Deadline-day chaos and Middlesbrough lead promotion race – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

The transfer window closed just in time for the one show to start, which was very reasonable yesterday.

Mark Gay's move collapsing is perhaps the most interesting part of it.

Does that mean footballers who go on strike have a better chance of getting what they want?

Some Newcastle fans very unhappy with Alexander Isak, but welcoming Johan Wisser with open arms.

Elsewhere, Villa go for Sancho, Elliot, and Lindenoff.

Spurs get Muani, Man City and Man United by keepers.

And finally, Chelsea getting an attacking wide man, Bakundo Bunanotte.

Really?

Then to the EFL from Middlesbrough at the top of the championship to Cheltenham at the bottom of League Two.

We'll cover it all, but probably won't mention your club.

All that, plus one brilliant email, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

on the panel today.

Barry Glendenning, welcome back.

Hi, Max.

Thanks for welcoming me back.

That's a pleasure.

I think we got enough messages saying, Is Barry alive?

Has he moved to another podcast?

Oh, okay.

I know, I was fine, just had a week off.

Fine, yeah.

So, you know, maybe four or five.

So, you are, you know, you're an integral part of this thing.

You should be delighted with that.

Uh, from Not the Top 20, George Elek, hello.

Hello, And the man who was standing outside the Etihad, or were you inside?

Were you?

Sanny Rudravagula for the whole of Deadline Day and Sky Sports News.

How are you, Sanny?

Hello, yes.

I was in the Academy Stadium, so you can like you overlook the Etihad and it's where the women's and the youth team play, but it's all part of the same training complex.

Huge place.

Did anyone stick a sex toy in your ear?

Do you know what?

I brought one, but no one even tried to take it off me.

Where should we start?

What Well, Jim says, is it recency bias or does this deadline day feel a little more manic than usual?

As a podcast, I reckon, George, that we're not like obsessed with the window.

It does feel like it's been quite an interesting one.

Yeah, I mean, and that's across, I think, all leagues.

It kind of feels like the age of the transfer saga from back in the day, you know, thinking of the likes of Beckham to Real Madrid, Ronaldo to Real Madrid.

The way that now transfers get reported, it's changed quite a lot.

Rather than getting kind of daily updates on the back pages, instead you're getting basically minute-by-minute updates on social media from these kind of big transfer accounts.

And that I think has changed the way the transfers are often reported.

But this time around, we've had some proper sagas kind of almost feels like a throwback.

Sagas that create rivalries, you know, going back to early in the window when you had the Morgan Gibbs White saga between Spurs and Nottingham Forest, the Alexander Isak one, which I think we saw very clearly the needle between the two clubs before Isak actually moved on, and the Mark Gehi one as well, where, you know, a saga that hasn't necessarily gone through.

And then, through championship league one and league two,

we've seen a ridiculous window in terms of the money that's being spent by clubs who classically wouldn't necessarily have been big spenders.

You know, Wrexham alone have spent over £30 million.

The three promoted clubs from League One have all kind of done that.

You're looking at Ipswich breaking the transfer record in the championship on a teenager from Norway, like it and even tricking down into League One and League Two.

We did on ntt20.com yesterday, but throughout the whole window, we covered every single transfer as we always do.

So, every transfer in the EFL gets a write-up.

And then we did a two-hour live stream last night.

And we finished our live stream at 8:30, thinking, well, that's an hour and a half after the window closes.

I reckon about 100 deals went through after we finished our live stream in the three leagues.

Like, it's absolutely ridiculous.

And, you know, COVID seemed to almost put a pause to the craziness of spending as clubs realised they had to cut their cloth.

And we were told then, you know, football will never be the same again.

Well, it's gone way beyond what it was before COVID.

And the level of spend now is just absolutely obscene.

I must immediately go to your write-up of Ryan Loft from Cambridge to Bromley on loan, but more of that anon.

I guess the most interesting part of yesterday, actually, Barry, was Mark Gaye's deal collapsing.

By all accounts, Glasner was furious with Steve Parrish that they'd agreed to sell him.

Parrish had earlier said, look, we'll probably have to sell him this winter because otherwise they get no money at the end of his contract.

But then Igor Giulio decided to go to West Ham, which is the most surprising part of it when he could have gone to Palace.

And so Palace pulled the plug on the deal.

and I suppose the question that a lot of people are asking and you you see every single uh message on social media is now you know the moral of this story is if you behave like Alexander Isak and you down tools and you go on strike or Johan Wisser you get what you want and if you don't and if you're the perfect professional including scoring like 25 yarders into the top corner which is not really part of your job remit you don't get what you want and so Mark Gay is still at Crystal Palace Yeah, but that all hinges on whether or not Mark A really, really wanted to go to Liverpool.

Mark A is going to be fine because he's in the final year of his contract.

So I'd imagine he's quite chilled about what happens this season.

He's playing for a good team.

He's guaranteed he's spot in that team as long as he's fit.

And it will enhance his chances of getting in the England squad for the World Cup.

And then at the end of the season, unless he's sold in January, he can do whatever he wants.

He'll have no shortage of suitors.

He'll get more money.

He'll get a massive signing on fee.

So I would say Mark

would have been happy to go to Liverpool.

He's probably quite happy to stay at Palace.

And then,

yes, Isaac and

Joan Wissa have both behaved appallingly.

There is massive resentment for Isaac on Tyneside.

I suspect he probably doesn't really care if a load of Newcastle fans don't like him.

It will be interesting the next time he has to go and play there.

But

I wouldn't imagine he's too fussed.

And

the manner in which he went to Liverpool, it's made Newcastle, the Newcastle hierarchy look weak.

But I think otherwise they've had quite a good transfer window.

But yeah, be behaving badly.

But lots of people in football behave badly.

Clubs isolate players, put them in the bomb squad, make them come in at, you know, the most inconvenient time they're illegally allowed to try and get rid of them.

It cuts both ways.

So, obviously, you would prefer a player at your club to act professionally, but I get why they spit the dummy and go on strike.

Yeah, it's interesting, Stani, what Barry says about Mark Gay, and maybe he is chill about it, but at the same time, football moves so quickly and changes so quickly.

And I think once you've sort of gone, I don't know how, I don't know if he was there, you know, they'd agreed to do a medical, I'm not sure how far down the line it was, You know, and it is Liverpool.

Like, it is like, there aren't that many clubs where you go, this is happening.

I'm not quite so certain that he won't be pretty gutted about all of it.

He doesn't quite strike me as kind of a sliding doors sort of person, though.

I mean, because he's been playing the palace and putting in like a huge shift when he didn't necessarily need to, right?

As Barry said, he could have just downed tools.

So if he's pragmatic enough to think, well, I'll get in a starting team now every single week and I can put in great performances and we've got a World Cup and by the end of it maybe I can get a free transfer to Real Madrid then that's a nice way to look at it equally yeah you're right going to Liverpool when they've won one deadline day right they've they've won it all already and maybe set up a dynasty and you could be part of that but I mean the worst case scenario for him was he goes there and he doesn't get to play every week and then he you know he can be the next kind of Jack Grealish sort of marquee English signing who doesn't get to feature every week so yeah,

unlike the others we've seen where transfers fall apart late and you know Nicholas Jackson kind of getting upset and stuff,

I think he might be okay, Gay,

on having to miss out maybe.

Oh, well, I mean, maybe I'm the only one that's worried about him, or maybe, you know,

maybe you're all right.

Maybe he will be totally fine.

Are you haunted by a big move, Max, to a rival podcast that you turned down?

No, no, I'm very happy.

I'm very happy with the club.

I've just signed signed a new deal delighted to be here i'm not downing tools refusing to podcast um what do you make of uh johan whisser for 55 million george i mean it feels quite a lot doesn't it you know it feels like like they've spent all their money on voltamada and whisser be quite interesting to see how they go yeah i mean it's always so difficult with transfer fees because As fans, we kind of obsess over it.

And there is definitely a case to be made that if you're trying to progress up the leagues, then you know, if you're trying to go from being a league one club to being a Premier League club, then you have to be successful in terms of your recruitment.

That's the way to get there.

But at the top end of the Premier League, so long as you're

staying, you know, you're not falling foul of PSR, then does it really matter?

Like, we've seen clubs be incredibly successful and massively overspend.

I saw a stat earlier in the week that Arsenal's record ever sales, like £30 million.

So, you know, it just feels like analysing spend when you're in Newcastle, you know, it's kind of neither here nor there.

And the way that the players retain their value now, even after, after poor campaigns at the top end, means that even if he's bad, they'll probably sell him for 40-odd million somewhere.

Yeah, I mean, I think he's a very good player.

He's someone who I'm never overly positive about signing players from Brentford and Brighton, because for the most part, they put your pants down.

There are obvious exceptions to that, but as a very well-run club, they eke a lot out of players who develop massively.

Look at Visa, look at Mbomo, who've developed from being championship players for Brentford into players who've got these multi-million pound moves.

Is there anywhere more for there to progress?

But he's versatile, he's good.

Voltawanda's a really interesting one.

I saw him play a lot in the summer and the outside 21s, and he's a proper player.

Like, I've seen a lot of disrespect him towards him for the transfer fee, but he's someone who wouldn't surprise me at all if he's the next Isak in terms of being a player who, in two or three years, every single club in the world is looking to buy.

And maybe Newcastle will develop into a club by then who can hold on to him.

But I'm excited to see him for sure.

And Visa, you know, someone who can play off the left, can play up front.

Looks like a good person to have in the building, especially with Canamils and having moved on.

In two to three years, he'll down tools and demand that he can go to Liverpool.

On Chelsea, it's interesting, Sanny, George mentioning, you know, you can have not great campaigns and still going for the same amount of money.

And Nicholas Jackson's a really good case in point with that.

You know, 16.5 million Euro loan fee, 65 million euro obligation to buy the striker buyer Munich.

So that's a deal worth about 70 million pounds.

That sort of feels amazing that they've done that.

Yeah, I remember maybe about a year ago we were talking with Nada Manu on the pod about Jackson being a bit raw.

And I tried to get to him about, you know, what does he mean by raw?

And he had a very nuanced kind of explanation.

And isn't it amazing?

Like, when you look at his record and the type of goals he scored before he came to Chelsea, they were all kind of on-the-shoulder, little tap-ins for about three yards out and stuff.

There was a lot of that anyway.

And I never really kind of liked him.

I was like,

you need to add a bit more to your game so yeah the fact they've got that much money for him is quite amazing i guess the

the the the stock that you can hold by being a chelsea player you you and you're less likely to lose it because you're not playing as much right you can't you're not missing as many chances so you're just in the you're in an a squad somewhere playing you know europa league or whatever conference league and keeping your value that way i think it's great business what they've managed to do there because i don't i've never really fancied him at all of course he's going to go to to germany and and score score a hatful now.

Not as many as I think Rasmus Hoyland, by the way, will get from Man United's Napoli.

I think he'll be on the Ballon d'Or list next year now.

But yeah, Jackson is interesting.

Chelsea have signed Buenanotte on a seasoned unknown from Brighton, Barry.

And I feel like I can't keep doing the joke about them signing attackers.

Like, it's sort of, I'm looking at that going, how is like, he's a really good player, isn't he?

I like him.

Well, where's he going?

What are they doing?

Yeah, I mean, I saw that one, and I had to stop and think because I wasn't sure who owned Buenanotte.

He seems to have been all over the place

recently.

Yeah, I don't know, but I mean, we all laughed and giggled and scoffed at the Chelsea ownership's policy of just hoovering up young players, but it seems to reap dividends in this window because it sold an awful lot of them and they've got good money for all of them.

Lots of them going for 20 million plus, a few going for more than that.

And, you know, they talk about the butterfly effect and that lean de lapp hamstring twang just causes the ripples sent out by that because it almost.

It's a big hamstring, isn't it?

To be fair, it is a big hamstring.

It almost put the kibosh on Nicholas Jackson's move to Germany.

And instead of doing that, it has resulted in Sunderland having to send Mark Gu,

I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, back to Chelsea,

which meant they had to buy

Brian Broby from Ajax.

So, yeah, just all this stemming from Veeam DeLap pulling up lame the other day.

Oh, right.

Oh, so Brian Brobby's at

Sunderland.

Villa have done interesting stuff.

Harvey Elliott, Jaden Sancho, Victor Lindelof, George, run your eyes across those three.

Yeah, interesting.

I mean, with Sam Cho, obviously, his stock is incredibly low.

And any Manchester United fan listening to this will scoff at any possibility that he could be okay.

But it's easy to forget that he once was a unbelievable young player for Dortmund and has shown he's clearly incredibly talented and last season Aston Villa provided Marcus Rashford with a platform to go and prove a few people wrong who looked really sharp before he got injured at Villa you know obviously we'd love to see Satan show improve and do well there has to be a moment soon where the penny drops and he realizes because he's a you know he's a a very intelligent footballer and someone who you know even in the early in his time at chelsea last season showed what what he can do um i think harvey elliott is a brilliant signing and someone I'm really excited to see consistently because he combines a quality on the ball and he's such a a brilliant playmaker from deep, which I think is a skill of his that's often underrated, whilst also being a big goal threat and being incredibly tenacious as well.

I think he's a player who'll thrive at Villa and it won't be long until you know, I saw, I think, that Liverpool have en inserted a buyback laws.

And it wouldn't be a matter of surprise to me at all to use that in the future.

And in Lindelof, you know, someone who's who's played a lot of football at

Premier League level,

if buying players from Brentford and Brighton isn't normally a good thing to do, Brian players from Manchester United normally is very good because they tend to leave United and then excel.

So hopefully Vela fans can look forward to that.

But it's been a shocking start to the season for them.

So they've got to find a spark from somewhere.

You would imagine that if Unai Emery can't sort Jaden Sancho out, then Norn will.

Then football is not for him, poor guy.

Tonam signed Randall Colomoani on a year-long loan with no option and no obligation.

He was going to go back to Juventus.

Philippe says, super attitude as well as terrific talent.

To which I asked Philippe, so why has he gone to Spurs?

But look, they've got quite an interesting forward line now.

If you look at all the options, plus Madison and Kuliseski when they come back.

Sanny, you were at City yesterday with your big Sky Sports microphone.

Did you have a nice time?

I suppose I did, actually.

To contrast with the other club, you know, on the other side of the city, Man City did give us even free food, which was lovely in their canteen.

They feed all the staff and you know you've got me on side alone there.

Of course, I'm an impartial, hard-headed journalist, so you can't win me over with a really nice tomato soup.

But it certainly did help.

This morning, as we're recording on Tuesday the 2nd, Edison has officially now signed for Fenabache.

And that was one of the ones we were waiting on, because that now means they're allowing Edison to go because they're signing Donna Rummer.

That will happen.

That's just a matter of a bit of time.

And that's the one we were kind of waiting on that didn't quite come through, despite me being there for, yeah, a good 12 hours-ish nearly that but Edison like one of my colleagues Adam Bate on on Sky Sports has done a big like analysis on him and even like the percentage of passing from goalkeepers from like he came in 2017-18 2013-14 percentage accuracy of goalkeepers was 51.5 percent by 24 25 it's 68.9 like there's a there is a good argument how Edison's really

not if not changed English football certainly changed what we think of goalkeepers you know

Maybe changed it for the worse as far as the amount of them who can't actually play with their feet Versus Edison But we saw when Pep Guardiola brought in Claudio Bravo for Joe Hart who was a great shot stopper and that didn't quite work out and yet he went again to Edison and

He wouldn't have been able to play the style of football he could play right without Edison and it is a bit of a shame that after eight seasons where he's won I think 18 trophies and won everything you can possibly win, he gets like a you know a nice little social media post but like just you know after the Lord Mayor shows goodbye to Fenabache and that's the end I had I had a sit-down with him at the back end of last season and after which he was he was then dropped from playing Not think it had anything to do with me, but since then I did reflect on like our conversation.

He said like over the eight years how much he's changed.

He's got a family and kids and you know, he just enjoys his life now and he doesn't put pressure on his kids to become footballers and wants them to find joy in playing.

And it made me think like, you know,

we've all got, well, you know, anyone who's got children and stuff, it does change your outlook on life, right?

And I wonder, even little things, like, how does that impact your desire to play?

How does that translate over a period of time you've won everything and your life is at a completely different stage to where it was when you started?

And has that kind of made Guardiola think, right, well, maybe I'm not quite as hungry as a young James Trafford.

I'm going to get him in.

But it is a bit of a shame to see him go because he has been a huge...

He has been hugely influential, I think, on English football.

Yeah, impacts your desire to sleep.

That's for sure.

On these goalkeeper situations, there's Donna Rummer and James Trafford then at City.

Perfectly Cromulant says, Does George still think James Trafford is better than Jordan Pickford?

Or is it possibly the worst take of all time?

It's so good, this.

I mean, it is amazing how sometimes you say something that doesn't conform with popular opinion and it is held up as being like outrageous.

Yeah, I do.

I mean, this has been misconstrued by a lot of Everton fans for being like Jordan Pickford hate.

And I definitely don't hate Jordan Pickford.

In fact, I I adore him like having been to every single England major tournament for the last decade as an England fan I love him and I'm very aware that he's never put a foot wrong for us and he had an amazing season last season for Everton and I'll be delighted if he's our number one heading to the World Cup next year I do think with Trafford there is he gets like a weird amount of disrespect basically because as a kid two seasons ago he was played in a terrible Burnley team and wasn't very good and that for some people is like enough they've seen enough he's rubbish and that's it.

And it's just not true, like, he's a he's going to be a world-class goalkeeper.

Of that, I'm like, I'm absolutely convinced.

It's a crying shame that Man City have decided to bring in Donna Roomer ahead of him.

Albeit, it wouldn't be a matter of surprise to me if, given Donna Roomer's issues with playing out from the back, if it's not long before Trafford's back in Golfer City, I got

so many messages from Everton fans that had to mute my own tweet

when he made the mistake

against Spurs.

Well, a couple of mistakes, but don't cross Everton fans, by the way, just to say, do not cross Everton fans.

I can tell you that firsthand.

Yeah, I know.

Well, it's Everton fans and Sunderland fans, who are still very protective of Jordan Pickford as well.

But it was, yeah, it was strange.

I didn't get any messages when he basically kept City in the game for the most part against Brighton on Sunday.

Albeit eventually they did lose, made a couple of brilliant saves.

So, yeah, I think...

There seems to be a lot of people sleeping on Trafford.

And I think

if he'd gone to Newcastle, as was expected, to be their number one, or if he had, you know, been, if he was trusted by City to still be their number one, I think his stock would rise immeasurably through the season.

And the idea of him being better than Jordan Pickford come April or May might not be quite as controversial as it was when I tweeted it a couple of weeks ago.

Interestingly enough, or not, as the case may be, Trafford's origin story is kind of similar to Pickford's because Pickford began life in a Sunderland team that was really bad and getting walloped week in, week out.

And I think both of them deserve immense credit for coming through that.

And, you know, because it could have finished lesser players off just shipping four, five, six goals every game, even though, you know, most of them aren't your fault.

It's, I imagine, quite demoralizing for a very young goalkeeper.

And Jordan Pickford, of course, himself made a few quite big errors with the ball at his feet when he was a youngkeeper too, and learnt from that.

And that's, you know, Pickford as a goalkeeper is very good with the ball at his feet.

Trafford is a goalkeeper who's very good with the ball at his feet.

Because they are good players and because they're good footballers and because they take risks, they're the ones who are going to make those mistakes.

But you don't see the ones that they get right.

And that, for me, is why, you know, as a shot stopper, he's very good.

Like, Donna Room is obviously up there with the best shot stoppers in world football, if not the best.

And I'm by no means, I'm by no stretch saying that Trafford's better than him in that regard.

But as has been widely reported, it does feel like an unbelievable shift from the philosophy that we tend to see from Manchester City and from Pep Guardiola teams to go out and recruit, you know, off the back of recruiting Edison quite clearly for his ability with the ball at his feet, you know, by no means one of the best shotstoppers in the world, to go out and recruit someone who is so different in terms of profile is a bit of a shock.

All I'm hearing is Jordan Pickford hate.

That's all I heard from Jordan in the last two minutes.

Manchester United have brought in 21-year-old Belgian, Senne Lamans from Antwerp for an 18 million, as Sandy mentioned.

Rasmus Holland's gone to Napoli, where yes, he'll probably score 35 goals, all set up by Scott McTominay this season Anthony's gone to Albetis for 25 million euros 70 million down god that's that's a huge loss isn't it whoa yeah yeah they have a 50 sell-on in case anthony goes on to great things but yeah that is uh so that's anthony sancho hoyland cost man united over 218 million pounds and was sold for 21.6 million and two loan fees Does seem like bad business.

They did make money on Garnacho, of course, who they bought for £400,000 pounds from Athletico Madrid's Academy with sold for 40 million.

Arsenal confirmed Piero Hincapie from Bay Leverkusen, if I pronounced that correctly.

And Zinchenko's gone to Nottingham Forest on loan.

Oh, okay.

I definitely wouldn't have noticed that if someone hadn't written it down here for me.

And actually, while we're on Leverkusen, oh, the other one you wouldn't have noticed, and I'm almost annoyed to tell you, Barry, is Tarek Lambert he's gone to Fiorentina.

Good for him.

But on Leverkusen, Leverkusen, Ten Haar getting sacked after three games in charge.

it seems so brutal doesn't it um labor kusen's managing director simon rolls said this decision was not an easy one for us nobody wanted to take this step the past few weeks have shown that building a new and successful team with this setup is not feasible we firmly believe in the quality of our team we'll now do everything we can to take the next steps in our development with a new setup eric ten hag says this comes as a complete surprise to part ways with a coach after just two league matches is unprecedented many key players who are part of past successes left the squad building a new cohesive team is a careful process that requires both time and trust.

A new coach deserves the space to implement his vision, set the standard, shape the squad, and leave his mark on the style of play.

He said, I started this job with full conviction and energy.

Unfortunately, the management was not willing to grant me the time and trust I needed, which I deeply regret.

I feel this was never a relationship

based on mutual trust.

Seems brutal, Barry, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does seem very harsh, not least because

no sooner had you taken the job than they sold five, six, maybe seven key players out from under him including uh jonathan tarr granz jaka and he really didn't want jacka to leave but jacka seemed hell-bent on going the two lads who went to liverpool i believe there are others as well and i i was discussing this with a couple of mates yesterday and we thought there's got to be more to this yeah

that we don't know but also you think of the payoff don't you you think oh it's low it's good work if you can get it isn't it?

Can't I do two pods and then get £8 million and say, look, I just don't, but I trust you, Max.

The only thing I'd say is those Manchester United players who we just, you know, really bad business who were brought and then sold for a massive loss,

are they Alton Hag signings?

Anthony was.

Hoyland.

Hoyland, yeah.

Just on Ten Hague.

Apparently he lost the dressing room before even the first game, which is quite an amazing thing to think of.

When I used to talk to him in press conferences and stuff,

it always kind of came across he didn't quite have that emotional intelligence, and I wondered whether it was something lost in translation.

But he's fluent, he's a natural German speaker as well.

So I think it might just be him after all.

Bad luck, Eric.

Anyway, that'll do it for part one.

Part two, we'll talk about the championship.

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Sam from Melbourne writes: Hi, Max, and the Football Weekly crew.

Love the pod, especially its balance of football, laughs, and the more serious issues.

Keep up the awesome work.

I'm from Melbourne, but happen to be in London on the night of the live show.

I'm trying to convince my partner, who has no interest in football, to attend the show with me.

Doesn't sound exactly like I could have written this email.

Anyway, do you or Barry have any inspiring words to convince her to attend?

Sam, inspire Sam's better half, please, Barry.

Well, as far as I can tell, Sam's better half will have her pick of many seats.

In the top, yes, the top seats.

In the top tier.

She can have the entire top tier, which will be an interesting experience.

I expect it to be a fun night.

I'm looking forward to it.

I did go to a play.

I have long criticised the theatre as an art form on the spot, but there was a play about the Brixton Academy on that I decided to go and see.

And

that was actually quite good.

But I did feel myself not theater seats, are very comfortable.

If you're bored, you can just nod off for there.

We are, and Sam's partner may have jet lag, which you know, so

and that's open to anyone who wants to come.

If you are bored, you can fall asleep.

Probably to Jonathan Wilson, but possibly to me, Barry, Nikki Bandini, or Johnny Lou.

Tickets can be purchased by going to theguardian.com slash football weekly live.

Come on, let's fill the top tier.

Between us, we can shift that extra thousand.

You can be a hero.

Theguardian.com/slash football weekly live.

Right, the championship, Middlesbrough top, 100% record.

Westbrom in second, still unbeaten.

Stoker in third, Leicester fourth, Coventry, Bristol City, Swansea and Portsmouth.

Let's talk about Middlesbrough then, George, and a brilliant start for them.

A brilliant start.

Hi, pod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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That probably wasn't really foreseen by many people.

The vibes at Middlesbrough were not particularly strong over the course of the summer.

They waited till quite late in the summer to sack Michael Carrick, which was a bit of a surprise, albeit he hadn't really delivered on the promise from early in his tenure.

Rob Edwards came in, and there was some doubts about that.

Given what happened last season at Luton, the transfer business took an absolute age to come off.

It looked like Hayden Hackley was going to be leaving for a time.

And, you know, looking mid-July, Borough fans were really concerned about how the season was going to start.

But they've started incredibly well.

They won all four of their games.

They've only conceded one goal in those four games against Norwich.

They had the bizarre 4-0 defeat against Doncaster in the League Cup, kind of wedged in between all these league wins.

But for the most part, they look really strong.

Tommy Conway started the season up front and is playing very well, leading the line well.

They've signed a player from Manchester City called Sverda Nipan, who is a seemingly a wonder kid who is kind of seen as being one of the brightest talents in world football as per why City made a move to sign him in the summer and it's seen as a huge coup that Borough have been able to bring him in.

He's made a couple of appearances off the bench so far kind of getting to grips with it but very excited to see how he gets on.

So it's been a great start for them and this, you know, this season feels to me like

it's often the you know, the cliché is that the championship is the is the most unpredictable league in the world.

And I mean, it's just not true.

Like League Two is incredibly unpredictable.

The championship, normally, the teams who get relegated from the Premier League do very well.

The teams who get promoted out of League One, a couple of them normally struggle.

And the teams who normally finish mid-table normally finish mid-table for the most part.

Yes,

it's less predictable than the Premier League, but that's not saying very much.

Whereas this season, it feels like the teams who've been relegated out of the Premier League in Ipswich, Leicester and Sampton, look a shadow of the teams that went up and even like way off.

I mean, it's very early days, we should stress, and obviously they've made signings late in the window that might change this, but they look way off the standard we're used to seeing from regular Premier League teams.

Whereas the teams promoted out of League One in Birmingham and Wrexham in particular have spent an absolute fortune to try and continue their progress up the league.

So for teams like Middlesbrough, Coventry, this feels like a really open championship where it might be time for a changing of the guard.

And rather than seeing the same teams going up and down every season, maybe this is the time where we see some clubs who haven't been in the Premier League for a while force their way in.

So that could be Middlesbrough.

I mean, that could be West Brom.

Chris says, would like to hear your your thoughts on Ryan Mason.

Completely changed the West Brom backline.

Has been a breath of fresh air since coming into the club.

They're currently second after three wins in a draw.

And Sanny, they

all this talk before the season, given who Ryan Mason has learnt from, i.e., Mourinho, Conte, and Ange, like, what the hell is that?

What is Mason ball?

Well, Max, sorry to cut across you, Sally, but he spent their win over Stoke in the stands because he was suspended.

So I'm guessing he learned that from Mourinho for Conte.

yeah I think you've got a bit of everything haven't you I think what what he has done is been quite pragmatic to start with with West Brom I think they've only conceded I think three goals so far funnily enough like Ipswich have signed most of West Brom's old defence so he's had a bring in a whole new defence as well and Nat Phillips has had a good start so far

He's benefited from Isaac Price, who's only 21 Northern Irish.

He's been there a couple of seasons, having a really good start.

I think he's got three goals so far as well.

I mean, he's one of those where we were like, well, we don't really know what to expect.

Like you say,

we don't know what he could actually do.

And I was expecting a bit more, something maybe more expansive, but I think that was just my like Premier League coach bias because we so often see coaches who've been set up as a Premier League sides coming in and you know wanting to keep the ball on the deck.

But actually, I think he's doing it the right way.

He seems to have understood that you can't just go in and say, right, we're going to get the ball and play it down.

And that's all we're going to do.

You're going to have to kind of mix it up.

But he's been quite lucky in who he's got there as a core already and added pretty well.

I mean, they've just sold Tom Fellows now, and he was like the classic winger, so I don't know how much that might change the style, but yeah, I've been really impressed so far, and I didn't expect them to quite be anywhere near where they are, actually.

So, yeah, good start for Ryan Mason.

It's interesting, George, you mentioned the relegated clubs because what you have, Leicester doing okay, out there, then fourth, but Southampton in 13th.

Of course, you know, a couple of wins changes everything at this stage.

And Ipswich in 20th without a win.

What's happened at Ipswich?

I mean, a huge turn of players.

If you look at the squad that got promoted out of this league in incredible style with those back-to-back promotions, it's only really Leif Davis and Wes Burns who are left.

I mean, George Hurst played a part, obviously, on loan.

And, you know, whether or not they're a better side now than they were then is up for debate.

They've got a lot of very good players, but it hasn't really clicked yet.

What I would say is they were

better than

the scoreline of a 1-0 defeat against Preston.

They lost that game because of a penalty.

And I think Preston only had two shots in the whole game and they applied a lot of pressure.

And even against Derby, apart from a really poor kind of 10-15 minute spell in the second half, they were by far the better team then.

I think we're seeing, even though the results haven't caught up yet, we're seeing this new side being kind of formed into a better team.

And I'd be really surprised if we don't see them improve soon.

With Leicester, it's kind of the opposite.

I thought Leicester had, you know, they were second best against Charlton.

And again, they won 1-0 due to a moment of individual brilliance from Abdul Fatarwu on opening day against Sheffield Wednesday when before Wednesday had a man sent off they were struggling and toiling to win that game which they eventually did but they were brilliant on Friday night against against Birmingham live on Sky where you know Martis Afuentes when he was at QPR when QPR at their best under him they were so good defensively and that was the case here where they took the lead again because of some a moment of brilliance from Fatawu

and

After that, Birmingham just couldn't really get near them.

Their defensive shape was so good, they couldn't find a way to create any big chances.

And that's the Birmingham side who've been really impressive this season.

And Saint Simeley have just really struggled to look like, you know, often when teams come down from the Premier League, they look a cut above, and Samson just absolutely don't look like that right now.

So, yeah, concerns about all of those.

Should mention Jeremy Munger, the 16-year-old winger for Leicester, who looks like an unbelievable talent.

Just one of these guys where sometimes players burst on the scene in the championship, and you basically know straight away that they're not going to be here for long.

And he is absolutely one of them.

The assist for Pereira's second goal against Birmingham on Friday was magnificent.

You can't really believe he's 16 when you see him play.

And

we've seen Leicester not recruit very heavily over the window, despite losing a lot of key players.

But given the young talent they've got coming through the academy, yeah, you can see why.

We've been mentioning that Glasgow is probably the most the saddest footballing city in the world or in the UK, but Sheffield is giving it a run for its money.

Sheffield Wednesday, obviously, we know the problems off the pitch.

They have a point from their first four games.

Sheffield United are doing worse than that and have no points.

Ruben Selez, it is not going well for them, Sanny.

Can you put your finger on what's happening at Bramwell Lane before we find out what's the latest from Hillsborough?

Well, I think what was really telling from the fans was you've probably seen that video that's gone of the players coming over to applaud them after another defeat.

And there's some booze.

for Sayers.

And then Sayers walks off right into the video.

And then there's a full stand of applause for the players.

I mean, they're really not happy with what he's doing.

And I guess from any outside looking in, it does feel like a bit, he's done the opposite of what Ryan Mason's done, right?

He's come in and he's wanted to play his way and he's not had the players to do it.

He's brought in quite a few as well.

He's managed to keep Gus Harmer, which is a huge caveat there, actually.

And some like City Peck and Calamo Hair, they've kept that core, but they're just not performing.

But again, you know, so often we like, especially, it happens in England with England manager all the time.

Like, whoever the manager is, you replace them with the exact opposite, right?

So

there's this idea that Wilder's this old school, whatever, even though he's actually not.

And then you replace him with Sayers, who's this tactico, let's say for argument's sake.

Did they need someone of a similar kind of style with the players that Wilder was, maybe?

Is Sayers a bit not quite like that with him?

I don't know.

It's very hard to put your finger on it.

I don't know, George, you like...

I mean, you think Ruben Sayers is a great coach, George?

Yeah, well, I think he's definitely a very, very eloquent coach.

We've seen the fruits of his labor at Reading, where he

was

like, given the circumstances of Reading, to have them firstly get over a points deduction and be safe and then on the fringes of the playoffs last season, you've got to have something about you for that to be the case.

Also, you know, anecdotally, he's apparently incredibly popular with players for the most part, given the way that he manages.

And there's also the fact that Cheffey United's side from last season under Chris Wilder is going through a huge change now.

And the amount of players they brought in, there aren't actually loads of players kind of coming on from that.

Because of the way that Chris Wilder was sacked, this was always going to be incredibly difficult for whoever came in after him.

And if they got off to a bad start, it was always going to be

under way more scrutiny and way more pressure than

they would do normally.

And for that reason, you know, it kind of feels like Ruben Sayers on hiding to nothing.

Even if results improve, he will always be the guy that replaced Chris Wilder.

He'll always be the guy that wasn't really wanted.

And

in my mind, I likened it on our pod yesterday to a night watchman in cricket.

I think he's almost just there to take the flack during this moment of transition, and then it'll probably be someone else who comes in.

But there's no point sacking him now, really, because the club's a bit of a mess.

And I imagine it wouldn't be a particularly easy job for someone to come into and sort them out.

So I feel for him, but he's definitely not the clown that he's being portrayed to be, in my mind at least.

And Shane Warren, the greatest night watchman, he had to go in and face two balls, and he was out stumped for six, which gives you an idea of

his intentions when he went out to the crease george what is the latest on chef wednesday and john textor saying he might be interested yeah i mean we'll see i think when it comes to defshant chanceri and news about a takeover you've got to take it with a pinch of salt because even though the well not a pinch an absolute boatload he's made noises that he's he's looking for a buy and he's willing to sell but There's absolutely no evidence for that to be the case.

They were trying to bring in players over the course of deadline day.

Some deals were blocked.

They brought in a player for Manchester United on a loan, but nowhere near what they need.

And yeah, Jon Texter has kind of publicly disclosed that he's interested.

My assumption with that is you probably only personally disclose that you're interested if you're not really getting anywhere privately to try and put some pressure on the seller.

And

I just have absolutely no faith that Chan Siri will be true to his word and look to sell.

So let's see what happens there.

But

even though, you know, the football started again now and wages are being paid, which is obviously great news, but it's also important because, you know, Sheffield Wednesday fans obviously understand the urgency of the situation.

I think it's important that as neutrals, we don't now assume that everything's okay because it absolutely isn't.

And we still need to find a way to put the pressure on Chancery to sell, to ensure the safeguarding of the football club in the short and long term.

Sanny, anything from the championship that you want to add?

I think we've kind of covered most of it.

I think I've been quite impressed with Wrexham and the business they've done.

And

the big man man up top he's been doing it doing the business his name has just popped out of my head Keith Moore Keith and Moore Keith Moore with a big header on the weekend yeah I think they're going to do okay and that's despite some scepticism from my part earlier in the season and last season you got your first point Oxford this season well done yes thank you I was I was there it was exciting there were two there were two games in the championship this weekend that finished 2-2 where both the third and the fourth goal were direct free kicks oh there were brilliant free kicks yeah there were eight free kicks scored in the championship this season so far, only 20 in the whole of last season.

Were they all scored by, who is it, Scott Twine?

Who's the guy that scored all the free kicks?

No, Scott Twine didn't get any of them.

You've got Victor Torp, scored a couple.

Cameron Brannigan of Oxford.

No, there have been so many free kicks.

Nestori Iran Kunda has got two for Watford.

Oh, okay.

Interesting.

Obviously, really, everyone in Australia, any footballer that...

gets out of Australia, they're very excited about it.

Yes.

They generally follow him.

He's very fun.

Yeah, he's a lot of fun.

And then Portsmouth.

They all go to Portsmouth because you know.

Yeah, Segachic is looking very good as well.

Yeah, that's where the boat lands.

Yes, Barry.

Speaking of Portsmouth, Max, Andrea Dezell, son of Culverhouse staple Jason,

scored a deflected thunderbastard for them to beat Preston at the weekend.

This may be something or nothing, but just to ask the boys, I noticed Ipswich,

their draw with Derby County.

Jack Clark scored an equaliser in the 16th minute of added time.

And in the Wrexham Millwall game, there were 19 minutes of added time in that game.

Is that a thing in the championship this season?

Or did something happen?

So Danny Ward had a really bad elbow injury.

It's actually really nasty.

If you the clip, when you see it, he's in obviously in absolute agony, albeit he had the elbow injury and concussion.

And then someone videoed him ordering a McDonald's at one of the screens in a server station after the game and was wondering if you got a concussion, you probably shouldn't be ordering from a screen in a McDonald's.

But

that was why that game had a long pause.

And then I don't know why it was another injury in the Ipswich game as well.

But on Ipswich, one other transfer to mention before we move on, probably kind of work the nicest story, maybe, of Deadline Day was Conor Chaplin returning to Portsmouth, a player who came through at Pompey, had a great time there as a young player who's been a magnificent player for Ipswich, getting out of League One and then getting out of the championship.

His return there has been a proper homecoming with Pompey fans absolutely delirious.

And not only kind of chaplain the sign but also josh murphy their star winger has stayed despite interest seemingly from from leicester and west ham so that's a very good signing pompey very much progressive club and a dark horse this season all right that'll do for part two part three will be league one and league two

Hi pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, Matt.

Exactly.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly League One, then Cardiff City top, Devenage in second, then Bradford, Barnsley, Doncaster, Huddersfield, Luton and Stockport making up the top eight.

I guess Sally Stevenage, they pop out in that list.

They do, with kind of the core of the same players that they've had for a couple of seasons now.

Jamie Reid has got five and seven, and I think he had a few injuries last season because a couple of years ago he got 22 in a league campaign.

You still got Carl Piagiani at the back, the warrior.

Oh yes.

Get up for a big header from a corner.

Yeah,

I suppose it is a bit of a testament for keeping sticking with your man and seeing how it goes.

Because yeah, you look at the lineup and it's more or less exactly the same.

I don't know how long it will last though.

But yeah, quite amazing.

And we're only six games in, so it's a bit hard to say how long it will last.

But yeah, I think they've been quite phenomenal.

When you think about the teams around them, like, you know, Cardiff and Bradford, either side of them, it's quite incredible.

Yeah, the rest of the top eight seems sort of who you'd expect to be in the top eight, George, or not?

Yeah, not maybe not.

I mean, again, it feels like it's less predictable than usual.

We've seen Bradford and Doncaster, who came up from League Two last season, both really impressive.

Barnsley, who had a tour of time last season and

appointed Conor Harrowan as their new manager off the back of a caretaker spell that didn't go particularly well.

And I was, you know, they were, it was good to see them kind of a bit of a show of faith in him and looking beyond just the bare results and they're, you know, now sitting in fourth.

Even Cardiff, who they appointed Brian Barry Murphy, who comes with a big reputation after his time at the Manchester City Academy, he was Rudy Nisteroid's assistant manager at Leicester last season, which the kind of less said about that, the better, maybe.

But also did an amazing job in terms of player development, if not results, at Rochdale.

And it's really interesting there because Cardiff

got rid of a lot of kind of old senior pros, Joe Rawls, Andy Rinamota, Callum Chambers, have got a really good crop of young players

in

the two Colwell brothers, Joel and Ruben Colwell, Kian Ashford, and a few others too.

And they brought in a guy who's a specialist at developing young talent.

And very, very quickly, they look like one of the best teams, if not the best team in the league.

They won 16 points from six games.

They're playing a really good, vibrant style of football.

They brought in a player in Nathan Trot, who's a goalkeeper who's kept five consecutive clean sheets, which is a pretty good way to start life at your new club, making some magnificent saves, especially in the 1-0 win over Luton a couple of weeks ago.

So in a time, in an era where

we focus so much on recruitment and buying players, I think Cardiff, are a reminder that good coaching of good young players could often be the route to success.

And it was interesting, they played against Plymouth Argyle last weekend, who they were relegated with.

Argyle have shipped out loads of players, brought in loads of players, and the gap between the two was absolutely vast on Saturday.

Cardiff, by far, the better team.

So what you're saying is apart from Cardiff, Stevenage, Bradford, Barnsley, and Doncaster, it is who you'd expect in the top five.

Huddersfield and Luton sixth and seventh is exactly what I'm expecting to say.

George, Reuben Colwell wasn't called up to the wheel squad.

Was that a surprise?

Really, really surprised.

I can't really understand why

he is a player who has a lot of talent.

I think we often see

when clubs get relegated out of the championship, it can be the best thing for some of their young players because Reuben Colwell goes from being a good player in a bad team in the championship who isn't really able to showcase his ability to suddenly being one of the best players in a league and is able, therefore, to flourish.

I've got no doubt that he will return to the championship with Cardiff or with another team next season and show what he's all about.

I can't really understand why Bellamy wouldn't call him up.

You know, Mark Harris, who plays for Oxford, the team I support, who isn't really getting any minutes, gets into the squads, albeit as a slightly more advanced attacking player, who, you know, I'm a big fan of, but compare their starts to the season, there's a huge gulf between them.

so yeah very surprised and i i can't really understand why i'm sandy i'm nervous of suggesting the bottom four of league one aren't who i'd expect to be the bottom four in league one

but i okay port vale are always sort of down there but peterborough bottom wickham and plymouth wickham who you know perhaps punched above their weight for a long time plymouth who came down should we start with peterborough i mean they

i know there are problems off the pitch or expectations are low but they're always sort of pushing around the playoffs yeah and i guess part of that is because they've got such a great scouting network of young players that they're able to promote and do quite well.

A lot of those

who then move on.

I mean, they're managing like about one shot on target a game.

They did against in the 3-0 to Exeter.

I think it was two against Bradford and another one in the previous defeat to that.

So they're really struggling up top.

Very worrying for them.

I don't know what else Darren Ferguson can do because, you know, they are on the lower side of the budget, relatively speaking, right?

The other one as well, though you mentioned Plymouth Argyle, I think that's a real worry.

Like I saw them against Bolton Wanderers and an ex-manager who was doing Commentary described them as kind of like a five-aside team.

Like they're very good at playing little neat balls in the corner, getting

out of tight places, but they were offering so little and were completely overrun by Bolton.

And yeah, we talked briefly, it was on the other week about Tom Cleverly and standing by that screen and things not going well off the pitch.

It does seem like they're in a real

kind of existential moment of like, what sort of football do we want to play?

Do we have the players to do it?

They've had such a hodgepodge of managers and styles.

And yeah, you mentioned Wickham.

They've just lost Richard Kone as well, which was the, I know he was injured and out of the team and kind of the lower league Isak in a way, I suppose.

Like, he was a move that had been a long time coming.

So, yeah, they're going to struggle too.

And, yeah, Port Vale, I think Port Vale, you know, Darren Moore will do his best in the circumstances.

But, yeah, worried about those three because for different reasons, they all look like they've got real issues to get themselves in a better place.

And you see, like, you know, we mentioned with Stevenage, what you can do with a lower budget, you can do really well when it all comes together.

But yeah, seemingly quite a bit of work to do.

Albeit, only six games in, you know, it was only six.

You are rubbing it in a bit as the Cambridge man over there, I think.

Oh, no, I was, I said that almost with genuine interest.

It's lovely to hear they're barely getting a shot on target a game.

I look forward to leapfrogging them at the end of this season.

And George, anything else out of League One that is of interest?

I mean, I guess I mentioned for Peterborough, who, you know, people who don't often look at the League One table might be surprised to see them rooted to the bottom of League One.

They had a pretty poor season last season and then lost a host of very good players, so it shouldn't be a massive surprise to see them where they are.

They've recruited really heavily to try and

rally out of this position where they are at the moment.

But I'm pretty concerned about them.

I think it's a fair case to be made right now that they're the worst team in League One and possibly even at the back end of last season were the worst team in League One too.

So I think relegation is a very possible concern for a team that for so long we're punching at the top of League One.

I have you down, George, as arguably possibly one of the most professional panelists we have.

But what were you doing for the previous four to five minutes when we were talking about PCB United?

That's my question.

I received an email that I had to see.

Oh, I see.

Can you share it with the class or not?

I can see.

I thought your face was smiling because I was having a go at Peterborough, which I knew you would enjoy.

But alas, it was because I've just missed the whole chat.

Peterborough fans will be delighted.

They get more time in this pod than they were expected.

Yes.

So, what would be better now is if I come to you, Barry, and say, Any thoughts, Barry?

And you could just say, I'm slightly surprised.

Darren McAnthony, Peterborough chairman, Chancer.

Anyway, let's do league two.

Gillingham are top, Chesterfield second, Bromley in third.

The playoffs made up of Crew, Swindon, Balsaw and Milton Keynes, with Cambridge in tenth of course lots of people messing about Ryan Loft we talked about Ryan Loft a bit too much during the victorious England semi-final pod when we beat the Netherlands I don't know why we got onto Ryan Loft but we did anyway he's he's gone from tenth to third because he's not part of our plans um sanny talk me through the top of league two as as george has alluded to when he was concentrating it was uh

it is the most unpredictable of the leagues yeah well i'll tell you what i'll pick up on on crew and swindon because i was at that game and I'll let George handle the others because crew were top up until this weekend and Swindon turned up and put three past them inside 45 minutes.

And

on the face of it, actually, you're thinking, well, what's happening at Crewe, who've had a really good start to the season team twice already.

Lots of, you know, classic crew style.

They bring in lots of youngsters, lots of academy graduates are in that team.

And then the players they brought in as well, Tommy O'Reilly from Aston Villa on loan has been very exciting.

But they're missing a bit of strength and they were just completely out-muscled against Swindon Town on the weekend.

We've got, you know, I think 13 signings now.

Big Ollie Palmer's the latest from Wrexham.

I was sat actually next to Gavin Gunning, who is the first team coach at Swindon Town.

He was like sat next to me in the press bit,

and he did not moderate his language whatsoever whilst he was on his little,

you know, he's got his little radio down to Holloway and the thingy.

And despite the fact he's got all crew fans around him, and he's got a BBC broadcaster with a microphone right next to him, and he's dropping the C bomb and the F bomb.

He's like, get in there, get in there and hit him.

And everyone else around is like looking at them going.

So for that reason.

So sorry, is he talking to Ian Holloway?

Or is he standing up and yelling at the players from the stand?

He's got his AirPods in and he's got another coach with Holloway in the technical area.

And he's just like screaming at players, which then the coach on the ground is then hearing him getting screamed at to then translate the screaming across over.

I suppose if you're, it's a bit like you know one of those Anton Deck scenes where they have to say you know

call him a sea bomb you know but like maybe if you don't shout it yourself then the person that you are relaying to shout it doesn't feel like they have to shout it either.

Yeah exactly.

What it did give me an insight into is the people around Ian Holloway are doing a very good job as far as the maybe the extra analysis that perhaps you might not think is part of Holloway's remit.

You know, and he focuses on motivation as well as picking a team, whatever.

What was also interesting about Swindon was they had a very deep squad now with those 13 signings.

Some real like talent to come off the bench.

And when they did make those changes, they were just as strong.

So I'm actually quite pleased with them.

I was disappointed for Jake Tabor, who you remember I called the real-life Gary Goals with his 127 goals in 97.

Oh, yeah, how's he going?

Well,

he didn't make the squad because now Ollie Palmer's there.

But he's got EFL trophy games.

I think he'll get his chance there.

So impressed with Swindon.

I think there will be ones to watch now for this uh coming season now as it progresses George you with us yeah I think crew and Swindon would be there

at the bottom George Cheltenham have one point

Shrewsbury and Crawley two Accrington three and Newport Oldham have four points so yeah over those teams only Newport have a win so far this season that is sad isn't it George you haven't got a win in the first six who do you who do you worry for you really do

All of them, really.

Cheltenham made a couple of quite eye-catching signings yesterday.

Sam Shering in particular, who was a big player for Northampton when they were promoted out of League Two and a good player for the Mid League One, to be fair as well, whose move to MK Donce hasn't really worked out at all.

Really worry for Shrewsbury Town and my mate, my hero, Michael Appleton, who is manager there.

It felt like a very bad fit in terms of for a manager who has excelled at Oxford and Lincoln when he's been able to play a certain style with very talented young players and and develop them to come into Shrewsbury who don't have the financial muscle to go out and recruit that kind of profile.

They're really struggling and you know

they look to me to be within

massive danger of the double drop that we've seen from Carlisle and Forrest Greene in recent history of getting relegated from League One and then straight back into the National League.

I think Crawley are improving.

They were good in their away to all draw against Chesterfield, squandering a 2-0 lead.

I can't remember his name, but they're one of their players with one of the worst one-on-one misses you're ever going to see, where he tried to do a step over and just really bamboozled himself

in the process of doing it rather than the keeper.

And yeah, Accrington and Newport were kind of being written off as relegated before a ball was even kicked this season and have looked no worse than the other teams towards the bottom.

Accrington, the team that I was kind of relatively positive about going into the campaign, but yet to get a win, albeit three draws from their five games, means that

maybe a difficult team to beat.

So they look the poorest teams in the league

right now.

But yeah, Cheltenham and Shrewsbury, probably the two I'm most concerned about at this stage.

Let's finish with a couple of emails.

George says, Hi, Max Barry and the Football Weekly pod crew.

Long time listener, first-time writer.

Football Weekly has been a thrice weekly obsession for myself, my close friends since discovering the pod in 2021.

My mates and I live in Melbourne.

Obviously thrilled when we heard that Max was moving to Australia.

Since that moment, we'd bond over each other's stories of seeing Max riding his bike through Clifton Hill or getting a coffee at Standing Room in Fitzroy North with young Ian.

It's good, good cafe.

You can only understand our collected elation when my friend Harris and I spotted Max striding through London Fields during Paul's stag last weekend, hiding our excitement through whispers as to not wake the newest Rushton in Pram.

That's Willie Rushton.

We had a great chat about Melbourne Subaroos and Boz's malapropism regarding green shoots when I messaged him about Spurs and he said, yes.

It's just the beginning, but I see green sprouts is what Boz said.

Anyway, Paul is marrying the lovely Lizzie at Gilmerton House in Scotland on Saturday.

We'd We'd love to have their union solemnised as only Barry can, up the pod and all of the legends who grace it and our ear waves every week, says George.

So this is Paul and Lizzie.

Barry, do your best.

Well, just to be clear, he said solemnised.

Yes, yes, of course.

I wasn't quite sure.

Yes, yes.

Come on, Barry.

Your enunciation left a lot to be desired there.

My apologies.

And I'm not sure I could top that, really.

My interest was piqued when I heard they'd come to London for a stag do from Melbourne.

I was thinking, oh, that's a long way to go just to gad about on the beer.

I remember I had friends who came over for a wedding from Melbourne to London and all concerned left the the groom, the best man and the ushers all left their suits on a train and had to buy bread.

Maybe these guys picked them up.

It'd be useful if they found them.

They hopped on the train.

This was several years ago.

It it would be would be handy but um yeah best wishes to uh paul and lizzie and

um

i i can't top solemnizing no that's that's fine uh and uh no they were lovely lovely boys it was nice to chat to you in the park this is from ben um and this is a great email hi ben uh hi guardian football weekly i thought after your last episode's mention of a listener hallucinating about barry you might be interested in my experience from a few years ago back in 2022 my partner was asked to go to a conference in new york the company paid for her flights from London and she was put up in a fancy hotel in Manhattan.

So I took the opportunity to fly out and enjoy free room service and give my moral support.

I had a lovely week in the Big Apple seeing all the sights.

Had one more idea of something to pass the time while my partner was at her conference.

I normally play Five Asides several times a week so on the morning before our flight home I thought it might be fun to try out a pickup game in Manhattan.

I took my boots down to a pitch on the lower east side fully expecting to show off my refined European football skill to a crowd of American soccer novices.

It didn't take me long to realise the game was chocked full of outrageously talented prodigies from all over the world.

After being turned inside out for an hour by a South American wonder kid and having barely touched the ball, I finally got a break down the left wing in the dying minutes.

Sensing my moment, I barreled towards the opposition end, executed a perfect Croy turn to lose my marker, and then crumpled to the floor with a sickening snap as my ankle gave way.

I was rushed to hospital and treated for multiple ruptured tendons and a fractured ankle bone.

The lovely staff at the hospital handed me over, strapped up and doped up to my furious girlfriend with about 45 minutes to get to JFK airport.

Turns out hospitals in America are much more generous with their opioids than in the UK.

I was absolutely off my tits.

I was loaded onto the plane and lay across my still furious girlfriend's lap at the back of the plane, still in my sweaty football kit.

The night before I downloaded an episode of The Guardian Football Weekly to listen to on the flight.

Clearly something had gone wrong.

As the audio file got stuck, repeating the same couple of seconds of Barry indignantly saying, well, Max, I don't know, over and over again.

I was too out of it to figure out how to stop it or fix it, so I instead lay there hazily staring up at my girlfriend's furious face while Barry berated me for the entirety of the seven-hour flight.

I can safely say it was the most psychologically disturbing experience of my life.

Anyway, Jude and I got very happily married last month.

We're both fans of the pod, although she, in fairness, does prefer Faye and the gang's excellent work on the women's show.

So clearly we're doing something right.

If Barry felt like giving us this blessing, that would be either delightful or deeply upsetting, depending on my potential Pavlovian response to his voice.

Keep up the good work and thanks for the always excellent content.

All the best, Ben.

There you are, Baz.

Seven hours of you just going, I don't know.

That is brutal.

I'm guessing he got a whacking great bill from that hospital as well.

It sounds very expensive.

I wouldn't imagine those opioids come cheap in an American hospital.

So yeah, good luck paying that bill and

happy marriage.

They're already married, yeah?

They're already married, yeah.

I wish you wouldn't spring these on me, Max.

I can't do them justice.

I'm sorry.

But okay.

I think he's heard enough from me.

I think you're probably right.

I think most people have.

And that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Sanny.

Thank you.

And hey, I didn't get it with Sky, but breaking news: Jean-Luigi Donarumma has signed for Magic City 26 million five-year deal and will wear shirt number 99.

Thank you, George.

Thank you.

Thanks, Paz.

Thank you.

Fiber Weekly is produced by Silas Gray and Jesse Howard.

Our executive producer is Neil McMahon.

This is The Guardian.