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

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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.

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

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.

Aston Villa Arstall looks like the most exciting game on paper.

Unaimri 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 Ange Bulby dice ball at Whiteheart Lane.

Ilka 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 Kieran McKenna is so, so, so good.

Also today, PFA awards dished out way too late.

Can Poch make America great again?

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.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Dan Bardell, hello.

Hello, Max.

And Jonathan Faduba, welcome.

Hi, Max.

So let's start with Chelsea, who go to Wolves at the weekend.

As I said in the intro, Enzo Maresko said that Chelsea do look like a mess from the outside, but he said, I'm not working with 42 players.

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.

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

would offer any kind of significant transfer fees for these 21 players the manager has just declared he doesn't care about.

I mean,

and

I wonder if

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.

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...

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

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

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

It's a strange one.

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

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 puts cast it to one side in order in 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.

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.

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

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

I mean,

there's players that they've only just signed one to two years ago.

The likes of Sterling, Chukuomeka,

Desassi X, Axel Desassier Red 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.

So I can't really understand this grand plan.

And I thought Mareska's comments were

a little bit of a tell.

I mean, where are we, Max?

August the 22nd?

And that's the kind of, it kind of gave that sort of touchy 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're saying, 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

he's already a little bit frustrated with what's going on behind the scenes, obviously with Sterling's um representatives making the 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 a tell from Mareskin says 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's 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 Xiao 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.

Second was Spurs, under 100.

So the length left on Chelsea's players' contracts is double the next team.

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 that are that are there, no one's on massive wages.

So they've got the kind of this, I think it's around 70 grand a week average wage at the club now.

So it looks like they're collecting players, but their argument is that they're getting all these assets, but they're not on huge liabilities because they're not on huge wages.

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.

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.

Two weeks later, Thomas Tuchel's not there and they don't want Abamiang anymore.

It's just unprecedented what we're seeing from Chelsea and good luck to anyone who's trying to make sense of it because unless you're in the inner circle at Chelsea, I don't see how you can.

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

Not a proper football decision in sight.

A club powered by creative accounting and hubris, totally deserving of ridicule, but but but spare a thought and i suppose at the bottom of this and as he says totally deserving of ridicule which is sort of the the easy place to go but for chelsea fans all of this must be so frustrating yeah crimea river chelsea fans you're getting all these incredibly expensive really really good footballers brought in to your squad it's it must be terrible i mean ugh uh

no it must be annoying right like you know you look at a roster of players going where

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

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,

you would be frustrated.

I'm very skeptical about this.

Oh, how they've treated Connor Gallagher.

What a great servant to the club he's been.

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 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.

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

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-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.

So Connor Gallagher will be fine.

Chelsea will probably be fine.

Chelsea fans were quite happy when Roman Abramovich was, you know, spraying money all all over the place.

They were all delighted when Clear Lake Capital took over.

So you reap what you sow.

If they've got a problem with it now,

yeah,

the whole, oh, poor Connor Gallagher.

It's pathetic.

He's fine.

He's gone to Atletico Madrid.

Mareska says, is it brutal?

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 if you just find this as brutal it's up to you to decide for me it's not brutal it's just honest yeah that's those two have been left out of the Europa Conference League squad for the game with Cervet Toy Sin Adorabayo was left out but that was administrative error and he's back in I wonder Jonathan do you do you have more sympathy well I mean Barry's made quite a powerful argument for you know

it's all you know this isn't such a big deal 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

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.

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,

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.

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?

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

game of the season.

I know he's back in the squad now, but...

There's players who sort of had decent, having decent careers are doing well, and then moving to Chelsea, and essentially their value is going way down 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.

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.

Okay, it doesn't really matter.

But at the same time,

I find it just a bit sort of strange

in the kind of way it's handled.

So, 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, et

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

And

I wonder if, you know, 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 have they envisaged that scenario?

Because it could happen.

Yeah.

And it's their fault that they've signed so many players.

Yes, Dan?

I was just going to say that's what that's what's confusing because they're looking at these players as assets from what you hear.

But

if Sterling's had his squad number removed and isn't part of going to be registered for any competition,

why is anyone going to come in and offer a transfer fee?

Okay, you might take his wages off the books, but how are Chelsea going to extract any kind of transfer fee for these players?

And Sterling was around 50 million, was he,

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 uh for four years 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 this you know when he speaks it's at a press conference he's answering direct questions, and all these questions are about the same thing.

And people, you know, he says, I can't guarantee these players minutes, so they need to leave.

I don't want anything to do with them.

I've got my players that I'm training.

And people are going, oh, it's unfair on Connor Gallagher.

It's unfair on Raheem Sterling.

It's unfair on Ben Shilwell.

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.

And I think Maresco,

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

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

Sure.

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 significantly different.

Well, I'm not sure Maresh could care as well.

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 that how much he costs previously.

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 they, I mean, they could go to Wolves.

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

But I still think whenever I look at their starting lineup, I think, God, this is good.

they could be really good this season yeah when from a 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 get that stuff

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 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 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,

and like I say, I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt to the owners and sort of have the sense that they are, they must, they are, you know, they must be quite fairly smart people.

But one thing I don't understand is this, for the second season running, Chelsea had no front of shirt sponsor on the opening day of the season.

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.

I believe they signed a short-term deal.

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 shirt sponsorship deal because they thought they would be in the Champions League.

That was according to one sort of fairly reputable

sports media website that does deals with like kit sponsorship and things like that.

So

that plan has obviously backfired last, you know, this season.

And they haven't yet, as yet, I believe, announced another front of the shirt sponsor.

I think there's an announcement coming soon.

They apparently, according to some reports, have someone in the pipeline.

But again, 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 even even if you maybe put a charity or something like that just it's it's very strange to see a premier league football team uh let alone any team in the top you know two divisions three divisions that you name it haven't have no front shirt sponsor for two years running do you think the um do you think the problem was that infinite athlete was not a description that wasn't enough athletes for chelsea

and that was the problem it's strange they were infinity and beyond

Exactly, exactly.

Anyway, look,

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.

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

They're the opposite.

They sell all their players.

It's like the buyers

v the sellers.

It's an interesting game.

Yeah, I mean, they could win this.

I don't know.

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 for part one, part two.

We'll begin with Villa versus Arsenal.

Hi Pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the remarkable paper pro.

We already know that Remarkable's the leader in the paper tablet category, digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting the remarkable paper pro move remarkable a brand name and an adjective man yeah it's their most portable paper tablet yet it holds all your notes to-dos and documents but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office like maybe a football journalist barry although not like you

a proper football journalist man exactly too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

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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?

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.

I think it was the only game that actually lost in 2024.

So looking forward to it.

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 big angle will always be Unai Emery

up against his old team at Arsenal.

But as I mentioned at the start, Villa just seemed 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 game at Villa Park last year, Arsenal were actually much better, I thought.

But Villa were really good at the Emirates.

Football just funny, isn't it?

Which we saw last week with Villa John Duran scoring against West Ham, the team that he said he wanted to join a few weeks earlier.

Just always throws up these funny little things.

And Arsenal, Arsenal fans, probably some aspects of them were a little bit harsh on Unai Emry.

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

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

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.

And you think, yeah,

there's a world where Villa win here.

And are you happy with the business that you've done in the summer?

Because I think Douglas Louise, it was a surprise when...

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

Yeah, I'm happy.

Louise 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.

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.

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.

They've still got Bubuka-Kamara to come back.

They've got Ross Barclay, who I think offsets some of the stuff they've lost in Douglas Louise.

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.

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

in the Champions League 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 that the perfect manager to navigate premier league and european football so the the villa fans are very very excited going into satada for arsenal jonathan 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 yeah i think the timing of the game possibly might suit arsenal in the sense that they they they're still going to have that defeat that really did cost them the title in the memory, probably fresh in their minds.

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

Players still betting in.

So I think for the time of it, it suits Arsenal, in my opinion.

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

the game last year and sort of start pointing at people and saying, we don't lose this game, or, you know, like one of his motivational things, maybe draw a picture on the board of the Astavilla 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 we'll 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 you know it's a fairly routine win against wolves weren't massively tested.

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.

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.

Morgan Rodgers played 90 minutes and he's someone who'll be one to watch potentially this season.

Maybe getting some

his place in the first team.

Of course, from Villa's point of view, Watkins didn't play the full game as well.

So there's that kind of one or two players from the Euros, maybe not necessarily at peak level at at this moment in time.

Maybe Emery's just managing the minutes.

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

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 in this match.

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

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

At the Amex Brighton Man United, how do you see it, Barry?

I think Brighton...

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.

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

week, particularly in the second half.

Manchester United were pretty unconvincing against

Bulham in victory.

Fun fact about this game, actually, Ericon Hagg has previously managed the Brighton manager, Fabian Herzler, when he was in charge of the Bayern Munich second team from 2013 to 2015.

I think they played in the German 4th Division or whatever.

So they do know each other.

I thought

you were going to say the Bayern Munich underrates

in 2013.

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

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.

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.

And more recently, it's been Brighton.

I'm looking forward to this game.

It's the early kickoff on Saturday.

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

Who's doing your stat packs, Barry?

I didn't get a stat pack man.

I've not got one.

I think we need a stat man.

Other podcasts have a stat man.

They're usually called Dave, Statman Dave.

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 it.

Thank you for furnishing us with some statistics, Barry.

I enjoyed it.

Jonathan, from a Manchester United point of view, as a Manchester United fan, 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 that new, I guess, is probably how I should have described it.

Masrawi 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.

You know, Delik maybe fills the gap that varan didn't i've seen some pundits sort of claim he couldn't get into the buyer munich team which i ahead of eric dyer which i found strange like i think that the buyer and munich fans generally had a quite high opinion of both masrawi and and delete in terms of their performances maybe not their personalities i mean there's there's off-field reasons that masrawi was kind of shifted out of buyern um uh which you can look into of course uh certain things he said comments about certain uh world events that he was castigated for within Bayern.

But I'm not sure if Delet is necessarily as bad as people are making out

in that sense.

Obviously Yoro was the big one but he got an injury.

Zerksey had

an okay debut off the bench.

He's quite an awkward forward but in a way that kind of works in a sense.

Kind of a bit clunky but at the same time you know getting his toe on the end of the goal for against Fulham and looks okay.

I'm not necessarily massively enthused by the business if I'm honest.

There's obviously Manuel Agate

potentially might be in coming from PSG.

That's a sort of a holding midfielder who's 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.

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

I thought Brighton looked very good 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 that's a real worry, or the fact that they had 10 men for quite a large part of the game as well.

but um yeah this will be a obviously a much stronger test for for brighton but no i'm not i 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 Everton lose, that is as bad a start as you can have losing your first two.

Yeah, I mean, on Everton, 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 Deys is there, they'll do enough to stay up.

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

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, 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.

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 in the first half, and then Leicester were the better team in the second half.

There was two things that struck me in that game.

The first one was Spurs have just got too many attackers.

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

were even there.

And, And, you know, they're signed Odebear, I think.

Solomon's still there as well.

They've just got an array of attacking players.

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

But his reaction at the end of the game when Rashadson 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.

And I thought they'd kind of want to

hit the reset.

But his reaction kind of said to me that there's going to be a follow-on, and it all felt quite negative.

And even his comments afterwards, I thought he'd come out and be a bit more positive.

I thought it was a strange game, a strange Spurs.

Yeah, someone's already,

you know, taken the Spurs crest, the cockerel and taken that off, and put the football with like the blue silhouette of Ange on his haunches.

And it actually looks really, really good.

Barry Mancy, host Ip Switch, looking to get Ilkai Gundawen back.

Producer Joel was suggesting that

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.

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

Uh,

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

Um,

he and Pep, not producer Joel,

I think signing Ilka Gunagan, if he's available, is an absolute no-brainer.

I mean, look how brilliant he was for City before leaving for Barcelona.

I am aware he's on his way back to City.

I'm not sure what has happened at Barcelona.

But either way,

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

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.

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.

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

You know, welcome to the Big Boy League, lads.

And I don't expect things to be any easier for them this weekend.

Ipswich set to sign Amanda Brozer from Chelsea on a season-long loan in a deal that could become permanent.

I reckon there's a great striker

in there somewhere.

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

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

It's very like that Brazilian fella Rob Smyde wrote a great book about 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 and 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 Javi Alonso I'm sticking by it until

he's not going brilliantly but you know he's still a good player

he played against Cambridge last season I can't remember who for Exeter or someone I can't remember

to Fulham Fulham Leicester.

Dan,

you were very energised about Joachim Anderson moving to Fulham from Crystal Palace.

I just think he's a really good defender.

I was surprised Palace are so willing to let him go, particularly when Mark Gahey's future is still up in the air as well.

Anderson, obviously, a player who's been at Fulham before.

I think he wore the armband when he was on loan under Scott Parker and they got renegade.

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

He's,

what did I call him earlier?

The pinking in in in the whatsapp group he switches play he's got great great distribution he's a he's a leader sorry what was that the pink the pinking he pings the ball the the pinking

yeah it's probably not one for the guardian looking back now i should have saved

that for something else but yeah anyway it's it's it's there now it's it's in the world but i don't i don't know whether we're going to talk about you can't be using that on sky sports news now i bet you could we all no no they won't they won't listen to this that's all right i'll be able to i'll be able to use it hashtag pinking uh about Barry.

But I just think Fulham are.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

Yeah, that would make more sense, wouldn't it?

King Ping sort of maybe flows better.

Liverpool Brentford, Jonathan.

They're in for Giorgio Mahmadashvili, the Georgia goalkeeper, who had a brilliant Euros.

It was interesting at signing because Keller has always been great coming in, and you know, Allison is still one of the best keepers in the world.

So that's interesting.

But they looked pretty good.

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

Second half they did.

First half struggled slightly.

Maybe it was the just the enthusiasm of it switched as well, which you know, the first season back and that side of things.

Obviously, I'm a slot tactically at halftime, made some changes.

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

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.

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.

Slot has a completely new style, which I think will suit the Premier League fairly well.

Um, the way he kind of

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

maybe um, 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.

Um, they're very good at kind of slicing teams open, essentially, as he as his teams were at final.

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.

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.

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 Berg is about to leave for somewhere as well, isn't he?

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.

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

You'd imagine Trent would probably stick around, but Salah, if he was to leave on a free, that's a bit of a loss for them financially because

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

So

to the Saudi league.

So that would be a bit of a loss.

But yeah, you think Liverpool are quite strong favourites.

I was surprised how well Brentford did at the start of

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

Liverpool are going to be strong favourites.

lot's first game out in the field.

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

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.

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

Interestingly,

Forest signed Nikola Milenkovic, Serbian centre-back

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.

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 Coppa Italia match in April.

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

And it turns out, for whatever reason, the the ban from the red card he picked up in the cup of italia game only kicked in last weekend for for his first premier league game that's hot on forrest so forester paying the price for a red card he he picked up in april and then went on to play seven or eight games afterwards uh so i don't know what the the nitty-gritty of that is but it does seem quite weird uh i suppose forrest i think are about to sign alberto morena from villa signed 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.

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

Yeah,

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

the whole season.

Maybe lost a yard of pace.

And Luca Dean seems very resilient, and they've signed Ian Mattson, so someone had to go.

but he'll be an upgrade for Forrest, I'm sure, at left back.

Dan Bournemouth, Newcastle.

What do you reckon?

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.

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

I think a lot will probably depend on how he replaces Solanke.

But Bournemouth got off to an awful start last season and they stuck by the manager and were rewarded for for that.

I don't think they'll get off to 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 some resilience, 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 Howe's first full season than the Newcastle decimated by injuries last season.

The only thing is Newcastle last season lost 11

league games away from home.

Their away form is dismal.

I think they might have have drawn another three or four.

So this is quite an important game for them.

You know, just to put that terrible away form to bed, so to speak.

All right, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll do any other business.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, mate.

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Welcome to part three three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Congratulations to Phil Foden, who won the PFA Player of the Year.

Cole Palmer won winning Young Player of the Year.

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

It 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.

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?

Like a squirrel.

I like the idea.

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.

But anyway.

Yeah, so it turns out, I presume

it must be because of the Euros, because this thing is normally held in April, late April, I think.

Then you have a swanky do in London or Manchester or wherever.

But

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

the season

ending late because of the Qatar World Cup

and

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

So,

yeah, I don't know why exactly it was that.

maybe they just decided oh august is fun um but it doesn't affect me particularly because no 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 something so many have already taken up to the point where like the london football awards which is bob wilson's brilliant charity the world foundation they do it in like March or February and you have to vote.

I'm part of that panel that votes.

You have to vote in sort of January.

So they're like Posta Coglu won Manager of the Year ahead of Arteta 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.

Blackpool have sacked head coach Neil Critchley

after losing two in a spin in League One.

We'll do more AFL on Tuesday next week.

They go to Cambridge on Saturday, so a guaranteed new caretaker manager bounce for Richard Keogh, who I think was in China Whites the one time I was there.

It might have been Andy Keog.

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.

I thought he did an okay job at Chelsea, so, and he's young enough to still remain in club management.

I would have thought he might wait around for a Premier League job that may come available in the sort of early parts of the season or maybe somewhere abroad.

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

He was linked to England, wasn't he?

And that's clearly not going to happen being an Argentinian.

I don't think that rivalry isn't maybe as big as it used to be, but I still don't think that Pochitino is someone who would consider that.

I think he'd consider that maybe a bit of an act of treachery.

So I couldn't see that one happening.

But yeah, maybe he's just up for international management.

I saw...

I don't know if this was actually legit, but a picture of him with his feet up

watching TV and his bare naked feet with a remote control or something like that.

So I don't know if that was actually him.

I saw that as well.

On Instagram.

Yeah.

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

Barry, Onderslar, 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?

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

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

He could have been in socks.

He could have been in socks.

They really were bare, bare-naked ladies, the Canadian bands.

But I mean, I have a question for you, Maz.

Who did you vote for Player of the Year then if it was in January?

For London Player of the Year.

Oh, God.

I absolutely can't remember.

I couldn't tell you.

Maybe Declan Rice.

I'm not sure.

It's possible.

I mean, I hate to say that to Barry, but yeah, it's possibly.

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 Noyer's announced his retirement from international football, won the World Cup in 2014, kept 120 four times.

Good news for Mark, Andre Ter, Stagan, of course, Dan.

But

is it going too far to say Noyer 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.

I've not seen anything like him before.

So yeah, I think that's a fair reflection.

Obviously, he won international honor honours as well i think at 38 max it's just sad to see a young up-and-comer retire really isn't it fabian bartez is going to be sitting somewhere fuming at this first first sweep first sweeper keeper as lionel peres and bruce grobolov furious oh god lionel perez uh yes i described uh dan as up and coming recently without knowing that he was 38.

um look you look well that's all uh brian brian says rail madrida looking to give players annual leave during the season like a normal workplace should it apply to also?

Angelotti and Mbappe took a week off.

Would it really impact Rail?

Is it something that will only benefit bigger clubs with more depth?

Yeah, Angelotti said the players need rest, they need holidays.

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

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.

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.

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

And, you know, you

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.

And I think it would be hugely beneficial.

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 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 so everyone's applying for holiday in in sort of uh well I would suggest the player doesn't get to decide right when he's holiday like I I will sometimes submit a holiday request and be told no you can't we need you uh

we always need you 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

I think a lot of workplace holiday requests are

very influenced by school holidays and that doesn't affect me in any way because I don't have children and never know when the school holidays are anyway thanks to the excellent socially distance sports bar

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

during the Euros.

I was at Ellis James' wedding at the weekend and a fine evening entertainment it was too.

Free bar all night.

We're paying him too much for his voice notes.

Can I make a freezing cold take?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, please.

That has been on my mind ever since we had this discussion earlier.

I think that's probably going to end up getting rid of or looking stupid.

I think Ilquad Gundingen and could be part of, if not, the next Manchester City manager.

If

things go south for City, as some expect.

I've got a feeling there's a coaching angle to his return.

Right.

In League One.

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

You never know.

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

in his final season there.

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

Obviously, you talked about Petton potentially.

maybe is it is he just signing him as a last season maybe is it is he kind of as a mentor for

wherever they may be next year gundawan city versus robbie savage's macclesfield in the combined counties or whatever it's called i think there'll be a coaching role involved anyway for gundagan potentially it could be maybe not men next city but good of you to turn up to someone's wedding there barry thank you max i'm sure ellis enjoyed it well i i the thing is max uh there was loads of tip-top celebrities at the wedding so i want i just went there with nausiness 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

probably the bride who uh is a fine actor probably best known for her work as Dobby and Peep Show um Tim Key James A.

Caster

Josh Whitticombe, John Robbins.

I really felt that there was two girls who were connected to the bride who had to make a speech and they went on after an award-winning comedian.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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

University of Melbourne old boys.

They're Bohemians.

When you say good, Max,

how good are we talking?

We've got Barnstown Worth on Sunday, and that is top of the table clash.

If we win our last two, we win the leagues.

Absolutely huge.

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

Look, it's basically the same as London with fewer people and nicer weather.

You'll be absolutely fine.

Chelsea might have some spare players for you, Max.

I've got a few people not doing anything.

Play over 35.

That's sort of quite key.

Yeah, that might be, yeah, it might be a stumbling block um anyway that'll do uh good luck luke yeah why not move for love love all you need is love luke that's the message i i just hope the object of his affection and the feeling is mutual uh and that she's also in love with him yeah i mean the that that is true because it would be 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 rushed had definitely thought that and I didn't see her after the first day, as it goes.

But you know, persistence, persistence plays off.

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.

You're welcome, Max.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dan.

Thank you.

Cheers, Baz.

Thanks.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is the Guardian.