Manchester City lift the Community Shield and the EFL kicks off: Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Manchester City win the Community Shield on penalties.

Johnny Evans sky is the decisive one.

Hopefully we can get through the pod without discussing if it's a trophy or not nice to see those city players who we won't see again for months oscar bobb was excellent servinio amacati and nico oh o'reilly as for united they were okay played some decent attacking football amad was good and there's the all-new casemiro we'll talk their new signings who of course have all played for eric ten hag before and then there's some others neto to chelsea how they needed a wide attacker solanke to spurs wambissaka to west ham there's interim lee carsley and then the start of the efl sheffield wednesday hammer wayne rooney's plymouth leeds and portsmouth play out a cracker Cambridge's season ends after three minutes.

And Bromley get their first ever win.

If we're struggling, I have a good story about an apple.

We'll answer your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Sanny Rudravagilo.

Welcome.

Hello.

Hello, Ben Fisher.

Hi, Mix.

And good morning to Will Unwin.

Hello, Max.

Let's start the Community Shield then.

Man City won.

Manchester United won.

City winning 7-6 on penalties.

You were there, Will.

How was it?

What a spectacle it was.

There we are.

Googling Nico O'Reilly at three minutes to kick off to find out potentially which school he went to in Manchester for some colour.

It was a football match, wasn't it?

Two teams missing, well, Manchester City missing a lot of players and Man United playing quite a few that had just turned up for training this week.

It wasn't a great game.

It was sort of played in spells of high intensity, followed by five minutes of relaxation.

But City found things out about their players.

Oscar Bobb looked very dangerous from the right.

McAtee looked comfortable in the centre behind Haaland.

Doku had a very exciting game.

Doku v.

Dallow was a nice little battle to start the season.

The whole of midfield was a complete no man's land.

Nothing seemed to happen in there.

But City came out of it with the positives, I think, overall.

Manchester United didn't really learn anything about their team, whereas City found out that Savinho is quite lively.

Nick O'Reilly probably is not going to be seen in the Premier League for a while.

He'll get some league cup action.

He looks alright, but made some poor decisions when he was looking to pass it.

But overall, it was vaguely entertaining.

And Johnny Evans missing a penalty to

end his testimonial was quite upsetting for many, but it was a humorous one.

And City,

take the

positives that they've not won it for five years.

It's always it's not a real trophy.

This is a glorified friendly, as the atmosphere told us at Wembley.

Everyone laughing when Edison scored his from the spot.

It was definitely a better one for City.

United started with Martin as at left back, Evans at centre-back, Maguire who was a doubt as the other centre-back, missing out all of the kids.

And all they found out was that Marcus Rashford still can't finish and that Garnachio is really good at football.

So, yeah, an interesting one to start the season.

I like to think you live your life in that way of, you know, spurts of intensity followed by long spells of relaxation.

That's sort of, that's the vibe I get.

I mean, actually, it's mainly just long spells of relaxation.

I'm waiting for the burst of intent.

It will come at some point.

Oh, it's penciled in for 2026.

Don't you worry, Max.

Great.

What a five minutes that'll be.

I mean, you mentioned O'Reilly, and you sort of think, actually, you can be nervous, right?

He must have been nervous because some of those mistakes were mistakes you just think he probably wouldn't make.

But Oscar Bob, who has played, I don't know how much, but some football, he looks so good.

and you sort of think will he get like is this a season where he will get more game time oh he definitely will one of the big reasons why they were happy to sell cole palmer last season was they were really confident that oscar bobb would be better which is quite acclaim now obviously don't be gay one predicted how good cole palmer would be last season but he's definitely got those qualities if you think to the newcastle game where city won 3-2 91st minute winner from from a young oscar bobby brilliant touch finish keeping his cool at st james park That's quality you've got.

But Guadiola stressed afterwards, you know, a game where Bob had, I'd argue, be man of the match, created the equaliser

that he needs to do it more consistently.

And that's natural for any 20-year-old.

Of course, it is.

And he's due to the high amount of games that he plays, two extra Champions League games to chuck in.

Let's not forget that there's a Club World Cup at the end of the season for everyone to not look forward to.

There's going to be a lot more opportunities.

Alvarez is left, and Bob can play right, centre, left.

And I suspect if Harland's not playing, he'll be one of the options to be a false nine.

Because I don't think they'll replace Alvarez now.

I wrote yesterday,

they showed with Savinho et al.

that there's enough in that squad to create a potent forward line.

But the things that Bob can do, are sort of darting in, darting out quick feet, quick fort.

I think he's going to be a very exciting player.

It's

another boon for City that they've managed to sell someone for 70-odd million quid.

And the accountant and Pep Guadill, I think, will be very happy by the end of the season.

Depending, of course, what happens with the charges, and we'll get to that briefly.

Sanny, I thought Will was slightly unfair on Man United.

There, I actually thought they were okay in this game.

I thought Ahmed played well.

I thought there wasn't a gaping hole in their midfield.

I thought Casemiro looked more slender.

It's all relative.

I suspect they're all more slender than we are, but

I wasn't unimpressed with them.

It was coming from a low bar, I guess.

Well, I'm glad you shared your thoughts there, because Max, I didn't watch the game because

I was at Middlesbrough in the championship, and then I had a lovely day on Red Car Beach with the family afterwards.

But I did catch the highlights, and I did watch the penalty shootout in its entirety.

And the only thing that really stood out to me was you look at the line-ups, and I know it's not original to say this, but...

Scott Carson still on the bench at 38, just having a nice time for the last few years, versus Johnny Evans, just two years younger than him, being thrown into this.

And I know this is essentially because Lenny Yoro got injured in pre-season, but to think that this is still where United are at is quite something.

But yeah, from what I saw on the highlights, United looks okay.

Bruno Fernandez got a brilliant goal that was disallowed for offside and generally looks positive.

And the what, half a billion, quarter a billion that Ten Hag has been spending on ex-IX players, maybe it might all come together this season.

What did you make of United, Ben?

Well, I think it's going to be interesting how

much scrutiny, how quickly Ten Hag, obviously he's given this new contract.

We know

he was under so much pressure back in the last season, kind of got things going.

But I wonder how quickly that will return this campaign.

Obviously, as you said, the community shield doesn't matter.

The result doesn't matter.

I thought there were some, from what I saw, some better signs.

I think people like Fernandez and the core of the team will still, you know, I don't think they're going to slide down the table.

He's going to be under so much pressure early on, Ten Hag.

And I just, I wonder how quickly that that will surface or is it now a case of he's given the new contract the fans do seem very much on side with him they seemingly want it to work

the hierarchy sort of need it to work now i suppose to kind of save face um but i'm just interested how that will play out in the first few weeks clearly if they get off to a decent start that that will go away quite quickly but um yeah i'm interested in terms of the sort of dynamic around ten hag who's now got this new contract and what that looks like.

I'd just like to say for legal reasons, I did think United were all right.

I

don't understand the approach to the match where Ten Haag spent in the press conference saying he was going to take no risks and then played Martinez at left back when he'd only just got back.

Harry Maguire was in injury doubt beforehand and we ended up with Pelestri at right back and no defenders on the bench.

I find it very strange that, you know, City played Nico O'Reilly.

Harry Massid had a very good tour with United was nowhere to be seen as you know an actual fit left back.

And let's be honest, there's nothing on this game.

And then Joshua Xerxe, the only available new signing, didn't get off the bench.

I just find it a little strange approach where you need to sort of show something's changed from last season.

I don't think they offered that.

So as Ben says, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out in the in the coming weeks.

They might have been all right against a city team, again, missing a lot of players still, players that haven't even returned from holiday.

That I just thought he probably needed to show something a bit different.

And I saw the same thing says last year that Gonaccio pulled him out of a bit of a hole and Rashford had good chances that he couldn't take.

Yeah, it's interesting, Sandy, that

they've got this new structure United and they brought in Delicht and Masrawi or they bring them in and these again are players that Eric Denhagas had at Ajax

and like that's the only thing they can do.

Like surely you...

And it doesn't mean they're bad players, right?

They may be perfect.

Masrai is definitely a better fit than Wambasaka.

It's so strange, especially like you say, they've got this new structure.

Although Dan Ashworth, is he still on gardening leave?

Is he still...

No, he's

there.

Oh, there you go.

He's finished his garden.

Oh, it's well, lovely.

Last season, it did feel like, oh, you know, we're hastily trying to just default to 10 hag, you know, just given the money he needs to bring in who he wants.

He's gone, oh, yeah, I've gone with the guys I trusted.

And we've seen managers do that all the time.

It does seem strange that that still is the policy.

Like, you know, as Gary Neville says, Manchester United Football Club.

I mean, you're supposed to have this global scouting network, aren't you?

You're supposed to be able to tap into resources from all over the world.

And while Man City can bring in youngsters from all over Greater Manchester and turn them into England internationals, you think it's quite strange that United are still going down this route.

It's very odd.

And you really do think they might be able to pull something together with a bit more coherent, something a bit more coherent in the future.

Picking up on what Will said about City probably not replacing Alvarez, I just had a quick look last night in terms of I mean, I suppose it's not nothing beyond the obvious, but in terms of the sales and the outgoings, what City do so well, it's much as we know they're a great team, we know Guardiel is an amazing manager, but just look at their business.

I mean, I remember a few years ago when they bought Grealish, City were at pains to kind of say, yeah, it's 100 million, but actually a lot of that money, I think bulk of that money has come from us selling kind of fringe players.

And again, already this summer, they've generated over 50 million from players who, you know, probably nowhere near their first team, maybe would have got a few minutes in the community shield.

You know, last summer it was the same, even with Palmer going, okay, yeah, he's had an amazing season, but they've still won the league without him.

They've still done the business without him.

I think last summer they got about 85 million, James Tratford, Shea Charles.

You know, these guys, I just, I think we do have to kind of commend that kind of, obviously, there's a massive caveat

which we know about, but the way they operate is a business in terms of, I suppose, replenishing the team, updating it, refreshing it.

They don't sign too many duds, not too many players don't work out.

I mean, Matteus Nunes sort of springs to mind, hasn't really happened.

But by and large, it is really impressive what they do sort of off the field in terms of that, I don't know, working the market, I suppose, to their own advantage.

Interestingly, Will, and look, we're going to do a Premier League preview this week, so we don't have to spend hours on it.

But Man City are 14 to 1 to get relegated.

Like Liverpool, a 2,000 to 1.

And this is obviously because we're expecting the charges, you know, we're expecting a result of these charges at some point.

We don't know which way it'll go.

And I just sort of wondered in the double-page spread, you know, when you get all the teams and the previews and it sort of says, you know, one to watch on most important player this season it sort of is Lord Panic like like he's sort of more important than Kevin de Bruyne this season yeah he's paid he's paid the a similar amount as well it's an interesting one it's dragged on for so long I mean I think the confusion levels are you know far too high for anyone to really take in the sort of enormity and the yeah complexity of the situation now.

It's going to, I would suspect

if I was a betting man, which I'm not, that City will get a slap on the wrists and not too much damage because otherwise I think all hell would break loose.

Yeah.

I mean, I suppose that isn't how justice should work, but we, I mean, like we say, we don't know.

The court of public opinion, like everybody knows, everyone's made their choice depending on whether they support City or not.

I guess.

This is not a criminal case.

No, no, no, of course.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And that is what I would anticipate to happen at some point, that

there will be a punishment

from

my understanding of the situation, roughly, and having to read up on it a lot.

I think it will be not too severe, and we would end up with plenty of other people up in arms, but if City

got relegated,

it might cause a bit too much chaos in the whole of the football pyramid.

because you would then end up with a lot of arguments about whether certain titles were rightly won.

I don't think it'd be massively in the interest of the Premier League to lose City.

So yes, I'm not particularly concerned on where City will end up.

But yes, they will get a punishment, I would anticipate.

But if it's any more than three points, I'd be surprised.

Well, what the Premier League could do is take a leaf out of the Book of the Olympics, of course, who had a ceremony for athletes that were cheated out of medals in previous games and they had it uh by the eiffel tower um in fact one of the medalists actually has subsequently been done for doping as well so i don't know whether they'll have to then have to do another one

but uh but you know maybe maybe that's what could happen um teams that finished second to manchester city in a few years time could go to premier league towers and have a little event and and get their own little trophy lift on their own little stand and the fans are going to have a coach coach trip down there you know opens up bus parades all over the country uh the loan badger says apparently the font on the back of the city kit which i thought was unacceptable i think it looked we wondered if it was comic sans yesterday me and barry on the radio is it based on noel gallagher's handwriting should unite have got mick hucknells in the interest of balance well well sit city just try too hard with this stuff don't they like the the sleeve has a 016 one on on it which is like the manchester dial dialing code like we know you're from manchester i don't know why they keep doing this.

It's really quite restrained.

And look, I know I do lots of stuff at Man City all the time.

And maybe next time now I'm going to get Pelters now, but we're aware you're from Manchester.

Like, you don't need to keep hammering this home.

Oh, I love the idea of having 01223 tattooed on my face to just to remind everyone that I'm from Central Cambridge.

Anyway, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll do some transfer stuff.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Will in the Breakers teased us with a Mick Hucknell anecdote.

I mean, I have one.

So,

if we have time at the end, Will, we'll hear your Mick Hucknell anecdote.

And if we don't, we'll build it up for the next building up for the next live show.

Pete says, I know you have to back yourself as a professional player, but why on earth would anyone sign for Chelsea and compete with about 100 other players for a place?

Surely the money on offer can't be so much better than other clubs.

Josh, how many more players will Chelsea sign by the end end of the window?

10 plus seems doable if they really put their heart into it.

Yeah, they've signed Pedro Netto from Wolves for £54 million.

And like, he's a brilliant footballer, Ben.

Like, seven-year deal keeps him at the club until 2031.

But does he make Chelsea better?

I mean,

I just don't know how to pick Chelsea's starting 11.

I don't know what Chelsea fans do when they try and work out what their starting 11 is.

Yeah, I must admit, when Chelsea got Madueke, I was really excited about that.

And I'd seen not loads of him, but a decent amount of him.

and I thought that was going to be a great get and it didn't hasn't really happened for him.

He had moments.

I mean Netto I really like him as a player.

I mean let's be honest it Wolves he was their most effective player if not their best player but obviously fitness is an issue.

He's missed lots of games I think 63 league games in the last three seasons.

He's been injured an awful lot.

Undoubtedly when he's fit he's you know he is a real force.

He's really hard to stop even for Portugal in the Euros.

I think he came on in one of their first and second game and got really important assist

late on.

So he's a really effective player.

I have to say, I really like him.

I've seen quite a lot of him at Wolves.

Obviously, Jotta a few years ago got his move.

Neto, it always kind of felt like a matter of time.

There was the Arsenal stuff swirling around last 18 months or so.

I think from a Wolves point of view, this kind of felt inevitable.

For Chelsea paying 54 million for a, you know, you'd have to say it really hit an injury-prone player.

It feels quite alarming.

The other thing is it wolves Neto and wolves in that structure he's at his best on the counter attack we know maresca wants to hog the ball and have possession so i sort of intrigued as to what that will look like you know can netto be as effective you know probably he's a really talented player but it will be a shift i don't know i i'm excited about it i i think it's a good signing it's obviously there's serious question marks around his fitness and whether he can sort of do it over a season or be fit for a season but i i do think it's a good buy at sort of face value it's a hefty fee but he's he's a he's a top player they've also brought in a goalkeeper mike penders from genk for 17 million which you know perhaps not particularly exciting on the face of it but it does mean that chelsea currently have eight senior goalkeepers sample feels like a lot why do they do this they could start their own union couldn't they they're not the goalkeepers union it's just the chelsea goalkeepers union i just don't understand i don't maybe maybe they're just you know shopaholics like just just want to get something new and shiny every year

why why do they have eight goalies what are they going to do with them all?

What do they do?

You only need the fourth one just to get the balls in training when they just get flying off everywhere.

You've got the two in either end or whatever, and you get the third goalie like boots the balls to them.

Fourth goalie's fagging the ball.

What are the other four doing?

What are they doing?

I don't understand, Max.

It's just absolutely crazy.

That's half a league with goalies.

They can't all be out.

They can't.

Are any of them out on loan?

I think they sent Pender straight back to Genk.

So that's...

Right.

That's okay.

One.

so they're down to seven, yeah.

I assume they had to send him back out on them because they couldn't afford to buy any more nets down at Cobham to train them all.

So it's like,

you can stand in front of the wall, and we can get one of the reserves to shoot at you if you like.

See how that goes.

But then I woke up this morning and they were linked with Zhao Felix.

And I thought, yeah, I was like, F5ing, think I sort of gone back 18 months in time.

He was terrible at Chelsea, barely kicked a ball.

He's not done anything since.

And still desperate.

I thought he was very good for that 60 minutes until he got a straight red.

He's just, he's a lovely footballer.

Joel says, yeah, they've signed every footballer and now re-signing players they've had before because they've just run out of footballers to buy.

We'll do more on them, of course, in the preview, as all the Premier League sides.

What do you make of Dominic Solanke to Spurs, Ben?

It's a weird one, isn't it?

When he went to Bournemouth, I think it was 19 million.

Bournemouth fans sang, you know, quite...

happily after he sort of started scoring loads of goals you know 20 million down the drain sort of sarcastically all the fans who were given Solanke's stick.

Obviously, it was a slow, slow start bit, but I don't know, there was concerns whether it would be kind of 20 million, wasted it first.

Obviously, we know he scored loads of goals for Bournemouth, prolific last season.

My only concern at Tottenham is, I suppose, you know, again, big price tag, 65 million, we think, in terms of the package there, is that unlike, I suppose, Oddie Watkins or somebody like that.

where he's kind of evolved into this clinical, deadly, kind of ice-cold kind of finisher.

Solanke is prolific because he's been he still doesn't fill me with that same kind of it's hard to kind of describe but I suppose we see it with Harry Kane and all of those guys I just wonder whether Solanke can he cope I suppose what it comes down to can he cope with having to score or being tasked with scoring goals for Tottenham on the back of a big move you know he he struggled initially at Bournemouth on the back of a big move from from Liverpool so

I don't know.

I'm not as excited about that in terms of the fit.

I think it could be challenging, but there's no doubt about it.

He's a good player, but I'm not as convinced it will work out.

What I would say is he's very good on the shoulder.

When he's confident and he's actually fit, he can be really good.

And I can imagine at Spurs where strikers, you know, outside of Harry Kane, go to die, don't they?

But he's not quite a number nine sort of player, is he?

I think he'll do okay if he can just stay fit, which is a big if.

Yeah, I think his touch is better than Richardson's.

So I think he and I think he can he can drop a bit.

I'm obviously biased, but I think it might be, and I just trust Ange.

But I think, actually, I think it is an astute.

It's a lot of money, of course.

It's their record signing, but you have to spend a lot of money if you want to get a centre forward.

There aren't that many.

I suppose the interesting thing, Will, is how nobody's really gone for Ivan Toney.

No, I guess age counts against him a little bit for what Brentford want with only a year left on these contracts.

Whether that's financially viable in the days of FFP and

profitability and sustainability rules.

I think it might be questionable that teams are probably happier to wait a year and get him on, get him for nothing, because Brentford really wanted quite a lot.

You read 60 plus,

so it's probably not the best idea.

And I think he suits Brentford very well.

Whether he transfers into other teams as easily, I would debate.

Very good at penalties though.

Any team that gets penalties would be really good.

But yeah, I think no one's really willing to part with that money on someone at that age with

not much left on his contract.

I think it would be a bold move for anyone.

Alan says Harry Kane wouldn't lift a trophy in front of Spurs fans after Bayern won some meaningless pre-season trophy.

Has he pushed the boundaries of not celebrating a goal against a former club?

I actually think that was probably quite smart.

You know, you could just see him going, No, no, I can't do this.

Like, it was like, I just can't, you just can't make me do this.

And I think actually he probably made the right decision.

Aaron Wambersaka to West Ham, Ben seems to make sense.

Yeah, I think so.

Clearly, it looks like Lopotegi Lopotegi sort of rebooted that entire defence, hasn't he, at West Ham?

Obviously, Kilman coming in as well.

Yeah, yeah, I think that works.

It certainly works for Wambersaka as well, I would have thought.

It feels like he kind of needed a fresh start.

West Ham, you know, good club.

You'd like to think he can kind of kick on again.

It feels like he's just stagnated a bit.

You know, it wasn't so long ago.

We kind of thought maybe he, you know, sort of the whole England thing and being in that picture, but that feels a long way off.

So hopefully, this can kind of kick-start him a bit.

Newcastle, they've had a second bid for Mark Gay, rejected by Palace.

Fulham wants Joachim Anderson from Palace.

They've asked for 20 million.

Palace wants 40 million.

We really hope Palace have some players left at the end of the winter because that would be really quite exciting.

Brentford have signed Fabio Carvalho from Liverpool who still haven't signed anyone.

It's hard to know, isn't it, Will?

What we have seen is really good players go down a rung, prove themselves and go up a rung again.

We're just talking about Solanke earlier, I guess.

And Carvalho could easily do that.

Yeah, I mean, he was clearly too good for the championship at Hull, had an incredible time there.

And as we say about, you know, City of sort of no mugs buying duds, Liverpool, generally, when they invest in young players, they've done very well.

You look at Harvey Elliot, and just because probably not really an obvious place to fit Cavalio in, I don't think it

means any less of him.

And you look at Brentford, what they do, they don't invest in duds either.

So,

yeah, he's gone, proven himself.

You know, we've seen other young players go to the championship and struggle, whereas he thrived and

he could have easily seen it as a little bit beneath him.

I've always thought that he could have done well with minutes at Liverpool.

So, yeah, he's a really good player.

Brentford will,

I think,

take him and make him better as well.

And might be one little move back up, I think, in years to come.

He's still very young.

He's starting out at Fulham as a teenager.

He's still got

the best years ahead of him.

I think it's a very smart move from Brentford.

And if Liverpool, it looks like the more conservative things, Liverpool want the money so they can try and make their first signing of the summer.

There's a little bit of discontent within fans, but they've got a very good squad, and Arnie Slott's still learning about what's needed.

But yeah, it's a bit of a worry when you are having to sell off players

to bring them in when you're a Champions League team.

The Athletic ran a piece regarding Arsenal entitled How Mikel Arteta Rebuilt Arsenal in His Own Image that covered some eccentric brand of management featuring a great story about pickpockets.

At dinner with his players, Arteta secretly hired a team of professional pickpockets.

The sleight-of-hand artists were tasked with going around the tables, pinching phones and wallets from an unwitting first-team squad.

At the end of the meal, Arteta stood up and asked the team to empty their pockets.

A number of players were missing valuable items.

The idea was to teach his squad the importance of being ready, alert, and prepared at all times.

What's next?

Darren Brown in the canteen, says Joel.

What about the great Soprendo getting some minutes in the Europa League?

I mean, the thing is, right, Arteta's done a few things like this, this, Sanny.

You know, the speakers playing You'll Never Walk Alone or whatever it was.

And we all sort of mocked.

And yet, you know, they are comfortably the second best team in the Premier League.

Like, these things, however ridiculous they sound, you know, they seem to work.

I mean, to some, David Brent's methods are

really quite useful and really effective if you get that right group of...

of staff there.

Clearly, that's what's happened with Arteta.

I get

a bit like my teaching days where every now and then you get one of these teachers that would really kind of inspire all the kids.

But once upon a time, it was me when I got ground down.

Did you?

Yeah, yeah.

Did you?

Yeah, of course.

Everyone was like, I love.

Did you sit on the end of a table?

Go, you guys, call me Sanny.

Not quite.

You were going to buns and burners out.

And from the outside, it would look really cheesy and horrible, but they all like, you know, love them.

And it clearly is that.

He's that teacher that all the kids love, isn't he?

And yeah, weird.

Also,

professional pickpocket troop.

Like,

where do you get them from?

Where do you get them?

Some nerdy wells.

It's like, yeah, it's a very good question.

Where can you get them?

You just Google online for just petty criminals.

Just looking around the underground.

It's like, I see you've just nicked that guy's phone.

Can you give you free this weekend?

Somebody, an Arsenal podcast, listened to a pod we did a couple of weeks ago and said that we hadn't mentioned Arsenal in our Premier League preview.

Just to be clear, we haven't done our Premier League preview yet.

We will do that.

And we are going.

It doesn't mean you're going under the rate.

You're very much on the the radar, Arsenal fans.

You know,

lots of us think you will do very well this season.

Gary says, hi, Max.

What does the panel think about the FA appointing another foreign manager to manage the men's England team?

Yeah, so Lee Carsley, who had, what, 40-yard games, the Republic of Ireland, but is obviously born in England, has been appointed interim England manager for the Nations League games in September.

We talked about it on the pod recently.

Wilson was saying some people at the FA think that Pep.

they could get Pep, which seems unlikely to everybody.

But I wonder, Ben, if this is a rehearsal for Lee Carsley, I feel like most people are just kind of.

I reckon there would have been a time when everyone would be absolutely raging that Lee Carsley was anywhere near managing England or something like that, you know, 20 years ago, whoever it may be.

I think most people are kind of okay with it.

I think it might be quite sensible.

I agree, to be honest.

And I think maybe it's part of that because people are sort of, or by and large, it was obviously a huge kind of majority or it felt that way that were kind of just done with Southgate.

Maybe it's like anyone's better than him, or that's how it's sort of perceived.

Maybe it's a bit of that.

But

yeah, I agree.

And I think it is a bit of a weird one.

And to come back to what you said about Pep Max, I wonder, really,

unless

if it's not that, I wonder why is it Carsley for now?

Why have they decided?

It almost feels like they must have a grander plan up their sleeve,

whether it's Pep or another kind of big hitter.

Although a lot of the big hitters, as we know, are kind of out of work and therefore seemingly more gettable at the moment than

you know than others.

So, yeah, I don't know.

He's very, very likable.

He's sort of in danger, I suppose, of being quite self-gatish in his ways and his sort of persona.

He's clearly done a very good job with the 21s as well.

We have to sort of say that.

Obviously, he knows a lot of the players.

There's an obvious pathway between the 21s and the first and the senior team.

It feels like an audition to, you know, if they go and win both those games in September, 3-0, you can sort of see a scenario happening with, okay, well, we'll just give you the next two.

I can't imagine there's going to be any huge sort of unrest that Lee Cars is the man in charge if those games go okay.

Clearly, if they don't, there'll be a different conversation.

But maybe also the Luis De La Fuente

example was Spain.

Obviously, he was the under 21s manager.

I was looking when I did the

under 21s Euros in Italy, I think it was in 2019.

Danny Olmo scored in that game, and De La Fuente was the manager.

And obviously, he's done okay.

So maybe these kind of things help almost the PR of giving Carsi the interim job.

But we should say

he's obviously an outstanding coach.

Players who have worked with him at Man City, Coventry, Birmingham, you know, have a lot of time for him.

But clearly,

yeah, it feels quite kind of ballsy, but maybe it's not as brave as it looks.

Yeah, it's a bit of a free hit for Carsley, and his football generally from watching the under-21s is better than Southgate.

So, and those games coming up aren't the most treacherous.

So that's good for Lee.

And it'll be interesting to see how he does if he is a bit more positive than Southgate.

But back to Guardiola, I think that is the master plan.

And I'm basing this on very, very little, obviously.

But Guardiola has been at City for a long time.

I'd be surprised personally if he carries on after this season.

And then if he does leave Manchester City, he has very few options of where to go.

You know, he's done Barcelona.

I don't think he'd go back.

He's done Bayern, he won't go back.

There's not really any other major European leagues I suspect he'd travel to.

I'm not sure he's a PSG man.

And he's really, obviously, he's really liked living in England, stayed at City longer than anywhere else, really likes Premier League and the players that are available.

And with England's lack of a trophy since 1966 in the men's game, I think he'd like to be that man that could change it.

And so that's my view.

And I await a text from the city press officer once this is published.

It would be great, wouldn't it?

It would be be fascinating.

All right, that'll do for part two.

We'll do the start of the year foul in part three.

Hi, Pod fans of America.

Max here, Barry's here, too.

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welcome to part three of the guardian football weekly uh starting the championship sanny you were at hillsborough uh to see danny rolls sheffield wednesday steamroller wayne rooney's plymouth i was and very good of you to to call him danny rolls Cheffy Wednesday as well, because, yeah, I was there for Sky Sports News, and inevitably it was the Wayne Rooney's Plymouth-Argyle thing, and, you know, it was on TV as well.

And

I kind of thought long and hard about, you know,

how much should we be putting it on Rooney?

How much of this performance was Plymouth's ineptitude?

If you missed it, Cheffy Wednesday beat Argyle 4-0.

To be honest, I think quite a bit can be put at Rooney.

Very strange.

He started with two strikers away from home.

And I know, you know he's brought in six new players.

One of the strikers is a loan from Slavia Prague that no one really knew anything about.

But as soon as you do that, you're allowing Wednesday essentially one extra man when going forward.

They also play with two wide players who didn't really do too much tracking back, Morgan Whitaker, who's been excellent for them in the past.

But it just allowed Wednesday to do what they want.

And from the off, Wednesday were, you know, really

dangerous every single time they had the ball, especially out wide.

The goal came from Jamal Lowe, who actually started because E.K.

Ugbo, Wednesday's new striker, didn't get international clearance to play, which is a bit of a strange one.

And they just picked Plymouth apart.

And I did really try to think,

how biased am I being?

How much am I actually focusing on Rooney?

But yeah, Wednesday were really good.

They brought in Svante Ingleson from Hansa Rostock.

I think he'll do very well for Danny Ruhl.

I saw Timo Werner was in the crowd.

I don't think he's going to be joining Sheffield Wednesday.

I think his girlfriend's dad is on the coaching staff at Wednesday or something.

But yeah, Argyll, just not really any idea.

It took until just before half time for them to decide, do you know what, two strikers is a bad idea.

And then he immediately scored an own goal in the second half.

Just really, just no real game plan, no real idea what they're doing.

Bruni's got a lot of time.

I spoke to a lot of Argyle fans.

before kickoff and I said, you know, it's a lot of pressure.

And I did a caveat saying, well, that pressure's kind of coming from us after his 83 calamity at Birmingham City.

He'll have time at Argyle but it was really worrying just to see him just go right oh seemingly I'm going to stick to my guns and my principles and play two strikers and two exciting wide players and just get absolutely picked apart by a Wednesday side with a manager who knows exactly how to play.

It's got everyone on side.

It was 29,500 there and Wednesday I think we'll have a good season.

Yeah, and they finished like a point apart I think last season, didn't they, Ben?

And so great to see Barry Bannon still doing it.

Yeah, I mean it was one of the things that Rooney said afterwards: you know, we knew we had to stop Barry Bannon, and they did everything but obviously put that great ball through for one of the goals.

Yeah, from Plymouth's point of view, it's just a disastrous start all around.

Obviously, everything went wrong.

Obviously, they misspelt to their own players' names on the back of their shirts, Adam Forshawn, Ibrahim Susoko, who is a new signing as well.

In Susoko's case, the lone E from Toulouse, I'm sure he wasn't too enamoured with that.

Obviously, big trip for the Plymouth fans.

Just

it's a hard one because you don't want to, I don't know, absolutely hammer them.

As Rooney said afterwards,

it is one game.

But there is obviously a temptation to

catastrophise it, I suppose.

And it was a really bad result.

Sheffield Wednesday impeccably coached.

Danny Roll,

I think, is

probably one of the most exciting managers outside the Premier League.

He did brilliantly last season to keep Wednesday up.

They looked like they were gone when he came in.

I don't think they'd won a game.

Everybody's looking for that sort of Kieran McKenna mark too.

And Danny Roll certainly one of those in the Football League who looks, you know,

looks like he a real cut above, to be fair, assisted by Chris Powell, we should say.

And

I don't know.

I think for Plymouth,

it's just worrying because Rooney said, you know, we're going to be a difficult team to play against, really organising.

Four goals from four crosses.

Wednesday totally outplayed Plymouth.

And this was, you know, when Rooney went into Birmingham, he didn't have a pre-season.

He went in the middle of the season.

Obviously, it was awkward timing.

It was difficult because the fans obviously wanted John Eustace to stick around.

This time, he's had a summer, he's had a pre-season, he's had a transfer window.

They've brought in, I think, six players,

and it is quite an alarming start.

I don't, you know, we can't ignore that, but equally, it is one game.

Um,

the tricky thing is, and I'm going on Wednesday, they've got Cheltenham in the Carabao Cup.

You know, Cheltenham flying high on confidence, got a 96-minute winner against Newport.

And suddenly, you think, God, like, I was just sort of envisaging, you know, if they didn't get the result on Wednesday, suddenly that's like, you know, yeah,

you're not in a great place.

So

he does need to turn it around.

Run, he said, you know, I know what my name means, it brings headlines.

And

I kind of have a tinge of sympathy for him, if that's the right word.

Not that he would need it, but or would want it.

But you do have to kind of doff your cap that he just keeps wanting to work.

It would be so easy for him just to sit in a pin the tree studio, but he does want to make a success of it.

But it kind of feels that this is he has to make a success of it at Plymouth.

I'm just going to rule him out of the England running now.

Okay.

So just so we're clear.

Very smart.

When someone needed to do it.

Probably the game of the weekend was Leeds Portsmouth, Sanny.

And it was absolutely like it was sort of.

I think a lot of Leeds fans were like, yeah, we're going to have this kind of season again.

It sort of summed that up, didn't it?

It was excellent.

I was second screening it whilst at Middlesbrough, Swansea.

And yeah, what an exciting game.

It was.

The highlight, I think, really, Brendan Aronson.

So if you missed it, he came on as a sub and he was booed by the Leeds fans because when Leeds got relegated, he had a clause in his contract to leave, so he went on loan for a season.

So, when he came back, uh, Leeds fans weren't particularly happy with him.

So, for him to bring them back in it, and then uh, he actually had a chance right at the end to win it as well, that he somehow got wide.

Don't know how he managed to do that.

It was a really great story there.

I mean, a lot was made of Pompey last season under John Massigno and just how well they did.

They've lost Colby Bishop.

I know I think the not the top 20 guys mentioned this in the preview EFL pod, but he's had a heart condition, so

they're missing that main striker.

But yeah, to come into the championship for the first time in such a long time and to go against the lead side that will be, you know, inevitably promoted this season, I thought they did really, really well.

Yeah, what an exciting game.

And that's the thing.

That's the thing about the EFL.

Because there's so many games and because of the, you know, the variance in the players or whatever, we get games like this.

And

it's not quite like the Premier League where the stakes are so high, sometimes teams are kind of choked to play in a certain way and try and be really solid defensively, whatever.

People just go for it here.

It's really great.

Ben, Bristol City drew one all at Hull.

I don't think we've said the word Bristol once on the EFL preview pod for either side.

Here is your chance to do so.

Yeah, I mean, Faddy Miyulu scored on his debut, signed from Rapid Vienna.

Really nice goal, actually.

really well taken goal.

Uh, they got it late on, and then the bit of a cheap penalty that they conceded later on.

So, to Hull Equalize, but uh, no, Tommy Conway involved for Bristol City, Hull, one of the teams actually looking at him.

Uh, I must admit, I really like Conway, I think he'd be a good, good sign-in for somebody.

He's gonna leave this window, it's just a case of sort of where he's kind of um

made it clear he won't be signing new contracts, Bristol City.

Yeah, so Conway, who was part of the Scotland squad at the Euros, and didn't play, but he travelled in the end with Scotland, and um,

yeah, he'll move on.

But yeah, no,

for Bristol City, I think,

yeah, I can sort of see another mid-table, kind of scintillating mid-table finish probably on the cards.

Hold, though, obviously, have big plans.

You know, they sack Nimrosinia, Tim Walds has come in.

Still feels a bit of a mishmash of a squad to me, but

yeah, they clearly think they can do better.

So they'll be looking at playoffs.

Well,

that's their objective as well.

How was Middlesbrough, Sanny?

Well, Borough were great, actually.

And again, a bit like the Rooney Wednesday situation.

I wonder how much am I bigging up one side and not so much diva?

Because Swansea didn't have a shot at all.

No shots at all until about the 75th minute.

Great start to the season.

It's quite a long journey as well, innit?

And no shots.

And Middlesbrough were excellent.

Isaiah Jones on the right-hand side.

Emmanuel Latilath, who finished the season with nine and eight.

He scored the penalty.

It was Jones that won it.

And they were so, from the off, they're so exciting going forward.

And in fact, that Jones could have scored after, I think, 15, 20 minutes when Swansea had a corner and just didn't leave anyone back.

And Jones was pre-on goal.

And Lawrence Figaro, who in the past, in his late and Orient days, has got Rick in him in goal.

He's the new Swansea keeper, just came flying out.

It just got just went wide.

But yeah, Borough kind of defensively were solid, weren't really troubled at all.

Attacking, really exciting.

And they've kind of got everyone on side as well.

And Michael Carrick signed a new contract, and that's really, really big for them.

I think after last season, they did really well to finish eighth.

And we're just out of the playoffs.

And before that, Borough finished fourth.

They're kind of an outside tip because obviously they haven't got the parachute payments and all that stuff.

But the team that they've got, if they can keep Emmanuel Latte-Lath, the striker, I think they'll do really well.

He got 18 last season.

So yeah, very exciting.

Swansea, on the other hand, just really kind of insipid.

I'd be very worried if I'm a Swansea City fan, really not offering anything and just allowing Borough to kind of play.

So yeah, we'll see how that one goes.

And just another side note.

I know, you know, away from football, we saw the riots and everything there.

And Middlesbrough was one of the names in the headlines.

You might have seen stuff on social media.

And actually, I was asked by my editors, you know, are you okay to go to Borough?

Will you be okay?

And we had some extra protocols from a health and safety point of view as far as getting in early and leaving early and leaving late and all the rest of it.

And I had, you know.

I had a wonderful time.

I did a little vlog afterwards in the fan zone and borough fans came and talked to us afterwards.

And it's, you know, there's this narrative, isn't there, that anyone on the far right is a football fan.

And before you know it, it's every football fan's a far-right hooligan.

And it obviously isn't the case.

And I was at no point worried at any of the EFL games I've been to.

And I did a bit of a thing with Skye.

We did this live thing across the grounds, and I was at Rotherham, Barnsley, Mansfield, Lincoln, Sheffield, and Burnley.

And I had a lovely time at every ground, every game I was at, and in the towns I was in as well.

And, you know, it just goes to really emphasise that all this stuff going on in the news is a minority and that minority are not football fans solely.

The most of us are absolutely fine, normal people.

Had a lovely time.

That is good to hear.

Ben?

Well, no, I was just going to jump in on Vigaro, who Sanny mentioned, who's one of Swansea's few signings.

But as Sanny said, I think there's sort of simmering frustrations at Swansea because for a number of years now, they've had pretty good managers, you know, really highly rated managers.

Got Luke Luke Williams now who did a brilliant job at Knotts County, worked as assistant to Russell Martin at Swansea.

Russell Martin was obviously did a good job there.

Graeme Potter before that, you know, they've had this string of good managers, but none of them have been backed and not backed anywhere near where they need to be really to get anywhere near it.

And as Sonny said, it feels like it's going to be tricky.

Obviously, Vigaro, yeah, a bit of a wild

keeper, an interesting pickup.

Obviously, memorably, he paid a £50

fine when he was at Swindon in 5,000 1p coins, which was always, I don't know, always brings a smile to the face.

But I think he's matured since those days.

But yeah, no,

I just think Swansea is sort of a bit of a what-if Kate, it just feels like that.

You know, it just feels like so,

could be so much more, could be so much better, but it feels like they're going to have a tough, tough campaign, sadly.

Sandy, you went for a walk with Scott Parker.

I presume for work, but,

you know, they play Luton tonight.

What were you talking about?

It's funny.

Jonathan Wilson, in my prep for this walk, I read his piece on Scott parker uh describing as uh sisyphus the um the greek god who who's punished into rolling a boulder forever up a hill and then it goes back down again yeah sounds like wilson yes it was right i had to google who sisyphus was

um

and in that context it was you know an english manager doing well getting a team promoted and then and then getting sacked essentially and he described burnley as a as a mezzanine club now i didn't put any of that to scott parker this this walk would have ended very quickly but yeah too good for the championship not quite good enough for the for the Premier League was the vibe.

Yeah, I mean, I did put it to Scott, like, Scott first name sounds, he's he's got a point to prove, hasn't he?

Because

the Bournemouth sacking, if you recall, what, the 9-0 against Liverpool, they had a quite a difficult run going into that, and then he basically said the players aren't good enough.

And before you knew, it was out the door, and he wasn't helped then by Gary O'Neill doing a pretty good job with essentially the same squad.

Yeah, proving the players were a fine.

Then he went to Bruges, and I think he lasted, what, 12 games?

And, you know, that ended very badly for him as well.

So, so he really has something to prove here.

Um, and so do some of those players as well.

Um,

you know, we mentioned on the pod that I was at Burnley for the last game of the season.

If I'd asked Vincent Company, are you going to buy a Munich after the relegation?

I would have got laughed out of the building.

A lot of those players are there.

He's got 40 professionals to

try and manage.

And what I have kind of ascertained is company very much kind of he had a delineation between him and the players.

You know, he wasn't that kind of pally with them.

And Parker's a lot more of a man manager and a bit more of an arm around the shoulder sort of sort of manager.

And I think he's going to have to use that to the extreme with that many players.

The quality's there.

But yeah, to manage them all, I don't know if he wants to get a few more in and out.

It's such a big squad.

It's quite difficult to do.

And a lot of them have got this Belgian connection through Vincent Company.

So it'd be interesting to see how they do.

I think on paper they've got a good enough squad.

He's only had a month to work with them and then when you think contrast that with Rob Edwards Luton who clearly did so well last season you know he's got continuity there.

It's going to be very hard for Burnley to kind of hit the ground running and he'll have to rely on I think moments of brilliance till Parker can kind of show what he can do.

But yeah it was a nice walk.

Lovely training facilities at Burnley.

Wow.

Pleased to hear it.

Will.

I'm quite upset that Sanny didn't turn up with like a novelty boulder to get Parker to push him around whilst he was being interviewed.

Scott, do you mind?

Yeah, it'll make sense in the edit.

It'll make sense in the edit.

Don't worry, Scott.

You'll be fine.

In League One,

now I confess I was not planning to watch the opening game of the season because it's 2.30 a.m., 5.30 p.m.

for Stockport, Cambridge.

But fortunately, young Ian was jet lagged.

And so he was up.

So I was up.

So I got to see us concede a 40-yard lob with our new keeper sort of flailing, scrambling backwards and thinking, well, that's the season done.

So we lost to Stockport, and they were quite good.

And we were, you know, not amazing.

Birmingham, big spending, Birmingham drew one or with low spending.

Reading, they need an 87th minute alpha-made penalty.

Wrexham beat Wickham 3-2

in league 2.

Bromley in their first game back beat Harrogate 2-0.

Dillingham and Doncaster both won 4-1.

On the subject of Harrogate Town, Will, you've met their goalkeeper and he's a big fan of Football Weekly, apparently.

Have we talked about this before?

We must have.

It rings a bell.

yeah we met we met poolside on holiday right and

uh he was very quickly whatsapping his brother explained he's going to ask for an anecdote from me i was like there's only one and they explained that the anecdote yeah it's holiday based right originated in the same hotel right at which point he insisted on a poolside selfie so

that's exciting so it it's just a self-fulfilling prophecy the at the cono-coby anecdote you keep going Do you only holiday there?

I mean, is that you forever now?

I have to now.

Yeah.

Had a lovely time.

Met Marco Royce was there this year, so that was good.

How come you're holidaying at such elite resorts?

Yeah, why are you going to Lamanga on holiday?

Yeah.

Hang on, a holiday destination that has Marco Royce, you, and the Harrogate Keeper seems to be catering for all, doesn't it?

So how did the conversation go with the Harrogate Town goalkeeper?

Forgive me, his name is.

James Belshaw.

Hi, James.

You're currently commuting, I assume.

Yeah.

Well because it went back to sort of the way I used to flirt at university.

So I followed.

What are your A-level results?

Yeah.

No, no, but I mean, did you know he was the Harrogate Town goalkeeper?

You're just sat next to a blockchain.

Or did he spot you?

This is my job.

No, no, I spotted him.

Don't worry.

And so I followed him on Twitter whilst he was pool side and he immediately followed back in a, you know, in an emotional moment.

While he was in the pool.

This is extraordinary.

No, he was sunbathing.

Right.

Um, and so I went over had a chat, and he was very excited about meeting someone from Football Weekly.

That's great, genuinely pleased.

It had made his holiday, he forgot about his wife and child.

I'm amazed.

I think if I was around the pool with probably every footballer in the Premier League in the EFL, I reckon I'd struggle to, I'd struggle to recognize some really famous footballers if they weren't in kit.

So the fact that you've got the Harrogate Town goalkeeper, James.

Hi, James.

That is a a great spot.

I mean that's amazing.

Did he have a water bottle by his side with like a list of what he's going to do in the day?

Yes.

9.30, second breakfast.

Very much.

He would walk around the resort pushing his daughter whilst listening to Football Weekly.

It was...

Wow, what a guy.

Oh, wow.

I'm delighted.

You're very welcome.

We welcome all listeners, not just League Two footballers.

Congratulations to Emma Hayes, guided USWMT to a gold medal in the Olympics.

They beat Brazil 1-0 in the men's game.

Spain beat France, Thierry Henri's France 5-3

in the gold medal match.

Do we need your Mick Hucknell anecdote, Will?

We'll save it.

Build it.

We'll save it.

Wow.

How exciting.

We'll save that.

We'll save the Apple story.

We'll save that gold for later.

And that'll do for today's podcast.

Thank you, Will.

Thanks, Max.

Thanks, Ben.

Cheers, Max.

Thank you, Sami.

Pleasure.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.