Will Thomas Tuchel deliver England a major trophy? Football Weekly

This is The Guardian.

Hello, and welcome to Guardian Football Weekly.

Arise, Sir Thomas.

Thomas Tuchel, the first German to win the World Cup for England.

This has all happened very quickly.

Did Lee Carsley's gung-ho Grease Debarkle just put the FA into overdrive?

His formal unveiling is apparently going to happen today.

It might have already happened, depending on when you listen to this.

Is it a good idea?

Tuchel has won cup competition, so that's good.

When will he release Dehand Bremser?

And is it too Brexit to suggest that the manager should be English?

Also, today, Ewan Murray joins us from the jazz bar.

Ellis James gives us a Welsh voice note.

Paul Watson takes us to the Solomon Islands and back, and then we speak to the owner of Worthing FC, George Dowell, about a documentary called The Club that George built.

It's a beautiful, life-affirming film about adversity, the human spirit, and the love of the game.

All that, plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

on the panel today barrett lendenning welcome hi max johnny lou hello hi and hello paul watson hi max uh harry says should the open top bus go down regent street or the mall first in 2026 dan says have the fa and gareth already agreed a repair the vibes contract for 2026 after tuchel refuses to speak to anyone outside the england camp during the world cup um so yeah it was a tuesday uh yesterday the news broke that thomas tuchel tuchel um has emerged as the fa's preferred candidate and by tuesday evening he's agreed to take the job and the unveiling as i said could have happened um johnny are you surprised about how quickly this has happened a little bit yeah uh i think over the over the last camp as lee castley likes to call them you know that there's been all this this noises off about whether castley wants the job whether does he want the job, does he not want the job?

And then suddenly Guardiola is being approached.

And then almost like a

coup de louis, it's been surprise.

It's Thomas Tupole.

Clearly, there's been some kind of contact has been established that there was groundwork being laid.

But yeah, it is surprising.

And not just because of the speed of it, but because this is a caliber of manager that

we don't really see in international football anymore.

which is generally held to be of an inferior standard to the club game, less appealing to top coaches.

You hear rumors of Anchilotti going to Brazil and things like that, and it never quite materialised.

You hear rumors of Klopp and Mourinho, you know,

like big name managers going into international management, and that never quite materialises.

So it's a big coup for the FA.

It does feel a little bit like

they're trying to chase a trophy.

I mean, this is not going to be, I'm going to stick my neck out at this point.

This is not going to be an eight-year relationship like it was with Gareth Southgate.

Thomas Tuchel is not going to be still taking them to by the end.

He'll be dressed as a he'll be dressed as a beef eater by the end, right?

Or he'll just have a top hat.

Yeah, taking them to like Saudi Arabia in 2034.

And it's not, you know,

this is a very short-term marriage of convenience.

And Tuchel wants to be, he's seen what it's done for Naglesman in terms of rehabilitating his career.

I think he wants to take England to the World Cup and rehabilitate his reputation that way.

And England, the FA are just desperate to to win a World Cup and they've hired a guy who they think can do that.

I'm not, I'm not personally not sure it's going to work out like that because things don't work out like that.

But it's a fascinating appointment.

And I think it's Made England box office.

Yeah, I think that is true, isn't it?

There's so many fascinating things.

I mean, the interesting thing, Paul, isn't it, is if Lee Carsley had just played two centre mids last Thursday, I think this wouldn't have, I mean, maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe the FA were going to do this all the time.

But like in a way that...

They couldn't have got Tuchel if that greased game hadn't happened.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

Surely, and I don't profess to know anything about the workings of these things, but surely these discussions with Tuchel were taking place for months, probably, were they not?

So is it not more likely that Karsley had an inkling that he was not likely to get the job?

And possibly he rolled the dice with that Greece selection.

Possibly that was his attempt to say, you know what, I'm going to do something here that's a bit more dramatic because...

If he just continued as he was, maybe it was never going to get the job anyway.

I don't know.

But it seems to me like you don't just contact Tukour after you've had a bad performance against Greece and he's like, Yeah, I'll come over next Tuesday.

Yeah.

Now you say it like that.

It does sound silly to suggest it.

But then football is silly.

I guess what, Baz, what do you make of it?

I'm worried.

I won't lie.

I think it's a good appointment.

He's got a good track record.

Some people say, you know, there's been a lot of noise about this already in the short amount of time since the announcement was made.

Some people say he's too pragmatic.

Some people say he's not pragmatic enough.

He seems to love England and English football.

He has a habit of falling out with people in the past at PSG, at Bayern Munich, at Chelsea.

He

has opinions on everything.

He's a good talker and he's not shy about expressing those opinions and they're not always popular.

He doesn't seem to suffer fools gladly.

And

I think the work he's done that I'm most familiar with is the work he did at Chelsea where he I think he did an excellent job because he took over a team that was in complete disarray after some time with Frank Lampard at the helm immediately shored up their defence and went on to

beat Peps Manchester City in the the Champions League final so

yeah I think he's a really good appointment and I'm interested to see what he does with this England team, how he sets it up, who he picks, who he falls out with, you know, how he'll get on with his FA overlords, who I suspect can be difficult to work with sometimes.

But yeah, interesting.

It's obviously reignited the debate about whether the English man the England manager should be English.

The Daily Mail ran a dark day for England.

Three lines gamble on a capital letters German.

But Tuchel only has 18 months to prove he's up to it.

And Barney tweeting saying, look, large amount of one people, one country, one leader stuff around the England manager.

It makes sense from a sport culture point of view to have an English coach.

But it also becomes odd if you really pushed down that road.

Harry Redknapp is on the radio talking about English blood

as if he's going to eat Thomas Ducall when he gets here.

But Johnny Rory Smith was on Five Live last night saying it does show a flaw that England can't find an English coach.

It's a failure of our structures.

And that kind of what is the point of international football?

We draw the line at players, right?

They have to be at least from the country or have a grandparent, but the coaches don't matter.

And obviously, if you take it to a ridiculous extent, you can't say, well, the physio has to be English and the, you know, the set piece coach has to be English and every, but, but maybe it does seem kind of arbitrary.

Like, if the point of international football is to see if we are better than them,

then is there a you could have an argument without it being Brexity, right?

That you should have an English coach.

Yeah, I mean, this is the, I guess, what you would call the liberal defense of having like English jobs for English managers, that it is a test of systems.

It's a test of your football and culture.

It's a test of your pathways and the talent that you can produce as a nation.

I'm not sure I totally buy that.

I mean, I think

if you didn't have a problem with Depton Rice playing for England, if you didn't have a problem with Owen Hargreaves or Jack Grealish playing for England, I'm not sure.

But I mean, that's slightly, I mean, Tuchel doesn't have.

That's a technicality, though, is it?

But I don't think there's a huge distinction between somebody like Jack Grealish choosing England at an age for largely for reasons of the market, market capitalism, largely for reasons of

it's a more attractive place to work and Thomas Tuchel wanting to come to England because it's a more attractive place to work because

the imperatives and the impulses of the market inevitably lead them towards a more prosperous nation like the UK.

If you had a problem with Joffrey Archer playing for England, playing cricket for England under the same,

I I don't think there's a huge distinction between those things.

You know, would you have a problem with Adidas

sponsoring, you know, supplying England's kids?

I don't

maybe you're asking the wrong person here because I basically think the nation state is nation that the whole idea of the nation state is kind of silly.

Imagine there's no countries.

Is that I mean, but I do you know, I don't disagree with you.

I part of me sort of feels the only reason for borders and nations is sport.

That's kind of fun.

The rest of it all seems really shit.

Right, that's the thing.

It's a kind of, it's a cosplay of nationality, of

nationalism.

And that's what this whole thing is, you know, the Daily Mail back page.

It's really cosplay nationalism

because

they're owned by some kind of

some tax exile billionaire.

You know, the sun is owned by an Australian.

The Telegraph tried to sell itself to Abu Dhabi.

And

this is not a serious discussion that we're having.

If we really want British institutions to be run by British people, then let's have that discussion.

But, you know, this is a really, it's a kind of charade.

And

that's the point of it, that the England football team has become almost this sort of,

yeah, it's become a kind of a knockabout,

a place where we have proxy discussions and we basically pretend at having really strong nationalistic opinions about things in the absence of, you know, having these broader discussions that would, I think, be a lot more meaningful.

Yeah, I mean, it's true.

I sense the merit to the argument, but I I certainly Paul didn't care that, you know, every England cricket coach until,

you know, well, most of them have been Australian.

Leana, I don't, or Andy Flower, whatever, never, ever bothered me.

So I can't suddenly be bothered.

I mean, I think these are exactly the discussions that were going on at the FA.

I'm sure there's a lot about whether the nation-state should exist, stuff like that when they were discussing Turkey.

I think, you know, I'm inclined to agree.

I have no issue at all with Turkle coming in because he's german i think he's a very pragmatic appointment i think he's got a better chance than the english options that were on the table i think it's fair for people to perhaps be a little wrong-footed because you know it's not just england that don't tend to have a foreign coach italy as far as i'm aware italy has almost never had a foreign manager perhaps hellenio herreira but that would have been like one manager back in the 60s um spain i don't remember ever having a foreign coach again i'm sure sure a lot of people can correct me if I'm wrong.

So it is to some degree an expression.

I think, no, I think Neil Warnock did a stint for Spain in the 90s.

But, you know, it is to some degree an expression that there isn't an option here that we trust.

And I think that is something that it's fair for people to be saying.

Is that not a slightly worrying state of affairs that we don't have a coach we trust?

But yeah, I'm going to stop very far short of saying that I'm I have any opposition to it.

Interestingly, no

manager has ever won a World Cup managing a country he wasn't from

so you know that that stat is there to be overturned and for you to cling to I presume yes

but I mean I said it's interesting because there is a debate about you know developing nations right you know you you say ah look

it's probably it's more fair if that fair is the right word for a country that doesn't have a great football culture or history to employ some foreigners to sort of come in like colonialists, you know, the way I'm saying it, it makes me feel sound terrible, but you know, to

yes.

I mean, it sounds awful, doesn't it, to come over and teach them the ways of football.

But, you know, Ireland have got a foreign manager.

They've had a, you know, obviously their best manager is English.

Well, I mean, when Jack Charlton took over Ireland, there was genuine animosity in a, you know, through wide swathes of the population.

But as soon as they started winning and qualifying for tournaments, you know, by the time he was finished, he was an absolute legend.

Everyone loved him.

So

it all depends on success.

Yeah, on results.

But interestingly with Jack Charlton, didn't he kind of

maybe isn't it's not a stretch to say sort of what he did for the for I don't know Anglo-Irish relations.

Is that too much of a stretch to say that he played a big role in that?

No, I don't think so.

No, no, he did.

He definitely did.

Yeah.

You know, I'm not, you know, I don't know.

There will obviously be.

I'm pleased I'm not listening to folks.

He didn't broker the peace process or anything.

It's more John Major.

Does he deserve the same credit as John Major for the Good Friday Agreement?

I don't know.

John Hume.

Yeah.

But, you know, there will be, you know,

it does mean, Johnny, that we're going to have those daft conversations about anthems and stuff.

And maybe we don't need to have them here because they will happen.

It's more.

the football that Tuchel might play and what he might do with it.

I suppose he is, you sense that he is strong enough to say, and he will have had to have left out top players when he's managed these big teams right yeah i mean and barry's right the results will will ultimately take over this any of this conversation i think everyone's kind of expecting in an optimistic sense him tuchel to do what he did with chelsea where he takes over a frank lampord team and takes them to the the champions league within a within about five months and then he was basically hired by by munich to do exactly the same thing And there is this idea that Tuchel is a kind of a win-now manager.

And

I think what happened at Bayern is quite instructive because they hired him, the Satan's Nagelsman, they hired him towards the end of last season to, so the end of the season before, to basically try and win them the Champions League, and it just didn't work.

And not only that, but the next season, they finished third in the Bundesliga for the first time in 11 years.

And what happened there is quite instructive because

Bayern coaches don't get like full autonomy.

Even Guardiola didn't get full autonomy over recruitment and transfers.

There is an expectation at buying that you will kind of work with what you've got.

And Tuko didn't want to work with

what he had, which is basically what you have to do in international management.

You get that these are the players you've got.

You have some latitude to choose whoever you want, but you can't go and sign anyone.

He wanted to sign Paolini.

He wanted a proper sort of a number six in

his image, in his mold.

And he didn't want Leon Goretzer.

He didn't want Joshua Kimmich.

And

he he kind of bombed them out a little bit and then was forced to essentially play them.

And that, I think, is a kind of cautionary tale.

I mean, it wasn't the sole reason he failed at Bayern, but I think it is instructive of what happens when he doesn't get his way.

I think so much of this job is not just about a game plan,

getting through a tournament and

tactics and things like that.

It is also about creating an environment in which everyone feels welcome.

Southgate was brilliant at this.

I mean, he totally detoxified Team England, Club England, as it were.

And I think if England

have given this, I wonder if the FA have given this aspect of it thought, because when the vibes go with Tuchel, they go in a pretty bad way.

It all goes pretty quickly, like at Chelsea, like at PSG, and like at Bayern.

Finally, Barry, I wonder that Southgate, everyone sort of says, you know, he was a brilliant statesman, right?

And I wonder if Tuchel won't need to be as much of a statesman because he's not English.

Like, why, why would we ask, you know, Garrett Southgate had to talk about issues of the day that mattered and maybe

Tuchel won't be?

Like, you know, he's his own guy, right?

I think he will.

He'll be asked about issues of the day that matter.

And, you know, I think, didn't he take over Chelsea when

COVID was with us?

And he asked him to

talk about the Abramovich business.

And he's quite a charming, funny man.

He can be ratty like all of us um but I wouldn't have too many concerns about him in that regard you know

you'd hope some

no one's going to ask him about singing the anthem tomorrow or today or whenever but it may well happen and I'm sure he'll answer the question

you know with a smile and with good grace and you know he probably won't sing the anthem doesn't matter you know it's no it doesn't uh all right uh I enjoyed that chat.

We'll be back in a second.

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Let's go to the jazz bar and say hi to the Guardian's Scottish football correspondent, Ewan Murray.

How are you Ewan?

Well, that reminds me, the jazz bar was mentioned on our recent flight to

watch Celtic by obviously a listener.

Ah, excellent.

Did you supply any jazz?

Did you tell him what the latest trends were?

No, no, it shows two things.

One, that

noise you get on social media from fans, and this guy as a Celtic fan is not at all reflective of real life, where everyone's perfectly pleasant.

And also, more importantly, that the jazz bar still resonates with...

Well, let's hope some jazz is being piped under this as we speak.

Now, look, I know Scotland haven't won in a while.

But a draw with Portugal after like a

really tight defeat against Croatia feels like quite quite a good international break to Scotland.

Yeah, it's all about context.

They haven't won since what, 1993, but

I thought they played well in Croatia and we're unlucky not to snatch a point.

And last night, you know, the key is when there's kind of rumblings of discontent towards the manager, does the team A look really well organised and B, look as if it wants to play for this manager and last night they absolutely did.

Portugal dominated the game, no doubt about that.

On another day, I'm not sure Portugal created loads, but they had loads of the ball 20 yards from Scotland's goal.

But Scotland just repelled them.

And as I said, their approach and their attitude and how well they were organised and drilled defensively was a real credit to Steve Clark and his coaching, I thought.

Yeah, and look, they had chances like McDominé.

I know it's really early, but it's a great

chance, isn't it?

Well, I mean, at that point, I mean, you know, he should have scored, but at that point, you're clinging on to 1-0 instead of 0-0.

And it's just, you know,

slightly different situation.

But as I say, I think it's one-win in 16 games.

There's context and all sorts of reasoning behind that, I would argue.

But they needed something to just to lift spirits a little bit.

And last night, with the reaction of the crowd, showed that they did.

I thought they did what they did exceptionally well.

And that will buy Steve Park more time, certainly in the eyes of supporters.

Yeah, I mean, what are the rumblings?

Like, we hear there's pressure on him, but

is it, did you sense it was like this was really important at this point?

Yeah, actually, I think over the course of this Nations League campaign, they've played pretty well.

They haven't been overawed or embarrassed or outplayed by these teams.

I think if that was happening, you would say, right, hang on a minute, you know, what's happening here?

But I think

those who want to apply pressure on him either don't like him anyway or be

look at the raw factors, like I said, one win in 16 games, you know, that's not good enough.

What country would put up with that?

Well, I would look at the teams Scotland have played

in that run.

I would look at the decimated squad that they had, especially in this window.

And I think there are mitigated circumstances.

And the main one, I look at the way that they have played again last night.

They're playing fine.

They're playing okay

against very good teams.

So I think the black and white of the, you know, the record is awful.

We have to change the manager.

I think it's far too simplistic.

Hungary game at the end of the Euros will haunt Scotland fans and haunt Steve Clark.

And I think that is reasonable.

But I think in bigger picture terms, I think it would be harsh to apply a lot of pressure towards him.

I think he's still as good a coaching option as Scotland could have.

A word on Craig Gordon, who made a brilliant reaction save late on, who is what?

He must be pushing 50.

41, yeah.

He doesn't look it.

No.

You know, he it looked before the Euros, you know, Scotland didn't bring him to the Euros, and it looked like his Scotland career was over to all intents and purposes.

But he's got back in the team of hearts.

Angus Gunn was injured for this window, but I'm pretty unconvinced by Angus Gunn as a Scotland goalkeeper anyway.

So I think the blunt reality, acceptable or otherwise, is that Craig Gordon is still Scotland's best goalkeeper.

And I think he will keep his place for the games.

Um, the games next month.

What he's done is remarkable, you know because he more or less retired a few years ago and then for uh gave up a big insurance payout to come back and play.

And if he wasn't available, and you, you know, Angus Cohn isn't the most convincing keeper, is there anyone else coming through the ranks?

No,

right.

That's a bit of a worry.

That's um, Craig is remarkable, and I think part of the elongation of his career is because he missed so much earlier on.

I think he's making up for lost time.

Um, you know, I know Craig, I've known Craig for a while.

I remember he was out injured after he left Sunderland with that serious knee problem that they just could not fix.

And I kind of had a disagreement with him: like, you know, well, when it's time to speak, you know, we'll speak and do an interview.

And I fully expected that interview would be, I'm having to retire, I'm finished.

As you said, Barry, there was an insurance payment

he could have taken.

And I remember it, he sent a message to me, right?

I'm ready to talk.

And I went along to that interview, expecting him to announce his retirement to me.

And it was the opposite.

He said, no, no, I'm fit now.

I'm ready to play.

I've got more in me.

I think my injury is healed.

And Celtic were the beneficiaries of that.

They picked him up on a free transfer, took a chance on him, I suppose, to an extent.

And the latter part of his career took off from there.

And he's a real, he's a, he's an extraordinary guy and a comeback guy in so many ways.

So every time I see him play and play well, I'm really pleased for him.

Do you have a deal with Barry when he's about to retire that he'll you'll get you'll get the scoop?

No, I don't.

Hey, Ronaldo, yesterday, I mean, I didn't see every minute of the game, but Goy was flouncing about, wasn't he?

It was like a vintage.

And every time he missed, the Scotland fans just went wild.

But yeah,

he just had one of those flouncy days.

Right at the end of the game, Portugal won a corner off Andy Robertson.

Andy Robertson kind of looked to the skies as if oh, but I mean, they played 94 minutes.

Portugal argued they should have had time to take the corner, as would probably be convention.

The referee didn't allow that and blew for full time.

Ronaldo threw an almighty strop, stormed off the pitch.

I don't know whether he was also complaining about Scotland's approach to the game, maybe.

The way he was gesticulating suggested that, but he just stormed off up the tunnel in a huff, which

I don't know.

You're 39 years old.

You've had a great career.

I don't know the need for that kind of behaviour, to be honest.

But there we are.

Yeah.

But I mean, in a way, it's nice to see him do that because, yeah, the fans must have loved it.

It was funny.

Yeah,

it was funny.

I mean, it was amusing.

But I mean, when you strip it back, it's childish, pathetic behaviour, isn't it, really?

All right, Ewan, thanks for coming on, pal.

Appreciate it.

Take care.

Speak soon.

You and Murray there, our Scottish football correspondent.

Wales beat Montenegro 1-0.

Harry Wilson's 36th-minute penalty.

Their first home win as Wales coach for Craig Bellamy.

We all want to hear from Ellis James.

So here he is.

Hello there, Max.

It's Ellis here.

Just a very quick update

from this international break, because really I should be preparing for my Welsh language stand-up tour show tonight tonight in Machuntleth.

Still 11 tickets left, according to the website, and I can mention that because of the unique way the Guardian is funded.

But anyway, Iceland 2, Wales 2, and then Wales won Montenegro 0 at the Cardiff City Stadium on Monday night.

Tarry Wilson scoring the penalty.

Harry Wilson scored again against Iceland on when was it Friday night?

He's now scored in three consecutive games.

First person to do that since Gareth Bale in 2016, and four games unbeaten.

That's the first time any manager of the Welsh men's team has ever done that.

So, Craig Bellamy has gone into the history books.

Obviously, it's not perfect.

We tend to start very well, like we did in Montenegro where we started well against Iceland, we were 2-0 up after 29 minutes, coasting really until half-time, and then it all fell apart a little bit in the second half.

And then,

first half, I thought we were very good, and then it was a little bit tighter in the second half half against Montenegro.

I think what happens is we come out the blocks really quickly,

score a goal, sometimes two, and then in the second half, teams have got nothing to lose, really, and they sort of chuck everything at us.

And often we can that can leave us looking a little bit shell-shocked.

I've got to talk about Harry Wilson.

What a player he is.

I mean, he barely plays for Fulham.

He has been fantastic for Wales.

He's been very good for Wales since Gareth Beale retired, but since Craig Bellamy took over, he's been exceptional.

And I think he's probably going to be our most important player.

Everyone is a big fan of Harry Wilson.

And Bellamy was playing when Wilson made his debut as a 16-year-old.

I said, I've always known he was good, but I didn't realise how good until I got to work with him at close range.

And Bellamy has been singing his praises in interviews.

He's used a lot of players.

He's always said that he reckons he needs 20 good players to qualify for a World Cup.

I think he's now played 24 players.

I think it's twenty-four.

And

it's just more grist to my mill

about how good I think the Nations League is, because the thing with the Nations League, I know that if you are not interested in international football, it's probably a pain in the ass,

but they are competitive games and they are meaningful games, and as we realised in our bid to reach the last Euros in Germany, your chances of a play-off spot for for the for a for a major final, whether it's for the major finals, whether it's the World Cup or the Euros, they are dramatically increased if you are in League A.

We're going into the final two games against Iceland and Turkey and to be honest you're hoping that we can win it because if we end up in League A, that would be absolutely fantastic for our prospects of reaching the World Cup in 2026.

Bellamy is still clearly a work in progress, but I've got to be honest, it is exciting.

And when we click, we're a little bit wasteful in front of goal, but when we click, we create plenty of chances, and it's very, very exciting.

So, yeah, um, I really have got to listen to my uh preview from Velivach on Saturday night to see if I need to make urgent changes.

I'm like, I'm like Craig Bellingham's Wales team, I'm quite good in the first half, and then the show does peter out.

But anyway, Max, love you.

Thank you, Ellis.

Love you too.

Uh, Northern Ireland smashed Bulgaria 5-0.

Tom says, Will you be able to find 30 seconds to give Northern Ireland some grudging praise for an absolute trouncing of Bulgaria at the top of their group.

Isaac Price scored a hat-trick.

Interestingly, Barry, we were talking about it the other day.

It took me 24 hours to find actual highlights.

I kept getting computer game highlights of this game.

Utterly infuriating.

But yeah, nice to see Michael O'Neill in there.

My praise for Northern Ireland would not be in any way grudging.

I just...

I had no way of seeing this game, and I couldn't find highlights either.

I think you managed to dig some out.

Yeah, I watched them about 10 minutes ago.

Yeah, I mean, look, they look like cut through Bulgaria, like a knife through butter.

I mean, you had that with Scotland as well, didn't you, Barry, trying to find the game.

You spent most of the time.

Oh, no, it was on, it's on YouTube and Scottish TV.

It was, um, yeah, so I saw the Scotland game and they were good.

Yeah.

Um, uh, uh, other international bits.

I mean, go and find Borno Sosa's volley for Croatia in their three-all draw with Poland.

Uh, a little bit, Danny Rose, Spurs versus Arsenal.

Um, Alvo Murata, Alvaro Murata, Baggiot, a penalty for Spain against Serbia.

He did score a lovely goal.

Now, Paul, we come to you with rest of the world football, the Libya-Nigeria debar quality.

Nigeria left stranded at an airport in Libya and eventually flew home instead of playing.

It's a bizarre story, isn't it?

It is.

And it's a story that has various layers to it.

So the simple facts are that Nigeria were flying in to play Libya.

They had every reason to think they would probably win that game.

Libya are bottom of their group for AFCON qualifiers.

Nigeria are top.

They were just coming into Benghazi to land and were diverted and made to land at a different airport about three hours' drive from Benghazi.

They were then just left in a terminal building and not greeted, not met, no food, no water.

And according to Nigeria's delegation, they stayed that way for almost 24 hours without being given anything at all.

And at that point, the players decided this isn't on.

We're just going to go home.

Now,

the plot thickens because

Libya's Football Federation has come out and said this is a retaliation strike for how we were treated in Nigeria.

Now, they allege that in Nigeria, when they landed, they were denied entry for several hours, their buses were delayed, and then they got taken on this really dodgy back streets approach to the game.

Like they said, it took five hours, we went over dark roads, bandits threatened our coach.

So, basically, this was a retaliatory strike from Libya.

And now it leaves CAF with this really difficult decision to make.

You know, do they intervene on behalf of Nigeria or do they just see it that Nigeria did technically refuse to play the match?

And it's going to leave, whichever way, it's going to leave an awful lot of controversy.

And it's also a theme that's starting to recur.

I don't know if it's always recurred, but in African football, there's been a lot of this in continental matches where teams are turning up and being treated really poorly in the hope of obviously disrupting the way that they play in the game.

And the Libyans said that.

Because I've got a statement from the Federation saying, We have the utmost respect for the Nigerian counterparts.

We want to reassure them that the diversion of their flight was not intentional,

adding that disruptions can occur from routine air traffic protocols.

We firmly reject any claims that suggest foul play or sabotage in this situation.

We hope that this misunderstanding can be resolved with understanding and goodwill.

That doesn't sound like no.

So after they went home, when Nigeria decided to go home, the Federation started to pull out over social media their kind of side of things and say, look, this is how we were treated in Nigeria.

We, we know we meant no, we meant no harm.

You know, they're exaggerating this, but this is what happened to us when we landed with you.

And I think it's a bit of a spat that you know you can't fully resolve.

But reading between the lines, I think Nigeria would have to be treated pretty badly to not play this match because it looked like a very routine three points, which would have seen them more or less, you know, through.

You know, they are bossing that group.

So I think you have to think Nigeria had no real interest in not playing this match.

Sudan beating Ghana feels

big to me, or feels unlikely.

Yeah, I mean, Ghana are at genuine risk of not getting into Afghan now.

They are, they're really teetering on the edge of it.

And this, this game was, was really interesting.

They played together twice.

So there were two Sudan-Ghana games.

And the first game, Sudan held Ghana 0-0.

And the goalkeeper just pulled off incredible save after incredible save.

And then Ghana missed a chance from like almost a yard out to win it in the last minute.

So Sudan really grabbed that draw.

But then, just outplayed Ghana in the second game, beat him 2-0.

And

it's a real problem for Ghana.

It'll be the first time Ghana haven't qualified.

I think it'll be 16 attempts since Ghana haven't qualified for an AFCON.

It'll be an absolute, you know, huge

affront to Ghanaian football.

And one of the funniest side plots here is that the guy who's masterminded this, Sudan's coach, is Kwasi Appiah.

So he is a Ghanaian coach who was on the board, on the sort of

A board of the Ghanaian Football Federation approaching these matches and had to resign because it was a conflict of interests.

And so there's this incredible job that he's doing because, you know, Sudan is

wrapped by war at the moment.

Sudan is in a hellish situation.

And the only two clubs playing in Sudan are playing in the Mauritanian League.

The only two clubs that are able to play, Al-Halal and Al-Merik, have gone to Mauritania.

So it's incredible that this team is managing to play as they are and are now

behind Angola in that AFCON group, are looking like the side that might get through.

And at the same time, in World Cup qualifiers, are topping the group with Senegal, Diar Congo, and Togo.

So Sudan's, you know, what they're achieving is just beyond any logic in many ways.

And this was an astonishing result and has left Ghana, yeah, rocking, really.

We all know that Bolivia is a tough place to go and they've made it even tougher, which is brilliant, isn't it?

They beat Colombia in their new stadium, which has an altitude of 4,150 meters.

Yes, so they moved to El Alto, which is, they thought it wasn't high enough already, so they moved up to a higher stadium.

El Alto is where always ready play, and that's kind of an irony because no one's really ready to play there apart from the home team.

It's so high that oxygen had to be provided on the sidelines to opposition players.

In their first game, Venezuela came out and did all the things you'd expect, you know, did training at different altitude, did all the preparations, and they thrashed them.

Bolivia thrashed them 4-0.

But Colombia coming to play there was a much bigger test.

You know, Colombia, incredibly strong side.

And then Bolivia had a man sent off early on.

But still, Bolivia's players looked at ease while Colombia were puffing.

And Bolivia pulled off this shock.

And it's, again,

Bolivia haven't qualified for a World Cup since 1994.

Home Advantage is their only big asset in the past um they they basically when they beat chile away which was in this qualification campaign that was their first away win since 2015 so in a competitive match so they really have been struggling as a football nation and there was a slight cynicism that maybe moving these games even higher was a bit of a you know a bit of a ploy but it has really worked and it it goes back to this fascinating moment where they where briefly fifa banned games being played at high altitude it worked it went really badly this happened in 2007.

It went really badly because it stopped basically Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia hosting their games at all.

So they had to relent on this.

But really interestingly, there was a game that came after that where Bolivia beat Argentina 6-1.

It's a pretty famous game.

It was played at very high altitude.

And that was actually Diego Maradona's Argentina.

But Diego Maradona, rather than blaming and bitching about the altitude, said, absolutely not.

Like, I will

take no no consideration of the altitude the players deserve the credit he even maradona then uh was was was especially invested in this because he had joined this campaign to allow games to be played at high altitude and he did that by playing in a match at in la paz when he was 47 maradona played in a match to sort of say let these team play at high altitude so it was quite an irony then that his team got battered by bolivia at high altitude well i did i was backpacking in bolivia and we had quite a good five aside team that we'd collected and we i I was maybe 31, 32, and I was the oldest player, a lot of 20-year-olds.

And we turned up at this pitch in Bolivia against these 65-year-olds, all wearing-you know, we were in like shorts and trainers, but they were just wearing trousers and working boots.

And they fucking smashed us.

I mean, we couldn't breathe.

It's like it's amazing.

I just love that they've brought that to international football.

I remember a time years ago before the Buckeys wised up to the fact that these Ecuador and Bolivia were playing at really high altitude.

There was money to be made betting on them

if you had your wits about you.

Finally, Paul, the Solomon Islands.

Tell us about this story.

Yeah,

all going on in the Solomon Islands.

They were playing Fiji in a World Cup qualifier and

they lost 1-0.

It was Roy Krishna, the Fijian hero, 42 goals in 59 games.

He's like an absolute legend in Fiji, scored the winner.

But the controversy came because Solomon Islands didn't pick Paul Francis, who's a very talented player.

And his club took to social media.

His club Rail Kakamura took to social media and were livid and went on this rant in which they described Solomon Islands coach as the Southgate of the Solomons for his selection decision.

And it's funny because the Solomon Islands have so much talent and they really are underachieving.

And

this controversy has come quite soon after their last controversy, which was when they were playing really poorly in their last set of games.

And their coach who was an interim coach got asked about this and just said, yeah, but I'm an interim coach.

So what'd you expect?

And nobody liked that very much either.

Thank you, Paul.

Now, look, you sent us a million more stories that we haven't had time for.

But there is a convenient place where people can hear stories from

their bits of the world that they don't think about.

And where is that, Paul?

There is.

It's the Sweeper podcast, which I co-host with Lee Wingate and at Sweeper Pod on Twitter.

And we're on all the podcast platforms.

And as you say, we didn't even get to Turkmenistan or the Vatican, but we do on that pod.

Good stuff.

Thank you, Paul.

Listen to it.

It's great.

That'll do for part two.

In part three, George Dowell, who is the owner and chairman of Worthing FC, will join us.

His story is truly inspirational, and we'll chat to him next.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Really pleased to say we're joined by George Dowell, owner and director of Worthing FC.

Thanks for coming on George.

How are you?

Yeah really good.

Thanks.

How are you?

Yeah, really good.

You're here to talk about the club that George built.

It's a documentary about you becoming the owner.

We were just saying off air, it's on TNT, sort of on a loop.

So wherever you go, it's just, it's just on.

I said it in the intro to this podcast.

It's a beautiful film.

It's kind of life-affirming.

And you come across as

like truly inspirational.

I live in Melbourne in Australia.

I was sort of weeping in a cafe watching it this morning.

And I'm sure you've told your story so many times, but do you mind telling it again?

Yeah, no, absolutely not.

And yeah, I think you're not the only one.

I think it's caught a few people out.

It's a bit of an emotional roller coaster documentary.

But yeah, essentially,

yeah, I had a spinal cord injury when I was 17.

Very passionate passionate about football, still am, always will be.

Obviously, after my injury, couldn't play anymore, but was keen to stay involved in the game.

And

yeah, that when the opportunity came up to sort of buy my local club, I snatched it with both hands, and it was a perfect way to

reintroduce myself to football in a different capacity, basically.

Yeah, I mean, you were a good footballer, right?

You were...

You were

I was okay.

You're okay, okay.

When you start underselling yourself, like you were, what, 15 getting in the worthing first team squads?

Uh, 17 at the time, we were injured.

I was just getting around the first team at Worthing, which at the time was

probably a bit more difficult than it is now, just because of the sort of player pathway wasn't really set and there wasn't that many players breaking through.

It was only me and one of my other friends, really, that was getting anywhere near the first team at that point.

So, yeah, it was a really proud moment when he got called up for the first team.

um

especially then when there wasn't really uh yeah that much history of it sure and so you have this accident, you have a car accident, you know, and the doctors tell you you'll never walk again.

And

you say, and you're obviously in hospital for a long time, and

you say like the club saved you as much as you saved the club.

I wonder, was that decision to buy, and you bought it with like the compensation money that you got?

Was it like an impulse decision?

Like,

how quickly did you think, actually, this is what I want to do?

Pretty quickly after I saw the news, but I guess because it it came out in the local paper that the club was struggling financially and

was only a matter of weeks or months away from going out of business basically.

And obviously I didn't want to see that happen as an ex-player and a worthing boy.

So yeah, as soon as I saw that really, I knew that that was what I wanted to do with my life.

And I'm so glad I did because it brought back purpose.

And that was the whole reason really to sort of give myself a career.

I was stuck at home, not really knowing what to do with my life.

And

yeah, as soon as that came up, I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I want to do and george so what for listeners who aren't in the uk and may not know worthing are in the seventh tier of the pyramid national league south and when you bought the club it was kind of on its arse in debt but you didn't just rescue it you more or less transformed it like

uh got academy teams going a women's team going rebuilt the stand

uh laid a new pitch which i believe had to be relaid after some initial seething problems.

And you were doing this from a position of finding yourself in a wheelchair paralyzed from the chest down and not really having a clue what you were doing.

So

how did you learn what to do?

Learn on the job, basically.

The one good thing I knew about buying the club was I loved football so much that it wasn't something that I would quit at.

And I knew football.

Obviously, I didn't know all the business side and didn't fully appreciate all the admin that goes on behind the scenes, but I knew that I wouldn't quit it.

And then I was very keen to learn on the job.

And we had lots of good people, sort of volunteers and a full-time general manager.

And between us, we just, yeah, muddled through and got what we needed to do done.

As you say, we were a little bit lower in the pyramid than we are now.

So maybe the pressure wasn't quite as hard as it is.

now, but we've got more people there now to support the organisation.

So

yeah,

it was a steep learning curve and every week you're getting fined by the fa for something that you've missed or you haven't done and yeah you quickly learn when the yeah the bank balance is getting eaten up by fa fines you brought in your mate harry shield who as a director like he's in the he was in he was in the car behind you like you were all out having some food after training in the car behind you when you had your accident um i mean a long way behind but like someone called him and he's he's so like he's amazingly moving in this film isn't it isn't he and i just wonder how important his friendship or like friendship has been in this whole story for you.

Yeah, massively important.

I genuinely believe that I wouldn't be where I am now without my family and friends.

They were amazing.

When I had my injury, I had to go to Salisbury Spinal Unit, which is about an hour and a half away from where I live.

And I would, ham and heart say, I very rarely went a day without a visitor of some description, whether it was friends or family.

My mum quit her job and moved up there.

So yeah, they were incredible.

And like you say, Harry is really good in the documentary.

And yeah, he gets quite a few laughs.

And

yeah, he was amazing.

He used to come up once or twice a week.

And bearing in mind, we're only 17 at this point.

So he's only just passed his test.

And he's driving an hour and a half once or twice a week to come play football manager with me in the hospital.

So yeah, he was amazing.

And yeah, as were a lot of my family and friends.

Did you bring him in?

just because he was a mate or did you think he's got some acumen that might help with this football club that i don't know what i'm doing with

well he's a mate and he's um

as it probably comes across in the documentary.

He kind of just says it how it is.

So sometimes maybe if I'm getting, someone needs to be told something and I'm thinking, all right, it's a bit awkward.

I could just say, Harry, can you just have a chat with them about this?

Yeah.

And he's also, I know that he's got my best interests at heart.

So if something's happening that he thinks,

I don't think that's quite right, or I think you should have another think about that.

I know he'll tell me.

And he's not just a yes man.

So that was kind of the reason why I brought him in.

But it's really interesting watching the documentary because although he was in the car behind me, that's actually a conversation we've never had between ourselves.

As

mates, we never want to.

I know how he feels about it.

He knows how I felt about it.

We just, it's a conversation we never had.

So

see him

getting emotional about it was tough to see.

Sorry, I think I said worrying we're in the seventh tier.

It's actually the sixth.

I'm doing you down.

But

we've been promoted.

Do you know?

it's interesting isn't it that you like you say it's not like football manager you learn it's not like football manager and you get like two promotions what successive promotions is it we got one in the in year one and then uh in year

four we were about to get year three we were about to get promoted and then covid hit so it got null and voided

uh two years in a row got null and voided when we were top with

uh what was it we were 10 points clear with eight games to go and it got null and voided

and then we started the next season we were eight points clear after eight games And then it got null and voided again.

And then the year after that, we got the promotion.

Yeah.

And like

the documentary focuses on the 23-24.

And like, there's some real stars in that team.

Like, Ollie Pierce looks like the best center for I've ever seen.

Like, he must be buzzing about how he's come out of this.

I know.

I said to him before it came out, I said, you need to get your agent ready because you're going to get some phone calls.

But he's actually moved on to York now, which is where Adam Hinchelwood went.

Like your old gaffer, Nick Tim.

Yeah, Nicktim and Joe Felix.

It's basically a Worthing 2.0 up there now.

I've got to say, one of the beautiful things about this film, so I started off watching it.

I knew nothing about Worthing at all.

And obviously your story is amazing, inspirational.

You're fully on board.

But it's an amazing thing about this film that you go from having no clue about this club.

And I'm there and I'm like, Catchman's got it.

Pierce has got it.

Come on.

I felt like a Worthing fan.

And I'm not going to give away the ending, but honestly,

I was like head in hands.

And like, it was it was amazing journey you go on i can't even imagine for you what you were feeling because you you come across looking pretty calm i've got to say i was a wreck watching this thing you come across very calm and measured in all your interviews it's kind of amazing i try not to get too up and too down but it was really hard and it was a great season and and uh the guys that filmed it howard and and why now i think they're like you say they they're all fully on board with worvy now and howard's texting me at after every game and ringing me and going oh what's going on i can't believe it you know so yeah it it was a crazy year.

And for me personally as well, it was just a perfect year and one that I'm very grateful got captured, to be honest, with everything that went on.

But yeah, the way it ends is

really, really tough.

And that was the first time I watched it back was in the documentary.

So it was, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I didn't want to give it away either, but we've pretty much given it away now.

If you google it, you will find it.

Yeah, that's the problem, right?

If you just Google word and you'll see what they are.

Yeah, you don't normally get yelled at for like, oh, a spoiler alert.

You've told us the results from last weekend.

We talk about, George, about like players and mentality and being strong in a really on this pod all the time in like a really throwaway fashion.

And do you think like the mentality that you have had to overcome what happened to you and to get to where you've got to?

Is that something you just think is innate that you just had?

Or do you think you have you worked at that?

I think I've always been a fairly positive positive person.

Obviously,

when you're newly injured, it was really, really tough to deal with and very, very hard.

But I guess I obviously have your off days, but I think I quite quickly, in the grand scheme of things, tilted my mind or come to the conclusion that there's no point wishing for the things that aren't going to happen now.

Like, this is where you are.

What can you do now?

Where can you make the most of your life and do something that you're passionate about?

It doesn't happen overnight, but I kind of quickly thought, right, there's no point me wishing that I'm going to be playing on Saturday because that's not going to happen.

So what can I do with what I have left?

What is out there for me to go and achieve?

What is still possible as a wheelchair user?

I had no sort of

reference in my life, really.

I didn't have anyone in my close circle that had a disability or whatever, have an injury as serious as mine.

So yeah, it was difficult.

And everyone at the hospital was great.

You're sort of in that bubble and they're reassuring you that you can do this, you can do that.

They have people come in and give you their life experiences which was always useful but um yeah maybe they didn't marry up with exactly what i was passionate about so i had to go and find what i wanted to do and it took some time but yeah i feel like it was it was in me a lot of people maybe there was people in the hospital who were in a if i can say a better situation than me in terms of their injury but um were struggling to deal with it a lot more than i was and um

yeah maybe it's in you but i i definitely feel like you can you can

improve yourself in that respect i i certainly did when i left hospital and it took me a while to come out of my shell again when i left hospital so yeah i think you've just got to make yourself uncomfortable and uh try and live in that moment and then grow from there really yeah i thought that was a really moving bit when you sort of talked about seeing your friends again was actually really difficult because obviously they

everybody wants to say the right thing and i wants to say the wrong thing and you're feeling awkward and they're feeling awkward and all those things and actually you you have sort of since become a kind of influencer i guess is might be the right word, and have started a social media channel called The Wheel Life, which is to sort of talk about disability and to explain it to people or to perhaps give people who are in the position you were in ideas and things that you didn't have.

And people have found it incredibly useful, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

That's why we...

We started the page already, because I know that when I was newly injured, Instagram wasn't as big as it is now, but I was certainly on the internet looking for things that I could do and people in a similar situation to me with maybe the same interests, just to give me like the inspiration or the idea that, okay, I can still do some of this stuff, but it wasn't really available.

So in COVID, when we had some downtime, me and my girlfriend were like, why don't we start a page about this?

Because we were also as a newly interabled couple looking for things to do and other.

like-minded people we couldn't really find them in the UK.

There was a lot going on in America and stuff, but not so much in the in the UK or at least not that we could find.

And then, yeah, since starting the page, we're sort of the Instagram page,

the real life, it's kind of opened us into that community a little bit.

And now we've got people that we can speak to when we're having issues.

And equally, when other people are having injuries, whether that

issues, whether they're newly injured or not, and they've just come up against something that they've seen us do, they can ask us questions.

So, yeah, it's been invaluable that for us.

And we never like launched it to be influencers.

We just wanted to try and meet like-minded people.

And yeah, people seem to enjoy it and we've got a decent following from it and really feel part of that community now online which is yeah which is really really helpful yeah i how much like watching the doc yourself and your partner you know because obviously you have to show a lot of your life don't you like and you know you've got a little kid now as well how old how old is she now she's uh one in about two weeks so yeah wow okay right i mean i have a two and a half year old i'm fucking exhausted

i'm sure you understand i have a lot of appreciation for parents oh mate but but like it's it must be really hard to just sort of let the cameras into everything right yeah yeah because um a lot of the stuff that they're filming i'm doing for the first time it's my first child and i was apprehensive about it anyway being um disabled and there's there's obviously limitations to what i can and can't do so to have the guys there filming it while i'm doing it for the first time is sometimes is tricky but they're all amazing to be fair the director thea and howard they've been fantastic throughout and i think that comes across in the documentary Everyone's who, by the way, no one on there has sort of done this sort of thing before.

So for everyone to look and feel so comfortable on camera, I feel it's a real credit to

the whole Wynel team who filmed it, to be fair.

I think you did coped admirably with most things, George.

I was unconvinced by your girlfriend, Jessica's Windsor-Not, despite her class.

Oh, telling me.

Yeah, that was not a good Windsor-Not, despite her claims to the contrary.

But yeah, that was on a day you went to Windsor castle was was it a an mbe you got or yeah yeah so i got an award an mbe in the 2023 24 annual honours list so yeah a massively proud moment but like you say the tie wasn't up to scratch a lymph thing i had to get someone else to do it off camera after that i was gonna say they redid it right yeah i couldn't go and see the royalty with that hanging off my neck just with it with with a peanut that'd be great

um

you you say right at the end like you've achieved you say you wouldn't have achieved as much in your life if you hadn't had the accident so i i mean that's that's sort of amazing like when you like

stop and think about that yeah but i i genuinely believe that's true i feel like i have achieved more than i ever would have done without having an injury i was a very average kid and like harry was quite and my mum were quite green to point out in the documentary academically i wasn't really up to much so yeah yeah they don't give you a good deal there do they know they really rinse me there so um Yeah, I don't know what I would have.

I probably would have been a trade of some description.

And then, yeah, playing football as much as I could semi-pro or as high as I could have got up the ladder I mean I had an idea of being a fireman and then also playing semi-professional football that was always my plan but

yeah jobs weren't there weren't loads of fireman jobs knocking about at the time so I knew that I would probably have to find something else to do

so yeah I genuinely do feel like I've achieved more as a result of my injury as than I would ever would have done beforehand you got Morecambe in the first round of the FA Cup that's a I mean that is winnable that's a winnable game George isn't it yeah yeah When I first saw it come out of the hacks, it came out quite early.

I was a bit like

underwhelmed.

But then the more I see it, the more I really like it.

I think, like you say, it's a home tie against Morcom.

They've got to come a long way, play on the 3G pitch, which they won't be used to.

And yeah, they're not in the best runner form.

So definitely a winnable game.

And we're all very excited about it.

Yeah.

And I suppose what is the plan, right?

Because losing the playoffs, spoiler alert, is that

is gutting, isn't it?

Because you just think, ah, you know, and like, I like, of course, I'm watching it and I hate Braintree, right?

I'm just watching it going, you bastards, you don't understand.

Yeah, I bet.

But, like, obviously, they've got their own, you know, they're allowed to, they're allowed to win it.

But, like, like, it is to go again is hard, right?

Isn't it?

That's, that's the situation you're in at the moment, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Obviously, we'll go again.

The year before that, we got to the semi-final and lost.

So, to go again and then get to the final and lose.

Um, we're hoping that this year we can go one better and finally get over the line.

But yeah, I mean, everyone in the team and obviously the new manager brings a new impetus, if you like, and a new lease of energy and want to get it done.

New players and some players that have still feel the pain of last year, so hopefully that will drive them on a little bit.

So yeah, we're very much ambitious and want to make it happen as soon as we possibly can.

And the fans as well, who, you know, they sing about you, they love you.

I mean, do you find that weird?

Or is it just just you're cool with it, or like because you lost the playoffs, they just like you know, dowel out there, you know, it hasn't gone that far yet.

It hasn't gone that far yet, and it could have been a very different story with this if it didn't go well in the early days.

But I get the beauty of the support is that it's grown sort of organically over the years.

So, before I took over, it was about 150 people coming to the games.

Now, we're like, our last few games have been 2,000 or so.

But the guys that were there early doors, I have a really good relationship with, and they're like

the ultras, if you like.

So,

yeah, that's certainly helped now.

And success on the pitch helps the ownership, doesn't it?

So, yeah, any all of us on the board are quite well thought of at the moment.

But I imagine that, yeah, if things weren't going so well, then it could easily turn.

Let's hope that's not anytime soon, though.

Yeah.

Well, look, thanks so much for coming on, George.

Like, quite often when we do, like, we talk about football all the time, and you occasionally can forget why you love it, like, because it becomes your job.

And watching that, it just made me, you know, I just loved everything about just watching those, like Paul said, you know, just willing Ollie Pierce to round the keeper again and get another one.

I just thought it was a brilliant film.

And like,

like, you're a total credit to football, basically.

What you've done is for that community is brilliant.

So thanks for coming on.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

I hope that the

documentary

equally as much as football lovers will enjoy it.

I hope that people that maybe don't like football are a lot of people that aren't necessarily football fans that have enjoyed it too.

So, yeah, I've really enjoyed seeing the diverse group of people that it's managed to touch.

So, yeah, it's lovely.

Great.

Thank you, George.

Cheers.

George Dowell there.

The club that George built.

You can watch it on TNT Sport.

As we said, it's sort of there on it.

If you turn it on, you will see it.

But

yeah,

it's a really moving film.

I really loved it.

Just one question in AOB.

It's for you, Paul.

It's from someone called Mark Watson, who you might be aware of, who says, ask the boy if he knows what he's doing for Christmas yet.

It's obviously your brother.

Ah, right.

Yeah, this is a bit awkward.

Are you okay with us using this forum?

I mean, it's sort of.

Do you know what?

You're not the first.

You're not the first.

Other families have started discussing things through this pod.

Well, yeah,

if you can pass on to Mark, we haven't made any plans yet.

We'd like to see him.

uh over christmas uh but we might end up going down to lizzy's um to my in-laws so if you could pass that on to him that'd be that'd be great actually

is he not welcome at Lizzie's?

Oh, no, he's very welcome at Lizzie's.

But let's not get into these dynamics.

No, no.

No, no.

That's the whole point of these things.

If you're hosting, he can come.

But if you're going to Lizzie's, she's, you know, she's just not interested.

All right.

You're saying that.

I'm not saying that.

But no,

everyone is very welcome.

We'd love to see him over Christmas.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thanks.

Okay.

Good.

There you are, Mark.

Do listen to yesterday's Women's Football Weekly.

Jonas Eidervelt left left the Arsenal job about an hour after they finished recording.

Oh, so they've got the curse as well, haven't they?

Well, unlike us, Barry, and just me doing a voice note as I'm wandering around town, they got back on the Zoom and recorded again.

That is the true professionalism of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

Well, to be honest, I'd say it didn't come as a huge shock to them.

Having seen Arsenal's performance at the weekend, I'm surprised he waited till Tuesday.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thank you, Barry.

Thanks.

cheers, Johnny.

Thanks, Max.

Thank you, Paul.

Thanks, Fax.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.