Barry Glan Denny on Football Weekly (The Guardian): "I'd be very, very surprised if he gets away with nothing, given ...

This is The Guardian. Hello and welcome to The Guardian football week clear, it's an AFL special, Millball West Townshare. The point is a great opportunity to say the word feap rile scenes in the hammer's end when Mavra Panos got it back to 2-2. The point keeps them in the top two. Swansea top after Wynnette Lincoln, they're playing some nice stuff, are they good enough to mount a promotion challenge? Middles were a rescue point of Birmingham while Wolves beat West Brahms, Southampton's recent decent run is ended at Rexham who tries some hilarious spy gate material before and after. Burnley a bottom, what's going on there? In league 1 Bradford lead the way, just 3 points clear of 5th place high flying Cambridge while Barnett atop of league 2. We'll see if any England players haven't pulled out the squad before the Odyssey International Break begins. Your questions, and that's today's Guardian football week clear. On the panel today, Barry Glan Denny, welcome. Homeaxe. Hello, Sandy, Rudra Vagula. Hello, Max. From not the top 20, George, all right, George. Hello, Max, yeah, all good. We'll start with the championship then Swansea top 17 points from eight games. West Ham middles were both have 15 from eight, Wolves 14 from seven, Ab West Brom 14 from eight, QPR 13 from eight, and we have to start the new den, Millball 2, West Ham 2. George, you were there. How was it? Yeah, I should clarify that I was there very much for work reasons, not one of these vloggers coming in, and as a football tourist, because I know that tickets were hard to come by for Millball fans. We're making a film about the rivalry, because we share a sponsor with Millball, so we were there very much in a kind of work capacity, but it was, yeah, it was amazing. It was actually genuinely one of the most enjoyable and thrilling live sports events I think I've ever been to, and for all the right reasons as well, obviously the notoriety of the game precedes it. There was a lot of stuff before about, you know, the police presence and other things, I think the reality is that the den is quite easy to police, because there is already a very kind of set way that away fans travel to the away end. I think the game of the London stadium might be more difficult for the police to sort out, given the issues there in the past and the way that that stadium is set up, but in terms of the actual atmosphere and the game itself, it was unbelievable. The 10, 15 minutes before kickoff was as loud a stadium as I can remember being in. The renditions of London calling and the various kind of Millball songs that we know all about were incredible. The sound when the teams came out and a kickoff, Gents and Metcalf, the Millball center field are basically going through a gyro bow and after 15 seconds and setting the tone for the game was amazing. The performance for Millball in that first half where they, you know, I don't think any Millball fan could have possibly envisaged the dominance that they would show over West Ham in that first half. I don't think any West Ham fan could have possibly thought it could have gone as badly for them. Sensation in the first half. The fact that both goals going, you know, one in and two in a lap through Caleb Taylor and come on, Negley, both came from Lyndon Dyke's long throws, just seems absolutely perfect. Like your six foot four center forward launching it into the box to be prodded and prodded home by a center back in the first case after Hamson made a couple of very good saves. Mark Sykes nearly scored one of the best goals I've ever seen live. I'm kind of a ball-raising person, doesn't it? It was, you know, a role, but it had that just enough bobble on it to enable him to hit it in the way that he did and cannon off the crossbar. We have an amazing view of it. And then the second half where West Ham came back into the game inevitably as we thought they would, seeing them score twice, picking the other end of the stadium, but the, you know, the limbs in the West Ham end after their equalising goal was absolutely remarkable to see live as well and the noise that came out of it. And then in the last ten minutes when it felt that West Ham were probably going to find a winner, we then had a huge opportunity for Millball to win it. Lisby kind of set through having closed down a can take clearance. I think his first and second touch weren't great and a man that he couldn't really get away from can take can take made up the ground quickly and obviously took one for the team and took what was unquestionably a very clever red card to take. But there was that moment of anticipation in the stadium from the moment that Lisby made the block until he was fouled where there was this collective intake of breath where I think everyone thought, oh my God, are we about to see one of the most iconic goals in EFL history? And it was a shame that it was, it was taken away from us. But yeah, an amazing day out, didn't see any trouble, just saw a lot of people very passionate and looking around us in the, in the home end, when that negly second goal came in and seeing that the look of disbelief on the, on the face for the Millball fans, you know, 14 years since their last played them. It's a, it's a rivalry, you know, steeped in history, but they haven't actually played for each other very often over the last kind of 50 years or so, but Millball's home record, you know, they were on beat in five home games against West Ham, coming into this game and preserving that, I think, in the end, even though they'll be so frustrated they couldn't win it will still be seen as, as the most important thing. I did wonder while in the docks. I just don't remember him ever getting the ball for Scotland and just hoeing it in. I was like, this is, this isn't his most potent weapon. I was really surprised by, you know, you could excuse a team of West Ham's quality for letting one in, but to let two in his, his careless one is unfortunate to his careless. And that Mark side shot was incredible. If that had gone in, I mean, you probably, Millball probably would have won the game and what a goal it would have been. And I suppose, I mean, George has really covered this incredibly thoroughly. The only thing that was a bit of unpleasantness where Tashi Kastanis was accused of spitting at the Millball goalkeeper, Philip Marshall, Marshall made the accusation. The video evidence seems pretty inconclusive, I would say, but it also seems a weird thing for Marshall out to make up. It was Marshall's day, and he joined from Stevenage in the summer, and he was, you know, to be thrust into that being your first game, the first half, you know, sorry, the second half, in front of the West Ham fans, he was brilliant, he came out and claimed everything, he couldn't be blamed for the two goals. Yeah, I mean, as Barry says, inconclusive as to whether or not the accusation came into anything. We didn't really know what was going on, obviously in the ground, just there was a pause in play, but I've seen the highlights, I've seen the replays, there's like a picture where it looks like you can see something, but then on the video, you can't really see it. So yeah, it seems quite far away, doesn't it? I mean, like the Millball centerbacks are so big, I mean, I've never seen Jake Cooper at the Abbey earlier this season. I mean, it says six foot six, but he, there's every chance he's eight foot. They're both just enormous, aren't they? Sanny, I know you love this game as well, the limbs, right, because there are those videos in the West Ham end and am I, can I simultaneously say they are amazing, but at the same time, it looks like a place I'm glad I wasn't, I just don't, it's just the sort of, the incredible, like this, it's funny about these rivalries when his team hasn't played that often. So like, it's built up through sort of history and not actually experience for a lot of these guys are too young, really, to have been at a game against West Ham, unless they were like 10, like they might be some 30 or other, but like the sort of emotion they have is, I don't think I can generate that emotion for anything. Yeah. Anytime you see the fans climb onto like the PVC coverings that are divided, but that's when you know, and it'll be like some old boy, it's like fall through to gaps and stuff. I think there were only six arrests in all this max, you know, it was like that massive exclusion zone. And somebody brilliantly online had like transposed the exclusion zone onto the opening credits of EastEnders, and sort of the other way, but it was all like, blanked out. And I was wondering why it was so few arrests, it's probably because it's been so long, what, 14 years, 14, 15 years, all these, all these like green street ultras, all these hooligans, they're all at old men now, aren't they? Yeah. It's like, they can't, they can't bring themselves to start a fight, they're so happy to just get to the ground and just get in there and then not fall through that canvas when celebrating a goal in the last minute. Just a rumor, but it's something I heard that there were 11 arrests in Stratford on Friday night near a known West Ham haunt. People were arrested, I think it was suspicion of conspiring to the public disorder. What I heard is that West Ham fans had set up this meat, they're not turned up, but called the police. Yeah, that's the rumor. And apparently when they turned up as well, because you know, a match day, West Ham pub, not on match day in London, they're like for a game, I think it's just fun to punters. So they were like, oh, wait, no, no, you want to scrap? Not really. No, we're okay. I guess a sign of the times in London, it was a Burmese street festival on Saturday afternoon. So where, once you'd expect there to be, you know, clashes of firms instead of street food and pastries? Probably prams and buggy cinemas and I probably would have fitted in better there if we'd be honest. Can you just, George, you just before we move on to this game, just do a bit about the history of the rivalry because there are probably a lot of listeners who don't know it, apart of no that they don't like each other. Yeah, so basically it's the dockers Darby. So initially both clubs where they were formed, they're based on the Isle of Dogs, one on the south side, one on the north side, and they've since kind of split and moved away. But the striking thing about this, I guess, is that I think we think of these rivalries and these Darby's, you know, the flashpoints and the trouble between the fans going back in a nearer way, who, looking, is more prevalent, you know, back in the 80s and whatever. Whereas in this Darby, there's been huge trouble in more recent games. 2004, we interviewed Danny Dicchio, who was the last player to score a winner for Mill Wall against West Ham, and he told an amazing story about how he was on the pitch. At the den, and suddenly heard this kind of, there's noise behind him and turned around in a police horse galloped past him on the side of the pitch, on its way to go and to go and sort out his trouble in the corner. You know, there's been some serious issues with fighting between the two sets of fans. There have been, you know, some pretty significant casualties and fatalities in the past too. But what I should also say, crucially, is that, you know, as football has changed a lot in the last 15, 20 years, you know, Billy Bond obviously passed away last year, who is a West Ham playing legend, but also a former Mill Wall manager and had family who are Mill Wall fans. And, you know, the, the respect shown by Mill Wall when Bond's died last year was definitely a fitting of, of the new era. Ilocating, who was a young West Ham fan, who sadly died back in 2022, she needed some expensive care for her neuroblastoma condition. And Mill Wall fans, you know, basically united with West Ham fans and did a lot of work to raise money for her and even a Mill Wall fan ran from the dense London Sadie and wearing a West Ham shot with Mill Wall FC for ILO on the back. So, you know, it has changed a bit. There is obviously still a huge amount of animosity between the two clubs and sets of fans. I'm sure there were scraps and the desire for many to do that, and I'm sure fans of a certain vintage would wish there wasn't necessarily the kind of coming together with the two clubs. It's an amazing rivalry and I think that whenever you have a two clubs that have that history that, you know, it dates back a century, but also has some kind of really nasty stuff in more recent history. It's always going to be really, really charged. Going there is a, as a neutral and even having to do some kind of filming on the day and things like that. It never felt in any way threatening. Swansea at the top of the league, they went to one at Lincoln, came from behind, got a deflected winner from the highlight sunny. It did look like Swansea, lots of tiny little, nifty footballers and Lincoln are like a big selection of Oves and I, you know, Lincoln at 12, they must be really happy with that and you know, they've done so brilliantly and you're saying the imps are a team of giants. Oh, that's what I'm saying. You're absolutely right. So, like, please put me right, but certainly from Swansea point of view to begin with, I saw them score one goal earlier this season, which was absolutely amazing, like passing from back to front. They look like they play some really good stuff. What's interesting is similar to Coventry City last season, they've got the same manager here and more or less the same core of players and I think again, we're in a situation of championship where there are a lot of teams that are of a similar level and compared it to say Burnley, who they beat, what, three won the game before, who've had like another change of manager, a huge turnover of players. You've got essentially the same core. I mean, I was looking at the 11 from that game and I think maybe all bar two were all in the team last season. So you've got that continuity, they all understand each other, they all know what to do and that's why they can play it around, right? I think, you know, this is where coaches who are given the time and have a pretty solid foundation can do pretty well, I mean, where they go from there, that's a whole other story for another time. But I think that's fundamentally why they're doing well so far because in this early period where teams are still fine in the feet, they've kind of got the same core and they've got a decent manager out, highly sought, able to, you know, enact is, you know, what he wanted to get in, middlesborough after him, what, when last season as well, he went to Swansea and here we are. So, yeah, I think that's, I think fundamentally for me, that's why, that's why, the main core players. But George, do you think they can maintain it? Yeah, I don't see why not. I mean, they are genuinely a very good team. I don't think this is a case of a side who are kind of starting hot, but actually we need to get into it. And as good as they look, they are one of these clubs that are working with James Town Analytics, who are the data consultancy firm owned by Tony Bloom. And in a last season, Ipswich had access to James Town and did very well with it. There's a pretty big trend of clubs who work with them being quite successful because James Town and Tony Bloom are quite good at unnerving talent and understanding what makes a football a good, as can be seen by the success of Brighton Havallby in over the last few seasons. So, it's not a massive surprise that their signings of which we knew very little of most of them over the course of the summer have come and done really well. You know, Yeow, the the winger who scored the opening goal has come in the 22-year-old winger who's looking really sharp and likes to just who came down from Scotland having had a very good world cup. He's started a bit slower, but he looks like a good player, Stephen Welsh, Scotch Sensbach who's a very good ball player, you know, these players have come in and immediately settled in. And I think in the Tomatos, they've got a young coach who has come in and immediately improved them last season, looks like he's kind of a proper, you know, in terms of managerial prospects, someone who's showing very quickly how good he might be. So, you know, personally, I think even though there's a lot of quality in the squads of West Am and Wolves, you know, when you compare them to title winners in the championship of the recent past, the likes of, you know, Daniel Farkas Leeds team or last season's commentary and others, they just seem to have periods of games where they aren't as dominant. And it feels like maybe a more open championship this season. I know there seems to be this perception, maybe outside the championship, the West Am, they're going to win it with 100 points, I just can't see that. Even in games where they've been very good, or at least a score line has reflected, I love of dominance. I've been to see them a couple of times already this season. They just seem to have a bit of a, you know, teams find it quite easy to create chances against them at times. There's certainly had a couple of home games recently where they've been very good and very strong and made that count. But this could be a season where we said last season, the commentary, this could be a season where a non-parachute payment team can go and make a case. And there's no reason now, you know, even though they're, it's not a squad necessarily full of household names. This is the Swansea team at the moment are playing at a very high level. I watched the highlights of Wolves West Brom on Wolves TV, which did make it look like Wolves should have won 200 nil. You saw this as well, George, is that, is that fair? Was that being sold a lie or was that, but no, no, no, totally fair. I mean, 200 is quite a lot, but yeah, Max O'Leary, the West Brom Keeper made a double save in the first half, it was extraordinary. Jigga, the Halls defender with a header that was tipped away, but only in the path of Andre. And I have no idea how O'Leary was able to get up and then make the second save. And then he made even possibly even a better save later from a netsy as he was kind of diving the other way and managed to keep an arm out of shape to keep it nil nil. He's a keeper that came in last season, Bristol City. I think a lot of West Brom fans wanted to replace him in the summer. Instead, they brought in an Ingram to be his number two, but he's performing incredibly well. The goal when it came was very avoidable. And that Phillips was just a horrendous back pass and wasn't even a back pass. I don't really know where he was passing it to. Bad execution. I defended so well until that moment. Yeah. Get rid of him. Get rid of him. Yeah. It was a dongeman on commentary was as Phillips made a mistake. He said, West Brom had normally better in possession than this. And then that Phillips just passed it straight into the path of Fair Lopez, who kept it over O'Leary to make it 1-0. After that, Wolves didn't really threaten, but they kept West Brom pretty quiet. So yeah, a big Derby day win for Wolves. And they're another team like West Ham that at times that brilliant, they've got so many good players. And then West was injured for this one, but in Fair Lopez, they probably got the standout player in the championship, or one of them so far this season, Mattis Mane is a player that I absolutely love, an 18-year-old left-winger who's yet to really kind of get going this season in terms of goals and assists, but it's very strong. But again, at times, the season they just looked a little bit worse than some of their parts, but this was a much better performance for them and a really dominant win. But I've got a late point of Birmingham, finished 2-2, slightly controversial late-goal bars where the Birmingham team had dropped it and might have his hands on it, but it's probably fair enough. I thought it was fair enough, to be honest, yeah, James Beatle was in goal for Birmingham, fumbled a free kick, I think, and I don't think he had the ball in control, but I actually thought it was a good referee in decision, but I reckon 99 times that with 100 in a game with no varror as this one was, the ref would give the keeper the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he deserved the benefit on this occasion. I think I'm with you. How's Will Lankshire looking, Tanny? He's looking great. He's looking really good. How many goals has he got now? The thing is, he's not the only one popping up with goals, and in amongst that, the players around him are really good. I'm Mario Kozi-Jubri on the right wing who, I think he's spoken about before, it came for the Arsenal Academy. I went to Brighton, he was on loan at Bolton last season, he stepped up to the championship this campaign. He was involved in the first goal, some great running from him, so they've got some great players around him as well, I think the spurs have a big buyback clause on him, but he's popping up in the right place at the right time, which is kind of what you want, right between the first. Just on the subject of Kozi-Jubri, I was watching the EFL highlight show and keep pausing the TV, and it's, I suppose it's an indication of how old I'm getting, but it was just sons of the fathers, because I'd see a player, hear his name go, oh, is that such and such as boy? So, Jaden Heskey, Sheffield Wednesday, yes, Daniel Everson at Preston, not Stephenson, but he is the son of a goalkeeper called Ivan Lesseron on Everson. Paris Campbell at Charlotteson, not Kevin's son, but Kevin does have a son who's at Sheffield United, he wasn't playing at the weekend, Amir, of course, yeah, Amir calls your Jubri at Borough, not Michael Jubri's son. He do this to everyone. Kirillisby, yes, Kevin's son and the twin brother of Carice Lisby as Redding, who is also Kevin's son, Bobby Clarke, I knew he was Lee Clarke's son, I knew J. Stansfield was Adam Stansfield's son, but yeah, it was just, we're getting old, yeah, I don't know it, it must be, it sort of makes it sound like, you know, just back in burr, back in the day, when they'd be like, is that, is that old shamelessist boy, yeah, it is of that just on the, on the GAA pitch or whatever. Well, the thing is on the GAA pitch, they'd all father's sons and grandson's, they'd all be playing on the same team, Max, in some clubs, in some clubs. There are, there are loads of Lisby, Lisby boys, it's not just the twin brother, yeah. So there's, there's Kirill and Carice, there's also Kaelin, who plays as well. I think there's another. And so we, we think they should have a, with Kevin, should have a podcast called Ultimate Lisby and just try about their life in the, yeah, I, I, I, I liked her at Salford Union about my first years of a day. They were born in 2008, I couldn't believe it, yeah, couldn't believe it. And they can talk. Yeah. And it's mad, isn't it? Adults apparently. Yeah. But welcome, if you are young, listen to this going, these idiots, Rexham lost six nils of West Ham as we can, they, they, they, we beat Southampton 2.1. I mean, they're, they're post afterwards, you know, of April the 7th to, to 2026, Rexham 1, Southampton 5, maybe the 7th, 2026 Southampton get caught spying on Middlesbrough, set 10th of the 19th, 2026, Rexham 2, Southampton 1, makes you think with a, that picture of Matleticia looking confused up in the sky. I'm not sure. Feels a stretch to me, George, but, you know, it was a good win for them and good for Keith for me. Yeah. And this is after Ryan Reynolds and Rob McLeanie posted a video, or they, they, they, Rexham posted a video of them emerging from behind a tree in, in, in the days running up to it as well, um, to, for a promotional video. So, um, yeah, I mean, is it a massive surprise that the team or the club who, um, monetize by having a huge TV show have really caught at the controversy before this game? Probably not. It'll make quite an episode on a thought when, when that comes out, I, I won't be watching. Yeah. And, you know, Rexham then beat them. I think had Southampton beaten Rexham, they probably would have been a similar, um, back on socials after that initial post. Um, and it was relatively fortunate. I think, um, the, the win here, um, Keith and more put Rexham on them up. Um, James Ward Prouse, you know, back at Southampton's, when we first go, since we're turning to the club. Um, Keith, Keith, I'm more than hit the bar from a shot from halfway, um, which was a great strike. Just think, great hit before Schlotterbeck, um, so I was known goal in the 89th minute to give Rexham a big win. Um, it's a, you know, a significant win for Rexham showing, you know, good resolve to recover from that six-nil defeat against West Ham. You know, I said earlier, the West Ham lived looked, um, kind of a bit poor at times and games. Not on this one. They were sensational against Rexham, and we're fully deserving of that wide margin of victory. Big week for Southampton though, um, because the, you know, everyone may have forgotten about Spygate, um, but the FA haven't, no, Rexham haven't, the FA haven't, um, we are expecting to hear the results of the FHR, um, on Tondereck at, at some point this week, it was interesting to see that he, there was kind of a big media round yesterday with various interviews with, with major broadcasters on Monday morning, suggesting that they're probably quite worried, um, because I don't think I'm going to wheel out, Eckert, apologize on the BBC in various other places unless, um, you want to courts and, um, favour amongst the, the masses, um, and I think there's a, a relatively significant chance that Eckert's going to get served a, a ban, and if he's served a ban then Southampton, I'm going to be furious, they're going to be looking for a new manager, they're going to feel like it's incredibly harsh, um, but we can't get away from the fact that at the moment, Southampton, the club have been punished, the, the man who, you know, the FL, um, in their findings said orchestrated the whole operation is yet to be punished, apart from the fact that his, his employees were. So I'd be very, very surprised if, if he gets away with, with nothing, given the allegations, um, and the charges. So I saw that sort of PR campaign, and he is throwing himself at the mercy of the F.A. And so it's out of his hands, but he is saying, you know, he, he has been humiliation, the club have been punished. I can't do anything about what happens next, but reading between the lines is sort of, please go easy on me. And I kind of fell for it, if I'm honest, but, I've to, he probably is looking at quite a hefty band, do you imagine? Yeah, my, my biggest issue with the whole thing is the way the club initially reacted. Like there was, when the allegations first came out, it was scrambling for any means, distance echo from the issues, reports that, you know, that, um, it wasn't true, and then that, that it was, he had nothing to do with it or no awareness of it. Um, so that kind of, attempt initially to try and get through it rather than hover hands up and say we made a mistake, I think isn't going to sit particularly well, um, when they make that decision. Um, so, yeah, we'll have to see, and also you have to remember that, like punishment to dished out for a reason, like you can't look at something sympathetic, it has to be a deterrent, it has to be the case that manages in the future, who get tempted to do this. What you don't want to happen is, and I'm just staring down, losing their job anyway, thinks themselves, well, you know, the press that's been set, that he didn't get a band, it was just the club that got punished, you let's crack on and do it, and if it fails, and then, oh, if I get caught, then it's going to be too late anyway. So, yeah, as Barry says, I'll be, I'll be very surprised if there isn't some kind of a band, you know, it could be a touchline band, it might be the case, he's allowed to continue managing the club, but can't be in the dugout. He has to, he has to be able to hide a tree, surely. For a year, you know, it could be fine, um, we'll have to see, but a lot of people who are much more, aware of previous press and set for this stuff seem to be convinced that it would be out of step with what's happened in the past if he wasn't given a band. All right, that'll do for part one. We'll look at the bottom of the chameleon chip, and Lee want to lead to in part two. Chameleon chip looks like this, Burnley bottom on four, along with Preston, Derby, have five, Cardiff, just outside the relegation zone on seven, what a food and portsmith on eight. Um, what's going on with Burnley, Sunny? I think you've got to go back to the buyouts that got Burnley where they are now. So, um, a leveraged buyout, which you might be familiar with how the Glazers bought Manchester United, a LK capital led by Alan Paster chairman borrowed a load of money essentially against the club. The debts at the moment are about 142 million pounds in my notes here that the interest between seven and 12%. So, they've had all this debt in the background, and it's been okay because they've been going up to the Premier League and, you know, getting the money there and the parachute payments. But, uh, the, the, the, the cloth is being cut now. Uh, wait, you see, um, Zian Fleming gets over 20 million. Money isn't reinvested, and instead, you get, well, how old is Jamie Vardy? So 39. Yeah. Yeah, Jamie Vardy comes in for free. So, so that's one simple, uh, of where the kind of up to. So they've got this huge, huge debt in the background. You know, was that Burnley's opening game of the season, and the fans are pretty kind of, uh, it weighed on him. That weighed on him alone. But you look on the pitch, uh, Nikki Hayan is come in again, a massive turnover of players. And on the pitch, just, just really defensively, pretty frail. Um, he tried to mix it up in this one. So he took, they took a one near lead and they were leading to the, the 93rd minute at home to Derby County. And he even he told the goalie, go long, go long on a goal. If you don't faff around with it, let's just go long, keep it simple. And of course, the, the lose the, the first ball and the second ball, it comes to, uh, Fusini, uh, who, who it's a brilliant strike. Yeah, great. So I just smashing enough the pose. And it's just like a real kind of lack of a desire, I think, with some of those players. Uh, Hayan actually did what I think, do you know what I think? Um, uh, I, I play fallback. I think fallback's the easiest position to play right. But I also think it's one of the easiest to be exposed. And how often do you see like an aging fallback, like get it, move on and then just not come together. Kyle Walker got dropped for the Burnley game for that game against Derby. And he's just not really been, been great. I mean, he's been playing center half. It's not about him. It's not about him. But just, you know, you've got, uh, a mix of players from about three different managers with stuff that the core that kept so few goals going in the last time when they won, uh, promotion, when the Scott Parker has gone. And then you've got this kind of real mix that don't really make any sense, uh, and are getting kind of pulled apart. Yeah, it sounds like you're comparing your football and creator, Kyle Walker. I mean, I guess those in the last houses can't throw stones at the time. Well, it was decorating time. I thought ballers are all talking about, uh, playing amateur football. Yeah. And apparently Alan Pace's company, AL Capital, oh, the club 81 million as well. So they've got the debts of 142. I guess the real question is Georgia, they end danger going out of business or is this just a sort of finance thing? Yeah. I mean, it sounds like they are. Um, it sounds like a really precarious position, um, that they're in. And, you know, uh, I wouldn't throw it out to this point, but only getting relegated, um, from the championship. And if that happens, then obviously the, the financial issues that they're currently facing up to get even more, um, serious, um, they, they've looked terrible to be honest on the pitch. I thought they were quite good in the opening game against West Ham, um, when they drew 222 and they were unlucky to be too null, but too null down in that first game. But since then, it's been disastrous. Nikki Hatton said before the Derby game that it was a must win, they didn't win it. And then, you know, I think a lot of Bernie fans expected with the international break coming straight off it that he would be relieved of his duties and they could use the next couple of weeks to bring in a new manager. But reports from the local press, the next morning, whether his job is, is safe, um, which obviously Bernie fans are not happy about. Um, it sounds like he almost wants to be sacked. Like he came out and said, I, I, I kind of expect to be sacked now, coming into an international break. His managerial trajectory is bizarre, though, because he was, it was in 2021, 2022, he was manager of Haverford West in Wales. And, you know, and did a right there and signed the new contract there. And then he got, he went back to, to, uh, Breuger for managing their youth team. And as often the way now, you know, he got promoted from the youth team up up into the, to manage the first team. But like, it's a wild journey to go from managing in the, in the country premiere to suddenly being in the, in the championship. Um, especially given, it's, it's probably quite hard. You know, obviously they barely recruited before from Belgium when they were brought in Vincent Company after doing a decent job of intellect. But, um, yeah, it, it's not going well there. Obviously, in terms of player quality, they should be in a better position than they are. But I think when you're signing 39, you're Jamie Varley, um, after the transfer windows closed, it suggests that things haven't gone great. I'd also just wonder how much he's being paid. Like, you know, as we outline there, like, there are significant financial issues at Burnley going out and signing a free agent is, he's going to cost a, uh, a hell of a lot in order to try and, uh, regain some kind of on-pitch, um, quality seems not, not, not a particularly well, well, good way to be run. And it's interesting because they don't, you know, there are massive parallels here with what happened at Leicester, where Leicester came down. Sure. When in the Highlands, I'm a rescuer, dominated the league, got promoted. You know, Burnley have come down twice. Under Vincent Company, they're sensational. One the league under, under park. They only didn't win the league because of a last minute Leeds goal on, on final day. And yet they come down and the processes are completely gone now. And, um, you know, Leicester went down last season, Luton went down the season before. I honestly wouldn't surprise me at all unless things really change. But I need the, the 13-minute road to do, to do the double drop. I learned that, um, Carverford West was a football club and not a service station, unless, of course, he was managing the service station. And there, and then he went to the Belgian league from there. I need to move on, uh, to league one, Bradford top, 15 from seven, Sheffield Wednesday, 14 from seven, Plymouth, 13, Huddersfield, and the mighty used 12, uh, your mob oxford, George, on 11 and Wimbledon on 11 as well. Bradford, uh, Beatj up, Wishers, Luton, 1-0, uh, and their first win at Kennelworth Road since 1968. Um, did we expect them to be challenging and be up there, sunny? Well, they've won the last three games, 1-0, uh, and so that they are pretty defensively solid. And Graham Alexander is a, is a, is a very good manager who knows what he's doing. And remember that Bradford have this huge home support and the, that, that makes a, I think a massive difference. Didn't worry Ben Knight when he scored a late winner there. Yeah, well, well, yeah. Well, I think previously, when you're in league two, that, that home attendance, that home pressure, really kind of, was the run doing for so long, and they finally kind of parked that in last season and so. Uh, and now it's, I think it's become a little strength of theirs, I think, but again, you know, there's, there's a few teams who are all kind of batting around, but like, yeah, it's so tight, isn't it? It's so tight. Yeah. Yeah. Sheffield Wednesday, funnily enough, Sheffield Wednesday's home record this season at Hillsborough, hasn't been good at all, actually, kind of conversely. And I don't think Huddersfield I've been, I've been that impressive given that they've been doing well as well. Uh, so, so, I don't know, it's, it's very, it's very early days, Max. It's very early days, but I do like Bradford. I do like Bradford. I mean, I think, you know, if they were ever to go up again, they'd need a massive step up. Someone whose players are like middle league two, but that's a long way away. Who have you been impressed with, George? I think the best teams have been Huddersfield, under Martin Jury, have really impressed me. They were beaten, one, two, one, by Bromley. Last weekend, and you know, Bromley deserve a huge credit for managing to win that game, because they were under the caution for a lot of it. They had five shots to Huddersfield's 18, 2.7, 3.0, 3.0, 3.9. But I just feel they've been a team that have really disappointed in the last couple of seasons, despite having a very good squad, Berturi comes in and has impressed me in the way that he's, he sets them up, they're forth in the lead now, but I think I'll challenge. I think Stockport, who again, haven't necessarily got the results, their performances have deserved their current year ninth, but I'm really impressed with them, um, scoring a lot of goals under Jury McNulty there. They were lucky to win the Abbey. I mean, I'm very, I've a very, sort of myopic view of this division, but we were one of them. Yes. They got a very dodgy penalty late on. I'm very up there. Wow. But our goal was that. Our goal was a handball, too. So, there you go. Okay, so it comes around. Yeah, they, um, they're very good going forward. They're solid at the back. I think that an improved season goes on. I'm impressed with Bradford. As you mentioned, they're very good, they're very solid defensively and ready as well. Look, very good. They're kind of the data darlings of the division, highest extreme in the league, lowest extreme against the league, Jack Marriott leading the line, who just scores an absurd amount of goals. They've had one of the easiest kind of starts to the season terms of fixtures. So, I'll be interesting to see how they get on over the international break, um, because they are playing despite the fact that two of their sentiment field is Andy Runemota and Charlie Savage are aware of international duty, um, but Lee Richardson, who didn't really endear himself to the, to the fans at the end of the last season, um, and needed to get off to a good start. They have gone off to a good start, and they don't know they could be out at a good side. And we drew at the weekend, Oxford one, Cambridge running the Boffins Derby as someone, uh, messaged me on talk sport to call it, um, and I was quite, well, I was really impressed with it. I spent, I was quite a jet lag, so I spent most of the time getting muddled up between Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshire thinking, when did he, when did Jack Wilshire leave Luton? And then I remember that there were different footballers who just happened to both be really good for Arsenal at one point. And yeah, I thought you're, I thought he's got them playing some really good stuff, Oxford, and we are at Neil Harris football team, and I'm over the moon with how well we're doing. We should have more points, actually. And there's probably an argument to say that a Neil Harris football team, um, tends to fare better in league one than a team that pass around, uh, nicely, uh, especially when in the winter months, where some of the pictures get quite difficult to play the kind of football that I think Ramsey wants to play. Um, I think Cambridge has been really impressive. Um, I think Neil Harris is doing a great job there. He tends to do a very good job. Um, the, the bad seasons in his managerial career, uh, other rarities, uh, and he seems to have a great working relationship with Mark Bonner, as director of football. Um, yeah, pretty positive with Oxford, you know, we're in a, a strange position still where Rundin Bargo, on pitch stuff is quite good. Um, but having been pondering Bargo, I'll, I'll see you left a couple of weeks ago. Two of our directors, according to company's house, have, have left in the last week. No one's really sure what's going on. Um, we don't know what's happening. We're, we're still waiting for, hopefully on Thursday. The judicial review appeal for the new stadium will be quashed, but then seemingly there's going to be another appeals process, which is going to kick the, kick the can down the road even further. Um, so it's a weird time to be in Oxford found where there's cause for positivity on the pitch, but I can't get away from the fact that, um, there might just kind of is it an iceberg I can see in the distance? Uh, I don't, I just want to amaze or astound you that waltz fast played again for that. I saw that, yes. He's still there. He started against barbs later one older. I had been led to believe he considered me one beneath him, but despite being one of the main reasons Leicester are in it. But, um, what do you think actually of the Russell Martin thing? I got to the stage where I was certainly feel a bit uncomfortable about the amount of abuse he was getting. I know Leicester fans are perfectly entitled to the review. Just wasn't sitting well with me. The amount of grief he was getting. Well, what, what I would say is when, when you come out and you post match interviews and you dig out the players and say there's some home truths coming your way, you know, then you've got to kind of take your medicine with that. I mean, they, they, they lost falling at home to Oxford. I think that's, that's where he was particularly scathing. Did they went to stop-port count it? It was a four-three win, but really they shouldn't have got the victory there. Stop-port kind of came back into it and I'll, I think they hit the woodwork two or three times to randomly disallow goals them in a VAR world would have done. And this Barnes game, they went one nail up and then Barnes went down to ten men and he couldn't, allowed allowed, allowed Barnes to get an equalizer. So I, I, I understand and I think the way the social media world is, everything gets like so ramped up, right? And the memes come and he's like, you know, he doesn't know what he's doing and he's a swore all apps up and all that stuff. I mean, some of the goals earlier in the season was passing out from the back and losing it. If in less of that, I think defensively just a real kind of disparate kind of nature, especially when they've been turned around and not really knowing what's to do and who's to go anywhere. Again, I mentioned well fast because he, when I was watching the, the goals, there was a bit towards the end where he did a, a last gas bit of slide tackling in amongst like just chaos and the keepers saving it late on. It was all happening. So yeah, I actually think, although it is a bit uncomfortable, when you are that vocal and you are a good communicator clearly that with the media, it's going to come back to you and that's where he's kind of at. All right, a piece about this on our website, and tt20.com, two weeks ago, because I find it very weird, like he, he seems to rattle a portion of football in a way that I, it's, it's crazy. Like, he's basically football's very own cultural war, where he represents a lot of things that a lot of people hate. Like he is, he's a vegan from Brighton, who is a vocal member of the Green Party, who likes playing possession football and has long hair and wears designer clothes and is also, you know, married to someone that these people who probably used to fancy tt20 years ago. Like, it's, it's a, it's a, a recipe for disaster for some, but they cannot get past it. They seem to have to get married to Natalie and Brulia. I mean, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I think they haven't sacked it because, you know, they gave me a new contract before the World Cup start is, I think they would see semi-finals as being an acceptable outcome and they probably don't want to, you know, make a decision based on what was probably the most important 15 minutes or 20 minutes of ending the game for a long time and decisions that are made then, what I, and you know, I guess there's an element where especially when you take a club manager and there's precedent for this, like if you look at TDA Day Shops managerial career, for example, like there's a precedent for club managers or guys who haven't had an experience of tournament football before, you know, getting to grips with it as they go and I have a feeling that probably if Thomas Tuckle could choose his squad again, now, he probably would choose differently because he'd have a better understanding of what comes with this. But the withdrawals this week, I think, are going to be difficult for Tuckle. Obviously, the word out of the camp is that they're injured. I'll leave it to those at home to decide whether or not these players are all injured, having just played Premier League football for the last couple of weeks, you know, and in the two, you know, in Rashford, Maynard's case, having played 80 minutes or so in the day before the squad was announced. I would personally have no issue with Rice not going on a two-week international break, but he has, he played through the World Cup injured. He hasn't had a summer off in about basically his whole life. I don't think he owes England fans anything, like I think he is a case where, like, properly, if he needs to have two weeks, just to have a breather, like, I think that's okay. I know a lot of people disagree. We'll think that any time you call up your country, you should go, but aren't I'm happy to give him a bit of a free pass? But only calling up two players to replace them is a bit odd. I don't understand what the thinking is there. Why is Adam Warton seeing at home, twiddling his thumbs? You know, there are other players, you know, who could fill in the gaps that have been left by those who are out of the squad. I think this, given that these are competitive games, given that we're playing the World European Champions at home on Saturday, and could easily be humbled in that game, like if Spain play us off the park and beat us comfortably, this isn't what's come in previous international breaks where either we were in the kind of the lower nation's league groups where we were playing poorer teams or we were playing friendly. These are competitive games against better teams. Back year and Croatia teams that we have recently beaten and should expect to beat and in Spain, the best team in the world, there is a chance that if this international break goes really badly, I think he could well be sacked after this, rather than what we're used to seeing, which is the cycles that come between major tournaments. Do you know, I've thought, is this international break so long that international managers could get sacked during the international break because countries, can you see this is a time to sack their managers anyway? Just on the withdrawals, right. It's a one hour 20 train from London to Burton. It's in the middle of the country. You change in Tamworth, but that's by a side, right? On the go of Southgate, our players would turn up when they were injured and at least be part of the camp. Yeah, Declan Rice has played like more minutes than anyone for Arsenal, and yeah, he's exhausted. But someone like Cole Palmer, missing out on the World Cup, especially in the manner that it was, he could just go and show his face. You know, he doesn't even if he's, even if he turns up for Tuchel and says, look, I'm not 100%, but I'm here. You know, thank you for calling me up again. And we see Jürgen Klopp brought 44 players in the Germany squad. Tuchel has a bigger squad. He could have taken a lot more. Palmer could just turn up and say, yeah, I'm here, I'm willing, but I'm injured. And he hasn't done that. And I think that's a real damning mark on him. And I don't think Tuchel will forget that very easily. But I think Klopp is, his plan is to pick two different squad. Yeah, yeah, two different teams. Yeah, and it sounds like, well, do something. Do something to keep us all awake for two weeks. But listen, the broad, the podcast will be brilliant about this stuff. Don't you worry, but that'll do for today. Thanks everybody. Thank you, Sunny. Cheers. Thank you. Cheers, George. Thanks, Max. Thank you, Barry. Thank you. Football Weekly is produced by where we sign in Jesse Howe, the executive producer is Joe Grove back on Thursday. This is The Guardian.