More Chelsea chaos and how will Arsenal fare at Aston Villa? - Football Weekly Extra podcast

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Speaker 6 Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. Let's look ahead to the second weekend of the Premier League season.
Chelsea's still the biggest story in town.

Speaker 6 Enzo Mareska says the club looked like a mess from the outside, potentially, because they're a mess on the inside.

Speaker 6 He says he's only working with 21 players leaving the other 58 including raheem sterling to wander about the basement a tricky trip to wolves for them astonville or arsenal looks like the most exciting game on paper unaeemri did the double over mikel arteta last season so a great chance to say title credentials for all of us brighton manchester united could be fun while there's angebolby dice ball at whiteheart lane ilke gundawan's on his way back to city but might not be ready for their 4-0 win over ipswich get ready for pep to tell us all how kiera mckenna is so so so good also today pfa awards dished out way too late can poch make America america great again?

Speaker 6 Annual Leave for Real Madrid players and the first sacking of the season in the EFL. All that plus your questions.
And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

Speaker 6 On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome. Hi, Max.
Dan Bardell, hello.

Speaker 1 Hello, Max.

Speaker 6 And Jonathan Faduba, welcome. Hi, Max.

Speaker 6 So let's start with Chelsea, who go to Wolves at the weekend. As I said in the intro, Enzo Maresco said that Chelsea do look like a mess from the outside, but he said, I'm not working with 42 players.

Speaker 6 I'm working with 21. The other 15 to 20 players are training apart.
I like the fact he's not even sure how many that is. I don't see them.
It's not a mess. It looks from outside.
Absolutely not.

Speaker 6 They can even have a 20-year contract. It's not the point.
I don't care. Interesting Jonathan tweet from Adam Crafton saying, I don't understand why any club.

Speaker 6 Would offer any kind of significant transfer fees for these 21 players the manager has just declared he doesn't care about. I mean,

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 6 I wonder if

Speaker 6 we can get through the pod without someone saying, I don't know what to make of Chelsea, but I don't know what to make of Chelsea at all.

Speaker 9 Yeah, it's a bit concerning that he didn't know the exact number of players that he doesn't have to worry about there, as you mentioned there, Max. I suppose, in a way, I guess it's a

Speaker 9 sort of a desperate attempt at clarity in a sort of roundabout way from Mareska in the sense of just trying to focus his mind on the 20 players that are available.

Speaker 9 Of course, the context of it is the fact they're playing in the Conference League.

Speaker 9 They have a game against Cervet, so they have a lot of matches potentially this season extra compared to last season when they weren't in Europe.

Speaker 9 It's a strange one.

Speaker 9 The sort of Clear Lake Capital era of Chelsea, the fans do not seem to be too happy.

Speaker 9 They kind of appear to have taken the greatest asset that they have, which is the Academy, one of the best academies in world football, and almost sort of put cast it to one side

Speaker 9 favor of signing every other good young player in the world and then just kind of having them on the books or loaning them to Strasbourg of course so it is a really strange situation at Chelsea I can't quite get my head around it I keep thinking to myself there must be some sort of grand plan here they can't be that they must be smart people They've had success in other sports, obviously, in America before they took Chelsea over and they were quite innovative in the way they did things there.

Speaker 9 So a lot of the things they're doing are sort of quite novel and new and there's a lot of questioning of it. But

Speaker 9 and I keep thinking, well, maybe this grand plan, there's a master's plan here somewhere that's going to work out.

Speaker 9 But the way they're sort of treating players at the moment, I can't really see the net positive of it.

Speaker 9 I mean, there's players that they've only just signed one to two years ago, the likes of Sterling, Chikuomeka,

Speaker 9 Disassex, actually, Disasse Road, apparently now is available for transfer. So there's players they're signing, and then they're available for transfer a year later, pretty much.

Speaker 9 So I can't really understand this grand plan.

Speaker 9 plan and I thought Maresko's comments were a little bit of a a little bit of a tell I mean where what are we max August the 22nd and that's the kind of it kind of gave that sort of tetchy press conference that you give around December when you're a little bit fed up with the questions and you sort of start becoming curt with your answers and you say you know I don't care about the rest of them and that's not my focus and it gave that kind of feel to me as if

Speaker 9 he's already a little bit frustrated with what's going on behind the scenes obviously with Sterling's representatives making the comments and everything else all the all the noise around it but we're only we're not even in September yet so to me that was a bit of a tell from Morreskin to say maybe he's already getting a little bit frustrated with all the all the comments and the questions so slightly worrying times but I mean is there a grand plan at Chelsea does anyone can anyone put their finger on it Jonathan's right they're looking at this American sports model but I would always just add this isn't an American sport it's it's completely different I don't know whether you saw in in the week I think now Zhao Felix has signed if you add up all the cumulative years that are left on Chelsea players' contracts, I think they've hit 200 years now.

Speaker 1 Second was Spurs, under 100. So the length left on Chelsea's players' contracts is double

Speaker 1 the next team.

Speaker 1 I get that they're trying to do things differently, but that can't make sense. But all the noise coming out of Chelsea is that...
They know what they're doing. They're happy with this.
All the players

Speaker 1 that are there, no one's on massive wages. So they've got kind of this, I think it's around 70 grand a week average wage at the club now.

Speaker 1 So it looks like they're collecting players, but their argument is that they're getting all these assets, but they're not on, no, not huge liabilities because they're not on huge wages.

Speaker 1 But the length of contract there is unprecedented. Cole Palmer's contracting now till 2033.
And Jonathan's right, players that they signed two, three windows ago, already out of date.

Speaker 1 We saw in that first window under Bola, they got Abamiang in, who I imagine was on a fairly big wage. They got him in for Thomas Tuchel.

Speaker 1 Two weeks later, Thomas Tuchel's not there, and they don't want Aubameyang anymore. It's just unprecedented what we're seeing from Chelsea.
And good luck to anyone who's trying to make sense of it.

Speaker 1 Because unless you're in the inner circle at Chelsea, I don't see how you can.

Speaker 6 And Barry Owen writes, look, neither a question nor a wry comment, but a statement about how probably dispiriting it is being a Chelsea supporter at the moment.

Speaker 6 Not a proper football decision in sight. A club powered by creative accounting and hubris, totally deserving of ridicule, but spare a thought.

Speaker 6 And I suppose at the bottom of this, and as he says, totally deserving of ridicule, which is sort of the easy place to go. But for Chelsea fans, all of this must be so frustrating.

Speaker 6 Yeah, Crimea River, Chelsea fans. You're getting all these incredibly expensive, really, really good footballers brought in to your squad.

Speaker 6 It must be terrible. I mean, ugh.

Speaker 6 No, it must be annoying, right? Like, you know, you look at a roster of players going, where,

Speaker 6 you know, how could we possibly achieve anything with all these incredibly brilliant players on our books?

Speaker 6 I understand your, like, I understand the point you're making, but when you, if you are a fan and you see how they've treated Conor Gallagher and you see how they've treated Trevor Chaliba, and you know,

Speaker 6 you would be frustrated. I, I'm, I'm very sceptical about this.
Oh, how they've treated Connor Gallagher. What a great servant to the club he's been.

Speaker 6 Connor Gallagher has had two seasons as a Chelsea player, a senior player. He's made 70 appearances for the club.
You know, it's not exactly

Speaker 6 Dean Lewington at MK Dons. He's just started his 20th season and has made over 900 appearances.
Connor Gallagher will be fine. He's gone to Atletico Madrid.

Speaker 6 He had a big unveiling last night with some sort of Madrid equivalent of the Hell's Angels.

Speaker 6 People left their homes, went to the stadium to welcome him, to watch him walk out into the centre circle, wave and presumably do a couple of keepy keepy uppies, which I hope went well because if I was a professional footballer, that is the one thing that would strike terror into my heart at having to do keepy uppies at an unveiling, because I'm sure I'd shin the ball, you know, my first attempt.

Speaker 6 So Conor Gallagher will be fine. Chelsea will probably be fine.
Chelsea fans were quite happy when Roman Abramovich was, you know, spraying money all over the place.

Speaker 6 They were all delighted when Clear clear lake capital took over so you reap what you sow if they've got a problem with it now um

Speaker 6 yeah the whole oh poor godder gallagher it's pathetic he's fine he's gone to athletico madrid mareska says is it brutal um i don't think so i try to be honest i can repeat again if it's not clear i spoke with raheem sterling before the city game i said he's going to struggle to get minutes with us and this is the reason why he's out of the squad with ben chilwell i said he's a lovely guy but he's going to struggle because of his position He's going to struggle.

Speaker 6 If you just find this as brutal, it's up to you to decide. For me, it's not brutal.
It's just honest.

Speaker 6 Yeah, that's those two who have been left out of the Europa Conference League squad for the game with Servette. Toysin Adorabayo was left out, but that was administrative error, and he's back in.

Speaker 6 I wonder, Jonathan, do you have more sympathy? Well, I mean, Barry's made quite a powerful argument for, you know,

Speaker 6 it's all, you know, this isn't such a big deal.

Speaker 9 I mean, I think it is quite a big deal in the sense of, I mean, they're all getting paid, so it's not the worst situation in the world. Essentially, they're going to work and

Speaker 9 having an easier time of it and getting the same money because a lot of them are training with the reserve team or the youth team or whoever else they're training with.

Speaker 9 There's all those sort of memes of 100 people and people posting images of rush hour gyms in the central London and sort of saying, this is Chelsea squad, ha ha ha,

Speaker 9 you know, full of people trying to work out next to each other. I sort of look at it from the player point of view and the player representative point of view.

Speaker 9 Why would you move your player to Chelsea at this moment in time besides the guaranteed sort of hench wedge of money that you're going to get?

Speaker 9 Because from a career point of view, I mean, a player like Tosin was left out in the squad for the first

Speaker 9 game of the season.

Speaker 9 I know he's back in the squad now, but there's players who sort of had decent, who are having decent careers are doing well, and then moving to Chelsea and essentially their value is going way down.

Speaker 9 within a few months. I think, you know, for players like Chalibar, I always find it a bit strange from a player point of view when you're essentially just discarded to train with the youth team.

Speaker 9 And some of the methods that football clubs in general use to sort of get rid of players, I think is kind of questionable in the sense of, you know, Sterling having his shirt number removed, for example.

Speaker 9 Okay, it doesn't really matter, but at the same time, it's just, I find it just a bit sort of strange

Speaker 9 in the kind of way it's handled.

Speaker 6 So...

Speaker 9 Yeah, I guess it doesn't really matter in the context of it. And who knows, some of these players might be back for the next Premier League game, etc.

Speaker 6 Can I just be clear? I'm not saying it doesn't matter, and I'm not saying the manner in which they're treating players is questionable.

Speaker 6 But this happens in business environments all over the world, not just football clubs.

Speaker 6 You know, they want you to leave, you won't leave, so they make your life so miserable that they try and force you to leave, that you eventually go, look, I'm just sitting here picking up a salary is not worth it because I'm you know, down in this windowless office in the dungeon doing, you know, sorting out paper clips from nine o'clock in the morning to five o'clock in the evening.

Speaker 6 That, you know, I can't take this anymore, so I leave.

Speaker 6 I wonder if the lads from Clear Lake Capital have ever heard of a former footballer called Winston Bogart, who, for the benefit of some younger listeners who may not be familiar with his work or lack thereof, signed for Chelsea in, I think, around 2000.

Speaker 6 when Gianluca Viali, God rest his soul, was the manager. Shortly after he signed, Viali was sacked and Claudio Ranieri took over.
Winston Bogart wasn't for him.

Speaker 6 But Winston Bogart was on a very lucrative contract at the time.

Speaker 6 So rather than leave the club or agree to be sold, he just sat out a four-year contract, made about 12 appearances for the club over four years,

Speaker 6 put on a load of weight. and was just happy to pick up his wages and not play.

Speaker 6 And, you know, he was put in the bomb squad. He was made train with the kids.
He was made come in at five o'clock in the afternoon for training.

Speaker 6 And they did everything they could to try and make him leave, but he just wouldn't. And

Speaker 6 I'm wondering what will happen if one of the current crop of Chelsea players who's on an eight-year contract decides to do a Bogart on it. How will Clear Lake Capital...

Speaker 6 Have they envisaged that scenario? Because it could happen. Yeah.
And it's their fault that they've signed so many players. Yes, Dan?

Speaker 1 I was going to say that's what that's what's confusing because they're looking at these players as as assets for from what you hear but if you if sterling's had his squad number removed and isn't isn't part going to be registered for for any competition what's why is anyone going to come in and offer a transfer fee okay you might get take his wages off the books but how much else he's going to extract any kind of transfer fee for these players and sterling was around 50 million was he two years two years ago they're not going to get anywhere near that now so i just can't understand what what what they're doing and villa have got uh winston burgard's nephew at the club he's just signed a signed a new contract so hopefully he doesn't just sit on his contract for

Speaker 6 for four years and just one one other thing max sorry about a lot of people are saying that what maresco said yesterday was very strange but i think it's important to point out that as jonathan alluded to he's in press conferences These are when he's, you know, when he speaks, it's at a press conference.

Speaker 6 He's answering direct questions.

Speaker 6 And all these questions are about the same thing and people you know he says i i can't guarantee these players minutes so they they need to leave i want i don't want anything to do with them i've got my players that i'm training and and people go oh it's unfair on connor gallagher it's unfair on raheem sterling it's unfair on ben shilwell but i'm sorry these are grown men you know, with teams around them of grown men and women who advise them and they'll be okay one way or the other.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I think Maresco,

Speaker 6 it's sort of refreshing honesty from him because it would be ridiculous if he said, oh, yes,

Speaker 6 they're all in contention for a place in my team because that just wouldn't be practical. Sure.

Speaker 6 I mean, you make a good point, but Dan makes the point that now he's said that and everybody is totally assured of who is and who isn't, then the amount of money that they're going to get in the next six days for these players would be significantly different.

Speaker 6 Well, I'm not sure Maresco cares about it.

Speaker 6 That's not his department. I suppose what's interesting, Jonathan, as well, is, you know, Joe Felix is, as we know, a wonderful player and actually quite interesting in how much he costs previously.

Speaker 6 And actually, I thought he looked quite good at Chelsea. And him playing in a sort of false nine with whoever on wide attack is quite good.
And I mean, they could go to Wolves.

Speaker 6 Obviously, it's big considering they lost their opening game.

Speaker 6 But I still think whenever I look at their starting lineup, I think, God, this is good. They could be really good this season.

Speaker 9 Yeah, from a playing playing point of view i thought the the strangest thing of the start of the season for chelsea was the fact that enzo fernandez was captain after the whole uh wesley fafana of course yeah singing borderline racist songs about his fellow teammates uh scenario i don't think you have to say borderline to be honest

Speaker 9 like so i found that just a curious dynamic in the in the first place i mean you know imagine fernandez barking instructions at fafana and just picturing what what must be running through fafana's head when he's when he's trying to defend or whatever and getting told what to do by Fernandez but um so I found that that's I thought that's another strange dynamic that doesn't really I don't think really seem to have been dealt with properly unless maybe there was a behind-the-scenes handshake and everyone's forgotten it but I don't think that's necessarily under the bridge I don't think that's done necessarily the other interesting part of this Max which I also find sort of slightly strange

Speaker 9 And like I say, I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt to the owners and sort of have the sense that

Speaker 9 they must be quite fairly smart people. But one thing I don't understand is for the second season running, Chelsea had no front of shirt sponsor on the opening day of the season.

Speaker 9 If you noticed last weekend, there was no kits, no front of shirt sponsor. They had sleeve sponsors, but the deal with Infinite Athlete, which they had last season, was a one-year deal.

Speaker 9 I believe they signed a short-term deal.

Speaker 9 And from looking into it from various reports, it seemed as if the reasoning given for that was that they wanted to be able to negotiate a bigger front of the shirt sponsorship deal because they thought they would be in the champions league and that was according to one sort of fairly reputable sports uh sports media website um that does deals with like kit sponsorship and things like that so that plan is obviously backfired last you know this season uh and they haven't yet as yet as believe announced the front another front of the shirt sponsor i think there's there's an announcement coming soon that they apparently according to some reports have someone in the in the pipeline but again that that to me sort of you know sort of gambling on let's not have a shirt sponsor and hope that we get in the Champions League or let's leave it.

Speaker 9 Even if you maybe put a charity or something like that,

Speaker 9 it's very strange to see a Premier League football team, let alone any team in the top, you know, two divisions, three divisions, you name it, have no front shirt sponsor for two years running.

Speaker 6 Do you think the problem was that infinite athlete was not a description? That wasn't enough athletes for Chelsea.

Speaker 6 And that was the problem.

Speaker 6 They were infinity and beyond.

Speaker 6 Exactly, exactly. Anyway, look,

Speaker 6 I imagine we will come back to Chelsea as the season rolls on, and that'll do. And we haven't mentioned Wolves at all, so our apologies.

Speaker 6 But they, Barry, were okay at Arsenal, and, you know, it'd be fascinating to see how they get on.

Speaker 1 They're the opposite.

Speaker 1 They sell all their players. It's like the buyers

Speaker 1 via the sellers.

Speaker 6 It's an interesting game.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I mean, they could win this. I don't know.

Speaker 6 It's Chelsea. And it's Wolves.
There'll be a referee in controversy, and Pedro Netro will score a decisive goal. Yeah, I think you're probably right.
All right, that'll do it for part one.

Speaker 6 Part two we'll begin with Villa versus Arsenal.

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Speaker 6 Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Villa Arsenal, huge early game for both these sides, Dan, with your Aston Villa head-on.
How are you feeling?

Speaker 1 Yeah, good. Villa Arsenal's bogey team last season.
Beat them twice. I think probably that defeat at the Emirates probably cost Arsenal the title in the end.

Speaker 1 I think it was the only game they actually lost in 2024. So looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 I think it's two teams that have got the perfect manager, got very likable squads, everything's in harmony, everything seems to be pulling in the right direction for both clubs so it should be a good game obviously the the big angle will always be unay emery

Speaker 1 up against his old team arsenal but as i mentioned at the start villa just seem to be a little bit of a bergey team for arsenal now and emery a bit of a bergey manager is there a reason for that i mean i remember the the the game at villa park last year arsenal were actually much better i thought but villa were really good at the emirates football's just funny funny isn't it which we saw last week with villa john duran scoring against west hand the team that he said he wanted to join a few weeks earlier just always throws up these these funny little things.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 Arsenal fans, probably some aspects of them, were a little bit harsh on Unai Emery.

Speaker 1 I know he was very, very hurt by what happened to him at Arsenal, but he's bounced back in style at Villa Rayelle, to be fair, taking them to the Champions League semi-final.

Speaker 1 And the job Emery's done at Villa, I still don't think it gets as much credit as it deserves.

Speaker 1 People obviously rate Villa and think they've done well, but in 18 months, Villa have gone from 17th under Stephen Gerrard to preparing for a Champions League season and going into a game against Arsenal who are now an elite side.

Speaker 1 And you think, yeah,

Speaker 1 there's a world where Villa win here.

Speaker 6 And are you happy with the business that you've done in the summer? Because I think Douglas Luise, it was a surprise when...

Speaker 6 And Diarby as well, you know, two guys that were really quite good for you last year have left.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm happy. Louise

Speaker 1 was a big loss. I said to you on Sunday, I was a bit concerned about that because his output was so huge, took all Villa's set pieces.

Speaker 1 But what Villa have got in central midfield now, they've got more depth, they've got more quality, and they've got a little bit more variety to be able to change it up during games.

Speaker 1 And for different games, it was Tillermans and Inanna in midfield, the two Belgians against West Ham, and they both performed very, very well. And I'd expect them to start against Arsenal.

Speaker 1 They've still got Bubakar Kamara to come back, they've got Ross Barkley, who I think offset some of the stuff they've lost in Douglas Louise.

Speaker 1 So I just think they've got that little bit more quality now, and players that can do different things. I think that's the big thing for Villa this season.

Speaker 1 It's going to be a tougher season because they could get away with resting people in the Conference League. They won't get that novelty or that luxury

Speaker 1 in the Champions League now, but they've got a bigger squad and they've got a squad that's full of quality, got a year of playing European football under their belt as well.

Speaker 1 The perfect manager to navigate Premier League and European football. So the Villa fans are very, very excited going into Saturday.

Speaker 6 For Arsenal, Jonathan.

Speaker 6 I mean, it does seem ridiculous to say it's a high-pressure game, but if you want to win the league, you just can't afford to lose that many football matches.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I think the timing of the game possibly might suit Arsenal in the sense that they're still going to have that defeat that really did cost them the title in the memory, probably fresh in their minds.

Speaker 9 It's early season, so Villa might not necessarily be 100% settled in their squad.

Speaker 9 Players still betting in. So I think for the timing of it suits Arsenal, in my opinion.

Speaker 9 I can imagine Arteta has some sort of magical trick up his sleeve in terms of his pre-match motivational press conference. Maybe play a clip from

Speaker 9 the game last year and sort of start pointing at people and saying, we don't lose this game or you know that's one of his motivational things draw maybe draw a picture on the board of the Aster Villa crest and sort of you know an arrow pointing to it where it says you know do not lose or I don't know he'll come up with some sort of he'll do well to draw the right crest we've had about six in the last year he'll come up with something motivational I can imagine so I think the timing is good you know there'll be that sense of that air of maybe wanting to get revenge and

Speaker 9 we'll learn about this new villa team and you know are they still at the same levels as last season Arsenal started the season and you know it's a fairly routine win against Wolves weren't massively tested.

Speaker 9 Saka obviously looked like he's starting the season well after the Euros. I thought Onana looked quite lively for Villa in the opening game.
Obviously got his goal.

Speaker 9 He had something different, his profile in terms of maybe his physicality as well as his ability from set pieces. That would be something to look out for.

Speaker 9 Morgan Rogers played 90 minutes and he's someone who'll be one to watch potentially this season. Maybe getting some in his...

Speaker 9 his place in the first team. Of course, from Villa's point of view, Watkins didn't play the full game as well.

Speaker 9 So there's that kind of one or two players from the Euros, maybe not necessarily at peak level at this moment in time. Maybe Emery's just managing the minutes.

Speaker 9 So I think it's slightly in Arsenal's favour this game.

Speaker 9 But of course, Emery is a brilliant manager. And I think he may, you know, tactically, he'll have something as well to say on this match.

Speaker 9 So, yes, like you're right, Bax, it is a quite a big game for Arsenal, although it's early.

Speaker 9 But I have a feeling they just might maybe have a slight edge in this match and be really determined to get three points.

Speaker 6 At the Amex, Brighton Man United. How do you see it, Barry? I think Brighton...

Speaker 6 I don't think I'm not going to say they should win it. I think there's a very good chance they will win it.

Speaker 6 They were hugely impressive against, admittedly, quite limited Everton team last

Speaker 6 week, particularly in the second half.

Speaker 6 Manchester United were pretty unconvincing against

Speaker 6 Bulham in victory. Fun fact about this game, actually, Eric Hag has previously managed the Brighton manager, Fabian Herzler, when he was in charge of the Bayern Munich second team from 2013 to 2015.

Speaker 6 I think they played in the German 4th Division or whatever. So they do know each other.

Speaker 6 I thought you were going to say

Speaker 6 the Bayern Munich underrates

Speaker 6 in 2013.

Speaker 6 Brighton have won four of the past five Premier League games against Manchester United. I know that doesn't have any bearing or shouldn't have any bearing on Saturday's game, but

Speaker 6 often these things do if you get in the habit to losing to the same team over and over and over again. United haven't won both of their opening Premier League games any season since 2017-18.

Speaker 6 So that's another stat against them. And interestingly, another fun fact, these sides have never drawn in the Premier League in 14 meetings.
So there's always been a winner.

Speaker 6 And more recently, it's been Brighton. I'm looking forward to this game.
It's the early kickoff on Saturday.

Speaker 6 I predict a Brighton win, but not with a huge amount of confidence.

Speaker 1 Who's doing your stat packs, Barry? I didn't get a stat pack, man.

Speaker 6 I've not got one. I think we need a stat man.

Speaker 6 Other podcasts have a statman. They're usually called Dave, Statman Dave.

Speaker 6 Sometimes when I walk into Talk Sport, there is the previous show have a big, like massive reams of paper of statistics that is never delivered to us but i enjoy thank you for furning us furnishing us with some statistics barry i enjoyed it um jonathan from a manchester united point of view as a manchester united fan like how do you feel about the all new slash slightly new manchester united i don't think it's that new no it isn't not even not even that new i guess is probably how i should have described it Maserawi had a good debut, so from that point of view, potentially he's one to keep an eye on, and maybe he's going to be a player with a little bit more input than the sort of publicity he's had compared to maybe other signings.

Speaker 9 You know, Delet maybe fills the gap that Varan didn't. I've seen some pundits sort of claim he couldn't get into the Bayern Munich team, which I ahead of Eric Dyer, which I found strange.

Speaker 9 I think that the Bayern Munich fans generally had quite a high opinion of both Masrawi and Dalik in terms of their performances. Maybe not the personalities.

Speaker 9 I mean, there's off-field reasons that Masrawi was kind of shifted out of Bayern,

Speaker 9 which you can look into, of course, certain things he said, comments about certain world events that he was castigated for within Bayern but I'm not sure if the lick is necessarily as bad as people are making out in that in that sense obviously Yoro was the big one but he got an injury Zerxi had

Speaker 9 an okay debut off the bench he's quite an awkward forward but in a way that kind of works in in a sense you know kind of a bit uh clunky but at the same time you know getting his toe on the end of the of the goal for against Fulham and looks okay I don't I'm not necessarily massively enthused by the business if I'm honest there's obviously Manuel Agate

Speaker 9 potentially might be in coming from PSG.

Speaker 9 That's a sort of a holding midfielder who's okay but I'm not sure if it's going to sort of completely change the dynamics of United. I think there's other business they could have done.

Speaker 9 I think they should be looking at some of the players at Chelsea

Speaker 9 who are part of the under-18 squad at the moment because I think there's one or two bargains to be had at Chelsea at the moment potentially that could suit the squad.

Speaker 9 I thought Brighton looked very good.

Speaker 9 in the opening game and I can't figure out if that's just because Everton are going to be really bad this season and if if that's a real worry or the fact that they had 10 men for you know quite a large part of the game as well but yeah this will be a obviously a much stronger test for Brighton but no I'm not I haven't come into this season thinking that Manchester United are going to be any kind of there's going to be any kind of revolution really I think there's still quite a lot of work to do you mentioned Everton there they go to Tottenham Dan is it too far to say that one of these two will be in a mini crisis at full time if Spurs don't win that is a pretty terrible start from Leicester away Everton at home and if if Everton lose, that is as bad a start as you can have losing your first two.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, on Everton,

Speaker 1 the one thing they can't do this season is go down before they enter their new home ground next season. I don't think they will.
I think as long as Sean Deysch is there, they'll do enough to stay up.

Speaker 1 And I think at the moment that that's what Everton fans would be reasonably happy with.

Speaker 1 Just don't get sucked into any trouble and just have a kind of stable season, which I think probably they would have had without a points deduction like last season.

Speaker 1 I I think they'd have ended up more mid-table than nearer the bottom three. So I think Everton have just got to basically get through this season.
It might not be pretty, but just get through it.

Speaker 1 Don't get sucked into any trouble and go into your new ground and see what develops from there. I found Spurs bizarre on Monday.
Obviously, it was a game of two halves, played very, very well

Speaker 1 in the first half, and then Leicester were the better team in the second half. There were two things that struck me in that game.
The first one was Spurs have just got too many attackers.

Speaker 1 When they were making their subs, they were bringing on attackers that I'd forgotten

Speaker 4 were even there.

Speaker 1 And, you know, they signed Odebear, I think. Solomon's still there as well.
They've just got an array of attacking players.

Speaker 1 And Posta Cogli, when he got to 1-1, just thought, I'm just going to throw a completely different attack onto the pitch now.

Speaker 1 But his reaction at the end of the game when Richardson missed that chance, the way he reacted, it almost made the first game of the season a direct follow-on from the back end of last season.

Speaker 1 and i thought they'd kind of want to hit the hit the reset but his reaction kind of kind of said to me that there's going to be a follow-up and it all felt quite quite negative and even his comments afterwards i thought he'd come out and be a bit more positive i i thought it was a a strange game a strange spurs yeah someone's already um you know taken the spurs crest the cocrelan taken that off and put the football with like the blue uh silhouette of and on his haunches and it actually looks really really good um barry man Mancy hosts Ipswich, looking to get Ilka Gundawen back.

Speaker 6 Producer Joel was suggesting that

Speaker 6 signing Gundawen is confirmation that this is Pep's last season, right? It's not squad building, it's just getting it over the line this year.

Speaker 6 Do you think that is an astute point, or should we sack him?

Speaker 6 Well, there are many reasons why I think we should sack producer Joel, but I wouldn't have this high on the list.

Speaker 6 He and Pep, not producer Joel,

Speaker 6 I think signing Idelka Gunagan, if he's available, is an absolute no-brainer. I mean, look how brilliant he was for City before leaving for Barcelona.
I'm not, I am aware he's on his way back to City.

Speaker 6 I'm not sure what has happened at Barcelona. But either way,

Speaker 6 I would say most City fans will welcome him back with open arms.

Speaker 6 I don't think they parted on bad terms or anything, as far as I can remember. I mean, one presumes City will swat Ipswich aside with a minimum of fuss.
I have had a look at the betting odds.

Speaker 6 Ipswich are like a preposterously large price to win this game, but you never know, do you? You never know. I was impressed with them in the first half against Liverpool.

Speaker 6 I thought they got a big wake-up call in the second half.

Speaker 6 You know, welcome to the big boy league, lads.

Speaker 6 And I don't expect things to be any easier for them this weekend. Ipswich set to sign Amanda Brozia from Chelsea on a season-long loan in a deal that could become permanent.

Speaker 6 I reckon there's a great striker

Speaker 6 in there somewhere.

Speaker 6 I increasingly think he's just it's like the plot of some sort of Disney movie where he's become a footballer by accident

Speaker 6 and is

Speaker 6 just making loads and loads of money and having this stellar career, but never actually having to play a game of football.

Speaker 6 It's very like that brazilian fella rob smyde wrote a great book about who who wasn't actually a footballer but had a great career as a footballer but never playing a game i don't know you know how you sort of base your judgment of footballers on like the first time you see them i think the first time i saw him he looked like really powerful and you know and i just thought ah he's got he's got it and so i you know a bit like when i said tom carroll was the next jabby alonso i don't i'm sticking by it until

Speaker 1 he's not going brilliantly but you know he's still a good player i say he played against cambridge last season i can't remember who for exeter or someone i can't remember um to fulham leicester dan you were very you were very energized about joachim anderson moving to fulham from crystal palace i just think he's a a really good defender i was surprised palace is so willing to to to let him go particularly when mark gahey's future is is still up in the air uh as well anderson obviously a player who's been at fulham before i think he wore the armband when he was on when he was on loan under under scott parker and and they got renegade.

Speaker 1 I just think he's a really good centre-back. He's

Speaker 1 what did I call him early? The pinking

Speaker 1 in the WhatsApp group. He switches play.
He's got great, great distribution. He's a leader.
Sorry, what was that?

Speaker 6 The pinking?

Speaker 1 The pinking. He pings the ball.

Speaker 6 The pinking.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's probably not one for the Guardian looking back now. I should have saved that.

Speaker 6 No, but that's okay.

Speaker 1 I should have saved that for something else. But yeah, anyway, it's there now.

Speaker 1 It's in the world. But I don't know whether we're going to talk about it.

Speaker 6 You can't be using that on Sky Sports News now. I bet you could.
We all know.

Speaker 1 No, no, no,

Speaker 1 they won't listen to this. That's all right.

Speaker 1 I'll be able to use it. Hashtag pinking

Speaker 1 about Barry, but I just think Fulham are.

Speaker 1 I know we're not talking about Crystal Palace, but I was quite enthused by Crystal Palace, thought they'd be in for a really good season. And then they've lost Elise.

Speaker 1 They might lose Gay here, and they're losing Joachim Anderson to Fulham.

Speaker 1 And suddenly I look at Fulham, who've lost Jao Paulinia, but actually think they've had a really, really strong window and think they've got a brilliant manager in Marco Silver.

Speaker 1 They'd lost a few centre-backs, but I think Joachim Anderson and Cuenca who's also come in I think it offsets the loss and Fulham they'll they'll never be able to replace Xiao Paulini because he's one of a kind and they just won't be able to pick up a player of that quality you wouldn't think but I think they look quite strong and could have a top half finish this season.

Speaker 6 Also signed Sander Berger I think who feels very Fulham to me. Producer Joel Sang should really be King Ping, shouldn't it, rather than Ping King?

Speaker 1 Yeah that would make that would make more sense wouldn't it?

Speaker 6 King Ping sort of maybe flows better. Liverpool Brentford, Jonathan.
They're in for Giorgio Mahmadashvili, the Georgia goalkeeper, who had a brilliant Euros.

Speaker 6 It was interesting at signing because Keller has always been great coming in. And, you know, Alison is still one of the best keepers in the world.
So that's interesting. But they looked pretty good.

Speaker 6 I mean, I haven't signed anyone, but they looked pretty good at the weekend, didn't they?

Speaker 9 Second half they did. First half struggled slightly.
Maybe it was just the enthusiasm of it, Switch as well, which, you know, the first first season back and that side of things.

Speaker 9 Obviously, Arnold Slot, tactically at half-time, made some changes. Kwanza

Speaker 9 substituted for Kanate, and that helped things in terms of the aerial duels and Kanate's just general aggressiveness and winning things, which helped change the game.

Speaker 9 And then, you know, as Barry alluded to, they kind of took control of that and kind of gave Ipswich a bit of a... bit of a wake-up call about what they've got to expect this season.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I think Liverpool have gone slightly under the radar in the sense that they have a pretty decent squad. They look quite good in pre-season.

Speaker 9 Slot has a completely new style, which I think will suit the Premier League fairly well. The way he kind of

Speaker 9 has the keeper holding it for a long time and draws teams in and then has a sort of like that one-two, could almost call it ping-king switch

Speaker 9 movie, where they sort of suck people in and then they go around the back of the channels. And then, you know, the likes of Salah and Jotta are in behind.

Speaker 9 They're very good at kind of slicing teams open, essentially,

Speaker 9 as his teams were finaled. So I think, you know, this whole, oh, they've not signed anyone, it means that they're going to have a bad season.
I don't buy into that.

Speaker 9 I think that's very kind of modern football where you have to have signed 12 players for you to have any chance of doing things.

Speaker 9 I don't really buy that. Maybe they might need one or two, and they still may get those players.
I think Seth van der Berger is about to leave for somewhere as well, isn't he?

Speaker 9 That they're going to make a 20-odd million on him. So maybe they're sort of keeping their powder dry for a big late splurge.
You never know.

Speaker 9 I think the worrying thing with Liverpool might be the contract situation with the likes of Salah and Trent.

Speaker 9 You'd imagine Trent would probably stick around, but Salah, if he was to leave on a free, that's a bit of

Speaker 9 a loss for them financially because

Speaker 9 they could have nearly made 200 million off him last summer, couldn't they? So

Speaker 9 to the Saudi league. So that would be a bit of a loss.
But yeah, you'd think Liverpool are quite a strong favourite. So I was surprised how well Brentford did at the start of the...

Speaker 9 in the Palace game. I expected Palace to win that actually.
And Brentford sort of suckered them in the end. So, you never know, but yeah, I think you know, Liverpool are going to be strong favourites.

Speaker 9 Slots first game at Anfield.

Speaker 6 Barry, any strong thoughts or fun facts on Southampton Forest or Bournemouth Newcastle?

Speaker 6 Well, Southampton Forest, you would feel at this early stage of the season, it's the kind of game Southampton need to be winning if they want to stay up or indeed challenge for the title.

Speaker 6 I'm not sure how lofty their ambitions are, but either way, they want to be winning that. Interestingly,

Speaker 6 Forest signed Nikola Milenkovic, Serbian centre-back

Speaker 6 from Fiorentina during the summer, and he wasn't in their squad last weekend, and people were a bit curious, puzzled as to why he wasn't.

Speaker 6 And it turns out he wasn't injured, he was suspended. And the reason he's suspended is because he picked up a red card against Atalanta in a Coppe Italia match in April.

Speaker 6 And since that red card, he went on to play six games in Syria and a couple of Conference League games.

Speaker 6 And it turns out, for whatever reason, the ban from the red card he picked up in the Cup of Italia game only kicked in last weekend for his first Premier League game. That's hot on Forrest.

Speaker 6 So Forrester paying the price for a red card he

Speaker 6 picked up in April and then went on to play seven or eight games afterwards.

Speaker 6 So I don't know what the nitty-gritty of that is, but it does seem quite weird.

Speaker 6 I suppose Forrest, I think, are about to sign Alberto Morena from Villa. Signed.

Speaker 6 I think he's a good player. I like him.
I think he's good going forward anyway. I'm not sure how he is as a defender.

Speaker 6 If only we had a Villa fan on who might be able to tell us.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 he suffered with injury last season. I think he was a big reason Villa finished seventh in Emory's first season because he transformed that left-hand side.
But last season, he just was battling injury

Speaker 1 the whole season, maybe lost a yard of pace. And Luca Dean seems very resilient, and they've signed Ian Matson, so someone had to go, but he'll be an upgrade for Forrest, I'm sure, at left back.

Speaker 6 Dan Bournemouth, Newcastle, what do you reckon?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I find Bournemouth a hard team to judge. Obviously, they've lost Solanke and they've replaced him with Avin Ilson.
The Brazilian strike up front.

Speaker 1 It's difficult to know what to expect from them this season.

Speaker 1 I think a lot will probably depend on how he replaces Solanke, but Bournemouth got off to an awful start last season and they stood by the manager and were rewarded for that.

Speaker 1 I don't think they'll get off to as uh

Speaker 1 as bad a start this season but I've I've got Newcastle in the in the top four and obviously a brilliant result like last week winning with 10 men against Southampton showing showing some resilience showing showing some fire I think Newcastle not being in Europe will suit them and I would expect to see more like the Newcastle we saw in Eddie Howell's first full season than the Newcastle decimated by injuries last season.

Speaker 6 The only thing is Newcastle last season lost 11 league games away from home. Their away form is dismal.
I think they might have drawn another three or four.

Speaker 6 So this is quite an important game for them.

Speaker 6 You know, just to put that terrible away form to bed, so to speak. All right.
That'll do for part two. Part three.
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Speaker 6 Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. Congratulations to Phil Foden, who won the PFA Player of the Year.
Cole Palmer on winning Young Player of the Year.

Speaker 6 Barry's nemesis, Declan Rice, was in the team of the year.

Speaker 6 Does seem late, Barry. I think you were working this out, weren't you? As to why it's now.
It just feels like is anybody but when it happens now, you're like, well, this season's over.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I woke up yesterday morning to this news that Phil Foden and Bonnie Shaw had won the men's and women's PFA Player of the Year. I was like, How long have I been asleep? Is it May already?

Speaker 6 Like a squirrel. I like the idea.
If anybody, if any human could hibernate, I'll give you a good chance, I reckon. Oh, God, I could barely sleep for five hours in a row with these nights.

Speaker 6 But anyway, yeah, so it turns out, I presume, oh, it must be because of the Euros, because this thing is normally held in April, late April, I think.

Speaker 6 And you have a swanky do in London or Manchester or wherever.

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 6 Dan pointed out in the WhatsApp group that it was held in August last year as well, on the 29th of August, when Erling Haaland won. So and that was because of

Speaker 6 the season

Speaker 6 ending late because of the Qatar World Cup

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 6 because Manchester U City were involved in the Champions League until like the first week of June. So

Speaker 6 yeah, I don't know why exactly it was that. This maybe they just decided, ooh, August is fun,

Speaker 6 but it doesn't affect me particularly because I'm never invited. Yeah, I mean, there is something really boring, but there just aren't that many days when you can have awards.

Speaker 6 I mean, so many have already taken up to the point where, like, the London Football Awards, which is Bob Wilson's brilliant charity, the Willow Foundation, they do it in like March or February, and you have to vote.

Speaker 6 I'm part of that panel that votes. You have to vote in sort of January.

Speaker 6 So they're like Poster Cogluwon Manager of the Year ahead of artetta because it was january like how the hell do any of us know but like there's no you need to find a big room and all the same people go to all the same awards so it is tricky uh blackpool have sacked head coach neil critchley um after losing two in a spin in league one um where we'll do more afl on tuesday next week uh they go to cambridge on saturday so a guaranteed new caretaker manager bounce for richard keh who i think was in china whites the one time i was there it might have been andy keh it was a keogh that's all i can tell you irvin says as a yank i'd love to hear your thoughts on pochitino being selected for the us mnt what will be the positives and negatives of him as a national coach yet to be confirmed yet jonathan but it's expected to happen i'm slightly surprised from pochitino's point of view jonathan i don't know what you think yeah i'm quite surprised by that to be honest uh i thought he did an okay job at chelsea so and he's he's young enough to still remain in club management i would have thought he might wait around for a you know a premier league job that may come available in the sort of early parts of the season or maybe somewhere abroad.

Speaker 9 So international management, I'm fairly surprised about that.

Speaker 9 He was linked to England, wasn't he? And that's clearly not going to happen being an Argentinian.

Speaker 9 I don't think that rivalry is maybe as big as it used to be, but I still don't think that Pochettino is someone who would consider that. I think he'd consider that maybe a bit of an act of treachery.

Speaker 9 So I couldn't see that one happening. But yeah, maybe he's just up for international management.
I saw,

Speaker 9 I don't know if this was actually legit, but a picture of him with his feet up up watching TV and his bare naked feet with a remote control or something like that. So

Speaker 9 I don't know if that was actually him.

Speaker 1 I saw that as well.

Speaker 9 On Instagram, yeah. So, Barry, I know you're new to Instagram, so maybe that's something that you saw on your stories.

Speaker 6 Barry, Understroller, Glenn Denning. I need some followers on Instagram.
Thank you. Although, I think the description of bare naked feet, I mean, it's just feet, isn't it?

Speaker 6 I mean, they're not just like, I mean,

Speaker 6 I don't know what a prude, how much of a prude you are.

Speaker 9 he could have been in socks he could have been he could have been in he could have been in socks

Speaker 6 really they really were bare naked ladies the Canadian band but I mean I have a question for you mate who did you vote for player of the year then if it was in January for London player of the year oh god

Speaker 6 I absolutely can't remember I couldn't tell you maybe Declan Rice

Speaker 6 I'm not sure it's possible I mean I hate to say that to Barry but yeah it's possibly he he probably was London Player of the Year in January to be honest he didn't go off a cliff until around March or April but I can't remember Manuel Noya's announced his retirement from international football

Speaker 6 won the World Cup in 2014 capped 124 times good news for Mark Andre Terstagen of course down but like is it fair is it going too far to say Neuer changed the game as a goalkeeper like in terms of the first sweeper keeper yeah first one I can really remember watching him and thinking he's different to other goalkeepers.

Speaker 1 I've not seen anything like him before. So yeah, I think that's a fair reflection.
Obviously, he won international honours as well.

Speaker 1 I think at 38, Max, it's just sad to see a young up-and-comer retire, really, isn't it?

Speaker 9 Fabian Bartez is going to be sitting somewhere fuming at this.

Speaker 9 First sweep, first sweeper keeper.

Speaker 6 As Lionel Perez and Bruce Grobolov, furious. Oh, God, Lionel Perez.
Yes, I described Dan as up and coming recently without knowing that he was 38.

Speaker 6 Look, you look well. That's all.

Speaker 6 Brian says, Real Madrid are looking to give players annual leave during the season, like a normal workplace. Should it apply to managers also? Angelotti and Mbappe took a week off.

Speaker 6 Would it really impact Real? Is it something that will only benefit bigger clubs with more depth? Yeah, Angelotti said the players need rest, they need holidays.

Speaker 6 We're thinking about giving individual holidays to the players during the season.

Speaker 6 Um, give a week off for a player so he can go and stay with his family, especially international players who have very little rest because they usually don't even get a day's holiday in international breaks.

Speaker 6 Um, I'm sure we've talked about this before, Barry, as a kind of flippant idea. I have advocated for this before, not particularly annual leave, but just that every, well, yeah, I suppose I have.

Speaker 6 I have suggested, you know, every player should get just at some point during the season a fortnight off. And, you know, you

Speaker 6 judge, obviously some players are more important than others, so you judge when they should get their two weeks off, depending on what fixtures are coming up.

Speaker 6 And I think it would be hugely beneficial.

Speaker 6 But I think the counterpoint that was made was a lot of these players won't want to take holidays because they'll be worried they will lose their place in the team.

Speaker 6 Also, you know, it's a bit like everyone putting their holiday form in for Christmas. You don't really want August, do you? You just had a holiday.
You don't want May because that's the series.

Speaker 6 So everyone's applying for holiday in sort of.

Speaker 6 Well, I would suggest the player doesn't get to decide when he's holiday.

Speaker 6 Like I will sometimes submit a holiday request and be told, no, you can't. We need you.

Speaker 6 We always need you.

Speaker 6 You had Christmas off last year, so you have to do Christmas this year. And that's fair enough.
I just take it on the chin. But then

Speaker 6 I think a lot of workplace holiday requests are

Speaker 6 very influenced by school holidays. And that doesn't affect me in any way because I don't have children and never know when school holidays are.

Speaker 6 Anyway, thanks to the excellent socially distance sports bar,

Speaker 6 of which Ellis James is a co-host. They featured a clip from the podcast on their latest episode.
Not any of our brilliant analysis, but just me getting dragged online by freezing cold takes

Speaker 6 during the Euros.

Speaker 6 I was at Ellis James' wedding at the weekend, and a fine evening entertainment it was to free bar all night. We're paying him too much for his voice notes.

Speaker 9 Can I make a freezing cold take?

Speaker 6 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, please.

Speaker 9 That has been on my mind ever since we had this discussion earlier. I think I'm probably going to end up getting ridiculed or looking stupid.

Speaker 9 I think Inquire Gundigan could be part of, if not, the next Manchester City manager.

Speaker 9 If things go south for City, as some expect. I've got a feeling there's a coaching angle to his return.
Right.

Speaker 6 In League One. Or you reckon he could be managing him in the Northwest Counties League next season.

Speaker 9 You never know.

Speaker 9 Obviously, because he did coach Cities, I think, under 14s or under 16s

Speaker 9 in his final season there.

Speaker 9 And the one-year deal just gives me a sense of maybe is he sort of thinking of retirement?

Speaker 9 Obviously, you talked about Petton potentially. Maybe is he just signing him as a last season? Maybe is he kind of as a mentor for

Speaker 9 wherever they may be next year?

Speaker 6 Gundawan City versus Robbie Savage's Macclesfield in the combined counties or whatever it's called.

Speaker 9 I think there'll be a coaching role involved anyway for Gundagan, potentially.

Speaker 9 Maybe not men next city, but Angela.

Speaker 6 Good of you to turn up to someone's wedding there, Barry. Thank you, Max.
I'm sure Ellis enjoyed it.

Speaker 6 Well, the thing is, Max, there was loads of tip-top celebrities at the wedding, so i just went there out of nosiness you you didn't have any tip-top celebrities if you had come to my wedding no you'd have been the most famous person there who was the most famous person at this wedding uh

Speaker 6 probably the bride who uh is a fine actor

Speaker 6 probably best known for her work as Dobby and Peep Show.

Speaker 6 Tim Key, James A. Caster,

Speaker 6 Josh Whitticombe, John Robbins. I really felt that that there were two girls who were connected to the bride who had to make a speech and they went on after an award-winning comedian.

Speaker 6 They were followed by an award-winning comedian and they were delivering their speech to a room full of award-winning comedians. I was like, oh, God, that is a tough gig.
But they did very, very well.

Speaker 6 Finally, Luke says, hi, Max and the pod. I live in London.
I've recently fallen head over heels in love with a woman that lives in Melbourne. I visited her for a week.

Speaker 6 Yes, I flew that far for less than seven days. Eight, we've all done it.
In early August, I'm pretty certain I'm going to move to the other side of the world to be with her.

Speaker 6 Have you got any advice for settling in on the other side of the world and forging a new life? Perhaps more importantly, will I be able to effectively follow the second love of my life, Arsenal?

Speaker 6 Thanks, Luke. P.S.
Adore the pod, everyone. You guys have been a fixture in my life for five years now.
Thank you for all the hard work. And my first question is, is it my wife?

Speaker 6 As long as it isn't, I'll carry on with my advice. My second question is, are you good at football? If so, please get in touch again.
Always looking to recruit players for the

Speaker 6 University of Melbourne Old Boys. They're Bohemians.
When you say good, Max,

Speaker 6 how good are we talking? We've got Barnes Townworth on Sunday, and that is top of the table clash. If we win our last two, we win the league.
It's absolutely huge.

Speaker 6 I've been nursing a permanent groin strain for months, but you've got to play through the pain in games like this.

Speaker 6 Look, it's basically the same as London with fewer people and nicer weather. You'll be absolutely fine.

Speaker 1 Chelsea might have some spare players for you, Max. I've got a few people not doing anything.

Speaker 6 Are they over 35?

Speaker 6 That's sort of quite cute.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that might be, yeah, it might be a stumbling block.

Speaker 6 Anyway, that'll do. Good luck, Luke.
Yeah, why not? Move for love. Love.
All you need is love, Luke. That's the message.
I just hope the object of his affection, the feeling is mutual

Speaker 6 and that she's also in love with him. Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 6 that is true.

Speaker 6 It's quite strange if he uprooted his entire life, went and lived in Melbourne. She wanted nothing to do with him and just thought he was a weirdo.
But the first time I flew here for four days, Mrs.

Speaker 6 Rush had definitely thought that. And I didn't see her after the first day, as it goes.
But you know, persistence, persistence plays off.

Speaker 6 But yeah, just worth checking, Luke, because that flight is fucking miserable. And then when you fly back with kids, Jesus, don't.
Oh, man. Anyway, that'll do for today.
Thank you so much, Jonathan.

Speaker 9 You're welcome, Max. Thank you.
Thanks, Dan. Thank you.

Speaker 6 Cheers, Baz. Thanks.
Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove. Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

Speaker 1 This is The Guardian.