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Jack Pitt
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Really?
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High five everybody.
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- [00:49]
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The FIFA World Cup 26 is coming to North America next summer.
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Matt Davis Adams
Experience of a lifetime. Book a hospitality package@fifaworldcup.com hospitality. That's fifaworldcup.com hospitality. The Athletic FC welcome to the Athletic FC podcast. I'm Matt Davis Adams. Huge news from North London on Thursday as Daniel Levy was removed from his role as Tottenham Hotspur's Executive chairman after almost 25 years at the club. We'll discuss what that means for the future of Spurs. Also, as the Premier League takes a break, Liverpool are the only perfect side, Aston Villa can't score and Sunderland have won more games than Manchester City. We'll draw some hasty conclusions on what we've seen so far. But let's start with Thursday's shock announcement from North London spurs pulling the Levy leaves lever. I'm joined by the Athletics, Jack Pitt, Brooke Jay Harris and Oliver Kaye. Jack, let's start with you. You've written the excellent deep dive on this shock announcement. How did it come about and why? Spurs statement said step down. From your understanding, that's not actually the case, right?
- [02:17]
Jack Pitt
Well, it depends what you mean by step down. I don't think it was his decision. The way that I phrased it in my work is that he was removed by the majority shareholders, the Lewis family. But no, I don't think he. I don't think he decided on Thursday morning that he actually Wanted. He wanted to do something else. I think he was told this by, by the Lewis family and their representatives. How has it come to this? Well, it's, it's a long story. What I've written today is that the Lewis family instigated a review at the start of this calendar year into why the team was underperforming, which led to them bringing in an American firm to. Into the club to look into this and speak to key figures, which is a process which led to a series of changes this summer. We've seen obviously the, basically the restructuring the club, the appointment of a new CEO before the departure of Daniel Levy, the departure of Donna Cullen, one of Levy's like one of the, the most important people during the Levy tenure. And of course the, you know, the, the final part of this, not that anybody was expecting this outside of an incredibly tight circle 24 hours ago, is the, is the departure of Daniel Levy himself. But I think the view from the, the view from people I've spoken to is that ultimately it comes down to performance on the pitch and the, and the desire of the Lewis family to. For the club to be more successful.
- [03:45]
Matt Davis Adams
Jay, this is seismic news. Obviously you've been covering the club. Who's going to be taking charge now then?
- [03:50]
Jay Harris
It's huge news. It came as a massive shock to I think everybody. As Jack alluded to, no one expected it, least of all Daniel Levy this time yesterday. The person who's taken charge as a non executive chairman now. So that's a newly created role. Levy was the executive chairman. So Peter Charrington is going to come in as a non executive chairman. He only joined the board back in March. So what in the space of six months is quite a rapid ascent. Charrington is former CEO of Citi Private Bank. He's someone who's quite, you know, well embedded within the Lewis family. So this is, yeah, quite a substantial summer of change, as Jack already alluded to. And let's see what, what Charrington's going to do next.
- [04:27]
Oliver Kaye
It's.
- [04:28]
Matt Davis Adams
It's a really long stint at a Premier League club.
- [04:30]
Oliver Kaye
Right.
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Matt Davis Adams
Nearly quarter of a century. But I guess the legacy looks different if you view it in terms of on the pitch and off the pitch.
- [04:37]
Oliver Kaye
It does, yeah. I mean, the stick to beat him with has always been, you know, Tottenham not winning trophies. Well, Tottenham did win a trophy very shortly before Enik and Levy bought the club. In 99 they won the League cup. Then there was another League cup in 2008 and then until then, nothing until the Europa League earlier this year and I think that has led to a lot of people to sort of characterise it as 25 years of failure on the pitch. I don't think that's fair. I don't think it's accurate or sensible or balanced in the least. I think you've got to look at spurs progress in many different ways, not just the stadium and the revenues, which are obvious and the sort of commercial success, but they have become a top six team. We now talk of a big six in English football. Obviously they finished 17th last season, but they won a trophy. That's the contradiction there. But we talk about big six in English football. I think if Tottenham hadn't been run well over the last 25 years, there is no way anybody would be talking about them as part of a big six. Even as the sixth member of the big six. If you go back 25 years, they were probably on a par or behind Newcastle, Aston Villa, Everton, possibly in terms of immediate on pitch potential. They've been a club that has qualified for the Champions League regularly that has never been, apart from last season, remotely in danger of relegation over that period has been a sort of stable top 10 club that probably feels it's underachieving when finishing fifth, sixth. And as I say, there's this contradiction that after a period of real struggle on the pitch and a sort loss of identity post Pochettino, really, they actually won a trophy last year, which, yes, it does confuse the picture somewhat.
- [06:21]
Jay Harris
Should have just said a minute ago, by the way, in terms of the wording of the statement that spurs put out last night, as Jack has already mentioned, it says that he stepped down. It was only a couple of months ago, just after new CEO Vinay Venkateshem had been appointed. Levy did a very rare interview and it was a joint interview with Venkatesham talking about how he wanted spurs to win the Premier League and the Champions League in the near future. We know he was really heavily involved in. In sacking postecoglou, hiring Thomas Frank and was heavily involved throughout their business in the transfer window, especially with Eberechi? E. So to suddenly leave three games into the season, you could just tell by the clues that something didn't add up. And obviously Jack has, has done some great work to uncover what really happened.
- [07:01]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, Jack, in terms of Daniel Levy, then as. As we sort of start to wrap up, do you think that it will be significant for him that he left having delivered a trophy? And do you think that maybe spurs supporters will view his reign differently as time progresses? Obviously some People will be celebrating this morning. Is that going to be the long standing feeling or will he gain a bit more respect as time goes on?
- [07:24]
Jack Pitt
I certainly think he will gain a bit more respect as time goes on. I think that it's no secret that lots of fans have been pretty frustrated with his running the club in recent years. You know, that is there for all to see. But I think my view is that he has, he has put the club on a very sound footing with the. I mean, I think his big legacy really is the infrastructure projects. The, the, the training ground which opened in 2012, and the stadium in 2019 which Levy oversaw the building of. And you know, this was not a stadium that was handed to Tottenham or built by somebody else and they got to move into on the cheap, you know, that Tottenham had to, had to build this and pay for it themselves. And you can already see what a fantastic stadium is and how much money it brings into the club every single week. So I think in that sense he's put the club on a really stable footing. And the other point I think you have to remember about Daniel Levy is that Enoch bought Alan Sugar's shareholding in Tottenham in 2000. In the 25 years since then, the financial landscape of the Premier League has completely transformed with, you know, Roman Abramovich buying Chelsea Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mansour buying Manchester City. It's, it's a completely different game now. It's. Even before you get on to Newcastle and Saudi Arabia, like, it's a completely different game now. And Tottenham have not had the kind of billionaire benefactor spending that other teams have had. So they've had to try and grow as a club, spending within their means, spending what they, what they generate, while also trying to compete on the pitch with teams who are run in a completely different way and have access to completely different levels of resource. And I think that trying to, trying to keep Tottenham stable and competitive in that landscape is a big achievement, even though people will say they didn't win enough on the pitch.
- [09:20]
Matt Davis Adams
So on the pitch then, Jay, any impact, you think, from Levy's departure in terms of the rest of the season?
- [09:27]
Jay Harris
It doesn't seem like it. Charrington was quoted in the, the club statement that they put out saying that this was a new era and in the new appointments in Venkatesh and Thomas Frank and off the back of a transfer window where they have invested quite heavily, sort of think that for the time being it's going to be business as usual. And I certainly think again from the sources that Jack and I have spoken to. That's what's being said behind the scenes. You know, just preaching stability, that, yes, this is come as a bit of a surprise, but moving forward, they're just going to crack on with. With looking ahead. But it remains to be seen how it's going to impact the team in the future.
- [10:00]
Matt Davis Adams
Let's give the last word to you then, Jack. How do you think Thomas Frank's feeling about this? He's not been in the post long and this is a pretty significant change for him to have to deal with.
- [10:09]
Jack Pitt
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's. It's. I've been thinking about this this morning, how everyone, everyone in the building at Tottenham must be feeling. It must have a surreal feeling. I think people were completely shocked by the news yesterday. Nobody saw this coming. Remember that. There'll be. I mean, I'd be shocked if there's anyone at Tottenham who's been there longer than Daniel Levy. So for so many Tottenham employees, all they will have known is Levy. And Levy is not just. He was not just the longest running chairman in the Premier League in the modern era. He was also, I think, probably the most powerful. By. By which I mean the amount of things at the club that he controlled, like, he ran a very, very, very. He ran it with real control and it was run by a very close circle of people right around him. And so it's kind of. It's. So it's. It's very difficult. I think it will be very difficult for lots of people to get their head around the fact that the man who ran this ship in the way that he did is not there anymore, that he's been removed and that. I mean, it's not a completely new set of bosses because, you know, Vinay Venkateshen's been there since June. Peter Charrington's been on the board since March. Although obviously he's stepping into this non executive chairman position. So I think for everyone, it will be an incredibly strange period of time.
- [11:20]
Matt Davis Adams
All right, well, for more on this story, head to the View from the Lane, our dedicated spurs podcast. Jay, if you were to hazard a guess at how Danny Kelly is going to handle this.
- [11:30]
Jay Harris
Enthusiastically. Well, not to say that he's happy with the news. He's actually quite a staunch supporter of Daniel Levy in the way he's helped to build the club over the years. But I think he'll be. Animated. That's the word I'm looking for.
- [11:41]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, I think we can take that as a given. Great stuff, Jack. Thank you for your contributions. Today and your magnificent piece. We'll let you try and enjoy your weekend. Okay, next we'll assess the state of the Premier League after the opening three matches.
- [11:58]
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I must have time traveled to the future.
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Oliver Kaye
It's all good.
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Jay Harris
Happens all the time.
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- [14:04]
Matt Davis Adams
This is the Athletic FC podcast, proudly sponsored by Betfair. Right then, Liverpool are perched on top of the table after winning their first three games that even before Alexander Isak arrived. On Monday's FC IO, James Pearce and Adam Crafton discuss whether that addition makes them unstoppable. Have a listen to that Once you finish with us, we'll begin by discussing the teams we expect to challenge slotside or at least to try and hang on to their coattails. Oli, like Liverpool, Arsenal also invested heavily. They've got a number of new players to try and bed in. Your Jocarez's, Zupamendes, your madwaques, your EZ's. Was there a feeling at Anfield last week that Mikel Arteta's still finding out how to fit these new pieces into his puzzle?
- [14:47]
Oliver Kaye
I don't think so. I feel it was. I mean obviously it's quite a change in terms of the type of centre forward they've got in Jocores. He's a different technical profile physically and maybe there's an adaption in style needed for him and for them. But I think Zubimendi slotted in very comfortably. I think Mosquera, when he came on off the bench very early on for an injured Saliba came slotted in very nicely as well, fairly seamlessly. I felt it was like watching last season's Arsenal and there are positives and negatives to that, but I do feel people have perhaps dwelt a little too long on the negatives. I feel it was a really even game that probably felt like a nil nil and was probably always going to be won if anything by a moment of brilliance or a mistake and it was a moment of brilliant from Dominik Szoboszlai. But it didn't feel to me like. Well, I felt like a lot of the criticism post match was sort of influenced by what we had seen last season and perhaps certain similarity with that rather than being a sort of level headed appraisal of Arsenal's performance on the day.
- [15:57]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, you wonder if maybe Arteta had a win to his name away at City or Liverpool that might have colored things differently. None in 15 in all competitions at Anfield or the Etihad.
- [16:06]
Oliver Kaye
But him. Can I just say, can I just say on that? And it'll sound like I'm really defending Arteta when I'm not particularly. I don't particularly like the sort of more attritional, more kind of less risky, less less expansive approach he's taken over the last 12 months or so. But that record of not really winning any, any games at Liverpool or Man City, it doesn't look good. But you consider that Man City have only won once at Liverpool in 22 years, which was the game where there was no crowd in there during COVID behind closed doors. That's their only win At Liverpool. Liverpool have only won once. Last season's win at Manchester City was their first in 10 seasons at Manchester City. Generally speaking, it's very, very hard to get those, to win those games as the away team and Arsenal's record, I think it's either seven draws and eight defeats or eight draws and seven defeats. It doesn't sound like a lot of points, but if you're drawing those games, you're generally. Well, you're not losing them and the other team aren't picking up three points. So I think Arteta has gone into those games on a number of occasions and thought let's not lose, let's be happy with the draw. I feel like that was. I think you can criticize that in the sense that when it got to the final 20 minutes on Sunday, you can. Even though he made some attacking offensive looking substitutions with Eze coming on Odegaard, it felt to me like they were the team who were more likely to settle for the point and Liverpool were the team that were more likely to push for the win. But it still required a somewhat freakish goal, brilliant but somewhat freakish goal from Szoboszlai to win it. So I think some of the criticisms is a little excessive. I'm on board with that being the criticism that you can make of Arteta's Arsenal that perhaps they don't go for the jugular enough. But I think it was, it was a little bit sort of retrofitting it to fit this match in terms of the narrative that's taken hold since.
- [18:05]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, and let's not forget they were so close to winning at the Etihad last season, weren't they? With 10 men it was what, 98th minute when John Stone's equalized there. So have been very different there, Jay. They had the best defense last season. Are these new attacking signings going to give them what they need at the other end of the pitch? And, and how significant do you feel it is that they're already chasing three points behind Liverpool? And I mean a pretty tricky run to come, right? Forest at home, then Man City at home, then Newcastle away.
- [18:32]
Jay Harris
Yeah, firstly, just to follow up on what Oli said, I think Arsenal have gone to Anfield and other places over the years, tried to play expansively and been absolutely hammered. I remember they lost I think 5:1 when Brendan Rogers was in charge one year. So I do understand why Arteta's sort of taken that safety first approach. It might not be the prettiest product. It certainly was very boring at the weekend, but I Understand why he's done that. I think the main criticism you could level at him is that having subdued Liverpool for so long, he probably should have bought on Ezzer and Odegaard maybe 10 minutes before he did. In terms of the attacking signings they made, I think it just gives them a few different profiles. We all know Saka is a fantastic footballer. He's so reliable in terms of goals and assists, but he certainly doesn't have that same explosiveness as Noni Madueke. And that looked like that was going to be their best route to scoring. Just sort of Ray of punting the ball long Madaweke racing onto the end of it. So that just gives opposition teams something different to think about. We know that since Arteta's time in charge, their right wing has always been considerably more stronger with Saka, Odegaard and Ben White. Nigerian timber. And so I think bringing E on whether he starts on the left wing or whether he starts as the left number eight, it just gives Arsenal few more options there, gives them a bit more versatility and ideally for them it gives them better rotational options. You know last year they were calling on Raheem Sterling, IFA Manieri, who's obviously a very talented player but he's still very young. And so I think that now they've just got more senior options of the bench that their strength and depth probably matches. Man City and Liverpool's a little bit more in terms of being three points behind. I don't think it's that significant at this stage of the season, but as you alluded to their fixture this is is pretty nasty. I'm sure that they can get results against Forest and Man City. The one that I think Arsenal fans will be more concerned about is Newcastle away because Anthony Gordon. I know Isak's not there anymore, but Anthony Gordon, Isak and Eddie Howe have really terrorized Arteta's team over the last two, three seasons. So I think if they emerge through those three games unbeaten then they'll be in a decent position.
- [20:36]
Matt Davis Adams
All right, tough games to come for Arsenal then. We'll take a break, come back and talk about some of the other contenders.
- [20:47]
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- [21:40]
Jay Harris
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Matt Davis Adams
For the five year price lock guarantee and I can't stop high fiving people.
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Jay Harris
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Matt Davis Adams
Really?
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Matt Davis Adams
High five everybody.
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Jay Harris
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- [22:08]
Jack Pitt
Other restrictions apply.
- [22:14]
Matt Davis Adams
This is the Athletic FC podcast, proudly sponsored by Betfair. Well, Chelsea are one of only three sides yet to lose along with Liverpool and Crystal Palace. They benefited from some questionable officiating against Fulham. Josh King's opener ruled out for a foul by Rodrigo Muniz on his program, which might as well be called Sorry, pugmol chief Howard Webb said of the decision. It wasn't controversial, it was wrong. That decision dominated the chat last weekend. Jay Chelsea were pretty lucky, weren't they? We've got to consider that when we assess their start to the season. Obviously couldn't break down pal thrash West Ham and then needed some help to get past Fulham.
- [22:54]
Jay Harris
Yeah, they probably were a little bit lucky, but I think those decisions sort of evened themselves out over the course of the season. Of course it was a bad one and the game, the state of the game that it happened in made it worse. The thing with with Chelsea and I know that Liverpool and Arsenal are in a very similar position, but just the amount of churn and change that happens in that squad every year is just like absolutely relentless. And so I do just wonder how you get any type of stability when you're chopping and changing things so quickly. You know, it only felt like maybe back in January that Madwaque, Cole Palmer and Nicholas Jackson were sort of the the starting front three and now two of those, two of those players had left and one of those players is injured. So I think that's something that's going to hold Chelsea back because Maresca probably needs to work out and it will take him a little bit longer working out what to do with all of these options. Whereas you look at Arsenal and. And Liverpool, you can sort of say, well, Wirtz is clearly going to be the first choice number 10. Isak clearly going to be the first choice number nine. Jokers is clearly going to be the first choice number nine. Whereas with Chelsea, I know the lap is injured now, which maybe makes things a little bit easier, but they need to work out exactly how they fit. Xiao, Pedro De Lapp, Esteval, all these players into the team. I think that's going to be a little bit more complicated.
- [24:04]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah. The other thing that complicates it for them, Oli, is obviously the Club World Cup. You were out in America for some of that. They won the thing, but they didn't have much of a preseason as a result, only two games. And one of those was against Erik Ten Hag's labour queues. And so that doesn't really count. Do you see them being able to sustain a title challenge this season? The lap injury is obviously significant. They already look a bit fatigued.
- [24:28]
Oliver Kaye
Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, people were. I think people have been curious and intrigued to see whether this, whether the Club World cup involvement and the very strange summer that they had would impact them. And you look at the results, you think, well, they've relatively speaking, flown out of the box with seven points from first three games. But they have picked up injuries. Palmer, Colwell and now De Lapp. Any team could pick up injuries. I think the sort of pros and cons and the impact of that Club World cup will become clear in the medium term. I wasn't really surprised that they've hit the ground running. I think their fixtures have been quite nice in some ways, apart from the fact that it's three London Derbies, a lot of London Derbys early on for them. I felt the fixtures have given them a bit of an opportunity without really being tested by one of the top sides yet the way Arsenal have, Liverpool have. But I'm just intrigued to see how they do when they switch to two games a week, which is clearly going to stretch the squad more because playing in the Champions League is going to test the first 11 a lot more than playing in the Conference League.
- [25:34]
Matt Davis Adams
And that two games a week thing kicks in for them after the international break. They go to Brentford, which has been a tricky place for them over the last couple of years, and then Bayern Munich for a quick reunion with Nicholas Jackson. Plenty more Chelsea chat on straight out of Cobham, the Athletics Chelsea FC podcast. But let's talk Manchester City now. Jay Plenty of praise for Pep's peeps after they beat Wolves on the opening day. Since then they've lost the spurs and to Brighton. Are you surprised by their struggles after that really convincing performance at Moliney?
- [26:04]
Jay Harris
I'm not surprised they lost. The spurs versus record that the ETI had in the last few years is pretty incredible. I wasn't there this time, but I was there when PosteCogli beat them 4 nil last year. Two very different approaches from two very different managers. But you know, they both worked in a nullified city. I think obviously we shouldn't, we shouldn't shy away from the fact that there's been a hell of a lot of change in that backline over the last 12 months. Not just this summer, but going back to January when Carl Walker first left and went on loan to to AC Milan and now he's obviously at Burnley. You've obviously lost Edison and sort of brought back James Trafford back into the fold. And I think you could see in that spurs game in particular Trafford struggles playing out from the back. Maybe he's just not quite up to speed. He's not quite on the same level as some of his other colleagues. There's now going to be more change in the goalkeeper department because they shined. Jean Luigi Donna Rumor on deadline day. So always takes a little bit of time when you're tweaking things, I think especially in the, in the defense, whenever you're, you're changing your back line. Even if it's something as simple as changing one left back from one week to the other, which is what happened when Ait Nouri was injured. Do you think that has a lingering impact? I don't really know who their first choice right back is. Is it Rico Lewis? Is it Matthias Nunez? That's clearly sort of a weak spot. And then going further forward. We know that Haaland is exceptional. Ray and Cherky is now injured I think with a fire injury for a couple of months, which doesn't help. But then I think they probably need more end product from Savinho, from Jeremy Doku. Those guys are fantastic 1v1 dribblers. They know how to create opportunities, but I just don't think they get enough assists and enough goals. And so I think there's lots of crinkles in the team that Guardiola needs to iron out.
- [27:39]
Matt Davis Adams
Big challenge then for him, isn't it? Ole. And of course he's changed his coaching staff as well this season. Are you under the impression that he's up for this challenge and that he's got the capability to turn Manchester City back into what they were in his pomp?
- [27:53]
Oliver Kaye
I'm sure he's up for it. I mean, he exudes energy a lot of the time. I mean, there are times when he can look sort of slightly browbeaten, but he always exudes energy. But I would say there's a real question mark in my mind about the direction they've taken. I mentioned the direction Arteta has taken over the last 12 months, and it's become a bit more sort of attritional football, sort of relying on second balls, set pieces a lot of the time. But I think the change in Manchester City's style, but also the sort of absolute huge turnover in players over the last 12, 18 months has been really, really quite strange. I've got my head around the idea that the guy who introduced the false nine and Lionel Messi to the world as the great false9 and always said, well, center forward has to be about creating and pressing rather than just goal scoring. I've got my head around the idea that, yeah, he wants to do different now with Erling Haaland, but to go in a different direction with the goalkeepers where he has signed Donnarumma. Having spent the past decade telling us and telling everybody and influencing everybody to think that a goalkeeper's first job is to play out from the back, I think that's a really big sort of change of direction in terms of the way he's gone. Because Don Rumor, let's not forget, has been surplus to requirements PSG after winning the Champions League because Luis Enrique thinks he's not good enough with his feet and not good enough with his feet to play out for the back in Ligue 1, which is. Yeah, I'm just confused by it. I haven't heard Pep Guardiola's explanation for it, and I'll be really interested when I do because I love listening to his explanations. Apart from the sarcasm. I don't like the sarcasm. Come on, Pep, you're better than that. But that turnover that they've had in players is just enormous. And I think at their best, when they were sort of six league titles in seven seasons, unprecedented English football, it was generally a case of tweaking two or three players every year, maybe tweaking one or two positions, gradually betting in another. And we look at the Manchester City team now and we don't really know what you're Going to get one week from the next. You don't really know what a Manchester City midfield looks like now, so I'm slightly confused by the direction they've taken.
- [30:11]
Matt Davis Adams
This is the Athletic FC podcast, proudly sponsored by Betfair. Right. This is the part of the show where with the help of our partners Betfair, we show you how you can play in a different league this season. Alex Boyes is with me. Alex, after the first three game weeks, have the markets changed in terms of the title race?
- [30:31]
Alex Boyes
Yeah, it's time for that early season reflection. Is it to see what's happened on the outright markets on the Betfair Sportsbook since that first ball was kicked to Anfield and which sides have either been backed in by the punters or may have drifted in the market after defending difficult starts. And maybe plug your ears Aston Villa fans as we get going here but to the title race. And it's no surprise really to see Liverpool as the six to five favorites following those three straight wins. Burnley and Everton to come for them by the way. But it, but it's Manchester City who are the biggest drifters here. Who they started the season as the 31 second favorites but they're now out to 71 on the Betfair Sportsbook. And I don't know what you think Matt, but it feels like some sides have sort of lost their fear of competing. Going toe to toe with with pep side and they've got the Derby and Arsenal to come after the break. So I really don't think they can afford that five point gap to wider much more if they have serious hopes for the title. And just quickly the biggest losers in this market. I don't think many people were back in these two sides but Newcastle and Villa, their odds now 125 and 251 respectively. Having been sort of best of the rest at the start of the season, if you will.
- [31:36]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, probably some Villa fans thinking it might be about 250 to 1 for them to score a goal the way things are going. Are they involved in the betting in terms of relegation as it swung that dramatically and what else is happening in that market?
- [31:49]
Alex Boyes
They are going to get a mention here but I think it's a stretch to say they're involved. I think the good news here for me, Matt, is that I don't have to go into Leeds too much here.
- [31:57]
Matt Davis Adams
I thought you were going to put them in the title section.
- [32:01]
Alex Boyes
I almost did, you know. Hey, we're above Man City. We've got a better chance, haven't we? So look, Leeds are the only newly promoted team sort of currently outside of the bottom three in the relegation market. They're at nine to four. They've been replaced by Wolves since the start of the season who are now odds on at 17:20 having lost their first three games of course. But in all honesty though, it's actually Sunderland who are the biggest winners here, that they were the favorites to finish bottom of the pile. They were shorts two to nine to be relegated, but six points from three games is what a fantastic start that's been. Despite them also sitting odds on at 19:20, the drift in their odds converted from to a probability is now 51% compared to 80% from three weeks ago. So they've got Palace, Villa and Forest to come for them after the break as well. So a great start. And on Aston Villa, look, they only side yet to score a goal in the Premier League. As you mentioned Matt, they do have three players in Thomas Tuchel's England squad this week. Watkins, Rodgers and Concert. But it's been a really disappointing start, hasn't it so far. And look, there's still a massive price at 21 for relegation but that prize was a massive 151 at the start of last month.
- [33:08]
Matt Davis Adams
So I'm guessing in our final section we're not going to be mentioning Ollie Watkins then. Golden Boots. It's the kind of thing that people love a bet on. It's the kind of thing that's dominated often by Erling Haaland and or Mo Salah. But I don't think that they're the players we're going to talk about today.
- [33:25]
Alex Boyes
No, I mean Haaland is the favorite having scored three goals in the first three games. But that he was a favourite before a ball was kicked as well. I mean the name I'm going to have to mention here is Alexander Isaac. But perhaps after this we could all just refuse to talk about him for the rest of the season because it feels like he's had a decade worth of airtime this summer. But having been the 6 to 1 3rd favorite to win the Golden Moot before the season, his on strike antics saw him drift to 16:1. But he's now got that dream move. And since he got that move, Matt, he's been the most backed player in the Golden Boot market on the Betfair Sportsbook and he's now been backed in in to 15 2. But he's already, as I say, three goals behind Erling Haaland. The final one to mention in this market, Matt, I Mean, how about this? Do you think you could name the. The biggest mover in the Golden Boot race after three games, he's actually got something in common with Alexander Isaac.
- [34:12]
Matt Davis Adams
Oh, okay. So a big money signing perhaps for a big name club. I want to say Yokerez, but then I suppose he did score against you a lot, didn't he? But have we seen enough from him otherwise? Is it Yokerez?
- [34:26]
Alex Boyes
It is Jocores. You're right. I mean, you know what, you named two other things he had in common. I was just going with the simple. They're both Swedish. But fair play, Matt, you know your stuff. Yeah, Victor Gokarez. Look, he's now 6 to 1. He started at 12:1 at the start of the season but as you say, he got that brace against Leeds and people have been a bit up and down on his performances so far, but a couple of goals to his name and yeah, now six to one. So very. I'm very sure Arsenal fans will be happy to hear that.
- [34:48]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, great stuff, Alex. We've managed to get a few mentions of Leeds in there, so I won't ask you to give me a price on Dominic Calvert Lewin to win the Golden Boot. Thanks for your time today. Enjoy the international football. We'll catch up with you again soon. This is the Athletic FC podcast, proudly sponsored by Betfair. And even though we've only had three games of the new campaign, there have been some teams who've made us sit up and take notice. For better or for worse. Sunderland and Everton, two teams who have invested in their playing squad for Bournemouth and Palace. Jay, it's a different story, isn't it? They both lost key players during the transfer window. They both started well. Then I wonder how much of that is down to the fact that although some of their big hitters on the pitch have gone, they both managed to keep their coveted coaches.
- [35:33]
Jay Harris
It's crucial. Just having that familiarity with how the manager wants to play is key. We've obviously seen Amarin struggles to implement a very similar formation to Glasner, but the fact that Glassner's been there for much longer period of time just means that is sort of automated. I do feel a little bit sorry for Glassner though, because I just think the situation he was put into with Mark Gay and the way he's had to constantly face questions about it and as a before that, you know, he's just won palace, their first major trophy in the history and I think I would have liked to have seen him be backed a little bit better. You know, I think his contract expires at the end of the season and if he continues to produce these results, beating Aston Villa free nil away from home, then it wouldn't surprise me if he got a bigger and better job offer in the future. And then Bournemouth. I was at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium last weekend and you know, I think Thomas Frank's spurs underperformed, but Bournemouth was just exceptional. We know that Semenyo's an incredible player. He's probably one of my favorite players in the division to watch. I thought David Brooks was absolutely outstanding as well. We all know about his story, but he was just incredible, popping up in so many different areas of the pitch. He had the crossbar for. Alex Scott was really good as well. So sometimes I definitely think you can put Bournemouth and Brentford in a similar categories in the sense that sometimes they lose loads of players in one window and you think, oh, they're going to be in trouble this season. But they always sign young players and sort of develop them and even if they're not getting a lot of minutes, they're slowly getting experience. And so when they do suddenly lose key players, they've normally got the replacement ready to just drop into the team straight away. So I think that's the case with Bournemouth this season. Brentford maybe not so, but in previous years that's been the case with them.
- [37:08]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, definitely big for Brentford to get that win against Villa. I think otherwise we might be having a different conversation about then. Speaking of Villa by transfer dealings, they were busy on deadline day. They brought in Victor Lindelof, Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho. Bit of a whiff of desperation about that maybe, given they were beaten 3 nil at home by Crystal Palace. Unai Emery side, the only team in the top four tiers of English football yet to score a goal this season. Here's the athletics Jacob Tanswell explaining why they can't find the net.
- [37:38]
Jacob Tanswell
If you look at personnel until deadline day when they managed to acquire Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott and that hopefully should add some more depth, they were really starved a for the first part of the season. If you look at last season, actually Villa weren't playing too well at the start of it, maybe similar to now at the moment, but they had the bailout almost of John Duran who could smash the ball in from 40 yards or crank a header towards the far post out of nothing, you know, he could come up these magic moments. And as a result, Villa overperform their XG start of the season when they weren't playing Particularly well like I mentioned. And then you had Marcus Rashford coming in Marco Asensu in January which added more firepower. But then if you look from a tactical structure point of view, there's always that feeling that Villa need to evolve this season. I think the way they've played under Emerys obviously had massive success but teams are starting to figure out how, you know that they're slow coaxing football and wanting to teams to be dragged out and to be baited isn't quite working anymore because teams are winning like you saw against Crystal palace in the FA cup semi final to sit in the mid block, not jump out of shape. As a result Villa find it more difficult to jump and go through teams. So I think they need some more of evolution in terms of their build up play in terms of their gameplay and attack with a bit more speed in order to create better high XG chances.
- [38:56]
Matt Davis Adams
Thank you Jacob Oli. Aston Villa Champions League quarter finalists last season. As we've said, they can't score a goal. What's going on please? And you're not allowed to just say Marco Bizzot as your answer repeatedly.
- [39:09]
Oliver Kaye
There's been a bit of a whiff of negativity around them, hasn't there since the season began. There are PSR constraints which is an obvious factor and they've not really been able to build on the good team that they've assembled. They've sold some decent players. They've not really sold players from their first 11 particularly but they've started so poorly this season. The Newcastle. The performance against Newcastle was a little bit concerning even before the conserved card defeat at Brentford when Brentford were looking like they were there for the taking. That was alarming. The defeat by palace was really poor, really, really poor performance and it's a slight kind of alarm bells ringing. And Unai Emery is obviously a brilliant coach but he seems a little bit negative about the prospects. I thought their movements on deadline day were symptomatic of panic. But I do think Harvey Elliott should be a really good signing. I mean sometimes you can get, you know, sometimes when you're panicking you can find yourself a bargain. It doesn't really happen for me on Christmas Eve when I'm going to the petrol station at 9pm Box of milk tray. But it's Harvey Elliott looks a bargain. Jadon Sancho looks like a genuine panic signing that. Look, he's got an upside there if he gets his confidence going. But it didn't really happen at Chelsea, didn't really happen at Manchester United. It's been a number of years since since we seen the Jadon Sancho of old Victor Lindelof. I would have always described him as a competent, steady central defender, but he only started I think six Premier League games last season for Manchester United, so that again looked a little bit desperate. It doesn't really feel like that's going to freshen things up, but I feel like perhaps Harvey Elliott will.
- [40:53]
Matt Davis Adams
We are just about out of time though. Before we go, Oli, I want you to tell us more about your Premier League predictions, please. You pitted yourself against an algorithm, a child and our subscribers.
- [41:05]
Oliver Kaye
Yeah, this is a new feature we're running on the Athletic this season. It's predicting the Premier League scores each week. As you say, it's a six year old child Wilfred. I think Opta inspired data based algorithm, myself and a weekly guest subscriber who will be submitting their 10 predictions each week. Slightly concerned but also quite cheered to say that subscribers are currently leading. I don't. I think it would look terrible for me if I end up put in my place by the subscribers, by a 6 year old and worst of all by an algorithm. In these days when me as a 50 year old I'm constantly worried about being outwitted by our readers, by children basically, and by AI. They are the three threats to us. My job so for my supposed expertise to be being undermined on a weekly basis is slightly alarming, but it's been a lot of fun. The games were very unpredictable last week and that's why I got precisely no scorelines right and only three results correct. And that's why I lie third out of four at the moment. But I'm really confident it's going to turn around and and I'm going to at least beat the algorithm who just predicts one one for everything.
- [42:29]
Jay Harris
You sound like a manager in a Friday press conference who's lost three games on a spin. How are you going to turn it around? I feel confident I'll turn it around.
- [42:38]
Oliver Kaye
I mean to be honest, there was a lot of uncertainty as the transfer window remained open and we were in a state flux and the international break doesn't help. It's very stop start and there's the European games but yeah, we'll find our if people are patient with us.
- [42:57]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah and 6 year olds are always tough opponents and you don't want to be going to algorithm on a Tuesday night in October and having to get something.
- [43:04]
Oliver Kaye
It's fun and it's interactive and it's as I say, slightly embarrassing for me at the moment, but that will change. It will.
- [43:11]
Matt Davis Adams
Well, if you're interested in potentially embarrassing Ollie, then head over to the Athletic for more details on that. That's where we're going to leave things for today though. Many thanks to Jay and to Ollie and to Jack for joining us earlier and to Jacob for his contributions too, and producer Mike for putting it all together than listening as well. Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. That way you'll never miss an episode. We'll catch up with you soon. You've been listening to the Athletic FC Podcast. The producer was Jay Beal. Executive producers are Abby Patterson and Admir to listen to other great athletic podcasts for free, including our dedicated club shows. Search for the Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. The Athletic FC Podcast is an athletic media company production and proudly sponsored by.
- [43:54]
Jacob Tanswell
Betfair.
- [44:10]
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- [45:36]
Jay Harris
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