yeah,

it's the people who want to see the chase and can't.

Yeah, I say that in the abstract.

I have to say that with 15 minutes to go at Brentford on Saturday, sitting outside in the freezing cold,

the dawning realization that I might have to sit aside for another 45 minutes to an hour,

I was desperate for either either side to score.

But yeah,

I think extra time should exist.

I think it cheapens everything if you don't have that.

I actually don't mind particularly

the specific point of whether we have replays at this stage.

I don't understand why replays have been got rid of earlier in the competition when everybody seems quite to like them.

I mean,

my problem is that, yeah, Tamworth, I'm sure, would have loved a replay going to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, playing in front of 60,000 people, getting whatever revenue they would have from that.

Johnny's pointing is absolutely right that these windfalls are lovely, but that's not a sustainable model.

The disparity between,

there's always going to be disparity between professional teams and semi-pro teams, but disparity between the top flight and the League Two or other National League.

We should seek to rebalance that, not by the medium of these random events.

But I think where the problem is more that getting rid of replays is yet another example of basic decisions that affect everybody in the the game being taken with only the very top tier in mind.

So it's more the sort of place where the decision comes from the decision itself I object to.

So yeah, I mean, the question was extra time.

Extra time, I'm fine with.

Gav says, did we finally get the answer to could Timo score in the National League?

I mean, we spoke about habits, Nathan, but Timo Werner's absolute no goal guarantee from a one-on-one.

It's like amazing.

I still think one day he'll unlock.

I think I saw him at Spurs play for Leipzig and just score.

It felt like he scored 100 goals.

And he was just just like, he was so ruthless.

I was like, this guy, I've seen him do it.

And you're just like, he's through.

There's no need.

What's the point?

He should just, he should like just take it to the corner flag or like just hold the ball up.

It's mad.

You behave yourself.

You behave yourself, Max.

You know, he's part of the

three players across the last few years who received quite a bit of criticism who I just like, I can't get over just because I saw them play well in the Champions League final against Man City in 21.

Like I saw Havert score.

I saw Mason Mount be very good.

I saw Timo Verda causing havoc.

So when everyone's like, oh, they're no good, I'm like,

I wish if only it was a year sooner.

Do you know what?

I've got to say, in fairness to the situation, every time he like misses a chance or doesn't do something well, every pundit always says he's low on confidence, but nobody knows him.

Maybe he just can't finish that chance.

Maybe that's just who he is.

Maybe some of his other traits, more important traits.

But instead, oh, you see, he's missed because he's not got confidence.

He's not had confidence for four years, apparently.

But I don't know.

The season he had at Leipzig, maybe that was an exception.

You know, we've all seen forwards have those years where, you know, they produce, they score a lot of goals and then everyone.

You could say the same for Rashford, right?

You could say the same for Rashford in that year.

I mean, he's a more talented footballer.

I get that.

I don't know.

Oh, do you know what?

That is a.

I was going to compare him more so, say, outcome-wise, to Darwin Nuniers.

Rashford.

No, I can't put those.

I feel like I can't put those three together.

No, no, no.

I'm not trying to compare them in terms of ability.

I'm trying to say that that season for Rashford was so is an outlier if you look at his career.

Yeah, But then I think with Rashford, he's probably scored more goals continuously than those two throughout most of the seasons.

I'm sure there's someone fact-checking that right now, but that's the way that it feels.

And he's obviously had some down years as well.

But yeah, as he's going through,

I almost like want him to score.

Not because I don't like Tamworth, whatever, but I just want him to score so that people say, oh, you know, he can score goals.

You know, we see it, we believe it.

But he knows he can do that.

He's a German international.

He's got manager who's picking him every so often and players who keep playing him in.

Listen, I've been on the pitch where you have no belief in someone whatsoever and people find it very hard to pass to them.

But it doesn't seem to be the case with Werner.

He just do it, please.

Like, please, so that we could just stop worrying about him every time he's going through.

Will he hurt himself or will he score?

All right, okay, cool.

He's not scored, so let's check on him mentally, see if he's all right.

But he's a good player.

I saw every goal that Werner scored for Leipzig in that season because I divide a feature on him.

So I went on

White Scout, took a trial subscription, and watched every single goal he scored for Leipzig in that first spell.

His finishing technique is really atrocious, it's It's really bad.

What he specialises in doing is running in a full pel into the box and zonging it in for about 16 yards with the ball flying across the penalty area.

And Leipzig,

under Narbsman, were really, really, really good at getting in that kind of finish again and again and again.

He doesn't really have a side foot finish.

He's not great from distance.

And the more he thinks about a chance,

the less likely he is to.

So I really think it's a technique thing as well as a mentality thing just a mention of Hayden Hollis did a lovely turn didn't they uh pass I think Pap Sarr and and Timo Werner uh in there but well done to Tamworth they were great uh nice moment with Archie Gray swapping his boots for a the scarf from some uh some Tamworth kids scarf and being just incredibly polite polite young man Archie Gray and let's go to Brentford you mentioned it Wilson you braved the cold to see the biggest upset of the weekend.

How was it?

It was good.

It was really good.

The thing with the FA Cup as a third round as a journalist is you, I think this is the first shock I've ever covered.

And so you plod along to these games and you watch Tottenham beat South End 3-0 or you watch Chelsea beat Chesterfield 5-1, and it's quite hard to fill up the 800 words.

And then you finally get a shock, and it's like, oh, yeah, that's actually what it's about.

And yeah, Plymouth had a terrible season, they bought the championship.

Rooney's obviously gone.

New coach in the stand, Miran Muslich,

Kevin Nanskaville, who's been at the club since 2005, career at Tiverton Town, has this sort of broad southwestern accent, was basically on the verge of tears for about an hour and a half after the game.

And you sort of think this is just a great moment.

This is what football should do.

And though, I don't know how many fans there were, two and a half, three thousand, something like that from Plymouth.

And Plymouth travel in numbers, and they haven't seen them win since they beat Rotham away in April.

And Plymouth played really well.

Brentford had a couple of decent chances the first 20 minutes, but after that,

and this is a Plymouth side that under Rooney, they'd conceded 35 goals in 13 away games, but two away gamers since he went, they've kept clean sheets.

They were really solid.

They had a threat on the break.

They've just signed, and this seems a bit odd that in the period when they didn't have a manager, they broke their transfer record to bring in this Garner International forward, Baidu, who held the ball up really well.

Apparently, he doesn't normally play as an out-and-out striker.

He tends to play off a striker, but he played really well.

Morgan Whitaker, who I think Latio bid some huge sum for last season,

he got the goal, but you can see

he's better than Plymouth.

The only thing, the only slight negative, the goal wouldn't have stood if R existed because Bundu was clearly offside in the Keeper's eye line.

The romantic in you doesn't want that goal being ruled out.

I agree with you.

And as you know, the romantic in me is a nonce.

No, when I think of romance, I think of Jonathan Wilson.

When I'm in a remote, when I'm trying to be romantic, I think, what would Jonathan Wilson do?

That's what I think.

James says, was there any debate more tedious than whether Darren Ferguson should chase an equalizer at Goodison or help generate an interesting trivia question for 10 years' time?

Everton beat Peterborough 2-0.

Yes, Ashley Young was sad that his son Tyler didn't come off the pitch, off the bench rather, to play for Everton.

He tweeted gutted,

which doesn't mean he was angry about the decision.

He was just gutted about it because you would be, wouldn't you?

But then people started calling for Darren Ferguson to be sacked.

The Peterborough chairman tweeted, this nonsense has to stop.

My manager was 100% correct in his actions.

This wasn't some friendly or exhibition event.

Tyler's doing fantastically with our 21s and progressing phenomenally with a bright future.

But bringing him on at the time, considering the circumstances around the game, with us one down with minutes left, was not right.

the not right thing for the team.

He went northern there.

Putting stupid tweets out asking him to be sacked is unintelligent and frankly moronic.

In time, even Ashley would appreciate this as opposed to his current feeling around it.

Cheers.

I mean, I'm not a huge fan of everything that Darren McCantery does, but I don't necessarily disagree with him here.

It would have been nice, wouldn't it, Nadam, if they'd been on the pitch together, but it's not, you know, if Everton had been 5-0 up, maybe, but they weren't, you know.

Yeah, absolutely.

I was at that game as well.

Listen, I've been busy this weekend.

Going busy.

Ah, five.

Very unlike me.

I don't like it.

But I was also sitting right behind Tyler as well, like literally the seat behind him for the first half of the one to the side for the second.

And I'll be honest, Ferguson was never bringing him on.

Like, they weren't looks to the bench like, oh, you're ready, you're ready.

He was doing a lot of warming up, and every other person was being called back.

And the human side of me felt a bit disappointed, especially when the final sub was made and he had to come and sit down, like the walk of shame from the touchline to come back knowing it's not you.

Like

the assistant coach is pointing down the line to say, Yeah, you come back, come back.

And I've been in that position where you're like, Oh, you mean me?

You mean me?

No, no, no, no, the other guy, the other one.

Oh, Terry, thank you, Scott.

Yeah, yeah, Tyler.

Can you get it?

Tyler, you're in the way.

Go get somebody else, anyone but you.

And it it was funny as well, because

as a father and as Ashley Young's friend and former teammate, when Ashley was on the bench, he kept looking over to his son, and I thought,

this is actually quite a nice thing.

He's checking up on his son, pointing, oh, look, family's up there in the corner, all this stuff.

And then the game's going on, and it's just one no.

And Ferguson, rightly so, wants to just try and win the game itself.

They didn't really have a true threat of doing that.

But we've missed a moment, but, you know, it's fine.

The two of them were on the pitch together, they've got a chance to be in the same squad together.

They took their pictures together, they walked out on the pitch together before the game, and after the game, they spent some time on there as well.

So, there is a nice feeling there, and Ashley's got it.

But you know, it's his football.

Might as well start with disappointment because there's going to be a lot more of it for his son going forward.

Ben says, Hi, all David Moyes at Everton, a foreign England manager about to start his tenure, labor in power, an oasis tour in the offing.

Can I be forgiven to think it's 2001?

Am I finally able to dig out my buttoned cardigan and distressed jeans without fear of a complete hammering from my mates?

Keep up the good work.

Yeah, David Moyes is back, signed a two and a half year deal after the sacking of Sean Day.

Hang on, sorry, what's wrong with cardigans?

There's nothing wrong with cardigans.

You're bringing them back, Jonathan, aren't you?

Once again,

when I think of romantic cardigans, I think of Jonathan Wilson.

He signed a two and a half year deal after the sacking of Sean Deish.

Thanks to Richard Jolly for pointing out that Moyes will have managed Everton in his 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.

What do you make of it, Wilson?

Today is actually the anniversary of David Moyes' first game as a manager when he led Preston to a 1-0 win in the auto-inscreen shield against Macclesfield away in 1998.

It's also, I can't remember which year it is, but it's also the anniversary of his 200th other win as a manager.

I don't know.

I think it's a bit odd, to be honest.

I know that the Freakin Group did something similar at Roma by bringing back Claudio Ranieri, that they obviously like the idea of a tried and tested crowd favourite.

But I don't know.

I think the I know they hadn't scored seven of the previous eight games, Everton, but I I still think they'd have stayed up with Daish.

And maybe, you know, I haven't been to Everton for a while, so maybe that the atmosphere was getting

so sort of tetchy and toxic

with the tedium of it that they needed a change.

But

I don't know, it doesn't feel like the most forward-looking or progressive move.

But, you know, Moyes did a perfectly good job twice at West Ham.

I think they probably will stay up.

And I don't know, maybe he can adapt.

Yeah, interestingly, Johnny, I've said the same thing on Talksport at the weekend, and some Everton fans got in touch, not just angry ones, but like polite ones going, you know, I really like the programme, but you obviously haven't been going to Goodison every week for the last like year.

Like the football has been bad under Dice, and the results haven't been good under Dice.

So perhaps, because my instant thought, Johnny, was Dice is the kind of guy you want in this situation.

Everton needs to stay up.

They can do something else in the summer.

But I think matchgoing fans had a slightly different view.

Yeah, I mean, it actually wasn't a given.

You know, it's easy to say there's probably three worse teams than them in the division that Daish has kept them up before.

His Burnley side were probably going down if they hadn't been sacked.

I think a lot of fans have been saying he almost looks like he's given up a little bit this season.

This season has been, I think, markedly different to the previous two.

The football, yeah, has been terrible.

They cannot score goals.

I think Craig Dawson is still like their second top scorer this season for those two own goals for Wolves.

I think there's obviously a case for making a change.

Whether there's a case that Moyes is the right guy, I don't know.

I think there's this impression that he's kind of like a safe pair of hands, which

someone that, you know, will sort of guarantee them survival, which I think is what Sunderland tried and didn't.

Failed really badly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it is just so, it is totally unimaginative.

Moyes at 2002, when he was still in his 30s,

that was in many ways the last like genuinely surprising, I think bold managerial appointment Everton have made.

Everything since then, through like the Alladites and the Daishes and the Rafa Benitezes and basically whoever, you know, hiring whoever was the like the flavor of the month in the Premier League, even Angelotti,

everything said, you know,

it points to this almost kind of mortal fear that, you know, we are Everton, we have this kind of historical grandeur to us and let's just try and preserve what we have.

And those sorts are the sorts of decisions in the aggregate that have led them to where they are, which is why I don't think another one of them is necessarily going to be the magic bullet that that turns them around because they they have been so conservative as an organization for so long that that that's that's what's got them into into this mess in the first place.

I think this this is all very very valid and I was pitch hard as

the announcement not the announcement was made but after the game and they were saying oh is it going to be David Moyes and Unlucky for me I couldn't see the like return of what the show looked like because as I was saying David Moyes is probably not going to be the next manager this they were showing the odds that he was the favourite to be the next manager and it was like very imminent and I was like nah there's no way that's going to happen.

Obviously, I got caught out there.

And we can talk about Moyes and the strange situation, the fact that we do almost expect clubs to try and be more progressive now.

Because I thought in some ways, maybe he'll be there for six months and then allow somebody else the chance to be in a new stadium to build Everton to be the club that they want him to be.

But in Sean Dice, like, I just looked at his Premier League record as a manager.

And this, I think, highlighted the key issue for me.

So

I think he's had 333 games as a Premier League manager, and his sides have scored 323 goals.

That's the number, you know, and when you look at them now in this season in the Premier League, they've got 15 goals in 19 games.

Yes, it's fair enough creating a team that says got a good defensive record like they do with 25 goals, tough to beat.

But do you want to see tough to beat week in, week out for multiple, multiple years?

Because on those days where you do concede, well, what are the chances you're getting back into the game?

Do you have that sense of excitement whereby, oh, you know, we're 1-0 down, we're 10 minutes to go, we'll find a way to win it?

That's not how I see a Sean Dais side.

But it's not how you see a David Moyes.

It's not how you see a David Moyes side.

That's what you say.

That's what you say.

But go back a couple of years and it's weird because I feel like I'm caping a little bit for David Moyes here.

But he had a West Ham side who for two years felt disappointed to have not qualified for the Champions League.

I remember Declan Rice saying it specifically one year.

They said we should have been in that top four.

I'm like, but who's in my, oh, it's David Moyes.

And then even going further back to where a lot of us were very young, well, some of us were younger.

And Everton made it to the Champions League as well.

So a David Moyes side, what does that mean and how does that compare to a Sean Dash side?

Because even though it doesn't feel like a progressive appointment, what he could potentially bring somehow, you've got to say, is probably better than saying what Sean Dash was offering to those fans.

And for us as outsiders, we can dip in and say, oh, you know, but they drew with Chelsea.

They drew with Man City drew with this.

But then they've watched the team score two goals in 10 games.

You know, that's realistically not very good.

Let's talk about Graham Potter.

He took his West Ham side to Aston Villa.

They lost 2-1.

They're a bit unlucky.

I think, Johnny, you wrote a piece about the job that he's got to do at the London Stadium.

Unashamedly, I'm a Potter fan.

I thought

the job he did at Brighton was incredible.

I'm not as much of a, I'm not like a Potter stan.

I'm not like Nick Ames, who went to Wosterson and was on the bandwagon.

I just think

he's a decent bloke in

an industry where it's actually not that easy to be a decent bloke and

an all-star Premier League manager

in the same sitting.

The problem at West Ham, and I think

this has been the case for some years, is that the lines of authority are all splayed and dispersed, and nobody really knows who's answerable to who, nobody really knows where the power lies, and so it's a place run

where everyone's not really pulling together.

There's all these kind of whispers and anonymous briefings, and that this sporting director wants this guy, and this other guy on the board wants some other manager, and they just haven't been pulling together for a long time uh and that that is what potter could can do and he actually do it fairly quickly you know he he he

he gets the whole club aligned in the same direction and he does it with with a human touch by by making sure everyone buys in to the project and he does it very empathetically as well i mean i think that was his that was his degree that was his degree topic like empathy in in sports management or something like that that is exactly what west ham needs i mean quite apart from what he brings tactically i i think there are other people that would be more qualified to talk about potterball But yeah, I think that what West Ham really needs is basically like a recognisable human face on what has become quite a kind of a weird

machine over the last couple of seasons.

All right, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll begin with Man City walloping the class of 92.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Doug says, did Man City's 8-0 winner against Salford show everybody that they'll be absolutely fine in League 2 next season?

Yeah,

they beat Salford 8-0.

Are they back, Nadam?

What's been, because we haven't spoken to you for a while, what's been your sort of feeling about the weirdness that the Eti had?

Yeah, lots of different

things, to be honest, from players' fitness to players' form to the nature of some of the teams they were playing against to individual errors.

Like, it's been a whole concoction of just a mess, to be honest.

And I don't think they're out on this, out on the other side right away, you know, especially not linked to playing against the Classic 92, as you say.

But I think Guardiola got to a point, probably for the first time in his career, where the substance was more important than the style to build confidence.

I think he's somebody himself who always talks about performance and its value and how, in time, that leads to positive positive outcomes.

But he knows, in the games which they've won recently, they've not been perfect, they've offered teams a chance to get back in the game, to take some chances, and they've not taken them and they've had to ride their look.

But now, you know, the confidence is there.

It feels like they're sort of rolling for those players.

They know they can get better, but at least they're winning games.

And in this game against Salford, like I almost got myself in a position where I thought Salford were going to be an issue.

I almost did it based on the last two months.

But then I was like, nah, because they're in league two.

If it was like a lower championship or whatever, maybe like a Plymouth, who knows?

But to be dropping down that far, nah, I just couldn't see it, especially not for City at home.

And for those players to go out and play the way that they played, like a James McAtee, who, like, he's a friend of mine, so I'm obviously very biased.

He's a very good player, but it's been a long time.

It's been a long time since City fans have been asking for an Academy player to just go and play because usually they're in such high-stakes games that they want to see their most senior, the most experienced players go out and do what they do.

But he did it.

And what a moment to score a hat-trick in in the

FA Cup for your boyhood team.

And he's from Salford.

So against the Class of Night 2 as well.

And that's funny.

I'll be honest.

The hater in me was like, oh, look at all those Class of Night 2 guys sitting in the stands, devastated.

Gigsy on the side.

Like, have that.

Welcome to the Etiad, fellas.

Enjoy yourselves.

But that's the hater in me.

The more sensible side of me was, good luck to Salford for the rest of the season.

Hopefully they can progress up the league.

I think in the top six now or whatever.

So yeah, it's a great day for City.

Great day for James, some of the other players to get their goals.

I think Nicole Riley scored his first goal as well.

So it's a good Academy day, a lot of goals, and somehow a clean sheet for Man City.

Yeah, Pep did a good Carl Robinson is so, so good before the game.

What do you make of Karl Walker, Wilson?

Rumoured to be off to AC Milan.

He didn't make the squad.

Pep's supporting the move.

He's not had a great time this year, has he?

But...

has won everything at City.

Seems good for everyone.

Yeah, I mean, his performance has been poor.

His pace seems to have gone.

I think possibly he's carrying a bit of an injury that maybe came back a bit early.

And maybe his pace hasn't gone quite as devastatingly as it appears to have.

But I think it's got to a point where a fresh start for both of them probably makes sense, probably helps.

And the city clearly are looking to bring in new blood, and I think in the summer they'll bring in even more charges and that outcome, notwithstanding.

To rattle through the rest of the games, Bromley took the lead at St James's Park.

That was a lovely moment for their fans up in the gods, wasn't it?

Cameron Congreve scoring from 25 yards.

Lewis Miley's goal.

I mean, William Asuda's goals, but Lewis Miley's hit was great, wasn't it?

And Newcastle have won eight games in all competitions in a row.

I mean, stop me, chaps, if you have anything urgent to say about any of these games.

Liverpool beat Agrinson Stanley 4-0.

Trent Alexander Arnold's finish.

It was beautiful.

I mean, maybe it would have gone exactly in the top corner if Real Madrid wasn't on his mind.

It could just go a bit lower than the top corner.

I've got something to say about that one.

So,

Rio Gumoha.

Yeah.

Shout to him, 16 years old.

And it almost makes you realize that usually after a game, everybody goes home.

Everyone drives home, whatever.

Like 16 years old.

He's got to ask for a lift.

Still living at home.

Like the reality of being so young, playing such a big professional sport.

You can't really enjoy your moments because you're still waiting around for people.

You're still dependent on other people to get you to places that you need to get to.

And how do you celebrate?

I don't know, probably chicken nuggets and chips or something like that after playing at Anfield.

Yeah.

So nice little moment for the youngster.

He was born on the 29th 29th of August 2008.

Disturbia by Rihanna was number one when he was born.

I think that makes him the first player to have been born after the Soccer AM Glory years began, which I feel that really hits me more than anything.

Like, I feel that's still part of the same, but it isn't, isn't it?

Shit.

Went on to Exeter, who beat Oxford

first time there in the fourth round, I think, 44 years.

There was a fun penalty shootout at Hull.

Hull had one to win it, but Mason Burstow hit the ball into orbit.

Joyous scenes

in the Donnie end.

While we're on Hull, just to send our love to Dean Windas, being diagnosed with dementia at the age of 55.

He has stage two of the condition.

Joked with social media followers that he was just glad they found a brain, which is a very good line, isn't it, from Dito?

Posted a video of himself miming along to the Glen Campbell song Rhinestone Cowboy with the caption, just got to keep on smiling and try try to help people.

His decision to make public his diagnosis was applauded by organisations who work to support people with neurodegenerative conditions.

Dementia UK said by choosing to speak openly and publicly, he'll undoubtedly encourage others to seek support if they're concerned about symptoms they may be experiencing.

Yeah,

you know, he, yeah, talking the soccer room glory is, I mean, he was an absolute staple and is a lovely, lovely man.

And we send you our love.

Wicken beat ports with 2-0.

Does not feel amazingly surprising that, even if they're in a division below, they're separated by about four places, I think.

Walt Fass scored a belter, didn't he?

So much fog at Leicester and Birmingham.

Lyndon Dyke's goal for Birmingham as well was absolutely ridiculous, if you want to pick that out.

Nice to see Sully March score a goal.

I've not thought about it for a long time.

He's been injured.

As Brighton won 4-0 at Norwich, Toysin Adderabao scoring a lovely goal for Chelsea of two, he scored against Morecambe.

And Middlesbrnehl, Blackburn 1 felt so 90s to me.

That was like a real throwback Premier League game.

And have I got any other thoughts?

Yes, the Ipswich Town penalty miss.

Has everyone seen this?

Ali Al Hamadi?

Sort of scuffing it white.

I mean, it is up there with the Patton Evans, Peter Devines.

Not quite that level of bad penalty.

Would Ryer have saved it?

I mean, do you know what?

It would be so he wouldn't have got to it because it was however scuffed it was, it was so far away.

He'd have had to start on his right post and then I think he could have got to it, would be my suggestion for that penalty.

And Southampton's first goal was a goal that Russell Martin would have absolutely hated because it was just a long ball, flick on from an enormous man, and then a really great finish by a small striker, big man, little man.

Fourth round draw could be some upsets in this wheel, because I think a lot of complaints about this third round draw was all the big sides were at home apart from Tottenham.

But, you know, Newcastle have got to go to Birmingham, Liverpool to Plymouth, Forest to Exeter, Ipswich to Coventry, Man City to Leighton Oriental, Derby, Palace to Donny, Wolves to Blackburn, Fulham to Mansfield or Wigan.

So we could have, even at first sight, I thought this isn't too exciting a draw, we could have some, we could have some giant killings.

Yeah, and if I were still sort of a full freelance, I think I'd be doing the Exeter-Plymouth double, assuming they're not on the same day, which would be a nice little, I mean, I'm now patronising South West desperately, but it'd be a nice little trip down there.

It would be, wouldn't it?

Get a crisp morning down there.

Yeah, you could, and you could sort of pop down to...

Where would you go in Cornwall if you carried on?

I've never been to Cornwall.

Cornwall is so far, so far from the northeast.

You literally might as well go to, you know, like Serbia or something.

It's so far.

But what you're getting is that it's taking like seven or eight hours.

Yeah, but mentally, I've always been the northeast.

Right, I understand.

I understand.

Only one Premier League side home to a low league side.

That's Southampton, who hosts Burnley.

Burnley might be favourites for that.

Then you've got Villa Spurs, Brighton, Chelsea, Man United, Leicester, and Everton, Bournemouth in the all-Premier League ties.

Should we do the Super Copper, Real Madrid 2, Barcelona 5?

This, Johnny, was a ludicrous game of football, wasn't it?

Real clearly are in

quite a bit of trouble.

And it's really hard to see how they pull out their inevitable Champions League victory from this season.

But yeah, Barcelona were, I think it was 4-1 at halftime, something like that.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's interesting how...

I don't know, there was all this chaos over

the new year with all the Danny Olmo stuff and them not being able to register him and potentially having to sell some VIP

boxes to a Middle East consortium in order to get the money that

and I don't know, it just seems like

such chaos off the pitch and the mismanagement at Barcelona over the last few years.

We don't need to delve into that any more than we need to.

But on the pitch, things just seem to be going, I don't know, so serenely.

Like Lamin Yabal scored another Belta.

Rafinha is having an incredible season.

Unbelievable, isn't he?

Yeah.

And yeah, I think things could go well for them.

I've got to say, though, this Super Cup win is an interesting one because, in terms of their domestic form, they've actually taken a bit of a turn.

Because once upon a time, I think when they won the last Classical, I think they were probably five, six points clear of Real Madrid.

But as it sits now, they're in third.

They're six points, I think, away from

six points away from Atletico, who are top, and five away from Real Madrid.

So it's strange that, you know, they can have that sort of like collapse in the league, but then come up against Real Madrid, and they just keep scoring against them.

And I was impressed yesterday as well, in the fact that they go a goal behind, but can still have that sort of like setup to then win by so, so much.

So it's going to be a very interesting second half of the season.

And yeah, I think the saying in Spanish is like Ay Liga, when they try and describe it, how it's one of the best, because so many teams could win it.

And right now, those three teams, they're right in the mix in terms of who could be the champion this season, which is always nice to see.

And Vojek Chesny was sent off in the 56th minute after taking down Kalin and Bappe, which was a nice way of learning that Wojciech Chesny plays for Barcelona.

Oh, dear.

I'll finish with a couple of emails.

Sam says, hello, just to clarify, Harrogate does not have a booths.

I mean, I don't know if you want to weigh on this.

This is sort of the north, Wilson, for you.

I mean, it's not as north, but you know.

Like, if I'm mentally always northeast, despite living in London, Harrogate is mentally, emotionally, culturally southeast.

It's a sight thing in Yorkshire.

It's so southern that Maury Smith lives in it.

Just to clarify, Harrogate does not have a booths.

We do, however, have a Waitrose.

Perhaps a better comparison could be with Wheaton's, which is a local food shop that has won several awards and seems to do quite well.

I'm sure it's very popular with the several current and former Leeds players who choose to live in Harrogate over Leeds.

I'm pretty sure this was the first mention of Harrogate on the pod since the Mansfield evisceration, which I do not remember,

unless that was a war in the Middle Ages.

Hopefully we manage have managed to avoid a similarly painful defeat at the hands of Leeds, to be honest, as someone who grew up watching Harrogate play alongside 400 other hardy souls every week.

The writing of another chapter in this ludicrous last eight years is more important than the 20 goals we'll concede to our local neighbours.

It was only lost 1-0.

Whatever happens, we'll remain the only place in the country that has league football and the betties, and that has to count for something.

Warm regards, Sam Walsh.

Thank you, Sam.

John says, I'm Axe and the Gang, Australian living in Japan, who's just dropped my wife off at the hospital awaiting our first child to be born.

To keep my mind off waiting for my son, are you not allowed in there?

I've been listening to the pod, much like I've been doing every week for the past decade plus.

We're still not sure of the name yet, but if Barry or the gang have any suggestions, they'll definitely shoot up the list to the top of the list.

Thank you for the good times.

Can't wait to share my unfortunate love of Manchester United with my son.

Expect a follow-up message when I have my vasectomy done.

Thank you, John.

Best of luck with everything.

Presumably, he should be here by now.

I don't know when you sent the email, but

yeah.

I mean, by all means, if your wife is giving birth and you are listening to football week, you can stop and go in.

And

interestingly, mention of the guri is my, I was having lunch with some good friends yesterday.

When their son was,

when my friend Christie was giving birth to their son, Leo,

Dave just put the TV on and Soccer Wayne was actually on in Australia at the time and it just came on with my face.

And Christie yelled, get that off!

Get him off the television.

Now, fair enough.

I understand that.

I'm not insulted.

It's a totally different world now, isn't it?

I remember talking to Dennis Tewitt, former Manchester City player and Solomon player, but it was when he was at City.

I think it was when his second son was born.

He was playing away at Wolves and literally came into the dressing room at half-time.

This is mid-70s.

The phone in the dressing room rings.

The manager, who I guess was Tony Book, maybe, answers the phone and goes, oh, Dennis, it's a boy.

Puts the phone down.

He just goes out and plays the canal.

Are you saying

there were better times?

I'm saying they were different times.

It's not as romantic, is it, I guess?

Is it?

Just

Mr.

Book, whoever he was, the Tony Book, did you say?

Tony Book, yeah.

When I think of someone saying it's a boy, I will now think of Wilson.

Yeah.

Cardigan's romance and it's a boy.

Anyway, thanks for all your emails on Rollerberry vasectomies, which keep coming thick and fast.

Of course, we'll do more of them soon.

The email address for anything is put more weekly at theguardian.com, and that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Wilson.

Cheers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nadam.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Johnny.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.