Germany beat the storm and the Danes while the Swiss roll Italy – Football Daily

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hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly lightning hits the last 16.

An apocalyptic scene in Dortmund as Germany sees off the Danes with the help of a toenail and snicko.

They deserved it.

Havertz could have scored a hatful on his own, but the two minutes of Joachim Anderson were huge here.

His goal disallowed and then a cross brushing his hand starts yelling, which was exactly where his hand should have been.

Stops yelling.

Penalty to Germany and the game.

Meanwhile, Italy are out, beaten handsomely by Switzerland.

It was hardly a game.

The Swiss dominant from start to finish.

Goals from Freudler and Vargas, the least they deserved.

Meanwhile, Italy were insipid, started badly, and carried on just being bad.

Didn't even go for it at the end.

The last time we'll get to see those Italian coaching cardigans.

Also, we'll look ahead to tomorrow: Spain, Georgia, and of course, England's latest attempt to put in a performance this time against Slovakia.

There's disappointing news from the women's game to touch on, and the PSR deadline day two.

All that plus your questions, a flagrant abuse of his position from one of our panelists, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly

On the panel today, Nada Manuha, welcome.

Hello, sir.

Commiserations, Nikki Bandini.

I am.

We'll get to that in a bit.

Barry Glendenning, hello.

Hi.

Let's start then with Germany beating Denmark.

2-0 in Dortmund.

Joe says, Was Clive Tilsley correct when he said commentators are bottom of the list in terms of priorities for the break in play?

What about beloved podcasters who presumably have to record their post-match bits that much later now?

Some weather there.

Barry, I'm not sure I've ever seen players taken off for lightning.

No, but I do think I've seen a player struck by lightning on one of those YouTube clips.

I'm on a WhatsApp group, and one of the lads on it, he's quite bleak.

He sends around clips that I don't necessarily people

suffering grisly ends, and it's probably one of his clips where

a pitcher's been struck by lightning.

I've seen a game played in similar circumstances.

I'm going to say it was was Euro 2008 Turkey semifinal Turkey v

somebody or other who I should have researched but I haven't.

And they weren't taken off.

But, you know, it seems like the wise thing to do, especially

this is going to sound glib, and I don't mean it to, but Christian Erickson...

died for a few minutes at the last Euros.

Do you want to be the referee who's in charge if he gets hit by hot lightning four years later at the Euros?

Probably not.

But, you know, it's clearly,

I presume the chances of getting hit by lightning while playing are exceptionally slim.

But if there's any chance at all, then, you know, it's the obviously the correct thing to do.

And

yeah,

I mean, it's quite interesting because Denmark had weathered the German storm and then the German storm weathered them.

And

they had to go off, and then when they came back on again, Germany were back on the front foot and in the ascendancy again.

But I enjoyed this game, it was entertaining for various reasons, all you know, weather-related.

I just can listen to Ali McCoyst and Clive Tilsley all day.

And they had all day, didn't they?

So they were doing the ITV commentary here in the UK.

And

I'm going to leave it to Nikki and Nadum to discuss the comparative performances of the teams.

Michael Oliver not having a good tournament is he he's he's too fussy he's taking too long over his decisions even you know whether he gets them right or wrong and

this tournament has served to completely change my mind that I always thought English officials were as good as any other officials

and we only criticise them because they're they're the only officials we see with any regularity but this this tournament has totally changed my mind on that they seem to be utterly incompetent 2008 the semifinal was germany three turkey two philip lahm guardian economist in the last minute for germany i mean i don't have any access to the weather but i think that might be the game yeah that you're thinking of there's a reason i remember this game specifically because me and a previous football weekly host were staying in austria and somebody not pointing any fingers but it wasn't me, left the windows of our flat open.

And when we got back, they were all shattered.

Every one of them.

Nikki, you wanted to come in?

I just baz got me thinking there about the being struck by lightning, and I couldn't help but googled what the chances are of being struck by lightning.

And America's National Weather Service says that in your lifetime, you've got a one in 15,300 chance of being struck by lightning.

Now, don't get me wrong, that's quite low, but I've bought a lottery ticket before, and that's like one in a hundred million and i've told myself well there's a chance so 15 000 sounds sounds really uncomfortable doesn't it happen to one of us soon doesn't it let's get to the game then um the two minutes of joachim anderson martin says as a dane perhaps i'm biased well of course you're biased martin but do we really want football to be decided by a toe and a shot to the hand from one and a half meters it does not seem that's the beautiful game rather a very automated system without heart he is so unlucky naden right the offside is offside fine like i don't mind those being accurate even though it's incredibly tight and it's not him i think it's hoyland in the build-up to the goal but the hand ball drives me insane like it drives me mad like like and i've heard defenders talking about this and you probably retired at the right time but your hands move when you move you don't even need to have played the game to know that you just need to have moved at some point in your life right and most people have moved

yeah they've moved but they've never had a ball like hit their hand and everyone tell them that they're cheating because it's the ball that's hit your hand the the the whole handball thing i've been very um

i i don't really sound like a sane person when i start talking about it because i go further and further down this path where i say to people like most deliberate handballs are made by attackers in trying to defend or trying to score goals a defender themselves when you're defending you're not trying to make yourself bigger with your arms like what's the purpose maybe i could save this i know this cross is coming in best idea ever let me me tip this around the post.

It's frustrating.

It's silly.

But someone will look you in the eye and say your arm was in an unnatural position.

I would argue when you decide to tuck your hands behind your back when you're trying to do some sort of like movement, that is an unnatural position.

100%.

The other stuff, when it ends up hitting you, like no one knows where anyone's arms are until the ball hits it.

Then they'll decide whether or not they should be there or not.

And I think that's it's such a shame for him.

You knew, like, as a defender, you know when the ball hits your hand, but like, it doesn't mean that, you know, you should be penalized for it.

Sometimes you're just unfortunate.

The way that cross came in, he's basically side on and the ball's hit his arm.

Next thing, it's 1-0 after, you know, having a goal taken off himself.

That, like,

five minutes, whatever it was, wowsers.

And obviously he gets a yellow card as well.

And then they look back at the offside.

And I know, Max, you said, like, the offside thing's fine.

And in reality, that's just the law.

But it's horrible, isn't it?

You know what I mean?

It is horrible.

It's almost like the, do you know with the goal line technology when someone says the ball hasn't crossed the line because there's no break, but they kind of show it and the ball's like over the line.

I think you've seen those before.

Oh, yeah, okay.

Yeah, fair enough.

It's not a goal because, you know, that final millimeter didn't cross the line.

So yeah,

it's a tricky one for him.

Maybe if Hoyland's feet were a bit smaller, things would be better, but unfortunately, it's just not the way it's going to be.

I mean, these decisions were so controversial that ITV have actually let their refereeing expert, Christina Unkel, out of her bunker.

No way.

To join the men, the men, Max, in the studio.

Extraordinary.

She's really good.

You've ever seen

her.

He always kept in isolation.

But the thing is, I'm giving out about

Michael Oliver, but he made the correct decisions.

But

they're stupid decisions.

You know, and I've got the law here.

No, this is stupid.

I'm not doing this.

But if they do, then they will get demoted.

It is an offence.

Here's the law.

And someone sent it apologies.

I love it.

He's got a remote damn law.

No, no, no, no, no.

Just this one tiny bit, right?

Says, look, it is an offence if a player, and there's other rules, but if a player touches the ball with their hand or arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger, a player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand, arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player's body movement.

And this is totally justified by the player's body movement.

But Lars made a point on Twitter back to me saying, it's a ridiculously written law because referees aren't experts in biomechanics.

They don't know when an arm is moving in the natural and the right decision, right way or not.

But you know what the problem with it is, Max?

And football will forever chase its tail on this.

Like, I'm with you watching it that it feels emotionally, incredibly unsatisfying, especially if Anderson's just had a goal disallowed for the narrowest offside for this to happen at their end.

But your other option was before we had deliberate handballs.

And no one can know when someone's doing something deliberately because you can't read mine.

So football has chased its tail and it's tried to reach this point where it's like, well, let's just make make it objective.

And it turns out there is never going to be an objective line.

There's never going to be an objective line unless the only rule is if it hits an arm, it's a handball.

And so that's like almost a philosophical question that football needs to answer for itself.

Do you want it to be just the most objective rationale possible?

Or do you want to accept that there is some murkiness in this?

And then maybe we could find a middle ground that's more acceptable for everyone.

But that is why we're here, because everyone was not happy with deliberate or not, because you could argue about deliberate for the cow till the cows come here.

Yeah, good point.

And I just want murky, romantic decisions.

So I'm looking at it going, nah.

And that's what every football fan, I think, apart from football fans who now start to think these are handballs, which is a big problem.

It's a problem that people have started to go, well, they're a handball, so it is a handball.

Most football fans, I think, would go, nah, that isn't.

And then you just play to the game itself, then it was a really good game, this, I thought.

And like,

we've had two 2-0s today, and one was a total walkover, and this was a proper game of football.

Yeah, it really really was.

I think that's why it was a shame that that penalty decision led to that Germany 1-0 because it affected things a little bit.

I thought Germany did start well but Denmark came into the game and Barry was delivering his puns about the weather, storm being weathered, all that stuff.

And in fairness, it did come at a bad time.

It did come at a bad time.

But Denmark were definitely growing into it.

But it's just...

They had some nice moves, but when they needed that last bit of composure, they just didn't have it.

And against the home nation, who you know will always always have an opportunity in the game, you kind of need to take those moments, don't you?

I think when it was 1-0 before the goal was scrubbed off, I thought, well, this is going to be really interesting.

But from when they went behind, no matter how they were pushing, and also, I must mention, as the game went on, I thought the pitch was making it tougher and tougher for both sides.

There were a lot of people slipping over, and the game kind of turned into almost the exact opposite of what an international game is, where not necessarily the quality was low, but there were so many breaks, people falling over, long balls coming in here, everything coming in.

It's kind of felt like home, to be fair.

But it's a shame.

And to go back to something you said just a little while ago, by the way, you said seeing a game stop due to lightning.

When I played in MLS, that is an American summer.

That's as standard as it comes.

Oh, we're going to Chicago.

Okay, work times kick off.

What's supposed to be seven, but we're going to...

push it back because this is coming and that's coming as standard as it comes max honestly different world over there is this why one in 15 000 americans

exactly

Yeah.

Kai Havertz, Nikki, had a fascinating game, didn't he?

Because he's such a wonderful player.

He just like oozes class.

And almost,

and he scores a lot of goals, and I know he had a really good season, but just that moment where he does this amazing sort of drag through, I don't even know how to describe it, and then puts it wide is a kind of sort of microcosm of Kai Havertz.

Yeah, well, there was this perfect mirror, wasn't there?

Because even the angle was so similar to Muciala's goal.

And when Muciala goes through, you think, oh, that's going in, that's going to end up in the net.

When Havertz comes through, you're thinking, it's not going to, is it?

And then it doesn't.

And yeah, in the same game, he scored a perfect penalty, a slightly annoying penalty with the really extended run-up, but it was as much in the corner as the corner can be.

So a perfectly taken penalty.

This is what he is.

You're never going to get perfect, reliable, 100% finishing out of him.

It's not the player that he is.

But he was really good in this game.

And that chance doesn't doesn't happen without that incredible touch you just talked about i i'm gonna do more foreshadowing i feel like i've done this on other podcasts in this series where we're recording everything out of sequence foreshadowing a conversation we'll have later about england but i think this is that one of the the things that this germany team is showing is

building an attack that works doesn't necessarily mean just going these are our players who are most exciting right now because for instance Florian Wurtz wasn't in this darting 11 and he's had a fantastic season But the balance and the attack requires Kai Havertz there at the front of it, and Havertz does his job really well, and

it works.

A word on Tony Cruz, Barry, and I feel like I say that every time he plays now, because I know there aren't that many games left for him, but

shouldn't he just carry on?

Who are we to tell Tony Cruz that he should or shouldn't or, you know, always leaves them wanted more, Max.

It's the first rule who's sure.

Certainly not mine.

And you know, retire when people are asking you why you're retiring rather than when you're going to retire.

So he's obviously decided the time is right.

He's clearly hopeful that he can go out in a final,

ideally winning one.

And

yeah, he's terrific.

But look, we've waxed lyrical about how great he is on

on many a pod.

I think, I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not.

I don't think I have.

James Maclean got in trouble the other day on Irish television for raising the fact that he said Declan Rice is a very good player, but he's not even in the same ballpark as Tony Cruz or Rodri.

And obviously loads of Arsenal fans got very upset by this and just went, oh, well,

what does James McLean know?

He plays for Rexmer.

You know, what does James MacLean know?

He's a big Irish Republican.

So they were criticising James Maclean

because they didn't like him and because they're Arsenal fans,

rather than criticising his criticism of Rice, which, you know,

he could see he said Rice is a very, very good player, but he's a long way to go before he's anywhere near as good as Cruz or Rodri.

And he explained why, and I thought he was bang on, actually.

And I wouldn't be his biggest fan either, but don't play the player, play the game.

I thought, you know, if don't don't dismiss his argument just because you think he's thick or because he's from dairy or because

he's not as a particularly good player you just don't like him yeah i mean i think the important thing here is that you're we know that you're not bitter with deck and rice for not i genuinely am not no no i'm sure you're not but but but no but you know you've just implied that no no no no but

i'm not no i know but what i'm implying is as long as you don't compare him again to someone else perhaps in part two who's had a really good game for switzerland um ah yeah exactly.

And I mean,

that's just a statement of indisputable facts.

You make a really good point in part two, Barry.

And I forgot about that.

You should stand by it.

Sane was excellent as well, I thought, today, Nadem.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Was he?

Was he excellent?

Maybe when I just switched, I just looked up and I saw him do something good and thought,

because he's one of those players, like

Habitsy, isn't he?

he's not I'm not disagree no I'm not 100% sold on it

maybe I missed something you know perhaps it was my three children running around the house that were affecting me at the time but yeah I'm not 100% sold on that but to reference something that happened in this game because as Nikki was saying like

this you pick who you pick and so on like they took the captain off very early in this game Gundawan was off the field very early because that was the right and they brought in Emre Chan most would say that Ilkai Gunduan

shouldn't be coming off for Emre Chan until the final seconds of the game, maybe.

But it was the right decision to make for the tactics that they wanted to play at that time.

Something to sort of counter the way that Denmark were attacking.

And that's credit to a manager for making a big decision because that is your captain.

But the game is the most important thing.

So just make, maybe, just maybe.

Maybe.

Maybe.

I'm talking about every manager here.

Right, okay, yeah.

Every manager, maybe.

If you need to pull your captain because it's not working out, maybe it's the right decision.

Who knows, though?

Speaking of children running around the house, I didn't mention, but 20 minutes into the Italy-Switzerland game, young Ian did his business on the floor of the living room.

So I did miss a good five minutes of that game.

I wasn't totally concentrating.

Denmark are out.

You know, it could be Barry the last tournament for Ericsson, for Schmeichel.

And I don't know.

I mean, I I thought Ericsson was excellent today.

Like, you can see what a player he is.

Much more impressive, I think, for Denmark than you've seen him play for Manchester United, which perhaps says more about the dysfunctional Manchester United team this season.

But

carry on.

Well, I remember watching Erickson play for Ajax, I think, when he was 16 years old.

I'm very much mindful of my own mortality and advancing years when you tell me that this will probably be his final tournament.

And it may well be.

I mean, he's played superbly for them in this tournament.

I I thought he could have done better with that great free kick opportunity he had in the I think before the rain delay.

But when you compare his performances in Denmark with his performances, sporadic performances for Manchester United when it's he's looked like he's pulling a caravan.

I know he's in a completely different role, but uh

yeah, probably could well be the last we see of him in a in a Denmark shirt.

I know there's plenty of uh Republic of Ireland players who'll be delighted.

We seem to play Denmark about nine times a year.

But,

yeah, otherwise.

Do you think Nikki.

I just take a finishing thing with Ericsson.

Is there knowledge that he will?

Because he's 32, isn't he?

He's not that old.

I think he's less old than people think he is.

Sorry, I just presumed he was 36 or 80 or something.

So that means I'm not as old as I am.

You're younger than you feel, Barry.

There's a great time for you to gain some years.

You've gained some of you.

I presumed presumed he was around the same age as Luca Modrech, so yeah.

Sorry, thank you, Nikki.

Nikki, do you think

Denmark have shown that Germany are sort of fallible here?

I guess Switzerland had already shown us that Germany were fallible.

They were injury time away from not winning their group.

I'm not certain that any team at this tournament has looked infallible.

Even Spain, who I think have been the most impressive to me so far, they've all had their moments of

showing some fallibility.

Do I think Denmark Denmark

will

think back on this and think we could have got them?

Yes.

Obviously,

the bit with Anderson we've already talked about, but Rasmus Hoyland had his chance as well, right?

He had his really big moment.

And

I'm always reluctant to criticise Hoyland.

I feel like his whole story got accelerated way too fast.

He had half a good season at Atalanta.

It was a good half of a season, but it was half a season.

Then gets the big move to Manchester United right away to a Manchester United team that's fairly dysfunctional and and is expected to just be the next earling harland which which he isn't um but i i feel like he needs to be given a bit of growing space so i don't want to to jump on it but yeah he if he is a little bit sharper in front of goal this game can can cern very differently so um do germany have some weakness yes i'm i'm i'd say that you can get at them at the same time the the flip side of that coin is musiala have wirts off the bench they have a lot they can damage with you damage you with at the other end.

A word on Clive Tilsley, Barry.

I mean, we mentioned Tony Cruz choosing to go out when he wants to.

Clive Tilsley has been quite vocal about it.

He would carry on if ITV wanted him to, but this was his last commentary game for them.

And he's been there for so long.

Yeah, yeah, and done so many, done so many games.

You know, obviously, you know, 99, Champions League final, that was ITV.

He's been there for a long time, but you know, he is still really good.

I love him.

And I think him and Ali McCoyst are a great combination.

I know and like Sam Matterface.

And I think he's a good commentator as well.

But I'm perplexed by ITV's apparent lack of inclination to keep Clive Tisley.

This is news to me.

But he's really good, and I'm sure he'll get work elsewhere.

I hope he does.

I met him at an awards, due.

He's great fun.

And his wife is absolutely great.

Brilliant company.

I just had a lovely lovely evening in their company

seated next to them randomly at some awards do yeah love to clive

all right that'll do for part one part two will do Switzerland's demolition of Italy

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

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

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

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

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Luke says, Will we ever hear Nikki's laugh again?

Sent in the 65th minute, could age dreadfully, didn't?

Marcus says, as I recall, the expendables, which is what we called Switzerland in the previews, were pretty good at knocking others around.

So giving the Swiss that title was quite prophetic.

Mike says, How worried about playing Switzerland in the quarterfinals should slovakia be anyway we'll get to that not a great game because it was it was so one-sided um barry you were on the minute by minute i mean i was just waiting for italy to just somehow win this game and they just didn't seem to ever do anything the swiss just it was so easy for switzerland yes it was and i thought the jig was kind of up at half time because italy was playing so badly i don't think it's possible to raise your game to the levels required required to overturn that deficit.

But there's always the danger they might, you know, get a penalty or something, and then who knows what would happen.

But then they conceded the second goal straight from the kickoff.

Presumably, they've come out, you know, fired up

on the back of an absolute rocket from Spoletti.

And the first thing they do is what they've been doing all the first half.

Gave the ball to Switzerland, who broke up field and scored their second goal.

And I was waiting for some kind of reaction from Italy and

you know on seven seventy minutes and going, well it's you know we're we're hitting kitchen sink time now but I think the kitchen sink is very much still in place in the kitchen.

It hasn't been thrown anywhere.

It'll probably get kicked a lot

but

yeah they were

I think I described it in the minute by minute as as they're being shockingly feeble but I I suppose it on the basis of the performance thus far, it wasn't that shocking.

It was all too predictable.

But I suppose, speaking in terms of the Italian teams I've seen over the years, in over 40 years watching football, this has to be the worst by far, I think.

I mean, there was the famous Italian side that got knocked out of the World Cup in 2002 by South Korea, and that was the famous line from Barry Davis.

And the reason the Italians are out is because they never learn but this is a whole different kind of failure you know and as I recall that particular Italian team were robbed by the ref as well but

we know what Barry meant and his words are sort of the same here because they made all these mistakes in the first half and then came out and immediately made one again the same one again and and that put the match beyond them and yeah it was feeble on their part but you know we're doing what we always do we're criticizing them of course I'll let someone else praise the Swiss.

Yeah, go on, Nathan.

Do that.

Because

a lot of this will be about how Italy just didn't turn up.

But Switzerland were really, really good as they have been this tournament, actually.

Yes, they have.

And funnily enough, the time when I was least impressed with them was in the second game against Scotland.

You know, that's the thing that's really surprising me.

I thought in the third game against Germany, even though Germany had good possession, they had some attacks, the Swiss, they felt really composed.

And I think that composure rolled rolled over into today, to where, you know, they never really looked flustered.

Obviously, to a certain extent, that's because the Italians weren't doing as good a job as to say they could do.

But they knew that they sort of felt like they were in control of the game, whether it was passing, whether it was depressing, whether it's the way they were going to attack, the way they were going to defend.

They looked like a really good, solid side that all knew their jobs.

And it's good as well to see that some of the players that, you know, we're familiar with, if we watch the Premier League, you know, Shaka, who's obviously just left.

Shaka's like a king in that team.

You see Nikenji at the back alongside Cher and obviously Rodriguez.

I don't think he's played in the Premier League, but they look really, really solid there.

And

they're a really good side.

Kind of what we expected from Italy.

But again, we don't need to talk too much about them just now.

But I was impressed, but I was no more impressed than I was in the game before against Germany.

Because any team that plays against Germany in this tournament obviously doesn't have the backing of the crowd.

They're going to feel a sense of emotion that's going to be on the field for those players because they're trying to play to that audience.

But they look like a team that could deal with it.

So if you then find a safer space where you've got more of your fans there making all the noise and you're the better side like we saw today, it's a really good performance.

And, you know, obviously someone said Slovakia is going to be in the next round.

I'd probably bet against it.

But I think it sets up for a magnificent next game should England get through.

Yeah.

And Nikki, look, you know, you probably watch more of quite a lot of these players because they're all played for Bologna, as far as I can tell.

Well, it's a few, certainly.

And even Romo Froilo, who of course has been in England, was before that in Italy as well.

So there's certainly been a few that have been in Italy.

They were really good against Switzerland.

And

look, I'm going to have to do a bit on how absolutely dreadful Italy were, but certainly it needs to be said.

It's not just like, oh,

the easy thing, which is, oh, look at these players we're familiar with, like Jacques, who, yes, he had a great game.

I think he played almost twice as many passes as any Italian player in that first half.

But it's the movement and it's the work that Jakin's done as well.

I think when you look at how the team,

for instance, when Obesha was coming all the way into being a number 10 at times and you see how the team shifts around that to let him do that and then you've got Shaka just holding the middle for everyone, it's really like a well-designed team, which I suppose for me segues quite neatly into what the absolute opposite of that that Italy are.

And I, I mean, I don't know if there's enough time on this podcast to talk about all the things that I think are wrong with this Italy team because they were dreadful and they have been pretty dreadful all of this tournament.

I don't know if I can say it's the worst I've seen because I think some of you only watched them at the tournaments.

They have failed to qualify for two World Cups.

I've watched them lose to North Macedonia, okay?

We've been going through this for a while.

But having said that,

I just feel like the whole thing, this whole tournament, unfortunately, and we're recording pretty close after the game, so I haven't got to see this press conference yet.

And it may be that we have to do a bit at the end of this going back to it because this whole tournament has felt like a gradual unraveling of Luciano Spoletti to me because they played that first game against Albania and they actually did all right.

It wasn't amazing, it wasn't stunning, but they conceded early and they had composure and they came back into it.

Then Spain wiped the floor with them, and then suddenly all of this certainty he had about his team just went completely out the window.

Next game against Croatia, he switches his formation, he takes out his attack, he changes things up, they get through that.

And then in this game, yes, he had some players missing.

He had no Carla Fiori, who's one of the few players who's actually had a really good tournament, I felt like.

So that's a loss.

Di Madko, left backers out as well.

But you suddenly change formation again.

You take out Georginha from the midfield and stick in Brian Christante.

You stick...

Stefanel Shirawi on the left when you've just had Zakanyi come on and put in a really good cameo against Croatia and score the goal you needed.

It just feels like he's completely allowed his own demons to get on top of him.

When I say that, I'm talking about the formations and all of that side of things.

Perhaps

it's context here that not everyone sees.

After the last game,

you see on the pitch, Zakanyi scores that goal.

Maybe if they didn't deserve it, maybe they did, but they got that goal.

They got that equaliser.

And on the pitch, it's all...

joy and relief and celebration and then you go into the press conference room and Spaletti is having the sort of press conference you feel like you should have right after you've been eliminated.

He is going off on these five to ten minute long monologues, which are direct fights almost with some of the press.

Someone, I don't even know who said afraid, he brought this idea of we weren't afraid, I'm not afraid, there are things in life to be afraid of, out of nowhere, halfway through a monologue.

Then someone says, did the change formation come from a pact with you and the players?

And his response to that is, have you got a leak in the dressing room?

And this extraordinary phrase, which I tried to translate as best I could for an article, which he said that he asked the journalist how much younger he was than him, then said, Well, you've still got quinticiani di pipe, which pipa is fascinating pipa in Italian, is to have a wank, basically.

I'm sorry, there's no more polite way of putting it.

That's the correct way to translate it.

So he's telling this journalist, you've got 15 more years of that in front of you.

And didn't hand him a sock when he said it, did he?

Doesn't even make sense.

Sorry, Mary.

And I just, the whole thing to me has felt like he's been going through

this tournament on an emotional level that is too much of a roller coaster.

And I don't see how that can not affect your team.

I have been a big admirer of Luciano Spoletti.

He obviously won that

league title for Napoli.

That was something extraordinary that

no one's won there without Diego Maradona.

So it's something unique.

But

he at this tournament has been so erratic.

And I can't help but feel that that has impacted the team as well.

Yeah and actually Barry, I mean it seems so clear to talk about desire and you know a team wanting it more and the last 16 but I don't Italy didn't seem remotely bothered.

Like even at the end they didn't seem that bothered.

Like someone tweeted I've lost it going did they realize they would go out of the competition if they lost today?

Yeah I mean I would say

Chiesa was probably the only Italian and Donaroma were the only two players to come out of that game with anything resembling credit.

and i

i was surprised by you know whatever about not being able to to score but they didn't just didn't seem to be trying that hard uh i'm not saying they tanked the game on purpose or anything but yeah

they didn't seem that fussed maybe they aren't that fussed you know not not everyone is that bothered about winning tournaments i guess yeah

I mean, you'd think they should.

I mean, I don't know, Nadim, if I just fall into a trap there, because you're watching a team just play badly.

And sometimes, I guess, when you're playing badly, it's hard to snap out of that, right?

And actually just doing some more running and kicking the ball along while kicking people isn't necessarily going to help.

Yes, it really doesn't help at all that, because then you kick someone too hard, you get sent off, and you're the villain.

I think you did kind of fall into a trap there.

I think they are bothered, but I think

as a player, sometimes you can be playing in a game and you could just sense around you that the team don't have it.

You know, you want to find a spark, you want to find something,

but some days it's not, it's the mind, it's just not there.

And I guess for those guys, the longer it went on, the less belief that they had.

And that belief side of things, you can tell yourself you can do it, but until people are showing you a reason to believe it, then you don't really back it in the same way.

But to mention the second goal, for example, you know, the half-time is great because you can sort of think about the first half and say, well, we're going to do this in the second half.

We're going to be great.

We're going to step forward.

We're going to take this on.

There would have been so much passion in that dressing room because they knew that they could get better and if they got better who knows

kickoff is an abomination the giveaway is like a scandal that's bad the goal was even worse because how somebody taking a shot inside your 18 yard box completely unopposed 30 seconds into the second half when you've had a chance to reset your mind and sort of give your body time to recover they needed to be more intensity more aggression but they just didn't have it and that's another example because it's the same as sometimes well a lot of the time as an underdog going to like big stadiums and all that stuff in my career and you see it on TV as well people say oh these guys we've got a plan we're gonna try and make it as tough for them as possible and if we're still in the game at 70 you know we'll do this we'll do that then you can see an early goal the most awkward awkward feeling in football it's like well here we are and I guess for those Italians being 2-0 down of a sudden that plan that maybe they had Doesn't really ring true anymore.

So I don't think that it was a case of them not trying.

I think at times you can sense when it's not there.

And we could sense that as an audience as well.

But if they weren't trying, they would have been beaten by considerably more.

They did push.

They did have a couple of chances towards the end.

But again, that sort of like sinking feeling, once it sort of grabs you, you can try and get yourself out of that situation.

But when you come up against a really good side as well, you know, it tends not to go too well for you.

Yeah, and actually, Nikki, I'm not a huge fan of, you know, here's my combined 11 before the game.

But it's not, this, this upset is not actually as surprising as perhaps, I don't know, let's say if Slovakia beat England, right?

Player for player.

I wonder, like, player for player, actually, it's you know this italian team is not full of superstars is it it's not and i i sort of feel like i'm trying to tread a middle line on this because i'm not trying to to to dissuade anyone that this is an underwhelming group because yeah the talent in it is not is not extraordinary spoletti has been dealt not the easiest hand but i also i'm not even convinced it's the weakest that it's ever had in this most recent couple of of decades there are players in this team three starters who played in a champions league final 12 months ago and played well in a champions league final 12 months ago Gianlu Cascamaca, I know everyone looks at that name and goes, oh, he's at West Ham reject.

He's not recently been that.

He's been extremely good at Atlanta and he scored two goals at Anfield, by the way.

So if you only want to look at it through your Premier League lenses, use that lens.

He's been good recently, but in an Italy shirt, he's been dreadful, which is why I don't want to give...

I'm sorry, because again, I've been fond of Spiletti as a manager.

I don't want to give him the excuse of just this team isn't good enough.

Maybe you're right.

Maybe if you go player for player against the Swiss team, you'd think that the talent gap might even not exist or it'll be in Switzerland's favour because Switzerland have got some good players.

But

to say it's just, oh, it's terrible players, what did you expect?

To me is a cop-out because there are good players there as well.

Not as good as England's.

England's squad is, without question,

in my opinion, the strongest squad for depth in this tournament.

But

it can be both things, right?

We're not in 2006.

Anyone who's drawing the comparison with 2006, of course, it's a stupid comparison but maybe compare with 2016 and the italy scored under antonio conte that had graziano pelle and adair up front and beat spain went to a quarterfinal and lost to germany on penalties in a game that they i thought probably deserved to win a good system a good coach that is confident can can pull that stuff together and if you want to defend spoletti who i know said this in the brief snippet i saw of him speaking on sky afterwards you could say he hasn't been in the job very long he did come into this halfway through the qualifying campaign he hasn't had had a lot of time to prepare for it maybe with more time he'll have more of a firm grip on things but i think you can say both things that the talent pool is not amazing but to act like it's the worst talent pool italy have ever had or the worst talent pool even at this tournament it's it's kind of going too far um can i look at things through my premier league lens and ask if

Are all Arsenal fans just studiously ignoring the fact that the man that they replaced with Declan Rice has just won two tournaments, had an invincible season, and is almost one of the players of the tournament at Euro 2024, while the very man that was replaced him at an enormous expense hasn't had as good a season, didn't win anything, and is not playing at all well in Euro 2024.

Interesting point, Nadim, isn't it?

We certainly have a feeling that when someone leaves the Premier League, that kind of that's that's it game over for you, son, go and have some fun somewhere else.

Yeah, of course, yeah.

When you leave the Premier League, you might as well retire because you're no good anymore.

You know what I mean?

You've just happened to find a job because somebody happened to have a spot available.

Oh no, but wait a minute.

He went to the team that didn't lose a game all season in Wonders League.

Okay, so he's not doing too badly.

And yeah, the Rice side of things.

Rice isn't having a great time.

Shaka feels like he's having the time of his life.

Is Shaka a bit older?

Is Shaka not the most capped Swiss international?

Or have I made that up?

I don't know.

Shakiri's got to be out there.

I suppose Shaka's playing exactly the role that he plays, right?

And Deklice isn't playing exactly the role

that he plays.

But we could also spin this.

Let's do some proper Arsenal propaganda because I'm sure some Arsenal fans will be there.

You could also say that Havertz was part of the replacement strategy and he could go on and win the whole tournament.

He's done okay.

See?

He's only done okay.

You know, full krug is a good thing.

Enough for now.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We'll not replace Havertz with Fulkrug.

We're not doing that.

Havertz is the future.

Okay.

Can't ask about, Barry about the energy of Switzerland.

Mbolo and Doy up front are seriously exciting players.

Yeah, and both played extremely well.

As I suppose, did all the Swiss players, apart from Jan Sommer, who did nothing because he didn't have to.

But, like, Bri Limbolo hasn't played for quite a long time.

He came in, he's just recovered from I think two serious injuries in fairly quick succession.

But he was, I don't know if he started the last game, he was fit enough to start today.

Played probably around 70 minutes or so, but he's fast, he can hold the ball up.

I think that's one of his biggest qualities.

Should have scored in the first half.

I think he thought he was offside and didn't shoot with as much conviction as he might have.

And yeah, Dan in Noy,

also a very exciting prospect.

It's interesting.

I'm enjoying most of the TV coverage of this tournament here in in the UK, but I was quite taken by the post-match musings of Rio Ferdinand and Alan Scheer, who they've just seen Switzerland play, and I guess they've already seen Austria play, although I'm not sure how many matches they bother watching that England aren't involved in.

And they're still going on about England's half of the group being easy.

They've seen England play, they've seen Switzerland play, the Sweden Austria play.

You know,

the tub-tumping and jingoism is off the scale.

I mean, it's so funny from looking at it from an outsider's perspective.

I suppose you just look at the draw and you just think of teams and how good they were when you were 10.

Maybe that's what they're doing as well.

Because I look at it and go, that's the easy side of the draw.

And you're right.

I mean, it, Nikki, is sort of on form, it's going to an Austria-Switzerland Tyrolean semi-final, isn't it?

Yeah,

I mean, I think I'm doing, Max, what you were saying about Italy at the start, because you were saying, oh, you're expecting Italy to suddenly turn it on and do it.

I wasn't really expecting that from Italy.

When it started badly, I thought, okay, I think this is going to keep going badly.

But I keep expecting that from England.

I keep expecting that when England need to, all of the quality in that team will show up, and maybe it will, or maybe it won't.

So I'm not doing this in a tub-thumping way, as Vaz is just describing.

I just look at that squad and think, but it's such a good squad.

It's such a good squad.

At some point, it's going to do something.

And maybe it won't.

Maybe it will just be that.

That's what I thought about Italy.

I mean, I didn't think it was quite as good a squad, but I thought, oh, sure, they have to put in a performance today.

Yeah, you're right.

Although, we did establish a few pods ago, Barry, that you had a feud with the Swiss.

David says, will Barry's feud with the Swiss with the Swiss be put to one side after they tongue England in the quarters?

Assuming England surprises all and make it through, of course.

I will not be neutral if the Swiss faith England.

There won't be a neutral insight.

I liked the Guardian's Rob Davis tweeting.

Important to remember that the Italians may look fancy, but two of their players, Federico Chiesa and Niccolo Faggioli, are literally Fred Church and Nick Beans.

Nick Beans?

God, I'd love a footballer called Nick Beans.

Alex says, is the Swiss manager, the manager that looks most like a Bond villain?

Yeah, Murat Yakin.

I mean, there are two types of Bond villain, aren't there, really?

There's the Swiss manager, sort of, you know, the sort of nerdy, I'm going to like computer destroy the earth.

And then there's the Polish ref, who is just evil personified.

And either of those would be the Bond Village.

Exactly.

One of those.

Unless anyone else has anything pressing to add about this game, we'll end that part there and we'll be back in a couple of seconds.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game, Day Scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

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

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly, must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

Today, we'll attempt a feat once thought impossible, overcoming high-interest credit card debt.

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NMLS 696891.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So then, and we've sort of touched upon it, certainly when we're talking about Switzerland, five o'clock tomorrow, England versus Slovakia.

The suggestions are that Kobe Mainu will come in for Conor Gallagher, but that will be the only change if Kieran Tripier is fit.

Are you surprised about that, Naden?

Not particularly.

I think everyone has an idea of which players they want to see out in the field, you know, be really attacking, go on and just get after it and so on.

But

I still think you need some level of experience in there as well.

So I understand the issues and and the stress that will come.

But, you know, here's Mainu for you guys.

You know, just enjoy him for a little bit.

Enjoy him for a little bit.

Then maybe if the game gets stretched, you'll see some of those come on.

And from listening to them, the likes of Cole Palmer, you know, to Gordon as well, they're itching to play.

You know, there are a ton of players who are ready to go.

And I suppose the upside now is that if they're needed, you'll know they'll put on a show.

You know, if England need some goals, they'll be putting those guys on and they'll be putting the effort.

Not the effort, they'll be showing their quality.

They'll be desperate to leave a mark and because it's a knockout, knockout, you know, it's very definitive, isn't it?

So I'm sure people will be disappointed.

But I think if that relationship with Maynu and Rice can be active, then maybe it can help other people in other areas.

Hopefully, Bellingham's recovered a little bit because he looks a touch tired from his first performance of the tournament.

But

this is it.

It's knockout football now.

And the ones who've been on the field for the longest, I suppose they're ready to go into this next stage.

Yeah, I was surprised, Nikki.

I thought Cole Palmer might, I mean, obviously we don't know yet, but like the, you you know, if everybody who seems to know is right, I thought Palmer might come in.

Sorry, sorry, Nikki, just for one second.

Sorry.

Yeah.

Max, could I just jump in there?

Why did you think he was going to come in?

Well, because I wanted him to.

Oh, that's why.

Just because you wanted to.

I just needed to get ahead of that.

Oh, no, sorry.

I'll rephrase it.

I'm slightly frustrated that Gareth isn't rolling the dice a little bit more or pulling the handbrake up or down or pressing the button a little bit more.

I mean, Saka's obviously good, right?

Bellingham is obviously good.

Foden is good, but I just, I don't know.

I think Gareth's maybe confused.

You've given him too many devices there.

Is he rolling up a window?

Is he pushing a button?

Is he just looking all around himself trying to work out what to do?

I don't know.

I

we sit here and I've had a good old rant at Spiletti in this tournament and and we make it all sound easy but obviously when you're in that position you know you're damned if you do and damned if you don't right if you if you drop one of your big names and it goes wrong you're gonna get absolutely crucified for it if you don't everyone's going to assume that whoever you didn't bring in was the secret answer to your problems so it's it's it's definitely a um a difficult spot for for for southkey even even if it doesn't make him above criticism either yeah i can i just say max by the way uh with regard to anthony gordon's unfortunate cycling accident which could have been a lot worse I called that before the tournament squad cycling sessions, I said,

shouldn't be allowed because someone could do themselves a mischief.

And he nearly, well, he's okay but he he came a cropper i wonder if it i wondered if it was a dead cat thing they were like we've got to we've got to have a story so people stop talking about selection let's just throw someone off their bike and see i did see an amazing statistic and i don't know if it's true but it made me laugh saying phil foden has had more children than successful passes to harry kane this tournament um but he is back and uh do you do you we've seen naden people saying you know is foden and bellingham the new gerard and lampard can you fit them in the same can you fit them in the same team oh dearie me dearie dear me uh I think I think you can I think

from my perspective and people will say it's obviously like this because you're a blue I think Foden has improved from his first game I don't think he's been great for his own standards but I think he has improved but that's coincidentally he was better than Bellingham yes in the Slovenia game for sure yeah and Bellingham unfortunately has gone in the other direction so if the two of them were playing close to their potential and it wasn't working out then I think it's a different conversation but I don't think the two are sort of negatively affecting each other as such because they do link up.

They do try little fancy things and so on, but it's just not really been worthwhile for now.

So I think there is more there.

I'd be interested to see if Bellingham is closer to full fitness because, looking at him, he doesn't appear to be.

I think some of his impact in the game has been far lower than we expected, not least of all after the first game, where he seemed like he just wanted to be here, there, and everywhere.

Because we had the analysis, oh, these good players, they just grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and they just just go and do something, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, Bellingham,

two games later, like, I guess he can't grab it anymore.

He's lost his hands.

You know what I mean?

But,

yeah, I think they can do it.

It's not a Gerrard and Lampard thing.

It's just, unfortunately, it's just not clicked for now.

But those two being in the side, I think it'll always give you an opportunity.

But I think if it's not going well in this next game, for, say, Bellingham in the same way it has done for the previous two, I think this time he comes off.

And that's when some of the chaos will start to arrive because then it's the likes of Gordon Gordon and it's Palmer and so on coming on, which I think will get the nation excited.

Yeah.

But fitness is, and we looked at, you know, we just saw Italy just Switzerland had so much more energy, I thought, Nikki.

And

you have looked at Bellingham and Kane, and perhaps it's unfortunate for Southgate that two of his two real elite players, I mean, they're all elite, but just don't look at it.

And like, it doesn't really matter how good you are if you can't move at 100%, right?

These are these are you're playing against good players, right?

Yeah, it's it's a really interesting narrative to me it's one that spalletti called up on on after the the defeat to to switzerland is that his players were tired and and there's only so much you can get out of people and the thing is

the swiss players in that example

they mostly play in the same leagues.

These aren't players playing from somewhere else.

And it's the same for the England players.

It's not like we exist in a world anymore where every player is just playing in their domestic league.

They're playing across Europe and they're playing in the same competitions.

So I don't know how much I even understand it as an excuse.

Why are your players so much more tired than

the next squads here unless you're doing something differently

in your training bases?

But yes, physical tiredness is part of it.

I just think I always come back to this with international tournaments.

I think, and look, Nadim could speak to this stuff much better than I can, someone who played at the highest level.

I think tiredness, of course, part of it is in the body, but part of it is in the mind.

And whether or not your players are

having fun and engaged at a level where they're believing good things are going to happen is going to impact on how tired they look on the pitch i heard you or charlie baker um

joking on the radio today that southgate should have just sent the players out on the piss

a night out on the batter and he was you know being facetious i think that's probably a decent idea

I don't know how many of them drink these days.

I think that's a good idea.

Yeah, there is that.

The game's gone, isn't it?

They're all sober.

But then, of course, if he did that, and the press got wind of it, they're all hella.

Some kind of bonny game.

But in the old days, the press wouldn't say anything, but you wouldn't get away with it now.

I'd probably be with them.

But I mean, I suppose having fun, enjoying yourself is a key part of all of this.

The Austrians were all ordered to go to a Rod Stewart concert.

Look how good they're playing.

Oh, really?

Well, no, that's a good idea, isn't it?

Spain, Georgia.

Now, Now, since Spain's...

When we saw Spain

be so good against Italy, Naden, we were like, well, these guys, now they mean business.

But now we've just seen Italy get done by Switzerland.

Maybe Spain aren't as good as we thought Spain were.

And they played Georgia.

And like, we'd all love to see an upset because we like to see upsets.

And Georgia are like one of the greatest stories of this competition so far.

Yes, they certainly are.

And that last group game for Georgia.

I think it did help the fact that Portugal made numerous changes.

So they did have really good players on, but the flow wasn't necessarily the same.

It's not to say that they wouldn't have beaten Portugal within the 90s if it was Portugal's starting team, but the motivations were so different for so many of those nations who we don't historically see make it to the knockouts.

You know, you're seeing Georgias, you've seen Turkeys and all these other Slovenias, all these teams like playing as if that was their final.

I'm not sure if they've got the ability to do that again, especially against the Spain side that will dominate the ball.

Yes, you could hit them in transition, and we saw that from Georgia.

but it's going to be...

Spain, to me, if you disregard the fact that in that third game, I think they won in the end, but they made multiple changes, didn't they?

They made 10 changes, I think.

Yeah, the Spain side that played the first two games, at times it was like a clinic.

You know, they looked really, really good.

Given the fact that, you know, they weren't playing in Spain or anything like this.

They had so many young players.

It was a clinic.

And against Georgia, I think if they take their chances,

they will likely win this game.

So I don't give Georgia much of a chance, and that sounds miserable, but it's not because of Georgia, it's just because of how good Spain had been in this two weeks so far.

Sure.

And like with Rodri, Pedri, and Fabian Ruiz, it's like a really balanced midfield, right?

And Yamal and

Williams are just so wonderful going forward.

It's nice, yeah.

Tomorrow, by the way, is the final day of this financial period for PSR.

How are you going to celebrate that?

I have noticed there appears to be a lot of clubs selling each other

Academy graduates for vast sums of money.

And I presume at some point the Premier League may or may not have to vote on whether they need to stop this because it's

so suspicious.

I'm not going to point any fingers or name any names, but I think we all know what's going on and who's involved.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it's the it's the tomorrow's this new unofficial second transfer deadline day.

So that's why lots of clubs are sort of swapping academy talent.

We're not swapping them, of course, just buying them.

So it almost will get to the stage if this carries on where you don't actually want to have the best players in your academy, right?

You need to have the best players in another team's academy and a kind of spy

working on the inside of another academy.

And then when they get good enough, you say, actually,

I work for them.

And then you sell them to them in that academy, and that's how you get the best academy players.

But yes,

I mean, this is unconnected to what Barry said, but yeah, Ian Matson's gone from Villa to Chelsea for 37.5 million.

Amari Kellyman has gone to Villa from Chelsea for 90

million.

Chelsea,

yes, no, sorry, he's gone from Villa to gone to Villa.

He's gone from Villa to Chelsea.

Yes.

Has he?

Yes, that's right.

Ian Matson's gone from Chelsea to Villa and Amari Kellyman, who I haven't seen a lot of.

I think he's played six times for Villa.

I've never heard of him before today.

He's gone

to...

Chelsea.

Where's he gone?

He's gone to Chelsea from Villa.

Anthony Gordon to Liverpool.

It might be a PSR thing of slightly different, but that is...

Don't know if that's happening or not, but

like,

you know, he's got things to worry about.

He's got his cycling proficiency tomorrow.

So, you know, I don't know if he's going to

make that move Archie Gray from Leeds it looks like Brentford have got Archie Gray for 35 million which is an interesting move I think I saw did I see Dominic Calvert Loon being strongly linked with Newcastle and I was sort of thinking why would you want an injury prone sort of

up and down striker when you've already got one in the form of Callum Wilson but so he yeah unless unless they can dovetail their injury I guess and always one of them is around anyway look this is something we'll worry about when there's no actual football because, you know, there's too much.

You know, there's football to talk about, and we'll do that justice when the season starts.

Before we go, Nikki, you just wanted to mention Reading women, right?

And what's happened to them?

Yeah, well, effectively, it seems like they're falling victim to problems at the rest of the club.

The financial problems at Reading are a whole bigger story to get into, but the news, which was reported by Tom Gary for The Guardian yesterday, was that the women's team is is going to withdraw from the women's championship.

They're apparently applying to a play in the fifth tier, but effectively it's going to be dismantling of the women's club as we know it to make that happen.

We've already got the various age group teams showing up and having their training sessions cancelled and just generally a miserable story and another case of as soon as issues crop up at a football club, the first group to suffer is women's teams.

Yeah, apparently multiple age group teams were told on Friday they would not be continuing.

Staff are understood to have been informed in a series of meetings that there were no guarantees of funding for any women's and girls' teams for next season.

Sell Before We Die, we've chatted to them on the pod before, actually.

A Reading fan group who've been calling for a change of ownership have described the club's withdrawal from the women's championship as an absolute disgrace.

This is the darkest day yet under the ownership of Dai Young and Dai Zhu Li, the statement said.

Reading women's youth setup provided opportunity and community for women and girls across Berkshire and beyond.

That has been cruelly snatched out of their hands.

Meanwhile, Ewan says, I know it's the Euros at the moment, but any chance of a couple of minutes on what the hell is going on?

Manchester United women,

the Athletic reporting this, and the Mirror as well, and The Guardian saying that the PFA are reportedly set to seek conversations with Manchester United following growing concerns over the club's management of their women's team.

United women are set to move out of their 11 million state-of-the-art training facility at Carrington, specifically constructed for the women's set-up, to make way for the club's men's team during the upcoming season amid ongoing revamp of their facilities.

So, Jim Ratcliffe admitted in an interview with Bloomberg that plans for the women's team remain to be confirmed due to focus being on the senior team.

What he said, the senior men's team.

The Athletic reported the PFA are now prepared to step in on behalf of United Players amid concerns about the environment.

And actually, a lot of the women's players are leaving at the moment.

And you sort of wonder, Nadan,

you come in and you buy a football club.

and actually, the interesting thing is, you don't actually need to invest that much in the women's team relatively, like in terms of the amount that we're talking about,

to actually make a statement, let alone just keep them going.

Absolutely, yes.

It's disappointing on so many levels, not least of all, you know, we see

this new ownership group.

We've spoken about them so much from way before they purchased their stake into the football club, and still, there's a TBC attached to some segment of the business.

How is that the case?

Why is that something that you're comfortable saying?

And is it something that you're only saying because somebody asked you a question about it?

I think when you look at the successful season that they had, I think it was a year ago, to look at the season not being great this year.

But when you look at the men's side of things, everyone's talking about the future, how bright it's going to be, while at the same time, for the women, they're not being spoken about, and things are heading in the opposite direction.

That, for me, misses the point.

And realistically, when you buy any sort of stake into a football club, you're buying into everything to sort of carry on as if this section doesn't matter because your priorities are elsewhere.

Well, that shouldn't be the case because you bought into everything.

And if you are passionate about Manchester United, you should be passionate about the men, the women, the academy, everything to do with it, whether it's the location, the fans,

the whole thing.

I don't know whether they believe it doesn't matter, whether they've just forgotten about it, or whether this is who they are you know it's it's really really strange but from especially from a pr standpoint it's ridiculous and those women and the staff of that football club they deserve better they deserve to be spoken about in the same way that they speak about the men's team because they are in this together you know they share a training on or whatever they play for the same team they have the same fan base So to be in this position for me is ridiculous.

And it's no consequence that, you know, so many of the big stars are leaving.

You know, the captain Katie Zellem's leaving.

You've got Mary Upps going to Paris, I believe.

You've got Nithy Keith, Paris, who's out of contracts.

I think Lucia Garcia is leaving as well.

This is off the back of Russo leaving and others.

This doesn't sound like a team who's just had a new owner come in and everything is supposed to be great in the future.

Instead, it seems like a place where people are trying to leave as soon as possible because the standards being set are not what they should be.

We obviously have a podcast dedicated to the women's game, Guardian Women's Football Weekly, having a tiny break at the moment.

We'll be back for next season, of course.

Finally, we've been sent some great footage of Sid Lowe really going for it at a green day gig um um

which prompted you baz in the whatsapp group to make a a demand a request didn't you abusing your position i would say well yeah sid and uh

the low family i think footage emerge of them absolutely losing their minds at green day at wembley tonight and i saw it first i thought it was sid like at a euro 2024 gig how brilliant this is what he get how he goes for it you can't imagine Wilson or Barney sitting in the press box in that, but Sid is really getting into this shit.

And yeah, so anyway, I'd just like to say, if Shania Twain is listening, and I think there are guardian rules about this, but if Shania Twain is a fan of Football Weekly, she was at Hyde Park next Sunday.

I would like the Uber Platinum

Cowboy Stetson hat treatment for Shania.

Wow.

I think I deserve it.

I think I've earned it, Max.

There's no football that day I've checked.

I'm free.

And come on, Shania.

Shania, a middle-aged man's Taylor Swift.

I mean, Taylor Swift is basically a Shania Twain covers band.

Everyone's making a big fuss over Taylor Swift.

Not so much over Shania.

Do you know, like, because I, I mean, apart from sort of man, I feel like a woman and that don't impress me much, then I'm sort of out of Shania Twain hits.

Have you got the full back catalogue?

Could you sing every song?

No, I couldn't sing every song.

But I watched...

There was a BBC special devoted to her appearances on the BBC.

And I was giving it the full Sid Low on my own while making a Greek salad.

I nearly chopped the tops of three fingers off.

Wow.

Bopping along.

So she's like your number one, your favourite artist.

She's still my number one.

Oh, my God.

It feels like a time to end this in a serious way when Barry starts singing Shania Twain.

It's not

Stars Under Eyes.

Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be Shania Twain.

I'm not sure that would work.

Anyway, that's it.

End it now.

It looks like we made it, Matt.

End it.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

Look, well, if you look, Shania, if you are listening, very much welcome.

As everyone is, we have no preference.

But if you can get Barry to Hyde Park to the Platinum Stetson Arena, I mean...

I'll almost certainly be there anyway, but I'd like the VIP treatment.

Fly me.

All right.

Can I play bass?

Shouldn't I?

No, accurate.

Can you imagine?

Would you be in chaps?

Would you be in chaps and spurs?

I'm willing to have him right after me.

Riding on a horse.

Oh, God.

Right, that'll do for today.

Thank you, Nadum.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Baz.

Thanks.

Thanks, Nikki.

Night, everyone.

Football Weekly is produced by Jesse Howard.

Our executive producer is Christian Bennett.