Sven-Göran Eriksson’s life and legacy, plus La Liga latest – Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Today, we'll pay tribute to Sven Jurin Erickson, who's passed away after his very public cancer diagnosis.

So, England's first foreign manager who gave us 5-1 in Munich and Beckham over the wall against Greece.

Three quarter-finals with the Golden Generation perhaps wasn't enough for 18 trophies across Europe and a fascinating life.

Some great decisions, some terrible ones, but a life well lived.

Also, today, Sid's here to round up what's happening in Spain in search in Eric House, Killian, and Bappe fitting in questions.

We'll do some EFL, Sunderland top of the championship, Watford flying as well, all that.

That's your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning, welcome.

Hi.

Ben Fisher, hello.

Hi, Max.

George Elek from Not the Top 20.

Hello.

Good morning, Max.

And Sid Lowe is here.

Hey, Sid.

Morning, Max.

Let's start with the news about Sven Ureneksen, who's died at the age of 76.

He announced in January earlier this year that he'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer and that likely at best had about a year to live.

His children Lena and Johan issued a statement.

I'll read part of it.

It said, our father fell asleep peacefully in his home at Bjørkefors outside Suna this morning.

Dad told us at the beginning of this year about his serious illness and received an amazing response from friends and football fans around Europe.

Several football teams in England, Italy, Portugal and Sweden shared their love for football and for dad.

It was unforgettable for both him and us.

He expressed his appreciation and joy and stated that such beautiful words are usually only uttered when someone has died.

We hope you'll remember Svenis as the good and positive person he always was, both in public and at home with us.

And I mean, I watched the Amazon Prime documentary, Barry, you have as well.

It's a fascinating documentary and

a fascinating life, actually.

Yeah, a fascinating life.

And Sven, I think, considers himself very lucky to have lived it.

He very much sort of thinks he kind of won the jackpot in life.

And to an extent, he did.

Um,

because as he says himself, he's he's just this

bloke from the woods who managed his local team, went on to become manager of IFK Gothenburg in Sweden, won the UEFA Cup with them in his third season, which was a absolutely remarkable achievement with a team that was largely

full of part-timers.

And this led him to go to Benfica and then on to Italy, Roma, Fiorentina, back to Benfica, Santoria, Lazio, where he had great success.

And then he became England manager.

And his career kind of went south after that.

But his time in England was, you know, England didn't achieve a huge amount of success, or well, any success really under him.

They reached three quarterfinals, two World Cups, one Euros, got beaten in all three of them.

But there are some great memories for England fans in those times the the 5-1 against germany the the beckham free kick against greece sven's kind of soap opera of a personal life which was played out very very publicly in the tabloids and in that documentary they have a a tabloid journalist there who was quite inkind in his assessment of Sven's shenanigans.

I think most of us all found them quite amusing.

He was a very unlikely Lothario, but quite the hammer man.

And he always expressed this total bewilderment and bafflement at this interest in his private life.

And he was absolutely right too, because

the reaction to him as a grown man having relations with consenting women

was very sort of Victorian and the English press come across as very prudish.

And just found it weird.

And it turned out a lot of the information they were getting on him was obtained illegally.

He wasn't doing anything wrong.

It was the press who were behaving immorally and illegally.

But

yeah, he was a very successful manager.

He won, I think, 16 or 17 trophies.

And he was his time as England manager, while not particularly successful, was very, very memorable.

And he managed an England team with some terrific players arguably only surpassed by the group of players who are in the current England setup yeah I mean you've summed it up sort of perfectly there Barry I think I mean that 5-1 I'm looking at you know I don't know how old you were Ben and George because it feels like like for me I was at shoeless Joe's on the embankment you know sort of proper early 20s absolutely wasted I remember sort of dancing down the escalator people going up and down the escalator at the tube singing Sven Yoron Erickson it was an it was just I go to you first Ben, it was just an amazing moment in English football.

I mean the fact it's a qualifier, you know, probably just tells you about the state of English football, right?

But and what we haven't won.

But it's still as a moment, it's extraordinary.

Yeah, I was thinking this obviously last night.

And in terms of England fan moments, for me, it's kind of still the one, you know, it's that and obviously Beckham against Greece.

And as you say, I think, you know, my evening was slightly more serene.

I think I was just at home.

I think, you know, I was probably seven or something.

But

it was, regardless, you remember it.

I said last night, I was like, I remember watching this.

I remember the guy, I remember Heskey, I remember, obviously, the Owen hat-trick.

And you sort of remember everything that's attached to that night.

Like, I remember then, in, I don't know, what, a month later or something, you know, my dad got a mug with 5-1 on and the goal scores wrapped around it, which is now hugely faded.

And, you know, you don't get those very often.

I suppose at the time you think, you know, there's loads of these to come.

But yeah, that 5-1

is the Sven moment for me.

And obviously, the Beckham thing was brilliant.

Obviously, we'll come on to that.

But that 5-1 is just incredible.

And actually,

you know, to win in Germany by that margin.

And it was great in the documentary to see, obviously, when Carsten Janker scores.

It's just a brilliant moment with Sven watching it back.

He just says, absolutely shit.

And he sort of just rages at Sol Campbell.

He says, you know, it's too easy.

100 kilos, you couldn't expect him to be quick.

But obviously, yeah, to turn it around, and that will be like a forever.

It's not just a Sven moment.

That is an England football all-time moment.

And

where it was, the timing of it, obviously, Sven hadn't been in the door all that long.

Just incredible.

Yeah, brilliant to sort of relive it yesterday, albeit in sad circumstances.

Yeah, I think Sven, I mean, I was...

a bit older than Ben, but a fair bit younger than you, and I wasn't sadly dancing on any escalators that evening.

But it did feel like a kind of pivotal era of not just kind of football but english football as well where it went from football went from being you know the biggest english football the biggest thing in football to suddenly being basically the dominant story in you know the the cultural issues at the time and that's why i think sven's shenanigans off the pitch was such big news it was a time where Beckham mania was at its highest.

It was a time where Wayne Rooney was breaking into the England side and kind of redefining what it meant to be a wonder kid.

And for, you know, early on in Sven's reign as England manager, we had the 5-1 against Germany.

We had the Greece free kick a month later.

And then, like, let's not forget, we also had beating Argentina in the first game in the 2002 World Cup, which, even though it was a pretty horrific watch as an England fan, and it was by no means a dominant display, was another kind of marker in terms of progress of something that England hadn't done for a long time, getting one over the old enemy, Beck and scoring a penalty with an iconic celebration in the corner.

Like, that's that's three,

as an England fan, three moments there in 12 months that eclipsed basically anything we'd had before that.

And it seemed to catapult

the England football team and the psyche around it into a different stratosphere.

He's someone, I think the amazing thing to watch from the outside is that

his legacy seems to be around

not necessarily him as a manager, where he achieved so much, as Barry said, away from the England job, but also as kind of just a guy.

It's amazing to see in the last 12 months or so, how many tributes you see from people who work with him at Manchester City.

I was told a story this morning that when he was Leicester manager, they went on a tour of Leicester and he took everyone out for dinner in Stockholm, all players and all staff and bought them all lobster and paid for it all himself, which might play into what he's been saying in recent interviews about him being terrible with money, but certainly shows that he's someone who was always looking to give people a good time and to look after them and respect and the way that he treated people seems to be at the forefront of that.

All the way up to this film where, you know, despite him being a man where the narrative around his life was very very much not controlled by him when he was Ingna manager.

It was controlled by the tabloids.

He was very keen in this film made about him that he wanted to ensure that those people and certain women and individuals who played a part in those stories were able to give their side of the story.

This wasn't a curated documentary.

It wasn't a PR piece.

He wanted it to be a genuine reflection of his life and his times as a football manager.

So

I think it's a measure of him that a guy, you know, the outpouring of emotion that we've seen and the tributes we've seen to him suggests he's someone that you wanted to to know, whether that was for a good time or as a football manager.

And the affinities he has towards his ex-players, where seemingly he was still taking a massive interest in their career paths, even long after

he'd recently spoken to them.

His media agent in a statement yesterday said that he was still speaking to Sven regularly on the phone, where Sven would ask him questions about players who played for him in the past and how their careers were getting on in coaching and other things.

Just seemed like a massive football fan and a good guy who really cared.

So, yeah, he gave us some some great time.

Sadly, as Barry gleefully said, it didn't go past the quarterfinal ever.

But yeah, it's terrible.

Well, just very sad news, but also hopefully for those who are very close to him,

they've

taken some heart from the tributes we've seen since.

Yeah, I saw the 5-1 in the Triscoll tavern in Madrid.

And yeah, there was that real sense of this being a

kind of a completely surreal moment, that this isn't supposed to happen.

You're not supposed to do this with Germany.

I was actually at the game when England beat Germany 1-0 in the European Championships when Shearer scored.

Now that was the first win of what was it, 35 years or something.

So I suppose it had been broken.

This run of you never beat Germany had been broken, but to beat them 5-1 was extraordinary.

And from a Spanish point of view, that 5-1 ended up being, I think, quite significant because, of course, that's a big part of the reason why Michael Owen won the Ballon d'Or.

So Liverpool win the three trophies, the three cups.

Admittedly, they don't win the league, which is the big one.

Michael Owen is a central figure in all of that and has this hat-trick in the 5-1.

And I think that's what leads him to winning the Ballon d'Or, which is something that still rankles in Spain because there's this kind of idea that Raul at some point should have won the Ballon d'Or.

And that was the year when he really should have won it and that kind of Michael Owen took it off him.

One of the things that struck me about Sven, and it kind of ties in with everything all of you are saying, is that the dignity and the warmth with which the last months have kind of happened and the way that people have responded to him and the way that he's responded to them, and that footage of him coming out of Anfield, for example, because

he's the one that

kind of made that happen by saying, you know, I always had this dream.

Then Liverpool do this gesture, because otherwise there was never any real sense that Ericsson had a connection with Liverpool, and yet there was a warmth towards him.

And I think I suppose there's a combination of

the awareness that he's going to pass away, but also with time, people realizing, you know, that stuff that people got annoyed about, it didn't matter.

He was fundamentally just a guy kind of living his life.

And actually, there's a warmth towards that.

And you look back on how

um those off-field things were played out and at the time as you know you're talking about being victorian it was it was done with this kind of aggressiveness and this nastiness but actually with time people sort of think well do you know what he wasn't really hurting anyone and and and i think that does change out again i'm not so naive as to not realize that it changes in part because the awareness of his situation but i think it's been nice and it's been nice and it's in that statement isn't it from from from um from his kids that he's been able to see that you know that he's been able to see people that maybe wouldn't have been so kind of about him before kind of come to him and he's been able to handle it with this sort of the dignity and the warmth that we now come to see probably always defined him.

You know, at the time, I think there was a sense, wasn't there, that he was too indulgent at that generation and too indulgent of celebrity and Beckham and so on.

And now we look at it and think, you know what, actually, that's just a demonstration of a kind of humanity, really.

Yeah, and he gave us the eternal phoning, can Gerard and Lampard play together?

Like, we owe him that.

Sorry, Baz.

No, I was just going to say, like, as a manager, his sort of tactics weren't anything particularly special.

They were quite old school, to be honest.

4-4-2, hit the channels, get the ball in the box, and hope for the best.

And if we lose it, the midfielders get it back.

That's their job.

So

I think he was a very good people person and he dealt, he had a lot of big egos to deal with.

And this is back in the days when the England squad was very fractured.

You had the Liverpool camp, the Manu camp, the other, you know, everyone else, you know, all sitting at their different tables.

Now, admittedly, the World Cup in 2006 was an absolute circus.

And

with the wives and girlfriends on tour in Baden-Baden.

But,

yeah, he just had a lot about him.

And he had a lot of crap to put up with.

He was one of the victims of phone hacking, constant intrusion into his private life.

And as I said,

he was baffled by this apparent prudishness.

But I suppose, you know, we all lapped it up, didn't we?

We all read it with glee.

So there is a market for that sort of salacious legover, tittle-tattle.

Yeah, I think it's interesting as well.

He's quite open about his own failings.

You know, like he lost all his money.

to all like 10 million pounds to a dodgy financial advisor who I think he what he won in court and then just accepted an apology.

Like, you know, I'll just go and earn some more money.

He ended up in, like, by becoming not county manager, he ended up having like dinner with Kim Jong-un in North Korea.

I mean, that's utterly ludicrous.

I know, and his kind of laissez-faire, I don't know if that's sort of the right word, but

your mind goes that way.

It's his sort of laissez-faire approach to things or life, I suppose, is kind of really endearing.

The way, you know, he says, you know, I've lost that money.

I'll just have to get some more work, just have to work again, work that bit harder, get it back.

And I think maybe it's easy to forget, like it's Barry, I think, alluded to earlier in the beginning.

This guy who said, you know, I'm just from the woods in the middle of nowhere, nobody knows who I am.

And he said, his parents, you know, barely traveled, barely made it to Stockholm.

And yet, Sven lived this rich, colorful life, traveled the world.

You know, I think he took charge of was it Ivory Coast, and obviously, as you say, went to North Korea with Knox County and all these weird and wonderful places.

And yeah,

what a kind of rich life, and not just in football, but also, you know, off the field field he lived.

And

I think I don't know in terms of his kind of legacy, it's just it's bigger than

it's bigger than management, isn't it?

I think that's what people forget.

Sid alluded to a minute ago, you know, you get so lasered in on what matters or what you perceive to think matters, but his approach and his words and the sort of style he he lived with is,

yeah, I think we could probably all learn a bit from.

And I was just thinking of

Tom Sylvester this morning, the 10-year-old who around 2002 went bold

Yeah, had his head shaved to be like Sven at school, yeah.

I dug it back out, and I just I loved his quote.

He said, Um, quite a few people dress up as David Beckham.

Like, you know, I thought Sven would be different, so uh, yeah, I've got a lot of time for that.

And actually, just hearing that song, you know, the sort of Sven, Sven, Sven, you're totally forgotten that.

And actually, I suppose, George, it's interesting, isn't it, that

like everybody wants to belong.

And he just thought football was his thing, right?

And I suppose it's all of our things in many ways.

It doesn't define you, but just the power of that to change that guy's life and to send him to all these places is quite...

I suppose sometimes when you sit back and you think, what is it we like about this thing and why is it we like it and what it can do?

And he sort of epitomizes

almost all the facets of what is brilliant and ludicrous about this game.

Massively.

I mean, you look through his managerial career and for a guy who retired aged 27 paying for Karl Skoga to go on to manage England just a couple of years later and all the giant clubs around Europe was incredibly unlikely.

And there was adverse, you know, there was adversity throughout his managerial career.

When he was appointed manager of Benfica, it went down incredibly badly with some board members.

Even when he was appointed manager of England,

it was the first time that England had appointed a non-English manager.

And again, there were

certain people within the media and within the fan base who didn't think it should be the case.

At Lazio, he came in and Bepe Signori was their star striker player with an incredible goal-scoring record.

And Ericsson basically dropped him and sent him out on loan immediately because he didn't like his attitude, which didn't go down particularly well with the Lazio fans until they got to two cup finals that season and won their first trophy in a long time.

So it wasn't easy for him to do what he did.

And I guess because in England, his legacy is obviously the England job, but it's easy to forget that prior to England, prior to Knotts County, prior to Leicester City, you know, he had this incredible career around the continent where he won a lot of trophies.

And, you know, it's one of those stories about the Knotts County tobacco was that he, you know, he waived his resignation payout that he was due in order to ensure the club didn't go under.

So, again,

you know, it's a bit of a weird, it's like a football manager say, gone wrong when

you look at his managerial career throughout.

But

from

before the England job itself, you can see why the FA worked incredibly hard to bring him there, which, as I say, was so unlikely given where he came from.

Without that,

this was at a time where generally managers who managed at the very top would have a CV from their playing career that would match that.

When he was appointed England manager, the Daily Mail announced that we've sold our birthright down the fjord to a nation of seven million skiers.

And at his opening introductory get to know you press conference, there was quite a lot of outright hostility, you know.

Yeah, I totally agree.

That's someone, you know, I don't know, so who's the Aston Biller left back, you idiot sort of thing?

And also, that man dressed as like a beefeater with like no surrender, like at the door.

You just think, oh, who gets up and thinks that's what I'll do?

I mean, it's unbelievable.

Is the whole intrusion, the press insurance intrusion is sort of extraordinary, isn't it?

Yes, Ben.

No, I was just going to say, it made me think, and I know there's different reasons for this, and clearly the Premier League influx of managers, you know, a big part, but did make me think in recent weeks we've been talking about, you know, next England manager.

Obviously, now we know it's Lee Carsley for the time being but obviously Sven at the time it was so new to have this you know overseas guy in the building whereas now

you know if it was a Guardiola or a Potato or whoever it just wouldn't be I don't think it would be cast anywhere near the same way and clearly there's lots of reasons for that and you know a lot of time has happened a lot of things have happened but just amazing that actually Sven at that time kind of carried all of that all of that weight, all of that weird anger that everybody had about him.

And as I said, just was so actually really relaxed about it and just like, well, that was fine.

Was it Dave Gorman or Danny Wallace?

I can't remember who just sort of said yes to everything and wrote a book about it.

It feels like Svenny Wallace.

It feels like Sven sort of did that in a footballing ball.

Who is it?

Ben Vigo.

Yes.

Who is it?

England?

Yeah.

And he just, who's that at the door?

Yes.

You know, he just, you know, he did it in every way, didn't he?

Anyway,

may he rest in peace.

A life very well lived.

Sven, you're an extra.

And we'll be back in a minute.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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

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

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George and Ben, feel free to ask a question, or you can sit back and enjoy Sid talking about Spain.

I mean, I imagine, Sid, all anybody wants to talk to you about is Killian Mbappe.

I mean, the where, where, how does he fit in question still really interests me.

Sorry, Max, all I want to talk to Sid about is Ollie McBurney.

Well, we'll get to him.

It's all you're being asked about Ollie McBurney.

Sorry, being so close to the Mbappe thing, do you share my enthusiasm for how this is all going to pan out still?

It depends what you mean by enthusiasm.

I think it still is the question that's being asked, partly because we haven't seen an obvious answer yet.

It still is that

the sort of the

early construction of the team is still not entirely clear.

There's been a lot of talk about exactly what you said pre-season, about this being a team that leans very, very heavily to the left side of the pitch.

like a tilting snooker table like you had

it's like a snooker table at my parents' house exactly if you're going for the top left pocket you're no touch

um and and and it's you know you've got rodrigo who's theoretically the right side of the forwards and he's over there as well and anchilotti said the other day you know we we lent to the left when we won the champions league so this isn't a problem obviously this is an extra element to that um he talked after the first game about balance now obviously he meant that in terms of balance front to back but i think it's also true that there's a there's a search for a bit of balance left to right, although you don't necessarily have to have a symmetrical team.

It doesn't matter if the team's

not exactly the same number of people on the right and the left, and it's all nicely balanced in that sense.

But I think in,

I was about to use a horrendously sort of tactician sort of phrase.

I was about queens defensive, in defensive phases, I suppose that they do need a bit more balance when they kind of fall back into those more protective positions.

I mean, look.

It will probably happen.

Actually, one of the things that's interesting and the other part of this whole MBAP fit, of course, has focused on the personalities, not just the players.

You know, will they all get on?

And actually, the early signs are they're trying quite hard to make a point of getting on.

They're trying quite hard to look for each other.

At times, maybe even trying a little bit too hard.

He's not scored in two league games.

He had...

I think it was four shots at the weekend, a couple of very good chances, which he probably should have taken.

But I don't think anyone's really worried, but it is definitely the debate.

It's definitely the kind of the key talking point at the moment.

They drew away at Majorca 1-0 on the opening day, beat Valadolid 3-0 on Sunday with two very late goals, but they created a lot in that.

And I saw that Mbappe Vinicius, Rodrigo, and Arda Gula all started.

And I was trying to work out, did they all just start wide left?

Well, Gula didn't.

And I think partly because he knew everyone else was going to do so.

And so there seemed to be this kind of, you could almost see him going, oh, no, no, the manager told me to go over there and sort of shoveling across the other side.

Obviously, the reason for that is that Bellingham is currently injured and will be out for about a month.

And so, Bellingham, who was

the other midfielder alongside Fede Valverde and, of course, Cho Ameni, had tended to drift left.

I think Gula was trying not to, although nominally he was number 10.

That surprised people, by the way, because I think most people assumed that in the absence of Bellingham, it would be Modric.

And yeah, they did all more or less all lean for the left.

Guler, as I say, a little bit less so.

I think, in a way, it's the focus on MLP has hidden the slightly

possibly even the more important question, which is who does what Cross did?

And the answer is no one.

And Angelotti has been quite clear in saying no one's going to.

We have to find a different way of playing, but no one's going to do exactly what Cross did.

And I think at times at the weekend, they were a bit sluggish.

First half was really poor.

And that kind of ability to switch the play from one side to the other very quickly and open the pitch up and not just have this bus parked in front of you and sort of move it around without Cross.

That's obviously a lot harder.

And for me, the key player in a way is Fedi Valverde because you've essentially got a back four plus Joe Mennie and then everyone else up front except for Bellingham and Valverde.

And so Valverde is this athlete who's got to cover this big gap in the middle

until they start to get the pieces to, you know, that balance to work better.

So didn't Cruz

kind of anoint Valverde as his own successor?

Yes, exactly.

So Cruz at the celebrations

at Fiberles at the end of the season sort of said to the fans, who do you want to have the number eight?

The number eight is going to this kid and gives it to Valverde.

And actually, it says something about Valverde, and Angelotti has said this as well, and Valverde himself sort of admitted it at the weekend.

That Valverde, after he'd been given Cruz his shirt, then kind of made a very public declaration of admiration and love and sort of said, You know, you're my hero.

You're the guy I grew up watching.

And he'd never said that before.

It's like he hadn't dared to tell Tony Cruz that, God, you're, you know, you're Tony Cruise.

And at that point, when Cruz was going, he finally did it.

And Ancelotti has alluded a lot to the idea of Valverde being maybe a bit too humble, lacking a bit of arrogance, lacking the determination to say, right, this is mine.

And at the weekend, he scores this free kick, which is the goal that

puts him into the lead after really struggling to break Vadle down.

And all right, gets a bit of deflection.

He's maybe a tiny bit lucky.

But it's because Anchilotti is at the side of pitch saying, shoot, shoot.

And Valverde afterwards says, you know, sometimes you're a bit shy and you don't want to take the ball and have a go, but Anchelotti told me to.

So I did.

And it went in.

And I think there is this sense that with Valverde, you've kind of got to push him a bit to tell him he's good.

Now, look, he's not Tony Cruz.

He's not going to be able to do that.

He doesn't have that subtlety and range of passing, but he has a lot of other things.

And I think a lot of those other things are going to be really vital, not so much so that he can do him.

as so that everyone else can do themselves.

I can't imagine Angelotti doing anything more than, you know, lifting that eyebrow.

Like, I've never seen him yell, you know.

No, well, it was, it was, it was kind of done in an Anchilotti sort of way.

He was sort of saying, oh, shoot.

And then when Valverde scored, he ran towards him.

And Anchelotti just sort of stood there doing the shrug going, see?

Barcelona then started with back-to-back 2-1 wins at Valencia home to Athletic Club at the weekend.

I mean, Lewandowski scored the winner.

Could have had about six, couldn't he?

How is Hansi Flick settling in?

A little bit like with Real Madrid.

I'm reluctant to draw conclusions.

this quickly.

It's only been a couple of games, but you can see one or two things that I think Flick wants them to do differently.

The structure of the team is a bit different.

It's a bit more like a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3, although Rafinho's playing this slightly weird hybrid role between midfield and that line of three.

They are a little bit more direct, a little bit more aggressive, I think, than they were last season.

And there's the beginnings, I think, of an idea.

And bear in mind, that's with a lot of players out.

You know, Pedri's been injured, although he played at the weekend.

Gabby's out, Frank de Jong is out.

Christensen is out now, which has turned out to be good news.

Danny Olimo has been out because he hasn't been registered, but he now is,

because Christensen's injured.

He has been registered.

I'd love the idea of Hansie Flick having to just put him under a different name.

Just call yourself Frankie.

You'll be fine.

Yeah, the classic winger.

You're Dave, right?

You're referring to you.

You are Dave.

Number seven, what's your name?

Dave.

And so, you know, there's the beginnings of something.

Obviously, the focus in truth at Barcelona.

And I know Barcelona fans maybe won't appreciate this, has been on this financial difficulty, on their failures to bring in some of the people they wanted in the window, on the difficulty in getting Olmo registered.

He now will play tonight against Raya Vaycano.

But at the same time, this thing's starting just about, I think, to fall into place with the team.

At the Trew their opener, they beat Girona 3-0.

Marco Sorrento scored an absolute banger, didn't he?

Conor Gallagher came off the bench.

Feels like such a Simeoni player, Gallagher.

And

the welcome was astonishing.

It was brilliant.

I mean, you know, look, I'm...

I'm not going to overplay this and say, oh, Gallagher was amazing.

But

you're right.

The welcome was amazing.

There was this sense that this is the guy we want.

And, you know, they've taken to calling him the pit bull already.

And they did that before he was even playing.

So they've just sort of decided, well, you know, he's this dog of war.

It's Simeone releases him and he goes and bites everybody.

And there was a moment at the weekend when

he was running up the left wing and he was coming towards the Drona penalty area.

And this was just in front of, I was behind the goal, and it was just in front of me.

So I've got a really nice view of it.

And he runs up to the area and he starts to turn towards sort of towards the inside of the pitch, right at the edge of the area.

And he gets taken out and he tumbles on the floor and you and he's thinking ah i don't believe it and the ball goes the girona get the ball back and you can sort of see him get up and something kind of click in his head and he goes steaming after i can't remember which player it is who brings the ball out who then nods nudges it onto jan coladera and he just goes wallop and takes young colader out and the plate and the place erupts

this this is what we want and and it was it was hard for him um he really really really tired at the end he played half an hour it was you know the game finished at half past 11 at night.

It was still 30 degrees, but that energy, and even the very, very first thing he did, he came onto the pitch and he chased down John Solis.

And again, look,

it sounds a bit like, you know, oh, English player, let's big him up.

And it's, you know, it's nothing amazing, but he went after John Solis, having just gotten the pitch.

And he went after him.

And, you know, when someone's starting to accelerate and the crowd is kind of going, oh,

sort of joining them.

He's like, oh, he's going to take him.

No, he didn't get to him.

So it wasn't that big, but there's, I think he's the guy they're going to love.

There's a nice bit of footage, which we actually hadn't seen on sunday night but so nelson beavers goes and has a word with him nelson beavers of course former arsenal player is simeoni's number two now and the cameras then caught simeone have a word with him as well and it is literally a word simeone what goes over to him leans into him and i don't know how the camera's managed to catch it and just says in english intense yeah

really good do you do you think simeone will stay there forever it's starting to feel like it isn't it every it feels like every couple of years we have this debate about atletico's evolving identity and has simeone come to the the end and he he never quite does even at times and there have been times when I think a lot of people think we really should bring this to a close now but partly of course he's protection for for the board and there's a there's a stability there and a sort of a sense of I don't know I suppose a sense of comfort and familiarity I think what we've seen this summer is interesting because I think they've spent really heavily which hadn't really happened um over the last couple of years.

It has happened previously, but not really over the last couple of years.

But one of the things that Simeone said pre-season, which I thought was interesting, he said, I can't remember, I don't know if I'm slightly reading between the lines too much here, but he said something along the lines of

something like, we spent in a way that I like, or something like that.

Essentially, what he's saying is these are the players that I wanted rather than some of the ones we've bought before, which I didn't.

And you look at...

You look at Gallagher, as you say, very much Simeoni play.

I think Julian Alavaris is a little bit as well, in that he's dynamic, he's chasing people down, he's running, he gives them variety.

I think they've got strength and depth that they've probably not had before.

And the squad looks good, and I think that's the key.

It looks like a Simeoni squad now.

They beat Girona 3-0.

Girono obviously finished third last year in that sort of amazing season.

Have they been sort of gutted?

What are you expecting from them?

Well, they have a bit.

Obviously, Savinho going, Alais going,

Dovich going to Roma.

I feel like I've missed someone.

Eric Garcia went back to Barcelona, although they might still get him back again on loan.

But then the season before, they'd lost their best players as well.

And they built what they did last year.

I think everybody, and I think justifiably, assumes that this season won't be like last year, not least because they've got to play the Champions League, but they didn't have to play European football last year.

In the summer, there was a period when the manager was saying, I don't know what we're going to do, and he meant it literally in that he was saying, You know, until the players come in, I don't know exactly what style and structure we're going to use.

I don't quite know how this is going to work.

I think everybody assumes that this is a team that got in the Champions League last year, but probably won't be much higher than maybe seventh or something this season to Ollie McBurney Corner.

Uh, two appearances last pa Las Palmas and assist on his debut, Sid.

Have you changed all your plans?

Will you be watching them week in, week out instead of hopping between Barcelona and Real Madrid?

Do you know what?

I think the first footballer I ever interviewed in Spain was Vinnie Samues at Las Palmas.

So, this is this is kind of full, this is full circle.

Vinny was very, Vinny was very funny as well.

Um, I'm quite looking forward to this.

They've got a new manager who was the manager at Real Hoyedo, who

obviously I support.

And he's, he's a very different different sort of style.

He's all about keeping the ball possession neat and tidy.

So it's going to be interesting to see how he fits in.

Obviously, see how he fits in in terms of lifestyle as well.

And

I'm quite excited, you know.

I don't know if I'm being naive or if I'm just allowing myself to think, wow, English player in Spain, of which there's one or two this year.

But I'm quite excited about it.

Anything else we should look out for, Sid, before we allow you to leave?

Well, last night's game.

I mean, obviously, you can't look out for it now unless you're going to watch it recorded.

Between Celta and Villareal, a surprising top two in Alega, admittedly, after only two games,

it was 4-3 to Villareal with a hundredth-minute penalty that was saved and then finished by Danny Parejo, having Celta had two absolute sitters on sort of 97 and 98.

There were 44 shots in this game.

It was completely brilliant.

And

I think it's defined nicely by Borg Lesias, who all-round good guy.

I mean, about as nice a guy as you could meet in football, who's the Celta striker who finally scored.

I mean, Celter Strike who finally scored after nearly 500 days, having joined them.

This is his hometown club, and he was there when he was younger, and he's come back.

He finally scored.

They lose 4-3 in the last minute with this absurd penalty of the defender literally holding onto the shorts of the forward and being dragged along the pitch into the area.

So, of course, it becomes a penalty

rather than a foul outside.

It's like watching Jonah Lomu run along and be sort of dragged.

dragged along.

That's the penalty.

And Borgreglesis afterwards says, well, if you're going to lose, let it be like this.

Yeah, why not?

Cheers, Sid.

Thanks for coming on, mate.

Very much a pleasure.

Sid Lo there out in Spain.

We'll do EFL next.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

John says, Will Sunderland ever lose again?

Barry, top three at third win in a row.

They haven't done that for 99 years, apparently.

This is wild scenes.

Yeah, well, yes, they will, is the answer to that question.

I'm every confidence they will lose again.

I think they might lose next time out.

Tough assignment away at Portsmouth.

But,

yeah,

it's remarkable.

I don't think anyone was expecting

Sunderland to be, you know, top of the table, three wins out of three, no goals conceded.

And watching them against Burnley, their last game, they won 1-0.

That was as comfortable a 1-0 as you'll ever see.

And they had to finish the game with 10 men.

I was very impressed.

I mean, it's what they're doing.

It's not rocket science.

Get the ball out wide as quick as you can and then send in crosses.

They lost Jock Clark at the weekend.

He's gone to Ipswich.

Romaine Mundel stepped in for him, a kid they bought from Standard Liege who came through the Spurs ranks and then went to Belgium for a season or two.

He stepped in for Jack Clark, big boots to fill in the Sunderland side and he scored.

But a very, very comfortable one now when all things considered.

They had to finish the game as well with

10 men

because Dan Neal got a very stupid sending off.

Stupid on his part.

I mean he got a booking for kicking the ball away petulantly and then a needless lunge

on the Burnley fullback.

But yeah, amazing.

I don't expect it to last, but I certainly enjoy it while it's happening.

George, do you expect Watford's 100% record to last?

I mean, they were doomed to relegation, but you knew this was coming.

I expect George thought it would be coming from me, but I knew you'd step up, Matt.

I thought what happened is Barry would quiz me first about Sunderland being 11th, and then about Watford being 24th, and I want to 24th.

I mean, it's been an unbelievable start for Watfords.

I also made the mistake of doubling down after they beat Millwall on opening day, thanks to scoring direct from a corner, scoring a free kick from 35 yards, and then scoring ahead of a deflected shot.

And since then, they've been very good.

Their last two performances have been really impressive.

They came from behind on Saturday after Derby had gone one and up through Ebo Adams after two minutes.

Goals from Bayo and Susoko won the game 2-1.

And, you know, for Tom Cleverly,

part of the reason why

I think we were quite negative on their chances over this season from the summer was that it felt like Tom Cleverly had been stitched up a little bit.

This is his first full season in charge, or he hopes full season in charge of Watford, taking over from a manager in Valerian Ishmael, who may not have been particularly popular with Watford fans, but certainly has an element of experience and know-how to suggest that it would be difficult for a rookie manager to come in with a weaker squad and improve upon that.

But so far, so good.

And I would argue that the way the fixture computer has thrown up these games for Watford might play a part in their nine points from three games.

They've got a more difficult run coming up now.

But starting a season well like this can do two things.

It can either raise expectation levels

unfairly high for someone like Cleverly, which I don't think will be the case with Watford, or it can just instill a bit of confidence in the squad, could get the owners in the pot.

So he's a bit more interested in Watford over Udanesi this season, and we'll see what they do in terms of business this week.

But it's been a, you know, there's no denying who the two teams who've made the best start in the championship are compared to preseason expectations, and that's that's Sunderland and Watford.

Moose is Soko,

just looking at his numbers today, he's played, I think, well over 500, made well over 500 senior appearances, but he was at Watford left and now is back.

Uh,

was he welcomed back, or was there a feeling, oh, you fecked off and left us in the lurch when we got relegated?

I think, given he's 34, I think the

main um reaction from What for fans was, Are you still good?

Like, are you still good enough for us?

And quite a lot of the frustration for Watford fans over the summer has been that the Potsos have been spending a lot of money in terms of incoming transfers at Udanesi, who were very nearly relegated out of Syria last season, stayed up on final day.

And obviously, the Pots has decided we don't want two teams in the second tier in Italy and England.

And I think Watford fans felt a bit like the Sisoko transfer was a bit token, saying, Okay, no, we'll give you one of your old players back, but we're still not going to spend 10 million euros on players like we are with them.

So, but it was a very well-taken goal.

I think all suggestions on the pitch so far this season suggest that he is still a good player, and that at 34, it doesn't really impact his ability to impact games.

So,

it wasn't some

emotional homecoming, but it also now, off the back of what we've seen so far, looks more than just a romantic transfer.

The words Musa Sasoko and well-taken goal were a surprise to many Tottenham fans, that is for sure.

Ben Leeds got their first win of the season against Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night.

A lot of players have left Leeds, haven't they?

I just wonder

how you think they are shaping up because they were a lot of people's favourites.

Yeah, there's a lot of fan discontent there, I think, in the way they've handled the summer.

As you say, a lot of players have left.

I still think they've got the bones of kind of a strong enough squad to compete.

But it's obviously just grossly unhelpful to have kind of all of these,

not just Bit Part players, but key players leaving on the eve or

during the season.

Obviously, there's that whole sort of age-old debate about when the transfer window should shut.

Burnley very much in that situation where it's kind of, you know, getting into kind of, well, the last one turn off the lights territory in terms of the numbers of sort of exodus of players there.

A lot more will go this week.

Scott Parker said, you know,

players will leave, things are changing by the hour.

Cody Osho has been linked with a move, who's obviously a really exciting winger.

Fake horse is still there, technically, at the moment, but will surely leave before Friday.

James Trafford, you know, the list goes on.

And Leeds and Burnley are kind of in a similar boat, I would say.

I think

Leeds, Farker's under more pressure than Scott Parker.

Clearly, obviously, Parker's a new thing at Burnley, and it had started okay until the weekend.

Whereas Farker is, I don't know, there is a sense that last season, I thought he did a good job, and I think he's probably the man for the job, to be honest, in terms of not sure who really you would get him to replace him.

But yeah, I'm not sure every Leeds fan would probably agree with me on that.

But, you know, Dan James scored at the week, and they've still got players who in the championship are more than capable, you know, match winners in that league.

So I wouldn't be too concerned concerned about them i was just going to say on watford as well you got cleverly um

against rooney tonight on tuesday in the uh in the caravail cup so uh two now who's better cleverly or he's texting us now uh george sorry just just on leads i think it's indicative of how overplayed the whole leads are falling apart again over two games was that they were nine to two to win the title before they beat sheffield wednesday away from home 2-0 and then they were suddenly two to one favourites again which i think encapsulates just how much maybe especially with leads any sniff of something going wrong and it's complete panic stations.

And then actually, it turns out that they do, they can go out and spend 10 million quid on

a wide player from Almira.

They can go out and seemingly get Roland Salai.

Like they're going to spend a lot of money in the next week, and suddenly

the loss of Somerville, the loss of Georgina Rutaire will be a bit easier to take when you see the players who are coming in.

But basically, August is a false economy, especially the top end of the championship, because the squads that start the season, as Ben say, are just completely different to even the squads that are there in September.

That's what a man who predicted Watford would go down would say.

How is Wayne Rooney's got two draws in a row, George?

How's he has one all with QPR?

They were down to nine men at the end, but I mean, like every point is good, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, they'll take a lot from that.

I think there'll be frustration from Rooney's part where they went 2-0, 1-0 down, sorry, after two minutes at QPR.

And then Morgan Whitaker does what he's done so often for them, and they'll, you know, Argyle Fans were praying that he stays there, where he just smacked the ball into the back of the net from 30 yards with his left foot, as he loves to do, and got them back in the game.

And then, within a minute after that, Adam Forshaw on the half-hour mark got a second yellow and was sent off.

And from there, from then on, it was always going to be very difficult for Argyll to get anything from the game.

They weathered a bit of a storm.

You know, QPR created loads of opportunities, but fairly wasteful in front of goal.

Albeit, having lost their keeper, Mike Cooper, who has been, when fit, one of the best keepers in the EFL, who's moved on to Sheffield United.

They'll take big heart out of the fact that they didn't roll over to QPR, but still, I mean, I would say

their performance from opening day against Sheffield Wednesday was one of the worst that I've seen, and it hasn't been helped.

The Wednesday have had back-to-back defeats since then.

There's still very little, I would say, to get overly excited about as an Algar fan, albeit at least they have weathered the storm a little bit after that opening day disaster.

What have you made of Luton so far, Ben?

They have got one point from their opening three.

Yeah, well, yeah, obviously they're struggling.

And I think I'm a bit surprised because I think

they've kept most of that squad together that we were all kind of weirdly kind of luding despite getting relegated in the Premier League.

Obviously, Ross Barkley, really, the only sort of notable departure.

You know, all the Adabeo, Morris, they're all still there who caused problems in the Premier League.

They've just signed Mark McGuinness from Cardiff for a sizable fee, I think, up to about 10 million.

Really solid, impressive young defender.

So they obviously fancy their chances of being right up there again i i think they probably will be i think um i just think the squad is

i looked at it again at the weekend i think there's too much there to just kind of slide away and just not not compete i think they've they've just kept too many good players um in midfield going forward i i think they'll be all right and obviously rob edwards is manager um he's sticking around so i think they'll be okay but yeah it has has been a worrying start but i imagine

I don't know, is that some kind of hangover?

I don't know.

It's hard to, yeah, it's hard to sort of

know why that is, but I think they'll be okay.

Worth mentioning the goal that Oxford scored, George, your Oxford United.

Blackburn.

I know you lost, but that is exactly my favourite kind of goal.

Massive hoof, chest of a striker, and a volley banged in from 30 yards.

Ball didn't touch the floor, just straight into Matt Phillips's neck.

Perfect.

And then up into Mark Harris.

I mean, should Mark Harris have run into the run over to Blackburn fans, shushing them after 43 minutes?

Maybe not.

But in terms of the goal itself it was um yeah it was actually voted I mean this recency bar said its best but there was a poll um from Cy Watts an Oxford fan uh on Twitter yesterday listing his four favourite goals in the modern era of Oxford and it had 53% of the votes suggesting the Oxford fans think it's our good greatest ever goal which is good to see sadly I wasn't there

but yeah I know I mean it's been a good start for for Oxford I think that's frustration that good performances battling performances away at Coventry and Blackburn have yielded zero points having conceded late in both um But the 2-0 home win against Norwich on opening day and kind of not being well beaten by two sides who I anticipate will be pretty good in the championship this season suggests that Oxford might be okay and might make a decent fist out of staying up this season.

The one thing I would say is I think the championship is as open as it's been for a long time this season.

We talk about Burnley losing a lot of players, Sheffield United, who've done well in the transfer market, but were obviously so poor last season and Luton's terrible start.

In terms of three relegated sides, right now it doesn't look particularly strong.

So, if there is to be a team, Sunderland, Coventry, you know, these kind of sides that maybe went into the season thinking a

top six berth was probably at best what they could look for.

I'm kind of wondering now if maybe this is a season where a team could go on a merry dance into the top two.

Already had two sackings, Ben.

Ryan Lowe from Preston, the championship, Neil Critchley from Blackpool in League One.

Seems such an odd time to sack a manager.

Like, do it in the summer or do it like after 10 games, but after two.

I think it was one in the Preston case.

Yeah, with Ryan Lowe, I mean, and technically, I think he kind of walked out really or said, look,

I've had enough.

He was getting a lot of stick towards the end of last season.

And I don't know, personally, I find the Preston

situation quite hard to

stomach, really, because I think he, you know, what they're working with and where they should be, I think, is sort of more more than acceptable.

But sadly, I think when you're in that league, there's teams with a lot of money

and maybe Preston fans feel they should be knocking on the door of the top six and all the rest of it.

But

I think given their resource, I think they're doing a pretty good job.

Yeah, I think Ryan Lowe just felt he couldn't take the team on any further.

Mike Marsh stepped in for a game and then said, not for me, who was assistant to Ryan Lowe, both there and at Plymouth.

And now Paul Heckingbottom is in, who I think is a good appointment, actually.

I think it was a solid appointment.

Did a really good job at Chef U in very difficult circumstances and yeah, good move.

In League One, Blackboard, who sat their manager, were 4-1 up at Cambridge.

But it was a 4-all draw.

Absolute glory.

I mean, the way I watch those games in Australia is

get up for my 5am wee.

open the Cambridge United Twitter account, close my eyes and scroll down really, really, really fast and do my own minute by minute because I'm not going to watch at two in the morning a whole game of League One football.

And so I was obviously absolutely devastated at 4-1 and then three goal gifts in a row.

Absolutely sensational stuff.

Were you a little bit disappointed when there wasn't a fifth goal?

Yeah, I felt a fifth was coming when I was scrolling.

It's a very good question.

I really thought it's got to come.

I was slightly disappointed.

Look, we've only got one point from three, which is not really, that's not enough to get you

safe.

But I think we're playing quite well.

I think we've got some good young players, got some good lone players in.

I feel I believe in Gary Monk.

Has Ryan Loft scored yet, man?

No, he's yet to play Ryan Loft.

And I should investigate if he's fit or not.

But I don't think I've even seen him on the bench.

But, you know, when I'm watching these, it's quite, you know, I'm not really totally focused.

I don't study the starting lineup.

But yeah, no, Ryan Loft News.

Shane Lavery scored two against his former club.

Stockport Huddersfield and producer Joel Charlton have 100% records.

George, is that sort of as expected?

We expected those three to be up there.

Given that you had a go at me for my predictions in the championship, you could have at least said that we had Stockport in the top six and no one else did.

Yeah, no, no, very good.

I mean, Stockport, I've got Louis Barry, who was when fit the best player in League Two last season.

It did well to bring him back in online this season.

He started the campaign with scoring three ridiculous goals in three games.

He just has this ability, seemingly, to get on the ball from 25 yards out and just smack it in the top corner, which can help you if you do that once a game.

He's too good for League One and he's going to be a massive player for them.

But another player who's too good for League One, albeit at another stage of his career, is Ollie Norwood, who signed for them on a free transfer last week.

He played 90 minutes.

As you would expect on Saturday, he pulled the strings.

He completely dominated possession in the middle of the park.

His long-range passing is.

That's not fair.

Ollie Norwood's not fair.

I agree.

I'd say Louis Barry is fair, but Ollie Norwood, not fair.

Ollie Norwood guarantees promotion at the championship.

So you can only expect that that's the title there for in League One.

But Stockport, there's so much talk around Wrexham, and understandably so, given who their owners are.

And they've also started the season really well, and I expect them to be good in League One.

But it kind of means that Stockport go under the radar, where they are similarly, you know, they're owned by someone, a very wealthy man, albeit a Stockport fan, a local businessman, but they spend their money incredibly wisely.

In Dave Challener, they've got a manager who's I think he's never finished outside the playoffs in any campaign that he's managed over the course of a season.

He's won promotion from the six or seven leagues beneath League One, so all the way through non-league, despite his EFL career.

And

I think they might surprise a few people in League One, or they're already doing so.

Huddersfield was more expected, I guess, a team relegated last season from the championship.

I think because of all the noise around Birmingham and the money they're spending, it kind of went under the radar that in Mike Duff, they made a very shrewd appointment.

And again, their recruitment has been relatively good.

And Charlton under Nathan Jones,

like frankly ridiculous that Nathan Jones, given what he achieved as a manager at Luton, had to drop down to League One in order to get a job.

I think his

maybe the memes

have done quite a lot of good work for Charlton in order to enable him to go there, somewhere that he spent time as a coach previously in his career.

But Charlton looked just incredibly solid, like just not really conceding any chances in games.

They went ahead early through a brilliant Greg Doherty shot after 10 minutes against Bolton.

Bolton, one of the best teams we anticipate in the division with some of the best attackers in the league.

And they just kind of kept them at arm's length throughout.

Weren't really that interested in keeping the ball, happy to let Bolton have it, but not really create any chances before Matty Goddard made it 2-0 late on.

So, Charlton, three games, three wins to nil, nothing particularly spectacular between both boxes, but very, very clinical going forward, and not really letting teams create anything against them.

On naught points, watch at Leyton Orring and Shrewsbury in League One.

League two,

no one has maximum points, Ben.

So, it's you know, it's wide open.

Nice to see Mark Bonners Gillingham top of the table.

Yeah, and he obviously, you know, he was at Cambridge and all for a long time, wasn't he?

Obviously, the story there that you know did every job and shame you know the way things ended so yeah back in it jilling him he clearly is a highly regarded coach nice to see him have a have a good start barrow going okay as well um

i think um

the story i sort of picked out in league two was was it morecombe i just they're um bottom of the pile um i think they've lost every game by by single goal so it's it's not sort of disastrous and derek adams is a is probably a better manager than bottom of league two to be fair um he's gone back in there he got them promoted to league one a couple of years ago they were under embargo they're out of that now um they've now signed 18 players um

this sort of summer in in in total and they actually announced i think it was 14 or 15 on one day when they came out of the embargo which made for a made for an

that's a lot for the social media guy isn't it quite impressive in itself and uh yeah some of the players um revealed you know something about themselves that fans maybe wouldn't know and harry burgoyne that the goalkeeper said he's lord of a manor in scotland because he has a little plot of land at a castle there uh tom white said he's allergic to giraffes and uh jamie stott says he has two pet sheep called billy and nala so that's that's you know that's kind of the you know jovial side of things at morcombe but there is a sort of more serious um

side at play there where you know fans are concerned that the shrimps trust are concerned about the sort of uh going um of the club where they're going they've lost the ceo um to warsaw at the end of last season the Academy managers recently stepped down after an awful long time there.

And on the 6th of July, the club put out a statement saying that

they were making submissions to the EFL in terms of an ownership change.

And it's just radio silent since then.

Some fans think they knew who was in the building, but there's a sort of sense of mystery around it.

I was talking about Sven earlier, the whole kind of fake shake here.

It feels a little bit like that.

It's like, who's actually

got the money here?

Who's actually trying to buy buy this thing?

And while all that's happening, you know, they've got an absent owner who previously hasn't paid wages on time a couple of times.

And it feels like while no takeover happens, it can only go one way.

It's a shame because speaking to people at the club and behind the scenes, there's clearly some brilliant people there, obviously really small sort of staff, but

just needs that sort of final piece in terms of the ownership change.

But while that's not happening,

yeah,

they're in a tricky spot.

And like I said, they've had a difficult start, not a disastrous start on the pitch, but yeah, it feels they're a bit of a sinking ship at the moment.

Alrighty.

Well, look, that'll do for today.

We'll do some more AFL next Tuesday, by the way.

But thank you very much for your company.

Thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ben.

Thank you.

I just wanted to ask as well on Instagram.

Yeah.

Because Barry's

on Instagram, yes.

Arrival on Instagram.

He's done wonders for my profile.

So I'd just like to thank Barry for that.

And how have I done wonders for your profile?

Did I press the wrong button?

No, I've had lots of random,

you know, John Smith is now keen on getting a hold of my lifestyle, which, you know,

is yet to have a lot of fun.

What are your numbers currently, Ben?

How are you traveling?

Oh, I don't know.

I've done one post in the last 14 months, and that was a photo of me with Roy Keen in Qatar.

That was the only

time.

That's a good one.

Okay.

What's your handle?

I mean, you know,

no, no, no, it's not happening.

Oh, is it private?

Oh, come on.

No, no, no.

Well, I don't, don't.

Nobody needs that.

This was like a humble plug for people to follow you, and now you're not following through with it, doesn't it?

You know?

Ben Fisher J.

There you are.

That's what it is.

If you want some gold once every 14 months, yes, Ben?

I wasn't sure genuinely

if it was genuinely Barry.

That was my...

That was my question.

I did have a few people texting me to ask if it was genuinely me, so I thought I'd put up the picture of me and Bobbins just to confirm my celebrity chum.

Max, I wanted to ask you yesterday.

I was trying to the equivalent of a retweet of the football weekly clip, but I don't know how to do it.

And I didn't have any young people nearby to ask.

Did you just press accept on the...

I love this.

It's just like talking to your mum about the internet on the phone.

Did you press accept on the...

Would you just

add to story?

I think you've added it to your story, but

you won't know where that is.

Is that what that?

Okay.

I'm just getting confirmation.

It doesn't matter, nothing really matters.

Thank you, George.

Thank you, Max.

Did we say thank you?

We didn't.

Thank you, George.

Go and listen to Not the Top 20 if you want some more EFL stuff.

Or follow us on Instagram.

Yeah, of course you can.

Follow them on Instagram.

What are you called on Instagram?

Not the Top20.

I don't have it.

Yeah.

I think NTT20 Pod, I think, is normally our

social handle.

God,

we're so young and relevant.

I would say the two things that we definitely are not

are those things.

Anyway, we'll be back on Thursday.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.