Brendan Rodgers quits Celtic and an EFL special: Football Weekly

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Speaker 5 Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. And as with every EFL pod, something happens to get in the way.
This time it's Celtic and Brendan Rogers, who resigned last night.

Speaker 5 Welcome back, Martin O'Neill. That's fun.
The Celtic's board statement is quite the read. We'll discuss that first.
And then to the championship and rejoice.

Speaker 5 The end of Dajon Transiri at Sheffield Wednesday.

Speaker 5 Administration and a points deduction and a highly likely relegation isn't a reason to celebrate but they can build again and perhaps take inspiration from Coventry who've battled back from their own troubles and find themselves top of the league Frank Lampard flying.

Speaker 5 Howard Millball third and can they sustain it? Last season's relegated clubs all failing to use their parachutes well mean the league looks open. Well at the bottom what's happening at Norwich?

Speaker 5 It's League One manager sacking season.

Speaker 5 Noel Hunt at Reading and Darren Ferguson at Peterborough and then in League Two 13th place Cambridge, just getting positioned to time their run and embarrass those not the top 20 frauds.

Speaker 5 All that plus your questions. And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

Speaker 5 On the panel today from Not the Top 20, George Ellick. Welcome.

Speaker 3 Great to be called a fraud at 8.06 in the morning.

Speaker 3 Morning, Matt.

Speaker 5 I thought she had us 18th and we're 13th. So in many ways, that might be a bit about a point that I put in the intro.
You have my apologies.

Speaker 5 Uh, Sanny Roger Radjana, hello, good morning, and welcome, Ben Fisher.

Speaker 7 Hi, Max.

Speaker 5 Let's start with Celtic. Uh, and we do plan to go to the jazz bar on Thursday and catch up with you and Murray.

Speaker 5 Um, George, you sent us this uh tweet from Barry Anderson, a journalist of the Scotsman, who just wrote, Celtic's manager resigns, the club chief publicly savages him, the stand-in manager says Harts can win the league, while Aberdeen appoint a penguin-stealing sports director who spent time in jail and modelled for Armani.

Speaker 5 Uh, that's enough for today. He'll never beat Scottish football.
Well, we'll do the Aberdeen bit on Thursday as well. But the Celtic statement.

Speaker 5 So Brennan Rogers resigned and he's been talking a lot about,

Speaker 5 you know, not getting the backing, certainly in the transfer market. And I'll read part of the statement.
It's not all of it. It's quite a bit.

Speaker 5 But it says, we met with Brendan regularly, including in December last year and at the start of the summer with the regular dialogue in between to discuss and agree our collective strategy, priorities and approach.

Speaker 5 Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan's full knowledge, approval and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false.

Speaker 5 His later public statements about transfers and club operations came entirely out of the blue.

Speaker 5 At no point prior to those remarks had he raised any such concerns with me, Michael or any member of the board or executive team.

Speaker 5 In reality, he was given final say over all football matters and was consistently backed in the recruitment process, including record investment in players he personally identified and approved.

Speaker 5 When his comments were made publicly, I sought to address them directly. Brendan and I met for over three hours at his home in Scotland to discuss the issue.

Speaker 5 Despite ample opportunity, he was unable to identify a single instance where the club had obstructed or failed to support him. The facts did not match his public narrative.

Speaker 5 Regrettably, his words and actions since then have been divisive, misleading, and self-serving.

Speaker 5 They have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fueled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board.

Speaker 5 Some of the abuse directed at them and their families has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable. I mean, Sonny, it's quite the statement.

Speaker 5 There's this image of this three-hour meeting where the chairman and Brendan Rogers are there going, and this time, and Brendan's off sort of like scrabbling around trying to find some facts, it's bizarre, isn't it?

Speaker 6 Yeah, he couldn't once uh prove his points. I mean, that's that's something.
I mean,

Speaker 6 you've got, I think you've got to say that something like this was inevitable, in that the way that Brendan Rogers left Celtic the first time meant he never quite won Celtic fans over completely.

Speaker 6 And there were 11 trophies in and all that success.

Speaker 3 But this level of

Speaker 6 evisceration evisceration is just, I don't think we've ever seen anything like it. It's absolutely incredible.
I mean,

Speaker 6 it's almost enough to like for Brendan Rodgers to maybe turn around and go, you know, you've caused me reputational harm because that's it's so strong.

Speaker 6 And what, 15 minutes, I think, after the, after the statement came out that he'd resigned. So, I mean, this has been brewing.
Just absolutely incredible. I'm almost lost for words about it.

Speaker 6 I don't, I can't remember. I mean, you know, Maranakis aside, this doesn't happen.

Speaker 3 This is something completely different. At least Brendan Rodgers will never have to ask Dermot Desmond for a reference in the future because it's now out in the open.

Speaker 3 But it does feel like it's a very modern day fallout that's playing out in various forms of media.

Speaker 3 You know, you have Brendan Rodgers using his platform as a manager to basically pass the buck when he's in charge of a football team. You've then got...
you know,

Speaker 3 a board member, someone, you know, in the highest echelon of Celtic Football Club using his platform on the club website to discredit anything that Rogers has said and basically,

Speaker 3 you know, almost like a character assassination, really. I'm sure Rogers will use his platform as a broadcaster, as most ex-managers who are high-profile tend to be,

Speaker 3 to kind of give his version of events relatively soon too. And then the person who's come in on a short-term basis to replace him, you know, has made headlines twice in the last month.
First time by

Speaker 3 basically saying that he didn't believe in expected goals and the second time within the last kind of week or so by saying publicly that he thinks hearts are going to win the title and now he's starting manager.

Speaker 3 So it's a very modern day saga. It's an absolute mess.
From the outside looking in, it's incredibly enjoyable and I kind of feel like it's not going to end here

Speaker 3 because, you know, as Sanny says, like surely Brendan Rodgers...

Speaker 3 When he read that statement, I cannot imagine just the absolute fury that must have been coursing through his veins. And that only leads one way.

Speaker 3 And I'm sure pretty soon we're going to, whether it's via the, you know, the LMA or whether it's via a radio station or whatever else, we're going to hear from Rogers on his version of events. Yeah.

Speaker 5 I mean, I wonder, were the first time Celtic don't win, does some, does, you know, does Martin O'Neill come out and say, our XG was better?

Speaker 5 Or like when they, or does, or does, does the reporter say, well, your XG was three.

Speaker 3 Or even unionically say, like, oh, we missed loads of big chances and they only had one. And it's like, Martin, that that's, that's what it is.

Speaker 5 So now, what, Ben? Big Ange. I mean, there are a couple of interesting things.
One is who takes the Celtic job. I mean, you know, it's O'Neill at the moment with Sean Maloney, but, you know,

Speaker 5 there's a big Ange Postacoglu sort of figure called Ange Postacoglu. That's what it is, who doesn't have work at the moment, which would be fascinating.

Speaker 7 Yeah, having seen many of his 40 days in the job or so, I don't know. I feel like Big Ange just needs a bit of a big break.
Yeah, I mean, Celtic, I'm sure, would be up for that.

Speaker 7 I don't know.

Speaker 7 I mean,

Speaker 7 he's not going to get another Premier League job. So maybe it would be quite a good sort of relatively soft landing given what he had his success there.
So, yeah, possibly.

Speaker 7 Just coming back to Desmond, I just find it remarkable. This is a guy who's supposedly publicity shy.
We don't hear from very often.

Speaker 7 And then when he does come out, he's just absolutely gone for it and roasted Rogers.

Speaker 7 So, yeah, it's going to be a good couple of weeks, I'm sure.

Speaker 5 Yeah, and then for Brendan Rogers, I guess, Sanny,

Speaker 5 already quite short odds for wolves and west ham you know like god new no needs west ham it's total circus isn't it but but you know you you you wonder if he's timed it because he's just fed up or that that he's chatted to someone in the premier league i mean surely not surely that you look look at what happened to ange like if you go straight out of one job into another i know they're totally different sorts of managers but Would you really want to bring that on yourself?

Speaker 6 Brendan Rodgers going to West Ham? Can you imagine how quickly that would sour? I mean, that would sour before it even got there. I mean, that would be just incredible.

Speaker 6 Surely not.

Speaker 5 I mean, it'd be amazing for the Celtic fans if he did just tip up again, like after the last time. He just tips up at a new club.
I don't know. There's something about managers.

Speaker 5 They have this because, I mean, I think,

Speaker 5 you know, I think we're all, I don't know, you can't talk for everyone, but I think most people who talk about football go, if I got a 5 million payoff, I would have a...

Speaker 5 I'd give it a couple of months. Do you know what I mean? But maybe it's different.
You're a manager.

Speaker 5 Anyway, look, we'll talk about it more on Thursday and more will happen, no doubt, between now and Thursday. Let's talk about the championship.
Let's start with Sheffield Wednesday.

Speaker 5 They've been placed into administration, deducted 12 points. Fans described it as one of the most bittersweet days in our 158-year history.
The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust said.

Speaker 5 Entering administration was the inevitable outcome of years of financial mismanagement, a lack of accountability, and repeated failures to engage credible buyers.

Speaker 5 Administration is not something to be celebrated. It needn't have ended this way, but we're overjoyed to have Chanceri out of the club.

Speaker 5 Manager Henrik Pederson said, now there's a belief, a hope, there's a feeling of looking towards better days. When I I close my eyes, I can see a bright future for Sheffield Wednesday.

Speaker 5 And the administrators, the joint administrators says they have four or five serious bidders and the club could have new owners by the end of the year.

Speaker 5 I know we've talked about administration before on this pod, but George, it is worth reminding listeners what this exactly means for Sheffield Wednesday.

Speaker 3 Yeah, for sure. I mean, administration normally,

Speaker 3 in football terms, it comes kind of at the end of the road when

Speaker 3 there are no prospective buyers, there are bills that are unpaid, and effective administrators are called in in order to clear the decks, ensure that the club can continue to operate by raising money whichever way possible whilst also looking for new owners.

Speaker 3 And it can come with a severe chance of existential threat. And that's why normally when a club goes into administration, it's a terrible day and a dark day for the club.

Speaker 3 As the statement says with Sheffield Wednesday, you know, administration in itself is nothing to cheer. It's nothing to celebrate.

Speaker 3 But in this case, it feels like the start of the road rather than the end of it because we know and we've been led to believe over years rather than months that there have been prospective buyers interested and serious about buying Sheffield Wednesday and those that interest hasn't turned into anything solid because of the demands and the inflated price that Chan Siri has wanted for his asset in Sheffield Wednesday which is well beyond what it was worth and well beyond what anyone in their right mind would pay for it.

Speaker 3 And so firstly, you know, administration means that the Chancery era is over over. And that is a massive thing to celebrate because,

Speaker 3 you know, unlike other

Speaker 3 owners who've been,

Speaker 3 you know, whose era or tenure has turned incredibly poisonous, with Chan Siri, it's been total mismanagement rather than necessarily, it hasn't been

Speaker 3 based in evil. It's been based in...
pure incompetence and an inability to manage the affairs of Sheffield Wednesday effectively.

Speaker 3 and also to kind of lead the table when needed, which has led to them into this position.

Speaker 3 His reign is now over, and within minutes of the club being put into administration, we saw the Chancery seats in one of the stands at Hills were being pulled out in a pretty powerful message.

Speaker 3 And against Oxford on Saturday, in the pre-match

Speaker 3 kind of entertainment, I guess, there was a very moving message put on

Speaker 3 the big screen as well.

Speaker 3 effectively saying that Chancery had been removed and that the club was rebooting and showing some amazing amazing parts of history. Now, the good thing is that

Speaker 3 the fan base have been boycotting home games and therefore,

Speaker 3 plugging the supply line of funds towards Transiri. And the first thing the administrators did when they came in was to say, that needs to change now.
As fans, please come back in.

Speaker 3 And they promised the fan base that all funds that are raised by ticket sales and merchandise sales and hospitality sales and everything else will go straight into the football club.

Speaker 3 None of it will go to Transiri. None of it it will go to them.
And that meant that we saw

Speaker 3 a club that had been boycotted in the midweek game against Middlesbrough with barely any home fans suddenly had 27,500 home fans in the crowd for Saturday. It feels like a club that has been reborn.

Speaker 3 It feels like a club where the fans have got their club back. There was a statement released by the club and the players asking for them to come back and they responded

Speaker 3 in their numbers.

Speaker 3 And then the other positive thing is, as mentioned, because there are serious buyers and because there have been serious buyers over the last couple of years who still remain at the table it does feel like in other administrations that the possibility of finding a buyer has found has seemed difficult or unlikely in this case given that the the asking price presumably has been slashed as to where it should be hopefully you know the administration won't be a long period and we see chef wednesday bought and then looking ahead to the future because saturday showed you know what this club can be and it's been an absolute shell of what it should be um because of the management of the previous owner and sanly you've been covering this a lot for sky just give us an impression, and Jorda's touched on it, of just the vibe shift in Chanciri leaving.

Speaker 6 It's quite amazing because

Speaker 6 when I arrived and, you know, I got a call that morning, we've got rumors that the administration might happen and jump out of the car and immediately you're on air and stuff. And

Speaker 6 given like the context of every other administration we've ever seen and every other club that's ever been in this situation, you start quite somber and quite, you know, it's a worrying time, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 6 And after my first live, one of the administrators actually came out paul and came and said hello can we have a chat and so immediately we had him on so that's literally opposite what the previous ownership has been like and in the course of that conversation i was like you know is is this uh is this a good day for cheffy wednesday he's like yeah it's a it's a great day it's one of the one of the best days in recent times and it completely shifted the mood even in my head as to just how huge this was and then after that went down to the club shop and it was just a continual stream of fans coming in and every single one was delighted.

Speaker 6 Like the the first woman I spoke to had bought five brand new shirts. And if you're a Cheffy Wednesday fan, you'll know that the shirts are really expensive.

Speaker 6 Like I think Chan Siri had them at 60 quid or something.

Speaker 6 And part of the Supporters Trust's boycott, which has kind of ultimately precipitated this administration, because yeah, the Middlesbrough game that George alluded to there, there were so few fans, it really became quite clear that they can't.

Speaker 6 and get any match day revenue. The club will completely cease to be able to function whatsoever without any funds.
So the boycott 100% works. And all of a sudden, everyone's coming back.

Speaker 6 Everyone's coming back and everyone's buying stuff. Everyone's buying tickets for the match.
It was absolutely incredible.

Speaker 6 I've never, you know, any journalist is doing Vox pops where you talk to random people. You know, sometimes it's a bit of a grind.

Speaker 6 Every fan of this came and wanted to talk to me and none of them were lunatics. It was completely amazing.
So yeah, shirts and shirts and shirts.

Speaker 6 There was one guy who had a six-week old baby and he was like in tears saying, you know, I've been wanting to just.

Speaker 6 get them involved in my club, get them in club merch. I've not been able to do anything like that.
He was there.

Speaker 6 So many fans buying tickets it was something um absolutely incredible and yeah the the removal of the seats right so i don't know if you saw this but 78 000 people were watching a live stream from cheffey wednesday's esports channel and all it was doing was showing the shanciri being removed very so slowly so slowly you know that just gives you an idea of just how big chef wednesday

Speaker 6 yeah that's the modern that's the modern way of measuring uh how big a football club is is it but point is like yeah you you really get an appreciation of just how massive Sheffield Wednesday is.

Speaker 6 Like, beyond any of a kind of similar recent situation we've had like this with administrations, like the Mork, like some Morkham, Mackisfield, Berry, this was something else. And the fact that

Speaker 6 administration and a 12-point deduction actually is a good thing, kind of tells you how sorry the situation was. But also, there's all that potential.

Speaker 6 There's all those people there willing, ready, and able to kind of bring it back to life, probably in League One, but bring it back to life nonetheless.

Speaker 5 Let's look at the top of the championship then. Coventry, 28 points and 12.
Everyone's played 12 games. Coventry, top, Middlesbrough, three points behind them.
Millwall in third.

Speaker 5 Bristol City, Stoke, Charlton, making up the playoff places with Preston and Hull below them.

Speaker 5 We've talked about Coventry before, Ben, but it is still very impressive. The run they're on is amazing.
They are unbeaten. They're the only unbeaten side in the 92.
I think so.

Speaker 7 I believe so, yeah.

Speaker 5 It's just so much credit to Frank Lampard, I guess.

Speaker 5 And a lot of people people were suspicious about it and have been for a long time of his managerial ability yeah and i remember when when he was appointed going to his unveiling at the arena and um

Speaker 7 you know all these questions about you know why do you want to do this frank you know what's sort of the point you don't need to do this well you know this is why this is why he's doing it um because he wants success and you know commentary a massive club um

Speaker 7 especially with the sort of stable footing they're now on under doug uh they now own the stadium as of august which is obviously a massive move given all the kind of trials and tribulations they had with that and you know being homeless and all the rest of it.

Speaker 7 And now they're back. They're quite a, you know, they're obviously proving quite a force under Lampard.

Speaker 7 And I think he's showing he's he's a good man manager and a good manager is a sort of you know all-round package. He's got a good team.
I don't think we should forget that.

Speaker 7 I think he inherited a good team. Mark Robbins obviously did a great job there.
He's a

Speaker 7 Coventry hero, rightly so. But he's, I don't know, he's kind of...
He's got more comp, he's got players playing with maybe a bit more confidence than they had, particularly sort of in the final third.

Speaker 7 Haji Wright looks like he's um maybe fulfilling some of the promise that he was sort of signed to do so i think they paid sort of seven eight million for him in brandon thomas asante is the kind of the man in form he's he's the top scorer in the division had you right i think they have the the top scorer and the second top scorer right and and thomas asante which kind of speaks volumes in itself and torped third as well is he yeah so you know they they've got um

Speaker 7 Yeah, they've got it going at both ends

Speaker 7 in terms of Carl Rushworth in goal is proven a really good signing. I know he's really highly rated within the FA on loan from Brighton.

Speaker 7 Before the weekend, he hadn't conceded in 600 before last week, so he hadn't conceded in 613 minutes, which is pretty good going. So, yeah, Lampard feels like he's onto something.

Speaker 7 I don't think it's sort of a massive surprise in the sense that his remit upon coming in was, you know, get us in the playoffs, but I suppose the fact they're top, unbeaten, and kind of sailing away is a little bit beyond expectations.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I mean, they've scored 34 goals this season. Next highest,

Speaker 5 Hull and Bristol City have 20. So, you know, that's such a massive difference, isn't it? Middlesbrough, I'm beaten at home.
They've only lost once this season. Rob Edwards doing a very good job.

Speaker 5 I think people looking at the league will see Millwall in third and raise some eyebrows, George. Ted says, how will Arsenal fare at the Den in the Premier League next season?

Speaker 5 How are Millwall third, George?

Speaker 3 Tough place to go. Yeah.
No, it's because they're good. They're good.

Speaker 3 You know, Millwall have been a good championship side for a while now, and they've probably had limitations because of the way they approach games and the way that they've recruited.

Speaker 3 And that's changed over the last two or three years, including the appointment of Alex Neal, who,

Speaker 3 you know, not every job has gone well for Neil, but the job he did obviously is a, you know, in the infancy of his managerial career at Norwich, but also the job he did at Sunderland, where he came in mid-season at the Sunday side who were, you know, very much down on their haunches in League One.

Speaker 3 And he instigated, and it clearly was his impact, you know, the rise on the pitch along, you know, there are obviously other mitigating factors and other factors that played into this.

Speaker 3 But from a management perspective, you know, he was the one who was able to finally get Sunday and firing in League well and took them up into the championship.

Speaker 3 Anna Millwall, it feels like he's kind of properly got buy-in from everybody.

Speaker 3 And, you know, they're really solid defensive unit they've had for a long time.

Speaker 3 Certainly with Jay Cooper, who's been there for a long while.

Speaker 3 But Tristan Cramer is a player who's, you know, definitely destined for the Premier League or another top European league, a French centre-back who

Speaker 3 was at Brentford's, who's just a kind of physical colossus, but also very good on the ball and a goal threat too.

Speaker 3 But they've also kind of recruited a different profile, I guess, of attacking player. You know, Balloon and Aziz on the flanks have both been really, really good.

Speaker 3 Ivanovich, who's a young striker, just 20 years old, but played a lot of minutes, scored a lot of goals last season, and is now fit in firing.

Speaker 3 It just feels like a total shift in terms of the way that they go about, you know, there's probably a perception of the way that Millwall should play. And Alex Neal hasn't bought into that at all.

Speaker 3 And they, you know, they've kept hold of that very solid spine and solid unit whilst adding some attacking flair and they are very good you know sometimes at this stage of the season you look at teams that are maybe towards the top end of the table who you go like yeah they've had a great start to the season but they're probably going to fall away and there are a couple of those maybe now but in millwall i think it would be complacent to assume that they aren't in especially in this iteration of the championship where it feels so much more open because some of the teams we expect to be too good just aren't um it opens the door for teams like millwall or bristle city or preston Preston, where if they do have that season that can catapult them, which previously would have been to the top six or seven, maybe this is the season where, given the lack of quality from the Parachute Payment teams, this is where they could even go further than that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, we'll go on to those relegated titles in just a second. But Sandy, if you were to pick out any other top eight who you think could last the course.

Speaker 6 Well, do you know what? I messaged John C. Sargent, a friend who's

Speaker 6 the match presenter at Stoke City. And I just asked him a question like, are Are Stoke actually any good? Because

Speaker 6 the fifth and they've beaten quite a few teams below them. He sent me a six-minute voice note, which I'll try and

Speaker 6 condense.

Speaker 3 That's not too long.

Speaker 5 I'm going to say

Speaker 5 from the Stoke stadium announcer, six minutes is too long of a voice note. I'm going like 1.30, and I'm going, I'm knocking it on the head there.
But tell me what it said, Sam. You can edit it down.

Speaker 5 That would be really useful.

Speaker 6 Yeah, so yeah, they've beaten quite a few teams below them. And the thing is, I guess

Speaker 6 they've been a kind of a victim of the FFP kind of situation, right? There's only so much money to be able to invest and they've invested it quite poorly.

Speaker 6 But if you've got Mark Robbins in, and then you remember, as we mentioned with Coventry, just how good a job, how good a manager he is.

Speaker 6 And he seems to have got quite a lot of buy-in from this set of players. I mean, they're not...

Speaker 6 What he's also, because I was at the Stoke Norwich game a couple of weeks ago. And if there is such a thing as Stoke DNA, he seems to have tapped into it.

Speaker 6 So you've got dedicated long throw takers for each side of the pitch. So you already get all the fans on side.

Speaker 6 The players they've got can be quite inconsistent, but at the moment they seem to be doing okay.

Speaker 6 Million Manhoff's one, who a couple of weeks ago, like stormed off when he was subbed off and upset everyone. And then there was all this pressure on him.
Can he do well? And he actually just did.

Speaker 6 And then he got everyone back on side again. So they've got someone Mercurial like that who's kind of blows a bit hot and cold.
Bai Jin Ho as well.

Speaker 6 It's kind of a bit of a mix, but because they've got someone someone like Robbins in, and because the league is so samey, and you've got Victor Johansson at the back as a goalkeeper, is one of the best in the division.

Speaker 6 I still don't quite fancy them. But then logic and everything else I've just found out, thanks to John C.
as well, as the six-minute audio book, have made me think, yeah, do you know what?

Speaker 6 They might be able to stay the course after all. So that's one of the teams that has a surprise there.
Preston similar. But the point is, there are so many teams not doing well that...

Speaker 6 um someone like stoke who then have that infrastructure have that backing have that money in the future if if they were to go into the Premier League, could do quite well.

Speaker 6 So, yeah, surprisingly, Stoke City might just last the course somehow.

Speaker 5 Ben, Leicester, a 10th, Ipswich a 12th, and Southampton a 20th. I mean, that's quite a lot to deconstruct, I guess, but it is odd that none of the sides that have gone down are firing.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I mean, particularly, Southampton struggling two league wins out of 12. Um, I saw them last week, and there was, you know, some really good stuff, but

Speaker 7 they are struggling to get results under Will Steele, who obviously came in with much excitement and a really good reputation for the work he'd done in Belgium and France.

Speaker 7 It's a strange one because Salampson, you know, let's be honest, they've been in this sort of period of gloom for a little while.

Speaker 7 It's not a new thing for the beginning of this season, but clearly we expected more.

Speaker 7 And I think, you know, they signed probably two of the best players in the championship last season in Tom Fellows and Finn Azaz from West Brom in Middlesbrough, respectively.

Speaker 7 So you're thinking, okay, that's a... you know, sort of a cheat code maybe to just reinforcing

Speaker 7 everything else that you've already got in the team. Shea Charles coming back from a loan at Sheffield Wednesday, but it's just not quite happening for them.

Speaker 7 They're struggling to score as many goals as they would like. Cameron Archer's struggling up front.
Adam Armstrong's a bit hit and miss.

Speaker 7 I don't think he maybe knows we'll steal the best team yet, which is

Speaker 7 always a bit of a worrying thing at this sign at this stage. As you say, they're not the only ones.

Speaker 7 Leicester started quite well and we had that kind of reassuring centre-half partnership of Walt Fass in Yannick Vestergaard once again in the championship, but just feels a little bit stale to me there.

Speaker 7 I think maybe the solution there is trying. I mean, they are starting Jeremy Munger, the 16-year-old who's just insanely good, insanely talented.

Speaker 7 And they've had some other Academy players in the first team, Louis Page.

Speaker 7 I don't know. Maybe they just need to kind of just...
shift it again in terms of refreshing it a little bit. I mean they've tried, they have brought in new players, Jordan James, Ham Ramsey on loan.

Speaker 7 But yeah, as you say, it's not quite happening. Ipswich,

Speaker 7 I think, again, you know, with Kieran McKenney, you kind of thought, okay, this is all going to be fine, it's all going to work out. And I think it may still well do.

Speaker 7 I'd probably be less worried about them than Southampton and Leicester at the moment because the other Southampton Leicester just feels something's not quite right.

Speaker 6 Just on Leicester, I was at the game against Wrexham where they had a load of chances and didn't quite manage to finish it. And Marty Sefuente said they were a bit arrogant, actually.

Speaker 6 That's kind of one word for it. But I mean, the biggest issue they've got, and it's insane that they just didn't manage to do this, was they just haven't replaced Jamie Vardy at all.

Speaker 6 There's just no real talisman up there. I mean, you've got Patson Daker was starting games and is just not that sort of player.
You know, he's a bit streaky as well.

Speaker 6 He's not really got that physical presence.

Speaker 6 Yeah, you take Jordan James and Aaron Ramsey, both lone players out the side, and then you're kind of relying on Fatawu and Mavadidi to put crosses in and maybe a trundling Ayu to kind of do something with it.

Speaker 6 It's quite amazing that they're in this situation where recruitment has been so like short-sighted or just not kind of holistic that they're in this position.

Speaker 6 But then that's again, one of the things the fans will point to and say, well, you know, we've been talking about the ownership kind of letting things slide for quite a while.

Speaker 6 But they have got all that money. They have got that parachute money in the future, you know, similar to the other clubs we mentioned as well.
So you can still turn it around.

Speaker 6 But again, it feels quite simple. It feels quite simple to go and do that and try and, you know, have something a bit more

Speaker 6 like solid going forward, like some options. And they just haven't done it.
And it's quite remarkable they're in that situation.

Speaker 5 Trondling IO sounds like the worst of the three brothers.

Speaker 3 Sorry, George.

Speaker 3 Well, it's just funny with Lester Howe, you know, and it's not funny for her fans, but you'd almost assume it's a different owner because last time they came down from the Premier League to the championship, you know,

Speaker 3 the spend on likes of Cody and Winks was massive. They went out and got Maresca.

Speaker 3 And obviously the issue is that has left them in financial difficulty and has meaned that we're still waiting to find out what the points deduction is going to be assuming there is going to be one this season but you know we're waiting to find out what that's going to be they didn't basically sign any players all summer until right at the end of the um of the window they hired my martisifuentes who did an amazing job at qpr but is a very very different profile of manager to enzo maresca like it was almost as if they did they they they got the blueprint right two years ago And obviously circumstances, you know, meant they couldn't go and do exactly that again.

Speaker 3 But I'm surprised how there was no

Speaker 3 attempt to kind of repeat the trick at all in terms of playing style and the profile of the player they've recruited.

Speaker 3 But as Ben says, you know, in particular in Mongo, and also, you know, Fatara is another one because he's paid for a couple of seasons. He's still incredibly young.

Speaker 3 You know, they've got two wide players there who are destined for big things.

Speaker 5 All right, that'll do for part one. Part two, we'll cover the rest of the championship.

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Speaker 5 Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Speaker 5 Can we touch on Birmingham City and Wrexham for a second, Ben? Because there was so much expectation

Speaker 5 around these clubs. And neither of them are...
I mean, there are a few people saying they will just go, you know, bounce straight up again.

Speaker 5 Are you surprised at how they're getting on?

Speaker 7 I mean, Birmingham made quite a good start and it's kind of fizzled out a little bit. I saw them on Saturday.
I thought there were some good things.

Speaker 7 There was I don't know, maybe a tendency to overplay. That that is kind of the style that they came up with, obviously, and it and it worked absolutely in League One.

Speaker 7 They have signed again so many new players, so it's been like a kind of total reset really, that it's not not loads and loads of players from last season.

Speaker 7 And I think they do want to kick on, but I don't know. I think have I been surprised? I think they're probably where we expected.

Speaker 7 I maybe expected them to be a little bit better, but I think you know, it's it's just not that straightforward to to come up and kind of blow the league away

Speaker 7 as you know other teams have found. Wrexham I think are probably they were probably a weaker squad.
I did really like their summer recruitment.

Speaker 7 I mean you people will argue it was kind of a bit old-fashioned maybe or whatever obviously getting Kiefer Moore in and I really like Lewis O'Brien who was at Swansea.

Speaker 7 Cody's not really worked but obviously Danny Ward is now injured for several months. But I quite like that.
I thought that kind of made sense, especially with Phil Parkinson in charge.

Speaker 7 but again i don't think they'll be in trouble in terms of going down so i think it's sort of mission accomplished from that perspective if that's the case birmingham i think are so ambitious it's just trying to sort of constrain that and maybe just rein that in probably just tom wagner himself is just so desperate to to mix it with with aston villa um in the premier league that but it doesn't have to happen this season so I think yeah, there's plenty of good stuff there.

Speaker 7 They have had a little wobble by sort of their standards, I suppose, but I think that's what happens when you get 111 points in League One.

Speaker 5 Birmingham 15th, Wrexham 16th. I guess, George, with Wrexham,

Speaker 5 how many seasons can you finish in mid-table before a documentary gets boring?

Speaker 3 They'll find a way, I'm sure. Yeah, I mean, one, I think, is okay.
I was at Wrexham on Wednesday night, beating my team Oxford 1-0 in their first home win of the season.

Speaker 3 And their home form has been so important to the way that they've progressed up the leagues that you could kind of very much feel the relief when the final whistle went. And they were pretty good.

Speaker 3 Like I was really unimpressed with them early in the season. It felt like they recruited in a very weird way for the style of play that they were trying to play.

Speaker 3 You know, they were playing a really high line, which wasn't really the way they've had success in the past and isn't really the way that Phil Parkinson's had success in the past with really slow defenders.

Speaker 3 And teams were finding it incredibly easy to beat them on the turn and get him behind. What we saw, what I saw on

Speaker 3 Wednesday night was much more the blueprint where they went ahead and then they sat deeper, especially when they went down to to 10 men and they just headed everything away and they were a real three under counterattack and they had by far the best chances of the game, even 11v10 in the second half.

Speaker 3 So, you know,

Speaker 3 I kind of think any expectations that they were going to be one of the best teams in the league this season

Speaker 3 weren't particularly well researched. Just because, you know, they're a team who got 79 points than they were last season.
Yes, they've recruited well, but it's it's a massive gap.

Speaker 3 And, you know, I think for this season for them to just consolidate would be a season well done.

Speaker 3 And I think, you know, I would say in the first three or four or five games of the season, there were definitely alarm bells ringing. They might be one of the poorest teams in the league.

Speaker 3 And those fears are kind of being allayed now.

Speaker 3 But we're in that kind of funny part of the season now where, because we've seen enough games now, we kind of assume that everyone's settling into where they're going to end up being for the whole season.

Speaker 3 And that's just not the case. You know, teams who are currently 17th, 18th can still easily mount the top six.
Challengers teams are in the top six can easily still get into relegation battle.

Speaker 3 Like it's still so early on. And with both Reacts and Birmingham, you know, I guess anything is still possible.

Speaker 5 So, at the bottom, Chevy Wednesday have minus six points, Norwich have eight, Chevy United nine, Blackburn 10.

Speaker 5 Before we go into those other three sides, Chevy Wednesday, Ben might what might have more points deduction?

Speaker 7 Yes, so they for the non-payment of wages in March and May, uh, that's there's a hearing, there's a date set for that, which point another points deduction is likely, and then for more recent uh this season's uh late payment, so that's relating to June, July, and September breaches.

Speaker 7 That is also likely to end in more points. Clearly, given where they're at, I think, what, 16, 17 points off safety, I don't think anybody is expecting them to stay up.

Speaker 7 So really, it's probably not going to change too much. But

Speaker 7 if anything, it's just another indictment of quite how badly Chanceri ran Sheffield Wednesday and you know, during his certainly the

Speaker 7 latter part of his 10-year brain.

Speaker 5 We had so many questions about Norwich City, Sanny. Five defeats in a row now for Liam Manning, manning who did such a great job at bristol city

Speaker 6 is this are we just waiting for the inevitable there well the last time we talked about the manager of norwich city i suggested johannes hoftorup might be on his way out george wasn't pleased with that and he was sacked i think just as producer joel press published so here we are again uh windless and eight yeah i i do kind of feel the fact that he's a local local boy is the i think the one final thing that's giving him that period of grace and he's quite close with the head of recruitment, Ben Knapper, and a lot of those players that they brought in that haven't really kicked on at all.

Speaker 6 The home form in particular is absolutely atrocious.

Speaker 6 And it's amazing how they're still just an over-reliant on Josh Sargent just to kind of get him out of a out of a hole.

Speaker 6 You know, you play on the shoulder to try and get a ball over to him and make something happen. And you can nullify that.
Yeah, it's just really quite depressing because...

Speaker 6 Last season, under different management, of course, they were kind of here, there and everywhere because they'd score like five goals at home and be like, you know, all over the place, and it's brilliant.

Speaker 6 And then just they couldn't keep it together. So, but you knew there were players with ability then.

Speaker 6 Now, some of those have moved on, and a lot have come in, and none of those have really kind of come together at all. So, like,

Speaker 6 yeah, it's uh, it's very worrying. I thought that after the Bristol City game, which of course Liam Manning's old team, that might be the final straw, and he's lost the next two after that.

Speaker 6 So, given all that, I'm pretty worried about where they're up to. They need to do something at home.
They've got a whole city on the weekend.

Speaker 6 If that doesn't go well, then they're in real dire straits. And after that, be away to Sheffield Wednesday, a resurgent Wednesday with the fans in the stands, kind of the opposite of Norwich.

Speaker 6 And that, I think, would be the end for him, which would be a real shame because, I mean, Manning, he overperformed at Bristol City, I think we could say that.

Speaker 6 This all kind of matched as far as his connection to the club, but it hasn't worked at all.

Speaker 3 There are reports that the American owner is on his way to Norfolk to meet Ben Nappa and Liam Manning, but with his full support.

Speaker 3 Now, I know that obviously the old dreaded voter confidence comes in here and whether or not that's true, we'll see.

Speaker 3 But I think some of the frustration, well, a lot of the frustration from the fan base isn't just at Manning. It is at Nappa, the director of football who obviously sacked Yanis Hofthorup last season.

Speaker 3 which I would say it hasn't aged overly well, given what's happened since, who appointed Manning, he was very much the, you know, identified Manning early on in the summer and got his man.

Speaker 3 The transfer recruitment has been kind of left field and at the moment the kind of time of the purchase going through has been celebrated for the most part but the players don't look anywhere near up to it and also frustration with the owners for a kind of a lack of urgency frustration with um some stadium issues as well um

Speaker 3 it's a club that is you know or a fan base at least that's that's basically that has grievances with every single aspect of the club and maybe that's why a little bit of the heat because often when it's an underperforming team it's a fan base who are united and vociferous a match day against the manager whereas with Norwich City fans, they're unanimous and vociferous against basically everyone in charge of any aspect of the football club right now.

Speaker 3 And one of the reasons why I think possibly Manning is maybe safer than it would seem and possibly safer than, well, definitely safer than Norwich fans would like is because he is so wedded to Nappa, where

Speaker 3 if Ben Nappa were to sack him, it would be a massive admission of a mistake that might see him lose his own job too. So

Speaker 3 it's a bit of a mess there right now. I watched their game against Derby on Tuesday night and in the first half, they were really good.

Speaker 3 Like they were by far the better team, just couldn't find a way to score the goal. Then the second half, Derby were the better team and find a way to win it.

Speaker 3 They lost 2-1 on Saturday in a really marginal game, one by two brilliant strikes from Xander Potnik.

Speaker 3 They're a combination of bad and luckless at the moment where you know when they're bad they lose they lost five games in a row at home in games where it's relatively tight and in the spells of the games where they're on top they can't find a way just to get the ball in the back of the net and make a count and normally when you have that combination of factors it ends up with a manager losing their job 25 million pounds is what they spent in the championship that's that's quite a lot of money uh this guard and i think just under seven million pound best performer has been javon mcama from lincoln city so yeah it's not worked whatsoever yeah i wonder what that owner's going to say when he comes over no he's got to find an airfield in norfolk which is clearly impossible first isn't it so you know good luck to just kidding my East Anglian compatriots.

Speaker 5 Quick one on Sheffield United's, Ben. 22nd.
Not where I expected them to be.

Speaker 7 No, Chris Wilder's obviously gone back in, obviously, start under Ruben Sayers, was disastrous. Yeah, and it's not quite happened for Wilder.

Speaker 7 I wouldn't be too concerned. I just think they have too good a squad, but clearly, they've leaving themselves a lot to do.

Speaker 7 It's, you know, as Sandy said earlier, it is still early days, but been very hit and miss so far. But I think they'll be be okay and get away from trouble.

Speaker 6 He's got a good beard on the go, by the way, Chris Wildo. He started getting this grey little beard.
Yeah, yeah, it looks quite cool, actually. You know, gives him an extra edge.

Speaker 3 He is cool. He looks quite cool.

Speaker 5 Generally, they hit and miss when they've lost nine out of 12, Ben. That's a sort of miss and miss, is what it sounds like.
But you know,

Speaker 5 they have turned up a bit more since Wilder left. Anyway, look, do you want to do 20 seconds on Oxford, George? Your beloved Oxford?

Speaker 3 Yeah, why not? A good week for us. Six points from three games, albeit a disappointing display against Wrexham.

Speaker 3 Managed to go to Sheffield Wednesday and kind of spoil the party, albeit Wednesday were phenomenal in the second half. 2-0 down at half-time at Wednesday were.

Speaker 3 Got one back early in the second half, and it was wave after wave of pressure, but couldn't find a way to score the equaliser.

Speaker 3 So, no, Gary Rowatt's doing Gary Rowitt things, as is always the case when he's at a club and doing quite well.

Speaker 3 There is a part of the fan base who don't really like it because the football isn't necessarily what they want to go and watch every week. I think that's harsh.

Speaker 3 I think in games this season, certainly the Bristol City away game, which Ben might have seen, Oxford were very, very good in that game and really took the game to a side who won the best in the championship this season.

Speaker 3 And in the one they're winning against Derby, a game they could have finished kind of three or four-I often think the perception of managers can end up being their undoing because if they're seen as being a dinosaur who plays dinosaur football, that's what fans see, even when it's not necessarily the case.

Speaker 3 And I think with Oxford now, when they're bad, it's bad. But when they're good, it's not just back to the wall, you know, parking the bus and hoping to grind out a win.

Speaker 5 Okay, just before we end part two, Ben, you wanted to mention some sad news regarding Bristol City?

Speaker 7 Yeah, really sad news. Sadly, former player, Marvin Brown, has died aged 42.
He remains the club's youngest player when he played for the club age 16,

Speaker 7 played and coached at the City Academy, worked with the under-18s, including Antoine Semenyo, Tommy Conway, Sam Bell, numerous other players.

Speaker 7 And there is a charity match a week on Sunday at Bath City's Twerton Park raising money for Marvin's family, his wife, and two children. Yeah, just extremely sad news.

Speaker 7 So, yeah, our thoughts with Marvin's family and the wider

Speaker 7 team, Team Marvin Brown.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 Well said. Yeah, he passed away of a very rare form of cancer.
But just giving that fundraiser that you mentioned has raised more than £63,000 in donations as well.

Speaker 5 But check it out if you have a few spare pennies. That'll do for part two.
We'll cover League One and League Two in part three.

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Speaker 5 Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. With apologies to League One and League Two fans, of which I am one.
We don't have a huge amount of time. It's Brendan Rogers' fault.

Speaker 5 In League One, we have new leaders.

Speaker 5 Stockport County, two points clear of Cardiff, Stevenage, and Bradford with AFC Wimbledon and Lincoln City making up the playoff places and Bolton Wanderers just a point behind.

Speaker 5 At the bottom, Peterborough bottom, Blackpool second bottom, Plymouth, Port Vale, Burton and Reading making up the bottom six.

Speaker 5 George, if you were to pick out some interesting stories from League One, where would you go?

Speaker 3 I think Stockpool have to be the story. They were brilliant on Monday night beating Port Vale 3-0, a game where they scored all three goals in the first half an hour or so.

Speaker 3 It's funny, it's followed a very similar pattern to happen in League Two, where in League Two, Dave Channel and and Stockport lost in the playoffs, started the next season looking really flat and like they had a bit of a hangover from the playoffs.

Speaker 3 And then kind of in September, early October time, turned the screw and ended up winning the league.

Speaker 3 This time around, Stockport County were beaten in the playoffs, started the season looking really poor. They picked up better results.

Speaker 3 They did in League Two, but any Stockport fan would tell you they weren't looking very good. And suddenly in September and October, they're turning it around.
They're now sit top of League One.

Speaker 3 Like patterns in football are sometimes quite strange.

Speaker 3 And it feels like for whatever reason, they're a side who have a struggle to play well off the back of disappointment, but then use that to fuel them.

Speaker 3 And right now, they look like, you know, I'd say with Cardiff and certainly Bolton, who are one to look out for, who are down in seventh, but have an amazing player in Amario Cozier Dubry, who came through at Arsenal and was kind of seen for a time as being like a possible, you know, Saka Wanieri, one of these Arsenal kids, who's going to come through and play for the first team.

Speaker 3 But he made the decision to move to Brighton.

Speaker 3 He had a really disappointing loan last season at Blackburn where he really failed to make an impact to championship level, which was a surprise given how highly rated he is.

Speaker 3 But often the first loans are difficult. He's now dropped down to league one and he's just way too good.

Speaker 3 In the space of just over a week, he scored two 94th minute winners. The first coming against Huddersfield, where Blackburn scored twice in injury time and he scored the second of those.

Speaker 3 And then against Cardiff, the team who were top of the league, a nil-nil game.

Speaker 3 There hadn't been a single shot on target all game and the ball falls to him 25 yards out and he scores a left-footed unbelievable strike into the top left-hand corner.

Speaker 7 So Stockport, certainly the team who deserved to be topped now, but I would say Bolton and Cozy Adubury under shoey um maybe the dark horses and the ones that i would you know i'd see those two in cardiff as probably being the three class teams in the league jack wilshire got his first win as luton manager one dilawette in northampton what have you made of of his decision ben and and uh and how he's getting on so far sort of exciting i suppose i really like luton um as a club uh i think lots of really good people there sort of sensible thinking people nice to see him given opportunity obviously had those couple of games at norwich he's obviously had a great education in the game worked under so many you know amazing amazing managers.

Speaker 7 And obviously that first win, I was surprised, I think they lost to Mansfield in his opening game.

Speaker 7 And so often when you see that, you know, new manager come in, we do see that, you know, just get a result. But obviously, he didn't have that kind of dream start.
So now he's up and running.

Speaker 7 And just in that game, I was reading that Cameron McGeean for the Northampton for the opposition. He played through the pain barrier.

Speaker 7 He broke his ribs at the start of the month and wasn't due to play. And then Dean Campbell went down in the warm-up.
So he said, I'll step in. And he played the full 90 minutes.

Speaker 7 So it made me think, what would I do? You know, sort of pain-wise to carry on. I don't think I've got the same levels of

Speaker 7 resilience as him.

Speaker 5 I used to play for us. Good player.
I mean, if anyone who has broken your ribs, their ribs, that's when you really notice how often you breathe because it hurts every time you breathe in.

Speaker 5 And you breathe all the time. And if you're playing football, unless he just stood motionless like Jan Mulby, he'd have been breathing quite heavily.
So fair play. Fair play to him.

Speaker 5 Barry says, who do the panel think would be the best fit for the Peterborough job for six months before they reappoint Darren Ferguson next summer? Yes.

Speaker 5 So, Darren McCantany sacked Darren Ferguson and sort of sent him a love letter in a statement. It was not like the Celtic statement.
I think that's fair to say.

Speaker 5 So, Peterborough have sacked him. They are bottom.
It seems a surprise to me, Sandy, because they're all sort of in and around the playoff places.

Speaker 5 But everyone's saying this season, this is sort of not surprising that they're there.

Speaker 6 Yeah, well, they moved on most of the best players, even

Speaker 6 Ricky J. Jones, who again, like

Speaker 6 it's a bit inconsistent. I think he's off to the Bundesliga if he's not already gone.

Speaker 6 Yeah, like Kwame Poku, like they've had a stream essentially of recruiting really good players, or really players with potential from lower down the league.

Speaker 6 And Darren Ferguson's turned them around, polished them up, and they've gone on to do really well. And

Speaker 6 it's finally kind of come a bit unstuck as far as who they then got in to replace them. So it's it's it's a bit unfortunate.
I don't know. Like

Speaker 3 the answer, but

Speaker 3 I can't.

Speaker 3 that.

Speaker 5 He's Donnie, isn't he? I was thinking normally it's just they just interchange.

Speaker 3 They're on a bad run. You never know.
Oh, wow.

Speaker 6 So that would be an easy one. Knows the club, knows the area.
Maybe probably still has a house there. Who knows?

Speaker 6 It's funny. We started this pod talking about Celtic, and you couldn't get two more opposing statements from two of the directors.

Speaker 6 That one for Ferguson talking about is part of the family, and he's always welcome. He's always greatest of all time.

Speaker 6 But yeah, recruitment essentially has not been great to replace players they've moved on. And all in all, it's not come together whatsoever.

Speaker 6 And I guess that's kind of inevitable when you are a selling club like they've had to be.

Speaker 3 Reports seem to suggest that Luke Williams is the front-runner who would be a very interesting appointment.

Speaker 3 He's not necessarily the profiler of manager that I would be appointing if my club were 24th of 24 with 10 points at this stage of the season.

Speaker 3 He's someone who's achieved incredible success with Knox County in the past. He's a very bright, intelligent guy who we actually posted an interview with him on Not Top 20 a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 3 And, you know, the playing style that he's associated with, it became quite obvious there that, you know, he's kind of seen as being an idealist, but he sees possession of football as being almost pragmatic, where it's a case of, you know, if you have the football, then the opposition can't score.

Speaker 3 But because of that kind of extreme style of football, you know, I think Darren McCancy surely has to make an appointment that understands the predicament that they're in right now and to save them right now and maybe make an appointment like Luke Williams next summer.

Speaker 3 It kind of reminds me a little bit of when Luton sat Rob Edwards last year and the appointment of Matt Bloomfield didn't really seem to understand the situation they were in.

Speaker 3 Like they needed to bring in someone not to take them forward for over the next two or three years, but someone to ensure they were still in that league at the end of the season.

Speaker 3 Who that is, I'm not really sure. You know, they're obviously the likely candidates.

Speaker 3 You know, Matt Bloomfield, who I just mentioned there, seems like one who possibly could go in, although he did in the championship last season, but has had success at a league one level before.

Speaker 3 And what about Steve Evans? The new look, Steve Evans, having worked with Peterborough before, he's second favourite with the Bookies.

Speaker 3 I don't think I can quite see that, but maybe, you know, in terms of the drop at hand, he'd be a better fit.

Speaker 5 Sandy, it's three minutes until you lecture students in. Where are you? In Salford, is that right?

Speaker 6 Yeah, University of Salford. They're actually some of them at the door because these days they come early.

Speaker 5 They're on it.

Speaker 5 Oh, amazing. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 At some point, I'll invite them in the room. They can log in.
That gives a bit more time. Don't worry.
You know, logging in is a good 10 minutes.

Speaker 5 Hopefully, it's not on like timekeeping in broadcasting situations.

Speaker 5 but look you can give your answer on league two and then you can uh you know uh set up your overhead projector or whatever you use these days um no it's still an overhead projector okay good so look walsall have 26 points are a top cambridge have 21 points and they're 13th so it is bunched up in which is always the least predictable league uh i mean i i don't need to read out all the look at the table uh if you want to see who's where but like what's your big take what's your hot take on league two senny uh

Speaker 3 yeah it's quite ludicrous, they're all so close together.

Speaker 6 Well, Walsall's wobbles started early, they're four uh, without win, three defeats in that. You know, Matt Sadler refreshed the side, uh, they've gone again, they're top of the table.

Speaker 6 Remember last season, how they were so far ahead, and it all kind of fell apart. That's a bit of a worry.
Uh, Ian Holloway, again, doing brilliant stuff.

Speaker 6 Aaron Dryland's been fantastic for them, loads of goals. They've had Ollie Palmer come in from Wrexham, who's starting mostly on the bench, but again, like, you know, the sort of impact.

Speaker 6 And MK Dons, you know, we predicted them for the top, and it's taken a while with all the new players to be brought in, but they're coming together. I suppose Salford City, the other surprise.

Speaker 6 So they're currently third. I mean, I'll be at the tables kind of a bit, as you say, all everywhere.
But maybe after all this time, things are finally coming together. But yeah, it could be anyone.

Speaker 3 Really could be anyone.

Speaker 6 So, you know, toss a coin. Toss a few.

Speaker 5 George, your thoughts on Luke Two?

Speaker 3 I really like Barnett, who came up from the National League as champions last year.

Speaker 5 Just signed Brita Sombologa, haven't they? Scored the winner against Cambridge in the EFL Trophy. I was looking at that going, is that like, I just presumed it was his son.

Speaker 5 You know, when you're looking at that, going, I mean, probably his son's probably 11, but you know, you have one of those moments.

Speaker 3 He had a spell at Watford a couple of years ago that scored a few goals. It may have been playing in Turkey recently.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's a funny one with Assombalonga because Barnett's underlying numbers, their XG numbers, are very, very good.

Speaker 3 And it's almost as if they're like, right, who's a free agent who's really good at finishing and does nothing else? Ah, Britain Sombolonga's free. Let's give him a call.

Speaker 3 Whether that works, we'll have to see. But they struggled in the first three or four games of the season,

Speaker 3 which I think is understandable given the probably the change in intensity from the National League to League Two. But now they're kind of settled under Dean Brennan.

Speaker 3 They look a really, really good side. Very, very strong defensively, creating good chances at the other end.

Speaker 3 We'll be frustrated not to have beaten Barrow in the game on Saturday, given they were 2-1 up against 10 men.

Speaker 3 Barrow bought them with a sucker punch when they were dominating. They're 11th at the moment, but

Speaker 3 12th at the moment, but 12th was only five points off top spot.

Speaker 3 And they're they're a team who I think I'd be very, if they carry on playing the way they're playing, I think they have a serious shout of going back to back.

Speaker 7 I just think we should flag Tom Lockyer's comeback for Bristol Rovers. I think he said 679 days after, you know, his heart essentially stopped working on the pitch at Bournemouth for Luton.

Speaker 7 And he made a comeback for Bristol Rovers on Saturday, albeit in a bad game for them. But what a story to see Tom back on the pitch in sort of any, you know, frankly, any capacity to get back.

Speaker 7 He said, you know, he will cherish every minute now, rightly so. So, yeah, great, great for him.

Speaker 7 And a great story going back to Bristol Rovers, where his sort of first club, who he joined at 16, Rovers have struggled actually. They've conceded, I think, 14 goals in the last four games.

Speaker 7 They do need a bit of defensive solidity. I'm sure Tom Lock here will bring that.
And just sort of continuing a bit of a West Country theme, I suppose, Steve Cottrell at Cheltenham.

Speaker 7 Talking to managers going back and Darren Ferguson, we've seen it a bit. Chris Wilder.

Speaker 7 Steve Cottrell's gone back to Cheltenham where, you know,

Speaker 7 he was a hero and he's really done brilliantly, picked up several wins. I think the most recent one against Walsall, who obviously topped.
So, yeah, great, great start for Steve Cottrell.

Speaker 5 Yeah, three in the last four for Cheltenham. So at the bottom, normally there's two teams that are just adrift.

Speaker 5 I don't know if I can talk to you now, Sanny, or if you'll feel the pressure of the students, or you'll just turn and go. Just call me Sanny.

Speaker 5 Look, Newport have 11 points, Crawley 12, Accrington 12, Shrewsbury 13, Cheltenham, as you mentioned, 14, Harrigger, 14. That is tight down there.
Yeah,

Speaker 6 and Cheltenham with Steve Cottrell coming in, just emphasises just how easy it is to turn things around. Yeah,

Speaker 6 I kind of think Crawley's the kind of the one where we had that investment and then, you know, things went here, there, and everywhere, and they went up, and then now they're down at the bottom.

Speaker 6 And Accrington are kind of Accrington are always having to do this, right? They're always having to pick up lower league players and casts offs from here, there and everywhere.

Speaker 6 It's hard to kind of tell. Not quite feeling the pressure of all these students kind of milling around.
A few of them are like just having a catch up.

Speaker 5 They're saying, who got off with who last night at the Freshers Fair or whatever.

Speaker 5 Okay, cheers, Sanny.

Speaker 6 Bugger off. All right, cheers, guys.

Speaker 5 Final word to George then

Speaker 5 on the bottom of League Two, and then we can all go home.

Speaker 3 It's just very tight. There was an assumption that Newport County were going to be the worst team in the league pre-season, and early results have kind of supported that.

Speaker 3 But their defeats, they've lost nine games this season. I think seven of them have been by a solitary goal.
And they went to Harrogate last weekend when the pressure was on and beat them 3-0.

Speaker 3 So I wouldn't quite write them off yet. And it is a bunch down there.
And there are a couple of teams higher up the table. You know, Bristol Rovers have lost four games.

Speaker 3 So they've lost three games, 4-0 in a row. And that is a worrying downward trend.
Obviously, in terms of their budget, and Darryl Clark is a manager who's had immense success, I'm a huge fan of.

Speaker 3 He's also overseen huge kind of spirals in his time as a manager, too, at Bristol Rovers and at Port Vale.

Speaker 3 And they need to arrest that slide pretty quickly because there is a precedent for teams coming down from League One, going straight back down from League Two International League.

Speaker 3 We've had two in the last two seasons. So I'd be a little bit concerned about them as it stands at the moment.

Speaker 3 But there seemed, you know, a couple of weeks ago, it felt like Newport and Chutlin were already being relegated by some people. I think it's going to be much more open than that.

Speaker 3 And anyone from kind of 15th downwards at the moment is

Speaker 3 certainly looking in danger and needs to improve.

Speaker 5 All right. That'll do it for today.
Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Ben.
Cheers, Max. Thanks, George.
Cheers, Max. Sorry for calling you a fraud in the intro.
I didn't

Speaker 3 mean it. It's okay.
I've been called worse. It's all right.

Speaker 5 Yeah, no, that's true. Me too.
And I wonder if I can say thank you, Sanny. He's just, it's interesting.
He's just marching up and down the corridor.

Speaker 3 He's turned his camera around to look at you. He's my intent.

Speaker 5 To see the students. It's good.
It was. There he is.

Speaker 5 He's put his headphones back in. Thank you, Sanny.

Speaker 6 Thank you. All right, that's all we needed.

Speaker 3 Just to spot to hear that.

Speaker 5 And Football Weekly is produced by Doel Grove, our executive producer. It's Danielle Stevens.
We'll be back on Thursday.

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