Premier League 2024-25 season preview: Leicester City to Wolves – Football Weekly podcast

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

It's the Premier League preview part two, Leicester to Wolves.

Already yesterday's has been met with seething rage at our futile attempts to place 10 of the 20 in some sort of order but that won't stop us trying again.

Leicester one of those with all manner of PSR hanging over them plus a new manager feels like a tough one at the King Power.

Liverpool no signings and Ana Slot with the biggest shoes to fill.

Manchester City apparently the charges will be done by early next year so is it as simple as first or last depending?

As for Manchester United will anyone go higher than Wilson's prediction of fourth place yesterday?

Newcastle have kept Alexander Isak.

We get to see Sandro Tenali and there's no European football to injure their entire squad.

Hands up if you'd forgotten Luno was the Nottingham Forest manager.

Southampton up through the playoffs.

Will anyone give them a chance?

And then Spurs and his second year is normally great.

Go on, mate.

Finally, to West Ham with the Moisian Lopotegui and Gary O'Neill's Wolves just counting down until VAR wrongs him once again.

We'll try and fit all that into an hour.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Lucy Ward, welcome.

Hi,

hello, Barry Glen Denning.

Hi.

And John Bruin, who, John, you have taken the mantle of Wilson's fact per team

duty, which I'm very pleased about.

Well, my pleasure.

You've not heard him yet.

Okay, we'll get to them.

Mark says, Dear all, the only fans I pity more than my fellow West Ham fraternity are those of wolves as we annually suffer the predominance of descending alphabetical order.

When it comes to the order in which the Guardian publishes its club-by-club preview of the season, Arsenal fans received their in-depth appraisal before Simone Biles had completed one of her three back somersaults at the Olympics, whereas we will be fortunate to receive the West Ham version much before the first international break.

This happens year on year.

How about a bit of random distribution for the future so that I can mull over the wisdom of the Guardian's football predictions before my team has already lost the first two matches?

Thanks for the great work on the pods, Mark.

Well, we'll get to West Ham when we're running out of time at the end, but

we'll start with Leicester City.

They've bought in Fatawa, who was on loan there last season.

Caleb Akolli from Atalanta, Bobby Decordova Reid on a free.

I'd completely missed that kin, and Drewsbury Hall's gone to Chelsea.

They begin at home to Spurs on Monday night, go to Fulham, home to Villa, away to Palace, home to Everton.

They won the championship last year, Lucy, but they've lost the manager that got them there.

And they've got a lot of financial concerns as well.

It feels like this will be a difficult season.

Yeah, I think so.

Obviously, a looming points deduction, which we don't know how many that will happen to in the Premier League, which is slightly annoying.

I think the fans are a little bit sceptical about Cooper coming in.

There's other things around the club that the fans are not happy with.

So I think they need to start quite well.

But I think, like all promoted teams, they need to get used to, that's not simplified, they need to get used to losing more than they win because last year they were winning more than that they lost.

And it is a real shift for the fans.

It's a shift for the players.

And it's like, whether you get battered, or you win, you've still got to go again the next week.

And I think, you know, you can't let sort of losing and getting battered by a good club in the Premier League four or five nil, which may happen, let that affect you.

And I think moving from Maresca to Cooper, Mareska was like high energy, high possession, aggressive,

stuck to his guns, didn't really deviate from that.

And I think Cooper's a little bit more different than that.

He's a bit more pragmatic, a bit more adaptable, flexible.

They can do both depending on, you know, be keep the ball or go for the counter-attacks.

That will be quite interesting.

But I just think losing jewsbury hall is is a problem for them because quite a lot of all the stuff that they did going forward passing forward was was through him um i've had a look at them in pre-season they're not scoring many goals and obviously an attacking threat left by jewsbury hall is it could be a problem for them and i think the opening six

like you said include spurs villa and arsenal so they need to build up a little bit of momentum in the in the other games because it you know i look at i know we're not talking about championship but i'll bring leads into it but leads drew against Portsmouth lost last night, and all of a sudden, big pressure on Saturday.

We're only like three games into it.

It's really important that you sort of start well.

Barry, looking at their squad, do you think there's enough quality?

I don't actually.

I think this team looks demonstrably worse than the one that got relegated two seasons ago.

That team had Madison, Harvey Barnes, Calicci, Nacho, Kieran Jewsbury, Hall, Yuri Thielemans.

None of them are there anymore.

They don't have any players of those quality,

or very few.

It's hard to see where the goals are coming from because Jamie Varity, in his last season, the Premier League, just looked off the pace.

He only got three.

And now he got 18 last season in the championship.

But this is clearly a step up and going to be more difficult for him.

And he's not getting any younger.

One thing I would say, I didn't see much of Leicester last season, but when I did see them, I was very impressed with those two wingers.

They have Tau and Mavadidi.

So it'll be interesting to see how they get on, but I just cannot see

how they can stay up with a squad this light.

Steve Cooper's an interesting one,

as Lucy said.

I mean,

remember last season,

there was a point where Notting Forest were going to get rid of him.

And outsiders were all saying, well, how could they get rid of Steve Cooper?

He's such an asset to this team.

And yeah, I spoke to quite a few Nottingham Forest fans and they were like, yeah, his time's probably up.

And that came as a surprise to me.

The end came soon after.

A switch from Nottingham to Leicester is not an easy one anyway due to the rivalry.

So he's on a bit of borrowed time,

just for that factor, really.

Plus, there's this points deduction thing that's hanging over them.

This is a crisis club entering the Premier League.

And yeah, they haven't strengthened enough.

I agree with Barry.

It was a stronger team that went down.

Now, that was a strong team that was in crisis.

It doesn't matter how many good players you've got at a certain point, you know, and he hit that sort of terminal velocity.

And as Lucy says, they've got to hit the ground running because there's not a lot there.

I did see them once last season, and it was about that point that they stumbled.

They won't play this style under Enzo, that they played under Enzo Moresco.

It was against Bristol City, and they just...

They got to the box and then missed loads of chances.

But they were creating chances.

I do think they'll miss Jewsby Hall.

Yeah, I've got to agree with everybody, really.

In my prediction, I've got them not to go down.

But already I'm beginning to think, why do I not think they're going down?

So there we go.

Yeah, I thought we'd all have them bottom and Steve Cooper could pin this podcast on the dressing room wall.

I have them 20th, Barry.

You?

Same here, yeah.

Lucy?

Yeah, same.

Same here, 20th.

John?

17th.

17th.

Well, that is the crumb of hope that you can take with you.

To Liverpool, then.

I haven't signed anything.

Hagon, what about the fact?

Oh, yeah, the fact.

Oh, yeah, John Bruin.

John Bruin for the fact on.

Well, I mean, this one's a simple one.

Leicester are one of only two teams that have won the Premier League to be relegated, the one Blackburn.

When Blackburn came back to the Premier League after the 2001,

2002 season, they finished 10th the next year.

So if Leicester could achieve that, well, that would be some achievement by Steve Cooper.

Yeah, good facts to Anfield.

Liverpool have signed nobody.

Fabio Carvellio has gone to Brentford, of course.

They begin away at Ipswich, the early kickoff on Saturday.

Brentford at home, Man United away, Forrest at home, Bournemouth at home.

So, not an awful set of opening fixtures for Arna Slot there, Lucy.

And like, I mean, huge shoes to fill.

There's so many unknowns here, aren't there?

Yeah, I mean, I watched him a bit with his final team, and you sort of understand why

Liverpool Liverpool looked at him as the sort of next step, so there wasn't too much of a jump.

But there are differences between him.

Yeah, he's high-intensity, quite aggressive, demanding, wants the place to be to be really fit, which obviously is what the Liverpool players are used to.

He's got good relationships with the players like Klopp had, but I think he's a little bit more measured in tactically how they get up the pitch, a bit more possession.

I think

you've probably heard snippets of the play, and it's difficult for the players because, you know, they've got a new manager to impress, but obviously they can't sully the name of Klopp because they had great success with him.

So it's like, well, it's a little bit different because, you know, and I think Curtis Jones had to clarify his comments where he basically said, oh, we're playing more football, something ridiculous like that.

They do get, do have more possession with Slot.

not as much wild abandon, a bit more positional.

But I think the key thing about Slot is that he's a people person.

He develops young players.

He believes in player care which is a massive thing nowadays um obviously i was one of the originators of that back in the day

of course absolutely the og yeah goat absolutely not uh but yeah sort of holistic development happy players make you know players that perform and and i think that you know he uses experts of stuff that he's not quite as good at which obviously is those people who are listening who are in business that that makes sense but in football that doesn't always happen it's people who think that they're experts and there's little quirks about him he he likes to confuse opposition analysts he sort of does things and then um will change how he does things within games it's not easy to predict how his teams will set up but he has certain principles of you know that sort of high energy high high intensity but i think the the things that he that he has to be aware of is the slow starts they had last season like giving one goal starts to to teams and it you know and in the end that was what wore liverpool down

Probably unrealistic that he's going to match Klopp, but you know, if they get the players back fit,

how he uses Alexander Arnold will be key.

And obviously, sorting out players in the last year of the contract, so not easy, and I think that's an understatement.

How's your holistic development, Barry?

It's fine, Max.

I'm pleased.

How do you see this going this season?

I think Slot will be a success.

Over the past two seasons with Feynman, he averaged 2.44 points a game.

If he did the same with Liverpool, that would be 92 plus points enough to win the title.

I agree with Lucy.

Liverpool really need to shake this habit of going behind in games.

They did it 18 times in the league last season.

But they did actually spend more more days on top of the league than any other team last season.

They just didn't happen to be at the top when it mattered.

And, you know, I think we kind of need to remember they were favourites to win the league as late as April, and they messed it up.

I think Slot has inherited a great group of players.

I'm slightly surprised he hasn't brought in anyone yet.

But, and that this situation with

which seems really bizarre that Trent, Alexander Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk and Mo Sala are all in the final year of their contracts and have been let get to this position.

That is going to prove a distraction at some stage if it isn't sorted out,

particularly in January.

But I have high hopes for Liverpool this season.

Listen, replacing Jürgen Klopp is so difficult.

And we've seen it with Manchester United, we've seen it with Arsenal, of how difficult it is to replace a manager who is essentially becomes the club.

When you thought of Liverpool, you thought of Jürgen Klopp immediately, didn't you?

And to replace him with someone like Arna Slott, who's a quieter guy, though also a guy I'm told has quite

a large ego or self-worth, shall we say.

You probably have to,

is an interesting thing.

I think Liverpool have been quite clever this summer in the fact that they've been very low-key.

They've been very low-key.

It's just business as normal.

Okay, Klopp's not around, but we're just carrying on.

Nothing's really happening.

Obviously, there's lots of new positions coming in there.

Michael Edwards has returned to the club.

You've got this new sporting director, Richard Hughes.

You've got Arnie Slot coming in.

But

football being football, a slight panic has set in this week, hasn't it?

Because of this Zubamendi thing.

And there's this idea that, oh, we only wanted one player.

And because we're not getting him, we're not getting anybody.

That's the type of thing that sets fans on edge.

And when you have someone like Klopp, who...

Essentially, footballers would want to play for Jürgen Klopp,

then it's much easier to do transfer deals.

You found that with Alex Ferguson 10 years ago, 11 years ago.

People would go to Manchester United because they wanted to work with Ferguson.

That can open a contacts book.

Liverpool are now almost having to do baby steps and the shift of the club has changed from the manager essentially ruling all to the football directors, the sporting directors ruling all.

And that's quite a difficult thing to leap to make.

As you said, Max, he's got a reasonable few games to start with.

Liverpool fans tend to to be reasonably patient with managers, it has to be said,

but it's going to be very, very difficult.

They do need reinforcement.

They need reinforcement in midfield, which they've obviously highlighted.

They need a centre-back to play alongside Virgil Van Dijk, possibly to replace Virgil Van Dijk.

You've got the Trent question because you've got Conor Bradley, who's such a good player.

They've got lots of forwards.

I think they've all tried to calm each other down.

But should they go two goals down at Ipswich?

That's when the panic begins and the David Moyes comparisons come in.

And, you know, where's our Maruan Filaney?

And that's when it all begins.

Where do you have the finishing, John?

I've got them finishing third.

Right, okay.

Lucy?

Fourth.

Barry?

First.

Wow.

First?

Wow, that's exciting.

I have them.

Yeah, I have them fourth.

Richard says, not to bury Wilson too much, that Liverpool with the explicit mention in series 13 of Doctor Who airing in 2021, episode one, the Halloween Apocalypse, mainly because John Bishop was playing the companion.

Can we trust anything Wilson has ever said?

We're hungry, even good in the 50s, writes producer Joel.

So, look, you've got free reign now for your fact, John, because Wilson's facts are all in disrepute after that.

Well, I mean, one of the things we've mentioned is that the only team with the top five leaves not to assign a single player, which is interesting.

But also,

let's do a bit of a Wilson retro thing.

50 years since Bill Shankley left, of course, 1974.

Now, they replaced him with his assistant,

Bob Paisley, who turned out to be rather successful.

Whatever happened to Pep Linders?

He's managing in Germany somewhere, isn't he?

Yeah, I think so.

Is this RB Salzburg, maybe?

There we go.

One point to Barry.

Bury Willis.

Shouldn't have sounded so surprised.

You win a lot of people.

Sorry, but that's Austria, is it?

I'm going to say that's Austria.

Listen, half a pipe.

Half a pipe.

I've simultaneously shown myself to be quite favourite and extremely late.

Manchester City, then.

They've brought in Savinho from Trois.

A bit of a city group workout there.

Taylor Harwood Bellis has completed a move to Southampton.

He was there last season.

Julian Alvarez, of course, to Athleti.

They begin at Chelsea, then home to Ipswich, away to West Ham, home to Brentford, home to Arsenal.

Obviously, they won the league last year.

They won the league the last four years.

Reporting from The Guardian, their hearing into the 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial regulations has reportedly been brought forward to next month.

According to a report in The Times, the planned November start of an independent commission has been moved to mid to late September.

It is scheduled to last 10 weeks with a verdict therefore likely to be delivered early in 2025.

It feels, Barry, like the biggest moment of the season.

quite possibly could be maybe we've said this already the day that this verdict comes in oh it will be massive.

And I think you've said before, Max, that pretty much everyone has already decided what they want to happen.

And some people will be vindicated and others will not.

If they are found guilty, then obviously

what punishment is meted out is the big question.

It could be seismic.

It could be...

a financial slap on the wrist.

We don't know.

So there's not really much point in speculating but it one presumes it will be difficult for Pep Guardiola to

keep his players focused on on onfield matters because the nearer the the more this looms in the horizon the more twitchy you'd imagine they will get it could as I say it could be a seismic event in football history.

As far as onfield matters are concerned, you know, you would imagine City will be there thereabouts again.

But their record against the top six last year was undeniably poor.

Two wins, six draws, and two defeats.

They failed to score in both their matches against Arsenal, dropped four points against Arsenal, but still beat them to the title.

So can Pep keep them motivated?

Can he keep their minds on the job with this big distraction coming?

We shall see.

I mean, obviously, we all want justice to prevail.

So if they're not guilty, nothing.

If they are a suitable penalty.

I have worked out what I think is the perfect points deduction for the neutral in that they've averaged over the last four seasons 89.75 points.

And last four seasons, 18th positions average was 30.75 points.

So if they had a 59 points deduction, they would be going for survival on the final day of the season.

which I think would be incredibly entertaining.

It's the last year of Pepsteel, Steel, Lucy.

De Bruyne has 33, Carl Walker's 34.

Edison's been linked with the move away.

I wonder if it sort of feels end of an eerie.

There have been rumours of Pep to England.

And whether that could be the inspiration they need to go, come on.

There's lots of doubts off the field.

People might start to doubt us on the field.

We know we're the best team in this league.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think, firstly, a tip for Man City fans is that to get a Dazon subscription now, because they're doing the National League, and they'll open it up if Manchester City end up in the National League.

Only joking, all my Manchester City friends.

I do think, yeah, I think that

I do think that the

Pep's motivation is the one that keeps them going.

Obviously, he has fabulous players.

That obviously helps.

But then they've got sort of a next generation coming through.

Although I heard worrying reports yesterday that Oscar Bob had had suffered a

fractured his leg, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's that is gutting for him.

And again, another example of you, you just, you just, for young players, there's so many factors that determine whether you make it or not.

Hopefully he'll come back big and strong.

But he would have been one of them.

Obviously, you got Rico Lewis, James McAtee, who's back in there.

I think in terms of the issues that they might have, Rodri, replacing Rodri when he's absolutely shattered or just to give him a rest or when he's suspended.

When he's not playing, they play two centre midfielders

in his role.

So they haven't really got anybody that can sort of fit in there.

And replacing Alvarez, because you know, you sort of think, oh, he's a bit part player, but he played a lot of minutes, nearly the most minutes for Man City last year.

And maybe that means that Bernardo Silva will move back central.

So that'll be interesting to see what happens.

Hopefully, Forden'll play, it'll be Man City Foden rather than England Forden, which was absolutely incredible, the difference for me.

So that just shows

the effect Pep has on players.

But hopefully, he will be firing again.

You've just got this overhang, haven't you, of so many factors.

The pet one is the interesting one.

There was that little nugget towards the end of after the FA Cup final thing, that, yeah, this will be my final season.

City rode back from this because, as we saw with Liverpool last season, this being the last season of a manager means, well, bad things can happen.

It had a deadening effect on Liverpool in the end, didn't it?

That one.

The emotions got too big and then it all flushed away.

That's going to be the issue: is that this this could be the last dance because,

say, Manchester City ends up getting relegated or points deducted.

That team of players will be broken up and will be spread across the world.

There is an idea that the selling off of Alvarez,

the fact that they buy in Inverted Commas, a player in Savinio alone is that they're perhaps stealing themselves for what may come ahead.

But then, of course, there is the other idea that they don't really need that much.

And they've spent an awful lot of money on players anyway.

And they only want best in class.

Can you get a midfielder to replace Roderie?

Well, Liverpool tried that with Zubimendi, who's the sort of next best, and you can't get him.

What are they short of?

Yeah, forward.

I mean, the thing is, what happens to Erling Haaland?

Although, having said that, Pep likes it when they have no centre-forward, doesn't he?

Because then he can play his best players.

So, yeah, I mean, the thing is, set aside all the legal stuff, Manchester City is still the best best team around.

They're the team to beat.

I'm not sure if they'll do it this season because

four in a row, that's an unbelievable achievement.

Five in a row, that's definitely never been done before.

But if one team can do it, it's probably City

with an asterisk.

I have them top with an asterisk.

Barry?

I have them second with an asterisk.

Lucy?

Yeah, second as well.

And you, John?

Yeah, second and an asterisk for me, yeah, yeah.

All right, okay.

And give us a fun fact.

Well, um,

I thought I'd include a Trois, a club we don't mention too often.

Uh,

Savinho never actually made an appearance for them, oddly enough.

And the club was relegated to Ligue De and then Ligue Trois.

A lot of the fans of Trois

got very annoyed about this, but I was looking for other players that have played for Trois, and they had two World Cup winners in 2018.

Any guesses?

No.

Blaise Matuidi.

Blaise Matuidi, okay.

Yeah, yeah, and Gibril Siddeby.

So there you go.

So it's a considerable...

That's a pretty decent.

That's true.

Yeah,

they're basically the West Ham of...

Yeah.

I think I'd have been there a little while if you'd waited for me to say Blaise Matweedie.

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two begins with Manchester United.

Hi Pod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Although, not like you.

A proper football journalist, mate.

Exactly.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly to Manchester United's.

Then they brought in Lenny Yorow, Joshua Zerxi, Matthias Delicht, and Nusaye Mazrawi.

And Willie Campoil has gone to Villaroyale.

Mason Green would sign permanently for Marseille.

They begin at home to Fulham on Friday night, then go to Brighton, Liverpool at home, Southampton away, Palace away, finished eighth last year.

Jay says, How well will ICS 2019 do in the league this season?

I mean, there's such pressure.

We've talked on it quite a lot already, Barry, I guess, with the Community Shield, and because Manchester United have been a story of the summer.

But if they don't start well,

the pressure is huge.

Yeah, I mean, those opening fixtures look quite benign apart from Liverpool at home, but three of them are Fulham, Brighton, and Palace, all of whom won at Old Trafford last season.

So they're far from gimme's.

And I think last week's or last season's FA Cup final covered up, you know, it was very impressive, no one saw it coming, but it covered up an awful lot of shortcomings.

They lost 14 matches last season in the league, home and away to Palace, at home to Fulham and Bournemouth and Brighton, away to West Ham and Forest.

You know, games you do not expect Manchester United to lose.

And a lot of their players didn't perform.

Marcus Rashford had a shocking season.

I worry when I see Casemiro there still there in defensive midfield.

I'm not convinced by the backroom shenanigans.

I know Sir Jim Rathcliffe is welcome, has been welcomed by the fans because he's not a glazer, but I'm not a fan of his.

I think Bruilsford's a bit of a spoofer.

And

I am totally unconvinced by her intendant hag, so I don't foresee United having a particularly good season.

I could be

made to look very foolish at the end of the season.

So they've changed their backroom stuff, haven't they?

Renee Hacker, who was the head coach at Go Go-Ahead Eagles, Rude Van Nistelroy, who has been head coach at PSV.

And I guess whether, is this a sort of Fergie-like refreshment, or are they sort of circling, waiting for Ten Haag to fail?

The death of Stalin of Carrington.

It's a question of how much of a say Ten Haag had in those

bringing those in.

I'm not sure Ten Haag, who again is

like Arne Sott, is a bald Dutchman of considerable self-worth, would like Rude van Nistelroy, an absolute Manchester United legend, sat next to him on the bench.

I mean, it is rather made for Rude to be the caretaker early on in the season if all starts to go wrong for Ten Hag.

With Manchester United, I'm always asked for predictions.

I have no idea.

The performance in the FA Cup final, as Barry said, delighted me.

It was my favourite game for many years.

It can't really get that good every week, can it?

If it could, well, wow, it's not going to happen.

Yeah, Big Sajim.

We waited for years, didn't we, for

the owners of Manchester United to say something in public?

And now we'd rather that the owner of Manchester United would stop talking in public because it's coming out with some right clap trap the other day.

He was talking about how London isn't safe and all this stuff.

Jim, just give it a rest, mate.

You've got your money.

Just enjoy the football club.

And being a businessman of considerable success, that rather furnishes them with the idea that they can conquer the world.

So you have all these ideas like, you know, the government paying for a new old traveller and things like that that are really going to be deeply unpopular because they're absolutely ludicrous.

Like Liverpool, actually, as you said, they've switched around that backroom staff.

They've got all your sporting directors and stuff in line, whether that's worth anything.

We're about to find out.

The squad itself, there's talent there.

There always has been.

It's whether the manager can make it work.

I mean, there is talent.

Like Cobby Maynard, and like this time last year, none of us could say, I'll tell you who you should look look out for.

Or certainly none of us were smart enough to go, there's a guy in the youth team who's brilliant.

But they do have talent, don't they?

Well, when I was working for the Premier League, Cobby Mayno was in one of the groups, but they weren't, nobody was saying, oh, look, him, he'll be the next through.

So you sometimes just don't know.

I mean, just adding on to what John said then about, I mean,

Sir Jim's disrespect for the women's team as well, which is so embarrassing because, you know, you may as well just call them the ladies' team because that's the, you know, that's people who know nothing about women's football or women's sport would say something like that but that's that's by the by but my mate's just got a um a job at a 10th tier 11th tier football in um donny and he just got all his mates he didn't know who to sign so he got all his mates to sign and you know what it's hilarious that that's what man united are doing he's just signing players how have they got to the stage where they're signing players just that the manager knows because he's played i understand that they trust them and they know all about them but surely that's a reflection of the recruitment you know you look at the clubs that do it by sort of data analysis, by sort of eyes on players, and it's all quite intricate and they meet certain criteria depending on what position they play on the pitch.

And then Man United just bring in players that the manager, and I can't get my head around that.

Maybe a couple of players.

I understand there's certain managers that are always going to be aligned with certain players, always sign them, but not like five, I think it is.

One player that's not been mentioned for a while is Mason Mount.

Big season for him because he's, he's, I really, really liked him at Chelsea.

His sort of his spatial awareness, his pitch geography, right?

Where he is on the pitch, he receives everywhere on the pitch.

He's brilliant.

So if you can get him back to that sort of level where you've got sort of an attacking midfielder who can do everything, it's going to be difficult for him.

But I hope he does because I really liked him at Chelsea.

He looks like a good kid.

But one last thing, one thing they do need to sort out Man United is when they lose the ball high up the pitch, they're so open, it's unbelievable.

And that was a real problem for them last season.

Give us a fun fact, John.

Well, we're talking of signing your mates.

Johnny Evans is still around, isn't he?

Which appears to be...

I mean, actually, he's still not the worst player in the team by any means.

Yeah, he did it right against Harland, didn't he?

Against City of the Committee Chief.

But he made his debut for Manchester United in an

League Cup tie, quite a famous one against Coventry.

Do you remember this?

And the goals were scored by Michael Miffsud, the Maltese Messi.

Do you remember this game?

Yeah, yeah, okay, I think so.

I'll read you the United team of that day.

Thomas Kushak in goals.

Johnny Evans, a part of a five-man defence with John O'Shea, Gerard Piquet, whatever happened to him, Phil Barnsley and Danny Simpson.

In midfield, Anderson and Lee Martin, not that Lee Martin.

Forwards, Nanny, Chris Eagles, and Dong Van Zhu.

That is a rubbish man United team, but still seems

quite good compared to what we've seen in recent years.

I have them seventh, Barry, tenth,

tenth.

I like your table, Barry.

Lucy?

Sixth.

John?

Fifth.

Fifth.

Let's go to St.

James's Park.

Newcastle brought in Lewis Hall from Chelsea.

Odysseus, Flacodemus, and Pliers from Nottingham Forest.

William Asula from Sheffield United.

They've done some good PSR work, getting Elliot Anderson to Forest for 40 million and Yakuba Minter

to Brighton for 35 million.

They begin at home to Southampton, go to Bournemouth, home to Spurs, away to Wolves, away to Fulham.

Came seventh last year.

Lucy, have they got a stronger squad on paper than last season?

I mean, there were fears they might have to sell Alexander Isak or some of their big players, and they haven't had to do that.

Tenale's back, they've kept Gordon.

Yeah, I think, I think that the most important thing is keeping them fit because that was the problem, wasn't it?

That they were so stretched by injuries that other players had to play more minutes and they were absolutely shattered.

They've sort of had like a summer reset,

not as relentless a summer as last summer.

But I think the important bits within all this is that there's been boardroom changes, which I'm sure, and

if you see some interviews that Eddie Howe's done, I think it leaves him vulnerable.

He's sort of,

he's basically said things that he would not normally say.

So

Paul Mitchell, who's a new sporting director, was brought in.

I don't think Eddie Howe knew much about that.

I think that he then immediately, Mitchell, brought in an injury prevention specialist as performance director, which Eddie Howe knew nothing about.

So I think any sort of started to mention boundaries, Eddie Howe, about you know who who's in charge of what here and all that.

So that will be quite interesting how that plays out.

But on the pitch, Pope needs to stay.

stay fit because his injury just had repercussions.

Him and Joel into were the most important injuries in terms of a negative effect because they couldn't defend high because of he wasn't sweeping, didn't have the energy in midfield.

So hopefully newcastle will be back um to the sort of high energy um and try and sort of survive any sort of fatigue which probably the champions league brought i mean there's no european football barry which is probably an advantage oh definitely it's well it's an advantage insofar as their resources won't be a stretched it's not an advantage because you know newcastle fans you're not in it quite enjoyed their european adventure last season I mean, we have all these backroom changes, which I suspect Eddie Howe isn't thrilled with, but that seems to be a sort of an Entente cordiale there at the moment.

And then, obviously, he had a big supporter in Amanda Staveley, who's no longer in the picture.

And so her and her husband have sold up their

stake in the club.

So,

you know, they were big allies of Eddie Howe.

Obviously, the injuries they had last season were massive.

And if they can avoid them this season,

they should be fine.

I don't know if they're good enough to trouble the top four.

They're trying to sign Mark Gay.

If they got him in, that would be good, obviously.

And

keeping Alexander Isaac fit and ticking over and scoring goals is important.

He's a terrific player.

I thought they might lose him this summer, but it looks like they're not going to.

John, give us some salient thoughts and your fun fact.

Well, just they kept hold of Bruno Gumaris, didn't they?

That That a few

Manchester City were interested.

Arsenal were linked, several clubs.

I mean, he's such an important player for them.

He's still their sort of flagship player, you might say.

They've never been able to go to that next level of signing beyond that, and I think that's going to hold them back.

I wonder if Eddie Howe will be happy at a certain point in the season that Paul Mitchell's new medical regime is working, because that's the accusation against Eddie, isn't it?

That

too many injuries happened at Newcastle and Bournemouth?

So we'll have to see about that.

But it's obviously something that

he doesn't like to talk about.

Would you rather Paul Mitchell, or would you rather Grant or Phil Mitchell as a

get Billy in to sort?

I think Paul Mitchell's a Mancunian gentleman, isn't he?

I like the idea of Phil Mitchell, you know, of just the Newcastle players in the arches, you know, Phil Mitchell in his oily rags, just there, just tweaking Joel Linton with a spanner, going, there he is, wheel him out again.

Or Grant just screaming at them

to prepare the

hamstring.

There's some sort of faith healer with Grant Mitchell, yeah.

Anyway, give us your facts.

Well, one fact is that they are the favourite band of Venom, the black metal former formers, yeah, the singer Kronos.

But I was going to say, let's do some Wilsoners.

Last domestic trophy for Newcastle in the 1955 FA Cup final.

Goal scored by Jackie Milburn.

This is how far back we're going.

And defence was Bob Stokoe for Newcastle.

In attack for City was Don Revy.

And they ended up in this sort of Clough

triangle.

Bob Stokoe was hated by Clough because he stood over him when his career was ended by a knee injury.

And Dom Revy was obviously who replaced at leads.

So it's all connected, you see.

It's all connected.

Where do we have Newcastle?

I've gone eighth, Barry.

So have I.

John?

I've got them sixth, actually.

Lucy?

Seventh.

Right.

Okay.

So Nottingham Forest then they're born in Elliott Anderson, Nicola Milenkovich from Fiorentina, Jota Silva from Vittoria, Carlo Miguel, Corinthians.

We're all here for a six for eight Brazilian goalkeeper.

Mussaniakate's gone to Leon.

Vlakadimus, as I've said, went to Newcastle.

Mangala's gone to Leon.

They've lost Romo Froiler as well.

They begin at home to Bournemouth, go to Southampton, then home to Wolves, away to Liverpool, away to Brighton, finished 17th last season.

Like when they were good, Barry, with Hudson Adoy, Mangala, Awani or Chris Wood, like and Gibbs White behind, they did look good,

but that didn't happen that often.

With the attacking players of the quality they have, you would think they should be a lot better than they are.

I mean, you say we're all here for a six-foot-eight Brazilian goalkeeper, but goalkeeper was a real problem for them last season.

I mean, they got through, what, three or four?

None of them were much good.

So that is a clearly identifiable problem that needs urgent solving.

So hopefully Carlos Miguel will do a job for them, assuming he's first choice.

I'm not convinced by Nuno as a manager.

You know, Barney's description of him as a sad Jedi remains a pod highlight for me.

And I think he could be first out the door in the sack race.

But Forrest last season, as well as goalkeeping issues and defensive issues, they have a lot.

They're quite a chaotic club.

They seem quite chaotic behind the scenes.

There's lots of distractions.

Their owner is a bit, what's a polite way of putting it?

Volatile is good.

Volatile, yes.

He's a very volatile owner.

Yeah,

I can't see them markedly improving on last season.

There's anger at the city ground because of, well, like in common with many grounds, ticket ticket prices have gone up, but some of the price hikes at the city ground have been like some kids' ticket prices have more than doubled in cost.

Some of the adults' tickets have gone up nearly 30%.

So, you know,

people don't like that at the best of times.

And if the team's not performing and the owner's being a bit of an idiot, then it will make for an unhappy atmosphere.

John, can you make a better case for them than Barry just has?

Not especially.

I think,

I mean, obviously,

they replace

Cooper, didn't they?

And then they get in Nuno.

Nuno,

actually, I was very impressed with Nuno when I went to see them play in the fact that he was very good at speaking towards the fans, which is something he did very well at Wolves, didn't he?

They all loved him.

He's a politician, Nuno.

I'm not sure he's a great manager.

Forrest is one of those teams that I think are going to get relegated, actually.

I'll say that.

They've circled the drain a little bit.

The PSR thing, they seem to have negotiated, but I wouldn't be quite sure.

The thing is with Nottingham Forest, you know, for the last 30 years, it's a permanent crisis, isn't it?

I've enjoyed having them back in the Premier League.

I don't like to see them drop out of the Premier League.

Nothing against Nottingham Forest, but I do think if you have that amount of, well, that word, volatility, it will count against you.

Is anyone keeping him up, Lucy?

Are you?

Yeah, only just.

I couldn't decide.

This was the one I I couldn't decide between, but yeah, I've just about just because the others might have points deduction and not be used to the Premier League.

But I think they've been quite efficient in the transfer market.

They've got stuff done quite early, which is unlike Forrest and the volatility we've just been talking about.

And I think they thought that they might have to

sell Gibbs White or Murillo, who were brilliant last season.

And because Niakate was sold, I think that they now don't have to sell those two.

They've They've got quite a good start so that they can get themselves going and try and get some early points, which will ease pressure on Nuna, I'm sure.

They signed Elliot Anderson, one of those signings where he was signing for a lot of money when you know, and I think Newcastle, who did they get?

And you know, everybody went and winked.

But he's a brilliant player, Elliot Anderson, a brilliant young player.

He's like, he could play wide left side, he could play this a 10 centimeter fielder, so he will be a good player.

He should be in Newcastle's first team, so that's that's good.

And then they've signed the Portuguese Grealish, and I don't think it's anything to do with his calves because I've seen his calves and his calves are like mine, so it's not anything to do with his calves.

I think it's to do with how he wears his hair and the fact that he takes players on and wears his socks low, Jota Silver.

So I'm looking forward to seeing him.

But like we said, you guys have just said conceding from set pieces was massive.

Every time the ball went into the box, they nearly conceded.

I think they got 22 last season.

So the six foot eight goalkeeper will have a long way to go down to pick up the ball from the back of the net.

Have to duck to take crosses.

I have them 18th, Barry.

Same here.

John.

Same.

Yeah, Lucy.

17th.

Give us a fun fact, John.

We've had this thing of the brat summer, haven't we?

But I think it's been a George Mendez summer.

If you look at the transfer dealings this summer,

some of the stuff going on.

George is back in the game, man.

I mean, God, there's been.

Has he done well?

Has he done well, George?

Yeah, look at his Athletico deals and, you know, the city one.

Alvarez, and then you've got all the goings on Athletico.

You've got Joe Felix being touted around.

You know,

George is doing well.

Anyway, but,

of course,

people might know this, but

how did George Mendes get into agency?

Was he like the table tennis

carrier for...

No, no.

His first ever client was Nuno.

Yeah.

Really, right.

Yeah.

George tried to be a semi-professional footballer, but then worked as a DJ, opened a video shop, bar and nightclub in Camenia.

There, he happened to meet Nuno Espirito Santo, who's playing then in goals for Vittorio Gumares, became his agent, got him over to Desportivo La Carunya, and off we go.

God, why didn't I do that?

God, it's much easier than actually grafting, doesn't it?

Well, fair play, George.

Right, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll start with Southampton.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Southampton then have bought in Taylor Harwood Bellis on a permanent deal.

He was there on loan last season.

Flynn Downs, same again.

He was there last year.

Ben Brereton Diaz, Yukinari Sugawara from Azed Altmart, and Adam Lalana returns.

They haven't sold too many.

Newcastle away.

They begin home to Forest, Brentford away, Manchester United at home, Ipswich at home.

They won the playoffs in the championship last season after finishing fourth.

Lucy, your feelings on Southampton?

Well, they signed some good young players as well.

Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough, Charlie Taylor, who was at I was at Leeds with from Burnley, and Nathan Warder centre back that originally from Middlesbrough.

So they sort of he quite likes working with younger players And quite a lot of that is because they do what he says when he's sort of playing in a certain way.

So they take risks.

My mate Maude, who is a big Southampton fan, she says it was the best season she's watched for a long time, how exciting it was.

But it's quite risky.

How that sort of transforms itself into the Premier League

remains to be seen.

And I think we saw with Vincent Company last season.

not wanting to change how he plays worked out really well for him but not really well for burnley russell martins brought all his staff with him,

every bit of staff, academy and everything.

So this is a full commitment that Southampton, they've sort of changed, got rid of all staff that have been there for a while, and he brought sort of all his staff in, plus sort of further down the food chain as well.

So it's a little bit risky.

So they're obviously going to stick with him.

Issues they've got is scoring.

They've lost Jay Adams, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Fraser, who they want to get back, I think.

Burton Diaz, is he the answer?

I read somewhere that he'll keep signing for a newly promoted club that gets relegated till the end of time, so that's what he'll just keep doing.

It's a Nigel, it's Nigel Quasi of our day, isn't he?

I didn't know that Chey Adams was playing for Torino, so something to learn there, isn't it?

I wonder where the grit comes from, Barry.

You know, Flynn Downs, Will Smallbone, Lalana, they're all nice shade chars, they're all nice players.

It's Joe Aribo, the gritter of Southampton, he's just got to go around and kick everybody.

Yeah, I don't know.

I thought Flynn Downs was a big West Ham high hope, but he doesn't seem to have got much of a crack at West Ham.

So I don't know much about him, really.

Don't know whatever about Greg.

I don't know where the goals are going to come from.

Adam Armstrong has had two seasons in the Premier League.

He looks like one of those guys who's good enough for the championship, not quite good enough for the Premier League.

The lesser spotted Ross Stewart...

former Sunderland striker, he's there somewhere.

I don't know what his injury situation is at the moment.

He's been injured for about two years.

And

I don't have particularly high hopes for Southampton's chances of avoiding relegation.

John, thoughts and a fact.

Yeah, I have to agree with the chaps.

He's a hugely impressive character, Russell Martin.

And what Lucy said about the Vincent Company comparison, that holds up for me.

They will play that style of football.

That's what he wants.

Yeah, but I think they'll struggle.

But I think his reputation will remain intact.

Uh, it's whether he is allowed to take them down and back up again.

I think there's a bit of patience at that club

after the mess they made of it two or three seasons ago when he first came in.

That ownership, uh, but my fact includes Russell Martin because I think I think we talked about this, didn't we, when they got promoted?

Uh, that he's a man that does a lot uh out in society, uh, says a charity,

uh, and

there's actually

a charity match coming up: a Russell Martin 11 versus a Saints X11.

Oh, right.

Which I noticed I saw the other day.

But they're advertising with a graphic that features Saints here as Jose Font, Shane Long, and Theo Walcott, but no other team news.

Now, is Matt Letissier going to play?

That's what we all want to know.

Yeah.

I bet he's still got it in a certain sense.

Yes, of course.

And it does mean that Jan Benrek and of course Yannick Vestergaard are back in the Premier League together, which is good news for all of us.

Where are we putting Southampton?

I have them 19th, Lucy.

19th.

John?

With regret, 20th.

19th.

Two Spurs then brought in Dominic Solanke for $65 million from Bournemouth.

Archie Gray cost $40 million from Leeds.

Lucas Bergville, highly rated Swedish guy, was bought last season and loaned back and now comes in.

Joe Roden's gone to Leeds for 11 million.

They begin at Leicester on Monday, then home to Everton, away to Newcastle.

Arsenal at home, Brentford at home came fifth last year.

Lucy, Ange Postacognu's second season is normally brilliant.

Will this be brilliant?

Yeah, I am.

He turned Spurs into an entertaining, free-flowing side.

I think he transformed the mood.

Nobody was talking about Daniel Levy that much last season, but desperate for a trophy, I think, now with it.

Could it be Europa League?

Quite a few of the players back from international duty late as quite a lot of teams in the Premier League.

So he's been quite creative with the defence.

I think he played Archie Gray in defence centre-back.

And I think Spurs fans now think he is a centre-back, which is quite interesting.

Solanke is a good signing.

Obviously, not to replace Kane because, one, he doesn't play like Kane, and two,

Posta Coglu doesn't want him to play like Kane.

I think that Solanke

is an interesting case because he's had quite a few lows in his career where it's not quite worked out for him.

And what you find with that is that that that he they work it out young players work it out he's resilient so he'll use that he's worked out how to score goals in the Premier League and I think you'll see him shine it because the wingers will go down the line put the ball into the middle and Solanke should score so I think that that sh that is probably the signing that Spurs need they've got young players some great young players Bergval's just signed centre midfield a rising star Mikey Moore they talk about all the time a winger is only about 16 or 17 they've changed the recruitment department they've got Lang from Villa, so a little bit more data-led approach, which quite a lot of teams are turning to, apart from Man United.

But they need to sort the defence out.

They conceded too many goals, conceded.

I think most importantly, they concede really high-quality chances to the opposition.

Obviously, Possecog is not going to change how he plays, so the defence needs to be a little bit more.

They obviously know each other quite well now.

Got good back four, Poro, Romero, Van der Venn, Udogi.

That is a great back four if if they can stay fit.

And the goalkeeper needs to be not like a piece of balsa wood as corners come over.

And I think that that's the problem that they've had: is that somebody stands on the keeper, Beccario, who is a brilliant keeper, don't get me wrong, but nobody from Tottenham sort of protects him or hadn't done for the majority last season.

So that needs to happen.

Midweek matches in the Europa League.

I think there's eight between September and the end of January.

So they need a squad deep enough for that.

But I do like the look of Spurs, and as you know from this pod, I love Posta Coglu.

Barry, there was a sort of feeling that, you know, Andrew's got slightly found out halfway through the season, and then because he's stubborn, he was like, Well, you know, I'm not going to change.

I've been found out, so that's it.

I've found out.

I mean, he's clearly a better manager than that.

What are your feelings?

I don't think he was found out, to be honest.

I mean, Spurs did, they famously started our season really well, didn't finish it particularly well.

I mean, Lucy's analysis there, there, I'm just every single thing I had written down was tick, tick, tick, tick.

The only thing I would take issue with, I think Dominic Solanke is very Harry Kane-like, but we will clearly have to agree to disagree on that.

Sorry, Baz, I just meant like dropping deep, he won't do that.

That's what I meant.

Sorry, all right.

Well, I think he did with Bournemouth.

Anyway, it doesn't matter.

So, my only problem with Angie is he seems quite chippy.

He can, you know, when he gets in a funk and

has the hump with someone, he can

it looks like he broods and seeds over these things and lets them get to him.

But,

you know, we saw very relaxed Ange working as a pundit on

during the Euros.

I enjoyed watching him and listening to him there.

I liked listening to him talk about football and seeing him and Roy Keane together was quite interesting.

But

I think Spurs will

do well, but I don't think they'll

do a hugely different to how they got on last season.

John, I've put them third, which is a bit of heart.

I had them second last year, so I've been a bit less ridiculous.

But how do you see them faring?

I've got them fourth, but I do agree agree with Lucy.

We all agree with Lucy at this point, don't we?

Is that that

squad is going to be quite stretched?

There's maybe a lot of pressure on those young players, a lot of pressure on Mickey Van der Venn's hamstrings,

which is the quickest player in the league.

Okay, he's going to have to do that thing.

Do you remember when Ryan Giggs used to have to sort of say, I'm only running at 80%,

or had to change his car?

He had to stop driving a Ferrari because it was affecting his.

That's going to happen to Mickey Van der Venn because otherwise, there is a player who he's a bit accident-prone.

I think we saw that during the Euros, didn't we?

But he is such a, he's got it all,

particularly pace.

And he could be, he should be one of their top players.

Solanke is an interesting signing.

I mean, they just paid the money, didn't they?

They just went out and said, right, okay, we need a striker.

That's not very Spurs, is it?

And it's not how we've seen these things done in the past.

So, yeah, there seems to be a change of focus.

And

as we said, the focus isn't on Daniel Levy and panicking at the last minute of the transfer window.

That's a positive sign, I think, for Spurs.

But yeah,

that extended Europa League run might test them.

I also think that at a certain point, Ange's patience will be tested.

But anyway,

my facts.

I think you'll like this one, Max, but I'm not sure.

But Ange Postakoglu, when he was a player, played from 1984 to 1994.

So using internet research, I worked out the people that had lived at number 28 Ramsey Street during that period.

Excellent.

Originally owned by Des Clark.

Des, Doug Willis, Carl Kennedy.

They actually had the decor of the house in there.

So here you go.

So when Des Clark was there, it was decorated with white walls with furnishings, including a pink corner sofa and red curtains.

Okay.

So when Des sold up after Daphne's tragic death, Doug Willis moved in.

The Willis family, of course, brought them new furniture, but the house remained roughly the same until the family cut down the pillar between the hallway and the dining area.

Big Renault for the Willises.

The house was redecorated the following year with a peach colour scheme.

But then, following the Willis family emigrating to Darwin, which essentially neighbours' terms is

going to Mordor or something, isn't it?

The house was bought auctioned by Dr.

Carl Kennedy.

But he hadn't told his wife, Susan.

Wow.

By the time the Kennedys moved in, the house had been completely redecorated in biscuit and cream tones.

The Kennedys brought with them traditional furniture with a wooden dining table and wooden frame sofas so that's andrew's career summed up at number 28.

i refer you to the west ham fan who emailed us at the start he was now going to be absolutely irate that we've done more on the colour scheme of 28 randy street than on their season where have we got uh spurs and third barry fifth john fourth Lucy?

Third.

All right, let's go to West Ham then.

Brought in Max Kilman, Cresencio Somerville, Nicholas Fulkroo, get it launched.

Luis Yilhirm from Palmeiras and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Flynn Downs, Said Ben Rama, Tilo Kerra have gone.

They begin at home to Villa.

Away to Palace, home to City, away to Fulham, home to Chelsea, ninth last year.

Barry,

hard to know how it...

Should you be excited?

West Ham fans be excited by this summer?

Well, I would be quite excited as a West Ham fan.

They seem to have made some quite astute signings.

I'm not sure about the contracts they've given, say, the likes of Juan Bissaca and Nicholas Fulkroog.

But, you know, Bissaka got a seven-year contract, Fulkroog got, I think, four, and he's 32 years of age.

Anyway, they're there now.

I think Kilman's good signing.

Somerville's a good signing.

The big worry, I suppose, for West Ham is that their best player is looking at a potentially career-ending ban for betting activities.

So that we will find out in due course what's going to happen, Lucas Paquetta.

So, much of what is going to happen to West Ham next season will depend on what happens to Lucas Paqueta, because he was brilliant last season.

He's a terrific player, lovely to watch, and I really hope he hasn't done something really dumb that's going to end his own career.

But we'll find out.

West Ham fans want sort of possession-based proactive football.

They'll get that, I I guess, from Julian Lopotegi.

And

I can't see them having any problems staying up.

I can't see them troubling the top sort of European places either.

I think there'll be a point in the season where

the pundits in particular lament the loss of David Moyes just because David Moyes is a popular guy amongst the pundits.

I think Lopotegui is a good manager.

I don't think he's a long-term manager.

There's something of the whiff of Pellegrini about that move.

I think West Ham will finish comfortably mid-table.

There'll be rumblings of dissatisfaction, not least because of season ticket pricing.

There's got a big problem there.

Jacob Steinberg was talking about that on Twitter the other day.

Look out for that.

It'll be a West Ham season, up and down.

That's what they do.

Yeah, I mean, Fulcrug's a good signing.

Any player missing a tooth in the age of Instagram filters will do for me.

Big smile and then that big gap.

I love that.

Lopotegi,

the West Ham fans want a more entertaining style, but he'll probably concentrate on the defence.

He likes a good defence, but he's got a more modern way of playing, if that's what you say, plays out from the back.

Probably need a bit of time to adapt to his methods.

But the issues that they might have is there's been a lot of change, and was it happened too quickly?

They've got the second most difficult start to the season.

Brentford's is the most difficult, and they finished the season poorly.

So

they need to try and get some points on the ball because what you don't want is then back referring to the Pellegrini.

And then David Moyes comes back riding a horse in a season's time.

10th for me, Barry.

11th, Lucy.

10th.

John, and your fact.

10th.

One of their owners, who ends 27% of the club, is Daniel Krutinski.

What do we know about Daniel Krutinski?

He's the guy that's going to buy Royal Mail.

He's on the cusp.

It's being agreed

check, I believe.

Right.

He's had major investments.

I think it's quite funny reading an FT thing.

Major investments in high-profile British institutions, including Sainsbury's and West Ham United.

Is that a high-profile British institution, West Ham?

I suppose it is, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's got to be up there, hasn't it?

Finally, Wolves have brought in Rodrigo from Braga.

Someone called Pedro Lima, unbelievably not a Portuguese person, a Brazilian from Sport Recife.

Obviously, Pedro Neto's gone, Max Kilman's gone.

They start at Arsenal, then home to Chelsea, away to Forest, home to Newcastle, away to Villa.

So pretty tricky opening five games.

Lucy Garione did such a brilliant job last season.

He came in late.

They weren't able to spend much.

They sold Nunes, Neves, Nathan Collins.

These two losses do feel big as well, don't they?

Yeah, I think so.

I think how will they use the money to fill both holes with Neto and Kilman?

I think Kilman, obviously, defensively is an issue because the rest of the centre-backs are inexperienced and none are really physical.

The only one really is Dawson, who's physical.

So I think that's the priority for me.

O'Neill did absolutely brilliantly.

He got criticism at the start of it.

I think he's tactically really astute.

He started with a back four,

was quite adventurous and risky.

Then it didn't quite work.

So he went to a back three.

They beat Man City.

But now I think he's back to a back four.

I think that he's signed new contracts with his backroom staff.

And I just think that maybe

perhaps that not keeping a clean sheets could be an issue because obviously they haven't replaced Kilman just yet.

I mean, when you're near the bottom, the most important thing is scoring goals.

And they've got that Jorgen Strand Larson, who's a big, genuine number nine.

And I think that scoring goals is the most important thing to avoid relegation.

If you've got a goal scorer in your team, then it sort of masks a lot of lack of clean sheets.

But a poor start, they could get a few more in, even though he did brilliant last season, and that would be really unfair on him.

Thing is, as well, there's a very good chance they'll have a poor start because it's a very

tough opening six games they have, or five of the six anyway on paper look tough.

And then last season, they only picked up eight points in their final 12 games.

They did have a lot of injuries, but that would be a worry as well.

They've got some good play, they've kept eight Nori, I thought, was good last season, John.

Kunya's really important, Huank and score.

Big year for Tommy Doyle, maybe?

Yeah, Tommy Doyle they seem to bring on in games when they wanted to close it down because he's such a good passer of the ball with a ball retention,

really talented player, another of those that's churned out by what we have to say is Manchester City's ability to create such skillful young players or English players is second to none really.

Petro Neto, it looks like a bad miss because he was so good at the start of the season, but then again you forget that he missed quite a lot of the season as well.

I think Kilman, as Lisey says, is the bigger loss.

He was their leader in the team.

One thing with Wolves, after their

one club crusade against VAR,

you know they're going to be on the wrong side of a dodgy VAR.

It's just going to happen.

And yeah, and yes, the Molyneux public are very anti-VAR, as we've discussed before.

Final fact, please, John.

They've been excellent, may I say?

Thank you.

Well, I thought I'd end it with a bit of

rock, which is obviously Robert Plant is, you know, co-life president.

And it's one of the great pleasures of going to Molyneux is that in the press box, you turn to your left, and an absolute rock legend, Robert Plant is there.

You see him, and he's at every game.

It's wonderful.

But I saw that just recently they've done a new mix for

the pre-match build-up, which is Cashmere mixing to a whole lot of love, of which Percy Plant himself oversaw that.

So

look out for that.

It's absolutely magnificent.

Lovely.

Thank you, John.

I have them 14th, Parry?

17th.

Oh, Lucy.

14th.

And John?

12th.

Let's finish with your top four and bottom three, then, all of you, because

you haven't been through every team.

Lucy, what's your top four?

So, top four, Arsenal City, Spurs, Liverpool.

Bottom three?

My bottom three, Ipswich, Southampton, and Leicester.

Okay, John.

Arsenal champions, Manchester City, Astora second,

Liverpool, third, Tottenham, fourth, bottom, three, eighteenth, Nottingham Forest, 20th,

Southampton, Everton, 19th, Asterisk.

I've got Man City, asterisk, top, Arsenal, second, Spurs, third, Liverpool, fourth.

Forest, Southampton, and Leicester going down.

Finally, Barry.

I have Liverpool champions, Man City, Arsenal, and Villa, second, third, fourth.

And then 18th, Nottingham Forest,

Southampton, and Leicester Bottom.

Right.

Excellent.

Good preview.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Lucy.

Cheers, boys.

Thank you, John.

Pleasure.

Cheers, Barry.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Daniel Stevens.

We'll be back on Monday after the first weekend of action.

This is The Guardian.