Ireland keep dream alive, Ronaldo’s histrionics and England beat Serbia – Football Weekly Extra

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Speaker 1 Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. The Republic of Ireland keeps their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup alive.
A 2-0 win over Portugal.

Speaker 1 Has Freed from Desire ever sounded so good? Troy Parrott with two goals. The Irish stuck the ball over the top of the Portuguese back four, and they really didn't like it.

Speaker 1 And if you ever wanted an advert for VAR, that crowd as the ref went to the monitor to upgrade Ronaldo's yellow to a red for a daft elbow. You love to see it.
Now they have to win in Hungary.

Speaker 1 Not easy, but possible. Meanwhile, most of our panel are very wet Wembley for England to Serbia 0.
Strap yourselves in for another what did we learn session.

Speaker 1 Football finance expert Kieran Maguire joins us to talk crypto World Cup dynamic pricing and other interesting accountancy. We'll answer your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

Speaker 1 On the panel today, Sam Dalling, welcome. Hiya Max, how are you? Yeah, good.
Thank you. Hello, Jacob Steinberg.
Hello. And welcome, Dan Bardell.

Speaker 10 Hello, Max Rushdon.

Speaker 1 Johnny says, please spend the first 20 minutes on Ireland. There's nothing new or interesting to say about England.
They're quite good. Move on.

Speaker 1 Alan, is Troy Parrott the greatest of all ornithological based sportsmen?

Speaker 1 Larry Bird feels disappointed with that, or maybe Gavin Peacock. Anyway, let's start with Ireland's 2-0 win over Portugal.
Toxie said, how about a voice note from Barry? He's got to be pleased.

Speaker 1 Yeah, astonishing that Barry took the day off.

Speaker 1 The first time he could probably ever talk about the Republic of Ireland being good. But we couldn't do this bit without a voice note from everyone's favorite Irishman.
So here is David O'Doherty.

Speaker 12 It's just been so hard to get excited about it for so long. It seems like just 10 years of drawing with Moldova.

Speaker 13 And before this campaign, our Icelandic dentist manager told us we're actually alright.

Speaker 1 And I don't know if we really believed it.

Speaker 13 But like, Queen Keller is good goalie.

Speaker 12 Evan Ferguson plays for freaking Syria, you know?

Speaker 13 And then

Speaker 12 we lost to our media.

Speaker 2 And so,

Speaker 13 I mean,

Speaker 12 there was towards the end of this match.

Speaker 12 This is how long it's been.

Speaker 1 There was the need to sing.

Speaker 12 And the song that people started singing was

Speaker 13 from the 1990 World Cup.

Speaker 12 It's we're all part of Jackie's Army.

Speaker 15 We're all off to Italy and we'll really shake them up when we win the World Cup because Ireland are the greatest football team.

Speaker 12 And you know what? Just for an instant, I think it was probably when Ronaldo was sent off,

Speaker 12 I started to think, maybe we maybe we are the greatest football team.

Speaker 15 Yes, look, we have to beat Hungary on Sunday and then we'll be in a playoff against Italy or someone really good.

Speaker 1 But just this moment.

Speaker 12 Just

Speaker 12 have this moment.

Speaker 1 Irish comedian, excellent podcaster in his own right there, David O'Doherty, walking home from the game. And look, we're not used to an upbeat, joyous Irish voice on this podcast.

Speaker 1 But the thing is, Sam, like it... it gives you hope, football.
That's what it's done to these Irish fans. It does.
I mean, they were very excited. I wonder if Barry has pre-planned this.

Speaker 1 It's the sort of extended version of, you know, when you're like, right, it's 0-0, we need a goal.

Speaker 1 I'm going to go and make a cup of tea or I'm going to go to the loo because they always score when I'm out of the room. Barry has taken it to another extreme.

Speaker 1 It was like the archetypal stolen away win, wasn't it? 22% possession, 234 passes, of which 30% of them went astray, but it didn't matter. They scored two out of their three.
shots on target.

Speaker 1 I was having a listen to some Irish fans TV, as you do in the early hours of the morning after an Irish victory. And I just love the hyperbole.

Speaker 1 I mean, Ogbene, who I love when he was at Luton, he's now at Sheffield United. He hit the base of the post and he was being compared to Thierry Henry by Irish fans TV.

Speaker 1 So, like, you've just got to love it. But yeah, I feel

Speaker 1 I'm delighted for Troy Parrott because if you go back, what, four or five years ago, he was sort of anointed more by the media as the success for successor to Harry Kane and to Sun at Spurs.

Speaker 1 And it didn't really work out for him. Well, actually, Mourinho did it because he sort of handed him a match ball after his debut.
But yeah, he gets a couple of goals.

Speaker 1 He's over in Holland playing now. Sometimes it just shows there's a different path to success.
So delighted for Ireland. I wish I was there.
It sounded loud. It definitely was very loud.

Speaker 1 And well, I'm sure someone else will come onto it. But it's always fun to see Christiarondo Ronaldo applauding the crowd as he leaves the pitch.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, just on Troy Parrott, he's got 13 and 14 for Azer Gautmar. First goals for Ireland since June 2024.
He said, this is probably the best night I've had in my entire life.

Speaker 1 I have no words to describe it. We all know how important this game was for us, particularly after the other result tonight.
I am overwhelmed. I don't know what words to use, but I am over the moon.

Speaker 1 So they do feel like that feels like the right time to bring out a cliche. Sam alluded to it, Jacob.
Is there anything better than seeing Ronaldo get sent?

Speaker 1 Oh, and if that way, you know, just VAR is annoying, but... when the crowd just knew, you know, they could see every single step of what was going to happen, it was sort of heavenly.

Speaker 16 Yeah, it was very strange as well, the reaction from Ronaldo, the weird crying crying stuff that he did with the crowd after he got sent off. It was just very, very weird.

Speaker 16 I don't really know what was going on there.

Speaker 16 I don't know if there's a logical explanation for what was going on. It looked like a man who was having a meltdown very publicly, and then he has a row with the island manager when he went off.

Speaker 16 Yeah, it's just very strange, and it would have added to the whole joyous nature of it

Speaker 16 for the island fans. But looking at the Portugal team, it looks kind of like half a good team.

Speaker 16 So if you think in your head, that's a really, really good team that's going to go for the World Cup and be one of the favourites.

Speaker 16 And then you kind of look at the starting lineup last night and it's got the PSG guys from midfield and everything, Neves and Vitinha.

Speaker 16 And then you sort of look up front, they've got a 40-year-old who's playing in Saudi Arabia playing with Jao Felix.

Speaker 16 And it's sort of, right, okay, you know, would this be better with Pauletta up front? I don't know.

Speaker 16 Are we just in that place where they still don't have a striker? I don't know. Just with Portugal, you feel like it should be much better and they shouldn't be in that position of of

Speaker 16 losing to Ireland. But it just feels like they've just got those

Speaker 16 little personnel issues still going on in that team. That means there's less than the sum of their parts.

Speaker 1 Yeah, ringing up

Speaker 1 Portuguese sports radio to demand where is the next Helder Postiga. The thing is, Dan, that red card, if it's upgraded to violent conduct, and I presume it was violent conduct, but if it is,

Speaker 1 if they win their group, he misses the opening two games of the World Cup, perhaps. Like,

Speaker 1 that is extraordinary for doing that. Like, it was such a sort of Street Fighter 2 elbow, wasn't it?

Speaker 10 Yeah, I mean, it's 100% violent conduct, so I can't see how it doesn't get upgraded. Didn't Wayne Rooney miss a couple of games because of doing something similar?

Speaker 10 Didn't he get done and he missed a few games for a card?

Speaker 16 Yeah, Euro 2012. But

Speaker 16 I can see how it wouldn't get upgraded in that it's Ronaldo and it's FIFA.

Speaker 13 Yeah, that might help

Speaker 10 the first two games of the World Cup I don't know yeah that does that does help in his last World Cup as well as he's uh he's announced this week he was a he's an angry man wasn't he but then I guess I'd be angry if I'd been giving football-based interviews to Piers Morgan I think that would have that would annoy me as as well in in in fairness it was the the game was great though just uh obviously i was watching the england game but i've watched back the the island highlights and tale of two number sevens really and the the whole dialogue around the game will be about the two number sevens but some great finishes from troy parrot and it in fairness, I would say that's probably what Ireland haven't done enough of.

Speaker 10 Maybe even over the last 10 years, they always used to have that in them where they could take on a big nation at home and they'd bloody their nose and maybe be capable of a victory.

Speaker 10 That hasn't happened for a long, long time now, maybe even since Martin O'Neill was in charge, which was a long time ago. So it's a great night for Ireland and they've given themselves a chance.

Speaker 10 Now Jacob said it, I can't imagine that red card getting upgraded, considering who Ronaldo's friends are.

Speaker 1 Do you think that what they'll do is that when Donald Trump accepts the FIFA Peace Prize, he will be given, as you know, Gianni will say, as part of the Peace Prize, you get to pardon, because he likes pardoning people, Trump, doesn't he?

Speaker 1 You'll get to pardon someone and he will pardon Cristiano Ronaldo for that loose elbow and then all will be right with football or all will be wrong with football.

Speaker 1 Actually, Sam Jacob alluded to it actually about Portugal, but they had a bit of a high line, but you could see Ireland, you know, the way they got in, the way Old Bene got in, the way I think Parra got in for his second goal was just stick it over the top and turn them.

Speaker 1 It's so 1980s Ireland that 1990s Ireland, I guess. It was beautiful.

Speaker 1 And I think what Jacob's basically saying is Portugal a QPR under Harry Redknapp when they've got a team that would have won the Premier League 10 years prior, but they're past their sell-by date.

Speaker 1 But yeah, and they did that. They kept getting in behind them, full of running up Benny.

Speaker 1 And we should say the finish from Parrott for that second goal, because most of us, and probably the goalkeeper, expect him to go far post, right, bend it round the defender.

Speaker 1 And he goes inside the defender, inside that near post. So it was, it was a moment of quality.
And the first goal was a set piece as well. Well-worked set piece.
It's an easy finish from Parrot.

Speaker 1 So yeah, it was rootwater. It just shows that

Speaker 1 you can go back to 90s football. Halgrimson, there was a bit of psychological stuff before the game when he was talking about, and why I hope that the referee doesn't allow Ronaldo to ref the game.

Speaker 1 And I think when he went off, Ronaldo said to the Ireland manager, well, basically, he complimented me for putting pressure on the referee, is what Ronaldo said.

Speaker 1 So So, like, the old school mind games from Halgrimson, old school football from Ireland are just wonderful results.

Speaker 10 Ireland have moved with the times and Portugal haven't, because that's the direction football's going in, and Ireland have gone with it, and Portugal haven't.

Speaker 16 Well, I was just going to say, I guess, you know, speaking to that, Ireland made this whole play, didn't they, of trying to play a more kind of pep style of football under previous managers.

Speaker 16 And this is the way that we've got to go. We've got to play possession football and build from the back, but they don't really have the players to do it.
So why would you not play to your strengths?

Speaker 16 Like a lot of, I mean, the first goal, it looked like a Premier League goal, the

Speaker 16 well-worked set piece, corner to the back post, head it in, and someone's there to finish it off.

Speaker 16 And that's clearly going to be very effective for a team probably with quite limited players relatively to Portugal, but also not a lot of time to work on it.

Speaker 16 And it's probably going to be quite effective at the World Cup as well

Speaker 16 for other teams of that. of that kind of level.
Set pieces, if you don't have a lot of time to work on it, then it's going to

Speaker 1 work on the general play, then set pieces are going to be massive, massive aren't they and uh actually barry did uh pipe up in the whatsapp group uh because obviously portugal have the same set piece coach as aston villa and he did

Speaker 1 he yelled austin mcphhe

Speaker 10 your lads took one hell of a beating there but i presume you didn't take that personally dan you know when he's on international duty you don't mind what he does no no i i said it said in the whatsapp group he's a he's a lovely lovely man he's a he's a good coach as well i think he might do more than set pieces at portugal i think he's i think he's an actual coach for uh for portugal i could be wrong on that, but don't take it personal.

Speaker 10 I was just trying to enjoy the England game, and then I was getting abused from someone who's not even on the podcast today, so I was surprised to receive that WhatsApp.

Speaker 1 I like the way that

Speaker 1 you categorise them as set piece coach and actual coach. That is

Speaker 13 a way of doing it.

Speaker 1 Is it different? Well, they are different things.

Speaker 13 They're goalkeeping coach and coach, different things.

Speaker 1 Yeah, of course. Ireland play Hungary on Sunday with a chance to make the playoffs if they win.
Well, they do make the playoffs if they win.

Speaker 1 Amazing turnaround since they're lost to Armenia earlier in the campaign. If Hungary win and Portugal lose to Armenia, it seems unlikely Portugal would go into the playoff.

Speaker 1 They're all still alive in that group. Before we go any further, we are nominated.
We haven't mentioned it yet for best podcast at the FSAs. We need your vote after the shame of last year.

Speaker 1 And this is the last time you'll hear the plea because I think voting ends before the pods out on Monday. So Google FSA Awards 2025.
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Speaker 1 Lots of the Football Weekly family nominated as well. Lucy Ward, Seth Hudgidson, Guardian Women's Football Weekly, Sophie Downey, not the top 20.
Midday, Monday, the 17th of November.

Speaker 1 And then we'll shut up about it. And if we don't win, we won't mention it.

Speaker 1 Thank you very much. That'll do for part one.
We'll do England in part two.

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Speaker 1 Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Some England beat Serbia 2-0, 10 straight wins, 10 consecutive clean sheets for Jordan Pickford.

Speaker 1 Sam and Jacob, you were both there at a wet Wembley. Jacob, what did you make of it?

Speaker 16 Yeah, wet Wembley with an empty, pretty much empty away end as well. So it was quite an odd, odd occasion.
The Serbia fans were not there, apart from Brown. We were trying to count.

Speaker 16 You could actually count them, the fans that were in the away end. We weren't sure how they were the ones who had got in, but it was looked like between 30 and 35.

Speaker 16 That was what I spent the first 10, 15 minutes of the game doing, trying to, could you actually see how many Serbia fans were there?

Speaker 16 got to about 35.

Speaker 16 And then there was a game that was going on which was quite low energy

Speaker 16 because of just the fact that England have qualified with two games to go. They're playing against a pretty poor side.
Wembley wasn't full.

Speaker 16 These nights at Wembley can be a bit like that, as Tuchel talked about after the Wales game.

Speaker 16 You know, the thrower of truth bombs that he is and made no apologies for it earlier this week, criticising the England fans for the atmosphere. And it was a bit like that again.

Speaker 16 But there were a lot of things going on with the team. Obviously, the biggest thing being that Morgan Rogers started over De Bellingham, Drew Bellingham back in the squad after, was he dropped?

Speaker 16 Was it just the shoulder injury? I would

Speaker 16 go towards the former, given, I think, some of the coded messages I think that Tuchel has been sending out. And I think it was absolutely the right decision to start Morgan Rogers because...

Speaker 16 Not doing so would have just gone against everything that Tuchel's been building, everything that he's been saying about rewarding those who have done well well for him in the last few camps, collective ethos, the lack of egos that he's building towards as well, which obviously in the past has been a problem for England.

Speaker 16 Rogers has done really, really well. He's the kind of number 10 that Tuchel likes, the counter-pressing ability to link play, how physical he is.

Speaker 16 I almost sort of look at him and think like he's almost like an updated Mason Mountford for Tuchel. He's obviously probably not the most talented.

Speaker 16 number 10 that England have because there's so much in that area but he's been so effective for England England.

Speaker 16 And he is obviously, I'm saying he's not the most talented, but he's obviously a very, very good player as well.

Speaker 16 And the way that he played in the game in Belgrade would have just, I think you would have, I think that if Tuchel had started Bellingham, I think you almost lose a little bit of respect amongst the players probably if you do that.

Speaker 16 If you just sort of, thanks, but now the big guy's back.

Speaker 16 You can step out. So Roger's got his chance.

Speaker 16 He did well. You could see that he was really determined to make the impression.
He eager to get on the ball, want it back, just couldn't quite find that killer moment, I think.

Speaker 16 And it sort of slightly fizzled out the longer it went on. And when Jude did come on with

Speaker 16 the other two number 10s as well, it was a real statement of intent from England, really showing the strength in depth. The crowd did wake up a little bit.

Speaker 16 There was a huge Jude and everything when he came on. And then he was very, very good.
when he was

Speaker 16 in there for those last 25 minutes, obviously played a part in the goal.

Speaker 16 And there were lots of other nice driving driving moments so you kind of left it feeling like dude if he continues like that will probably be the number 10 assuming that he continues to follow tuko's instructions and remains disciplined within the the tactical structure but i don't think that it necessarily absolutely was a definitive night one way or another.

Speaker 16 I think it's just a really good night for England because of the competition for places that you can see coming up because there's so many that are in there.

Speaker 16 Then there were other elements to it as well, which

Speaker 16 it was an interesting evening in the end, despite being against low-quality opposition. And Albania on Sunday would be, again,

Speaker 16 that kind of feeling because I think they're through now because of their result. But obviously, we'll have to see whether or not Jude's now done enough to start.

Speaker 16 And if Ebby does, that might be a little pointer to what's coming in the summer.

Speaker 1 It is fascinating down this 10 position, isn't it? You know, obviously you have a villa bias, and it's really hard to put your club loyalties aside when you look at an international team.

Speaker 1 But you sort of of see, you know, Bellingham did have that impact. They did stick with Morgan Rogers.
But you can imagine this situation where Cole Palmer has a great season and

Speaker 1 then you're just sort of thinking, well, who is

Speaker 1 Rogers could start at the World Cup or he could not make it?

Speaker 10 Yeah, and I thought Furden did well in the position when he came on there as well. He obviously got the assist for Eza's goal, who, again, is a number 10, but plays more from the left for England.
He

Speaker 10 scored a lovely finish. I think it will very much depend on what's happening at the time.
You know, football isn't linear. We We know at some point there'll be injuries.

Speaker 10 So the next international break, Rogers could not be playing for Villa. He could be injured and someone else plays and they do well.

Speaker 10 And then by Tuchel's method and the consistency of selection, that guy will stay in and get the shirt.

Speaker 10 I think if Madowecki hadn't been injured, Saka maybe wouldn't be playing now because Madowecki had done well previously. So it will very much depend on what's going on at the time.

Speaker 10 I think maybe Rogers is quietest game for England for a while, but he certainly plays that number 10 position a little bit differently for England than what he does for Villa.

Speaker 10 He does tend to link the play better for England, I would say, but then for Villa, there's more driving run. So if you can mesh the two together, I think you have got a very, very good number 10.

Speaker 10 He strikes me as someone who, when we play up against the bigger teams in transition, is going to be a really, really dangerous weapon for England. I've just liked to see us, and it's nobody's fault.

Speaker 10 I'd just like to see us play somebody good. to

Speaker 10 see how this all comes together. It's a bit the same with the central midfield area.

Speaker 10 I think Elliot Anderson's a brilliant, brilliant player i remember watching him in a in a pre-season tournament for newcastle in 2023 in america and i thought oh wow he's a he's a really good player but so far we haven't seen him play against anyone really really good and you know when that happens is that going to be straight away in a world cut quarterfinal it's not something he's done previously so i'd like to see tuchels england play against a good team but as i say that that's nobody's fault and the last kind of three international breaks i've started to see what what tuchall's doing and i really like it

Speaker 1 what did you make of foden then sam in the false nine? Did we like that idea?

Speaker 1 Because you imagine Tuchel does need a Kane replacement on the plane in case Kane gets injured, but probably one that won't really do anything, won't come on at all if he uses Foden in this way.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and Tuchel really likes him. I mean, I love Phil Foden as a player, and I was having a look back through the stats for the qualifying period.

Speaker 1 So Solanke and Tony have both been in squads, not played a single minute. And Ollie Watkins has only played 15 minutes off the bench in the entire World Cup qualifying campaign.

Speaker 1 So it is very much a, well, what happens if Harry Kane isn't available or needs a rest and he needs a solution um Foden did look to provide it he put the pass on Ferezzi I mean a lot was made of as well with me just sort of made him think big thing about Bellingham's role in the goal like he pays a 10 yard pass down the other end of the pitch it's all all about Eze that finish was almost like the old school

Speaker 1 There's a version of FIFA where you could press R2 and curl it in the top corner in the mid sort of 2000s and it became too easy to score those goals, but it was straight out of that.

Speaker 1 So yeah, I liked Foden. And it was, it was, as Jacob said, it was just a strange night.

Speaker 1 Like I go, every time I get lulled into this sense of, oh yeah, watching England at Wembury, that would be great. That would be really good fun.

Speaker 1 And then I get there in 10 minutes in, I'm thinking, oh, I'm not really, not really sure why I'm here. It was very flat, very fat.
The stadium announcer did his best.

Speaker 1 He tried to do a bit of call and response for the European staff. So when Saka scored,

Speaker 1 and it didn't really work in reply. Oh, no.
Yeah, it was a bit cringy. And then also, the poor man.

Speaker 1 I have a bit bit of sympathy for him because there was a referee's whistle-style streak, but it wasn't the referee. And he thought it was half-time.
So he is announcing.

Speaker 1 And he's obviously got a script because he's not looking up. He goes full in on the full half-time script.

Speaker 1 And then I just can't imagine how he felt when he looked up in front of 80,000 people and they're still playing.

Speaker 1 And in fairness to the ref, I think he had a bit of sympathy for him, but he blew up straight away after he finished. You do think, you know, like you only got one job.

Speaker 1 You sort of think, okay, you know, you don't even need to tell someone.

Speaker 1 Oh, by the way, you wait until it's time you just sort of think okay maybe he's just it's funny you talk about that Wembley thing my first two England games were a nil nil draw against Norway and a nil nil draw against Colombia that was the Rena Higita fraudulent scorpion kick and um even though I was so young that I was like wow Wembley's so big but it did it was like oh these aren't these aren't the same as Cambridge game there's something about them anyway Jacob back to sort of selection things you've got on the you're on the right then you have Saka whose finish was brilliant a presumed starts and then Madoweke is your number your number two right that sort of seems quite sorted I guess what Jared Boehm is is the third maybe but on the left it's quite interesting because you've got Rashford Ezekiel did so well and you've got Anthony Gordon as well who who is sort of the last few months would be the guy who starts

Speaker 16 yeah just on just on Foden and the and the strikers I I get I feel like could it be with Tuko that he's thinking is there more upside just to getting good players at some point on the pitch is is my team ultimately better with Foden and Bellingham in it it if Kane's not there than it would be with Kane sort of Watkins Solanke those kind of players maybe that's part of the part of the thinking on on the left I was I was kind of a bit disappointed with with Rashford I feel like I've seen that performance from him with England a million times now where you're hoping this is going to be the night and then he sort of runs at the defender he stands the defender up and then he seems to just not quite execute the skill or quite have the belief to get past the the guy who sort of leaves the ball behind and you think it was going to be exciting and then it just sort of fizzles out into nothing and he you know when he when he went off for for Eze the when Eze comes on I think the level actually went up a little bit and Eze is obviously a very different kind of player to Rashford it's interesting because because obviously Tuchel's laid out this this structure he's been very clear on what he wants from the team keeps saying over and over again we play with a six we play with an eight a ten and then we play with two specialist wingers so he's talking about having speed around Harry Kane in the wingers, which is obviously something that England just didn't have during the Euros under Southgate, where he got too fixated on trying to get in all the best players.

Speaker 16 Eze's obviously a different kind of player to Rashford in that he's going to come inside, try to link, and he's not going to drive down the outside in the way you'd hope with

Speaker 16 Rashford. He's not going to hang on the last defender and try to get onto through balls

Speaker 16 from Harry Kane. So that's an interesting element.

Speaker 16 But on the left, I still feel that we probably do need that directness because we we have we we struggle with it in in in the euros and kane is probably at his best when he has those targets to hit i just feel like you need more from from rashford and although gordon has been not you know has not been playing well for for newcastle i think it's january since he scored his last premier league goal which is kind of amazing he obviously had done really well in the three england games so i wonder if when he's fit does he come back in the other one that i would probably just shout out for is um is non-i that potentially if he comes back he is someone someone who can play on the left.

Speaker 16 He's he did that for Chelsea at the end of last season under Mareska and was quite effective, quite surprisingly, because you think with Nonni he's so one-footed and he wants to come inside, but actually, he's equally effective going out

Speaker 16 on the outside on his left foot.

Speaker 16 And there was this one little glimpse that you have with Arsenal at the start of the season in the Leeds game where Arteta had Nonni on the left and he had Saka on the right.

Speaker 16 And then it's the game where Saka gets injured and ends up Nonni goes over to the right and has that good little run, but we've not actually seen that happen.

Speaker 1 But they really like him, so it would i i i wouldn't be surprised if that ends up being the the fix finally on selection stuff fullbacks sam i saw nico o'reilly made his debut he could really he could quite easily play himself into a starting position if he if he continued his club form this season yeah i'm glad we didn't miss him out because he just had a quietly like really really good debut and we forget this is a guy who was is still a midfielder really who's being converted by pep and he did do a bit of that dropping into midfield but he got forward a couple of times really well he ends up hitting the post post.

Speaker 1 And actually, Serbia had, I know it's not the biggest test, right? But they had a lot to play for. And when they went for it in the second half, they did have a couple of chances.

Speaker 1 And at 1-0, they probably could and should have equalised, right? Vlavic has that cheeky little flick where Stankovic is probably in a better position behind him.

Speaker 1 And there's one that Samaldic puts wide. They both come down the right.
They come down Rhys James's side. Nico Raleigh was really impressive.

Speaker 1 Luke Shaw's nowhere to be seen in terms of England at the moment. Livremento has played there, but he's currently in John O'Touko likes him.

Speaker 1 Lewis Hall has played a little bit there, but hasn't, he isn't fit. So yeah, it's very much a case of, and this is what I like about Tuchel actually.

Speaker 1 In the Inverted Commons modern game, there seems to be this idea that you have to pander to players a little bit more as managers, and coaches say it's very different.

Speaker 1 And basically, there's a fear factor of egos and of... of players kicking off basically and Tuchel isn't like that.

Speaker 1 He's a bit more a disciplinarian and maybe it's his own ego, but it's very much like it's still my way and no one is guaranteed their place in the the team and it's the man in possession and right now Nico Riley Nico O'Reilly is the man in possession of that left back shirt so it feels in in the way that tuchle works it's it's his shirt to lose now which is amazing after one game but he was just solidly very very good yeah jed spent's played quite well in the last couple but you're right i mean uh O'Reilly had played really well.

Speaker 1 Can we get to the important stuff, which is England's mind-altering shoes, Jacob? They're bright red and they look like a big piece of sort of duplo.

Speaker 1 Thomas Tuchel said, they told me they can focus better in meetings if they wear these shoes. And I hope they believe it.
It's large outsole nodes pushed against your foot as you step.

Speaker 1 This is not Tuchel now. This is Nike talking.
Engaging sensory areas of the brain to help you stay present and connect with your surroundings. In your

Speaker 1 chats with the England squad, Jacob, in this week, have you noticed sort of better focus? You almost got your hands on a pair, did you, from Esri Concer?

Speaker 16 Is that right? No, no, no. So Esri on Tuesday, we saw Esri Concer at training for a chat, and he wandered in wearing these shoes.

Speaker 16 And yeah, we were all looking at them going, Wow, what on earth have you got on your feet? And he sat down, and someone said, So, what are those?

Speaker 16 And he pretty much said, Yeah, I was, you know, I was waiting. I thought it'd be longer until someone, until someone brought that up.

Speaker 16 They're really quite eye-catching.

Speaker 16 I don't know if you'd want to have them on your feet. I don't know what, I don't know if they really do work.

Speaker 16 I've not worn them, so I can't say he claimed they did but yeah he he at the end of it as he walked out he did offer he said you know I'll get you all some but I'm not sure I believe him I feel like that's the kind of thing that a footballer says to you know a bit of banter to it's not the first time I think I've been promised something by an England footballer and it didn't actually happen so it'd be great if there was a knock at your door and you could

Speaker 16 just buy them though giant red shoes oh okay that is true they're just on the website we were looking them up but you can't sorry they're not actually available yet so it's possible that he was wearing like a a prototype.

Speaker 16 They're only £80, which makes me worried that the FA are not investing enough in

Speaker 16 their nodules.

Speaker 1 We can make your own with corks and

Speaker 1 some crocs. But the crocs are probably more expensive, aren't they?

Speaker 16 They weren't wearing them last night, though,

Speaker 16 as they left the stadium. They were wearing standard-issue trainers.

Speaker 1 Right. God.
We've really got to the bottom of this. Thank you, Jacob.
Tonight, then, or this weekend, rather, Northern Ireland goes to Slovakia, Scotland.

Speaker 1 Two huge games for them. Greece away, Denmark at home on Tuesday.

Speaker 1 Northern Ireland can still make it, can't they? Wales have games against Liechtenstein and North Macedonia. Need to win both to finish second in their group.

Speaker 1 We'll cover everything on Monday and Wednesday next week. Rob Edwards elsewhere has been confirmed as the new head coach at Wolves.

Speaker 1 This has been one of the toughest decisions of my career, he wrote on Instagram. In truth, I wouldn't have considered leaving Middlesbrough for any other club.
Wolves is a special club for me.

Speaker 1 It's where I grew as both a player and a coach. It's still where my family calls home.
It's always been my my dream to come back. These opportunities do not come around too often.

Speaker 1 Do they come around quite often at Wolves? I'm just trying to think. You couldn't say that about Watford, could you? You couldn't ever.

Speaker 1 You hope sometimes someone gets the Watford job and says, this doesn't come around too often. Eight points from safety down without a win all season.

Speaker 1 They go his first games of Palace at home, Villa away, Forest at home, Manny Night at home, Arsenal away. But he has got a three and a half year deal.

Speaker 1 So presumably he said, we're probably going to go down. So I'd like to stay, please.

Speaker 10 Yeah, it's a huge ask to stay up, isn't it? Wolves have been rotten so far this season.

Speaker 10 I will say the three and a half year deal means nothing because the manager that's just been sacked signed a new contract not that long ago, and the manager that was sacked before him signed a new contract just before he was sacked.

Speaker 10 So Wolves have got a trend of sacking managers who've signed fairly big contracts.

Speaker 10 He says he wouldn't have left for anyone else, but I'm pretty sure if Real Madrid had come in for him, he may have left Middlesbrough to go to Real Madrid. But he's got an attachment to Wolves.

Speaker 10 He's done a lot of different jobs there. I think it's probably as good an appointment as Wolves could make at this current time.
I think it's probably the kind of direction they needed to go in.

Speaker 10 It's one that could keep them up if he's capable of miracles, but it's one that knows enough about the championship and has got teams promoted from the championship previously if they do go down and the worst happens, happens for them.

Speaker 10 But I don't know.

Speaker 10 I can't see them staying up. Even that run of fixtures that you've just said, it's not a great run of fixtures, is it? They've got two points, I think it is so far this season.

Speaker 10 It would be the greatest escape of all time I think if Wolves managed to stay up.

Speaker 1 Jacob could we just get some West Ham thoughts from you? I mean do you have more faith in Nuno than two weeks ago and how do you view the protests against the board?

Speaker 16 Two weeks ago no one could really understand what he was doing.

Speaker 16 The team selections against Leeds and Brentford were just very, very odd with the inverted fullback thing and Sucek and Andy Irving in midfield over some more energetic younger players and then people go into the Newcastle game just expecting the worst and then obviously that goal after four minutes where Bowen had just hit the post but but they responded very very well they they they played very well against Newcastle I was at the

Speaker 16 Burnley game on on Saturday they were not very good but you kind of always felt like what watching it that the more experienced team with just a bit of extra nouse and quality were going to win Burnley probably played the better football in in the game and obviously went went one and up but there seems to just be a little bit more grit and resilience that Nuno's got in there, which didn't look remotely in evidence after the defeat at Leeds.

Speaker 16 So, yeah, it's looking better, but it's still quite limited. An injury to someone like Bowen or Paquetta would again leave them in quite a lot of trouble because the squad

Speaker 16 is so weak. The protests, yeah, fully justified.

Speaker 16 The club's been run terribly over the last,

Speaker 16 particularly the last two years, 18 months, since David Moyes left.

Speaker 16 It's it's been yeah, it's just been a shambles really in terms of the way the the the decisions that have been the decisions that have been made.

Speaker 16 And that that's partly on the uh player side, the recruitment side, the decisions that that have been made, the likes of hiring the likes of um Tim Stikton to be the the technical director and the the money that was wasted by him despite a lot of social media hype around the quality of of uh recruitment that he was able to provide and the the player that he was the players that he was able to bring in.

Speaker 16 and then it's just stupid things like the the attempt at the start of last season to do away with concession tickets in certain fixtures which was just really stupid it's just wasted wasted energy you're just ruining you're just getting rid of goodwill for no particular gain because if you weren't really going to make a lot of money out of it and it's inevitably a um a battle that they ended up losing but just harms the trust that um that supporters that don't really have a lot in them already because there's historically such bad blood over over the stadium move So yeah, keep protesting.

Speaker 16 And it probably has more power to protest after you've won, to keep doing it after you've won.

Speaker 1 Sam, before we end part two, you wanted to mention a piece on the Arsenal Disability Services. Tell us about this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think it's going to be published actually around about Christmas, so it's not out yet. But it's just one of these things.

Speaker 1 I noticed there was an advert out for a company called Alan March Sport who

Speaker 1 they provide basically specialist commentary in grounds for those who are visually impaired.

Speaker 1 So the idea is that that there basically isn't as much waffle, it's commentary, it's pure, it's telling you exactly, it's very descriptive.

Speaker 1 And it just got me thinking, and sort of like old school, old school, you know, the borders in

Speaker 1 part one when commentary began. Exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 And so, you have two commentators rather than a co-commentator summarize it, you end up with two commentators and they take it in turns because that can be quite tiring.

Speaker 1 Um, right, but it just got me thinking. I saw that advert, and it's done, there's various clubs around the country that do it.

Speaker 1 I know Arsenal, Fulham, Newcastle, Forest in the Premier League, but a lot more in the Football League. So, Alan Archsport do that.
But I just sort of got in touch.

Speaker 1 I'd seen they'd gone to Arsenal, and Arsenal ended up inviting me in because it's the kind of thing that a lot of us just take for granted, right? We turn up to a game,

Speaker 1 we can get there of our own accord. We meet our mates for a couple of pints, we go into the ground, we leave again.
And actually, it's a very privileged position to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 For a lot of people, that is actually much more difficult. And I hadn't appreciated how good a lot of the clubs have been, and these voluntary services as well, at making games more accessible.

Speaker 1 So there's this amazing company called Game Day Vision and I met the founder, a guy called Andrew Birch, big Arsenal fan, but he'd been to a gig at Spurs's New Ground and he said, actually, a lot of the newer grounds, they're brilliant inside it, but actually it's the bit outside, it's getting to the ground that people don't think about so much.

Speaker 1 So we set up this service where

Speaker 1 volunteers sign up and basically it pairs people

Speaker 1 with others who might need a little bit of help. And they go out and they'll meet people off the train.

Speaker 1 So there's an Arsenal fan that comes up from the south west and so he's met off the train at Paddington or they meet them at the tube at their house off buses and it just takes that pressure away the stuff that we don't have to think about the stuff that can prove really challenging I think they've just they've West Ham are using their services as well they've just signed up with Ipswich so I just wanted to give a shout out to them really to Arsenal because they have this disabled supporters hub but I love the the chap called aaron heskins who is the supporter liaison officer there for disability services and he said something to me he's like i said like how much do you as teams talk about it and he said well we go by this sort of mantra that we're competitors on the field not off it and so there's a lot of knowledge sharing going on um all the clubs are working together you know there's sort of designated pathways around ground there's so much stuff that perhaps we wouldn't a lot of us wouldn't notice but it is going on and it's really good work and i know they're trying to expand like game day vision nationwide so if it's the kind of thing that people might be interested in maybe they could sign up yeah i just wanted to give a shout out because it's a i'm a sort of football writer that hates writing about football on stuff on the pitch.

Speaker 1 I like the stuff that's the wholesome like people stories going on around it.

Speaker 1 And this was one that I really wanted to give a shout out to because there's a lot of people doing some brilliant work and there's much more that can be done.

Speaker 1 But to keep going, everyone is doing that work and get involved if you can. Good stuff.
And sorry to make you talk about football sometimes, Sam. It's okay.
It's okay.

Speaker 1 And that'll do for part two. Kiri Maguire from the Price of Football podcast joins in just a second and he will make accountancy interesting as he always does.

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Speaker 1 Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. Very pleased to say Kieran Maguire, a football finance expert from the excellent Price of Football podcast that he does with Kevin Days here.

Speaker 1 Hey, Kieran, how are you?

Speaker 11 All is good, Max. All is good.
I'm in sunny Seville at present, except it's not sunny, but it's still Seville.

Speaker 1 Okay. Well, welcome.
Thanks for joining us. If you're on holiday, taking your time out.
We've been talking about World Cup qualifiers, so we might as well talk about dynamic pricing.

Speaker 1 We had the mayor of New York, Zora Mamdani, on before he won the election.

Speaker 1 So we're obviously claiming that election for ourselves, talking about how he was protesting about dynamic pricing, but it is sort of mad, the prices.

Speaker 1 The most expensive ticket for the final is now $7,875.

Speaker 1 Cheapest is just over $2,000.

Speaker 1 And then, I mean, compared to other World Cups, and correct me if I'm wrong, these prices are sort of off the scale, aren't they?

Speaker 11 That's right. There's been a substantial increase.
I think FIFA have seen what's happened in other markets, especially the US market for ticket prices.

Speaker 11 There's a significantly different culture as far as tickets for NFL, NBA, and so on. And therefore, I think FIFA have decided to replicate that.

Speaker 11 I think the distance between the FIFA hierarchy and the regular fans that go. I've been to quite a few World Cups

Speaker 11 is ever growing. And also, there's pressure on FIFA to continue to raise revenues, to distribute them to the individual members who seem more than happy to benefit from dynamic pricing themselves.

Speaker 1 So can fans do anything? Nothing?

Speaker 1 I mean, you sort of, I mean, quite a lot of the time there's so many issues with the game, you just say, well, I've just got to accept the football that I'm given, right? And this is part of it. But

Speaker 1 is there any groundswell of upset here?

Speaker 11 There's moaning on social media, and there's some people saying that they won't go.

Speaker 11 But as we've seen with what happened with Oasis a few months ago, there's always somebody willing to take the ticket from you.

Speaker 11 And there is a culture of scalping as far as the United States is concerned. It looks as if FIFA have decided to be their own ticket touts as well.

Speaker 11 That if you now buy a ticket, even at these enhanced prices, you can then try to sell it on the FIFA platform and FIFA will take their commission.

Speaker 11 So it just seems more indicative of football now being seen as part of the broader sphere where ticket pricing is an opportunity to make money. And there are organized people involved.

Speaker 1 There are bots.

Speaker 11 there are scalpers.

Speaker 11 It's now a profession being a ticket out.

Speaker 11 And it looks like FIFA have decided to join the party.

Speaker 1 Jani on Wembley Way go, buy or sell tickets, buy or sell anyone. Okay, so that's one thing sort of disappointing.
It's just some other numbers for you. Yeah, prices for the US

Speaker 1 team range from 560 to $2,735.

Speaker 1 dollars Canada's opening game will be $1,930. Oh, that's interesting.
Is Is the pricing across Canada and Mexico as well, Kieran? This is the whole, this is FIFA doing this, right? That's right.

Speaker 11 FIFA have, in the second batch of tickets, I think the first batch of tickets are available to people who had the official FIFA partner credit card.

Speaker 11 Now for the remainder of us, they've decided to up the prices by up to 25%.

Speaker 11 And there does appear to be demand.

Speaker 11 I mean, I would say to any, I think to any sensible fan, if you want to enjoy the World Cup experience, go along to some of the fan parks rather than the match itself.

Speaker 11 And it will cost you next to nothing to go in. You can still enjoy seeing all the goals go in.

Speaker 11 I remember being in Germany in 2006, and the fan parks were far more fun than actually attending the matches because

Speaker 11 you were with like-minded people, you're all together.

Speaker 11 It was a bit like having a sing song, and it cost you a fraction of the cost. So, I mean, that's one alternative.

Speaker 11 But yeah, Mexico and Canada, initially, they weren't keen as far as joining in with the secondary ticket market is concerned, but I suspect they're going to fall in line because FIFA tend to call the shots on these things.

Speaker 1 Car parking, prices on FIFA's website says car parking is reaching as much as $175 per parking pass. So we'll get Ben Fisher down to investigate that immediately.
Kieran, let's talk about crypto.

Speaker 1 Crypto sponsors flooding European football. You posted about an Investigate Europe report into an influx of crypto sponsors.

Speaker 11 That's right. Crypto is gambling with a small G.

Speaker 11 What we have seen is that because the Premier League, for example, is banning front-of-shirt adverts from formal gambling companies starting in season 26, 27, somebody's got to fill that vacuum.

Speaker 11 The crypto companies, they're seeking legitimacy. They're seeking the normalization of those products.

Speaker 11 I've spoken to an all-party parliamentary committee about the pros and cons of crypto. And I've got to say that in my opinion, there's more cons, provided you accept it as a form of gambling, then

Speaker 11 how you choose to spend your money is down to individuals.

Speaker 11 But they have tend to have the biggest wallets in town because gambling, if you think about it from the perspective of the demographics of people who go to football, they tend to have disposable money.

Speaker 11 They tend to be slightly more risk friendly. And

Speaker 11 the crypto companies have seen that.

Speaker 11 The downside is that quite a few of these crypto companies during the course of a season have gone bust and that has meant that the football clubs themselves have ended up losing money because they've been banking on receiving the full amount for the full term of the sponsorship deal.

Speaker 11 And I think Chelsea have had something, Roma have had similar. And that's the risk that the football clubs take, as well as those people that decide to,

Speaker 11 I won't use the word invest because it's not an investment. These people that choose to speculate on these products.

Speaker 1 so i mean philippe's done some stuff on this are premier league clubs doing their due diligence or is this just the nature of crypto i mean that sounds to me like because i'm always thinking should i sell everything i own and buy you know

Speaker 1 some kind of urethra coin that's the wrong choice of word but you you take you you take you take

Speaker 1 it's close enough isn't it

Speaker 1 ethereum says producer joel but i'm sticking with it i'm gonna launch it but um But, you know, are premium clubs

Speaker 1 doing their due diligence?

Speaker 11 We tend to use the phrase blinded by the check. If somebody comes to you and you're a commercial director and offers you an extra 20%

Speaker 11 over

Speaker 11 the original price you were hoping to get from your front of shirt deal or sleeve shirt deal, then the chances are you're going to take it because you're under pressure from the board of directors.

Speaker 11 The board of directors are under pressure from the owner. The owner's under pressure because the fans are screaming because they've not invested enough in a new centre forward and so on.

Speaker 11 Some clubs are cautious and other clubs are, shall we say, more laissez-faire when it comes to anybody that walks through the door with a large amount of money.

Speaker 11 Yes, we'll take it and we'll ask questions afterwards.

Speaker 11 We have seen some clubs, to be fair to them, backtrack after sort of doing the due diligence, having made the initial announcement for the products. I think Norwich went through this.

Speaker 11 I think Manchester City have had their fingers burned as well. Clubs are under they're under pressure to deliver as far as commercial income is concerned.

Speaker 11 Because if you take a look at the three strands of revenue that come into football, ticket prices are difficult to increase substantially because there will be resistance from fans.

Speaker 11 The broadcasting deals are set in stone and set in advance all the way through to 2029. So therefore, commercial is the one area of potential growth that clubs are looking at.

Speaker 11 at a time when wages are going up and transfer fees are going up. So they have to deliver.

Speaker 1 That's a question for the rest of the panel. Jacob, you like cover Chelsea a lot, right? I just wonder when you started on your job as a football journalist,

Speaker 1 do you feel a pressure to understand stuff that you never really thought you'd have to understand?

Speaker 16 Yeah, the attempts to understand PSR and try to, I'm not very numbers oriented, but trying to read accounts and understand accounts.

Speaker 16 That does make my head hurt sometimes. Yeah, absolutely.
That's why we have people like Kieran, who's very useful on things like Chelsea.

Speaker 16 I'm interested to know what he makes of the latest stuff going on there, the recent reports around the Abramovich,

Speaker 16 the money that was kept back and all of that, and whether that's going to end up hitting them at all.

Speaker 11 I think it's been played very well by Clearlake Capital and Todd Bowley in the sense that they were in a hurry to get the deal through.

Speaker 11 They were also under pressure from the UK government. So therefore, they managed to negotiate a fairly substantial reduction in the price.
I think it's in in the region of about 150 million.

Speaker 11 They have effectively kept that.

Speaker 11 It's a bit like if you if you buy a house and you think that there's a bit of dry rot or something in it, you keep the money back until the full inspection has been done.

Speaker 11 I think that has been a challenge for all of the parties, trying to work out what the FA is going to do in terms of what was discovered by Clear Lake Capital in what appears to be some form of offshore payments, whether they should have gone through the books of the club, whether they have gone through the bank accounts of third parties in order to attract players to come to the club.

Speaker 11 That's something which

Speaker 11 is taking a disproportionate amount of time, but it's a classic case of lawyers using delaying tactics to try to ensure that their client isn't on the hook for this.

Speaker 11 So I think that is the main issue, a delaying. I think there's a separate issue in respect of Chelsea in the fact that Clearlake have paid around about 2.3, 2.4 billion across to the UK government.

Speaker 11 And that money is still sitting in a bank account

Speaker 11 three, four years after the deal went through, because

Speaker 11 there are offshore parties again saying that, well,

Speaker 11 we need to determine what is a victim of the conflict in Ukraine.

Speaker 11 And until that definition has been determined, we're not going to make any further progress in distributing the money, which is generating interest for the UK government or presumably for hopefully the beneficiaries

Speaker 11 of the pot of money.

Speaker 11 3% or 4%

Speaker 11 of 2.5 billion is an awful lot of money at £75 to £100 million a year.

Speaker 1 What is the latest on PSR watch, Kieran?

Speaker 1 Which clubs are going to be hit and which aren't? Or it's all gone quiet at the moment?

Speaker 11 Yeah, I think all of the clubs that have had their fingers burnt over the course of the last two summers have learned their lessons.

Speaker 11 I think what's of more intrigue is that there is a meeting of Premier League chief executives. I think it's next week.

Speaker 11 And what's going to happen in terms of the replacement for PSR going forwards, we'll have to wait for that.

Speaker 11 I think the consensus is that they'll probably adopt the system that we have operating under UEFA, which effectively will allow those clubs who are not in UEFA competitions to spend 85% of their revenue on player wages, amortisation, which is another thing which I can see Jacob shuddering at the very thought of that word, and agents' fees.

Speaker 11 And for those clubs that are participating in UEFA competitions, it will be dropped to 70%. And I was out with a person from a Premier League club fairly recently, and they were quite candid.
They say

Speaker 11 they would now actively try to avoid qualifying for the Europa Conference because if you qualify for the Europa Conference, you make no money from it, but you can only spend 70% of your revenue on wages.

Speaker 11 If you finish one place below, you can spend 85% and therefore you can invest more in players and wages the following season. So I think this is a classic example of unintended consequences.

Speaker 11 The other issue that the Premier League chief execs are going to be chatting about is the

Speaker 11 introduction or the potential introduction of what we refer to as anchoring, which will mean that whoever finishes bottom of the Premier League, you take the amount of TV money that they receive, multiply it by a magic number, and we think that magic number is going to be five, and that's going to operate as a de facto wage cap for the remainder of the Premier League.

Speaker 11 So if we say that the club finishing bottom gets 110 million in TV money, you multiply that by five, that means you can spend 550 million on wages.

Speaker 11 We've seen a pushback on that, though, from the Professional Footballers Association Association because they don't like the idea of wage caps, especially those being imposed on their members.

Speaker 11 So, you know, the PFA, I think, are talking to, I wouldn't say the shop stewards at individual clubs, but their representatives with a view as to how they're going to respond to this. And I suspect

Speaker 11 some form of legal claim from the PFA.

Speaker 11 They successfully achieved this when the EFL tried to impose wage caps in both League One and League League Two three or four years ago, and they employed Nick DeMarco, who's probably known as the country's leading sports lawyer, and he successfully defended the PFA position.

Speaker 1 We were up in arms when they capped the wages for football weekly at 500 million a year. It was a devastating blow for us.

Speaker 1 Kieran, tell us about, you're doing an event with Kevin Day, Prize of Football Podcast, which is excellent at the Amex next week, along with Glenn Murray, all profits going to Brighton Hove District Samaritans.

Speaker 1 Tell us about it. That's right.

Speaker 11 The Premier

Speaker 11 comes in for a lot of stick at times, but also does an awful lot of amazing work. And the Premier League this season is looking at the issue of suicide awareness.

Speaker 11 And one of the organisations it's partnered with is Samaritans. So

Speaker 11 I go to a match with a colleague every week who is a Samaritan and got chatting to him. And we said, well, we'd love to do a sort of a benefit gig.

Speaker 11 So Brighton were the first premier league club to sign up for this suicide awareness it's still the biggest killer of men under the age of 15 it's a subject that we don't talk about because even if we know that somebody or a family that's been affected by it you don't know how to bring it up in conversation it's the biggest killer of women in the uk under the age of 30 as well So the work that the Samaritans do is absolutely amazing.

Speaker 11 So yes, next Wednesday at the Amex Stadium,

Speaker 11 we are doing a benefit gig. Glenn, Glenn, who's played for both Brighton and Palace, has kindly agreed to come on stage along with Ruff Wood, the Brighton commercial director.

Speaker 11 And we're just trying to,

Speaker 11 first of all, raise awareness. And one of the things that Brighton are doing this season is that

Speaker 11 they're training 1,901

Speaker 11 people to become suicide mentors in the sense of how good are we at listening?

Speaker 11 To pick up the signals when perhaps you're at a match with a friend or you're down the pub pre-match and something's not quite right.

Speaker 11 Can you be that that that listening ear? Can you be that arm round the shoulder, which could make the difference between somebody choosing to perhaps try to take their life and not?

Speaker 11 And it's a fantastic initiative and both the Premier League and all of the clubs involved involve a huge amount of present credit for it.

Speaker 11 If anybody is interested in attending, I think we've got half a dozen tickets available still.

Speaker 11 If you go to event Bright, it's £16.50 plus plus a booking fee because it costs Brighton and Hove Samaritans £165 a day to run their services. So we've said, well, for every 10 tickets we sell,

Speaker 11 we're keeping you open for another day.

Speaker 1 Good stuff, Kieran. Yeah, make sure you go on to that.
As Kieran said, go to Eventbrite or just go to Kieran or Kevin Day's social media and you'll find out all about that. Thank you, Kieran.

Speaker 1 Thanks for coming on, pal. Thanks, Max.
Cheers, guys. And I will now say vote for us in the FSA.
It's not Kieran because he's gone. Although

Speaker 1 I'm sure he's still there. Good luck at the FSA's, Kieran, as well.

Speaker 1 Also, worth pointing out, there is a brand new podcast called The Guardian Ashes Weekly that I'm hosting.

Speaker 1 So I'll just talk about 2005 and Edge Baston and insert 90s cricketers like Peter Such and Alan Malally.

Speaker 1 But Jeff Lemon and a host of other experts are on hand and we'll do preview pods and review pods. That's the other word for it as well.

Speaker 1 We're going to drop the first episode into the Football Weekly feed. So, you know, get busy in the comments with that.
But that'll do for today. Thanks, everybody.
Thank you, Jacob. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Thanks, Sam. You're welcome, Max.
Thank you. Cheers, Dan.
Cheers, Max. Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.
Our executive producer is Daniel Stevens.

Speaker 1 This is The Guardian.

Speaker 14 Hi, folks. It's Mark Bittman from the podcast, Food with Mark Bittman.

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