Fitba corner returns and are Bayern Munich in crisis? – Football Weekly Extra podcast

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly crisis at Bayern.

Question mark.

They lose in Rome to Lazio without a shot on target.

How much pressure is Thomas Tukalunda as he watches Harry Kane and friends lumber around, creating not a whole lot.

Lazio didn't create that much either, but still a significant win for Maurizio Sari in Paris.

PSG are garbage for the best part of an hour before Mbappe's goal sent a surge of confidence through the team.

A 2-0 win.

Rail Societad looks sharp, but you can see why they haven't scored a goal for five games.

We'll look ahead to a Premier League weekend, including Man City hosting Chelsea and nice-ish-looking fixtures for the rest of the top five.

UN Murray's Jazzbar keeps very sporadic opening hours, but it's here today as we have a proper title race fit bar corner.

All that plus justice for Philogene, your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Nikki Bandini, welcome.

Morning.

Hello, Barry Glendenning.

Hello, Max Rushton.

And bonjour sava, Philippe Auclaire.

Savatribien, Max Rushton.

Yes.

Guy says, does Harry Kane need to move to win things?

Ladder says if Harry Kane signed for Celtic, who would win the league?

Harts, Hibbs, or Motherwell?

Our Irish driving instructor says, Did Bayern Munich need to just add a few more Spurs players players before things really begin to tick?

Yeah, at the Stadio Olimpico, Lazio beat Bayern 1-0.

Huge win for them.

Obviously, a huge turning point with the red card and the penalty, Nikki.

But, I mean, pre-game, certainly when the draw was made, this was not predicted, was it?

No, and I and I feel like I need to sort of deliver the Italian perspective on this.

No one in Italy expected this.

No one in Rome expected this.

This was very much, and of course, keeping in the frame here that this is the first leg and they could easily get well up to 4-0 and the second leg.

But I think expectations were really, really low for Lazio, easily the lowest out of any of the Italian teams that are through to the knockout stage of the Champions League.

And

I think this result, well, they hadn't won a Champions League knockout game in Lazio for 24 years.

So it's a result that's going to be remembered for a really, really long time, even if things do go south

in the return leg.

I thought it was...

a demonstration of perhaps all of their limitations, but also a team managing to do what it could despite those limitations.

This team is eighth in Serie A.

This is not a team that last season they were second.

Last season, the defence was tighter.

And I think last season, critically, I would say they had a higher sort of technical ceiling because they had Sergei Milinkovich Savic, who was the one player in that team, perhaps other than Imobile, who you looked at and thought, okay, this is a really technically capable player who

can do things.

Chiro Imobile, who's been injured for a part of the season, was out of form horribly at the start of this season, got dropped from the starting 11, someone who's been untouchable for such a long time, wasn't even starting games earlier this season.

And to some extent with him, there's this thing going on where he was very, very close for a long time to hitting his 200th Serie A goal.

He got that two games ago, and it feels like that sort of classic strike accliche about the catch-up bottle that was stuck, and now he's scored in three games in a row.

But this is, it's a limited team, and I think Maurizio Sali deserves a lot of credit for shutting down

Bayern as effectively as they did.

The goal, yes, it's a penalty, it's a mistake by Meccano, but they gave themselves a chance to hang in this game long enough to get that opportunity.

And it's interesting, actually, Barry, isn't it?

It's a limited team who also made Bayern look limited.

I was thinking,

and Crystal Palace play Everton again, and you were so delighted about watching another one of them.

And it almost felt a bit like that sort of game.

I was like, neither of these two sides are elite.

And maybe that's doing them both a disservice.

I don't know, but it was all just felt quite ploddy.

Yeah, I think that's actually a good description.

Neither of them really got going.

And I think if you just happened to be watching the game and didn't know who was playing, you wouldn't think there were two elite teams.

You know,

just

everything was very ponderous and slow.

And

you ask...

in the intro, are Bayern Munich in crisis?

And I think by Bayern Munich standards, they certainly are.

I mean, Ivan Provodal in the Lazia goal didn't have to make a save.

Harry Kane only had one shot of no early in the game, which he ballooned over the bar.

He's scored six in his past 12,

compared to 22 in his first 16 games as a Bayern player.

So that's

a worrying drop-off.

Byron have failed to score in consecutive games for the first time in nine years.

Tuchel has lost one in four as their manager, or just a little under one in four.

knocked out of the cup by a third division team.

And

there seems to be a prevailing view that they'll be okay, they'll turn it around the second leg.

And I'm not so sure.

I think the fact that it's not for three weeks is a big advantage for them.

I think if it was played the next week, they'd be in big trouble.

And the last seven times I read this morning, they've lost the first leg of a Champions League tie, they've gone out.

So I don't think there's anything near a foregone conclusion that they will

win the second leg or win by a sufficient margin to turn this around and go to the quarterfinals.

Picking up off what Burz said

about it being a very slow game, and I was actually, I think you were saying this, Max, even on a podcast just the other day about

how playing without the ball is more tiring than playing with the ball.

And Lazio knew they weren't going to have the ball in this game and they didn't have the ball in this game.

Obviously, Bayern dominated the ball.

And I think that then the slowness of the game, I think Lazio will play quite a slow football anyway, so I don't want to oversell this point, but I think to some extent is deliberate on their part.

Is if you know you're going to be without the ball, you know you're going to be more tired, you can't go at 100 miles an hour because then you're going to burn out.

And eventually late in the game, you're going to give those opportunities to Missiala, Tusane, to those players.

So keeping the games as slow as you can for as long as you can gives you a chance to get to the end of it, still in fighting shape.

Apgood is too cool for Leap.

I mean, JC's

good coach.

Yes, he's a coach.

Apart from Champions League with Chelsea, league form was unspectacular.

Di Mateo won it with Chelsea in similar circumstances.

He got PSG to a Champions League final, but it was the height of COVID, one-legged ties, no crowds.

He's lost 10 of his 43 games in competitive matches as Bayern coach.

Same as Naglesman after 84 games.

So that's what makes him twice as bad as Naglesman.

But

how good is this guy?

He is very good.

And I think that comparing him to for

what he did at Chelsea with Roberto DiMateo DiMateo is perhaps a little bit wide off the mark.

And with PSG, certainly of all the managers

who've been at PSG over the past while, since Carlo Ancinotti, perhaps, he's probably been the one who actually made them play the best football.

Crowds or no crowds.

So no, he's a very

good manager.

But I was just looking

at this lineup of Bayons yesterday.

And I cannot, it's very difficult for me to think of a team in which absolutely every single player, apart from Manuel Neuer, who had this fantastic save when he was one-on-one v is accent, was like, you know, absolutely magnificent example of what to do when you're on a 1v1.

But all the others, I'm thinking, Kimmich, I seem to remember that Kimmich was supposed to be the next best midfielder in the world, right?

He was supposed to be the new Phillip Lamb, the guy who could do everything.

Musiela is supposed to be a Ballador in waiting.

Kane is supposed to be Harry Kane.

And you carry on.

Kim, I absolutely loved him until last night and thought, well, no, that's not the same player I'm talking about.

Goretska is supposed to be a force of nature

and also somebody with one of the most devilish shots on the planet.

And you go through Leroy Sanne.

I mean, it can be very frustrating, but still a very talented player.

And it's not just that the team was less than the sum of its parts.

It's that the players were less than the sum of themselves.

if that makes any sense.

No, it does.

And Turol must be responsible for that.

But I'm wondering if it hasn't got more to do with the club itself than with the manager.

If Bayern is not starting to PSG itself, if you see what I mean.

It's like it's become a kind of place

where you go to if you want to have a problem.

So whoever they're going to take in,

be it as a striker, you know, Harry Kane, Harry Kant,

or you...

a manager or maybe even a physio and everything they're going to touch is going to turn turn to dust.

It starts to feel that way.

And I suppose, I mean, I'm saying that also because they were completely walloped by Oliver Cousin at the weekend.

It was shocking.

It was really shocking.

So to answer your question, yes, he's a very good coach, but the club has got a very serious problem by which very good players and very good coaches seem to lose their capacities, their abilities, and their talent.

There was an interesting thread by Jack Pittbrook from Athletic, Barry, about Harry Kane saying, like, his last big moment in Champions League knockouts was five years ago when Spurs beat Dortmund.

For England the picture is slightly different.

He has lots of tournament goals, Tunisia, Colombia, the winner against Denmark, you know, when he missed the penalty was saved and he scored the follow-up.

The first penalty against France, but obviously not the second one.

Not much against Croatia or Italy.

And maybe it's incredibly harsh given everything he's achieved, but it feels his legacy needs something, a big goal, a big moment in a decisive semi-final or a final, certainly in club football.

And it's sort of something that you've alluded to in the past, past about this guy that scores thousands of goals.

And maybe, and producer Joel was saying before the pod, maybe there just aren't that many moments in football matches.

You know, there aren't that many big goals to score, but

you know, Harry Kane,

he might end up with no trophy this year.

And then eventually you sort of go, wow, this is sort of extraordinary for someone who is clearly so good.

Yeah, I think the last time I

alluded to the fact that he might not be what we call, or what Americans call a clutch player, was when England played Italy in a

what would that have been, a Euro qualifier?

Euro final?

Eurofinal?

Yeah, Eurofinal.

No, I don't think it was a final, actually, but I got ferocious abuse for it on

social media.

Absolutely torn apart and was accused of being a bitter Irishman who should go home, which is something you've told me on numerous occasions as well, Matt.

I think he's a terrific player, and he seems like an absolute lovely bloke.

And, you know, he's doing really well in the Bundesliga.

He's got,

what's he got?

28 goals so far in 36 games.

That's really, really good.

But he went missing against Bayer Leverkus and he went missing last night.

And he has gone missing in a few key England games.

So,

you know, you can't get away from that.

I mean, I suppose it's possible that he might not be a clutch footballer and you could also be a bitter irishman that should go undertaken

that's fair comment

i was just going to say he went missing but perhaps because nobody there was no search party i mean it it who was actually trying to supply him with the kind of service that that he normally thrives on well thomas thomas muller supplied him with a lovely opportunity last night and he ballooned it all okay that was one was that a lovely opportunity i felt like the defenders might have been.

Sometimes you only get one, Philippe.

You've got to pull it away.

Yes.

Okay, so he's not.

He's a, what is it that they say?

He's a, like they say in cricket.

He's a

player of great innings, but not a great player or whatever it is.

Yes, I can't remember.

No, he is undeniably a great player, but he does go missing in big games.

But the big games that there have been, and the teams that he has played for,

the big, I mean, mean you mean he's not like a Zidane you know who scores the first two headers of his life in a in a World Cup final or you know a volley from with his wrong foot from in the European Cup final

yeah okay maybe

I don't think that he's been in teams I mean which really would enable him to do that certainly not with Tottenham England but this is supposed to be that team isn't it this is this is the one this is I'm trying to find excuses and as I said as I put them forward i realize they absolutely are totally meaningless

which is a very very unpleasant situation to be in actually i agree with you he's not he's not doing this thing i don't think he should be the scapegoat i think it's inevitable because we're we're doing a podcast that's got a a a big part of its audience that's english that there's going to be a lot of talk about harry kane inevitably the guardian report you get a lot of people talking about harry kane i don't really think that the the reason buyer munich didn't get a result in this game is harry kane i think that would be really unfair to to tell that story.

I don't think anyone's saying that.

Yeah, but that's...

I'm just making sure we don't have listeners hear that, even though we might not feel like...

Oh, they'll hear what they want to hear.

Oh, it's all Harry Kane's fault.

Bayern Munich

didn't beat Latzo.

That's not the case.

But

the conversation has moved on to the fact that Harry Kane, it has been noted.

that he does occasionally fail to deliver in big games and that is an undeniable fact.

It reminds me of a conversation I once had with an Italian friend actually and we were talking about Marco Verratti and Marco Verratti who's been when he's been fit one of the very best midfielders in the world for a very long time until he was not any longer and we were thinking this is funny how this guy is underestimated and we compared him with Jaguar Cantara.

Now Jaguar Al Cantara The reason why people think he's absolute business is because he played one of the greatest games ever played in the Champions League final.

That was for Bayern against PSG.

Remember that game.

And because of that, his aura is completely different.

But if you look at his career as a whole, he probably hasn't achieved as much as Marco Verratio in terms of the quality, constancy, and consistency of his performances.

So we tend to concentrate like one game can be enough to make a great player.

That's enough.

And Kane, we're still waiting for this game.

And he's, how old is he now?

31, is it?

I thought he was 30, but you might be right.

I was just thinking to myself, though, like,

am I imagining it?

Or was there not also sometimes a discourse with Robert Lewandowski that he wasn't supposed to show up in the big enough game?

So, actually, that's that's the comparison.

The flat track bully.

That's the comparison we're supposed to be drawing, right?

Is Harry Kane?

Because that's the role he's taken on, is the old Lewandowski role.

Um, and perhaps it's it's the story is that actually that's not what will fix your team.

I just the thing that strikes me for this game that I can't get over is

the 3-0 loss to Levakusen was a really sort of low point for Tuchel and this Bayern team, right?

It's not just that you lost your title rival, you got humiliated.

And I think what's striking to me is that there was no reaction.

I think that's what I expected in this game, is I expected to see some sort of tempo shift, some sort of attitude shift, some sort of anger in the team of we've got to take everything that we've all this frustration out on Lazio.

And that was the thing that really surprised me at Bayern last night is I didn't see any of that at all.

Can I ask you about the A, the person singing my way in Italian before the Lazio game, if that happens every week, and the eagle as well, which Andy Brussel was telling me was not their eagle in the first place.

They bought it for millions, or they stole it, or it was like, you know, an amortised loan deal.

I'm going to have to feed some ignorance here.

Andy clearly knows more about the eagles.

Andy knows more about everything than everyone, right?

That'll be fair.

Yeah.

For starters, it's an American eagle, isn't it?

With a white head.

That's an American sea eagle, which is bizarre.

Anyway, did they buy Sam from the monitor?

Or Kayla, the Crystal Palace?

I just the Eagle's had so many highlights in its time there.

But there was a game recently, I think it was against Fiorentina, where it it decided not to come back to where it was supposed to and went and perched on the edge of the away section and

created one of the most ridiculous football visuals that I can remember, which is a bunch of Fiorentino fans doing like hand gestures of you can guess what, an eagle.

And you think to yourself, it's an eagle.

But yeah,

it's very much a Lazio thing.

It was actually, look, Lazio fans, there is an element that is clearly has repeatedly done things that are deeply unpleasant, plastering and frank stickers around the place, things like this.

There is an element of the ultras that rightly has a reputation for being

quite unpleasant.

But of course, that is an element.

It's not every single person who supports Lazio.

And it was an incredible atmosphere at the olimpico it was 60 000 fans which they they unlike roma who've been packing out in the sort of mourinho era and and so far in the de rosi era they don't get those sellouts very often and it was a a tremendous atmosphere and Again, when I think about this tie, one of the reasons I think I don't know they can get this cross line second leg is they won't have that behind them.

It was a real sort of Roman night.

And our stadium, despite the running track, it is something else when it's full.

Often think this with Italian stadiums.

i know i sort of will be reputed on this podcast and others as being the the homer for italian teams and and saying this stuff but i i still remember being at the olympic this was for a roma game but roma playing liverpool in the champions league and having andy hunter next to me andy hunter covers liverpool the time and and covers uh games at anfield and him saying to me god this is loud and anfield that it is like that there sometimes and i think that was definitely one of those nights last night you mentioned mourinho obviously sat by roma rumours of him that stepping into the breach if two gall gets fired i mean that would be like, you just sort of think some people running football clubs are not watching any football from the last, I don't know how long, but you could just see Jose going in there, winning the Champions League.

Can you imagine?

All I'll say is, if they think that Jose Mourinho is going to help them get past Lazio, they might want to check out his derby results in three years at Roma because they weren't good.

PSG beat Rails Society at 2-0.

It was an odd game, Phillips.

Rails Societe were by far the better side until PSG scored.

And then that just sort of changed that changed everything.

That changed the confidence of PSG and of Absolcia Debt.

Yeah, I mean, for, I mean, 58th minute when Kirian Bappé scores his Shinna.

And after, you know, really weird series of events, because had not Troure gone off the pitch because he had, you know, received a knock on his knee, he would have been on the pitch, obviously, on that corner kick.

And

he would have been actually marking Kyrian Bappe

instead of Kubo, who was there and basically forgot Bappé.

And Bappé did what he usually does, which means he was totally non-existent, transparent, ghost-like.

Every decision he took had been wrong for an hour.

And then suddenly he does that.

And then suddenly Perez Saint-Germain wakes up and thinks, oh, okay, that's a game to be won.

And I think it's more of a case, actually, of Real Saciedada thinking, for goodness sake, we're playing so well, and this happens.

And so they just, they had spent so much energy, mental energy and physical energy in the first half where they totally played PSG off the park, but they can't score at the moment, Max, Real Saciedad.

I mean, they were by far the better team.

Afterwards, yes, when you, when you've got players like

Bappe and Barcola and Dembele running at you when you're chasing the game and you don't quite have the legs that you had 20 minutes beforehand, you're going to be in serious trouble.

But it was not at all the kind of performances that would make you think that PSG can lift the trophy at the end of the season, which is just as bad and as good as usual.

I mean, there's absolutely nothing new.

I mean,

they look disjointed.

They were losing every 50-50.

They didn't look that they had any response.

I mean,

Real Cera were wonderful.

In midfield in particular, some of the combinations were glorious, but didn't have the cutting edge and they paid for it.

But, you know, that's PSG.

We could record this, change a couple of names and then play it every week and it would be uh it would be just as uh relevant as uh uh in that in that case than it was uh in this one yeah i wonder if it's uh a stupid question barry or not but if you have mbappe especially but also you know uh den bele as well and barcolour as well that you that you if you looked at that game saucy dad looked so accomplished in midfield and so tight and every touch was perfect and psg just weren't they just weren't good at keeping it but in league you probably don't need to be because you can just give it killian quite a a lot of the time well that's what they were trying to do last night give it killian

and

as philippe said he kept making poor decisions he he had a kind of one-on-one early ish in the game and hit straight at the keeper then he was sort of shuffling around the fringes of the box not quite picking out passes and i think the reason their midfield was so dysfunctional in the first half was because they were being man-marked by railsocied and weren't getting any time on the ball so the three sociedad midfielders were man-marking Zaire, Emery, Ruiz, and Vettina.

Yeah, Sociedad just pressed ferociously from the get-go, and you can't sustain that for 90 minutes.

You have to get a couple of goals while you're doing it before the legs go.

And that's their fourth game without scoring.

They're missing their talismanic captain and top goal scorer, Michael Oyer.

Isabel from

he's out injured.

He might be back.

He should be back for the second leg, I think.

But I wouldn't, we'd all know what PSG are like.

I wouldn't say this tie is beyond Real Society died.

But the one thing I did notice watching PSG and then Byron is Manchester City are playing a completely different sport to them.

I wouldn't give either of them a hope of winning the championship

on what little evidence I've seen.

Yeah, and actually, you would give Arsenal a better hope.

I mean, you know, I don't want to be too Premier League bias, but at this stage, a side that could beat City over two legs,

you would probably say, as of all the teams that are still in, would be Arsenal.

I suppose, you know, and Real Madrid didn't look amazing last night, but don't treat Lazio like they're the only representative from Italy, by the way, because Inter are in a different category, a very different category to the other teams in Italy.

Well, you might as well tell us a little bit more.

I mean, they are flying at the moment, aren't they?

Yeah, well, I don't know, because obviously, they didn't play last night, but it's just when people are talking about teams that can win this tournament, no, Lazio can't win the Champions League, not unless something very odd happens.

There's no chance.

And I think the same goes for Napoli, who have had a very odd season, obviously, with Rudy Garcia and now Walter Manzali is manager.

Inter are the league table does not even tell you now how far apart they are from the rest of Italy in terms of their quality.

They already played Manchester City in the final last year and I thought gave them a really good run over 90 minutes.

So I think when you talk about teams that can win this tournament, are they favourites?

No.

Should they be favourites out of City?

No.

But could they beat any team in this tournament?

I do believe that goes for Inter, yes.

And just a couple of things before we move on to something different about PSG's game last night.

Two things.

One of them is like it's one of those moments that nobody has mentioned, nobody will mention, nobody will remember.

In the 27th minute, Usman Dembele makes a horrible foul on the Real Sashi Dad left back.

And I mean, like an upamechano kind of foul.

Starts first, missed time, could get a yellow card.

Immediately afterwards, he takes the ball and he whacks it 50 yards away.

He should have been sent off, but he was not.

On such things football games sometimes depend.

And the second thing, when Bappy scored his goal, the tactical analysis by Robbie Savage was almost word per word the same as Rolre Valdano's.

And I don't think I'm going to say that very often

because he immediately said, look,

He should have been covered by that player.

The player was of the pitch.

That's why they scored the goal.

So Robbie, well done.

you were in agreement with one of the greatest voices on football that there is on the planet today.

Did uh Jorge Valdano, like Robbie Savage, almost dislocate his shoulder from clapping himself on the back by making this astute observation, just out of curiosity.

I'm sorry, I was not party to that event.

Well, he it was well spotted by Robbie, but uh, yeah, he could have done without going on about how great he was for noticing

for five minutes afterwards.

Like, that's your job, Robbie.

I don't know if we're about to move on from these games.

I just thought one thing that struck me with these games last night that's sort of interesting when you look at them together.

When they got rid of the away goals in the Champions League, everyone made out like it was going to kill approaches.

I actually feel like what you saw was oddly two matches that almost were completely unaffected by that decision.

Because Lazio going for a 1-0 win at home is exactly how you would behave if you were trying to not concede a goal at home and then get to the away leg.

And in fact, in many ways, they're harmed in this situation by the fact there is no longer that away goals rule.

Salciodad played exactly like a team that was going for an away goal would play.

They went and pressed high and went for it right from the start.

So I just thought that sort of talk that came when there was that decision about, oh, it's going to stop teams from going for it.

I don't know if it's held up.

Sometimes when you do something bad, it's the reason you do something good.

Barcola's goal

is because

he mistimes the ball twice, but it's because of that that he scores the goal.

Because neither the defender nor the keeper think that he possibly can be quick enough, swift enough to get the ball again.

Because of that, they go out of the position they should be in, and he scores.

How do you coach that?

If only, yeah, if only to be that quick.

Anyway, that'll do for part one.

We'll look at the Premier League games this weekend in part two.

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Capes optional.

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.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, premier games this weekend.

Best game on paper, Man City Chelsea.

Barry, did Chelsea have any hope at all?

I mean, it'd be quite Chelsea to go and get a result here.

The 4-4 earlier this season was one of the best games we've had so far this season.

They have a chance, I suppose.

Not if they play like they did against Crystal Palace, but they certainly do if they play like they did against Villa.

And

which Chelsea will turn?

We've a fair idea which Man City will turn up, but

yeah, I wouldn't hazard a guess as to which Chelsea will turn up.

But

I would be

reasonably confident Manchester City will beat them quite comfortably, but who knows?

Chelsea have shown us what they can do when everything clicks into place.

Yeah, and I suppose we're looking from a neutral perspective at games that Man Mantity might drop points in.

And this is one of those games, isn't it?

Elsewhere, Luton play Manchester United.

Manchester United, Philippe, have turned a corner.

This feels like the ideal place to reverse back around it, doesn't it?

Kennenworth Road.

You can turn a corner and suddenly you run into a wall.

That is true.

Maybe I should leave it at that because

I don't know.

Maybe Manchester United live in a place which is just like a maze of corners.

And

it feels that way sometimes.

I think luton can do something honestly i'm sorry and no no i mean look luton have pushed luton have pushed better sides this season at canworth road you just get a sense well as i recall luton probably should have got something at old trafford

and they're at home now obviously played terribly last week when they got gobbled by sheffield united But

if you could chalk that down as a one-off bad performance, I'd give them every chance to get something.

Wasn't that Wasn't that only Newton's second defeat in 10 games across all the competitions?

I mean, it's, yeah.

I mean, the one thing you would say is that now Ten Hag has got almost like a full contingent of players to draw from, and that's going to make a difference.

Well, maybe it will, or maybe it's going to be revelatory of, you know, how exactly he can get that team to perform.

So we don't know.

I mean, it's not on one game because they won.

very, very late in the day that game that we're suddenly going to change our opinion of this very inconsistent team.

Yeah.

Arsenal go to Burnley.

I mean, Nikki there, you know, you know, they've had a great couple of weeks, haven't they?

You know, to beat Liverpool and then to annihilate West Ham.

Where's your sort of hope, hope homage currently?

Well, because I'm, of course, a fan, what I'm expecting now is them to crash immediately from this high into something completely needless, some self-inflicted harm, and not beat Burnley.

No, it's tricky, Max.

I think

you watch the last couple of games.

It was so good against Liverpool, really so good.

Obviously, West Ham was part how good are Arsenal and part how impressive an implosion is this by West Ham.

But leagues are won by that sheer relentless consistency.

And at the moment, there's that feeling of inevitability that Manchester City will be the team that are most consistent in the end.

Well, they may not be.

We don't know.

Those inevitable feelings are just past experience.

And

everything changes in the end, right?

All those cycles break at some point.

but is this city one ready to break I'm not convinced Everton Palace on Monday night we've already established Barry how excited you are about this fixture I mean we've written here enormous for Roy Hodgson he may not be there by the time this game kicks off at Aaron's reporting this morning it's it's sounding like Max you you may have to record a voice note before you

will be okay without a voice note you know Ed Aaron's writing this morning talks continuing between Palace and Oliver Glasner over terms terms of the deal to replace Roy Hodgson.

The Austrian understood to want a salary of around 4 million a season.

Seems a lot.

I reckon I could get Palace to 13th for 2 million a season.

Anyway, Hodgson is due to speak to the press at 1.30 p.m.

So you will be listening to this after them.

Now it seems like a matter of time until he's sacked.

I guess the question, Baz, is if you were Glasner, wouldn't you just wait?

until the end of the season?

Like,

what do you have to...

There's no guarantees they will stay up.

There's no guarantees if you tip up now that you will help them stay up.

You might as well just wait and see, mightn't you?

Well, obviously, I don't know what Mr.

Glasner's situation is.

But

I would say now is probably as good a time as any.

Why not?

I mean, I'll say if they were going to offer me,

if they were going to offer me four million pounds a year, I would say I'll have it.

That's okay.

That's mine.

I'll take you down.

I don't care.

I think I saw his name linked with the Bayern Munich job, though.

That's the only thing.

And

if there are better offers than Palace possibly going to arise, yeah, maybe you should wait.

But the thing is, if you're an out-of-work manager in football, it doesn't take long for people to forget about you.

You have to turn up on Monday night football, Oliver, and do a stint, and then everyone remembers you're there.

Yeah, and goals on Sunday isn't on anymore.

Yeah, that's true.

That used to be the real sort of Betty Ford clinic for out-of-work managers.

I'm still here.

Hello.

The thing is that

Glasnow is flavor of the week month year because of what he did with iTrack Frankfurt, right?

Now, if you compare what the kind of players he had with Frankfurt, the kind of game that he made them play, how could you possibly do that with the people at Crystal Palace at the moment?

I

don't quite understand,

I have to say.

I mean, I guess the question is,

what can you do with Crystal Palace?

What you can do with Crystal Palace is hope that Eze and Alicia fit.

And if they are, then you're fine.

And if not, you aren't.

Like, that's sort of what any manager coming in would do, wouldn't they?

Brentford Liverpool, Brentford have announced the signing of Igor Thiago from Club Brugge on a five-year contract for a transfer around 30 million.

He scored 16 in 24 in the Belgian Pro League.

How much?

16 in 24.

He scored.

No, no, but how much did they sign up for?

30 million, 30 million.

Holy moly.

All right.

Is he not very good or is he?

No, it's not that.

It's just like,

you know, you didn't even go, that's a lot of money, which shows where we are right now.

I've just been given a £4 million a year.

I'm absolutely fine.

No, it's a good point you make, isn't it?

You know, I remember being flabbergasted that Spurs had spent 2 million on Paul Gascoyne.

It is a while ago.

I mean, it does give you a clue as to what might happen to Ivan Tony, I guess, if they're spending 30 million on a striker that's turning up in the summer.

Johnny says, what's worse, Max?

Chris Wilder saying all that or actually getting charged with it.

What's the charge?

Will he go to jail, do you reckon?

Shefford United played Brighton at the weekend.

Chris Wilder has been handed a Football Association charge for his bizarre rant about a sandwich-eating linesman.

It's just fun to say out loud.

Wilder was incensed when one of the referee's assistants was consuming a sandwich when the Blades manager went to see him after the 3-2 defeat at Crystal Palace last month.

I think it may be about other things he said, not specifically the fact the referee's assistant was eating a sandwich.

But anyway, I don't know if that is part of the charge.

I don't know there is, you know, rule 7.8.

You must not criticise officials for consuming food while you are yelling at them in their room.

Spurs play wolves.

Hyungmin's son, you may have seen, had a little bandage over his fingers during the game against Brighton at the weekend.

He dislocated his finger over a game of table tennis at the Asian Cup.

It happened when some young players rushed their dinner before the semi-final against Jordan to go and play table tennis and Sun and some of the other older players took issue with it.

The players exchanged a few words.

Sun hurt his finger in the process, a South Korean Football Federation official said on Wednesday.

So did he does this mean he got he kind of did a wild arrest, got angry with people for either bolting their food or not eating food?

It appears so.

As someone else wrote, and I can't remember where, it's not exactly the dentist's chair, is it?

No.

Eat your dinner.

We can play table tennis later, said Hyngmin Sun.

Anyway, he's okay.

Fulham Villa, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Forest West Ham feels quite big, doesn't it?

Just going back to the, I mean, the Newcastle thing, Dan Ashworth looks like he's leaving as their head of recruitment and going to Man New.

which I'd say will make Newcastle fans unhappy.

You talked about Spurs Wolves there.

Matthias Cune has has suffered what has been described as a significant hamstring injury, which means he could be sidelined indefinitely and he will be a massive loss for Wolves.

Great shame.

He's been absolutely brilliant this season, so that is a shame for everybody, isn't it?

Fulham Villa,

Villa have lost their third player of the season to an ACL after losing to Rome Mings and Emmy Bundy in the first week of the season.

Buba Kar Camera is now gone, and I think that could herald Villa going off a cliff because he has been fantastic for them.

And

they've loaned out Leandro Dundonker,

so he would be kind of a like-for-like replacement.

So it'll be, does this mean John McGinn moves back?

Anyway, whatever they do, they might put Yuri Tielemans in and move.

But I think this could

the last we'll see of Villa as top four challengers.

Yeah, no, it's a good point.

And Philippe, you wanted to talk about a slightly different tech, moving on from the Premier League, about Russian representation within UEFA that has perhaps gone unnoticed.

Yeah, I think if you ask most people, I mean, what is the status of Russia and their allied Belarus in football at the moment, people would say, oh, they're suspended from football.

Well, even though Russia has actually paid Serbia just an awful lot of money to organize a friendly.

But people would say, no, no, no, they're out of the picture.

Well, not at all.

There was the UEFA Congress in paris last week or yes last week and they were the representatives were were present the um chief of the russian football union was present who is also one of the chiefs of gaspron to show you how distant he is from the uh powers that be in in russia and the extraordinary thing i i made my counts of the number of russians who were actually sitting on committees at uefa

And in fact, there are 14 of them at the moment sitting on committees.

And the one that really struck me

was that one of the main people on the compliance and governance committees, that's an important one, is Polina Yumasheva.

Now, she is the ex-wife of a sanctioned oligarch, Oleg Daripashka.

And she's the daughter of Valentin Yumashev, who until a year ago was a private advisor to President Putin.

So you're thinking what is going on here.

I mean, this is basically surreal what's going on.

On one hand, the clubs and the national team cannot compete in UEFA and FIFA competitions.

On the others, guys, you're very welcome to sit at the top table.

You're very welcome to play a role in the way the game is played.

The hypocrisy on this is absolutely blatant.

I mean, basically, hypocrisy is the way things are going.

I'm not going to open another debate, which we've already had and we will have again in the future, but in the future.

But double standards and hypocrisy are basically what UEFA and FIFA are for at the moment, I'm afraid.

So what they could say, what are you doing here?

They would be within their powers to say you can't come to the United States.

I think that there is a case to be made for if you suspend a federation, you should suspend its officials and they shouldn't certainly take part in the decision process.

It's absolutely.

Isadjukov of Russian Football Union is still deputy chairman of the Competitions Committee and the Associations Committee.

I mean, they're very important positions.

And Yumasheva, I mean, I can't believe it that she still is there.

And also, what I can't believe is that there is no debate about it.

That people think, well, that's normal.

That's normal.

No, that's not normal.

Well, one more UEFA is worth seeking out Nick Hames' interview with Alexander Sheffrin, which he did before Shefferin said he wasn't going to stand again to be the head of UEFA.

So it was a really good interview.

That's really interesting.

And we'll put a link to that in the show notes.

And that'll do for part two.

Ewan Murray joins us for Fitbar Corner in part three.

I'm Grace Denn, and friends, I am back with some more help-ins of Comfort Eating from The Guardian.

I'm welcoming a host of fabulous guests, from David Bedil to Katie Price, and from Amo Rajan to Cathy Burke.

And they'll be revealing the tastes they turn to when in need of solace and cheer.

Comfort Eating returns on the 13th of February with new episodes released every Tuesday.

Listening, wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Is that jazz I hear?

We join you and Murray in the jazz bar for some Fitbar Corner.

Hey, you and how are you?

Well, good to be back.

Yeah, we have a title race, don't we?

Rangers beat Ross County 3-1 last night, so they are level on points with Celtic after 25 games.

Level on goal difference celtic have scored more goals um were you expecting this in my mind i was just expecting celtic to to walk away with it this season i don't know if that was just me being naive or or ignorant no i mean as recently as october i was expecting celtic to run away with it but to be fair to philippe clement he has

um and i'm going to put this in first because i always say it you have to be mindful of the general level of opposition in Scotland.

However,

he has done a very impressive job in making sure Rangers beat all these teams where it didn't look in the early part of the season as if they could or would.

And

despite Brendan Rogers' protestations about the narrative, as he puts it, around Celtech, Celtic look a bit edgy, a bit nervous, a bit unconvincing.

And Rangers believe, now with good reason, I think that they can win this league.

Yeah, Philippe Clement's record since he joined, played 24-120, drawn three, lost one.

And what's he like, and what kind of football is he playing?

Efficient football.

I don't think Rangers, although, to be fair, they've progressed to the knockout stage of the Europa League.

They won their group, so they're not a bad team.

But I'm still,

I wouldn't overpraise how good they are.

But they,

yeah, I think they're efficient.

Apart from last night against Ross County, where they had something like 42 shots at goal and only scored three times.

But generally, they win games, even when they don't play well, they can dig out results.

And that's a sign, obviously, of a team that will do well and a team that will win the title.

I like Clemont, I think he's a serious guy, he doesn't suffer fools, um,

he seemed pretty straight to me, there's no nonsense around him, and the players like him because his messaging is very simple.

I mean, he's the kind of guy that players will respond to, and you can see it in that run of results.

And you have to remember, when Michael Beal left, Rangers did seem in a bit of a mess, a squad of players that people were not really having at all.

It didn't look as if they could win anything, Never mind, win the league.

Well, they've won the league cup already.

And as you say, here we are in mid-February, and there's a title race.

And that's, you know, Rangers have the last few years, Rangers quite often have hung in until kind of Christmas time, New Year.

But to be in it,

and I mean, obviously, the season is apart from the one in which they won it recently, but to be in it at this stage shows that there's been a change and something is different.

And Celtic are going to have to battle hard if they're going to retain the title.

And is he improving players?

Are there guys that under Beale were not really at the races and now are?

That was my long-winded way of saying that, yes.

I mean, there were guys Rangers signed in the summer who I think people were really not sure of or didn't think could hack it at all.

And that has changed.

And to be fair, he changes the team around quite a lot.

The collective, I think, has become stronger.

It's not about one individual.

So, yeah, I mean, I think so far he's done it.

He's done a very good job.

As ever, it's such a short sample size, but what he has done is he had bought himself favour and time with the Ranger support, which is valuable,

because of how he is turning things around.

And I think also because of that demeanor, he carries himself well.

He carries himself like the manager of a big club.

And I think that that strikes a chord with the Ranger support.

It's a very interesting trajectory that he has, because to be honest, I think he was the very best manager in Belgium football for quite a while.

He won the title with Genk,

he won the title with Klubbrugger twice, and then he had this unpleasant experience with Monaco.

But actually, even with Monaco, he wasn't that bad at all.

If you look at his record, it just happens that the team had a bad end to

the season, of his only season there, and they decided to dispose of him.

But you would think that it's the perfect springboard Rangers for him

to go on to a big club.

Because what he did in Belgium was absolutely remarkable.

And

I have to say, I was a little bit surprised when I saw that Rangers had got him because I thought, my goodness, you've got your hands on a very good manager here and he's proving it again.

It's a simple point, Philip, but maybe just that basic experience of winning.

That's important when you're at Rangers.

You have to win.

So

here they've got a manager who has that experience.

Again, a simple point, but I think it's probably quite important and quite valuable to what Rangers are trying to do because they haven't won nearly enough in the last decade or more.

Yeah, and the flip side, I guess the risk about Brendan Rogers coming back was that there would be a set of Celtic fans, I don't know how big, probably sizable,

who would be quite

willing or ready to turn if it didn't all go swimmingly, given how it ended last time.

Yeah, I mean, that suddenly is fascinating to me.

And in fairness to those supporters, it doesn't seem to be Brendan Rodgers that they're currently upset with.

It seems to be the board of the club.

I mean, they beat Hibbs again pretty unconvincingly last midweek, and

they're chanting sack the board at the end of the game.

Brendan Rodgers himself spoke about a lack of bravery.

That was a word he used in the transfer market in January.

There's just a feeling of unease around Celtic, that despite the way, and Rogers is now using this siege mentality thing where he wants to say, you know, everyone's out to get us.

We are the team that's been dominant.

People want to stop us.

It's an old-fashioned tactic, and that's fine.

But there's enough evidence where you watch Celtic, you're around Celtic, and actually you see and hear Rogers' demeanor to say things are not quite right there.

And I think if he can get into the title this year, that would be a big, big deal for him.

And if he doesn't, people will ask, just what you said.

Well, why did you go back?

What did you expect?

What did you think you were going to do differently?

That dynamic around Rogers and Celtic is very, very interesting.

And again, despite what they say, you just have to

watch the games.

You can tell with the atmosphere.

Rangers have a supporter base who believe they can win the league.

And Celtic have a supporter base who are suddenly a bit panicked about the fact they might not.

I just wanted to ask about Cyro Dessas because he's had this sort of slightly interesting career the last few years.

He was, I think, the top scorer in the Europa Conference League in the first ever Europa Conference League, so he went with final to the final and he wound up at Cremonese in Italy for a year, and that was a sort of odd little interim chapter, it feels like.

And now it looks like he's back scoring a lot of goals for Rangers.

He is, but I still think not enough.

He misses a serious amount of chances, Nikki.

I don't know if this is a theme throughout his career, but

he needs 10 or 11 chances to convert to.

And I fear he won't have a long-term future at Rangers while that is going to be the way he plays.

Yes, his numbers have improved and his play has improved, but he still misses, he misses simple chances and far too many of them.

Again, I don't know if that's a theme.

Definitely Clemonese, his goal scoring was criticised.

It's hard to sort of pull apart because very different team, right?

You're talking about a team struggling at the wrong end of the table against one that's at the top end of the table.

But that Fire Nord run, I remember thinking it was fascinating then because I would agree.

He scored 10 goals in that cup run, but you still saw him miss.

You saw him miss some that you couldn't believe.

Meanwhile, Ewan, Neil Warnock at Aberdeen, how delighted are you that he has arrived on your patch?

Well, that was an interesting segue.

I was going to say, because this links, I mean, the best two strikers in Scotland this season don't play for Celtic Rangers.

The best two strikers

by a distance, I would argue, are Lawrence Shankond at Harts and Boja Majofski at Aberdeen.

They're the best two centre-forwards in the league this season.

That tells a story in itself.

Sorry, Neil Warnock.

I don't know.

I mean, maybe I'm getting too old and too cynical, but I...

That should suit Neil, I would say.

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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.

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It's like this little league should be grateful for his presence and laugh at his every clip, whether it's funny or not and lap him up.

And

I don't know.

I don't know.

I mean, the wider point is I think Aberdeen have shown they're kind of all over the place in terms of football strategy that they have to hire him in the first place.

But

yeah,

I don't buy into the Warnock hype, really.

I mean, they were 3-0 down to Muddwell last night after 25 minutes at home.

Now they come back and they get a drawing, fair enough, but Aberdeen are ninth in the league.

They really shouldn't be in that position, certainly not for the money money they're spending.

They shouldn't have to go to Neil Warnock for a short-term fix.

And his knowledge of or interest in the intricacies of Scottish football, I'm not too sure about.

But there,

maybe, maybe I'm wrong.

Barry, what do you think?

Should I be celebrating Neil Warnock?

I like Neil Warnock, but I can definitely see where you're coming from.

And

the impression is being conveyed, as you said, that they should be delighted that he's deigned to grace them with his presence.

But

I do like him.

I'm a fan.

Yeah, I guess the point is, you and you know,

it's a thing that makes Scottish football newsworthy, and I suppose from like from south of the border, and that could be seen as a kind of really, is that like, like, care about this properly or don't care about it?

I guess that's that's the idea, right?

And I guess there is a wider question about the state of Scottish football beyond Celtic and Rangers, and that has always been the case.

Yeah, I could speak all day about that.

And, you know,

has English football not heard at all before from Neil Warnock?

I mean, they must have done now.

He's 75, he's managed, he's managed 48 clubs, or whatever it is.

I mean, I don't know, it just wears a bit, it wears, it wears a bit, it wears a bit thin with me.

That's, and I, I think, and I

mean this in praise of Aberdeen, they're one of our biggest clubs, and I think that we're supposed to say, oh, isn't it great Neil Warnock's come along and we're going to get some attention for some.

No, I'm not quite, maybe that wasn't the answer you were hoping for or expecting Max.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I wanted the honest answer.

Yeah, you're right.

I mean, Neil Warnock's not saying I'm trying some new stuff at the hen and chickens, you know, like, like, like, we know what we know what we're gonna get.

Uh, David said, hearts are good, aren't they?

Ewan, how are they faring?

High-flying hearts, yeah, they're

doing very well, they're 12 points clear in third place, they're in the last eight of the Scottish Cup.

They have the aforementioned Lawrence Shanklin, who scored 24 domestic goals this season.

Um, yeah, for once, I can't complain about hearts when I'm on here, so that's that's a good thing.

How joyous!

And is there anything else that we should, you know, as you know, the clichéd things that we're looking at, Neil Mornock?

What are the things we should really be getting our teeth stuck into?

No, that's probably it.

No, sorry, I can't, I can't raise the bar with that.

Fair enough.

It's all about Neil Mornock, isn't it?

Well, you might as well hang out there, Duet, because we've not got much to go.

Just a couple of other bits.

Rodri says, seemed like Serge from Casabian, Latis, and Zola had a word.

Yeah, Nigel says, Shamon.

Justice for Philly Jean.

Jaden Philogene has been given that gold for Hull, the Robona, that we were discussing yesterday.

and uh so well done to him uh michael says haven't had any pet mentions on the pod for a while i was wondering how nikki's dog is getting on do you know i literally just muted myself to stop him because he was beginning to bark at someone outside and so i just muted myself so you wouldn't hear him but he's doing just fine marvellous good to hear has barry been dog sitting recently uh

no no i haven't

um needy norman was farmed out to some other neighbors um oh wow were you jealous no i was well, I was secretly pleased, but also slightly put out as in

why wasn't I asked?

Yeah, but

anyway, yeah, he's

well, his master listens to this podcast.

Actually, you know,

his Norman, Needy Norman's master, is a Sunderland fan, as am I.

He's far more of a Sunderland fan than I am.

Were you surprised when Michael B got that job?

Was I surprised?

I was very surprised, yes.

I mean, I find his career trajectory astonishing.

He fails up like a Tory MP.

Yes.

And

I kind of have accepted for a while that English clubs don't pay much attention to what happens in Scotland, but this is the ultimate English clubs pay no attention to what happens in Scotland because you would not hire Michael Beale.

And again, Sunderland are a big club with, you know, straight talking people around it.

So that was a head scratcher.

I thought he'd kind of of hauled himself back from the precipice at Sundallen, but they lost again the other night, didn't they?

So maybe he's back there again.

Yeah, they lost against Hoddersfield last night.

On the subject of Barry getting Lucas Fabianski and Alphonse Ariola muddled up, he said yesterday that, you know, if you are at the elite level of podcasting, it's not a mistake you should make.

Rob got in touch, amongst others, say Barry is wrong.

Nobody has ever confused Football Weekly with an elite-level podcast.

It's very kind of you, Rob.

And Rory says, last week, Max suggested the Aston Villa and Manchester United game was played at such a pace, it felt like it was played on x two speed.

It reminds me of listening to a pod a year ago where my player had somehow defaulted to times 1.5.

And for 59 minutes, I was convinced that Max had come in straight from a night out.

And Barry sounded unnervingly normal.

Anyway, thank you for getting in touch, Rory.

Appreciate it.

And that'll do for today.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks.

Thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ewan.

Thank you.

Thank you, Philippe.

Merci Max.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Max Sums.

This is The Guardian.