Arsenal thrash Chelsea and a Football League update – Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Arsenal keep up the pace at the top of the Premier League as they hammer a tired and out-of-sorts Chelsea.

Why didn't they buy anyone in the window?

Etc., etc.

Odegaard, brilliant.

Maybe they've got the legs and mentality after all.

Nottingham Forest doubled down on their full-time tweet as we all spend too much time finding out which team David Coote supports.

Most of today will be EFL permutations.

Leicester's 5-0 demolition of Southampton means they're surely there after a few little blips, which leaves one space for Ipswich or Leeds.

At the bottom, some great escapes from QPR and Sheffield Wednesday are on the cards.

Derby look like they'll join Portsmouth in automatic promotion from League One.

Watch out for Barry's John Massinio anecdote.

Lincoln and Oxford have stressful final days to see if they'll make the playoffs.

At the bottom, one of Cambridge, Burton and Cheltenham will go.

Cheltenham's still alive after beating Peterborough Reserves last night.

I am not bitter.

In League Two, there's a bunfight for the playoffs.

We'll do all that, answer your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hello.

Yeah, I don't have a John Massino anecdote.

It's a John Massino fact.

Right.

And we've already established I may not have that either because I can't find where I wrote it down.

I was about to roll it out a couple of weeks ago and you said to keep it for this.

And then

I've moved on to a different notebook.

Wow.

Well, you've got 40 minutes, I reckon, or half an hour to find it.

Ben Fisher, hello.

Hi, Matt.

Hello, George Ellick from Not the Top 20 podcast.

Hello, Max.

And hello, Sanny Rodravagulo.

Welcome, Sanny.

Hello.

Let's start at the top of the Premier League.

Then Arsenal, three points clear, having played a game more than Liverpool, two more than Man City.

They beat Chelsea 5-0.

Matt says, can you amortise a 5-0 loss over five years into 5-1-0 losses?

Prof.

Spur, amongst many others, saying, Do you think Chelsea could have managed a more modest 4-0 defeat had they dipped into the transfer market last summer and signed some new players?

Barry, I was watching Cambridge Wickham, and every time I looked up, Arsenal had scored.

And this was a real case of Arsenal good, Chelsea bad.

Yeah, Arsenal were superb, but Chelsea made life very easy for them.

Arsenal were they were only goal up at half-time.

And Chelsea, while they were almost unilaterally terrible last night, they did have a couple of chances.

Nicholas Jackson, who has the ear about him of a man whose confidence is completely shot,

missed probably the two best ones.

And then

Arsenal just went up a gear in the second half and completely swept him aside.

It was an absolute masterclass from Martin Odegaard,

who has matured into such such a fine player.

Such a,

you know, the way he sprays the ball around

left, right, through the middle, his little reverse passes, hard work when Arsenal don't have the ball.

No one works harder than him to get it back.

And

his just general leadership, he's absolutely brilliant.

He's a fine, fine player.

And he was really on it last night with a man-of-the-match performance.

And, you know, if City are to win this title and they are in the box seat, well, Arsenal at least are making sure they're going to have to work to win it and not going to make it easy for them.

And

then,

you know, you could wax lyrical about how good Arsenal were last night, but

Chelsea's were abysmal, particularly in the second half.

They just absolutely fell apart.

And as Pochatino said afterwards, when we are bad, we are really, really bad.

And they were dreadful last night.

And I guess the point is, George,

it's sort of not binary, is it?

It's not either Arsenal will win the league or they have no mentality, right?

It's possible that they have grown since last year.

You know, they are a stronger team, and yet they still might not win the league, right?

It's hard to win the league.

Definitely.

And one of my least favorite things in football is how everyone who doesn't succeed in what they look like they might do in early April, therefore bottles it.

But only one team can win a league.

You know, sometimes there will be occasions where you'll see teams in a position to do so and their performances do tail off and you have to question their mentality.

But I don't think that's necessarily the case with Arsenal or Liverpool necessarily.

We'll see what happens with City.

The performance that Arsenal put in off the back of some pretty disappointing displays, I think, shows a very good mentality.

You know, they had back-to-back deceits in the Champions League in the Premier League at home to Aston Villa.

They were not down at the Champions League.

So to come back from those and win a tricky away game at Wolves and then do what they did to Chelsea last night shows to me that they're a side who aren't going to go away.

So yeah, I'm totally on board with, can we please stop using the word bottle so much?

But we also have to remember that football is incredibly tribal and football fans revel in the idea of being able to rub

other clubs fans' noses in the fact that they haven't succeeded.

So I don't anticipate it'll change anytime soon.

It's like, you know, every time Roger Black came second to Michael Johnson, David Coleman should have said, it's another bottle job from Black.

Barry's already talked about how good Martin Edegard was in that pass for the Havertz goal.

The third goal was so good, Sandy.

But Havertz was great.

And the sort of interesting,

his story arc this season's been interesting.

Yeah, he did do very well.

And at one point on Twitter, he was trending at half-time with so many people saying he wasn't doing so well because he had one chance that kind of lacks a bit of conviction.

What I think is really interesting about all of this is Kai Havert's only 24.

I didn't quite realise how young he still was when you think he's been playing for so long.

And yeah, really kind of everything came together.

I know Phil McNulty on BBC Sports said he's no longer Arteta's vanity projects.

I mean, yeah, he's been actually played maybe in his strongest position, kind of centre-forward, false nine, as opposed to like wide left, which Arteta was doing for a while.

And it really kind of everything kind of fell together for him.

And clearly, the confidence is there.

You know, not quite the same position, but only a year younger than him on the other pitch.

Obviously other side is

Mudrick for Chelsea.

And you think, you know, we talk talk about you know he's raw and uh he's got potential but actually to think that he's got he's lacking in game so much compared to someone like havertz who's in his like sixth or seventh season now of senior football is quite amazing so um yeah really really bodes well for Arsenal that Havertz has come together and brought it together so well.

There was a lovely moment towards the end.

I say lovely.

It's only funny if you're not an Arsenal fan, where Jesus came on and

tried to turn a man inside the box and just lost his feet and fell over.

And you think even at 5-0 up, it's still not coming together for him.

So, if anything, it kind of cements Havertz's position up there.

Yeah, I mean, Chelsea might as well have been on a different pitch, to be fair, Sonny.

Paul says, How good.

And they got their Twitter admin was sort of petty, refused to name Kai Havertz.

I mean, while we're on petty Twitter, we'll get to Nottingham Forest in a second.

But Paul says, How good must Cole Palmer be?

I'm aware, Ben, you were, you know, you were watching Leicester Hammer Southampton, but even still, the Chelsea situation is fascinating.

You sort of think Cole Palmer can't be that important, but he wasn't there, and Chelsea was significantly worse.

Yeah, it's worrying.

And the thing I think about when I think of Chelsea, and obviously, they've had a lot of struggles this season.

You know, the defeat to Arsenal just the latest and really, really quite damning.

It's looking at the base of midfield, Kaisedo and Fernandez, and you just sort of wonder what earth has happened there.

You know, these are two guys who we were all kind of told, if you like, and you know, from what we saw of them before, it was like, you know, World Cup winner, one of the best holding midfielders in the Premier League in Caicedo.

Still obviously both fairly young,

but it's just, it's not worked, and they look miles off the players they were.

And, you know, in such a key area of the pitch, yeah, I don't know.

They just look miles off it.

And given, you know, the money, talking of bottle jobs and things earlier, obviously, you know, the Gary Neville line in terms of the billion pound stuff.

But,

you know, that is that is the nature of the fact is that they've spent all of this money and what they've got to show for it is

really quite poor as a sort of product.

Potatino should take some blame but the kind of assembling of the parts as well is a real mess.

Still big holes

in the squad in terms of depth and quality.

Jackson, is he the long-term solution up there?

Probably feels increasingly not.

So yeah, lots of concerns for Potatino.

But yeah, in contrast, I thought Arsenal...

I saw the Mitt Wolves on Saturday, and I have to say, I was really impressed with that win in a different manner to last night against Chelsea, it seems.

But

yeah, Odegaard, I feel like just a word for a doff of the cap for Barney Rone of this parish as well, who said Odegaard was sublime, rough house pressing and wonderful surgical passing, like being hounded to death by a poet.

And I thought that was that just hit a nail on the head, really.

Odegaard is, yeah, that's him in a nutshell.

So, yeah, really impressive.

Chelsea are just weird.

These are all good players they have in that side.

They are very good footballers, but every single one of them, with the exception of Cole Palmer, who wasn't playing last night, seems to have got markedly worse since arriving at Stamford Bridge.

And if you look at the players who were on the pitch last night, Mudrick, Badiashili, Dizazi, Kaisado, who was

incredibly bad, Enzo Fernandez, Jackson, Maluecki, Kukarella,

that's 500 million quids worth.

That's what they paid for those players, just around about half a billion pounds.

And it just seems incomprehensible that they can be so bad.

So

Pochino has been given a very hard job, but he's not making a good fist of it, is he?

We'll obviously do more, Chelsea, as the season continues.

Moving on, just an update on Nottingham Forest.

According to Rob Dorset of Sky, Sky Sports, Forest Forest Chiefs wanted to send their angry post at half-time.

And a media officer was able to talk them down and stop it from happening.

And then all hell broke loose after the loss.

It's such a shame.

I mean,

they want the audio from the PGMOL.

I want the audio from that.

Forrest will be given the opportunity to privately hear the VAR audio in a soundproof booth like Family Fortunes with the audio connected to the three penalty claims.

The FA is investigating Forrest's claim about Atwell.

Have asked for further observations from Nuno, Neco Williams and Mark Clattenberg.

Forrest doubled down on Monday

saying, we know match officials do not allow outside factors to influence their decision making and that all referees are required to declare their allegiances to the PGMOL to avoid any perceived conflict or harm to the game's reputation for integrity.

However, it is clear the PGMOL must amend its rule on allegiances to account for contextual rivalries in the league table, not just local rivalries.

And then Ben Rumsby in the Telegraph, George, put out the list of all the referees and who they support.

And Keith says, How do they decide how refs allegiances exclude them from officiating certain teams' games?

Huddlesfield fans, the Madleys, have had Leeds games in the past, but it seems anyone from anywhere near Merseyside never gets Everton or Liverpool.

Yeah, Peter Banks, Darren Bond, Rob Jones, Michael Salisbury, and Jared Dillett, who's actually from Queensland, they are not allowed to go near Liverpool or Everton games.

I don't know why I was so fascinated by this by this sort of list of who they support.

But is this not like

football jumping the shark a little bit when it comes to referees and the obsession?

Oh, yeah.

They're like the forensic obsession with every decision.

And this is a byproduct of, you know, I know it wasn't great before VAR, but now because we are used at the top level to having this policing of every single

event on a football pitch, which is, as we've spoken about so many times, not what it was initially intended for when it comes down to the benchmark of

you know clear and obvious error but it means that we now expect everything to go not just 100 correct but 100 our way because you know football decisions are subjective in so many occasions and you will have

you know taking out the neutral on both sides we'll have fans expecting every decision to be decided in in their means by var and that means that there is now an obsession with the decisions there's an obsession with who referee support and i don't really understand where it stops like i i've always thought in the last decade or so it's become clear that transfers seem to matter more to most fans in January than actual football games do.

It kind of feels like now it goes transfers and then referee decisions and then football thirds.

And, you know, I'm very lucky.

I mean, I support a team in League One.

Maybe I'm not that lucky, but I cover the EFL for my work.

And I was at Wembley on Sunday.

I was...

like supporting Coventry as if my life depended on it.

And I experienced for the first time that joy of celebrating a goal, but also thinking, oh my God, is it offside?

And then, yeah, it was offside and it was rubbish.

And,

you know, I wasn't looking up who the referee supported on my way home.

I can say that.

I think some of the real winners here are the ones where there's no team listed asudi support, like Tim Robinson, who's clearly like that kid who has been refereeing all his life.

You support a team?

No, no, I just like saw it out on the playground.

Is he the asokoto of

referees who?

Yeah, he's Ben White, isn't he?

He ain't the game.

He just has got really, really good eyesight.

He just happens to be really good at referee.

I liked Andrew Madley played for Huddersfield as a kid, and Simon Hooper played for Swindon.

So, you know, when someone says they've never played the game, they can say, well, actually, you know, that is a good level to have got to there.

So, you know, they should say, well, actually, I have.

And Graham Scott from Oxford supporting Swindon.

There's something wrong.

Something wrong there.

There was discussion about whether Nottingham Forest's tweets were the most embarrassing a club has ever done.

And a Bristol Rovers fan called Brimo tweeted, We announced the death of our kickman, retracted it an hour later, and then confirmed his death when he'd finally passed away, all in the same day, they said.

And when Bobby Jones died, Bristol Rovers entitled the tweet Booby Jones.

So, you know, there are some, you know, social media

gaffes from many clubs.

Anyway, look, that'll do for part one.

We will delve into the championship in part two.

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Coach, the energy out there felt different.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So the title race then, Leicester beat Southampton 5-0 in the Vestergaard Bednarek Derby.

Ben, you were there and they ran riot, didn't they?

Yeah, it was a bit of a slow burner, but yeah, by the end, Southampton just totally capitulated, folded.

Quite alarming the way they did in Leicester.

Yes, that kind of ran riot.

They're really impressive,

certainly towards the end of the second half.

But they're always in control.

Southampton never looked like scoring, to be honest.

And they got some good players, and Leicester made them look really, really ordinary.

And as big, what, three, four days for Leicester beating West Brom, you know, against whom they were really unconvincing, to be honest.

I mean, how West Brom didn't win that game, I'll never know.

They had sort of three cleared off the line, hit the post, I think they hit the bar as well, a couple of big saves and yeah they really peppered the goal whereas last night was a lot more comfortable for Leicester and they're so close now

and let's face it we we thought they'd have had this sort of wrapped up ages ago really

but given the wobble they had and it was quite the wobble

it's good that they're

yeah they're obviously so close now and it felt quite significant.

Indeedy's goal the second, the head of last night, felt really significant.

You felt the whole mood around the place.

It was sort of lift off and the songs were coming out and then the olays came after the third and fourth and they leiced definitely feel they're there now whereas you know four days ago it wasn't quite so uh secure yeah so they're on 94 points from 44 leeds 90 from 44 ipswich 89 from 43.

first career hat trick for abdul for tawu george um tell us a little bit about this guy he's been probably of the

you know, of the wide players Mavadidi this season has been the standout player.

He's on loan from sporting.

He's just 20 years old.

I would say the Mavadidi is the more

kind of the inside forward, the player that consistently likes to come in off the left-hand side and often shoots.

Whereas Fatawi is more of a genuine winger.

But

he's kind of grown into the season as it's gone.

It's been a really good bit of recruitment from Leicester.

And their recruitment is kind of aged pretty well, I would say.

Like Harry Winks has had a very good season midfield, always a player that you didn't think should probably play in the championship.

You know, the decision's been Conor Cody and hasn't really worked from a playing point of view, but you have to expect he's probably had a big impact off the field, too.

So, you know, Fataru's goals yesterday were very impressive.

It's interesting to note that in these two massive results for Leicester that sees them on the brink of returning to the Premier League, it's been a complete change of style and strategy where we've seen Leicester dominate possession in so many of their games.

Now, last night, Game State would have played a part because we saw them very much dominating the ball at 0-0.

And as soon as they went ahead, they were happy to drop off.

But against West Brom, who, you know, West Brom are a team who, you know, under Carlos Corbrane will often have a lot of the ball, but they're also very happy out of possession.

And again, West Brom dominated possession in that game, too.

So maybe Enza Mareska, who we know is a, you know, certainly a Pep Guardiola disciple and someone who likes his team to play a certain way.

Interesting that he seemingly wasn't too stubborn during a rocky time to say, no, this is the way we play.

And he's happy to mix it up a bit.

And they've, when you consider the players that they've got, like Jamie Vardi won a Premier League title thanks to his pace on the break.

You know, he is someone who absolutely thrives playing off the lot off the shoulder of the last man and running in behind.

Mavadidi and Fatara are two players with extreme pace as well.

Dewsbury Hall's unbelievable attacking space on the ball in transition.

So it's not a massive surprise that they've had a lot of joy in two games, even if they didn't play particularly well against West Brom.

That was more from a defensive standpoint with Baggies missing loads of opportunities.

So

it'll be interesting to see if Ipswich, because even though it feels like they're there now,

clearly Ipswich

and Leeds do have opportunities before Leicester next play because their game isn't until Monday night.

So if Leeds can't win their game,

if Ipswich can win theirs, then they will go to Preston still

needing to be kept up to task rather than being there already.

But they put themselves in a very good position now.

I listened to the Radio Leicester post-match debrief to this just to see or to hear what they had to say about it.

At one point, they forgot Fatari was on loan, actually, because he was so committed to the courts.

They were like, oh, we'll see him next season.

Oh, wait, we can't.

We might not see him.

Very interesting last night that they, yeah, as George kind of touched on, Leicester only had 34% possession.

And, you know, we know that this Leicester fan base haven't been particularly enamoured with Enzo Mareska's kind of ball possession style.

And they described it as kind of a Claudio Ranieri sort of performance of, you know, just smash and grab.

kinda.

A smash and grab 5-0 is great, isn't it?

That is really good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just smash, isn't it?

Yeah, it's just smash.

I had like the architect in the matrix style multi-screen setup last night, so I was watching this as well.

It did look like Russell Martin,

unlike Mareska, didn't compromise how his team played at all and just continued to keep hold of the ball no matter what.

And it's all very good doing that when you've got the players to do it.

But this happens with Russell Martin quite often, where he imposes this style, and it can work to a point.

And then at some point, the ability to players lets him down.

They got dispossessed with the ball in their own half loads of times.

So yeah, overall, interesting that Mareska kind of allowed his team to not have the ball, but he was asked afterwards, you know, was this the best performance of the season?

He basically went, no, no, it's not.

And kind of implied that he wants more of the ball.

And actually, this was, don't get used to this, Leicester fans.

Don't be happy at this great performance that reminds you of the old days and the 9-0 because actually, I'd rather a much more controlled performance and keep hold of the ball.

So even 5-0, he's still got things he wants to improve on.

Yeah, and and I was just going to say on Fataru, I think, you know, without kind of trying to dampen the enthusiasm too much, I think it will be interesting what happens with him.

As Sanny said, he's on loan, but Leicester have an option.

I think if they get promoted, it becomes mandatory.

But there's kind of this unknown where Leicester are currently under embargo.

We know that they've been charged by the Premier League for breaking financial rules, allegedly.

Under the embargo, Mareska was asked about it last night.

You know, can you actually still go and sign him if you get promoted?

Does that happen?

He's like, I don't know.

So there's a lot of.

I don't know, it's interesting.

It was rocking last night.

The atmosphere was great, but I wonder how kind of uneasy and how kind of excited Leicester fans actually are.

Because the reality is, if they do get over the line, which we probably think they will now,

there's lots of unknowns.

I think it could be a really difficult summer.

We know they probably, well, they need to generate more sales.

So yeah, I just think it'd be interesting what happens there.

And also, in terms of Fataru, it was Martin Glover, the former Southampton head of recruitment, who

now of Leicester, who sort of highlighted him and he's yeah as George said has been a sort of big success.

Mavadidi and Fatawa really look to the Premier League born or as if they will be.

Anytime I've seen Leicester this season they've been outstanding but are you saying Leicester could end up in a position like Sheffield United who either sold or lost

any players that might have realistically helped them stay in the Premier League?

Yeah, I'd be quite concerned I suppose just in terms of of what they will come up with.

Again, in terms of can they get players to sign new contracts?

That seems a bit of an unknown while they're under embargo.

In terms of registrations, number of players are out of contract at the end of the season, Vardi being one of them.

You know, he's on big money as we'd expect.

So,

yeah, I don't know.

Ian Acho, people like that in Dee Dee.

And

Tewsby Hall, we think Leicester would probably have to sell.

They've got to try and generate some money from somewhere.

Their losses are just totally unsustainable.

That's the cost of obviously a relegation, which nobody frankly saw coming.

Um, quite an anomaly in terms of their recent finishes last year getting relegated 18th.

So, um, yeah, without trying to sort of totally dampen the enthusiasm, I'm kind of just interested actually how Leicester fans see it because I don't think they're, you know, they know a lot of this.

Um, and I wonder quite how exciting it is the prospect of getting promoted.

And actually, hang on a minute, what are we going to have to work with?

That's quite interesting, quite how many sides in the Premier League, you know, we are hearing, you know, the same with Chelsea, same with Newcastle, lots who are going, well, they've got a sort of set, you know, it's probably a sort of seller's market.

It'll be really interesting to see.

Leeds had a great win against Middlesbrough on Monday night, went at 4-3.

It wasn't quite perfect.

You needed it to go 3-0, 4-3 for it to be a perfect 4-3.

They were 4-2 up, but still, you know, Middlesbrough came, you know, equalised a couple of times, or went ahead and then equalised to make it 2-2.

Somerville was brilliant in this game, I thought, George.

So, look, we've got Leicester who have got what need a win to be sure.

Preston away, Blackburn at home.

Leeds have QPR at home and Southampton away.

Ipswich go to Hull, Coventry, and then Huddersfield at home.

If they all win all their games, it's Leicester and Ipswich.

But how do you see it going?

Hard to say at this stage.

I mean, the good news for Leeds is that Southampton might do a Peterborough, you would think, and might, in their last game of the season, think we've got a big play-off campaign here.

There's no need to risk injury.

There's no need to play these players who've played a lot of games and give them a rest, which could help them.

You know, it comes down to looking at games and where, you know, who basically is going to need a win.

for ipswich for example they'll be hoping that hull beat coventry tonight and therefore coventry will go into their game not needing anything because they'll be out of the playoff race but conversely if coventry do win that game then that game comes a lot tougher similarly leicester um you know if they fail to beat preston will blackburn go into final day needing something out of that game to stay up there are so many permutations and often you know we can talk about how teams are on the beach and don't need anything.

But, you know, spoiler alert, Max, you watched a team yesterday in Wickham, who should have been on the beach come back and score a late goal a late penalty to um get a draw against a team that really needed a win so it was a big performance from leeds i would say because they had been really poor from an attacking standpoint against sunderland and against blackburn just unable to put the ball in the back of the net and you mentioned somerville and he'd been the one you know that in my mind unquestionably the best player in the championship um both in terms of talent and this season too and he'd kind of gone missing for a couple of games at the worst possible moment so for him to put in the display that we saw from him against borrow shows that he is still there for the run-in.

But

as we've been saying all season, you cannot rule out Ipswich, who just have this incredible ability to hurt in games.

They often do.

They go 20, 30-minute spells of being under the cushion, under pressure, and seem to be able to drag themselves back out and normally end games incredibly strong.

So

if I had to call it now, I'd probably still just about have Ipswich ahead of Leeds because of the games that they have remaining don't look too difficult, albeit they have three and they've got the advantage at the moment.

So so the playoffs will be one of those three who'll drop into it with southampton and then probably west brom and norwich and sunny actually quite a few people asking about the job that carlos corbrane has done at west brom and has sort of not sort of gone under the radar a little bit and actually

he's done an amazing job to get them there he really has especially when you think about the

up until recently they had a lot of financial issues hanging over them and if they hadn't had somebody come through and or they hadn't got promoted or they won't get promoted it was looking like you know potentially oblivion for for West Brom.

A really solid core of players as well.

I've seen a lot of West Brom this season.

You know Cedric Kipray at the back is one and

Carl Bartley as well.

In fact, all the back line are really solid.

And then going forward, like Grady D'Angana on that left-hand side or right-hand side where he pops up has been really exciting.

They've just seemed to have quality at this level.

everywhere and really kind of solid.

I mean, if they did go up, I think it'd be classic West Brom where they'd kind of struggle and they're trying to bring in players to try and bridge that gap.

But equally, if they're not under an embargo, they might be one of the few teams that can do that.

So, yeah, he has done a really good job.

He's also very good value if he were back in the Premier League because he does like kick every ball and scream constantly.

He would definitely upset Keys and Co., I think, because he goes through it every single time.

It's funny, going back to the Arsenal game, Mikel Arteta, who is quite similar, but he was asked, like, you know, how much are you impacting these players and how much is, you know, how much is it themselves?

And he said, oh, we're just, I can just let, I can just trust them to do the job and I can leave them in the dressing room.

I wonder what Carlos Corbran does with his players because he's almost like...

He's almost like playing Xbox when

he's there, like dictating where he wants players to be very precisely, in a way, like as if he had a controller in his hand or something and he could just tell them what to do.

But yeah, he's very good value for money.

Post-match interviews, he's always absolutely exhausted as a result.

But yeah, he has done a really good job.

And I suppose that force of will and that energy that he puts in on the side certainly has helped push them through as well.

And at home, West Brom, by the way, like the fan base has been great all season.

You know, it's a sellout pretty much every game.

And overall, yeah, I suppose that's why it's gone under the radar because they have been consistent more or less this season.

But yeah, lots of really good elements between them all as far as how successful they could be.

At the bottom, Rotherham are down and then pick two.

Huddersfield are 44 from 44.

Birmingham 46 from 44.

Sheffield Wednesday 47 from 44.

Plymouth 48.

Blackburn 49.

QPR 50.

Neil Harris, boo, has expertly guided Millwall to safety.

They've won their last three.

I don't know what you think, Ben.

The biggest stories of this.

Sheffield Wednesday, Danny Royal looks like he's got them out of it.

And Sifuentez as well at QPR.

But both those sides look gone at times, didn't they?

Yeah, I was going to mention Wednesday.

I think

given what he's kind of been working with there, it's hugely impressive.

I think he is the youngest manager, I believe, in the Football League.

And he,

I mean, I think taking that job at Wednesday, it was, I don't know, in some ways, like, what are you doing?

You know, it's...

You thought he was just, I don't know, had no hope, to be honest.

I thought they were gone a long time ago.

When he came in, I thought he's got no chance of kind of reviving the squad.

Got 19 players out of contract in the summer, including Barry Bannon, who feels like he's been there for about 25 years.

And looks like he's been there for about 25 years.

He's just reinvigorated the whole place.

You know, he's got it bouncing Hillsborough's, you know, it's a great ground, but he's, yeah, he's got fans kind of more buoyant about things because I mean, even after getting promoted, the way Chanceri runs that kind of ship, it was so kind of easy to be negative and kind of all quickly quite humdrum.

And yeah, him and Chris Powell, his assistant, who's obviously a really popular guy, got connections with the club.

Yeah, I think he's onto something.

I think he's really proven that, you know, what he can do with, I have to say, with a really, you know, Bar Rotherham, I would say it's the weakest squad in the division, probably fairly comfortably.

Yeah, and yeah, he's obviously got the daddy cool, Boney M chant.

The fans have caught on to sing his song.

And I know he said the other day that even his boys are singing it to him.

But yeah, he's a coach.

He's proven what he can get out of a really limited squad.

I think, you know, I'd be amazed if clubs higher up the chain were not keeping an eye on that.

I think because it's such a long season, it's easy to forget exactly how much peril QPR and Wednesday were in.

Like, if we go back to the 27th of October and look at the league table and the championship, then QPR were 23rd.

So they were below Rotherham and they'd played 13 games.

They'd won two of them, drawn two and had eight points, only scoring nine goals.

So they were, you know, it's a terrible start.

Sheffield Wednesday, through 13 games, had won none of them, had drawn three, had scored five goals and had three points.

Like, I mean, that is, like,

this isn't just an impressive,

you know, a great escape of a team that started poorly and Royal comes in.

Like, they were...

like as close to relegated in October as you could really be.

Like them at them and Cheltenham in League One were in kind of similar positions where it was just completely beyond hope at an early stage.

And for Royal to come in in his first kind of top job, and not only did he improve results, but he's done it in like a really impressive way.

Like they play this really high-octane, high-pressing, not particularly possession-heavy, but you know, it's rock and roll football in a sense where it's not just

pragmatism like Sifuentes and QPR who deserves, you know, similar credit too.

So I totally agree with Ben in that I'd be amazed if there aren't clubs who are looking at him.

I think there are quite a few Sunderland fans who are hoping that they'll be looking at him.

I think it would be an absolute disaster for Sheffield Wednesday if they were to lose a manager to Sunderland at this stage

because they have to have aspirations to become a team challenging for the top six themselves.

But, you know, it's not an easy place, I don't think, to work.

There isn't a massive football infrastructure.

So for Royal to come in at his age and without, you know, the experience of being the main man and to do what he's done and turn that squad around and the playing style as well.

It's It's in a season where we've had loads of incredible appointments midway through it.

He's got to be right up there.

Well, if Shefford Wednesday isn't an easy place to work, he's in for a treat when he goes to Sunderland.

I mean, talk about frying pan fire.

That's Sunny.

Huddersfield, Birmingham at the weekend is pretty big, isn't it?

It is.

It is huge.

The advantage of it being at Huddersfield might really help them.

And Birmingham,

they pretty much had it in their hands after beating Coventry 3-0.

And then away to Rotherham last time out, who'd already been relegated and drawing 0-0.

And there's a little bit of a circus around Steve Evans going back to Rotherham.

But to not take three points there was

really quite criminal.

I saw Huddersfield earlier in the season when they demolished Sheffield Wednesday just with a quick fire.

I think it was 4-1 in the end.

And there is quality there, but yeah, I mean,

relative to this level, it all becomes much of a muchness, and you're kind of relying on one key person on the day, like the Jay Stansfield, for Birmingham to come through.

But, I mean, it is just incredible.

I know we've talked about this before, but Birmingham's fall this season has been just monumental.

And Gary Rowart coming in, it's not too late, but you know,

if his mantra is, you know, keep them solid, well, fine, but you need to keep.

scoring goals.

So, yeah, I mean, it could be a real kind of turgid affair.

And it could just be nicked by one bit of quality in the end and for reasons of wanting more employment reporting at games i'd like cuddersfield to win okay so i get more work there

we'll see what we can do uh nick says as a blackburn fan if i hear anyone say has a team ever gone down with the league's top scorer one more time i'm gonna slam my phone against the wall that ben is with reference to sammy smodic said a great season for them um but are they the team in freefall well i certainly wouldn't feel anything close to confident confident.

Yeah, I'd be pretty concerned if I was a Blackburn fan.

Let's face it, the appointment of John Eustace just hasn't worked, hasn't really given him any kind of boost or lift.

Yeah, it's been a really difficult season.

I think Thomason obviously did a really good job of what he had to work with there.

They've obviously, the recruitment's been okay.

Obviously, losing Walton was disappointing, but kind of inevitable.

But yeah, I'd be quite concerned if I was a Blackburn fan.

It does feel a little bit like they're sliding down.

And as we said a minute ago, teams like Wednesday,

you know, on the up, really, has to be said.

I think Wednesday would be okay.

Birmingham,

I think, might do it.

I think might do it.

I'd be, yeah, I would be concerned about Blackburn.

And they've got,

yeah, it's not an easy finish either for them in terms of who they've got to play.

So I think,

yeah, I mean, it's a weird one because Smodix,

you know, interesting play, went from Colchester to Bristol City, didn't happen for him there, he got championship move, didn't didn't work out.

And now he's had this, you know, total new lease of life, and you can't knock it.

He's a great finisher.

I'm not sure his ceiling is.

You know, often when we see

a player top of the championship, sort of goal scoring charts, as it were, we think, you know, he's destined for the Premier League, whatever.

With respect to him, I think he's a really good player.

I'm not sure he's going to be sort of ripping it up in the Premier League anytime soon, but maybe he'll prove me wrong.

But he's got international recognition with Ireland.

And yeah, we'll inevitably move on, I would have thought, in the summer.

But I'm not sure if we're going to see him sort of turning up in the Premier League anytime soon.

Cameron Jerome syndrome, is it

a touch of that?

Yeah,

I mean, Birmingham's players at the moment,

they're playing, you know, because of the unfortunate illness of Tony Mowbray.

They're playing under their fifth manager of the season between permanent appointments, interims.

And I did a top in the championship, and not including Gary Rhode, who's now taken over from Mark Venus, who had taken over from who was Tony Mulberry's assistant.

I make it 20 managerial changes in the championship this season, not counting caretakers.

And that's all from teams from 11th down.

So, like, no team in the top 10 has changed their manager, but every team from 11th down has changed at least once.

Birmingham had three managers.

Sunderland, Huddersfield, Millwall, Plymouth, Rotherham have all had two.

It seems excessive.

And it's caused some like real identity crises within these clubs as well.

Like we talk about Blackburn and John Eustace.

To go from Jondell Thomason to John Eustace is just shows a real lack of succession planning and understanding because you know Jondell Thomason had them as probably the most expansive team in the whole league.

Eustace is someone who built a very strong defensive Birmingham side.

Like for these players who've been working, who have been recruited to play a certain way, way, been told to play a certain way, and then suddenly Eustace comes in and says, Well, forget all of that.

It's not surprising it hasn't worked.

You can say the same with Plymouth Argyle, who lost even Schumacher, but Schumacher and Ryan Lowe before him playing this Uber attacking style.

Then Ian Foster came in, and rather than continuing the good work that we saw from Schumacher, just completely changed everything, bombed out certain players, went to a really defensive mindset.

And then where do you start with Birmingham?

You go from Eustace and this kind of successful, pragmatic approach to Rooney, who promises like no fear football to Mowbray, who we know

he's incredibly good at developing young talent and playing attacking football, to then to Rowatt, who again goes back to the kind of defensive mindset.

It always baffles me how you see, you know, the managerial changes happen too often, but you can understand it because it's the one thing you can change.

Like you can't change your playing squad overnight.

But to go from one extreme to the other rarely works.

And I think that's why those teams are paying for their decisions.

Can't wait for a manager to say, I'm going to play fear football.

I'm here to play absolutely terrified football.

Just to give one example of what managers do behind the scenes.

So I know Yondale Thomason, when he was at Blackburn, he'd get his players to do like little talks, you know, like PowerPoint presentations actually to each other, like doing little, I don't know on what topic, I assume football related.

I don't know, like what's your top 10 rom-coms or whatever.

I don't know.

But the idea of giving responsibility to the players on such like a wide, sort of holistic sort of place, you know, he really was kind of thinking of the club wide.

And, you know, he's very much connected to the youth setup.

And we've seen a lot of young players come through at Blackburn over the last season or two.

So when you get rid of someone like that, you know, I know results weren't great, performances were a bit hit and miss.

You really are, especially at the championship where managers can have so much more control, you really are ripping all that away.

And I don't know how much John Hughes dislikes his powerpoint maybe he's more of a google sheets man or neither uh but those little elements may probably have been thrown out the window and yeah it really is kind of if you think footballers are creatures of habit yeah

then all that's kind of taken away barry you know that stat you got about the managers was that in the same notebook as the john massinho fact or not uh no this is uh that's in my current notebook i have found my john massinho fact oh okay well that's coming up in just a second how exciting

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Let's do League One and League Two.

So, look, Portsmouth have won the title in League One.

So Barry, come on, hit us.

Well, they went up under John Massino, who's done an absolutely fantastic job at Portsmouth.

And I happened to notice that when they hired him, he was on Carl Robinson's coaching staff at Oxford United.

So he was appointed on the 20th of January 2023.

And the next day, Oxford won, presumably because you know he had been involved in training that week and then after that they proceeded to lose nine of their next ten games they only drew one and they only won three of the remaining 20 games of the season now Carl Robinson went about

he was sacked about a month after Messino left his coaching staff but I'm going to say that John Messino was the wind very much the wind beneath Carl Robinson's wind and the brains behind that particular coaching operation.

I think he was, George, he was controlling Karl Robinson as John Massino.

I'm not going to talk about Carl Robinson's wind too much, but I do think that the

Barrys tapped into a source of massive frustration within Oxford fans because Massinho was a play as a player and a captain and then a coach was an incredibly popular figure in Oxford.

And it was always assumed that when Carl Robinson left, he would be the one to take over.

And by the time Messinho did move on which came as a complete ball out of the blue the fan base had all already turned against Carl Robinson and people couldn't understand why the decision wasn't made to relieve Carl Robinson of his duties and at least give Messinho the job until the end of the season so you know it was frustrating at the time Obviously with Messinho winning league one in his first full season as a manager means that it rankles a little bit

and he's still an incredibly popular figure at the club.

So yes, Barry, it is frustrating.

We've got a lovely email from Emily.

It's quite a long one, but it's worth reading, who's a Portsmouth fan.

Dear Max Barry and the gang.

Sorry for the long message.

I wanted to share the below.

I went to my first ever football game.

I won all draw between Portsmouth and Newcastle at Fratton Park in March 2005 alongside my dad.

I knew several of the chants that he had sung me as lullabies.

Feed the yak and he will score was my favourite.

I can remember the excitement of the Pompey Equalizer, but didn't quite catch the football bug and didn't return for many years.

In my six-year-old head, football was firmly a boy's thing.

Around 2012, I started to get interested in football, became a huge Arsenal fan, much to my dad's bitter disappointment.

But it's only over the last three years that I've become truly obsessed with football, and no small part due to Football Weekly.

As a woman who doesn't have years of childhood football obsession and knowledge to draw upon and no female friends interested in the game, the pods felt like a non-judgmental and encouraging friend leading me along the way.

I know you may laugh at it being described as educational, yes, but listening has given me the confidence to have opinions and speak about football with far more people and allowed me to enjoy the game more.

Next up is Inverting the Pyramid.

Honestly, Emily.

Told.

Don't bother.

I've also introduced the pod to my dad.

We had a brilliant evening at Football Weekly Live in Brighton last November, but the best footballing memories we've made in the past year have been at the four Pompey games I've gone to with him at Fratton Park, culminating with them securing a title and promotion last Tuesday.

The atmosphere was unrivalled for the whole game, but the utter euphoria when Conor Shaughnessy's header went in to win it and the ensuing pitch invasion was hands down the greatest footballing moment I've ever experienced.

And experiencing it alongside my dad was something that will stay with me forever.

When I was little, the concepts of Portsmouth and football were interchangeable to me.

Pompey was football.

The day Pompey won the FA Cup in 2008 is burned into my brain.

As is the day of one of their many relegations, the first time I ever saw him cry.

Last Tuesday, I was the one crying.

There is so much bullshit surrounding football at the moment.

But without hopefully sounding too cheesy, this moment really reminded me of why I love football and why it's so important for so many people.

I don't think my dad would have expected the journey Pompey have been on since that first game we attended in 05.

I really don't think he would have expected to one day witness them getting promoted alongside his daughter who brought along a book to read in case she got bored at that first game.

It meant the world to both of us.

Now we just have to host Southampton.

Don't get promoted.

Play up Pompey and lots of love.

P.S.

I had surgery under local anesthetic last year to remove a cyst on my leg.

And of course, with the pot in my ears, it all went well.

There was a scary moment when I had to stop myself laughing and consequently moving too much from the surgery from something Wilson said to Barry.

Thank you, Emily.

And you know, look, we all need moments to remind ourselves of why we love this game.

And that is a beautiful email.

I like hearing that Emily's dad used to sing her Portsmouth chants as lullabies.

And I now have this image in my head of, you know, come morning time when he's getting her up for school, he put on a top hat and ring a ship's bell.

So Portsmouth are up.

It looks very much like Derby are there, barring something ridiculous, George, happening between

some big Bolton win and a Derby defeat on the final day.

Yeah, I mean, Derby have Carlisle at home.

So Carlisle 24th in League One.

They haven't.

They've been a bit better, I would say, in the last few weeks.

By no means is it going to be

a foregone conclusion that Derby win it, but you'd expect them to at least get the point that they need to go up automatically.

There is a bit of a wrinkle to this where if Peter Bradoux put out the kids again, then maybe that opens the door because they play Bolton.

And Bolton, you know, if they rack up a big score and Derby do get beaten, there is a chance that they could overtake them on final day.

But it's incredibly unlikely.

So Derby looks set to finish second.

Paul Warren was brought in to take Derby back to the championship.

It's what he does.

He gets teams promoted from League One.

And it'll be interesting to see, you know, if Derby have aspirations to kind of kick on in a way that Rotherham didn't do, how he performs back up in the championship.

And it'll be Bolton who have to dust themselves down and make sure they don't have that hangover that we often see teams who finish third and just miss out on automatic promotion on final day, sometimes struggle to get up for the playoffs.

And so you never have to make sure that doesn't happen.

Yeah, so in the playoffs, it'll be probably Bolton with Peterborough and then two of Barnsley, Lincoln, Oxford, and Blackpool.

Barnesley on a terrible run, Ben.

Who do you think is going to make it?

I mean, they're in the box seat of winning.

They're definitely in.

But who do you think will make it?

I think Barnesley are really interesting as well because they've sacked Neil Collins, the manager, this week with one game to go.

So things must have been, Biconius seemed

pretty bad there.

They must have really thought he was the problem.

I don't quite know how you'd feel going into playoffs like that.

Maybe they'll feel a bit free and liberated, who knows?

I think Lincoln, a really interesting Michael Skabala, the head coach, there, obviously talking earlier about Danny Roll.

So Fuente has a QPR and he's got, you know, what I've been, what I've proved, brilliant appointments.

And Skabala definitely sort of you know falls into that category at Lincoln?

Interesting guy, interesting background, used to be England futsal coach, actually coached.

I did a piece of Max Kilman the other week at Wolves, and he coached Kilman there.

Yeah, and he's just got Lincoln playing really good football, and they've obviously got results as well.

So they're in the mix.

I probably fancy them.

I think Barnesley, I don't know, it seems to have been a big gamble.

I think they're one win in five or no wins in five,

hence the change.

But I don't know, it feels

the wrong wrong time to do that to me.

I think you either stick with it and sort of go again in the summer or I don't know, or get rid of him earlier on.

I think the fans have been unhappy there for a little while, giving the tail off.

But yeah, I think Link would have been a great story.

I think the atmosphere at Barnesley had got so bad.

Like there was a case where there was an interesting article written in the local press about how it's customary for Barnsley fans to go, as it is with many fan bases, to go to their final away game in fancy dress.

So, what it led to is you had loads of really angry men in fancy dress uh breaking manager last weekend

which is a a great um

you know thing to picture i like the commitment of still getting in fancy dress when you're really furious like yeah i've got to do this i'm furious but i will still dress as a lizard or whatever they want to that's great i i was at oakwell for the playoff semi-final second leg last year when they beat bolton and the place was absolutely bouncing and they were so behind Mike Duff.

And it's a, you know, it's a decent stadium and it's like that.

And things couldn't have been more different with Neil Collins.

And so they've decided to roll the dice.

I think, just in the hope that the toxicity being taken away can somehow improve the performances enough, even just on Saturday, to get past Northampton and get into the top six.

Just to mention, I was at Bolton against Port Vale on Saturday.

And,

yeah,

I think they are the team that are going to go up.

I think they've really learned from the disappointment of last season and the play-off semi-finals.

And Ian Everts got a pretty decent squad together.

Aaron Collins, they brought in from Bristol Rovers in January, has really hit the ground running.

I think they are the ones to beat.

And also, as far as getting fans on side, they've got this fan zone this year, and fans are coming in really early, probably having a couple of beers.

But all in all, there's a regular feel-good feeling at the tough sheet, at the tough sheet stadium.

So, yeah, Bolton are the team I think that will do it for the playoffs.

At the bottom, Carlisle are down, Port Vale are down, Fleetwood are down, Cheltenham 44 from 45, Burton, 46 from 45, Cambridge 47 from 45.

Oh,

it's just agony.

So, yeah, we drew one all with Wickham last night with one up, and then Lyle Taylor gave away a penalty, which seemed like an inadvisable thing to do.

Although, Gay Monks definitely wasn't a penalty, I wasn't sure.

Cheltenham, big Peterborough Reserves.

Thank you, Posh.

So,

how's it going to go, Ben?

Well, I have to say, I think we've spoken on here before about Cheltenham and Daryl Clark, but it's the obvious sort of storyline to watch the weekend.

I mean, they go to Stevenage, who don't really have anything to play for now.

Playoffs are beyond them, and I don't know.

I think it is a neutral.

You kind of, you know, in terms of looking at storylines in football, it's something you kind of want to happen, right?

They, you know, have one point, no goals when Daryl Clark was appointed in September, sort of shades of the Sheffield Wednesday situation in terms of just how bleak it was, in terms of how probably everybody was quite resigned, even at that point, to relegation, especially given the resources, the squad they're working with, the budget, probably a mid-table League 2 budget, maybe a bit north of that.

You know,

it's not a high-end League 1 budget he's working with.

I think he kind of built the siege mentality after last weekend, really disappointing.

They lost to Carlyle as well recently, who was George obviously alluded to earlier, you know, bottom of the league, had two really poor results.

Yet they knew if they beat Peterborough, you know, they could still do it.

It was still possible on the final day.

And I just think I think they might do it.

And I think it would be an amazing achievement.

If they do it, it would be one of the stories of the season in the whole sort of pyramid, let alone in League One.

And yeah, I think what Daryl Clark has created this week going into the game, the way he reacted to last weekend, he said, look, that's fine.

We go to Tuesday, we win, we take it to the final day.

And I think he's just

ready for it.

And I think he'll get the players just absolutely going for it.

And he was saying last weekend, you know, bring your friends, bring your cousins, bring a guinea pig.

I don't care so I would have been interested to see the attendance at Wadden Road but yeah I think they'll I think they'll go to Stevenage and I think they'll give it a really good go obviously if they win they still it still might not be enough depending on Burton but I think they've got a hell of a chance Donald Chamler always announced the canine attendance after the actual attendance at their grounds Champion Hill, Champion Hill.

I was kind of underhill manager.

So I'm just wondering, did they announce a guinea pig attendance?

I would love to

hopes.

I can only hope so.

I reckon it would have been, I don't know, maybe double figures.

Who knows?

Well, at Cheltenham, in the position that Cambridge were in last year, when we stayed up against all the odds, I just, I feel totally sick.

We go to Port Vale, who are relegated.

Burton go to Fleetwood, who are already relegated.

Do you sort of think Cheltenham will be quite lucky if...

I don't want to say anything.

I'm not saying anything out loud.

Too terrifying.

Max, just to kind of...

warn you, with Port Vale being relegated, if they do play the kids, the kids are actually very good.

Oh, God.

They've got a 16-year-old in Jack Sharrock, who's done really well this season, and they've got a 17-year-old Bailey Depe.

England under 17 International, he came on against Bolton, but it's really impressive.

I think he's got three already this season in a decent runner-form.

So maybe hope Darren Moore doesn't play the kids, Max, because it could be a bit of squeaky bum time for you.

And just to further compound,

actually, this helps you.

No, this helps me.

This helps you.

I

burnt

a much trickier trip to Fleetwood than it looks, I would say.

Fleetwood under Charlie Adam have been very impressive in terms of their performance level.

They're way, way better than they have been previously under Scott Brown and Lee Johnson.

I think he's a manager to watch next season if he's still there in League Two.

And, you know,

if Cheltenham do beat Stephen Edgeray, then Burton have to win.

A draw wouldn't be enough.

And that would help Cambridge as well.

Come on, just someone.

Top of League Two, Stockport have the title, Mansfield, Wrexham both up.

The playoffs,

it's pretty fascinating.

MK Dons are in it.

MK Dons are there.

And then, well, Doncaster are fifth, which is a story in itself, but definitely not guaranteed.

Crew, Barrow, Crawley, Bradford, Walsall could all make it.

George, Doncaster's, as Johnny says, they were 22nd in early February.

It's like another one of these stories.

Below Colchester.

He says, today I'm off to Colchester Donnie.

Donnie winning almost certainly giving them a playoff spot.

Colchester could go down.

Donnie won that 4-1, 10 wins in a row.

It's absolutely incredible.

I mean, you consider also the amount of games they've played.

They basically played Saturday, Tuesday throughout that period, too.

It's just a nice example of a club.

They hired Grant McCann, who has success there in the past.

They have, I think, a top seven budget at the very least in League Two.

And rather than doing what most teams do when things unravel a little bit and sat the manager, they retain the faith in the guy that they appointed and then are reaping the rewards for that, which you don't see very often because normally the manager doesn't have time to do that.

It's been an amazing runner-form.

They are, to my mind, playing probably the best football in League Two right now.

And they're probably the team that everyone wants to avoid, I would say, in the playoffs.

It's been an incredible rise.

And that 4-1 win against Colchester is really damaging to the home side because

they looked pretty safe going into it because their goal difference was so much better than Sutton's.

Going into the game last night, they were minus 18 goal difference, Sutton minus 25.

But losing by three goals means that there only has to be a four-goal swing for them to be level on goal difference,

which isn't beyond the realms of possibility if Sutton do beat MK Dons and Colchester lose against crew.

The one thing in Colchester's favour is that they play crew on final day.

Colchester needs just a point to ensure safety, crew need just a point to finish in the top six.

So, this could be one of those games where they just pass it around for 90 minutes and finish as nil-nil.

Yeah, that's interesting.

But I mean, MK Dons are totally, you know, they can't, they are third, and they are fourth, and they will stay fourth.

So, I guess, you know, of all these teams that might play the kids, they might also play the kids.

Anyway, look, look, we've got to a lot there, and that is great.

Any unless anyone has anything vitally important to add?

Well, this isn't vitally important, but I'm just curious.

I always listen to George and Ali's pre-season pods because

it does a lot of heavy lifting.

And no, this is not a gotcha because I can't really remember them.

They were so long ago.

I'm just curious to know, is there anything, any one thing that sticks out in your mind that you got horribly wrong?

I thought you were going to ask anything that we got really right.

I mean, it's quite a a difficult thing to do.

We had Leicester 4th, which hasn't aged great.

I think maybe we kind of went too far against the grain with that one.

But looking through it, I mean, I can't remember it particularly well

either.

Did you peg Swindon for on-course for the worst ever season in their entire life?

We definitely went bullish about me and Swindon would have been mid table at best.

Who is ever bullish about Swindon?

No bias.

Oh, Crawley Town.

Crawley by Miles are the ones where they were favourites relegation.

They were favourites come bottom.

I'm pretty sure we had the bottom, and they've had an unbelievable season.

I don't think anyone could have seen it after last season with the crypto bros coming in and overseeing a period of just total calamity.

Are the crypto bros still there?

They are still there, yep.

They take a

they're way less public facing.

I think they learnt a lot in that first season to not to over-promise and under-deliver.

Preston Johnson, I think, is maybe a bit brighter than many people realise because of the

issues from last season.

But Scott Lindsay is a manager who it's amusing to think back to last season.

Swindon fans were kind of laughing as Crawley paid compensation to take Scott Lindsay off their hands.

And that has aged terribly because he's done an unbelievable job at Crawley, playing a really attractive round of football with a team who anticipated to come in the bottom two.

They are on the brink of the playoffs.

They're in eighth at the moment.

But obviously, with it being so congested up there, they'll fancy their chances so they can win on final day at home to Grimsby that one of those teams above them will drop points, especially with Barrow hosting Mansfield.

Barrow, a team who looked like an absolute shoo-in for the top seven and are now in danger of falling out, having been there for I think the whole season.

All right, well, we'll see what happens this weekend.

Uh, thanks so much for your time.

Cheers, Sanny.

Cheers, thank you.

Thanks, Ben.

Thank you, thank you, George.

Thank you, Max.

Cheers, Barry.

Thanks, Max.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

This is The Guardian.