Premier League preview and Carabao Cup review: Football Weekly Extra

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, a Premier League preview Carabao second round review mashup.

We'll begin at Old Trafford, Manchester United v Liverpool, the game of the weekend.

Ten hargor is one defeat away from a crisis and he had that defeat last time out manuela gate comes in from psg how will he fit in and what about the sterling sancho potential swap for liverpool federico chiesa will look good in that shirt can he recapture his brilliance of a few years ago there's a 100 record off at the emirates as brighton head to north london everton have a massive game against bournemouth andoni irayola followed up being done by var in the league by being done by non-VAR in the carabao at west ham the hammers host manchester city this weekend what chance not much probably.

Chelsea are still looking at all manner of players before the window closes.

They play Palace, who look to bring in Eddie and Kettier.

Newcastle seemed to repeatedly hammer spurs at St.

James's Park.

Will this Sunday be any different?

We'll look ahead to a Lee Carsley, England squad, and Barry has some knobby Solano news.

All that, pass your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning.

Hello.

Hi, Max.

Good morning, Lucy Ward.

Hi, Max.

And welcome, John Bruin.

Good morning, Max.

Let's start with our preview at Old Trafford in Manchester United Liverpool, four o'clock on Sunday.

Garte is available for Manchester United.

Kiesa should be available for Liverpool.

John, I'll start with you on this signing of Manuel Agate.

50 million euros plus 10 million in add-ons.

Scott McTominay is expected to go off to Napoli, not as part of that deal, but it is a midfielder in and a midfielder out.

That's tough tackling tackling number six, I think.

Yeah, I favour with Lewis and Reek at PSG, but that might be good for United.

Yes,

cast your mind back to last season, cast your mind back to the FA Cup final, the one game that we can all recall when an Eric Ten Hague team played well.

And they had a player who played really well in that game was Sofian Amrabat.

Now, he couldn't pass the ball at all, but he could tackle.

And it appears this is the 10-hard plan:

get the tough tackling midfielder.

In

you know, when Manchester United bought Casemiro a couple of years ago, I think they thought that that was what Casemiro was,

but he sort of isn't that player, really, is he?

If you listen to someone like Tim Vickery, Tim Vickery always says that he played his best football for Brazil when he had Fred as his minder.

So, so obviously, Manchester United have decided that they need the midfield minder.

Ugate is the guy at PSG, he was a cult cult hero until, as you said, Luce Enrique, who is a player, who's a manager who likes his players to have a few more dimensions.

Listen, I don't think we're going to see Ugate play the Paul Scholes defence splitting pass,

but his job is to win the ball and then give it to someone who is a bit more gifted.

In Manchester United's case, that's Cobby Mainu.

Could be a good signing.

United's signings, each of them this summer, have looked,

what would be the word, cuter than in previous years.

That you can see the sense behind them.

Does that mean they'll be a success?

We have no idea.

We'll work that out.

But what we do know is that Manchester United are actually getting transfer deals done, which for a long time is a problem.

So let's see.

Manchester United Liverpool as a prospect.

If you're a Manchester United fan like me, it's a dreadful prospect.

It always is.

And that's not, and that's because, and that's saying that we actually

we, God, I couldn't we, wow, god, I'm back in.

Uh,

no, but I

don't really like that thing, anyway.

But anyway, I what I will say is that United have had over the years quite a good record of snotting Liverpool's nose, even when Liverpool had been quite good.

The Klopp era didn't go quite so well, but last season, if you consider the Klopp's final flings, you had that 4-3 FA Cup classic, one of the best games you'll ever see, and then that 2-0 game when suddenly it became clear that Liverpool were not going to win the league.

Arena slots calmer style of football?

Can that work a bit better?

Because in both those games, Liverpool rather lost their heads, didn't they?

It reminds me of

a story about Brian Clough, who got his signing, because obviously he does all that

John says.

And Neil was an apprentice at Forrest when Clough, when they just won the European Cup, and he went on pre-season tour with another young lad to help out carrying the balls and doing all that with the first team when they were playing.

But this one pre-season game, somebody got injured, so the other kid had to go on and replace him.

And Clough said to him, put his arm around him, he says, All I want you to do is go on, win the ball, and give it to someone better than you, which shouldn't be difficult because there's 10 of them.

And

the thing about Scott McTominay leaving Barry is it's sort of it's this pure-profit thing, isn't it?

And I mean, like, like Conor Gallagher, and like you said last time, Scott McTominay will be fine.

You know, he's going to Napoli.

That's nice.

But he probably wouldn't be going if the pure-profit thing wasn't a thing, and it sort of feels a bit of a shame.

I don't know if it does feel a shame.

He hasn't died.

He's gone to Napoli.

He gets to broaden his horizons and live in Naples while Antonio Conte turns Napoli into a Scotland tribute act.

Yeah, I mean, I did see Rio Ferdinand said United might regret signing or will regret letting McTominay go, and he's been a very faithful servant to them.

Good squad player, never seems to let them down, chips in with quite a few goals for someone in his position.

But,

you know, this signing of Ugarte, I think, brings United spending under Eric Tenhag up to 600 million, over 600 million quid.

So some of it has to be recouped and selling Scott McTominay is an obvious thing to do.

This game,

Ugarte will probably start in the bench, won't he?

John seems to think, or Johnny, are you suggesting he'll play alongside Casemiro?

Because I thought he'd replace Casimiri's sort of a younger, faster, better passing version of Casemiro.

I think if Manchester United could sell Casemiro, they would.

That's not going to happen, is it?

No, exactly, for that reason.

A Saudi team comes in from.

And he hasn't played that badly since the start of the season, but

I mean, you've got...

Who are the other options in there?

Mason Mount?

Would you play Casemiro instead of Mason Mount?

I think I would.

If you've got a protector there, you know, Casimiro is the guy that can play those defence splitting passes, isn't he?

It's just as long as you don't put him in that defensive position.

I suppose we don't know that much, do we?

Because at Rail, Tony Crowes did that and Modric did that.

So, like, he was just with some brilliant players, right?

It makes you better.

Yeah,

but he also did that stuff himself, didn't he?

I mean,

it's an interesting player.

I just think they just thought, oh, he's the less passer guy of that lot, therefore he must be a midfield destroyer.

When he wasn't, it's just that they had the ball all the time.

Yeah.

It's also that these players are human.

So Katamiro came to Man United having won everything.

And at some point, they're not quite as motivated as they were when they were a young player.

And I just think that applies quite a lot to some players who have won everything and then get the move.

And then he hasn't quite got the body shape where he can relax 5%.

And I think that that hasn't helped him.

But I thought he was good in the first, but he's obviously sort of seeing retirement in the distance, I would suspect.

Can I just check, Lucy?

Can I just check, Lucy, the three people you're looking at on the Zoom?

Do we have the capacity to relax, the body shape to relax 5%, one of us?

You don't have to answer that question.

Can I ask you, John, about Sterling to United?

We'll do the Sancho bit in the Chelsea bit.

If it happens, what do you think of that?

I would be surprised if it happened.

That's no guide to anything.

When I talked about Manchester United doing cute deals, I don't think this is a particularly cute deal.

Someone's got to foot those wages.

The suggestion is,

from a couple of people I've been chatting to about this, is that maybe Sterling is 29, which used to be peak age for a footballer.

But let us recall, he's been playing since he's 16 and he's been playing an awful lot.

Now, just like the engine on my car,

which was, you know, since 2008, it starts to get a bit tired when it's overused.

You're driving a Nissan Raheem Sterling, are you?

Nissan Raheem Sterling, yes, is what I'm driving.

A good little runner.

You know, gets you from A to B,

but maybe you've seen better days.

But yeah,

one reason we keep, well, four careful owners in the case of

Raheem Sterling.

But yeah, I mean...

Or is it five?

Anyway, but...

But Chelsea would be the weby any player.

Webyanyplayer.com.

Exactly.

And they're trying to get rid of him.

That tells you something, I guess.

And Barry, Chiesa to Liverpool, undergoing a medical personal terms in place for a four-year deal.

I suppose my appreciation for Chiesa comes a lot from Nikki, who

loves him as a player, but he hasn't been the player he was.

You sort of sense he is,

you know, filling up the numbers a bit, one off the bench, has amazing ability, but may not start week in, week out for them.

Yeah,

pretty much sums it up in a nutshell, I suspect.

But he's cheap.

He's been blomed out at Juventus.

To be honest, I know more about his dad than I do about him,

to show my age here, but

I think he's a good signing because, as I say, he's quite cheap.

There's definitely a good player in there.

I'm not sure exactly the circumstances of his departure from Juventus or why he fell out of favour.

These things just happen at clubs.

But

it does seem like an absolute no-brainer to me.

But I wouldn't expect him to become a regular in the Liverpool side, but he will certainly do a job off the bench when when required.

I was looking at this the other day and it came as a surprise to me.

Italians in the Premier League, we can think of some very good ones, but they don't win titles apart from,

and I stand, I'm pretty

quizz.

It's a fact.

It's a fact again.

It's a fact.

Oh, yeah, it's true.

There's two.

One of them...

is gettable.

The other one, I'd be very surprised.

And I'm not sure he even properly qualifies, though I'm sure he does have the medals.

So that's a clue.

Right.

All right, so he's not, he's got an Italian name, but he's not like Tony Cascarino.

You know, he's that

Italian.

Well, he played for Italy.

Kepa?

No, he's Spanish.

He's Spanish, yeah.

He really is going to struggle, yeah.

Andrea Solenzi, Zola, Viali.

Did either of them get it?

No, no, no, no, no.

We're in the Premier League.

Mancini?

Manager, there's been quite a few, of course.

Carlo,

Conte.

Kudicini.

Kudicini, correct?

Was these the

obscure one?

Now, the other one is very well known, though perhaps isn't as well known as he should be still.

There's a clue.

This is gallery.

Is it going a long way back?

Ah, why always him?

Ah, yes, Balotelli.

Yeah.

I think that's interesting.

No, see, Barry looks like he's lost the once he lives.

To be fair, I force him to do those kind of quizzes on the radio and he really dislikes them.

I'm sorry, Barry.

Yeah, no, it's interesting.

Let's go to the Emirates.

Arsenal Brighton, 12:30 kickoff on Saturday.

Battle at the top of the table.

It's an interesting test for both these sides, I think, Lucy.

And I guess when there are two excellent footballing teams, the slightly better one who is at home will probably win, I guess.

Yeah, probably.

I think Arsenal have started off ominously in terms of you know, the win over Villa, they probably didn't have the better of the chances.

Villa couldn't capitalise, but I still think they need a number nine, or it doesn't look like they can get the nine that they particularly may want.

So

a wide player who is a goal scorer, because you obviously Tross Eyes are so valuable.

But I think the most important thing for Arsenal is sort of getting players out.

You know how Arteta prized himself on the strength and the spirit of the group and he does a lot of work on that.

Having too many players

who don't get a sniff of playing, however nice of people they are, it affects the group eventually.

So I think sort of getting and it looks like

the likes of Nketi is going, Ramsdale's going, I think Fabio Vieira has already gone.

So it's just like reducing the size of the group.

It just helps the manager.

But they're sort of going on as I would have expected Arsenal to do.

But Brighton, quite an interesting story

with a new manager.

Looked like they settled in well, but they've changed how they do

the business and sort of properly gone for it, as we would say, officially.

I do like the fact that I was always wondering after the Euros, one of the best defenders at the Euros was Cadiolu, the young left back, right-footed left-back for Turkey.

And he's probably chosen well in terms of developmental-wise.

He will go on another level, and someone else will buy him.

I would suspect, like a lot of Brighton players.

But I still think they need another older player losing Lalana, losing Gross.

And I think I read somewhere where they were looking at Matt's Hummels, which would be quite an interesting one.

That would be an interesting signing, but you know, they've got obviously James Milner and a couple of other ones, but it's just sometimes helps when you've got that many young players.

I'm really interested in who wins this.

I would suspect it will be Arsenal, but I'm quite impressed by Brighton so far.

Yeah, signing Caliogly means Brighton have spent nearly 200 million this winter.

With Mason's the second highest spenders behind Chelsea.

John, do you think they should

I don't know why I sort of slide down in like a song there,

John, do you think they should Brighton should alter their approach, right?

If you're coming up a team that play a similar style

but in you know are slightly more efficient?

In terms of tactically or buying lots of players.

No.

No, no, no, and just this game.

Well the thing is we're about to find out how Fabian Herzler approaches these types of games aren't we i you get the impression that he is a fairly single-minded coach who has a certain style of play that the german pressing style of play but does he have that extra dimension the one that in a big game you adjust your you know you move your players certain positions in the pitch you you concentrate on key battles rather than what you're going to do uh in an attacking sense we're about to find that out i mean the thing is, he is only, I'm not going to mention his age going, this is ridiculous.

But

the thing is,

should Brighton pull this off,

then suddenly the world is going to go Frabbion Hertzler mad, isn't it?

Because suddenly it's like this guy is, you know, and Bayern Munich will be going, what are we doing with Vincent Company in charge?

And, you know, everything is going because Herzl, you know, began at Bayern, isn't it?

As one of the youth coaches there, it's funny, isn't it?

This early in the season,

this is perhaps where the hype machine is going.

I was at Herster's unveiling, which is very interesting.

He spoke for quite a long time, speaks very good English,

believes in the liberal city of Brighton, having lived in Hamburg.

It seems a good fit, and the clubs fit well with him.

He's prepared to work within the framework that Tony Bloom's put in position.

They just keep getting good managers, don't they?

But yeah,

if he pulls this one off, then he'll be the next Arsenal manager in two years or whatever.

That's, you know, that's let's make these predictions, shall we?

When he was the youth coach at Biomini, was he doing the under-nines and he was seven?

And everyone was asking the players like, you know, what's it like having a manager who's younger than you?

Barry, unless you have something huge to say on this, can I take you to Everton versus Bournemouth?

Everton haven't scored a goal in the league this season.

And

they face Italian international Kepa Ariza-Balaga this weekend, potentially, who signed for Bournemouth on loan.

It's a massive game for Everton, this, isn't it?

It is, and it isn't.

Sean Dice has stressed that

it is very important that people don't panic.

He's already pulled the

everyone's written us off as they always do card, which is not true.

I don't think anyone's written Everton off because we've seen what Everton do, season after season after season.

They circle the drain and they don't go down.

And

there's every chance it'll happen again this season.

But

the campaign couldn't really have got off to a worse start.

They had a

morale-boosting win in the Carabao Cup in midweek, during which

Sean Deich handed debuts to several, a couple of new signings.

Jesper Lindstrom, Jacob Bryan started.

Tim Boonum scored a good goal.

Ilmin Indai scored a goal as well.

He came in during the summer.

So that's all positive.

Now, admittedly, they were only playing Doncaster Rovers.

And speaking after the Spurs game, Dai said, you know, I will blood these new signings that people are criticising me for not having given enough game time or any game time to so far in our opening two games.

But I will also hope to put out a team strong enough to win the game, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of new signs.

And any team Everton should put out or put out should be good enough to beat Doncaster Rovers.

So mixed messages from Daish.

I think there's every chance they could lose this game.

I wouldn't be hugely surprised if they win either.

But if they do lose,

I don't think

it's not a catastrophe.

It just means they've lost again.

You know, Everton lose a lot of football matches.

There's still 35 left.

Yeah.

I mean, maybe I'm sensationalizing it too much.

I feel like it's bigger than that.

I mean, catastrophe depends how you define it.

I guess you were at that game, I think, weren't you, Lucy?

Yeah, it like Barry said, the fans were calling for him to play all these new signings,

and he actually did with most of them.

And you could sort of see with Lindstrom why he hadn't played him in the Premier League because he didn't look 100% match fit and he looked

like he was made of balsa wood at points.

So I sort of could understand that sort of introducing him slowly.

I think Jake O'Brien, the centre-back, who was at Leon, I think it was, he was very good.

I could see him playing with Branthwaite in the future.

Ira Boonim was brilliant after being not so good at Spurs.

And then Jai

really grew into the game and ended up looking like he looks like an entertainer who wants to get himself on the ball.

So the second half, first half was a little bit drab, and the Everton fans and the Everton players didn't look particularly confident.

But the second half, they sort of took control of the game

and looked good.

And I think that that's what Goodison Park sort of needed because you know it's the last season there, blah blah blah.

We'll keep talking about it, but they need to have some sort of positivity.

Um, so we'll see.

But I do like Bournemouth, um, Iraula is one of my favourite managers in the Premier League, just the way that he plays.

And obviously, I said I know Lewis Cook and spoke to him, and he's bringing endorsement about his manager.

By the way, Lewis Cook needs another England call-up.

If you saw him against Newcastle, he absolutely was too quick for Joel Linton.

So that's my pitch for Lewis Cook.

I don't know why I haven't looked at him in the last sort of few years, but he's recovered from two ACLs and playing well.

And I quite like Evan Nielsen as well.

I've seen him at Porto.

I think he looks a natural, the natural in the Premier League.

So I think that he will be the one that obviously replaces Solanke's goals, and hopefully that will happen.

But I just see good things for Bournemouth this season.

And they obviously were robbed of a winning goal and robbed of the goal.

I think it was last night as well.

Yeah, Areola's bought the decisions curse from Gary O'Neill in the window, which seems a mistake.

Yeah,

this was Jared Bowen.

The ball hit Jared Bowen's arm, and it was definitely below the t-shirt line.

It is obvious that we're not making these mistakes, but we're paying the consequences.

This is Areola.

Obviously, there's no VAR in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup.

It's very, very obvious we're out of the competition because of a mistake from the referee.

West Ham, meanwhile, hosts Manchester City, R boss five on Saturday.

City looks so ominous at the moment.

Baz, don't they?

Until they lose or draw, it just feels like this relentless machine.

Can West Ham stop it?

No,

I don't think so.

Next.

No, Manchester City having lost against West Ham in their last 20 meetings in all competitions.

They've never lost a Premier League game against West Ham under Pep Guardiola.

I suppose the one thing in their favour, West Ham's favour, is that at some point that run

of

uselessness will have to come to an end.

Well, it's harsh to say they're useless, but it is a very bad record and at some point it will end.

I can't really see it ending

this weekend because I haven't been particularly impressed with what I've seen from West Ham so far and City are pretty imperious and have so much strength strength and depth.

But yeah, history would certainly suggest West Ham have very little chance.

Just on if I can quickly go back to the refereeing errors, Matt O'Reilly made his debut for Brighton the other night and was the subject of a savage tackle from Crawley Towns Jay Williams, which went unpunished.

He didn't even get a yellow card, it should have been a red.

And

I appreciate they're not using Vara in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup, but it seems to me that referees are being a bit too lenient when it comes to bad tackles, because we had that hideous tackle on Matt Riley.

Joel Linton avoided the red card for his clothesline on Neto last weekend.

And

the Wolves defender, Jerson Masquera, I think he should have been sent off in both Wolves' opening games and managed to avoid red cards in both of them.

And I'm just wondering, are these one-off mistakes by refs or is it an indicative directive?

A directive.

A dedicated flow directive.

I don't know, but it's slightly worrying.

Yeah, Herzler said, you know, it was a ridiculous foul, which shouldn't be part of football.

You can't tackle like this.

Williams did apologise afterwards, but yeah, it was a bad, bad tackle.

That'll do for part one.

We'll begin part two with Chelsea versus Crystal Palace.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

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

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A proper football journalist, man.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Chelsea Palace is on Sunday.

Chelsea plays Servette, the Swiss side, in the Conference League playoff tonight.

They're 2-0 up.

Enzo Mareska's mentioned those players not training with the squad will not get any minutes this season if they're still there when the window closes.

I mean, I don't know, Lucy, what you think about how Maresk has played this out?

Because my initial reaction is

he said a lot of odd things.

I think Simon Johnson from the Athletic was on the radio with us and saying, like,

the other way of looking at it is it's quite a powerful thing.

He's saying, look,

this is the law.

I wonder what you think.

Yeah, I mean, he's obviously trying to, he's been told that he needs to get them out of the door, help get them out of the door.

I suspect that when I looked at Sterling's statement that he put out, I think that that was suggested to me that it was the ownership above the manager.

He sort of talked about his relationship with the manager in pre-season.

So I think that it's above that are trying to get rid of Sterling for obviously financial reasons.

But it's all right saying that, and again, it goes down to reality: at the Chelsea training ground, they will all go into the training ground in a morning unless he makes them train at a different time.

If he has to make him train at a different time, there must be a certain number of them, otherwise, the PFA gets involved.

But it's all to do with getting rid of them.

But they will still be around the place.

They'll still be having lunch.

They'll still be around the changing rooms and it causes problems.

And whatever he says, if they've still got some of these players left, and it's their own fault for getting that many players, who are obviously all those players think that they should be playing, you know, none of them will sit there and think, well, I probably agree with him.

And I'll, you know, those that do do that will get themselves on the way.

But they've all been...

They've all been signed recently, which means they'll all think that they've got a good chance as any and will have egos, obviously, and think that perhaps, you know, well, I'll just sit here and

cause a little bit of hassle.

Whereas I would think it's probably better to go and play football.

So

you would think that those that are not playing would try and go out and play football and get somewhere.

But I think in reality, it is a nightmare

in a training ground where you've got players who are not playing, who are unhappy.

It actually literally is.

They sort of change the mood of the training ground.

And I would suspect that's what Chelsea is.

Do you think there's a sort of brinksmanship here?

He's trying to get them out the door, and then if the window closes and Sterling's still there, well,

why wouldn't you just make him as good as he can be?

Because you might need him, right?

Yeah, that's probably what will happen.

And I would suspect that the players will probably know that it's not the manager

that's doing that.

So after the transfer window closes, if he hasn't, whatever he's got left that he'll have to deal with, you know, because even if they go and train somewhere else with somebody different, they're still going to be around the rest of of the group at various other points.

So it's an issue.

I was at Wolves last week, and obviously, you know, 6-2, all goes well.

But I thought there was

in

Maresca, I see a manager of ambition.

I see someone who's willing to toe the line, but I also see someone who wants to do it his own way too.

So it was put to me by a couple of people that know these types of things that Mikhailo Mudrick is a project player for the ownership, you know, because they staffled him ahead of Arsenal, if you remember, in the transfer window a couple of years ago.

So Mudrick plays in the team, but Mudrick keeps getting subbed off, and Mareska says, well, you know, he's use of the ball and off the ball.

So he's the project player.

He's making sure that he freezes him out.

He puts on Neto, who had quite a good half in his first half

as a Chelsea player.

Obviously, on the other end, Maduake explodes into life.

Now, this is a player

we were talking about transfers two or three weeks ago.

He was going to go to Newcastle.

So

I think what Maresko is doing is he's playing the political game quite well at the moment.

He was also talking in that press conference about, you know, we're not Manchester City, we're not Arsenal, I'll need a couple of years at this club, you know, which is very hard to not stifle a laugh.

But he's obviously thinking ahead.

He's ambitious.

He thinks he's the guy that can crack the Chelsea code.

Well, good luck with that.

But it's going to be interesting to watch it.

Yeah, it is.

Palace, meanwhile, Baz, beat Norwich 4-0 in the Carabad Cup this week.

Matetta scored a very slow overhead kick.

Big fan of that.

Mark Gay fell over the advertising hoardings right on full time.

I wonder if the Palace fans would just sort of hold him down there out of view until the windows closed.

Eddie Nketiah looks like he's coming in for 30 million.

Do you think that is a good piece of business?

I don't know.

Eddie Nketiah,

you always got the feeling he was never going to be good enough to become a regular starter for Arsenal and was only ever going to be a bit part player.

He hasn't really had enough opportunities

to show me what he can do or to impress me.

He may well be very good.

I just don't really know.

And then the gay to Newcastle, that's turned into a bit of a soap opera.

I don't know if it'll get done or not Marquee strikes me as the kind of player who will just get on with it he won't throw a strop or anything if it doesn't happen

he'll get on with it and and be perfectly fine and I

further to my my stat about West Ham

inability to to do anything against

Manchester City Chelsea have won their last 13 Premier League games against Crystal Palace so they really have the wood on them.

And

given their performance,

I think Palace will be fine this season, despite losing their opening two games.

You know, you don't talk about them as being in a crisis the same way you did Everett and Max, but they've all got the same number of points.

I think Palace will probably lose this game as well, but they'll be all right, one imagines.

Yeah, I wonder, Lucy's the only thing is if you bring in Nketiah, does that mean as they can go?

That is not like for like by any means, is it?

You're sort of looking at Nketi and Matetta is a kind of,

I think they're both very good, but I don't know that it just changes the balance of things.

Yeah, I look at Nketi.

I think what he needs is regular games.

And if he plays every week, Nketi will score goals because just the wide players and the way that Glasner likes to play, the system he likes to play, will probably free up Nketi in front of goal quite a lot.

I'm just worried about them at centre-back, even if they don't lose Gay,

they still like they've lost Anderson to Fulham.

That's a big loss for me that they let him go.

And Glasnar looks like, and I think some of the things that he said is, you know, don't expect what we did at the end of last year because

I'm losing sort of half my good players.

So I would expect them to be busy today, Palace, if I'm honest.

If not, see Roy Hodgson just getting ready in February.

To St.

James's Park, Newcastle Spurs.

Sandra Tenali set to return to St.

James's Park after that 10-month ban.

He played last night against Forest, John.

He's involved in their opening goal of the 22nd.

Mr.

Good Chancellor Freeman, he looked good.

I mean he ran out of steam a bit, but he looked good and it's be fascinating to see what he can do.

Well, yeah, the word is that he's been

working himself into, you know, into sort of

Rocky 2 style.

It's like he was in prison.

He's just got like absolutely massive, just doing chin-ups for 10 months.

He's been, you know, he's been back in Italy pounding the beach, you know, getting ready,

you know, after his great mistake.

he he has come back and he's going to be the tune hero that they all the tunalie that they all wanted and you know let's hope that he can do that because obviously there's someone that took a wrong turn in life and uh we all agree in rehabilitation here don't we and um it's not been that that signing was a disaster for them you mentioned the gway thing once you know amanda staveley stepped away from the club um which may be part of it They don't spend as freely as the fans expected, do they?

Now, that's to do with them towing the line on the financial fair play rules, which I'm led to believe is part of them being allowed to buy the club in the first time.

They weren't allowed to, you know, decide to crack the system as certain other clubs are accused of.

And Eddie Howe asked about Oasis.

Did you see this?

Oh, yes, I did.

Yeah.

Eddie Howe did the most Eddie Howe answer to that question.

Yeah, it was good.

Which is that he liked both Blur and Oasis.

And, you know, he had some good times in the 90s and all that.

And

he is that that man can ask, can drive the central route

in answering any question.

He's a genius.

The man should move into politics.

He really should.

It was just an amazing football manager answer to.

Barry, unless I'm misremembering, every time Newcastle have attacked when they've been home to Tottenham in the last two seasons, they've scored.

It's been utterly miserable.

It's like been like sort of, it's just been like so inevitable.

Are we expecting more of the same?

Yeah, I was just checking.

I was...

I had it in my head that Spurs have an atrocious record against Newcastle, but it's actually so last season

they lost 4-0, they won 4-1.

The season before, they lost 6-1 and 2-1,

and then won the two games.

The season before that, Spurs did.

So, it's yeah, very up and down.

My concern, I guess Sandra Tanali will, will, I doubt he'll start this game because he's clearly not match fit.

Uh, he was blown out of his nether regions after about half an hour last night, and he played for an hour, but he played quite well, even though Newcastle did improve immeasurably after he had gone off and when

Longstaff and Anthony Gordon came on, I think.

Anyway, what I would be concerned about in Newcastle is Joe Linton, who was so key for them last season,

is not playing well this season.

He started very badly.

He's been really poor in the two league games and he was poor again last night.

So that would be a source of concern for me.

But if he can get going again, one presumes that their midfield will be tenale gimarez joe linton once once tenale gets fit and that's that's not bad is it

um so newcastle knocked forest out on penalties worth seeking out tywo one ye's penalty in the shootout which wasn't quite row z but it was row q at least wasn't it um they host wolves uh under the seb hutcherson law that you know win those games that no one is talking about they're very they're not interesting start to the season uh continues How do you see this one, Lucy?

Forrester, quite interesting because I quite like no-no.

I don't think many people do, but I quite like him.

He sort of stays quite level, unbeaten so far.

And Wolves,

big game for them, I think, just because of the performances.

I think they're just having a little bit of a nightmare.

It's quite interesting because last season, Gary O'Neill started off, I'm going to play back four.

This is how I'm going to play, high press, going to take a few risks, and then, you know, lost a few games.

Uh, went back to a back three, beat Man City, if you remember, with a back three, and then actually, it worked with a back three.

And it's as if they need the safety of a back three, back five to get the results before they can then go back to his free-flowing.

So he'll do that again, I would suspect.

He will go back to being a little bit more resilient at some point.

But the big issue that Wolves have got is that centre-backs, Kilman's at a massive loss.

I mean, he's, you know, he's playing so well for West Ham, that's no big surprise.

But But they don't seem to be, they've brought a lot of money in Wolves, but they're not giving anything to Gary O'Neill.

And that is a problem for Gary O'Neill, and it's a problem for Wolves fans.

But keeping clean sheet, I think they've just going to sign Sam Johnston today, I think, goalkeeper, because Jose Sarr's not looking his usual self.

the scoring, I think at least last night that they scored, didn't they, in the cup, Gidez scored a couple.

So that helps.

But yeah, this this will be, yeah, a sort of not non-descriptive for Forrest and Wolves, but you know, let's see if you can get three points because, you know, obviously Wolves drew and then won.

Quite like Milenkovich, the centre-back, watched him in the Euros.

And then we saw that, you know, the likes of Elliot Anderson last night.

They looked alright last night at times.

Forrest, I thought they were going to get battered and they were quite resilient in the end.

So

I would say that Forrest will perhaps win this game because they're at home, but Wolves, it's a really big game for them.

Brentford plays Southampton.

Michael says, is it safe to say Aaron Ramsdale is now Arsenal's number two keeper?

Yeah,

he's signed for Southampton.

18 million up front.

Deal could be up to 25 million.

Feels, Barry, to me, like an amazing signing debt.

Why?

Because I think he's really good.

And I think 18 million doesn't seem very much money, or 25 million doesn't seem that much money.

I think Ramsdale.

Well, yeah, I suppose you might have a point.

Like, it's so long since I've seen, I remember seeing Aaron Ramsdale play.

I can't remember whether how good he was, but he was clearly pretty good to be Arsa's first choice keeper.

There was talk that they were going to alternate the role

when they brought in David Rea,

and that didn't happen.

Michael Arteta clearly preferred David Rea.

So

Ramsdale certainly needs a reboot.

And if he gets to that Southampton Grand,

he is.

Sam Johnson's another good keeper who,

but it's one of those positions where

you're either playing or you're not.

I was

talking to

breaking news.

Bournemouth signed Kappa on loan from Chelsea.

So

we're in a keeper merry-go-round, aren't we?

With Sam Johnson.

Ramsdale.

They're definitely a couple more keepers now.

They've got eight.

Down to eight there, I think.

I think Ramsdale

is a good signing.

Goalkeeper was a bit of a concern for them.

Is it Gavin Bizzuno?

Has a long-term injury?

Alex McCarthy.

Hang on.

Did Alex McCarthy sign a new deal?

I think he did, didn't he?

Yeah, and they've also got Lumsden, I think Joel Lumsden as well, but he obviously is not happy with McCarthy.

But Ramsdale, well, McCarthy has been at Southampton since Peter Shields.

But I mean, the thing is,

Ramsden, he's a good character to have around, isn't he?

He's a good, positive character.

And the one thing about his

there was a bit of a meme last season, wasn't there, about him, you know, because obviously David Ryer took his place.

And there would be this sort of Ramsdale cam of like how him jollying along the team and being and he seems like he's a good tourist.

So I wish him the best.

I'm not sure David Rice is a better goalkeeper than him either.

So there you go.

In terms of Brentford, Ivan Tony's movement, still the most interesting thing happening there.

Just a side note, Peterbury United must be absolutely desperate for him to go for 50 million because they've got a big sell-on.

And if he doesn't go, then they just don't get anything when he goes for nothing next season.

Worth Southampton, by the way, not card out of the Carabao 5-3.

Definitely worth if you have a spare two minutes.

I mean, I suppose not many people do have a spare minutes to dig out highlights of a Carabao Cup game that neither of your team was not involved in, but so many good goals in that.

Brentford won at Colchester.

Ipswich play Fulham.

Ipswich shock of the round, I guess.

They made a lot of changes, but they went on on penalties at AFC, Wimbledon.

Tom's written interesting question about Armando Brozier, who Ipswich want from Chelsea.

High for weekly.

I see Ipswich are trying to sign Brozier.

Like Barry, I suspect there's a Brosia vortex.

Players who are assumed to be good and therefore of high value, despite no evidence or in the face of evidence to the contrary.

But Brozier joins Ipswich on loan with a 30 million purchase obligation in the event Ipswich avoid relegation is this a conflict of interest because Chelsea will want to bank the 30 million of pure profit so they'll then have a 30 million pound interest in Ipswich staying up should purchase obligations allowed be allowed between clubs in the same division it would be funny he says if Chelsea decide it's more profitable to let them sell go down in order to cash in on the pure profit player sale

rather than try and stay up at the expense of Ipswich it's a very good question to which I don't know the answer.

But I still maintain, Barry, that there's a good player in Armando Brozia.

I will, you know, it's on my Tom Carroll's The Next Jabbi Alonso list.

How did that go for you?

Pretty well.

And also Adam Forshaw, I thought he was the next Jabby Alonso.

He's definitely, he got sent off for somebody.

He got like QPR or someone.

I can't remember the other.

Are Ipswich in crisis if we're doing the Sean Dice thing?

No, no.

No, I mean, I'm going to this game, which is I'm looking forward to it because,

and it will be that contrast, won't it, between the Liverpool game, which I went to a couple of weeks ago, you know, such optimism.

But now you're in the, you know, now you're in the muck and nettles of the Premier League.

And Fulham have played this game before.

Could be difficult for it to switch this one.

Yeah.

Leicester Villa, John says, did Barry know Lester had signed Bobby Dekordova Reed and Buonanotte?

Pass me by, if I'm honest.

Did you know both of those, Barry?

I did, yeah, yeah.

Oh, good.

I didn't know Bunanotte.

In fact, he was playing, and I was like, I just didn't really register that he wasn't playing for Brighton.

Is that where he came from?

I thought he was at Brighton, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anyway, Lester beat Tramier 4-0 in the week.

Jordan Ayu scored an absolute ping.

Well done to Barrow, who beat Derby on penalties.

Wickham, Blackpool, Leighton Orient, and QPR, who beat sides in divisions high.

Well, no, QPR beat Luton, who are in the same division, obviously, but still a good win for them.

Highlights of the Carabao Cup third-round draw, Liverpool, West Ham, Chelsea, Barrow, AFC, Wimbledon, Newcastle, and some early 2000s Premier League fixtures.

Arsenal, Bolton, and Manchester United beat Barnsley.

And we have the 1987 FA Cup final, Coventry versus Spurs.

I think the most interesting thing about the Caribou Cup draw is that they seem to have sneakily seeded it so that various teams, oh well, all the best teams.

I don't think it's sneakily though, Barry.

They've told everybody.

They haven't just like, it's not just leaked out.

It's the teams that are in the Champions League.

And I think, and it sort of favors the bigger teams again.

And I think that's what people are sort of complaining about.

But yeah, I think when you say sneakily, you mean that nobody knew about it before they did the draw until they said put it on the screen.

Is that what you mean?

I mean, I

it was the first I heard of it.

Well, yeah, well, that's not sneakily, that's just you've been not looking at it.

But I

think I generally have my finger on the pulse of what's going on.

So if it was the first I heard of it, I would imagine it's the first an awful lot of people heard about it.

But maybe I'm,

you know, I mean, I spend an inordinate amount of time reading stuff about football that I reckon most people

who have have better things to do with their time don't.

spend.

Well, I didn't know.

So I'm terrible.

You know, I'd hate to think my finger isn't as much on the pulse as you, you Barry but you know maybe that's the truth anyway that'll do for part two part three we'll do any other business I mean sorry Lucy did did you know this draw was seeded before it took place

no you didn't right thank you

no further questions your honour and Barry sits down

now Silas I want that bit included

and not just there's a bonus track at the end I knew fucking well you didn't have it too.

You're just trying to make me look like a prick.

Well, you don't need my help, mate.

I'd like you to keep that bit in two, if possible.

All right, that'll do for part two then.

Part three, we're gonna get you out of business.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Lee Carsley set to make his first selection as interim England manager today, head of the Nation League pictures against the Republic of Ireland and Finland.

John, what's the most interesting question?

Is it, will there be room for Ben White?

Is that the most interesting question?

Well, there will be no room for Ben White because Ben White continues to want to stay away from the England camp.

That wasn't a pure Gareth thing.

Oh, really?

Okay.

No, so it's a decision that will be taken by the full-time manager, if at all.

I think Ben White obviously values his time away from the England camp, doesn't like playing darts with the press or whatever it is.

You know, it's

fair enough.

Yeah.

I'll be interested because I will admit this.

I've never heard Lee Carsley speak.

No, that's true.

What are you expecting?

Alan Ball and Alan, like a Joe Pasqually?

What do we want?

Barry White?

Well, because he's an island international of

many caps, but I believe he's from the Midlands.

He hails from the Midlands.

So, yeah,

Barry from Malfides, Saint Pet, or something like that.

Yeah, it's a very good point.

I don't think I'd ever heard Duncan Ferguson or Paul Scholles speak until after they retired.

And now neither of them have shut up.

Or there was a stage where neither of them would stop talking.

The one, I don't know if you if you know him, Lucy, but uh, Meslier at Leeds, I mean, he's got the deepest voice in the world and he's a tiny little man.

And so, when I first heard him speak, I was like, that's got to be the voice of an actor.

It's extraordinary.

Has he got a Leeds accent?

No, not.

Oh, the goalkeeper, Bellier, yeah.

Did you say he's a tiny man?

He's about six foot five, I think it is.

But like, he's a bit like he's a little, he's a thin man.

Yeah, you know what?

He looks like a small child he looks and then he's got a deep voice yeah i know what you mean yeah very deep

wasn't expecting that um the champions league draw takes place today with the new swiss model um we don't need to explain it right now look it's a league you don't play each other it will confuse a lot of people for a lot of time but i did see barry that they'd done a video and Alexander Shefferin has put himself front and center of this video.

I mean, can you but like, it's just like, oh, mate.

It's pure Gianni vibes, though, isn't it?

it?

It's real, it's real Poundland Gianni vibes.

Yeah, yeah, Tigiani loved that.

So remember

he used to do the draw himself, didn't he?

And it was always that sort of, again, we're going to age ourselves,

that sort of going for gold style banter that you would have, you know.

Yeah.

I'd much rather Henry Kelly was front and centre of this

video.

Whose idea there's this?

It's Henry Kelly going, Pete Chonics for four points.

Will you play or pass?

That's what I won.

What am I?

I am a small bowl that reveals a bunch of CNI in the play.

And in much the same way as

Lucy belittled me for knowing that the Parabelle Cup draw was seen.

I suspect when this draw is conducted tonight, I suspect A, an awful lot of people don't know it's today, and B, an awful lot of people are going to get a huge shock when they see it isn't eight groups of four teams

oh yeah completely don't be like that baz don't be like that i did i was amused by the fact that they said that uefa say that it has been designed so that it cannot be prone to a cyber attack now that is a hostage to fortune isn't it i mean

it's a red rag to the hackers

yeah are they doing it isn't it was i reading that a computer's going to do the draw like it's not going to be drawn.

It's not, you know.

But a computer's already done the draw, Max.

That's the thing.

Oh, you see, somebody already knows who asked.

No, there will be roles

for

a distinguished ex-professional with nice hair to come along and unscrew one ball he has plucked from a ball, and then

a computer does the rest of it.

Christian Caronberg normally gets a run out, doesn't he?

Yeah,

Cambiasso's then.

So what?

He takes that one.

Christian Carabo takes that one ball, and then that starts a sort of what, like a domino rally of...

I think so, yeah.

So

he'll pick out a team, then they get a computer assigns them.

There's seven, or there are eight opponents, four at home, four away, eight different opponents.

No team can play

two sides from the more than two sides from the same country, and no team can play anyone from their own domestic league.

So there are certain

factors that are fed into this big super fixture generator.

And then the fixture list won't be published till Saturday, which I think means that on Saturday there'll be loads of people, middle-aged men going, right, do I try and book a cheap flight to

Madrid or do I try and get oasis tickets?

Yeah, a a lot of people, a lot of middle-aged men going to be glued to their laptop screens with various windows open to EasyJet and the Oasis ticket hub on a Saturday morning.

Now, Barry, as we've established, you have your finger on the pulse.

What's happened to Nobby Solano?

Oh, Nobby Solano has been sacked by Blythe Spartans.

Did you know that, Lucy?

Only because Buzz told me via WhatsApp.

Right, okay.

On the pulsometer.

Yeah, that's good.

He's been sacked by Blythe Spartans who are in the seventh tier of the league, the Premier, Northern Premier League, Premier League, or something like that.

Anyway, seventh tier.

They had lost three of their six games.

I think they shipped seven goals in their last two outings.

They play in the FA Cup on Saturday against Campion, who I must confess I've never heard of.

And

top goalkeeper David Stockdale will be in charge.

He was Nobby's assistant.

All right, thank you.

Barney says, great to see Lars Hivetson on BBC's match of the day covering the Champions League.

Good to get some expert European journalists covering these games rather than the usual ex-pros.

Hopefully it continues throughout the season, Max.

Does it feel like seeing your kids go off to university?

Yes, we're all delighted for Lars.

He was sat next to Stephen Warnock doing the Champions League show.

Hopefully he'll remember us.

Now he's hugely famous.

Yes, Barry?

Sorry, I didn't have my finger on the pulse for this.

What Champions League show was this?

So the BBC now have Champions League highlights.

So this was the playoffs from last night,

where they can do the draw today.

But yeah, going forward, there will be highlights of the Champions League on BBC One.

It jarred me when I saw that on the, you know, the.

What, Lars?

Seeing Lars there?

No, no.

Well, what do they call it?

The electronic programming guide, the EPG BBC match of the day.

I was like, I can't be having that.

So I didn't watch it.

I watched Newsnight instead.

But there you go.

Sorry, Lars, but

that's okay.

You're across the news of the day.

That's awesome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not as important as Lars, but perhaps important.

Not as important as Lars, no.

No, of course.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everyone, for your time.

Thank you, Lucy.

Cheers, boys.

Thank you, Barry.

Thank you.

Cheers, John.

Thanks for having me.

Football Weekly is produced by Silas Gray.

Our executive producer is Christian Bennett.

This is The Guardian.