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Football Weekly
Arsenal turn another corner in title race and Spurs lack ‘everything’: Football Weekly
00:59:21
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Barney Ronay as Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 at the Emirates to maintain their lead over Manchester City
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- [00:00]
A
This is the Guardian.
- [00:10]
B
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [00:18]
C
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [00:22]
B
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
- [00:31]
C
That's right.
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D
Hey Hei.
- [00:32]
C
So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [00:36]
B
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [00:43]
C
News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:56]
E
Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. Arsenal edge past Chelsea at the Emirates. It had lots of things you'd expect. Goals from corners, lots of holding a Chelsea red card and Robert Sanchez flapping about. Chelsea almost equalised, but it's as you were after Man City's win at Leeds on Saturday. A great chance to repeat how good Semeno and Marc Gaye have been. Also today, why did you fall in love with football, son? Well, it was that time they zoomed closer and closer onto the left arm of Ashley Barnes. A great game at Turf Moor. Burnley coming from three down, but losing at the end of the. Won't someone think of Scott Parker? Liverpool hit five at home to West Ham. Jordan Pickford makes an unbelievable save for Everton as one goes in off Barry's backside, didn't it, Barry? Igor Tudor says Spurs lacked everything, which is quite a lot of things. Relief for them then, that Forest also lost. Manchester United go third with victory over palace, while Wolves win their second game of the season. Also, Celtic come back right at the end of the old firm. There's a lopsided Champions League draw to digest. We'll discuss the implications of Iran potentially not playing in the World Cup. And as the latest in the series of Barney's Celebrity Vaping, we'll answer your questions. And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today, Barry Glendenning. Welcome.
- [02:00]
F
Hi.
- [02:00]
E
I know you just want to go straight to Barney's Celebrity Vaping. We'll do the pod first. Barney, welcome.
- [02:06]
A
Yeah. Hi, Max. Hi, Barney. Still not sure I'm really comfortable with this.
- [02:11]
E
With what? Being in a studio, being in the same room together.
- [02:14]
A
I normally like to have some kind of Screen or large. Normally you're. You've been sort of bounced around the world.
- [02:21]
F
Yeah.
- [02:22]
A
Your banter and your face have been bounced around the world.
- [02:24]
E
Is it too much when it's this close?
- [02:26]
A
It's a bit much. It's a bit too real.
- [02:27]
E
But I'm going to tone it down.
- [02:30]
A
Yeah. Maybe you could just talk with a slight delay.
- [02:34]
E
I'll see what I can do. Exactly right, I agree. Let's start at the emirates, then. Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1. Barney, you were there and you were just saying he went on a journey.
- [02:47]
A
It was a journey, Max. It was. Well, it had to be something. So it became a journey.
- [02:51]
E
Okay.
- [02:51]
A
I mean, it was. It was one of those really dense games of football where you don't really know what you're watching. It's always. It's always really dangerous to kind of prejudge these games. Often Premier League games are like, of this nature, are very tight at the start. But it was really tempting to think this is what we've created. You know, we spent billions in, we've raided other leagues, we've relentlessly trumpeted this thing, and here are the world champions and the best team in the world currently. And there was just. It was like watching some robots stack a shelf. It wasn't like there wasn't any invention or creativity that wasn't in the plan, that wasn't supposed to be there. It was people running patterns. But. And so I was going to give some negative take on it, like, but as the game went on, I. I sort of realized that I was really enjoying it and that I actually like this. It does feel like high stakes sport. It feels like everyone there is incredibly invested in it. I realize I actually do really like the obsessiveness of Mikel Arteta. I always think that the greatest danger to sport is it not mattering. I've always thought of Chelsea, you know, when they had people brushing their teeth behind the dugout because they're advertising a film, when they're signing players that aren't ready for a team, it's because it's a clearinghouse, it's a hedge fund ball that's going to kill sport. But this didn't feel like that. It felt like something that everybody involved. Pedro Neto getting sent off because he cannot stop himself from doing something. It's really good. And it felt epic to me. And I realized that even though there will be a temptation to say it's like not a great title race or Arsenal or a boring team, because they're not providing you with moments and clips and reels and numbers. It's actually a brilliant title race. Like, if someone were to tell you what's going to happen now, you put your hands over you, I don't want to know because I wouldn't see what happens, because it's like this referendum on this thing are these people that the stakes feel really high and obviously the stakes aren't really high. It doesn't really make any difference, you come first or second. But it feels like there's a massive emotional arc to it and I want to know what happens and if it goes to the end, I think we might say it's been a great title race.
- [05:01]
E
Barry, have you been on that journey?
- [05:03]
F
Not an identical one. I think it does matter to the fans of both teams who finishes first and second. I think it matters a great deal. To Arsenal fans.
- [05:12]
A
No, but that's my exact point. Like, financially it doesn't matter, but to the people involved, it massively matters. And that's. We often take that for granted, I think. Yeah.
- [05:23]
F
In terms of the game, I thought it was all right, but I don't think any team was anywhere near their best. There's obviously been a huge amount of focus on the. The grappling and the wrestling and the pulling and the dragging and corners, which is kind of tedious, kind of funny. The grappling and the pulling and dragging is tedious and the talk about it is tedious. I'm now adding to that discourse. I suppose it was a handy fix for people who were jonesing for their rugby in this break during the Six Nations. I think the only real difference between the two teams were the goalkeepers. David Ray was brilliant. And Robert Sanchez had one of his Robert Sanchez games, the kind we thought he'd sort of put behind him. But I think he was the main difference. He didn't have a good game. And Arsenal's goalkeeper was outstanding.
- [06:22]
E
You are an Arsenal fan, Philippe. Actually, that moment at the end, the one that. That one. You see that ball go in a lot, don't you? Because he's got a weight rare before he pushes around the post.
- [06:30]
D
Yeah. And I thought it was going in to be absolutely. I think everybody. It's funny because my experience of it was completely different because I was experiencing one of those weird dissociations. One of them was I had a professional interest in the game, obviously, and the other, I was consumed by fear, which I think most people were in the ground. I mean, I think that this Arsenal team is about a mixture of fearlessness and fear and terror. Both of them put together and mixed in a kind of Arteta cauldron. And he's actually the chief fear monger when you look at him. He's more than tension, it's not panic, it's a kind of oh my God, oh my God. And I think I was thinking, oh my God, oh my God. For most of the second half where I thought Chelsea were actually better and they were indeed better after Pedro Neto was sent off. And that's an incredible stat is that after the red card, Arsenal completed 55 passes to Chelsea's 114.
- [07:32]
F
Wow.
- [07:32]
D
Gives you an idea of how the fear had actually seeped into the system of Arsenal players with actually quite a few of them performing well below par. And you wonder, is it just the fact that they're drained physically? Some of them have been playing non stop since the beginning of the season. You wonder if it is the fear factor again. I'm thinking of Zubimendi in particular, who's been phenomenal for, I say, five, five months of the season and now seems to, well, panic as well. Hence his back pass to, to Raya, which very much, you know, could have resulted in the Chelsea goal. So it was a weird one. The arc was one of concern to start with because Arsenal did what they do when they have a bad game. So they start really slowly passing the ball sideways and going into fear. And at the end watching from behind the sofa and thanking. Thanking. I don't know, David Rya, I think I was going to say God, but no David Rya for doing what he did.
- [08:35]
E
I think they're interchangeable.
- [08:36]
D
Yes. I feel fit like that at the time. Yes.
- [08:39]
E
Alan says his football just corners now. It's incredibly boring. How would you reply to that?
- [08:44]
A
Yeah, first position. Nobody wants to watch that. I mean, when I say that I ended up finding a kind of gripping quality in this. That obviously.
- [08:53]
D
Gripping is the word.
- [08:54]
A
Yeah. I mean there's something, there's something just dreadful about it. I mean it's, it's interesting that the sort of fad for corners and set pieces and long throws has been described because we have, we have to have content has been discussed as though it's some kind of tactical direction or a masterstroke or a function of the man who stands on the edge of the six yard box in a tracksuit, who is a kind of genius set piece coach. If you look at what's actually happening, it's always the same and you're just throwing a ball into the box. Long throw is just someone who can throw the ball a long way. The corners are always the same. You start at the back, you put everyone at the back so people defending who've been taught to defend that area can't see them. They run forward, Gabriel runs around the back. The same thing happens all the time. I think I could earn a lot of money as a set piece coach just by coming and saying, it's Gabriel, just Mark Gabriel. It's always him. It's always him. And the leap for the goal was prodigious. But I feel sad that I have to talk about a prodigious leap as being a great moment. My favorite moment in that goal was. Was actually Saka played a really nice pass outside in the process to winning the corner for Arsenal's first goal. Because I'm kind of worried about Saka. I'm worried that he's got. He's like a glitch. He's got stuck in that coming inside. I've watched him so much. I know what he's going to do, everyone. He had begun to go outside more onto his right foot, but this season he hasn't really been doing it. And I was worrying about him live, watching that, thinking, he's really. He's just coming inside, he's coming inside. And then he made a really nice outside pass to Tiny Timber running behind him. And that was a kind of moment that felt like, okay, good, this is. This is the sack. I want to see different gears, different moves. And from that past the corner happened and we saw, sure, a prodigious leap. We did see a leap for the ages.
- [10:43]
E
The thing from the corners, Barry, it's like there's just lots of people facing completely the wrong way, hugging someone else. You know, like the Declan Rice handball one just before the goal where he's just completely facing the other way. I don't know how you police it, because it's just happening everywhere. Like just. There's no. I don't know what the solution is.
- [10:59]
F
Well, I think the problem is if you give footballers an inch, they will take a mile. And the still of that moment where Rice handles the ball towards his own goal and David Ryan makes one of his very good saves, Rice is completely. Has Jarell Hatto in a bear hug. If you look behind him. Three other players have various Chelsea players in bear hugs. That shouldn't be allowed, but refs are allowing it. And as long as refs allow it, Arsenal players or players from any other team will continue to do it. Yeah, so.
- [11:35]
E
But it's weighted so heavily incumbent upon
- [11:37]
F
the Officials to sort it out. Sure, but they're not showing any appetite to do that.
- [11:41]
E
But it's hard because it's so weighted in favor of the attacking team.
- [11:44]
A
Right.
- [11:44]
E
Because if you're an attacker, you can hug someone and it's. It doesn't matter really. You lose, you know, free kick, but the defender can't really hug back. You know, it's a one way, one way max.
- [11:54]
A
We've all been in relationships like that.
- [11:57]
D
It looks a bit like those things. And they shoot horses, don't they? You know, during the marathon, the dance marathon. The dance marathon. They're all like that. Somebody came up with the idea of having a new zone defined in the box. Having an arc which, which goes from one post to the next and in which you wouldn't be able to have any players present. It would be a small area but big enough for the keeper to have some space to move in and hopefully to put some reason in. What is going on? That sounds to me like a terrible idea.
- [12:30]
A
Can you imagine a goalkeeper with his own. Can you imagine what Jordan Pickford's doing in that space? His dedicated social distance, his dance floor.
- [12:38]
D
The thing which I find extraordinary is that it's the only time, I mean double situation is the only time you have your arms and your hands over somebody else. You know, it's not allowed in the laws of football to have that.
- [12:50]
F
No, but I find it absolutely baffling that that was independent.
- [12:55]
A
The idea was that his hand was. Was in a nap, in a natural position.
- [13:01]
E
Well, it's not if you're hugging someone, your hands are in a different position.
- [13:03]
A
But what is the natural. I can't understand why there wasn't a penalty. It was though had his hand been forced up there, but it was only forced up there because he was trying to grapple someone. I mean, I think in all seriousness what's happened here is this is a response to. To Guardiola style possession play to the way we've changed what defending is. So for a long time it wasn't necessary to defend like this. Steve Bald is not getting a game probably or John Terry's getting a game. But you know people who's have grown up being tied together with a rope by George Graham and just told to head thing training is literally just heading things. They don't get to play football anymore. They get to play in the Premier League. They play maybe lower down the leagues, but so that skill. So it's low hanging fruit like managers have worked this out. That's where this has come from. And the way to stop it is for defending to change again. And obviously a really great. There are defenders around who can do both of these things, who can have possession and also defend set pieces really well. But this wouldn't work in. In the 1980s. You. You wouldn't. I mean, football wasn't. Was different then, but the kind of defenders that existed then would easily repel these attacks. And what I was trying to say by saying there's nothing sophisticated about the set pieces. Like we need a genius with a beard in a tracksuit to do it. We don't. It's just that you're identifying there's a weakness there. There are defenders who are in the team because they're good at playing football.
- [14:22]
E
You need Liam Daich. I seen Barry Fry say he'd had a jumbo jet out of the penalty area if it was.
- [14:29]
A
Yeah, that's right. But that was seen as like the key skill. Whereas now the key skill is take the ball on the half turn. If you. If you can't do that, you're not gonna play in these teams. And it's smart that people have identified that. But. But there will be a reaction to that. Again, there'll be different. Really. The coach that you want is someone who can teach you how to defend these things. And that doesn't seem to really be happening. And it's not that complicated.
- [14:49]
E
So that was important for Arsenal anyway. But because man, City won at Leeds and it wasn't very. An easy. It wasn't an easy win for them. That is four in a row, one loss in their last seven. And again it's Margue and Antoine Semenya who are both. Yeah, they're standout players for them at the moment.
- [15:06]
F
Yeah, they did stand out for City. They've been brilliant acquisitions. Hit the ground running. Obviously they're Premier League ready when they arrive at City. But they didn't have it all their own way in this game. Much has been made of Leeds performing under the. The Friday night lights or whatever night it happened.
- [15:25]
E
Saturday was.
- [15:26]
F
Yes, Saturday night lights. And I think Leeds probably should have taken the lead in this game. Possibly could have been 2 nil up before City scored. Dominic Calvert Lun missed a good chance. Brendan Aronson missed a good chance. Antoine Sea put City in front and they. They hold on to that lead. Leeds did have chances in the second half and I think Leeds had a half decent shout for a penalty as well from Matth Nunes. Handball that wasn't given. And at the end of the match we saw very Uncharacteristically chippy Daniel Fark get red carded for having the audacity to approach refereeing Peter Banks at the final whistle looking mildly annoyed. And I don't.
- [16:14]
E
I look angry, Parker.
- [16:15]
F
I. I don't think I've ever seen a red card brandished in a more contemptuous and arrogant fashion as that one by. By Mr. Banks.
- [16:24]
E
Yeah, I was sort of looking. It wasn't even looking him in the eye.
- [16:27]
F
A no look.
- [16:27]
E
Red card. Red card. Yeah. Angry Farker is a new type of fa. So. So, I mean, man. City are five points behind. Arsenal got a game in hand. They've sort of play each other as well, Barney. And you've got that Carabao Cup Final, which some people say, whoever wins that will definitely go on and win the League. I don't know what necessary follows, but it does add to the. The story that you don't want to know the end of.
- [16:47]
A
Well, because of the sort of psychodrama that is either happening or. Or we're projecting onto the fact that lots of teams are very good and, you know, that's why teams drop points. I don't know which one it is, but I like both of them. That final does feel relevant because a lot of this is about can Arsenal continue to win. I mean, it's really important and they're obviously good enough to do that. If you look, they've got nine games left. I would say three of them are on paper. The trickier ones, City, Brighton away, Newcastle at home. Just because of previous results against Newcastle. I'm not being disrespectful to the other teams. I'm just looking at the table and who's been playing the Champions League recently.
- [17:24]
E
Brian aways this Wednesday.
- [17:26]
A
Yeah, that's a really big game, but you would expect Arsenal to be able to win those games. On the other hand, the games where they drop points have been, you know, Wolves, although Wolves are pretty good team these days. And it does feel a lot of it is to do with. With that sort of psychological fear angle. And the interesting thing with City, I think the. The best thing they've got at the moment is that they're really enjoying it. It looks happy. Pep's got a really good jacket. He's sorted out his. He's really sorted out his look. It looks good. It's not like business shoes, bottoms, hoodie anymore. It's. He's got a really good jacket. He's smiling. Anton Semeno's playing the guitar. Well, Philippe is. I don't know what he was. He's playing chords, wasn't he?
- [18:03]
D
Yeah, he's playing chords, sort of.
- [18:04]
E
You could like George. It was more like a woman style, I think.
- [18:07]
D
George.
- [18:07]
A
Foreign B. Yeah.
- [18:09]
D
George Foreman style. Try with boxing gloves. It's really nice. I wondered if it was full of barriers.
- [18:13]
F
Yeah.
- [18:13]
A
Was it a mocking Oasis reference? Because he was blandly struggling.
- [18:17]
D
Oh. In which case he's gone up in my estimation even more.
- [18:19]
A
Yeah. I don't know what was happening there, but it looked fun and I liked it and I thought, yeah, you're not really. You're not. You're not afraid. You actually are on the fun bus. You know what a fun bus is? You know what fun is? It's not just a phrase and I think it's a tactic. I think Pepper's sat down, crunched the numbers and he's decided that fun is important and it's going to be factored into the. Is what they have that Arsenal don't seem to have at the moment.
- [18:41]
D
One thing I was. I did my own little research for this, so that's why I've got my. My notepad with me. Because people think. I mean, like, Arsenal have got an experience of losing the League.
- [18:52]
A
Right.
- [18:53]
D
It's happened quite a few times over the recent years. So there's that which is feeding the fear. And on the other hand, people say, oh, Manchester City have the experience of winning it. In fact, I thought, actually, of these players, how many have won the League? Hardly any, really. Yeah. Because if you look at the team that was at Leeds, those players, I mean, Aureli, first season. 2425. Semenho. 2526. Gay. 2526. Ait Nouri. 2526. Marmusch. 24, 25, 25. Arriving in. In January. Donaruma. 25, 26. Turkey. 25, 26. These are actually players who have just joined, but do you think you.
- [19:33]
E
Do you think you just.
- [19:34]
D
So they have the feel.
- [19:35]
E
Vibe.
- [19:36]
A
The feel from.
- [19:38]
D
From the. From. From the manager, certainly.
- [19:40]
A
Yeah. A certain Pep Guardiana.
- [19:42]
D
Yeah. From the manager. Yes.
- [19:43]
A
The winningest man in winging.
- [19:45]
D
But I would also say it's a very young team and therefore there's a certain fearlessness that you would associate with. With the young team and the fact that actually they haven't been in this kind of situation before. And in a way, chasing is easier when you're in the situation. And because they really didn't have everything their own way at all, they don't look, you know, like the big Pep Guardiola sides, which could go on winning 15 games on the trot. They don't look like that. They lose like the. They look like they could lose and you know if countbed Lewin, you said one chance. You had three and some of them more difficult than others. But you had many chances. Yeah. Yeah.
- [20:23]
E
Pep's called on football supporters to respect religion and diversity after some fans booed a brief stoppage in player Ellen Road to allow Muslim players to break their Ramadan fast. He said, you see what's happening in the world today. Respect, religion, diversity. That's the point. The Premier League says you can have one or two minutes you can have for the fasting players to break their fasts. We took on a little bit of vitamins because Ryan Cherokee ran at Nori did not eat today. No more than that. The question is can they do it or not? What's the problem? Kick it out said it's massively disappointing. Some Leeds fans jeered when the City players broke their fast during the first half. This was compounded by the fact an explanation was displayed on a big screen inside the stadium. Pausing the game to allow Muslim players to break their fast has been an agreed protocol for several years. It's an important visible part of making the game welcoming for Muslim players and communities. Nick got in touch to say I expect the Leeds booing might get a mention and rightly so. Can I just point out how small the big screen at Ellen Road is though it was stupid to expect a written message on there to be enough for everyone to know what was going on. Some would have booed anyway of course, but they just made it worse. I guess that's the point Barry, isn't it that we know religious intolerance exists and that is shameful. But it's possible that some Leeds fans didn't know what was happening and were just booing a stoppage.
- [21:41]
A
Yeah.
- [21:41]
F
I've seen on social media some Leeds fans say they were booing because they thought their team was on top at the time. And Pep used this break to have one of his tactical discussions on the sideline with his players gathered around him. Others said were saying openly that yes we were booing. The fact that these Muslim players are allowed interrupt the game to take refreshments on board and I'd say quite a sizable proportion were just booing because other people were booing and they didn't really know why. I have no problem with the game being interrupted for so players can break their fast. I guess other opinions are available but certainly there are more worse things in football and longer Delays, for sure.
- [22:35]
A
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think respect. Yeah, is the right word. I mean, it's. It's not a referendum on whether you believe in certain deities. It's just respect for somebody having a drink. And it's also. This is their job in jobs all over the country and the world. People will stop at this moment to. To break their fast. And do you want to see players able to play and concentrate properly? It's.
- [23:01]
E
I. I'd rather they faint. I'm going to boo and I'd rather they faint.
- [23:05]
A
I really don't want to believe that anyone was actually booing this because they were booing a religion and it is football and I do respect people's right to just shout things, but it was very disrespectful and let's not get into that.
- [23:20]
D
We mentioned what happened in France this weekend, because in France, as you know, laicity is very important. So all displays of religious faith in the public sphere, that is not private. Not the private sphere, obviously, but the public sphere are prohibited. And because of that, in France, you cannot have breaks for players breaking, you know, their fast. And what happened. It's the game, Lyon against Nantes, and the keeper from Lyon, Anthony Lopez, the Portuguese keeper, feigned injury during the game so that his Muslim teammates could actually have a drink and some protein and. Which hasn't been taken very well in some parts, so that you have a completely different culturally, it's actually fascinating. But that. The fact that a keeper felt compelled to feign injury, I'm sure it was pre agreed with this.
- [24:20]
E
And he's deploying his mates.
- [24:21]
A
Right, That's. Yeah, yeah. I mean, as a serious point, like, we do have a problem in football, which is very integrated in lots of ways with representation of South Asian population in the uk. And if doing this makes five kids think, oh, that looks good, I might be welcome there too. What's the problem? Like, only connect. It doesn't. It doesn't hurt anyone. It's just saying it's fine. And surely everybody wants people to integrate with each other. Like, this is just a tiny little thing that I'm sure everyone knows.
- [24:52]
E
I would say.
- [24:53]
A
I mean, I may have been having a. You've been on a journey, Max. You've been in Australia. You've been in Australia for two too long, Max.
- [25:02]
E
Everyone loves each other here. Do they now? Yeah, yeah, I missed that. Anyway, yeah, you're absolutely right. And that'll do for part one. Part two. We'll begin in Burnley.
- [25:12]
B
Howdy, howdy ho and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas, I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [25:20]
C
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [25:24]
B
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
- [25:32]
C
That's right.
- [25:33]
D
Hei.
- [25:33]
A
Hei.
- [25:33]
C
So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [25:37]
B
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [25:44]
C
News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
- [26:01]
E
Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Burnley three, Brentford four. Oh, I just feel so bad for Scott Parker. Barry. Three nil down after 34 minutes. They get it back to three three. They go four, three up. That's disallowed for one of those offsides. That's annoying. Then it's 4:3 to Brentford and then Ashley Barnes left army. He's the thing we stare at for hours and hours.
- [26:21]
F
Yeah.
- [26:22]
E
And it gets grainier and grainier as you get closer in to the point where you're not sure it's actually an arm, but you know, it belongs to Ashley Barnes.
- [26:28]
F
For most of this season, I wasn't even aware that Ashley Barnes was still at Burnley or even playing football. And now, you know, and now I feel I've seen far more of Ashley Barnes than. Than I ever need to. I've seen. I've had my quota of Ashley Barnes for a lifetime. I think the important thing. But it got to the stage where I just didn't care whether the ball had hit his arm or not. And I'm still not sure whether it didn't. It probably did. But if it takes var five minutes to.
- [27:04]
E
It's taking you two days and you're
- [27:06]
F
still not sure if it's taken var five minutes to figure out. Probably give the benefit of the doubt.
- [27:11]
E
Who wants this, though? Who want. Who wants this?
- [27:13]
F
Lots of people wanted. This is the game people wanted.
- [27:16]
A
Do you not care about rules, Max? The rules mean nothing. Can I trust you? If this is your attitude to rules.
- [27:22]
F
What I find interesting is that some of the most high profile journalist broadcasters who were demanding var, however many years ago it was introduced, are now among its most vocal critics.
- [27:35]
A
Name names, Barry. Name names. Don't talk in the abstract.
- [27:40]
F
But. But they never, when they're now criticizing it, they never hark back. You know, it's okay to change your mind, but at least let everyone know. You know, I, I really wanted this six years ago. Now I hate it. I, I do think they should provide that sort of.
- [27:59]
E
Well, I don't know. I don't know what your journey's been, Philip. Mine was. My journey's been. I'm not sure. I'll see how it goes. I'm indifferent. I definitely don't want it. That's my being honest, being trustworthy.
- [28:10]
D
It's absolutely fine to have, to have no opinion. This is the thing. You don't have to have an opinion.
- [28:17]
E
I've got one now.
- [28:18]
F
I don't.
- [28:18]
D
You've got. You have one now. Okay, good. I'm not too sure myself. And I think it's got to do more with the laws themselves and the interpretation of the laws than with the actual varying. So there we go, down this, this maze, this moral maze and legal maze. My first reaction, what I hate is the interruption. That's what I hate more than anything. You have to, by the way, salute the equanimity of Scott Parker after the game when he was asked about that. Because he could have used that as a means to. Well, like Shonda would have done, for example, to say, well, the reason why we, in the end we didn't take any points because of this ridiculous interpretation. But he said, no, offside is offside. Handball is handball. Which I thought was remarkably fair minded of him.
- [29:09]
E
In the spirit. I don't want either of those goals to be disallowed, Barney.
- [29:12]
A
But no, the first one is ridiculous. The first one's absurd. I mean, there's no advantage in there. His shoulder is offside. If you can't see it with the eye, that means that there's no advantage just because you can find a part of your body which is ridiculous. You. That was a really brave.
- [29:30]
D
You could have scored this shoulder from 20 yards out.
- [29:32]
A
Yeah, well, maybe, but it was a brave, invented, creative moment of football in a game that's increasingly, you know, very tight and difficult. And it was, it was really. It's a kind of ideological view that you're going to say, I'm going to disallow that. It's not. You can't just say, well, these are the rules. Live by the rules. You're taking a view that this is the way we're going to do. And it's creeping. You know, there are going to be more. Var is getting bigger. There's A meeting at the moment. Isn't there a Vifab they want to var attacking corners? If it's hacking team, you can revar that second yellow cards.
- [30:07]
E
What happens in the meeting that closes the video? I think var's going well, guys, let's have some.
- [30:11]
A
Let's have more. I mean, I am. I. I was always. I was really anti it to begin with. And then I tried to kind of get on board because some people who I. I listen, people I respected was like, no, no, this is. This could be good. This is good. And they're. I mean, I'm completely Luddite on it now. And can I just say, the Luddites are misrepresented. The idea is that you hated technology. We don't want technology. Actually, the Luddites were resisting mechanization that reduced the quality of the product and lost kind of artisanal skills that men with man buns and tattoos are currently trying to reinsert into our society everywhere to correct this. So the Luddites actually had a point. They were saying, what we do is really good. If you introduce these machines, it will be of a lower quality, but there'll be more of it. And so I'm very Luddite on. I don't know how you put it back in the box. I disagree with Philippe in one sense that I think part of the problem is the people who are administrating it. It's the same people. I mean, you just have a larger kind of canvas for your incompetence and the way it's structured, the way that they feel they're being. I'm very sympathetic to them as well, because referees feel they're being constant. Well, they are being constantly judged, but they're being judged from everywhere. From outside, from within. And that's why we have these ludicrous. Sorry, I probably misrepresented what you said.
- [31:24]
D
That's not the referees I had in mind. It's the law setters, which is completely different. The referees have to do their job. And if they don't do their job properly, they lose their job. So they.
- [31:31]
A
They're. Yeah, I don't think they do their job very well.
- [31:34]
E
But ifab I have. It's, you know, Infantino. And I'm not. I mean, I have a problem with him. But, you know, Kalina and Ellery in that, you know, whatever castle they're in saying handball is going.
- [31:45]
D
I'm out is far. So if you're to pursue the Luddite argument, is var basically to football, what AI is to Academic research.
- [31:57]
A
Well, yeah, I guess so. I mean, AI is another topic, isn't it?
- [32:00]
D
Yeah, I know, but it's a case of a technology going mad and not actually offering what it's supposed to offer and people defending it.
- [32:09]
A
No, but I think AI is something that will. It's a product we're being sort of sold. It's essentially a Google search.
- [32:14]
D
AI VAR is on the way. There's absolutely no doubt about that. Just one thing about this game, because you were mentioning the one moment of imagination. There's one player I thought, who shone in that game and it's not the first time that I've seen him do very, very well indeed. For Burnley, it's Hannibal.
- [32:31]
A
Yeah, yeah, he's looked really good.
- [32:33]
D
He looks really, really wonderful. Some of his passing was just absolutely exquisite. When he's involved in two of the
- [32:39]
A
rules, he's really aggressive and fearless, you know, he's great. He actually is now playing in a way that entirely justifies his hair.
- [32:45]
E
Yeah. And his name being named after being called Hannibal, of course. Brentford are seventh. Keith Andrews just signed a new contract. Stay there, Keith. Look at what's happened to all the Brentford managers who've moved on. Liverpool beat West Ham 5 2. Won six of the last seven. They're in a good run.
- [33:05]
A
Was this a.
- [33:06]
E
Not a very exciting five two? You know, you see five two, Barry and think, what a great game. But I sort of watched it thinking, I'm not sure how good this was.
- [33:13]
F
Well, we are obliged, of course, to point out that Liverpool did score three goals from corners. The first three goals were from corners which I think they made seven goals in a row that scored from set pieces.
- [33:24]
D
Seven from nine.
- [33:25]
F
Yeah. So we. We have to say that or fans will get upset. West Ham played well but still got hammered. So that's, I suppose, decided their XG was better than Liverpool's. But if you are conceding three goals from corners, then you are not going. It's very unlikely that you're going to get anything from the game. And while they did create several good chances, they didn't score enough of them. And yeah, I'd agree it probably wasn't a Very good 5 2.
- [33:59]
A
I think what you were groping for there, Max. Yes, figuratively, please, was it felt like a game that happened in. In May, the end of May, that you Never remember a 5 2. At the end of the season, Andy Carroll scored an overhead kick. Someone's been sent off. No one will remember it next season. It was. It was really strange. It felt like everything Was slightly collapsing around it.
- [34:20]
D
Yeah.
- [34:21]
E
For West Ham. I mean, I'm watching, I'm looking at this from a very spurs lens and they have a tricky run. This is part of their tricky run, Philip. They go to then City at home, then Villa away. Okay. Villa have fallen off a cliff, haven't they, actually. But tell me they'll get no points is what I'm saying.
- [34:38]
D
Okay, they'll get no points.
- [34:39]
E
Perfect.
- [34:40]
D
Thank you.
- [34:41]
A
West Ham playing quite well. Max Be worried, be worried. I think this was a blip. Jacob is confident. I'm just going to say that.
- [34:47]
E
No, I mean, I look.
- [34:48]
D
And from that game I will add one thing, which is that was another demonstration of how. How good Hugo Ekitike is. And the fact. And in France this is not going unnoticed and that there are more and more people thinking he should actually be obviously on the plane. But not just that he should actually
- [35:05]
E
start for France and where would he. Down the middle.
- [35:07]
D
Down the middle with Mbappe going back to the left hand side. And if he's fit, because you know he's got some serious problems, fitness problems at the moment with his knee.
- [35:15]
A
Who's on the right in that?
- [35:17]
D
Oh, but you've got Dembele you can put on the right.
- [35:19]
A
Ever heard of him? A certain Ousmane Dembele. Yeah.
- [35:23]
D
But Desire Dwayne can play on both. Rubbish. Yeah. As well. Robert.
- [35:28]
A
It's kind of good, isn't it?
- [35:29]
D
It's not too bad. But the Ekitike, I mean, the first goal was just.
- [35:32]
A
His balance is incredible, isn't it? He's a really intelligent player as well. I like him.
- [35:36]
E
At Newcastle 2 Everton 3 we should start Philippe with that save from Pickford. Oh, it is unbelievable. It's the moment of all. I think it might be the greatest bit of football of the weekend. Just the moment where I was like that. Some people were saying it was actually sort of just a sort of normal save. It's an unbelievable save.
- [35:53]
D
It's the pace of the ball. I mean, you would have expected the. The hand to fly off at least, or the glove to fly and the ball to go in. It was incredible. And Pickford certainly made sure that we all noticed. It was incredibly amazing.
- [36:07]
A
He did three separate movements, didn't he? He embodied three emojis all at once.
- [36:11]
D
The reason why it is maybe the most memorable moment is also because the strike is absolutely phenomenal. It's just beautiful. It's the kind of clean strike with the ball staying almost still and invade with such power. So it's the.
- [36:26]
E
And it Mattered, right. It was 3, 2 at the time, wasn't it?
- [36:27]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was right at the end. It was. And also obviously the thing with the celebration was that he'd been being told he was a Sunderland whatever.
- [36:35]
D
Yeah.
- [36:35]
A
The fans behind the goal. Which kind of the fact he was so in that moment was really fun. He. He really is one of those people who's just out there like he's just engaging with every moment. And he is such a good goalkeeper. I really hope he stays at Everton forever by the way. Because it's really great that a player that good stays at a club.
- [36:53]
E
A nice juxtaposition from that moment of skill. Barry to Barry's winner. You know, and many people getting in touch to say, you know, if you just need one to go in off your ass, it's great when a goal actually goes in off your ass.
- [37:04]
D
Yeah.
- [37:05]
F
And I think he was shoved in the buildup, wasn't he? So that it wasn't actually his. His fault. It went in off his backside. I mean Everton are crying out for a decent striker and if they had one, I mean they must look at Dominic Calvert loon at Leeds and go maybe we should have offered him a new deal. But I'm not sure he'd be that much of an upgrade on what they have at the moment. But everyone's doing really well. I mean we all know I predicted they'd get relegated or not. They could qualify for Europe. And Newcastle are a bit of a mess on the domestic front at least I think when the Saudis took over, Newcastle fans had very high hopes and expectations. And I suspect they didn't expect to be behind Sunderland in the Premier League table. Because Sunderland were a league one side at the time.
- [37:55]
E
Tierno Barry now the top scoring Barry in Everton history. Gareth Barry, he has 6. Gareth Barry 5. Barry Horn 3 and Barry Reese 2. So well done to him.
- [38:04]
D
Does Lewis will get an assist for what he did? Because if he doesn't push Barry, the ball is not scored.
- [38:09]
E
Actually I think Tonali pushes Brunthwaite before his header for the goal as well. Two assists for Newcastle players. Lee says what makes everyone think spurs have too much to go down? Increasingly I don't think everyone thinks that. Lee. I'm a Spurs fan. We are the worst team in the league and are going down. I mean they. They picked up a bit in the second half but honestly the apathy. The two Eagle Tudor said we were not good. We lacked everything.
- [38:32]
A
Yes, everything. Everything. But I mean they are. They're just like they haven't got any feet left. The feet have been shot off completely. They're running on stumps and those stumps are being shot off as well. They're being shot down to the knee. Like, how much more shooting off can they do?
- [38:47]
D
Appointing sounds a bit like Monty Python at the Holy Grail.
- [38:50]
A
Well, appointing Igor Tudor is on this. What everybody knows is a temporary contract and expecting disenfranchised players who have already sort of disrespected one manager out of a job. To take this seriously is insane.
- [39:05]
E
He's making them just do sort of John Beck type army camps.
- [39:07]
A
Well, yeah, yeah, I know. I was talking to someone who, who works for spurs who told me that, well, this is just hearsay, but he's got like, players are doing press ups. He got them doing press ups. Like, what, what. What's press ups going to do? Is that really going to motivate this?
- [39:24]
E
To be fair, they, you know, everyone near Calvin Bassey needed to do some more.
- [39:29]
A
Calvin Bassey is immense. But I tell my teenage sons to do press ups. Press ups are good, but I don't know. They also don't listen to me and they're not on £300,000 a week. But he, he's already distancing himself from the team. He's already thinking, what's my legacy here? I need to say that these players are weak. Rubbish. And it's not my fault. But it's. You've already two days in, got this guy cutting the parachute cords and whatever the correct metaphor is, and leaping out of the back of the. Of the open cargo plane like Tom Cruise. Like, it's Which Tom's basically always doing, isn't he? Yeah, one of those things. It's a terrible, terrible piece of mismanagement. I still think that they'll get.
- [40:11]
E
That's what everyone's saying.
- [40:12]
A
No, no, I know that it's now become a thing to say, oh, you're saying they're gonna go. But I think I'm now going the other way and saying, well, actually there is a reason for that, that someone, you know, someone will score a goal somewhere.
- [40:22]
E
But who. There's no creativity at all. They can't pass it to each other.
- [40:27]
D
Yes, but you.
- [40:27]
A
It's badly a probably going to go down as well. So it's three teams, isn't it? And probably West Ham four points behind. Someone will rescue Spurs. I think it's a great story for spurs to get relegated. It's probably the only interesting thing that could happen to spurs at this stage because it's an amazing piece of narrative that you build that stadium and get.
- [40:48]
E
And they'll be so bad in the
- [40:50]
A
Championship with a trophy. Get into the Champions League and get relegated. It's an incredible story arc. It's just, in a way, spurs fans would kind of love it. And it's like a pairing back. At some point you will think, why not? You know, we're still going to exist. There'll still be a Tottenham Hotspur. I don't really like the way this thing is, so burn it all down and see where the cards land. I kind of. In a way, a part of me quite likes that. Kind of just get rid of it all. It's like a post globalist view of, you still have a club, there'll still be a Spurs. It's fine.
- [41:18]
E
Rebuild could be the best Arsenal season ever. Philippe, couldn't it?
- [41:21]
A
Yeah.
- [41:22]
D
Schadenfreude is not my game.
- [41:24]
E
No.
- [41:24]
A
Okay.
- [41:25]
D
He said with a. With a smile.
- [41:27]
E
It's a tiny bit of your game.
- [41:28]
F
I think Tudor has been hugely unimpressive so far. He's come in, he's done the usual thing of slagging off. Well, tacitly slagging off the previous head coach by criticizing his players, lack of fitness. He's. Yesterday he. He was blaming the referee. He's overseen two games. Spurs lost them both. They should have lost by a lot more yesterday. That 2:1 scoreline flattered them immensely.
- [41:57]
D
Yeah.
- [41:57]
F
He's tried two different formations. Neither of them worked. And the players very much like, look like they think a relegation battle is beneath them. And that would be my main concern. I think they'll probably be okay just because West Ham and Forest are slightly, slightly worse than them.
- [42:16]
E
I don't know if they are or
- [42:16]
F
if not on the same level of badness, but with fewer.
- [42:20]
E
That's true. It's worth pointing out Awobi's finish was absolutely. That sensational.
- [42:24]
A
It was lovely, wasn't it? Absolutely. I love the way he's so casual when he's being good. He's not really casual. He just looks like he's sort of playing with a bag on his shoulder and sort of.
- [42:33]
E
He's just been walking past that arm.
- [42:35]
A
Yeah. Can I just come in and play? But he's really. He's really. He's had a great time at Fulham. He's a very good player.
- [42:41]
D
I wonder we have to mention, because that's a bugbear of mine. Another one. The fact that Richarlison was not sent off for strangling Bessie.
- [42:53]
A
Did you see Bassey's face while that was happening. He was laughing. You can't strangle Calvin Bassey.
- [42:57]
D
He's like nice men trying to strangle.
- [42:59]
E
I think Bassey was annoying as a Spurs man. I was like, let go of the ball, Calvin.
- [43:03]
D
There's no reason why he should let go of the ball. The ball has been. There's a goal's been scored. The ball belongs to the team which has been scored against, which is going to bring the ball back.
- [43:11]
A
I think it belongs to the referee.
- [43:13]
E
I don't think it belongs to Calvin Bassey. He's just hugging it like it. Like it's his child bringing it home form.
- [43:19]
D
He's. He's basically saying, you know, he's off, man. And the reaction from. From richarlison is totally. Well, richarlison also.
- [43:26]
A
Can I say, does richarlison not understand the multi ball system? Yeah, he told Richard about the multiple system. Well, that's the point here.
- [43:33]
D
Well, maybe not, but anyway, I think
- [43:35]
E
I, you know, I liked how Calvin was laughing.
- [43:38]
F
I remember what game it was. It was one. A goal was scored in. It might have been the United game yesterday. And one of the players, by way of celebration, kicked one of the multiballs off a tee. Oh, yeah. And the ball boy was like, looked so angry with him. That's my ball.
- [43:56]
E
All his hard work, he put it on that plinth.
- [43:58]
F
You're right.
- [43:59]
E
All right, that'll do for part two. Part three, we'll rattle through the other games.
- [44:05]
B
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [44:13]
C
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call the Smash Daddy.
- [44:17]
B
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Stephen here has not read Mistborn before.
- [44:26]
C
That's right.
- [44:26]
D
Hey. Hey.
- [44:27]
C
So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [44:31]
B
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [44:38]
C
News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcast podcasts.
- [44:54]
E
Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. And Man United 2 Palace 1. Man United coming back from behind. And actually, Barney, the. The Cesco header is brilliant, isn't it?
- [45:03]
A
Yes, He's a really good finisher. He scored some, really. He's sort of old school. He scores goals that look like the goals Alan Shero would score. I'm not saying he's anything like Alan Shearer, but. But it's that. It's a 90s goal. He scores quite a few of them. I'm really pleased for him. I. I like his prodigious leap. I like his gazelle, like, kind of quality of innocence. And I think he's just quite young and needs to get. Get ready for it. And Man United will finish in the top four.
- [45:29]
E
The red cards for Lacroix. Some people wondering if, you know the double jeopardy of a penalty and a foul, but if you're not going for the ball, Philippe, what do you think?
- [45:37]
D
That's why I'm really sitting on the fence. I. I thought that the penalty decision was soft. Yes. Yeah. Very, very soft. So it seems a bit harsh. Also, the ball is already a few yards away from him, but the keeper hasn't left his line. So probably according to the letter of the law. Correct, but it didn't feel right and certainly changed the whole game.
- [45:57]
E
Six wins in a draw from seven games for Michael Carrick.
- [46:00]
D
It's almost.
- [46:01]
E
It's almost a bigger risk not to hire him if this carries on, Barry.
- [46:08]
F
I think if it carries on, it would be. I think it'd be odd not to give him the job. I'd love to know what Reuben Amaran makes of all this.
- [46:17]
E
He's on holiday with Thomas Frank somewhere going, oh, dear. Ad saying, laughing my head off at the Man United game where the ref from Yorkshire announced the VAR decision. They really do all come from the same place. It's so funny. Every time they say after review, I'm like, oh, no. So funny. I still need to do that radio quiz where you play the ref's name and you have to guess who it is because they are all exactly the same. Wolves beat Villa 2 nil. The end of Villa's title race, according to Unai Emery. And, you know, Rob Edwards getting a tune out of this. This Wolves side for.
- [46:50]
D
Yes, we've been talking about that for little bits now. Yeah. And you wonder what could have been the case if he'd had the chance to do something. I mean, it might be fact that, you know, they don't have any fear whatsoever. They know that they're doomed. I mean, it would take an absolute miracle for them to. To get up of the. Of the bottom three and therefore they play. And that's. That's one thing that when you see the quality of. Of some of their football. There is the argument that what we're saying is also because the quality has improved a lot in the Premier League. I think that's exhibit A would be Wolves.
- [47:28]
A
Yes.
- [47:28]
E
Because that's interesting because you say often about teams who are sort of 15th to 18th or whatever. Oh, that their squad's too good to be there. But then you say, well, whose squad isn't?
- [47:36]
A
Yeah, well, this is the extreme wealth of the Premier League. You create a situation where your 20th club is the kind of 30th richest club in the world. And the other side of what Philippe just said is looking at leagues in the rest of Europe which have been completely denuded of talent and don't have proper title races.
- [47:51]
D
I think Wolves made more money, more TV money than Barcelona last season.
- [47:56]
A
Is that true from La Liga?
- [47:58]
D
Yeah. If you compare. Yeah.
- [47:59]
A
Even with the way they organize things in Spain. If I'm Barcelona, I'm going direct to consumer. I'm going Barca flicks.
- [48:07]
F
It is fun though, because they're going down, but they're going down swinging haymakers bloody in a few big noses on the way. You know they got that draw with Arson to beat Villa.
- [48:16]
D
Yeah.
- [48:16]
E
All past them and they finished on the. They've gone above Derby's 11 points now and they finished with four Gomezes on the pitch.
- [48:22]
D
Excellent.
- [48:22]
E
Which is great news. And two Buenos.
- [48:24]
A
There are some weird sort of common themes in these teams down there, isn't it? Could we have a season where all three teams go down, have been managed by Nuno Spirito Santo and there's kind of an ange in the mix as well. There's a strange kind of synergy down there.
- [48:37]
D
Yeah.
- [48:37]
E
Brighton beat Forest 2 1. All the goals in the opening 15 minutes. So that's another good win for Brighton. Two in a row after there was some pressure on Herzler and Vitor Pereira. Still without a winners Forest boss. They have looked better under him.
- [48:52]
F
Yeah. I thought they were desperately unlucky not to get something from the game against Liverpool, was it and they decent enough yesterday. But they need. There's no point looking good if you're not getting points. And I actually. I don't think they were particularly good yesterday. They thoroughly deserve to lose that game. But so scrap that. I've immediate. Even as I was saying that I
- [49:15]
A
was going no, you need the square brackets and subs. Please edit out.
- [49:19]
E
I mean the odds of us editing that out are slim.
- [49:21]
A
I would say this is exactly like when Boris Johnson wrote two articles about
- [49:24]
F
the EU Baron, hold on, here's my. Nottingham Forest were brilliant. Yeah, they. They weren't good yesterday. They were unlucky against them but they just need to get points on the board.
- [49:34]
E
Yeah.
- [49:35]
F
However they do it.
- [49:36]
E
You wanted to have a quick word about Jared Gillett. The only non
- [49:41]
F
word about. Lots of people say that this is
- [49:44]
E
in the Bournemouth Sunderland games.
- [49:45]
F
Yeah, Bournemouth Sunderland 1 1. Probably a fair result. Lots of people say the solution to the refereeing crisis, such as it is in the Premier League is to bring in foreign referees. Jared Gillette is a foreign referee. His performance in that game between Boreham and Sunderland was pretty bad.
- [50:02]
E
Tammy's league draw then. It's quite lopsided, isn't it? Psg, Chelsea, Galatasaray, Liverpool, Real Madrid, City, Atalanta, Bayern on one side, Newcastle Barca Athletic, Spurs, Bodo Sporting and Leverkusen Arsenal on the other. When the draw was made I was in the talk sport office and there's lots of Arsenal fans there because there are lots of Arsenal fans everywhere. And they basically said you might as well just give us the trophy now after that draw.
- [50:25]
F
I mean if Michael Arteta had been allowed just to make the draw and check all the balls and make it himself, that's pretty much what he would
- [50:33]
D
have come up with. I think if it had been Real Madrid in that position, people would have said it was a corrupt draw.
- [50:39]
E
But it is a good draw, isn't it? Fitbar, which we'll do properly soon. Hearts won.
- [50:45]
A
It's a brilliant weekend for Hearts. The draw is perfect for them and in fact we could now have a two horse race that is Motherwell and Hearts and doesn't. It's. The other doesn't involve them.
- [50:55]
E
You're right. Now the use of Timitty over head kick for range is absolutely brilliant. And then Rio Tata he. He got great stats for that penalty because he gets two shots on target that were both the penalty saved. Then the rebound is saved by Jack Butler and then he puts in the third. So to get three shots on target. Very good for his stats there. But yeah, we'll do it properly. Anyway. On to Iran. Brian says at this point would everyone feel just a bit relieved if the World cup was canceled? So over the weekend there were US and Israeli missile strikes on Iran. You probably all know this. The Iranian leader Ayatollah Al Khamenei was killed. There was a joint episode from Today in Focus and Politics Weekly America which we'll go into detail on that and that is that now. So you can listen to that as a football Weekly Listener. We asked the question about what this means for the World Cup, Philippe, because Iran has said they might pull out of the World Cup. They're in a group with New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt. All those games scheduled to play in the U.S. yep.
- [51:51]
D
Los Angeles and Seattle.
- [51:52]
E
Yeah, so. So if they do pull out, what happens?
- [51:57]
D
Nobody knows is the short and long of we. Because it's a question that I and a few colleagues have been putting to FIFA to ask them. What if Iran just withdraws from the competition and there doesn't seem to be anything in the regulations and the statutes which says, okay, like for example, if they had taken part in a playoff, the other team would automatically be qualified. In this particular case, they topped their group in front of Uzbekistan, I believe. So you would think, well, maybe Uzbekistan, but the way that the qualification worked in the Asian confederation means that would be so unfair to all the other teams. So there's absolutely nothing in place and no comment from the time being. FIFA is satisfying itself with saying, we are closely monitoring the situation. And to be honest, the problem is not just Iran, but I mean, it has an impact obviously on, on football in the whole region. You will have seen that the Gulf states have suspended their domestic leagues, that we were supposed to have the finalissima, which is the Intercontinental cup between Spain and Argentina taking place at the end of the month. Well, in Qatar. And that's probably not going to happen if what we see in Iran carries on, which unfortunately it might well do. So at the moment, I think nobody knows. Nobody has a clue of what is going to go on. I mean, Medi Taj, the president of the Iranian Federation, good friend of Gianni Infantino, by the way, who had complimented him on his re election to the top of the Iran fa, said basically the decision was in the hands of the people who are the head of sports with Ministry of Sports, basically of Iran, and so basically the government. So nobody knows.
- [53:52]
E
And there might be regime change and
- [53:53]
D
then there might be regime change. Absolutely.
- [53:55]
A
There's also, I mean, there's not, there's not going to be regime change in that time. How is it possibly going to happen? You saw Donald Trump's absurd message calling on the people of Iran to throw themselves in front of the bullets of the. Yeah, I mean, ridiculous. We remember what happened after the first Gulf War when he called on the Kurds to rise up against Saddam Hussein and they were slaughtered. I mean, he was speaking there to some distant historical narrative of what, how he can justify this. It was a ridiculous speech. It feels ridiculous. Talk about football. But we, we are a football podcast. But football has blood on its hands here. Jenny Infantino has. You know that the hat that Trump was wearing while he made that?
- [54:40]
D
Yeah.
- [54:40]
A
It's the same hat that Infantino was wearing at the Board of Peace meeting. Just as different.
- [54:45]
D
Laughing his head off.
- [54:46]
A
It's a piece of Trump merchandise. He's literally selling merch while delivering a message to the people of Iran. This is the person. Football has aggressively aligned itself in a way. You do not have to do that. You don't have to do it. The World cup will still.
- [54:59]
E
There are no implications for Infantino, are they?
- [55:01]
D
Not for the time being.
- [55:02]
A
Not for the time being. But he is the propaganda minister for someone who I, you know, you don't need me to describe that. This person. And he has willingly accepted that role. He did not have to do it. And he's dragging us all with him. And it is, from a purely sport point of view, utterly grotesque.
- [55:19]
E
But what do you think the consequences, the immediate consequences for Infantino are? Zero.
- [55:24]
A
Yes.
- [55:24]
E
But long. But will there ever be a comeuppance for him from.
- [55:29]
A
Oh, there'll be a comeuppance in the end for everyone, but it won't come because he's done something that's considered morally wrong. It will come because a different faction decides it's time to get rid of him.
- [55:39]
E
And it is worth saying new saying in the WhatsApp group. You know, Iran's repressive regime has, of course, because football is part of society, lots of footballers have been killed.
- [55:47]
D
Iran should have been kicked out of FIFA a long time ago. Banned. Banned by FIFA a long time ago. I mean, we're preparing something with y. Actually one of the pieces that has caused me the most grief, and I really mean that literally, by a young Iranian journalist who has compiled the names of all the footballers, male and female, who've been killed by this awful regime. It was very, very hard work and this has been happening for a long time. In fact, we think that just on the 8th and 9th January, when the bloodshed was its highest, the regime killed enough footballers, and I mean, quite a high level footballers, to have two teams on the pitch kill them. Footballers as young as 15 who were with, you know, in the development team of some of the Iran Gulf pro league and so forth. So it is, it is one of those where, I mean, your heart goes out to that, that country and the people there just don't deserve that. And as to Infantino, people talked about the verdict, talk about the verdict of History. That verdict usually comes very, very late and too late. But it won't be a kind one, that's for sure.
- [57:00]
E
And, and like you say, Barney talking about football seems ridiculous, but people questioning whether this World cup will go ahead like they always do.
- [57:07]
A
Yeah, it's not ridiculous because football's forced itself into this conversation. Yeah, it's entirely right because he's wearing a hat that made by Trump Incorporated. So yeah, it is ridiculous, but it's also not. It's entirely understandable.
- [57:22]
E
A Football Weekly gear change to Barney celebrity vaping. I mean I don't know how to do that in a. It's meant to be a skilled way to get from one thing to another. I'm not sure I've managed it but
- [57:32]
A
I mean this was, this was really just a behind the scenes glimpse. Barry is obviously right now there's a good chance to publicize Barry's charitable work that he does not like to talk. He hates it. Look at him now. He's actually quivering, squirming about.
- [57:48]
E
But he ran nine miles on Saturday.
- [57:50]
A
Yeah, he ran.
- [57:50]
E
I'm actually proud of you.
- [57:51]
A
And you can.
- [57:52]
E
Proud of you, Barry.
- [57:52]
A
You can still sponsor Barry. You can still get behind him. You still get around Barry and his campaign single handedly well save the world. Actually donating thousands of pounds to Great Ormond Street.
- [58:03]
F
Not my money.
- [58:04]
A
But yeah. No, but you're rallying people.
- [58:07]
F
I'm increasingly presenting everything.
- [58:10]
A
Stop backing away from this. Allow yourself to do something good.
- [58:13]
F
Okay.
- [58:13]
A
No, it's great. So you. But as part of this discussion, I questioned Barry on whether he had as a consequence cut out all vices from his life to which he delivered the line, the epic line which I think he's just got a speed dial in his pocket. No, I'm actually drinking a lot.
- [58:27]
E
If anything, I'm drinking more.
- [58:29]
A
Yeah. So. But he did say that he stopped smoking. At which point I said but you're still vaping, aren't you? And he's. Oh yeah, of course, of course. And I was able to reassure Barry that the other day I went to a kind of PR company's drinks. It was actually amazing PR company. In their lobby they have the drum from the COVID of Sergeant Pepper's W. Yeah, it's really bizarre. Yeah, there it was. So obviously I had a big bang on that and rolled it around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I, I met at this do the most famous health. I mean like just, just think through the roof name. Name your most doctor. Dr. Hillary. What's his name? Clinton. Dr. Ben. That guy Hillary, you know.
- [59:12]
E
No.
- [59:13]
F
Hillary.
- [59:13]
A
Hillary. Hillary Jones. Is he still alive? Is he still alive, Max? Doctor.
- [59:18]
E
I know, yeah.
- [59:18]
A
Yeah. And the most famous, you said before.
- [59:20]
E
The most famous person in the world.
- [59:21]
A
No. Well, the most famous person you would connect to. Celebrity vaping advice. Right. Yes. And he told me, vaping's absolutely fine.
- [59:30]
F
I'm massively underwhelmed by this. I was led to believe.
- [59:33]
A
Yeah, I know. There was talk about Taylor Swift. Yeah. But I mean, Dr. Hillary. No, he. Breakfast. No, sorry. He is huge. Like, isn't. Isn't. Is he. Isn't he?
- [59:45]
F
Well, I know who he is.
- [59:46]
A
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
- [59:47]
E
Martin says. Dear Max Baron, everyone. My friend Victor celebrating his 69th birthday on March 2nd today. Victor has, as my much older and less handsome friend. I'll turn 50 this year, been a role model, bandmate, great friend over the years, most importantly, introduced me to the joys and pain of football fandom and Football Weekly. We're both religious listeners. I'd love it if you could give a shout out to Victor on or near his birthday. He's a huge Manchester United fan, season ticket holder to the Vermont Green in USL 2 who had a great run to the championship last year. He's such a good friend that he missed that last championship game because of a prearranged visit to see me and attend a Philadelphia Union friendly. A terrible mistake. I hope you'll consider wishing Victor a happy birthday. We're hoping to coordinate on a 70th birthday celebration trip across the pond in 2027 to see Manchester United and a Football Weekly live show which we haven't planned yet. Thanks for all that you do in providing both humor and coverage of serious issues in the game. Martin, would you like to give in a Sheriff?
- [60:43]
F
I have considered wishing Victor A happy 69th birthday and I've decided I'm not good.
- [60:49]
E
Oh, why not?
- [60:50]
F
Don't.
- [60:51]
A
I mean, that is made. There's a really big build up.
- [60:55]
F
Well, am I not tacitly wishing him a happy birthday by acknowledging the fact that it's his birthday?
- [61:00]
A
The sideways glance. It is.
- [61:02]
E
That's what we are. I'll wish you a happy birthday, Victor. I hope you have a lovely day. Producer Joel says there are alternative views on vaping.
- [61:10]
A
I'm sure.
- [61:11]
E
Anyway, there we are. That's all too for today. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Barry.
- [61:14]
F
Thank you.
- [61:14]
E
Thank you, Barney.
- [61:16]
A
Thanks, Max.
- [61:17]
F
Thank you, Philippe.
- [61:17]
D
Thank you, Max.
- [61:18]
E
Football Weekly is produced by Taya Papula. Our executive producer is Joel Grove, and Robin Cowan will be hosting on Wednesday. I'll be in midair.