Wolves ditch Vítor Pereira and are Liverpool back on track? – Football Weekly podcast

Speaker 1 This is The Guardian.

Speaker 2 Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows home, so you don't have to.

Speaker 2 Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro, you just have to hire one.

Speaker 2 You can hire top-rated pros, seed price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today.

Speaker 5 When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game.

Speaker 5 Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents so you can transform tomorrow.

Speaker 4 Workday, moving business forever forward.

Speaker 7 Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. And while Arsenal's procession to the title continues, there's drama at the bottom.

Speaker 7 First the points, then the pints, which means Vitor Pereiras had two points before being relieved of his duties at Molyneux, getting hammered by out-of-form Fulham, the final straw.

Speaker 7 Meanwhile, the other terrible side, West Ham, win, and pretty convincingly against Newcastle. Who saw that coming?

Speaker 7 The highest quality gamers at the Yeti had looks like Ray and Cherky might help Erling Haaland score even more goals. A 3-1 win for City over Bournemouth, who had their moments.

Speaker 7 Liverpool needed a win to go in off their backside, and they got it at home to Villa, who were desperate to give Dana Slotsmen a win. Fifth and two points off second, but a Spurs really bad.

Speaker 7 A woeful performance at home to randomly good, sometimes Chelsea. An XG of 0.05 seems like not enough XG.

Speaker 7 There's Ahmad's Wonder Strike in a dodgy corner at the city ground as Forrest and Man United share the points. Elsewhere, a great header from Matetta and another goal for Danny Welbeck.

Speaker 7 Get him on the plane. We'll do some FA Cup first-round giant killings, and Zielinski scores the perfect goal ever for Inter.

Speaker 7 As always, we'll answer your questions, and that's the Base Guardian Football Weekly.

Speaker 7 On the panel today, Barry Glendenning. Hello.
Hi, Max. Welcome, Jonathan Wilson.

Speaker 1 Morning. How are you doing?

Speaker 7 I'm very well. And bonjour sava, Felipe O'Claire.

Speaker 1 Bonjour sava, Max Hodgden.

Speaker 7 Let's start at the bottom and the sacking of Vitor Pereira. After the game against Fulham, Barry, he said his team were technically, tactically, and physically not good enough.

Speaker 7 And do you wonder if was that the first time the owners had noticed when Pereira said it himself?

Speaker 8 Hands up for a start. I actually thought Wills would win this game.

Speaker 8 I thought I'd seen enough from them to suggest they would have enough about them to beat a Fulham side that had lost four in a row and weren't showing a great deal. And boy, was I wrong about that.

Speaker 8 They were absolutely walloped. It was an embarrassing defeat.
Obviously, not helped by the fact that Agbadou got sent off for denying Josh King a clear-ish goal scoring opportunity, I would say.

Speaker 8 It's no great surprise. that Pereira has been sacked.
He was relieved of his duties yesterday around lunchtime, I think. We got the news.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 I think Sam Johnston, the Wolves keeper, who was probably

Speaker 8 the only Wolves player to emerge from the game with any credit, said it best after the game when he looked genuinely traumatised and said, we should be embarrassed.

Speaker 8 And I know it's not what they want to hear, but we need to apologise to the fans. for that performance.
I mean, the problems at Wolves seem to go a lot deeper than just the coach.

Speaker 8 Their transfer policy seems to be an absolute mess. They keep selling their best players summer after summer after summer and they're it's finally catching up with them.

Speaker 8 The fans were chanting against the owner and the regime in charge of the club long before they were chanting for Pereira's head on Saturday.

Speaker 8 When the final whistle went, they were singing sacked in the morning and they were prediction was only an hour or two out. I think it was after noon when he went.

Speaker 7 Yeah, it just doesn't quite scan, does it? You're getting sacked in the afternoon. Just doesn't

Speaker 1 quite fit.

Speaker 7 I mean, he did do a really good job last year, Wilson. I mean, I guess he did.

Speaker 7 There were three teams that were going to get relegated, so it made a dramatic recovery the same. But they were in a similar position last year.
But Barry's alluded to it.

Speaker 7 If you look at who they've sold in the last few years, Kunya, Aitnouri, Neto, Kilman, Nunes, Ruben Neves, Nathan Collins, Morgan Gibbs, White. Okay, it's over a few seasons.

Speaker 7 They haven't really replaced

Speaker 7 them with players of remotely that kind of quality.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I wonder if there's almost a degree of complacency crept in among the sort of bottom 17 of the teams who have not been the promoter clubs in the last two seasons.

Speaker 1 That there's always been this sense of, well, we'll be better in the promoter clubs. We can cut costs a bit here.
Yeah, the truth isn't a problem that you can't keep cutting costs.

Speaker 1 And some of them got themselves in this cycle of

Speaker 1 they they you know the finance would look terrible they cut costs over summer and then the january they go in a mad splurge to try and survive um and the danger then is when you finally do go down you go down pretty quickly and pretty far i wonder as well is this a sign of georgia menu's declining influence with i mean yeah it's it's to the extent it's coincidence and and there's different issues at each club and new no hasn't been at west ham for very long but it is three new no teams in the bottom three or maybe nuno's just this sort of terrible toxin of given how tottenham are at the minute.

Speaker 1 But Nuno just drags everybody down eventually.

Speaker 1 I think, I mean, the Wolves fans, I think, could probably see it coming last season. And then, yeah, they had that great bump under Pereira.
But Pereira's career, this is what he does. He comes in.

Speaker 1 He has an immediate impact. It goes well for a few months.
And then it collapses and he moves on. That's his job.
The key is don't employ him for more than a year.

Speaker 1 Well, they haven't, to be fair. Don't employ him for more than more than the season he's in.

Speaker 7 He's like the littlest hobo. I mean, actually, I don't know.

Speaker 1 So Littlis Hobo,

Speaker 1 Littless Hobo, much like Samuel Sarah Levyson, never had a relegation on his record till he went to Leeds.

Speaker 7 Um,

Speaker 7 the George Mendes thing is interesting, Philippe, isn't it?

Speaker 1 I hadn't, I hadn't thought about that. But that's the one I was actually looking at the.

Speaker 1 I mean, I think the problem is not so much who they have sold, is who they haven't bought, because you can sell and sell a lot and sell very well, like Brentford and Brighton have done in the past.

Speaker 1 I know we always use examples, but in the case of Wolves, as to George Mendes' influence, when you look at the players who came in, I actually think think that I'm not so sure which ones are part of the Jesse Foote staple and I can't think of one.

Speaker 1 I think so his influence has definitely diminished, certainly in terms of the players and the quality of players he brings to the clubs, because one thing you could say is that Yes, when he is involved in the running of a club, basically, and especially in the recruitment, one thing is that he used to bring his players, but they used to be good, or his managers, but they used to be good.

Speaker 1 And now it doesn't seem to be quite the case that they are as good as they should be. And I was wondering, I don't know, are there any Portuguese managers who are currently looking for a job

Speaker 1 who would carry on this great tradition of Wolverhampton wanderers looking to Portugal

Speaker 1 for a head coach?

Speaker 1 I can't think of one straight away.

Speaker 7 I suppose maybe George Mendes, once you run out of good jaws and good Neveses, you know, or you get one Jiao Nevers and then he takes all the good Jiao Neversness out of things.

Speaker 7 So then to the next possible manager, Brendan Rogers was definitely touted yesterday, Barry. Now it looks like, well, Gary O'Neill is the favourite with some bookmakers.

Speaker 7 Rob Edwards as well being mentioned. Interesting if O'Neill went back there.

Speaker 1 It would. Would it be interesting?

Speaker 1 Would it be interesting? I'm not sure.

Speaker 8 I mean, isn't he the guy who got them into the mess that Pereiriro had to get them out of last season?

Speaker 8 I would imagine Willis fans would be pretty underwhelmed by that performance or by that appointment if it came to pass. Brendan Rogers, again, it seems an underwhelming choice.

Speaker 8 Would he even want the job? Because he's just sort of left one

Speaker 8 bin fire. Would he want to walk straight into an even worse one? I don't know.
Michael Carrick was a match of the day last night. He's apparently in the frame.

Speaker 8 I think he's a very good pundit, by the way.

Speaker 8 The way he explains things to a thicko like me really good if he could bring that kind of clarity to uh the wolves dressing room it might help but i i would have to say looking at the list of likely contenders i i would be just look at it with a giant shoulder shrug and a meh but i don't really care who ends up managing wolves but i imagine wolves fans are looking at the shortlist or the the apparent shortlist and also going yeah bit bit meh yeah i agree with you on carrick i mean i suppose it does depend are the wolves dressing room as thick as you barry and we just don't we don't we don't know that do we let's talk about the other terrible team west ham who beat newcastle 3-1 they hadn't won a league game at home since the 27th of february you know their fans do not enjoy going to that ground and that is a long time to wait however you know however the the lasting toxins of new

Speaker 1 are uh wilson he was dancing and smiling at the end of this one yeah i mean they to go behind that early. Yeah, everything seems to be set up for a classic sort of

Speaker 1 West Ham afternoon of misery. That you know, they hit the post early on, they go behind, they have a penalty given, an overturned by VAR.
And that was all in the first 12 minutes, I think.

Speaker 1 So, you're sort of thinking, oh, this is going to be a classic West Ham afternoon. And then they spoiled it by playing really well and winning deservedly.

Speaker 1 And Newcastle were as bad as they've been for, well, this season, certainly. I mean, they just look naked.

Speaker 1 They have had five games in 15 days, and Nico Valdemada's started all of them, which maybe doesn't help. But

Speaker 1 that was, I think one of the problems they have is that Eddie Howe's way of playing is so it's so

Speaker 1 uh based on energy that if energy declines the drop-off is is pretty sharp but yeah and they were they were absolutely awful I mean you've got got athletic coming up on Wednesday in the Champions League so they need to they need to get that sorted quickly well Newcastle seemed to be able to rouse themselves to the big games.

Speaker 8 It's the games like this that they're letting themselves down. I mean,

Speaker 8 we've eulogised Anthony Gordon on this podcast for his England performances. And when Newcastle lost against Barcelona in the Champions League, he was really good.

Speaker 8 But good God, he was diabolical yesterday. Absolutely awful.
And it's probably unfair to single him out because pretty much everyone in a

Speaker 8 green Saudi Arabia shirt was dire.

Speaker 1 It was so bad.

Speaker 8 It's difficult to remember a worse performance under Howe.

Speaker 7 Is it possible, Philippe, that West Ham made them look bad? Because we've talked a lot about West Ham not having any legs, but they definitely look like they had legs yesterday.

Speaker 1 Yes, and they used them to good effect.

Speaker 1 But I think that it's a lot about Newcastle more than about West Ham in some ways. I mean, if you look,

Speaker 1 it's been one of those stop, start, stop, start, stop, start seasons for them. I mean, from the very beginning.
And

Speaker 1 I don't know if it's just about the energy, because it's something we have seen since the very first day of the season, you know, when they drew against Villa, that they lost against Liverpool, and then they drew Athletes United, and then they won against Wolves and so on.

Speaker 1 And you look at it and you think, well, it's naturally never got going, never got going.

Speaker 1 And you have to wonder, you you know, the impact the Isaac Affair had on the club as a whole and what it showed as well of the dysfunctions within the club.

Speaker 1 And then we thought, oh yeah, but they got Voldemado and Voldemado is wonderful and so forth. But no, it hasn't quite gelled the way it should be.
And they've never got going at all.

Speaker 1 So I think it is more about Newcastle United than about West Ham. Or is it about Nuno Espirito Santo as well, you know, the way that he's taken this team and suddenly has given them some belief?

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 I have to say

Speaker 1 I'm not exactly surprised as to what's happened in Newcastle United, but the extent to which they look dysfunctional, that's what surprises me rather than the actual phenomenon that they're stuttering.

Speaker 7 I've tried three times to ask a question about West Ham. I'm gonna, Barry, you wanna come in? Is it West Ham related?

Speaker 8 I think the inclusion of Freddie Potts yesterday made a massive difference in West Ham's midfield. He's a young kid, 22.

Speaker 8 His dad, Steve, played for the club over 500 times and is now on the coaching staff. We had Sam Delaney, a big West Ham fan, on the radio yesterday, and he said that

Speaker 8 there might have been a reluctance to

Speaker 8 start him

Speaker 8 because it might be seen as nepotism. I think that's what he said.
But he was thrown in yesterday, and he made a massive difference. He was brilliant.

Speaker 8 And I think he got player of the match, but he gave West Ham some much needed steel and some speed in that midfield area where steel and speed has been sorely lacking.

Speaker 8 So I expect he will start for the foreseeable. But he was

Speaker 8 a huge plus for them yesterday. Obviously, winning the game was also a huge plus for them when they started so badly, as Jonathan pointed out.

Speaker 8 It looked like it was going to be another one of those days. But I would say West Ham deserve an awful lot of credit, but Newcastle made them look like world beaters, which is some dude.

Speaker 7 I mean, I guess on Freddie Potts, if you are a fan base that have got nothing to be happy about, like the son of a legend like coming in and being great, and you know, like they'll, they'll start thinking, could he be the, you know, the next Mark Noble, this guy, and be a sort of total West Ham legend.

Speaker 7 There was a lovely moment when he scored.

Speaker 7 It was disallowed, but you know, his dad's on the coaching staff trying to look as professional and actually did a very good job of not looking like he cared, you know, going, that's my son scoring his first goal for West Ham.

Speaker 7 I really enjoyed the Suchek goal just because, as a fan, you'd have known for so long that that's going to go in.

Speaker 7 The ball's, you know, just sort of there, and he's going to take everything in with him. And what a moment to be like, yes, we've won this game.

Speaker 7 And of course, we would never criticise Robin Cowan, but on match of the day, she did say, regards West Ham, there's never a dull moment supporting this club.

Speaker 1 And I thought,

Speaker 1 I'm not sure about that, Robin.

Speaker 7 Anyway, the other game yesterday was Man City 3, Bournemouth 1. You were there, Wilson.
I thought this was the one game this weekend where you had two really good teams and a game of really high.

Speaker 7 City were obviously better and deserved the win, but two really high quality teams going against each other.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I think from the moment they took the lead, although they then conceded the lead, I don't think there was ever any doubt City were going to win. They were better.

Speaker 1 It felt, from a neutral point of view, it sort of drifted the final 20, 25 minutes because it was so obvious City were going to win. But yeah, it was a high quality game.

Speaker 1 And interesting the way that Guadiola... Yeah, City, the only team this season yet to score in the Premier League yet to score from a set play.

Speaker 1 They you look at this, the five in midfield, if that's how you want to describe it, four of them are under one meter 80, three of them are under one metre 75.

Speaker 1 So Guadiola has changed, but he hasn't changed that much. But where he has changed is he now lets his team play balls in for Erlinghold and to chase.
And it turns out he's really, really good at that.

Speaker 1 So the first two goals are both Cherky

Speaker 1 laying it on for him. Cherky looks really useful drifting in from the right.
The one thing I'd say about that is, you know, Doki stays wide on the left.

Speaker 1 Foden's done it, now Turkey's doing it coming in from the right. I do think they are vulnerable down that side when teams break on them, but they

Speaker 1 leave Samatos Nunez a little bit exposed. So

Speaker 1 while City were always looked that they were going to win that game, they probably did concede more chances than Guadiola would ideally like. And then he was quite annoyed afterwards with the referee.

Speaker 1 And I sort of think he semi-had the point about the Bournemouth goal.

Speaker 7 It's one of of those, isn't it, where

Speaker 7 you know it's sort of that rule where if you hold onto someone's arm, but you let go early enough, then it's fine. And it is, I think you're probably right, it is a foul.

Speaker 1 I agree with that. So, I mean, yes, he's, I don't know why Donovan makes such a mess of it because Brooks has let go, but equally his balance is probably affected.

Speaker 1 And the reason I really don't like this, and it might be why we're getting so many goals from set pieces, is that because of the way bar is applied, the rule is asynchronic.

Speaker 1 So you saw that in the Manchester United Fulham game, for instance, where there was two fouls happening in the box simultaneously: one by a Fulham player, one by a Manchester United player.

Speaker 1 But it's the one that can concede a penalty, is the only one bars allowed to look at. Because the other one will only be a free kick to the defence.
And that's nonsense.

Speaker 1 So that forwards can basically commit fouls with impunity because even if it is given, so what? It's a free kick, you're 120 yards from your goal.

Speaker 1 Whereas if a defender commits that foul, it's potentially a penalty.

Speaker 7 Yeah, no, I agree with you. And I think the law that I would have is if there is a foul being committed by an attacker anywhere, that should

Speaker 7 over

Speaker 7 uh that should sort of trump a foul by a defender because i don't want lots of penalties on the subject of no set piece goals it would be great if uh that you know at some point this season we discover that bernardo silver can hurl the ball 600 yards into the box i wanted to talk a bit more about cherky uh philly because you know we know about harland but like he did look

Speaker 1 both those assists are really clever actually on that he's an absolutely magnificent player um still very young and he's always been a bit of an enigma because i i remember very well well when Shirky, my friend at Lyon started to talk about Ryan Shirky and they all said, you'll see we've got this player, you know, Boudion has produced some exceptional players in the past, you know, we've produced Karen Benzema and so forth.

Speaker 1 He's really one of them. And then for some reason, some people say because of his temperament, perhaps,

Speaker 1 he hasn't been...

Speaker 1 Well, he hasn't been quite what we expected from him.

Speaker 1 There was also problems with his agents.

Speaker 1 At one point, interestingly enough, he was supposed to be managed by Kylian Bapis' mother, Faisal Lamarie, to be the only other player that she would be looking at.

Speaker 1 And it didn't quite happen in the end. But there was always a lot of frustration.

Speaker 1 But now people are talking a lot about him in France, about what is happening with Manchester City after this particular game, and wondering if he's finally found the manager or the environment in which he can become the player we all know he can be, because he's got the skill, he's got absolutely marvelous vision.

Speaker 1 You saw the assists for Erling Holland, they were just magnificent. Now the question is, is he going to have a run in the side? Because he was in the starting lineup against Tottenham, wasn't he?

Speaker 1 Beginning of the season, he was taken off and then he got injured. And so again, stop start.

Speaker 1 And here, you know, what we are hoping is that he's going to get a run in the side in that particular role and he's going to be the round shirkie we think he can be, which he hasn't been so far.

Speaker 1 I insist on that uh but if he does

Speaker 1 that would be uh an absolute blessing for uh for dj deschaun for the french team as well as for manchester city because we do not have any other player with this kind of profile we don't who is a pure creator surely hang on couldn't rabio could do it

Speaker 1 yes he could i suppose yes i ranshirky is the risk ranshirky is the answer to the rabio conundrum maybe that's maybe that's what it's supposed to be he's never been particularly prolific by the way, you know, in his career.

Speaker 1 He's more of a creator.

Speaker 1 He's full of imagination, full of tricks, full of skill. And again, he has absolutely superb vision.

Speaker 1 But we've never quite seen him do what we thought he would be able to do only by bursts here, a pass here, a goal there. You think, wow.
And then it doesn't quite happen.

Speaker 1 So let's hope and pray that's the case this season.

Speaker 7 Since he's up to second, Barry, of course, you know, Sunderland could overtake them tonight.

Speaker 1 Sunderland will go second in the table after 10 games when they beat Everson tonight. It's so

Speaker 7 mad.

Speaker 8 I don't think I've ever looked forward to a game more. They'll probably get thumped.

Speaker 7 Well, yeah, I mean, football has a way of biting you.

Speaker 1 I have to say,

Speaker 8 whenever I hear Turkey's name, I immediately think of Christmas dinner at the Carragher household.

Speaker 1 Pass the tiki.

Speaker 1 Who wants some tea?

Speaker 7 I was going to ask if you, you know, they're six points behind Arsenal. There's a lot of season left.
You know,

Speaker 7 they're starting to look a bit more balanced. Their fullbacks look like they know what they're doing.
Midfield is, you know, coming together.

Speaker 7 So they could be the, they are the most likely team, right, to stop Arsenal.

Speaker 1 You say that, man.

Speaker 1 You just commit Arsenal since

Speaker 1 I was watching this game live and I kept going, why are Doku and Cherky?

Speaker 8 They're spending all their time in the centre circle or, you know, they're not out in the wings, they're in the the middle of the pitch and that is where michael carrick came in so he he explained how city were playing deliberately narrowly trying to play through the bournemouth press the number of players they had in that early the pitch meant the the bournemouth centre backs were getting sucked in and then leaving space for for haland to run into so a brave tactic uh mr carrick explained but one city are one of few teams good enough to to pull off because you're risking Bournemouth, you know, launching one of their lightning fast counter-attacks.

Speaker 8 So I thought that was interesting. I can't see past Arsenal at the moment, but I would certainly have City

Speaker 8 as the most likely team to catch him. I think Liverpool's win over Villa was massive

Speaker 8 for them.

Speaker 8 But yeah, City with Haaland, of course, if he stays fit, are obviously going to be a threat.

Speaker 7 Yeah. Oh, well, let's talk about Liverpool's victory over Villa at the start of part two.

Speaker 5 When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game.

Speaker 6 Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents so you can transform tomorrow.

Speaker 4 Workday, moving business forever forward.

Speaker 3 Old school security kicks in after the break-in.

Speaker 1 Too late.

Speaker 3 SimplySafe rewinds the story, stopping crime before it starts.

Speaker 3 Active Guard Outdoor Protection uses AI-powered cameras to detect intruders, alert live monitoring agents, and can deter intruders before they reach your door.

Speaker 3 It's proactive protection, plus a 60-day money-back guarantee and no contracts. To get 60% off your new system, go to simplysafe.com/slash podcast.
That's simplysafe.com/slash podcast.

Speaker 3 There's no safe like simply safe.

Speaker 7 Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. The Sizzler writes, Good evening, Max.

Speaker 7 Just want to say, as a Liverpool fan, last night's results and performance made me feel as elated as a worker in a lion enclosure whose supervisor has just come back from a day off and their understudy has been mauled while he was off.

Speaker 7 The lionkeeper analogy has been very popular on Instagram. And it did prove wise, Barry, for Arnislot to rest players midweek.
I mean, ahead of this game, Liverpool had six defeats in seven.

Speaker 7 Villa had won four on the spin.

Speaker 1 But Philippe, you know, Villa just handed this to to liverpool i thought i'm i'm a little bit surprised at the way that um this win has been described in some quarters and i see mohamed salah being celebrated and of course he should be celebrated 250 goals for liverpool is absolutely extraordinary um but as if it had been as if the performance had been of the level you could expect and i i mean did we see the same game uh i don't think liverpool were particularly good but what i think is what i saw that as and villa were particularly bad it's absolutely extraordinary and i don't know if michael Carrick was on call to explain that, but one thing I'd like to understand is that if you're playing against a team like Liverpool, which is known to have at the moment huge problems against long balls and second balls, why do you insist to play from the back with players who are obviously not feeling quite at ease doing that?

Speaker 1 And you give the first goal that way.

Speaker 1 I have to say I don't quite understand that.

Speaker 1 Liverpool hate chaos being thrown in their part of the their half of the pitch and villa didn't do that and and also you're wondering well what if you know that uh shot from morgan rogers doesn't um hit the bar but goes in as well villa created loads of chances it's absolutely nothing and and but and liverpool created a few and it was a bit it was a game between two not very good sides is it all right to say that or actually maybe two very good sides but which had no control over what they were doing and um so i think yes i mean to to use that

Speaker 1 expression we use all the time in French, it's the tree that hides the forest. It is the kind of win which I'm sure is more than welcome, but it doesn't say much about

Speaker 1 Liverpool having suddenly gone into being in the phase of convalescence or whatever.

Speaker 1 They're not much different than they were last week. This time they just found an opponent which basically gifted them the game.
Yeah, it it was interesting, Wilson, that

Speaker 7 maybe Arnislott had said so many times that they didn't like long balls that Unai Emery thought it was some kind of double bluff, despite having seen all the games that Liverpool had conceded these goals.

Speaker 7 Because it wasn't just that salad goal, which I actually thought was quite a smart finish, even if it was an open goal. Like they'd been warned already.

Speaker 1 Oh, I mean, the number of times they lost the ball trying to play out from the back.

Speaker 1 I have no idea why they were trying to play out. I mean, the other thing, you know, in terms of caveating

Speaker 1 the idea Liverpool might be back, 10 of that 11 were

Speaker 1 Liverpool from last season.

Speaker 1 Ekatike for Darwin, basically.

Speaker 7 But that's fine, isn't it? I mean, they're still the part of the squad. They're still the squad.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, but

Speaker 1 you then do have the question of, remind me why you spent that 450 million quid in the summer on the most expensive bench in the world. You know, it's,

Speaker 1 you know, it's,

Speaker 1 you would assume.

Speaker 1 that the plan is to integrate the new players. They haven't just been signed

Speaker 1 to look nice on the bench. And they don't seem...

Speaker 1 It was essentially one. It was essentially that they stopped the rot and confidence can

Speaker 1 do huge things in football. If that sort of helps shore that up, well, great.
But in terms of moving to the new future, moving to

Speaker 1 whatever new Liverpool is meant to emerge after the summer, they don't really feel any closer to that. It's sort of you're going back to absolute basics.
But what comes next?

Speaker 1 Because at some point, you do have to find a way of playing Viets and the two fullbacks and Isak.

Speaker 7 I was actually googling the most expensive bench in the world as in a bench that someone could sit on, but I ended up at

Speaker 7 Lux Habitat's 10 most expensive pieces of furniture in the world, to which the badminton chest at

Speaker 7 $36.7 million

Speaker 7 is the most expensive piece of furniture. But, you know, I don't know if someone, if producer Joel could get to it and find how expensive the most expensive bench is.

Speaker 1 uh back to probably more important matters philippe well i don't know i'm just making a point that a lot of people are talking when we're talking about the most expensive bench in football of problems of adaptation you know players they take time to adapt to their new environment etc etc in the case of liverpool i don't think it's a case of a problem of individual adaptation it's a problem of collective adaptation which is a completely different thing because if you look like Florin Wiertz, who is a super player, wonderful player, I think the problem of his adaptation is not so much him as the players around him and the communication which is happening.

Speaker 1 Communication works both ways. And which is why

Speaker 1 I do think that Liverpool's problems are a little bit more serious than we think.

Speaker 1 Because if it was just a matter of a couple of players struggling to find their marks, that's completely understandable.

Speaker 1 But I think it's more, the problem is more that the actual system which is in place, the adaptation is not happening at a collective level. And there's a big difference.

Speaker 7 Speaking of teams that aren't working, Tottenham Mill, Chelsea won. Jan says, is Thomas Frank just Nuno Mark II?

Speaker 7 Overachieving mid-table manager who makes his name with compact teams who are efficient in the final, third, can't transition to a team which enters most games as favourites.

Speaker 7 I mean, I thought Barry Chelsea were really good in this game. They pressed relentlessly, should have won by a lot more.

Speaker 7 The story does feel to be more about Tottenham with an XG of 0.05, which, as producer Joel says, sounds like it could have been achieved by just kicking the ball forwards once.

Speaker 7 Their lowest ever in the Premier League.

Speaker 8 Well, I think that 0.05 was a very weak Mohammed Kuda shot, which sort of rolled gently towards Robert Sanchez.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 8 that's where that came from.

Speaker 1 Tottenham were awful in this game.

Speaker 8 It was as comfortable a 1-0 win as I think you'll ever ever see.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 they were,

Speaker 9 I think, the third in the table going into this game.

Speaker 8 But if you looked at the games they'd won, they'd beaten Manchester City, but the other teams they'd beaten weren't, you know, all that.

Speaker 8 I suppose if you're a Spurs fan, you're going, well, at least it's not as bad as last season when we were just

Speaker 8 lost half our games. But

Speaker 8 I think it's too early to start judging Thomas Frank.

Speaker 8 I think he's a good manager.

Speaker 8 I think he'll sort them out. But this was a dismal performance, and Spurs seem utterly incapable, or they are utterly incapable, of beating Chelsea in their own stadium because they've never done it.

Speaker 8 I think they've lost six and drawn one against Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Speaker 8 It's clearly some sort of issue. And on another day, Chelsea

Speaker 8 could have won this by three, four, five, nil. Gittens missed a sitter.

Speaker 8 How Pedro missed a few chances as well as scoring one.

Speaker 8 And then the catalogue of defensive blunders in the build-up to Chelsea's winner was just comical. My man Zavi Simmons,

Speaker 1 he didn't cover himself in glory

Speaker 1 for sure.

Speaker 8 He came on for Lucasburg Val. Well done, by the way, Tottenham medical staff for making sure he went off and

Speaker 8 then got subbed off again later and was awful during his time on the pitch. But yeah, it was a bad day at the office for Spurs.

Speaker 7 I mean, yeah,

Speaker 7 Philippe, they're fifth, you know, two points off second, three points off second after Sundown's victory, of course, unbeaten in the Champions League.

Speaker 7 And, you know, they have tightened up at the back, but the vibes are not great.

Speaker 7 I mean, that's, and I, you know, I agree, it's too early to judge Frank. And, you know, he,

Speaker 7 there are all sorts of personnel issues there and there's a lack of creativity. But it is interesting how

Speaker 7 sort of dour it appears.

Speaker 1 And to be honest, it's a kind of dourness that you wouldn't associate with Thomas Frank. He's not a dour manager.

Speaker 1 You know, his Brentford was actually quite fun to watch in a different way. But I think

Speaker 1 one of the main problems is I was looking, you know, you were talking about the most expensive bench in the world.

Speaker 1 You look at

Speaker 1 the players who've come in this season at Spurs. It's huge spending by Spurs, you know,

Speaker 1 standards. I mean, over what, 150 million? Over that, actually.

Speaker 1 And you're wondering, well,

Speaker 1 can you see a difference?

Speaker 1 Not really.

Speaker 1 I'm a little bit puzzled, to be honest, how mediocre they they have been. I mean, as a fan yourself, I mean,

Speaker 1 are you not expecting max more from the players you've brought in? Precisely Mohamed Kudus, Mattis Tell, Simons?

Speaker 7 I think Kudus has looked good, but now it's just get it to Kudus and there's no other plan. I don't know what you think, Wilson.

Speaker 7 You know, they have a real problem up front with no Solanke, with Tell, Richarlison, Columbuani. They have no service, but you have to, the way they're playing, they need Drogba.

Speaker 7 They need someone who can hold it up and get in behind. But there seems to be a real lack of creativity.

Speaker 1 I mean, you know, Kurdasevsky and Madison being injured obviously doesn't help. Solanke being injured.
And that's the Solanke injury. I don't know, Tottenham seems to specialise in this.

Speaker 1 The injury said, oh, it's fine, be back in a couple of weeks. And before you know it, two seasons have gone past and he hasn't played.
So he got injured in, what, the city game?

Speaker 1 Which second game of the season.

Speaker 1 And he has had a, I think, I think they're keen to say it was a procedure, not surgery on

Speaker 1 the ankle. Was the ankle, I think? Was it the ankle? But he doesn't seem to be any close to coming.
I assume he is close to coming back, but it doesn't seem imminent.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, he knows what's going on there i mean thomas frank you know earlier in the season was was talking about those three issues obviously sauna's been such a big part of spurs for years and then it's gone so yeah there's there's adaptation there but but equally as as philippe says they've spent a lot of money and none of the players they brought in seem quite ready or quite right i mean zavi simmons looks so lightweight i'm always slightly sceptical of a player who's followed around by a documentary crew as well that uh

Speaker 1 You do wonder just how focused he is on what actually matters about football.

Speaker 7 Is Zavi Simmons being followed around around by a documentary crew?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 8 Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 And has a massive entourage, generally.

Speaker 1 You can't,

Speaker 7 surely, you have to take a look at your entourage when you've been that bad in a game. I mean, I agree.

Speaker 7 You can see he's a good player, right? It's a bit like Wurtz.

Speaker 7 I'm not necessarily comparing those two as players, but like, just physically aren't there at the Premier League. And some players don't ever get there, and some do.

Speaker 8 On the subject of expensive benches, Max, by the way, my dad has a memorial bench in the grounds of Burr Castle.

Speaker 8 And I cannot stress enough, it did not cost anywhere near as much as either Florian Vertz or Zavi Siemens.

Speaker 1 What about that £31.6 million bench that Max was talking about before?

Speaker 7 The badminton chests.

Speaker 1 No, no.

Speaker 7 Edison, Diaz, Stones, Roderick, Gundawan, Silver, Grealish, Kevin DeBoiner, and Erling Harland when they played Chelsea, beat them 1-0 in 2023. It's worth about £500 million.

Speaker 7 Then I told Joel I met a

Speaker 1 memory you've got.

Speaker 7 Well, then I tell Joel I met an actual bench, and he said he found a story about Torbay Council charging a family £12,000 for a bench. But that may have been

Speaker 7 miscommunication. Who knows? Anyway, Arsenal don't have any of the problems that Tolum have.
Philippe, they won Tuna at Burnley. You know, it was routine.

Speaker 7 They are good. Declan Rice is brilliant.
Gabrielle is sensational in both boxes. Nine consecutive wins in all competitions, seven clean sheets in a row.

Speaker 7 It's like one shot they faced on target in about 25 years.

Speaker 7 Are you getting ready for the parade?

Speaker 1 Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I'm certainly, well, actually,

Speaker 1 I would be very disappointed if there were no parade. That's the way I would put it.
Do you know any defenders who

Speaker 1 loves to

Speaker 1 head the ball out of the box with as much pleasure and enthusiasm as Gabrielle?

Speaker 1 It's phenomenal.

Speaker 1 He can butt the ball, he butts it some 40 yards. Absolutely extraordinary.
But I don't think I would describe this as a routine win because I know

Speaker 1 because I don't think I've seen them play that well

Speaker 1 in the Premier League this season as in the first 45 minutes. In the Champions League Atletico, the performance was fantastic.

Speaker 1 But in the Premier League, the first 45 minutes were the most complete that I've seen because not only did they defend it extremely well, what they had to defend, not only did they score, obviously, on another set piece by Gyrkeris this time, but what they created, the number of chances, and how they created them was absolutely magnificent.

Speaker 1 As to Declan Rice, yeah, I mean, what can you say? Pretty much the perfect game, I would say.

Speaker 1 Pretty much a perfect game, in which he showed absolutely every single of the qualities we know he has

Speaker 1 and put that in a perfect little package. I mean, the only thing about that routine win is the routine injuries, again, which are affecting now Tokyo Keres and Zubimendi.

Speaker 1 And we don't know how serious these are, but it's quite remarkable that so many players got so, you know, muscular injuries like Arsenal players have had this season, especially when they had been rested for the previous game.

Speaker 1 You know, it's just

Speaker 1 very, very, very odd. And actually, the one

Speaker 1 a little bit not worrying, but concerning the fact that these injuries keep on happening. And even if Arsenal do have the second most expensive bench

Speaker 1 in the Premier League or something, and sometimes the first, as they had in the League Cup, there's one moment when the resources they have, the incredibly deep resources, will be stretched a little bit too far.

Speaker 1 And I'm just, that's probably the only caveat that I would have. Other than that, they've got absolutely everything to go all of the way in the Premier League.
And it's only 10 games I know, but...

Speaker 1 I mean, I would be surprised if they didn't. I mean, is it a bit

Speaker 1 hubristic to say that?

Speaker 8 Oh, please be hubristic.

Speaker 8 Who doesn't love a hubristic Arsenal fan?

Speaker 8 But I mean, you talk about those niggles or injuries, but you've got Odegar, Madoweke, Gabriel Jesus, and Kai Havertz all close to returning. So

Speaker 8 the Lord give us and the Lord take it away.

Speaker 7 Yeah, to the City Ground, Forest 2, Manchester United 2. The only game on Saturday of the seven that really had any jeopardy and where both teams scored.

Speaker 7 Manchester United took the lead from that Casemiro header from a corner that shouldn't have been a corner, second week in a row. That this has happened to Sean Dice.
Scandal. I mean, firstly,

Speaker 7 you said scandal, so I'll go to for your exercise, more exercise, it appears, than uh, the other two. I mean, the referee, the assistant referees' assistant has possibly the worst view in the ground.

Speaker 7 There's a goal in the way, right? There's a big net and some posts in the way. It's you know, it's a really, it's obviously a bad decision.

Speaker 1 No, it's shocking, and and you know, it's one, it's a horse I've been flogging far too much, but I do not understand.

Speaker 1 We have goal line technology. We can tell when the ball goes past the line, crosses the line.
Why don't we have it for all of the goal line, right?

Speaker 1 So that we can find out if indeed the ball has been out of play.

Speaker 1 It's just, it absolutely drives me nuts. Well, no, I was sorry.

Speaker 1 How on earth could they do that?

Speaker 1 The reason it works in the goal is that you have cameras in the post and the bar. But you can

Speaker 1 use this exactly the same system.

Speaker 1 You couldn't have a bar going along the goal line to look down.

Speaker 1 And you can't have a post sort of beyond the corner flags.

Speaker 1 No, but you don't have

Speaker 1 the Hawkeye system, you mean. Yeah.
But you could have cameras in the stadium which would actually be

Speaker 1 focusing solely on the goal line and trigger...

Speaker 1 a signal, some kind of audio signal, if the ball goes past the line. It's absolutely possible.

Speaker 1 I think it's incredibly dependent on the stadium. I think it works in a goal because a goal is the same size.
I think it's relatively easy to calibrate because it's in the same position.

Speaker 1 It's the same in every stadium. The cost for something that

Speaker 1 happens, you know, when was the last one that was significant? When Arsenal conceded at Newcastle?

Speaker 8 Last week.

Speaker 7 Last week, yes. Twice in two weeks.
You're listening to the Guardian photo calibration weekly.

Speaker 1 I just, I mean, the cost, the effort, the time for something that just, you know, referees make mistakes. Things happen.
Just get on and defend the corner. Stop moaning about it.

Speaker 8 I just would argue, Jonathan, I take your point and largely agree with you, but just for the sake of being nitpicky, we know the ball didn't go out of play, so and we knew very quickly that the ball didn't go out of play, so surely Varr could have stepped in or something like that.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, but in this one instance, but you know, there'll be other times where there's three or four players blocking the view and it then takes, you know,

Speaker 1 yeah, 10 minutes to sort out

Speaker 1 for a throwing on the halfway line. I mean, it's you know, yeah,

Speaker 7 I take that point, and I guess that there will always be a vague moment where it's like, but if you said, Look, if in the time it took for whoever to wander over and take the corner, the fourth official could just whisper in the ref's ear and go, actually, mate, that's not a corner.

Speaker 1 But then, where does it stop? That's the problem with far. It creeps.
I agree with you, but it's sort of that's why you have to have been very definitive. That's why I get rid of it entirely.

Speaker 7 Yeah, so I agree. I would get rid of it entirely, but it creeps just so exponentially differently in different ways.

Speaker 7 So, this thing that we all know, fine, but then it'll exponentially creep for like two hours over a ham ball that we don't want.

Speaker 1 There is no personal judgment involved in this particular case.

Speaker 1 It's not about a judging like what happened, for example, at the Fulham game, where the red card was given because they deemed that Josh King hadn't touched the ball with his arm, which he had, by the way.

Speaker 1 They deemed it was just the top of the shoulder. But anyway, this is not what we're talking.
It's not about personal opinion. It's about a fact.
The ball went over the line or didn't go over the line.

Speaker 1 If technology is able to assist the judges,

Speaker 1 the officials in taking the right decision and preventing a team like Forrest, whose whole season might depend on a couple of decisions like that, that's what we've got to understand.

Speaker 1 What's the problem?

Speaker 1 It's not creepy. It's just

Speaker 1 that although this one is obvious, there will be other cases that are not obvious. And how do you judge what isn't obvious? There is no obvious omiter.

Speaker 1 In which case, if it's not obvious, but it's not obvious, it just doesn't intervene. But

Speaker 1 we know that referees, that Pundit fans can't tell what's obvious. Yeah, we have the word clear and obvious in a regulation that nobody knows what it means.

Speaker 1 Obvious, obvious is itself a subjective term.

Speaker 8 I really want to get into it with Philippe over the Josh King handball, but I'm not going to for the good of this episode.

Speaker 7 Anyway, Ahmad struck that volley beautifully.

Speaker 9 Didn't he, Just?

Speaker 7 You know, it's and a brilliant block on the line, actually, from Murillo, which meant that the guy with the hair still has the hair. All right, good.
Well, that'll do for part two.

Speaker 7 Part three, uh, we'll round up the rest of the Premier League.

Speaker 5 When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game.

Speaker 5 Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents so you can transform tomorrow.

Speaker 4 Workday, moving business forever forward.

Speaker 10 AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes.

Speaker 6 Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice.

Speaker 10 Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails, and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation at rubric.com.

Speaker 10 That's r-u-b-r-i-k.com.

Speaker 7 Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. Palace 2 Brentford 0.
So, Palace followed up their win over Liverpool in the League Cup with another win in the Premier League.

Speaker 7 And they've not been on a great run until this. That Mateta header, Philippe, is just so good.
I mean, I've seen a lot of League One goals like this.

Speaker 7 boot to the far post, head across goal, and then headed home. But it's such a great header, isn't it?

Speaker 1 It is rather lovely, I must say. Um, it's it's a very metate thing to do.

Speaker 1 You know, I was talking about players who've got conviction when they hit the ball, when they butt the ball in defense, when he does that too, but this time to propel it into the net.

Speaker 1 Absolutely superb.

Speaker 7 Yeah, yeah, um, Nathan Collins, header less good, uh, did come from a long throw.

Speaker 8 Yeah, well, you see, what's happening here is there's an international break. So, this is Nathan Collins switching into Ireland mode.
Nathan Collins,

Speaker 1 he had a shocker.

Speaker 7 He's unlucky, isn't it? I mean, it's bound to happen eventually.

Speaker 1 Nah, but there was that.

Speaker 8 And then there was one he gifted possession to Shmilisar. He somehow missed.
I think because Collins was sort of hanging out of his shirt and got away with it. But yeah,

Speaker 8 Sarah hit the post when scoring looked far, far easier.

Speaker 7 In the final game, Brighton beat leads 3-0.

Speaker 7 I thought Yakubi Minto was brilliant in this game.

Speaker 7 But the story, I guess, is Danny Welbeck Wilson getting another goal.

Speaker 7 Is there a serious conversation about getting him on the plane? Thomas Duchal doesn't mind bringing in old people.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, there certainly should be. England are not blessed with a huge number of centre-forward options.
Yeah, Ollie Watkins, I guess, is back up to Harry Kane at the moment.

Speaker 1 But if the squads are going to be 30 for the World Cup, which I think we're led to believe they will be, I mean, even the 26, it's worth having

Speaker 1 three centre-forwards there. And

Speaker 1 who's better than him at the minute? Yeah, Kane Watkins, who else? So, I think he's an increasingly intelligent player.

Speaker 1 I think he, in some ways, he plays not unlike Kane in that he likes to drop off the front line, which it's obviously useful to have players who play in similar ways.

Speaker 1 By all accounts, he's a lovely bloke. So, I don't think there'd be any issues with him not starting games or maybe not getting any minutes.

Speaker 1 I think he'd be sort of diligent and useful in training, sort of be good around the group, as they say. So, and yeah, Tuchel has no remit to to look to the future at all.
So,

Speaker 1 I,

Speaker 1 yeah, if he's not being considered, that would seem very strange to me. Danny Welbeck's presence in the England squad immediately increases the likability factor of England by at least 12.3%.

Speaker 1 At least, he seems to be one of the nicest people around.

Speaker 1 And you have to see.

Speaker 1 Also, he's one thing I absolutely love about him

Speaker 1 is that he's he's when he celebrates a goal,

Speaker 1 he doesn't do like what Joe Pedro does, which is absolutely ridiculous when he does a tap-in.

Speaker 1 You see, he immediately went,

Speaker 1 I can't remember, to the player who actually offered him that goal. There is a sense of genuineness about him in the way that he approaches his job, his profession, which also in itself

Speaker 1 increases the likeability factor by another 0.7% to reach the 13% bar. And I think England would be all the better for Danny Welbeck being on the plane.
All right.

Speaker 7 You've convinced me. It's Matt's Viffer who passed it to him.
You know, if anybody is interested in that. Sunderland play Everton tonight.
We'll cover that victory for Sunderland on Wednesday's pod.

Speaker 1 I just wanted to add one thing for Brighton.

Speaker 1 The excellent game of Georgino Ruta.

Speaker 1 He was, I thought, absolutely superb. And I mentioned that in

Speaker 1 our chat, is the fact I do think that when a player feints and deliberately doesn't touch the ball so that the player in a better position can score, I think this should count as an assist.

Speaker 7 I'm with you. The dummy is one of the greatest skills.
After the side foot pass.

Speaker 7 After the side foot pass, the dummy is the greatest skill in football. Speaking of side foot passes, has everyone seen Zielinski's volley for Inter against Verona and Seria yesterday?

Speaker 1 It is...

Speaker 7 One of the greatest goals I think I have ever seen because Tanaloglu takes the corner and

Speaker 7 absolutely the way he fizzes that ball it's the skulls volley from a corner goal but the two kicks Wilson are two kicks of absolute technical perfection oh yeah look it's a lovely goal it's it's slightly spoiled when you see the angle from behind the goal it's not actually that close to the corner do you think yeah

Speaker 1 that is splitting hairs okay you want it in off the bar right you want it in the stanchion it's two great touches of the ball i would just like it to have been a yard further to the left for something closer to being totally perfect.

Speaker 1 I'm not entirely clear why Verona watching him rather than making some effort to close him down as well. But yeah, it's two incredible strikes of the ball.

Speaker 1 I think that you're speaking because I think we've had too many angles for that goal.

Speaker 1 I think the best angle is the one which actually concentrates on, which is sideways,

Speaker 1 where you actually see the movement as well from the delivery. It has also a good curl on it, which makes it even more beautiful.
It's

Speaker 1 absolutely unbelievable. And the conjunction of the two lines, I think that's what makes it so beautiful.
The volley is amazing, the pass is amazing, but it's the conjunction.

Speaker 1 It's actually, you're looking, it's almost as if it's only one shot.

Speaker 1 It's like a bull ricocheting on the billiard table. or a stone skipping on the lake.
And it's absolutely, it's two movements, but one.

Speaker 1 And oh, it's absolutely, absolutely extraordinary.

Speaker 7 Southampton of SAC will still sat there 21st in the championship, three points above the bottom three, one only two of 13.

Speaker 7 Do you reckon he goes back to Liga, Philippe? He's a very good reputation there.

Speaker 1 Well, he had, I mean, when it was with Reins, that's when really basically he made his name and people said, well, we've got a fantastic young manager coming from Belgium in this case.

Speaker 1 I think that the bubble burst rather quickly. He's apparently not the easiest of managers to play for

Speaker 1 and to play with. And I don't know if this has anything to do with him, you know, having

Speaker 1 another problem here. Maybe it's got more to do with the actual club, which is going precisely nowhere.

Speaker 7 Hedonistic says, can you ask Jonathan Wilson to talk about Gates ZFC, Alan Armstrong and the importance of FA Cup money and exposure, please, before the third round?

Speaker 7 Yeah, they won 2-0 at Wimbledon, won a number of teams who beat sides in a higher league, uh, including Brackley, Boreham Wood, Oldham, Chesterfield, Salford, Cheltenham, Swindon, and Carlisle, which was an amazing game.

Speaker 7 But we'll get to that. Uh, talk about Gateshead, Wilson.

Speaker 1 I don't know really what I'm meant to say. I mean, they're what the mid-table in the National League, they sort of yeah, struggle along.
It's their biggest result in years.

Speaker 1 Alan Armstrong, Alan Armstrong must be pretty much the same age as me. Maybe he's a year older, but he was at Newcastle.
I remember seeing him in a

Speaker 1 reserve team game.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, I reckon he may be, maybe he's 50 now but obviously he had a career at yeah where was he middlesburg stockport ipswich darlington did he finish at i don't think he ever played a league game for newcastle yeah he's gone back home i guess and uh it's great that he's he's got this result but i i i i'm not going to pretend i know a huge amount about gayted that's okay i mean uh cambridge shattered their football league dream in 2014 i believe they had john oster pulling the strings in midfield but we won it when he is 50 so well done uh yeah reading two carlisle three was the game of the round carlisle are non-league non-league, and they were 2-0 down.

Speaker 7 Reagan Lilly scored one in the 93rd minute, then equalized in the 98th minute, and then in extra time scored in the 94th minute.

Speaker 7 So before his equaliser, he scored the winner to get a hat-trick and put them through.

Speaker 7 Five teams from the sixth tier in the second round: Slowtown, Chelmsford City, Western Supermare, Macclesfield, and Buxton. There is a bench, everybody, on Bench Watch on the Hudson River.

Speaker 7 You can get a 20-year dedication on for $100,000.

Speaker 7 Roughly 850 benches situated throughout the Hudson River Park, each offering a peaceful perch and unique viewpoint for enjoying the park's riverfront beauty.

Speaker 1 A hundred grand.

Speaker 7 Yeah, for 20 years.

Speaker 7 Yeah, 20-year dedication.

Speaker 1 But it's five grand a year. You can get like a debenture at Surrey for that or something.

Speaker 1 Why would you?

Speaker 7 Yes, but I mean, perhaps if you are, you know, a rich New Yorker, a debenture at Surrey doesn't really mean much, you know, to your old man. It's a spirit song teak bench.

Speaker 7 Um, the elegant craftsmanship of the unique spirit song teak bench evokes the waves of the majestic Hudson and natural waterfront winds. I mean, it is nice, I will grant you.
I wouldn't, you know,

Speaker 7 I'm going to say, Barry, whichever one of us passes from this mortal call first, the other one does not have to donate a 20-year bench for 100 grand, however beautiful it is on the Hudson River.

Speaker 8 You're only saying that because you're convinced I'll die before you.

Speaker 8 It's no, it's It's been a long-held view of yours. I'm a clean living man now, Max.

Speaker 1 I run.

Speaker 8 I haven't had a fag for over 18 months.

Speaker 1 I'm coming for you. Yeah.

Speaker 7 Like,

Speaker 7 you should die before me, but I don't know if you will. That's what I'm saying.
You know, I'm less confident than I was, but I hope the running's going well. And that'll do for today, of course.

Speaker 7 Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Philippe.

Speaker 1 Thank you very much, Max. I didn't have a chance to say that this is the closest league race that we have in France for at least 10 years.

Speaker 8 But goodbye. Goodbye.

Speaker 1 Au revoir. Cheers, Wilson.
And I didn't have a chance to talk about Stefano DiCarlo becoming River Place's youngest ever president, so the first one, having won the election on Saturday.

Speaker 1 But yes, goodbye.

Speaker 7 And Barry? I said everything I wanted to say and more.

Speaker 7 Football Weekly is produced by Joe Grove. Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens, Champions League.
So we'll be back on Wednesday.

Speaker 1 This is The Guardian.

Speaker 5 When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game.

Speaker 6 Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents so you can transform tomorrow.

Speaker 4 Workday, moving business forever forward.

Speaker 11 If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Granger.

Speaker 11 Granger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers.

Speaker 11 Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800GRanger, clickgranger.com or just stop by.
Granger for the ones who get it done.