Amorim arrives as Guardiola extends stay in Manchester – Football Weekly Extra podcast

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

The Premier League returns and Pep Guardiola is rewarded for his worst ever run as manager by getting another year.

Granted, he's been not too bad in the previous 486 games.

Spurs go to the Etihead, just destined to get absolutely walloped, or will they?

Probably, if it happens, they'll have more defeats than win this season.

With Johnny Lou right all along, we'll ask him about Ange, and then to Ruben Amarin's opener away at Ipswich.

A nice one to start, or a recipe for disaster.

Lots of United players are saying how much fun they're having.

You would, wouldn't you?

But who will play wing back?

Leaders Liverpool go to Southampton.

The stats suggesting most sellers getting better with age.

Chelsea go to Leicester in the Kiern and Dewsbury Hall Derby.

Arsenal hosts Nottingham Forest.

Can Jonathan Wilson RIP are mentioned yet again?

While Bournemouth-Brighton might be the best game of the weekend.

We'll look ahead to everything else, answer your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

Dan says, elite panel that wouldn't look out of place on University Challenge.

I'm not suggesting anything, Barry, but I think you'd be the one on the end.

Welcome, boy.

That's fair enough.

Jonathan Wilson, hello.

Well, when I was on University Challenge, I was the one on the end.

So I was slightly insulted by that, but at least I'm here for once.

Okay.

No, that's true.

How'd you get on?

We lost in the

only in the third round.

Ah, robbed.

Johnny Lou, welcome.

I mean, you don't do quiz games games where you've got other people with teammates.

You do it all alone, don't you?

Yeah, I've been on two quiz shows, which is which is well countdown, which is not really a quiz show.

And I was on a Dominic Diamond sports call as a teenager in the late 90s, and I won some Cricket World Cup tickets.

Did you win so you won the whole thing?

Oh, well, it was just me against some other kids.

And

the answer was in true office quiz told the Tempest.

And

I won two tickets to India New Zealand at Trentbridge.

And did the guy you beat challenge you to throw a kettle or a pub

afterwards?

Anyway, Moonlight Hanger says it's being reported that Peps agreed a new deal with City.

Is this the first time a manager whose team have a worse form over the last five games and San Maruno has been offered a new contract?

Rob says, should we congratulate Man City on six in a row after Peps contract renewal?

So he's signed for another year.

What do you make of it, Wilson?

I was surprised by the timing of it.

I thought we were waiting to find find out or he was waiting to find out what happened with the charges um people seem to be reading a lot into that that's that city or he have some sense of of what the outcome of of that's going to be i'm not not sure about that i'm not really sure how how that would work um but possibly they've they've got wind of how things are going or they've got a sense of how how the hearing's going i i i mean i i sort of

I also, although I'm slightly surprised by the timing, I also think we sort of expected expected this from the moment that Amarim went to United.

That I although City denied it, I think the suggestion was that

Viana, Hugo Viana, who's coming in as a sporting director at City,

that he would have appointed Amarim, but Guadiela is still going to be there, so the job wasn't there for Amarim, so Amarim then decided he would take another offer.

I think it's great for City.

I think it's probably very good for the Premier League if City is still in it.

But yeah, he's the best manager in the world, and it's great to have him in our league.

It's interesting there is no sort of relegation clause, Johnny.

Because I think a lot of neutrals would love to see Pep, you know, at Rotherham away or Stevenage away or insert whichever EFL club you want away.

Yeah, City have been pretty proactively briefing this around that, you know, there is no relegation clause.

This isn't,

you know, there isn't some sort of parachute in case the Premier League hearing goes against them.

In terms of the timing, I think it's worth I guess it's just worth pointing out that that everything at Citi right now seems to be kind of based around this hearing and how it's going to go.

It's, I think, directing all their thinking at the moment.

It's preoccupying a lot of it.

So

there is an element of, I guess, almost defiance in terms of the timing of this.

You'll note that it's agreed to sign rather than signed.

So there is still a little bit of wiggle room there.

So I think the messaging is very much quite important there.

It's basically saying, well, well, if we're going down, which we're not,

this guy is going down on the ship with us, which we are not.

But, you know, he's often said in the past that

he will walk if he feels that he's been lied to.

But I think this shows he's very much tied to

his fate to the club, whatever happens to it.

I mean, the other point worth making is where would he go?

What would Guardiola do next?

There isn't really a comparable city-sized club that he could realistically go to.

So I think when he's been considering his options, as I suppose he must have done, there are very few jobs out there where I think he would realistically be a fit for.

Interesting, Barry, that Wilson said it.

It's good for the Premier League.

Do you think it is?

Yeah, I was a little bit surprised Wilson said that.

I don't know.

I suppose it's good for the Premier League insofar as he's arguably the best manager in the world, and it's good for the Premier League to have the best manager of the world managing in it.

Is it good for the Premier League if City keep winning the Premier League under Pep?

Probably not.

And I think most people who aren't City fans and have no particular inclination to see them repeatedly win the league year after year are probably quite disappointed that Pep is

probably going to stay on.

I mean, there's no guarantee the way they're going at the moment, there's no guarantee they will win it.

Liverpool are favourites.

Liverpool look like the league is theirs to lose.

And

I

despite what you said in your intro, I don't think there's any guarantee City will beat Spurs at the weekend because I think this is very much the kind of game Spurs could well win after losing at home to Ipswich last time out.

Yeah, it does make this game really fascinating.

Also, even more fascinating since

it would be City's fifth defeat in a row.

But similarly, Posta Koglu is under pressure.

And as I said, if they lose this game, which odds are they do, then they've lost more games than they've won this season.

This sort of inconsistency, I think, in this first season you could accept.

But by this point, you'd hope to sort of see them a clearer pattern and they wouldn't have these

extraordinary sort of swings of performance.

I mean, I was at the game where they lost to Palace, and they were really poor in that game, like really dreadful.

That wasn't an unlucky defeat.

They just

they were awful that game.

They sort of were were just overwhelmed in midfield.

There was no sort of sense of fight there.

And yet, as Barry says, you know, their record against City is very good.

They've beaten them already this season, albeit in the Carabao Cup with

weakened teams or much changed teams on both sides.

They got a draw in this game.

Last season,

a ridiculously frenetic match, 3-3.

So, yeah, City should win it.

But at the minute,

I don't really trust City.

You obviously don't trust Spurs, but you don't trust Spurs on either side of the equation.

They could be really good.

And I think the sort of game where there is space in behind the opposition for them to attack that really suits them.

So, I mean, yeah, possibly under pressure.

There's certainly

maybe the better phrase is that the discontent is mounting and you don't want to add more fuel to that.

I'm not sure a defeated city necessarily would, but there comes a point at which Spurs have to look like they're going to finish top five or top six.

People in charge there will start to think, you know, is there something we need to do to correct this?

Johnny, your thoughts on and currently?

The inconsistency is obviously a major problem.

Sorry, I just had to

run out of batteries, so I had to go plug in.

No, that's okay.

Reminds me of the time I was interviewing David Schwimmer from Friends, and the portable device I had was running out of batteries, and we had to run down a whole hotel lobby to plug it in underneath an armchair.

He was very accommodating.

So, you know, if David Schwimmer is accommodating, I will be accommodating.

Do carry on, Johnny.

Could that be any more awkward?

So, the inconsistency is a huge issue.

And I think this is as much of a psychological problem as is a tactical problem.

Spurs just don't seem to be able to put together two or three good performances in a row.

So, you know, you beat City in the League Cup, and then you lose to Ipswich, you lose to Galatasarai in the Europa League.

And I think that is very much an And problem because it's his job, obviously, to get them consistent.

It's his job to cut out the sort of brain fade

that we see in defence, whether it's defending a counter-attack or it's set pieces.

They can't seem to stop crosses coming into the box.

All of that is on the coach.

And I don't excuse, I don't exonerate the players 100% from that either.

But it is, you know, the buck ultimately stops with him.

And, you know, this is exactly the sort of statement fixture that Foster Cogno's actually done pretty well.

at getting Spurs up for.

You know, you think of the 3-0 win at Old Trafford, which is like one of the best performances, I think, by any club this season, all beating City at home.

He does seem to be able to get them up for these big occasions.

It's the stuff in between that he seems to have a problem with.

Just back to City quickly, because I think it's probably worth asking, and I haven't yet, is do you think Pep staying

makes a huge difference to the form that we've seen, Wilson?

Oh, I don't know.

Possibly.

I mean, I think the uncertainty...

around the club to do with the Chargers definitely

has had some kind of impact on them.

It has to to be unsettling.

And these things don't have to be direct.

I mean, whether players are actually sitting in the dressing room going through

exactly what associated party transaction regulations are, I doubt.

But just that sense of things not being quite right,

things being slightly insecure, I think that does or can feed into a dressing room.

Whether the knowledge that Guadal will be the coach next season helps to

pour oil on those choppy waters.

Maybe it does.

I don't know.

But I don't think there's any sense of Godhill as a lame duck of players sort of.

Downing tools.

Downing tools.

Yeah.

I think the more fundamental problem is Rodri's not there and he's essential to them.

And they've got a couple of other injuries as well.

And a couple of players haven't come back from a summer in particularly good form.

So, yeah,

it might sort of symbolically be a reset that gets everybody going again.

But equally, that might just be the international break, and everybody can sort of take a step back and recompose themselves and and go again um i'm not sure if we discussed it or mentioned it even but spurs will be without rodrigo bentencour now who starts his quite what is it six seven game ban seven game seven game ban he will be um

quite a big miss for them i would imagine yeah he's started a lot of games under postacoglu yeah he he's uh the fa announced on monday that he'd serve a seven-game ban um covering six premier league games carabao cup quarterfinal was charged with misconduct in September.

Over a T V interview he gave in his home country of Uruguay in June with reference to Sun's race making an aggravated breach.

Bentica was asked to provide a shirt belonging to a Spurs player.

Sonny's, he replied, it could be Sonny's cousin too, as they all look the same.

Spurs released a statement on Wednesday confirming their intention to appeal.

While we accept the guilty finding against Rodrigo by the Independent Regulatory Commission, we believe the subsequent sanction is severe.

Johnny, do you think they should have just let it be?

Do you think this this this appeal is you know you can't on one hand say yes we understand and then say actually we're appealing yeah i mean i think the optics of this are really bad i mean doubly so for spurs in that initially they basically tried to to sweep it under the carpet the implication being there is no problem move on uh there's nothing to see here and i think that that is the wrong way uh to address racism as a as as an institution and i think now the fact that you are uh you're appealing the ban a ban which i think just just taking the temperature off social media a lot of fans I think are basically fine with.

You know, I think Spurs fans are essentially saying, okay, this is a real drag because Benjiko is a really important player in midfield, and we, you know, he's a linchpin, and it's going to be a real drag to miss him for all those games.

But there has to be a proper punishment for this kind of thing.

And because it's, if we talk about education, this is actually an exemplary punishment, is one of the ways that you are going to get through to players and other people in the game that this kind of casually thrown around language perpetuates really terrible stereotypes about East Asian people.

And yeah, so

it is a real blow for Spurs, but they have, I think, reacted to it.

They have compounded the issue, I think, in the way that they've tried to respond to it.

Kick it out.

Says there's been a rise in both incidents of racism towards East and Southeast Asian players.

There were 395 reports of player-targeted racist abuse in stadiums and online to kick it out in the 2023-24 season up from 277 in 2022-23.

55% of those reports of racism aimed at specific players last season were towards those from an East Asian background.

Of the 937 player-specific abuse reports to kick it out in the past five full seasons, 327 of them have been directed at just seven East and Southeast Asian players.

I just wondered, Julie, as someone who has experienced this exact racism, does it sometimes feel that there's a sort of

stratification of racism, a hierarchy of racism that

some is more acceptable than others, if that's the right way of phrasing it?

No, I think that's that's right.

I mean, it's kind of a blunt way of putting it, you know, without wishing to get all sort of David Bedeal about this, but

there definitely appears to be more accepted.

It is less socially unacceptable, I think, to make really good casual, casual jokes about East Asian people.

I mean,

this is going about 10 years now, but when I was on Countdown, you know, everyone was saying, oh, well,

no wonder he's good at maths.

No wonder the Asian guy is good at maths, which is hard to rebut because I am actually very good at maths.

It's just, you know,

in the specific, the specific point was actually true, but the generalization, the extrapolation drawn from it

was problematic.

So yeah, it's a tough one.

It's not something that, you know, preoccupies me overly.

I still feel that, you know, my experience is

very, very different from other people in the UK who

I think experience much worse structural racism and it kind of affects all different parts of their lives.

For me, it's really just, you know, you get the occasional comment, you know, people just sort of blurt things out in the street or whatever, or the occasional lazy stereotype.

And, you know, that doesn't, you know, affect my life negatively in a material way, but it is really annoying.

Sure.

All right.

Well, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll begin with Ruben Amarin and his debut as he takes charge of Manchester United Days Rich Town.

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.

So, Ruben Amaram takes charge of Manchester United for the first time at Portman Road.

United fans have been poring over a seven-minute video released from his first training session.

Casemiro and Rashford posted afterwards about how well it had gone.

What have you made so far of everything you've seen, Barry, which is precisely nothing?

Well, I haven't actually seen the training video.

I don't know if there was anything revolutionary in it but I am aware that a couple of Manchester United players

said that they liked it or enjoyed it and that has their very banal social media posts have been forensically pulled apart by various journalists.

towards the end of what has been, you know, not as slow a fortnight as usual on the interlol front.

I did see pictures of Rubin and his staff out and about

on the streets of Manchester taking in their new surroundings.

And they seem to be having a fun time, very wrapped up against the cold and the rain.

This is,

you know, everyone will be interested to see how United line up

with Amarim in charge against Ipswich, who obviously won their first game of the season just before the international break.

That's quite the pick-me-up for them.

And they're obviously managed by Kieran McKenna, who has previous at Manchester United and was mentioned as a potential successor to Ericton Hague.

So it's

all very nicely poised, but I wouldn't claim to have any idea what's going to happen or how Amarim is going to

pick it, who he's going to pick or how he's going to set them up.

3-4-3, presumably, because as we've been repeatedly told, that is his fixed formation.

Yeah, in the video, Wilson, he had a back three of Luke Shaw, Johnny Evans, and Lenny Yorrow, with Cobby Maino and Casemiro deeper in midfield and Mason Mount ahead of them.

I mean, I suppose quite a lot of players weren't there because they're internationals, but what do you think he will do?

So, who was it left-wing back in the training session?

Then, I'm not here to tell you those sort of details.

Hang on.

Malassia is what?

Malas Malassia.

Tyro Malassia.

Well, I mean, if he is actually fit, then

that's obviously

an advantage Ten Haag never had or very rarely had.

I mean, I think he will play with that back three because he always has.

And

you don't bring in somebody and then

expect him to completely change his style.

I mean, that sort of is what Ten Haag did, and it went quite badly wrong.

And that's why he lost his first two games against Brighton and

Brentford was because he was trying to play his style with a squad that wasn't equipped for it.

So that immediately is a point of friction.

My suspicion is that they will beat Ipswich, every will get carried away.

So I've got two stats for you that I think are vaguely relevant.

So there's only been four post-Busby managers.

Let's make this a question.

There have been four post-Busby managers who've won their first league game in charge of Manchester United.

Okay.

Everybody got very excited after all four of them.

And, you know, so do you want to guess who they were?

Moyes.

Moyes?

Mourinho.

Ollie.

Mourinho.

Did you say Ollie there, Barry?

So

yeah, Ollie beat Cardiff.

And the other one's Dave Sexton, which is much harder.

But none of them went on really.

I suppose Mourinho to an extent.

So first games, yeah, and those wins were over.

Sorry, I can't remember who the Sexton one was against.

But Lee McCarry scored a hat-trick.

And then I think Moyes beat Fulham.

Mourinho beat Bournemouth and Solcio beat Cardiff.

So, yeah, similar statues of side to Ipswich.

Probably Amriman will win.

Probably everyone will get carried away.

This is is the great new future.

And we'll find out probably in May

how realistic that is.

And the other stat, he plays a back three.

In the last 60 years, how many teams have won the top division in England playing with a back three as their default?

One Chelsea.

Correct.

Under Antonio Conte.

Thanks very much.

A nod of approval.

So

my point there is.

Yeah.

Is there a reason why the back three...

You don't win the league playing three and a bad.

You can make an argument for the early Guadiola teams that you know that because of the way they used the full backs that they were effectively a back three in build-up but i'll take your point yeah sure i mean there are yeah i mean that's probably the best example there are a couple of other examples where you can say yeah at certain phases they played a back three on certain games they played a back three but an obvious back three is a default it's only contest chelsea i just wonder whether it's something to do with the physical demands of the premier league mean that wing backs really struggle to cope over a full season in the Premier League.

That's the only sort of theory you're trying to work out why that might be.

Um, I also wonder if if that's

that shape that Conte played, the sort of uh which which wasn't dissimilar to Amrim shape, the sort of the the the three

well, yeah, it was a sort of three-four-three, wasn't it?

With you had Victor Moes on one side and um who's on the other side, uh, Alonso, right?

Yeah, it was Marcus Lonso, that's right, yeah, yeah.

You then had the sort of two sort of inside forwards there in Azar and

oh god, it's behind Diego Costa.

Pedri.

And Pedri, yes, that's right, yeah, yeah.

This would have been better if I'd prepared it, wouldn't it?

No, Pedro.

Pedro, yes, that's right, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sorry.

Should we do that again?

No, no, no, because I got Pedro right.

We can't erase Wilson errors from the record.

It was more forgetfulness than errors.

Compromise.

we definitely can't now.

This is the best bit so far.

Carry on.

Make more errors.

Come on.

Kenny Gas Alvin, Pedro.

Rattle games.

In those sort of three-quarter spaces, they're hard to pick up if that's something you haven't sort of anticipated, haven't seen.

And it was only nine games into the season.

That might be wrong as well.

A handful of game, about a quarter of the way into the season that they switched in the middle of that Arsenal game with 3-0 down.

His head's gone now.

He's more confident.

It was definitely half-time in the game when they were 3-0 3-0 down to Arsenal.

That is true, which may have been the ninth, maybe in the 10th, may have, I think it was the ninth or 10th game of the season.

And then suddenly they switch, and teams can't adjust to it.

That 3-2 shape at the back

is the shape, that sort of trapezium is the shape that teams like to get into to stop teams countering against them.

It's a shape Guardiola sides like to get into when they're in possession, to get five men, five outfield players behind the ball in that 3-2 shape.

But I think that can become quite predictable and quite blockish, and you're totally reliant on the wing backs, who, as we've established, were Moses and Marcus Alonso giving you the width.

And I think that became, by the following season, quite easy to counter.

So that may be another reason that back three, unless one or more of those players are happy stepping out,

it means that you

there's a very sort of rote way of playing and other teams can react to that.

So that might be another reason why back threes have not been as effective for the top teams in in the English league.

Johnny, apart from becoming a trapezium at some point, what

part of

Reuben Amarim and Manchester United are you most interested to see?

So, first of all, there is what he does at wing back, because I think in that training session, he used Anthony as a right-wing back.

And if everyone's kind of assuming, well, Anthony's done at this club.

And then he turns up a right-wing back in Amarin's first training session.

And what Wilson was saying, that is an incredibly important role in an Amarim team.

And he has previous at Sporting of converting what you would consider wingers into wing backs uh, and also having that slightly a slightly lopsided feel of having a one winger and one more defensive player in those positions.

So, I find it interesting to see what he does with that.

And the other thing is, there doesn't really seem to be an obvious place for Rashford in this system unless he is going to be one of the

number nines competing with Hoyland and Xerxe.

The way that they lined up at sporting, which, you know, like that Chelsea team, actually, quite narrow, quite a narrow front three.

You have Mount there, you have Diallo, you have Garnacho, but is Rashford,

is he going to be one of the two that are sort of slightly withdrawn wingers, or is he going to be competing for a number nine spot?

Because I don't see an obvious route

into this side, certainly in terms of getting regular football for Rashford, unless he is, again, prepared to adapt his game a little bit.

Southampton played Liverpool, who are now the Bookie's favourites to win the title.

Are we going a little early on Liverpool, Barry?

Or they've got Man City next weekend at home after playing Real Madrid in midweek, which is a big test of their credentials.

Arguably, Southampton away is not as big a test of their credentials.

No, and I would be very surprised if Liverpool don't win this game quite comfortably.

They have

three players away in South America during the international break.

So, will they start?

Will they be jet-lagged?

Who knows?

That's Darwin Noones, Alexis McAllister, and Louis Diaz, and uh

wataru endos away with japan well he's not a first choice player anyway but uh

i mean i i'm not surprised by liverpool doing well in in our preseason predictions i i predicted them to win the league so i'm i'm quite happy with the way they're going at the minute and i

do think that the league is very much theirs to lose.

I'd be astonished if they don't take three points at Southampton.

Russell Martin, Wilson,

said hopefully I'll be talking to you in two weeks.

He's still there.

So that's good for him.

And is it good for Southampton?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I mean, the problem is Southampton's squad just isn't good enough.

And, you know, you can discuss style all you want.

And, you know, maybe if they...

had a radical change of style or a new manager, maybe they would pick up

slightly more points per game, but maybe they wouldn't.

I mean, the squad has been built to Russell Martin's template, so radical change probably doesn't make much sense.

But I just sort of think it shows how hard it is now when teams get promoted.

And so I looked from

when the league went to 20 teams in

96, 7 through to today, and the rolling five-year average of how many points the three promoted teams got has gone down from

41 to 37.

That's even before last season where they only got 22 points, which is a record low by quite a margin.

But just if you look at the team that Santa came up with under Nigel Atkins in 2012, they had two future England fullbacks in Klein and Shaw.

They had Yeshida and Joseph Font as the two centre-backs, who, yeah, I mean, Yoshida won 100-plus caps for Japan.

Joseph Font won 50-plus caps for Portugal.

They had Morgan Schneider in midfield, who, okay, couldn't quite get in that fantasy team, but was clearly a very good player.

They had people like Lalana, Stephen Davis, Jack Cork, Jason Punchin.

They had Arta Borich and Fraser Foster at the squad as goalkeepers.

It was a really much better squad than the current squad.

So of course they did better.

So I just sort of think Southampton are doomed and there's not really much they can do about it because their squad isn't good enough.

And that's because of the

partly maybe they haven't recruited as well as say a Brentford or a Brighton or gone on the mad scattergun raid that Forrest did, which they almost took the points deduction as we've got to take that if we're going to have a chance of staying up.

But fundamentally, the gulf between the championship and the Premier League is just enormous and it's really really hard to breach.

On subject to one of the players you mentioned,

Mrs.

Rushton at one point turned to me and said, why are lots of people on my Instagram saying Jimmy Puncione?

Anyway, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll rattle through the rest of the Premier League games.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game, Day Scratches from the California Lottery.

Players, 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.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly, Leicester Chelsea.

Then Michael says, if Kin and Drewsbury Hall turned up in a Leicester kit this weekend, would anybody notice, Johnny, this was your big agenda point in the group chat?

Well, you know, I wanted to write about Kin and Drewsbury Hall for the weekend, and I was told, you know, have some self-respect,

basically.

But I do think it's a fascinating tale.

You know, Chelsea signed him in the summer for, you know,

25, 30 million, you know, add-ons, whatever.

Very strong psr motivations behind it obviously and he's just um everyone you know assumed he'd be a key player under Maresque as manager and he's just he's just kind of disappeared and it's a very interesting case study and just how you destinate a career yeah Juice B.

Hall you know he might he might have been something he might still be something he might not have been anything but

he's just I don't know like he's probably played like about 70 minutes something or you know he's played

a bare minimum of football in the last few months and it's just sad because he's at the age where he really needs minutes to develop.

He's never going to get these minutes back.

He's probably going to have to leave Chelsea to get to get some kind of minutes.

He's going to have to rebuild his career again.

And, you know, this is really a kind of, I don't want to use the word tragedy, but it's a real shame on two levels.

First of all, because he's, I think Brighton will in for him this summer, but obviously there's someone in his ear.

You know,

he's saying, well, I'm going to, I'm going to somehow avoid the fate that has,

you know, befallen dozens dozens and dozens of hopeful Chelsea signings in the past where you just kind of fall between the cracks.

If you spend on the Chelsea, if you spend £25, £30 million on a player and just don't play him, it's a total failure.

There should be some kind of penalty for that.

And instead,

it's almost sort of priced in as, well,

they signed four or five of them and one or two of them will come off.

And just the absolute wastage of that,

there just kind of has to be a better way of this thing being run.

Barry, you put a photo into the WhatsApp group.

Producer Joel said was like something out of either a beautiful mind or seven.

Well, yes, in the interests of pedantry and to save any of our listeners the bother, I counted the number of minutes Kieran and Drewsbury Hall has played this season, and that number, not including out of time, is 583.

But he is very much a second string player, Europa League games, league cup games, that kind of thing.

He's played a couple of league games.

The only other bit of news is

goalkeeping coach Hilario has left Chelsea to join Thomas Tuchel in the England setup.

Another foreigner.

Will he sing the anthem?

That's why.

Will Hilario sing the anthem?

That's what I want to know.

And on Leicester, their sponsor, Barry, has gone bankrupt.

Yeah, their front of shirt sponsor, BC Game, which is a community-based online cryptocurrency gaming platform of the type that

Philippe regularly tuts disapprovingly about and looks down his nose upon, who also have a partnership with the Argentinian FA.

They have gone bankrupt.

They only signed their deal with Leicester four months ago.

It was at the time reported to be worth $40 million.

And at the time, Lester described the partnership as one of the most valuable in the club's history.

So

I suspect that is no longer the case.

Rain Davis, who's the director of marketing and affiliate for BC Game,

he described BC Game as an exciting, safe and responsible online gaming business.

So I'm sure any punters who have been left high and dry

and without their winnings will be delighted to hear that.

What's wrong with Walker's Crisps?

Hey, Lester.

At the Emirates, Arsenal play Forest.

Wilson, do you want to say anything about Arsenal or not?

Well, I think this is actually a really key game for them.

I mean, they've only won two of the last seven, but they looked a lot better against Chelsea with Oddy Gerd back.

I think Forrest, it'd be interesting to see what happens to them as well.

Having, I mean, actually played pretty well against Newcastle last game before the break, but lost at 3-1.

Are they able to keep going, or was that just sort of an early season bubble?

But

if you look for reasons to be positive for Arsenal, they've got Oddygerd back.

The city have wobbled, so the city are not 10 points clear, which could have been the case.

And Arsenal have had most of their difficult away fixtures so far.

So if you look at sort of big seven teams,

they've got to go still to Old Trafford and Anfield, and that's it this season.

So the fixture list has been difficult for them.

And I think when people are getting very excited about Liverpool, well as they've played, and this isn't meant to sort of denigrate Liverpool, but the fixture list has been quite kind for Liverpool in that when they've played big games, they've been quite spaced out, they had quite a gentle start.

And I think the real test of Liverpool comes next week against City.

But yeah, if Arsenal can win this,

if that is then the start of a run, then they could still challenge, but they have put themselves in a difficult position.

Newcastle play West Han.

It's not until Monday night, Johnny.

So we'll look ahead to it again on Monday.

But apparently, June and Lok Pategwi is on the brink.

He's got two games to save his job, and one is at St James' Park and one is home to Arsenal.

They're quite difficult games if you're on the brink or if you even if you're not on the brink.

If you're nowhere near the brink they're still difficult.

Yeah and I'm always slightly you know I was slightly sceptical of these of these stories that emerge because I think what have you seen and what have you not seen in the last 10 or 11 games or over pre-season or you know working with him every day seeing how he how he works that you that you're going to learn from the next two games you know have you

it just seems such a silly way of

making what is a really really crucial decision because you know the West Ham are kind of at a bit of crossroads now you know that they are

they have a bit of identity crisis I think I think they're not they're still not quite sure what sort of club they want to be in and the fact that they enjoyed so much success under David Moyes has really

clouded that a little bit.

Are they going to be like a solid mid-table club that tries to make the odd dart at a couple

at a cup or are they going to are they trying to be almost like a progressive project team that wants to challenge for the top five or six in the Premier League in the long term?

I still don't think they've worked that question out.

Lopotegi is one of those coaches where

you could almost sell it either way.

And I think a lot of the fans have not really been able to decipher what he's trying to do.

The football has not been great.

I think a lot of the recruitment, you know, Tim Steiton, the new sport director, I don't think he's impressed very much at all.

So I think we know all that already.

I don't think the next two performances can or should tell us much more about where this regime is going because I don't see much of a long-term future in it either way.

One of Wasam's other problems is Mohamed Kudus, who is one of their best players, maybe their best player when he's playing well.

I mean, he's suspended at the minute anyway because of his meltdown at Tottenham.

But he's just in one of those spells where you just can't do anything right.

So

Ghana...

had failed to qualify anyway for combinations.

They played Niger on, was it Monday, Tuesday night?

Tuesday night, I think.

And the game doesn't matter to Ghana.

Niger still have a chance of ousting or finishing above Sudan.

And Ghana equalised very late on.

And this is a game that Ghana at home should be winning comfortably.

They score a late equaliser.

Their coach runs on the pitch to celebrate.

There's sort of a, oh, at least we haven't lost to Niger.

Niger then immediately score in injury time.

And then Ghana gets a penalty.

And Kudis misses.

He's just having one of those spells where everything is going wrong for him.

And you suspect that poor form at West Ham and poor form at With Ghana are sort of

locked in this sort of vicious circle and things are just getting a vicious spiral and things are just getting worse.

On the plus side for West Ham, Michel Antonio had a nice rest because he forgot his passport or lost his passport and couldn't travel to play with Jamaica.

That's a good point.

Tony says, he's nearly 32.

He's not played for 18 months and will command astronomical wages.

I'd love to know how the panel think Pogba will do when West Ham sign him.

You don't know yet.

Fulham play Wolves.

Kenny says, what's the spread on when Raul Jimenez scores against Wolves?

Particularly interested in Barry's view as he was pretty sharp on guest the attendance last week.

Don't cross the streams, Kenny, but you could see it happening, Baz, can't you?

I had to write

an article the other day, just pick a team of 11 players who've sort of performed better than you would have expected

this season.

And I was going to include Raul Jimenez.

I can't remember if I did in the end or not, but I was looking back at since his head injury.

So that was, I think, four years ago.

And

he hasn't actually scored that many more goals this season than he did any other season after his return from that injury.

I was a bit surprised, which is not to disparage his achievements this season because he is playing really well, and it's not just from a goal scoring point of view.

Obviously, it's early in the season, and if he keeps up his record, I don't think he's scored for a couple of games now, but if he keeps up his record, he will get, you know, over 20 goals this season.

And I don't think there's anyone out there who wouldn't be pleased for him.

But

I imagine,

yeah,

where would he be on the non-celebration celebration if he were to score against Wolves?

I reckon he...

He'd give it the full gun.

He's been...

No, I think he'd be respected

personally.

I think he'd be He'd be a hands-in-the-art mob by his teammates, is what I think.

Hopefully, we'll find out.

Yeah.

Bournemouth-Brighton, Villa Palace, Everton, Brentford.

Anyone got any strong thoughts on those three games?

Well, Bournemouth-Brighton could be a great game.

I mean, two really good teams who play attractive football.

Brighton, obviously, are going in on the back of their win over City.

Bournemouth

came out the wrong side of that humdinger at Brentford.

They lost 3-2.

But yeah, I would very much like to see this game.

Rob says, on the last pod we did, Ian Holloway's Swindon haunting story.

I get the need for a bit of light amusement.

It would have been nice to hear the pod at least briefly mention Swindon at 22nd in the bottom tier of the Football League, the club and supporters trust who co-own the ground or at loggerheads.

It's not ideal to be in those circumstances, see a manager honing his stand-up skills on national radio, chatting about ghosts.

Yeah, no, it's a good point.

And we wish you and all Swindon fans all the best, of course.

Finally, this from Barnaby.

Dear Max and Barry, love the pod.

Would like to request one of Barry's wedding messages, please, for my brother getting married to the love of his life, Jess, this Saturday, the 23rd of November.

My brother Peter is a long-term listener based in Sydney.

We've listened to the pod for many years,

discussing it to the extent we've even considered doing our own podcast, Football Weekly Weekly.

You could even say that Peter is something of a Rushton lifer, blimey, dating back to the Soccer AM glory years.

Of the happy couple, Barry would much prefer the bride.

Jess shares his strong dislike of the English national team and almost turned to Matilda's hooliganism after the Lioness's shithouse was during the Women's World Cup semi-final against Australia.

That was the day my brother spinelessly renounced his British passport and joined the Matilda's movement.

Although I cannot support my brother becoming an Australian, they're very much in love, so I do support the marriage.

Many thanks and all the best, Barnaby.

So, Peter and Jess, Barry, give it the works.

Well, just

I have no problem with the Lionesses.

I wish them well, in the same way I wish the England cricket team well, and I don't dislike the English football team, I just like seeing them lose and

would be traumatised if they won anything uh of significance.

Um I would imagine a wedding in Sydney, presumably that's where it is, will be a a fun day out.

I've only I attended a wedding in Apollo Bay in Australia once and it was one of the better weddings I've been to.

And uh yeah, I wish Peter and Jess every happiness in their short marriage.

Thank you so much.

Uh, yeah, have a wonderful day, have a wonderful life, and thanks for listening.

Uh, and that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Johnny.

Thanks, thank you, Wilson.

Cheers, thank you, thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

This is The Guardian.