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This is the Guardian. Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, PSG win the Super Cup if it matters quite a bit and do a proving why the French champions probably don't need Bradley Barclay. Silver are okay in a great moment for 17-year-old Brian Madjo. Already being called the next Harry Kane can't wait till World Cup 2038 semi-final where the manager won't stop him even though he can't move. There's some transfer stuff featuring Lewis Skelly, Spence and Enzo plus Community Shield to look forward to and then to the real stuff. An EFL preview, a gentle run through the championship, leagues one and two where I ask very open questions and hope that not the top 20 guys just repeat the answers from their excellent preview pods. We'll take your questions and that's the today's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today, Sir Hutchinson, welcome, hello, Max. And from not the top 20, both of them, George L.A., hello, George. Hello, Max. And Ali Max, welcome. Rolled out every time this is there, like every single early August, it's a pleasure to be with you. No, it's no. We could probably just go through the years and just listen to it, you know, just see if anything's changed over the years and getting you on. Let's start with the Super Cup, PSG2, Aston Villa One, Seb, what did you make of this? Well, I think we've got the perfect panel for this because we've got four big England fans and there's nothing like watching a game to get excited about young English players doing something in a game that makes you think, oh, and it's that feeling when you know people have talked about it and obviously we're so into it that we watch youth games at times, we see players come through and think, what's going to happen when they make it to the first team? So when they make it in the first team, I want to say make it, it basically means having a moment in their first match. And I know Villa supporters have been excited about Madjo since, well, basically since they signed in because it seemed so unusual to spend that much money on a teenager. And then in the friendlies, they were thinking, why have we got on our hands here? And the fact that Ali Watkins isn't able to return just yet, perfect platform. And football is about opportunities. And I think he took his in an incredible way. I mean, what he did to Patjo yesterday is one of again, is one of those moments for center halves that are raved about. And then they need to striker that does that to them on the night. You wonder, can they recover type of thing? We've seen it many times before. I think both things had it, villagers had it, I think Philip Senderos had it at one point in time. So that was exciting. But also, I think in a game like this, you're taking on a PSG side, everybody says, oh, they're not quite up to speed and they're not quite at it. But I'll say about Parastage Man, they've been a side of benefited from the ability to rotate their best players and keep them fresh for the big matches. And I've got it here, right? I'm looking at doing a bit of research and I was looking at Madjo, did he face PSG in his time at Mets? And he was on the bench, I believe in a game just before Christmas. And I was looking at the PSG side and I'm thinking, what I don't think a Premier League team could do this, even against the side of a battle against relegation at that stage of a season, to be able to have Mendes, Nevis on the bench, have a Skellia was on the bench, Barclay was on the bench, Duet was on the bench, Dembelly wasn't even in the squad. And then you're able to rotate your team in that manner. Part of me likes the fact that you're able to have the best players playing at their peak. But at the same time, it's again, the margins at the top level of football, the difference that that can make. And I wonder overall, when I look at the state football, even in France, and I know there's rumblings about it, this idea that Alcalfi said that, you know, he wants almost all of France to get behind PSG as they represent all of France. And there has been a backlash against that, even from PSG supporters with the idea is, no, no, we don't want all of France to like us, you know, we want to be support Alcalfi, have our rivals dislike us, that's how football works. And they have shown themselves now to be, they're so dominant, not just in their own domestically, but they could be in Europe with this ability to attract the top players, we think, brilliant. I have the perfect, to win, ball and doors. Fantastic. Back to the game, not to go off topic, but I did say it on topic. Anyway, it was sort of on topic. Hemmings for Villa as well, the fact they lost roaches, and to be able to give him a platform now, there's his opportunity. And, you know, he left forest relatively early, they're upset about that, but Villa benefited from that, that's the ecosystem. I thought Villa played pretty well considering the absentees, but PSG have that quality, and obviously that told in the end, but this takeaway from me is the fact that when you're big England supporter, when you see these players make their mark, and that's why I'm not going into big detail about Majo, because I want the other two to get excited about him as well, so I'll leave it to them. Go on then, Ali, I mean, we've nicked him off Luxembourg in a way, haven't we? We have in a way, in the way that he has already played three times for Luxembourg, but in the way that means he's not captight, as they say, so he could still play for England. In fact, he has been playing for our under-17s. Back end of last year was probably when I became aware of him when the under-17s had a really exciting international break, including like a six-four win against Germany, in which Majo stood out. As you can imagine, like a sore thumb, you know, you can picture what he did last night to the best team on the planet currently, and imagine him playing against the Germany under-17s. It was every bit of a mismatch, as you would imagine, so it's really exciting. He was born in Enfield, he's the son of Guy Majo, who was a former player who played in the English lower leagues, but he had been playing for Metz. That's where he came, that's who Villa signed him off, and they had this back and forth while they were sort of banned from playing him for a while while the transfer was looked at as having broken some rule or other, and recently they won an appeal to allow him to be available to play, and he's obviously taken that opportunity. From an England point of view, preseason, it happens every year, we do get excited about players that we see playing in friendly, particularly for the elite clubs on their overseas tours, and generally when their key players aren't back from their holidays, particularly in major tournament years. I think with Majo, there is a clear route to some minutes. Currently, Villa have Watkins and they have Tammy Abraham, but outside of that, you'd think an injury to them and Majo genuinely is the next best option, and clearly with Watkins coming back a bit late, maybe we'll see him a bit in the next few weeks, but it's not just Majo. I'm always looking for the next bright English players, and Max Downman, we hope we'll get some more minutes this season, but Majo would be the youngest player in the Premier League this season, other than Max Downman, that's likely to get serious minutes, I think, but we've also got the likes of Rio and Gamoa, Harrison Armstrong, Everton had a good second half of last season in flashes and is an exciting player. Josh King at Fulham really excited about Mattias Marne's drop down to the championship with Wolves having looked great in the Premier League. He's in the Portugal under 21's, but still eligible for England. And then even guys like Chris Rigg, I'm excited to see hopefully him get plenty of minutes for Sunderland this season, and Atrium Pong of Chelsea's probably one that I'm really watching closely this season too. And it was a brilliant finish. I mean, he is a, you know, there are so many cliches you try about a 17-year-old George and I roar a handful, but God, he is a handful. Like, you know, people will not want to play against him. No, I mean, I kind of every part of his game, I think, is a defender's nightmare. I mean, for being a 17-year-old, obviously his physicality was immense and we saw the way that he, as Seb said, just kind of barged patch off the ball, so comfortably whilst maintaining his own balance and points. I guess one thing being a bulldozer, it's another thing being able to bulldoze someone and not have it impact the way you're moving whatsoever. And, interestingly, I'd note that Guillain Ballagay has been very vocal about how much he rates major over the last few months, and he tweeted last night saying, he's, to paraphrase him, he's an ex-hol and did if I see anyone else, compare him to Lukaku or shoot them. And you can see, you know, it's obviously a very lazy comparison because of physicality and whatever else with Lukaku, but it's that amazing movement. The pace, there was a moment in the second half where there was a loose ball, and it was kind of between Madjo and two of the PSG centrebacks, and whether it was because he was fast, and then we're just because they were absolutely terrified of engaging in a duel with him. They both basically stood off and let him have it, which is so hard, and you know, it's that fact that the defenders just don't want to get dragged into kind of one-on-one duels with him. It's really exciting, you know, he missed two good opportunities before the goal, ahead of that he just glanced wide, and then an opportunity which was actually an amazing block, which then kind of ricocheted off of the defender and hit the outside of the postman wide. But the finish itself, it was again using his strength and managing to fashion this kind of off-balance finish with his left foot into the roof of the net. It's funny how often in sport, it feels like there are kind of the successions are always quite neat. It's happened to a degree with England, you know, where you go from kind of Linnika to Shira to Owen to Rooney to Kane, and suddenly we are at this moment now where everyone's been talking about who is the next one. It's too early to say that he's just going to be our striker for the next 10 years, but it is amusing how basically the first competitive game of Elite Football after the World Cup and suddenly we've got a 17-year-old England eligible striker doing this. And I do think we'll get a minute, so I think it's interesting that Tammy Abraham had a summer off, and Unai Emery still chose to play Maggio ahead of him yesterday, which might suggest that he's second in line to Watkins, and given Watkins' struggles last season at times, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see him, you know, not to make a pun, but muscle past him as well. So, yeah, I also really love the idea of an England striker having played three times for Luxembourg. It just feels like a weird quirk that I hope that seems to be the case. And I think for the sake of, you know, giving the whole picture, sometimes I think it feels like no one's allowed to criticise a young player or point out things that they didn't do so well. We also saw the good stuff. He did also give the ball away in the build-up to PSG's first goal, in quite a dangerous area with what was quite a loose touch, and that's the sort of stuff that, you know, strikers, we still broadly focus on their goalscoring ability, but there's so much more to what top managers want from their strikers, and being secure in possession all over the pitch is certainly one of them. So, you know, he's a 17, I wouldn't expect him to be the perfect player yet, but I think it's always interesting when we talk about young players to understand the, you know, the full picture, because they are rarely the finished article at this point. And the only other thing on this game that I wanted to get on my soapbox about was Duets winning goal. Is that not the best advert for the thing that seems to wind people up so much, which I don't understand, which is the lion's been not putting his flag up for something that looks clearly off-side, right? Yeah, and actually, I wonder if this so much, and I daresay said might have had co-commentators say the lion that always gets me, which is what if someone gets injured in that phase of play, which should have been stopped because it was off-side, and you're like, well, what if the lion's might have put his flag up, like most of us watching would have done, and that goal would have been just allowed incorrectly. Like, to me, this is clearly the right thing to do, and I think this was the, yeah, one of the great moments of this so far. I agree with you. I also what I find annoying is, well, if he raised his flag, and then there's an injury two minutes later, you know, and it's not off-side, you know, that is also a possibility, and also, you know, without throwing flesh under the bus, he did say, when will this charade end, or something like that? And as he thought it was so plainly off-side, and then some had to backtrack slightly, or didn't mention that he said it was a charade, but I agree with you, Ali, and it is worth saying, you know, that was a mistake from magic to, you know, he didn't really put it on a plate for Crouch, Shalea. He still had some work to do. I was like, you know, there was more football that happened, but what a finish. I think, I think it's a really good thing to happen to Macho, that mistake. I just think when you're that age, making mistakes is a good thing. You have the bad experience, you learn from it, and he'll think, I'll never do that again. Whereas if you don't have the mistakes, and they happen to you later, when you get the big contracts, and if things are, things are expected of you, is a different situation. I'm happy for him to make the air as early, as long as he doesn't do them more than once. Yeah, and the semi-final against Argentina in North Korea in 2042, or whatever. Ali mentioned Mattias Marne there, who is looking more likely to represent Portugal in England, but fair play to the FA for going out and making sure that, that Macho would be eligible for England and bringing him into the U set up at a time where he was playing non-competitive games from Luxembourg, because there is a world out there where he could have played a competitive Luxembourg and that would have been it. So yeah, credit to them for spotting the opportunity in making sure that that didn't happen. Yeah, but Paul Watson is furious about this. He had like 10 years of content with Macho, belting in goals for Luxembourg. Bit of transfer stuff. I said, you weren't overexcited about talking about transfer stuff in the WhatsApp group. I said, the Miles Lewis-Skelli story, I think is interesting, said, because we're talking about this young English player here. Lewis-Skelli, who he started in the Champions League final. He went on this, he didn't really play much for Arsenal, but then he took Zubimendi's place. He played in key games in the Premier League, played in the Champions League final, and then you think, okay, this is my time now, and just football can be so cruel. I'm not saying he won't get minutes, and he started last night for Arsenal against Como, so maybe he will stay, but this idea that he's being touted about, so Chelsea managed to start at about 60 million. So the life of a footballer is quite fragile, I guess. He came through the youth set up as a midfielder, essentially, and his breakthrough in the Arsenal team was at left-back, and his breakthrough for England was at left-back, and then people are looking at his whole game as a left-back, and I think probably for him personally, he's thinking, no, but I'm a midfielder, I want that opportunity, as a midfielder, Arsenal bought him capyae in on loan, and again, you thought, well, that's going to harm his minutes, but I was looked and thought there's a midfielder there in a mold that England don't have many of, and the fact he was able to play in a Champions League final, there's no bigger stage to show what you can do, and he played very well in that game. I think this whole situation, sometimes with transfer rumors, which is why I hate them, is that the news is out of date by the time it hits people, because things have progressed, the groundwork's already been made, these are massive deals that people are involved in, they don't just happen off the cuff, so when a journalist reports it, it's not just that morning, oh, Chelsea and Manchester United have shown interest in Lewis Skelly, they'd have been fishing around him last season, and basically the idea would have been, well, we can give you that midfielder platform, we can give you that opportunity to kick on now, if Arsenal, you're not getting it, you've seen Zubamendi come in. It's a patience thing, his goal yesterday in the friendly, I mean, he did a celebration with the Arsenal supporters, which is one of those which you cannot actually read very well, because it's that I'm sorry this news has come out, I actually love the club, I'm stagged, but of course, I'm sorry about this, but this might be my last goal for you. People can read into that what they will, and then he's starting at the moment, obviously, because Zubamendi's just come back, Rice, I think still needs more rest, I think he almost needs, you feel like even him needs a gap year. Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm a right highlight for training for the first time, and he looked knackered just arriving, so I mean, he's just one of those players, a bit like Telemann's always looks out of breath, but actually, he's, yeah, there are opportunities, especially the number of competitions Arsenal are in, even with Gimmer Rice joining the club, it would be wrong for him to move right now, especially to the clubs he's being linked to, because what's the difference there really? On the other side, I would say to me, this is a huge opportunity for Manchester United that I think they should take, if indeed it is true that Arsenal would accept, let's say £50, £60m for Lewis Kelly right now, I see this is a huge opportunity for Manchester United, like Arsenal are Arsenal right now, they are at the top of the food chain in the Premier League, with Emma Man City really you'd say, and they don't need Lewis Kelly for what they are trying to do in the next season or two, at least they don't, they don't seem to think that he'll be a key player for them either at left back or in the centre of the park, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't be for Manchester United, and if they were able to give him more consistent minutes, given everyone that's ever watched Lewis Kelly either in midfield or at left back, knows like the talent that he has, the rare ability that he has on the ball as a ball progressor, looking after it, carrying it when necessary, recycling it when necessary, playing forward when necessary, like for United I think with their options right now at left back, and potentially in the future in midfield, there'd be a clear path to him getting loads of minutes, and if you're suddenly sitting on a 21-22-year-old, you know, one of the best English young players, and you're the one that's kind of got him breaking through into the first team, like for me, that's exactly what Manchester United should be aiming to do, and I think he would contribute in a pretty big way straight away in two positions, which is again, like a hell of a thing for a manager to have at his disposal. Yeah, Kobe Manu going, coming on, maybe don't bother lads, you know? I didn't want to say, at least like Donut, forget about him, let's move on to the next one. Arsenal Play Man City in the community shield on Sunday, Mariska's first game in charge. Our test is now the longest serving manager in the league after Pep went, but you know, we'll talk about that game on Monday, see what Mariska's done to City. Jed spent to enter, George's fun, isn't he? I mean, he did a, like of the sort of standout stars for England in the World Cup, you know, it's sort of him, the cameo stars, you know, best supporting actor, him and Dan Byrne. You're slightly surprised that does Erby and Spurs are happy to let him go? I think, yeah, I think Spence is best supporting actor, I think Dan Byrne was a mere cameo. Yeah, Spence was a big part and I think nearly he's produced probably one of the greatest England moments that will now be forgotten with that tack on semi-only shortly after the Anthony Gordon goal before it all went really badly. I think that's the reason it all went badly, that actual situation in the league. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think we've got the players out for the manager out. Yeah, that was it. Should we do a pod on England Argentina? No, please, no, please, no. Yeah, I am relatively surprised. Yeah, you know, his time at the club has been up and down. It does feel like, you know, we've seen Inter shopping in the Premier League quite a lot recently. You know, he's joining John Stones and Manila Kanji has been recent recruits over there. I can see why, if you're a JED Spence, you'd quite like the opportunity to go and play abroad. It's something we're seeing more and more English players do, which I think is a positive thing. So, yeah, I guess if I actually make sense for them, it also probably typically is quite a good thing for a selling club to do is cash in on a player when they've had a good world cup and it's probably not necessarily a particularly good thing for a buying club to do. So, sad to see him leaving the Premier League, but I think so long as Thomas Tuchel is in charge of England, we'll keep seeing JED Spence in England, Squadson. Hopefully he can perform out there. Theran Torres, the PSG, Barceron, proved an offer for Roderie, Man City, trying to get in zone for Nando's perhaps. We'll get on with an EFL preview. We'll do that in part two. Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Jim says that now the Premier League's voted through the new deal for football. Is that a good deal for the EFL? It's the sort of story that is sort of not that fascinating, but perhaps it's important, Ali. Yeah, this stuff is important, which angle to attack this from. Like the financial situation in English football is pretty crazy in a number of different ways and there is a fairly strong link between Premier League and the EFL's general health, but it's only a link and it's not the whole picture and EFL clubs, I think sometimes put a little too much emphasis in what the Premier League should be doing for them. Obviously I'm a supporter of the EFL being supported by the Premier League and certainly the fact that the Premier League needs the EFL in order to be the league that it is and has become, but EFL clubs manage their own finances and large swathes of them have not done that very sensibly, very prudently and some of them have got into significant financial difficulty because of that and threaten the very future of historic clubs. So I'm always hopeful but not necessarily buying fully into anything changing the full picture. It needs to be, and this is what the independent regulator is trying to achieve and I have some hope that they will. This is something that needs to be something that everyone kind of works towards, from the Premier League distributing its great riches in the best way down the pyramid, rather than just giving a load of money disproportionately to three teams coming down and those that went down before them. But it's also crucial that the EFL clubs have better regulation, better financial regulation, to stop them kind of acting irresponsibly and raising costs and sort of assuring responsibility for that because the situation isn't great. So obviously there's lots of detail within this which is probably not, well, I wouldn't be able to deliver it off the top of my head to you right now on a Thursday morning, Max, but also there's lots that's part of this. The EFL have introduced some new spending rules as well in the championship and league one, not league two, which didn't vote for it, which was quite funny. And so the EFL is making its own changes to get clubs kind of broadly back in line financially. So yeah, hopeful. I think change was needed and that's what we're getting. Let's get on the pitch then, George. EFL returns Friday night walls versus blackburn full weekend of fixtures. You guys are not the top 20. You've done your, you know, you've done your one to 24's for the EFL. I might read them all out so people are, you know, I do a spoiler. You really should max. You really should just to make sure you can listen to this pod. You don't need to bother with their one. You have middles for a top of the championship. Given the EFL is launched on Friday night, we are hosting the EFL launch party in London in Burmese on Friday evening at the Volly South to watch walls, blackburns. So anyone listening, what's going to join us and watching the EFL football and have some beers and do come and join us. You can find the link in our kind of they're not top 20 social media accounts. But yes, Bura and Bura top. They had a funny season last season and a lot of Nietzsche's are pretty miffed as to why Ali and I hold and a lot of other people hold Kim Hellberg. They're manager in such high regards given kind of the narrative is he took over a team who are going to get promoted and end up finishing fifth and then managed to lose the playoffs twice. And all of that is kind of factually true, of course, because Rob Edwards had a bar in a lofty position. They did finish having gone top of the top of the table and then they did lose the playoffs semi-finals and so gets the final and they did to lose the final. However, what I would say is watching Bura under Hellberg. I think often with managers like him who implement a very extreme style of playing mid-season appointments can often be very difficult because it's hard to get your training methods and playing style across when you're playing at least once every week and he did it remarkably quickly and incredibly effectively to the degree that even though the results were good for a long period but also kind of tailed off the underlying numbers and not just extreme numbers like the XG but also kind of final third entries, box entries, shots, shots on target, everything that the level of dominance today exerted over their opposition compared to the rest of the league was absolutely staggering. Like I've never really seen a team put themselves so far clear in all of those metrics and their issues, it's basic to say but they had a goalkeeper in Silberin who his shot-stopping left a lot to be desired, probably not a top-level championship keeper and their finishing was horrendous and that kind of fell to various different players and it meant that even though they were dominant between both boxes they were concealing those of the chances they gave up and they weren't screwing all the chance they created and that meant their results weren't great and a fair few of their signings this summer I struggled to really work out how they fit into Helberg's very high-intensity risk-taking style of football but in Relic V Tech in goal who was at Bristol City last season was one of the best shot-stoppers in the league, they brought in a keeper who is far superior to Brin and with Will Lancer who scored 11 goals for the public sport Oxford who basically didn't create a single chance last season for the most part and he scored 11 goals and is a proper goal scorer and a very very clinical striker. It seems basic but my theory is if Helberg, especially with a preseason under his belt, can turn Bury into a team who are again so dominant between both boxes but now they've got a keeper who makes A's and they've got a striker who puts chances away then they're going to be very hard to live with. Now there are other squads in the championship West Ham being one, Wolves being another who have a ridiculous amount of quality within their within their squads but there are so many unknowns when it comes to teams getting ready to get to that the Premier League like with Wolves they've got a new manager called Cesar Pachoto who is a Guilvesente last season but we just don't know the quality or what side of football we're going to play we'll learn a hell of a lot about him in the first 20 minutes tomorrow night against Platburn with West Ham I have serious concerns as we get on to about new nose kind of suitability to this role so in Bury it feels like the the most kind of solid candidate where they've shown they can do it last season they've made the changes necessary and I'll be amazed if they don't kick on. To add to the boroughs situation because I covered them in the league cup first round and having covered them actually a fair few times last season weirdly enough I think what essentially what George is saying about Hilberg is he would have had the concern of the back of the season the way the form dropped off and the way they were beaten in some games and I think of the Coventry game that I also covered as well seeing them firsthand I still saw those vulnerabilities against Rixam in that game in the fact you think about their backline and you do worry they're going to be in games where they dominate the ball and then they lose it because they're so they're always playing progressive passes so many of their players are asking Luke Ailing to do it Melanda who seems comfortable he seems Melanda strikes me with a sort of player as a center half who when he was younger wanted to be a midfielder desperately and wanted to show what he could do and he is I think the championship is a good place to do that because he's going to get a bit of time on the ball to play those passes but he's going to play a pass at one point that just gives it to the opposition and they're going to break away and there's so many cany managers in the championship so many good managers in the championship I think that teams might take advantage of that again I do worry about Barrow if they get in that situation where that's realized and they go on a dodgy run he'll be under pressure as the manager and the money they spent will be but I also think they've tried to address that certainly in the midfield certainly in the way that can they win games quicker can they get themselves in dominant positions in games quicker and see them out and their transfer of business is fantastic help by the roger's money and help by the hackney sale but how they feel that hackney hole is a tricky thing and how they defensively is where I worry about them with the hackney replacement as well as a bare halter who people would have seen playing for USA in the world cup I mean to sell hackney for 20 or million pounds and bring in bare halter for a reported million pounds seems a very good business to me but I've seen a lot of people who know and well saying him and Ed Morris will be their starting midfield to her best mates which is quite fun they're played together through youth football but they're both incredibly energetic out of possession as well as in possession and that's what you know it's what hellberg wants but also do you want two cent of midfielders who are basically running around like crazy people for a whole game or does that open gaps in itself too like it's what we'll see and I'm so intrigued to see them to start the season but this is just the case where I believe I wouldn't be surprised if when we're back here in three years time me and Ali doing a any FL season preview we're talking about Kim Hellberg as the Manchester City manager or the Barcelona manager that you know that's how high a steam I rate him as a coach and normally that in the championship because he's seen in recent years with the Elsa with with company with you know look where these guys if you'd come from or got or got on to do like elite managers tend to do well in this at this level yeah then you're not moving pivot maybe if I get my hips right I spent two minutes watching a compilation of your every touch in a small-sided game in the states in the summer I've had some I've had some content lows in my time but that really actually root and branch changed that's what that you know that's what I had to do after that I love the comments people say you know people notice me applauding the past before I received the ball that's you know this is vintage didn't give the ball away I thought that was just a twist to be honest West Ham probably need a mention in that they are really short you know they're heavily favored to win the league with the bookmakers they were the best of the three relegated teams last season in fact they're 39 points I think I'm right in saying would have been enough to survive in the last 15 seasons in the Premier League so they got a bit unlucky on that front Nuno is still the manager and Jared Bowen is staying which is kind of the headline stuff really and Bowen should be the best the best player in the league you know he's he's a absolutely magnificent player so it seems obvious that that they would be kind of the favorites I think we feel like and this you know the window is still open for other three weeks but we do feel like there's an awful lot to do still at West Ham they've signed Manor Solomon who should be pretty good and Joel Veltman the 34 year old right back on a free and otherwise it still feels like they're sorting out who needs to leave rather than who they're bringing in and clearly we know because of their finances they you know they've done a great job of selling Fernandez and Chrysensia Somerville and others for you know they probably raised 150 million pounds but the financial situation at West Ham as I understand it is still you know pretty fragile they can't afford to spend much more time in outside of the Premier League I think it's probably fair to say so they have had some changes off the field as well I should say and hopefully a brave new era on that front but I think we just feel like it's actually not a great squad in its totality even though it's got a couple of eye catching players so George and I both think wolves seem better set to challenge straight away with the squad that they have and potentially the style of play that their manager will look to implement might be more appropriate for being a dominant championship team but yeah knowledge the other one I want to mention George is very very hot on butter I think knowledge could could challenge towards the top I think a Coventry last season you know Lampard had an amazing half season the year before and taking them up from the bottom half where they should never have been on this great run losing in the playoffs I think there's some similarities with what Philippe Clemond did with knowledge last season they had nine points after 16 games when he came in and they'd lost their first seven home league games which is I think unprecedented and he turned things around brilliantly you know the tactics maybe not quite as sexy as Kim Helberg the underlying numbers not quite as good as as Barra but I think still you know absolutely clearly had a big impact on the team and off the pitch seems like he's he's really got incredible buy-in off the field and they've got a really solid squad of lot of young players that I think would develop and kind of kick on again this season so knowledge probably the ones along with Barra from the from last year's championship that we think could easily challenge at the top depending on the strength of those relegated teams so how do you see the situation at Southampton obviously they've got a a points deduction but Thunder Record is still there and clearly there's a charged overhanging but by all accounts you know everyone is with him now well they have to be because the season's about to start I mean it being straight I think you have to get behind and manage it despite what the situation is because the most important thing is the football club and their results so you don't want to be damning the club too much even from within even if you're covering the club I think in his situation it seems you know not to get involved in cases but it seems inevitable in a way that he's going to get a ban of some sort so when that comes what how do they deal with that and that's off also about the finances of the club as well what are they prepared to do because is there a case there to get involved in his contract if he is suspended how does that then work with them having to get a replacement in if he is suspended can he just spy on the team or he's free to spy you mean yeah well you know he's going to be was it double jeopardy so I was desperate not to do flippant spy base guys because I know everybody you know they're old hat now I'm trying to be new and you know relevant it was the middle for losing twice in the playoffs which makes me giggle but yeah yeah yeah I think they're late surge but they're in that situation when you have the three teams that drop down in West Ham wolves and Burnley because Southampton didn't go up last season it creates this bottleneck all of a sudden which is what I think football fans in general quite like one it gives you think one of these sides is going to panic perhaps one of these sides might be overloaded with wages that they can't deal with that probably explains West Ham situation if we're just trying to clear the books a bit and think we have enough anyway to get over the line and then they'll see if halfway through the season they're mid table they might panic and then push it out and that will open the doors for the likes of Rexham in this particular case maybe Birmingham City maybe even which would be in my opinion one of the great stories of all time if Lincoln City could be up in towards that playoff situation I mean that would be quite extraordinary and that's what creates to something interesting I think Ipswich going up stop that a little bit but Southampton are now in that's how long will they be in the championship for now seeing these clubs go down and what about the clubs if one of the three promoted such as the Premier League does stay up we could be in that situation again if we were to lose aside perhaps I'm going big here Newcastle Palace full of Bournemouth Brighton brain for to bring loads of teams into this so people don't think I'm back in three well B clubs yes exactly if we were to lose one of them from the Premier League Seb touch and I don't know I'm intrigued to see how Lincoln will get on they won they won league one last season 103 points which would have been you know a record in modern times had Birmingham not won it with 111 the season before and yet despite their dominant and despite the fact they were such a great team that they're still being written off based on kind of size of club I guess rather than the quality they showed me they have lost their manager Michael Scabala who's moved on to Bristol City his two assistants were appointed shortly after that decision was made effectively the club saying he isn't the reason for our success we are just a well run club and he's a cog in that machine so they've been seeing how they got on there but they also lost maybe their best pair in the second half of last season two in Jack Moil and who's gone to the team that finished second in Cardiff City they've got a very robust style of play which I think will be well suited to moving up into the championship because they aren't the team that necessarily need the ball they're happy to sit off and attack in a very direct way where they really try and exploit the space that's left in behind defenses and you know we see clubs who come up from from league one into the championship they tend to go okay in their first season often kind of gravity sucks them back into league one the season after but I think Lincoln could really start well albeit pretty tougher Simon first up playing against Middlesbrough also really intrigued see how Cardiff get on the under Brian Barry Murphy another manager who wouldn't surprise me at all if he's got a huge future at the top level very very different style of football to Lincoln when they get the ball down and play just want to ask the the gentleman's opinion on the new playoff situation I don't know if it's been explained on the pod already and the additional places in the playoffs the system that's very similar to what they already using the national league and is created two extra opportunities for sides in the league this is all the way to the air for a league no just the championship just the championship oh yes yeah okay so it goes down to eight does it eight yeah I mean I've got to say said I you know this might just be signs of my movement into middle age but I I I hate it I don't know what you're going to say well well I would go that far but I I he I don't like it I just don't really see the need for it it just seems like it's an attempt you know it it's it's a contradiction because I love the playoffs because the playoffs existed as I came into consciousness about football but I guess from a very kind of base perspective I don't really see why you want to create a league system where you play 46 games and then one of the motions places goes to a knockout game where you can finish 30 points behind for you know the actual idea of the playoffs even I love the drama is flawed in my in my opinion but making it even more forgiving bringing in a team of eight through a basically mid-table it's just move you know football going closer and closer towards just an entertainment show rather than an actual competition to to reward quality and success so no I don't like I'm sure I'll get really into the playoffs when they come around and I'll and I'll love the extra games I love the drama and the excitement but we as football fans have to take a stand somewhere about the way that our game is changing and I think creating just more drama to make it into a into a good TV show is where I would draw the line I can ask you about who you're worried about the championship before we move on to league one I need to yeah um we very much inadvertently relegated three teams who are all within about 10 square miles of each other in our 124s that was Bolton Wondrares who came up through the league one playoffs last season they had a lonely called Amario Cozier Jubri who generated a lot of their attack who won't be I don't think we'll be back at a Bolton this season and we're not really buying what they've been able to do at this moment to to kind of build a championship ready squada as we see it Steven Schumacher very good manager came up with Plymouth a few years ago and had them sort of sixteenth midway through his first season at the level before getting poached by Stoke so you know plenty to believe in but we're not buying the squad at the moment and the quality they see blackburn we had going down as well Tony Moby raised their new manager and they're broadly sticking with the same squad that they had last year it's kind of hard to know exactly how this will go because you know Moby Moby at his best can can develop young players really well while playing attacking football and having some success but results haven't been great in his last few jobs and the just general atmosphere at Rovers is about as bad as any club in the championship just because the ownership the Venkis and the fans I mean that relationship ended about five 10 years ago and it's still just a place with so little positive energy and I do think that can have an effect on the team and broadly similar for Preston North End now they finished 14th last season but it was season of two halves good start to the season and then the only one four of them asked 20 in the league and I'm just concerned that that will be the level at which they start this season because again they haven't been able to do huge amounts in the transfer market to give poor hecking bottom a much better squad and the fans are not happy hecking bottom doesn't seem happy that he's kind of going into battle without without great weapons so yeah nothing to do with the geography of it all but it's Bolton blackburn and Pne that we're pretty worried about you've basically relegated the 1950s how could you how could you all right that'll do for part two part three we'll do league one at league two welcome to part three of the Guardian football weekly so league one then as you pointed out Ali Jack Wilshire Aaron Ramsey Tom cleverly all managing in league one which is fun Seb who are you who are you looking at Cambridge aside of course who we're going to run run away with it who are you looking out for Bromley bizarrely I used to when I probably about 10 years ago used to work a lot on the national league and I remember seeing the route obviously Luton coming from there to go up to the Premier League essentially but it's a bit of a different situation in Bromley's case because Luton had already been a club up in the higher echelons of football anywhere they dropped down and gone back up again Bromley were talking about a side who are in a good catchment area we love to use that phrase and and I could in the modern game it's probably more important than ever because you're a club looking around the thinking if you're in that part of the country anything maybe we can pick up those players who come from Palace perhaps we've even come from Charlton you know we're looking high up the league and but then you hit reach a point where they are now where they're in league one and whereas before they might have been trying to pick players from the leagues below them in the national league they are now looking in that position can we attract those players to kick them onto the next level any club in this sort of situation that finds himself now I look at league one and I always think this is the point where a club who is obviously they're punching you know above their weight now as a charter say do we belong here or not are we just going to drop out now I don't know the gender opinion on Bromley is a particular case and where they they see them going but if you're a say you know a fan of Cambridge for example you see a club like Bromley in your in your remit and you think oh no another one of these hopefully hopefully they don't push on because they're one of the cases unlike Salford perhaps you think oh well it's inevitable they're going to surge passes but they haven't done you think Bromley is like if we see them go I mean we're in big trouble here yeah I mean I do you know what George I do look at league one you know and I looked at it the say you know Cambridge were there for quite a long time and then went out for a couple of years and come back again or however long we were in league two and you just go blind me I'm trying to find four teams who are just sort of smaller that you know are traditionally more likely to go down on us and it's quite hard actually now because just there are big teams in there yeah there are big teams I mean and there are there are some teams who are consistently punching above above their weight and staying up you know we saw waves we want in last season having come through the league two playoffs stay up and I'll be hoping that they can do that again but I would also kind of caveat it by saying that they're a regularly team so you might perceive as being you know big teams who do struggling in league one because it is unforgiving you know look at last summer blackpool or one of the biggest benders in the whole of league one and spent most of the season saving off relegation until a kind of a late priority of results to them up into mid table like they we've had one of the biggest wage bills in the league and we've gone into the season confident that they'll be able to to to compete for the playoffs so you know as a Cambridge fan I kind of stand while you're looking wondering who's going to be there Barnes is another one who genuinely have been a team that have competed the top end of league one but as they lose players and seemingly a kind of cost-cutting they're another who we worry for and fear could have a season struggle it also wouldn't surprise me you know you look at the teams that have come down from the championship you know my team Oxford are currently under a registration embargo can't sign new players transfer rumors swirling around some of our better players even though we don't want to lose them because we can't replace them you've got Sheffield Wednesday who I think will go well but Ali fears for and they've had to basically build a whole new squad from scratch after the after their takeover I'm really concerned about Leicester who I just don't think have a particularly good squad and have loads of holes to fill and under under Russell Martin who's Starris for them pretty quickly and since that day at Wembley but ironically his Samson side put in one of the best back to all performances I think we've seen in the playoffs and since then you know it's had a toriot time and the Premier League playing out from the back as he likes to do and then a toriot time arranges he really needs this to work but I look at their squad and even though you've got players of individual quality or at least we know have been good players like you know players existing already there one of a skip Stephanie Mavidede they haven't looked good for a while players like Connor Chaplin and Wes Burns who dropped down into league one again who you know we're fantastic players that level a couple of years ago again you're asking them to find some form they haven't shown recently so it wouldn't surprise me if league one you know you look at it now and it feels quite easy to see like a high rock gold or a big team to small team in league one but it never looks like that and make poor at all of a skip just go ahead quickly you know in the Premier League one minute and now you're a way to not county at Harpass midday he was he was rumored to be he was rumored to be there and I'm sorry said for a transfer email but he was rumored to be the kind of first on the list for borough to replace Hayden Hackney and the kind of quotes from local media is that borough quoted 15 million pounds at which point they said no thank you and moved on to sign the Americans starting midfield for a million quid it took my excitement of young players they're losing young players as well yeah and also rumored to be using losing young players as well so that hurts because you'd think always opens an opportunity for some of our talent to come through but not if you're then having them picked off as well so horrible situation for lists the image I have Ali is now that everyone in league one is hopeless which gives me you know it feels very exciting could win the league but who do you have wow doing well in this division weirdly I think there is a chunk of possibly almost 10 teams who finished kind of fourth to 14th for our season all of whom you can make a case for for kicking on and so I do think there will be as George said maybe some surprises when you look at the league table in a few months time I mean Lutentown and Plymouth Argyle were the top two in our one to 24's and that reflects that both of those two teams came down from the championship and the relegation hangover was a was a bad one for both but they sorted it out so Jack Wilshire came in as Lutent manager and it took him a couple of months you know trying to sift through the wreckage of a double relegation but a very good squad of players and by the end of the season he'd found the right balance and they won eight of their last ten Argyle were near the relegation zone halfway through the season threatened with a double relegation of their own with Tom cleverly seemingly floundering and then they brought in Derek Adams very experienced EFL manager as director of football rather than sacking cleverly they they brought in more support for him and it clicked and they won 11 of their last 16 so by the end of the season we saw both of these two teams really strong at the level even though they kind of ran out of road and didn't even make the playoffs because of their poor first half of the season and we think that there's there's every reason for them to kind of broadly pick up where they left off and then you know George is pretty strong on MK Don's coming up and being strong straight away under Paul Warden very deep pockets and a good squad already I think Bradford who made the playoffs last season having one promotion the season before so you can have that mobility straight away use that momentum and keep going I think they might stick around in the playoff picture under Graeme Alexander I think Huddersfield Town if their new first time manager Martin Drewry he's as talented as a CV that includes Manchester United and Brentford and two spells with Carlos Corberan if he's any good they've got the squad to fly Stockport Wickham Oxford who knows Blackpool as well Redding Orient like that it's it's a really good league one put it that way it's a really good league one this season and you should be delighted that Cambridge United are a part of it I am delighted I'm delighted you also relegated Peter brother that's excellent league too then and you have sold for winning a league and it feels to me George that I don't know what the opposite of circling a drainage but that's what's sold for do isn't it they're not in the sun that's here and they're circling the sun thank you but but one of the constants in life is they never ever do it like ever and it's sort of you sort of think this is ridiculous if you don't follow it too closely you know they've got the financial backing they've got the sort of football heritage of the class of 92 et cetera they can just never make it work but you think seven seasons seven seasons at the level now always well bankrolled always near the top in terms of being favourites and fourth last season was their highest finish in seven seasons and they they sat their manager off the back of it you know it was a it was one of the poor player final displays we've seen which I think may have put paid to car rums and um but yeah as you can imagine we put out onto 24 was all the comments we get are really kind of nice and none says anything me um but one we we got one this morning which made me laugh it was like well you ever not put soul for top and I was like I think it says I think it's the first we've all right we've ever actually done it because it does feel different this time around uh they you know I as a general barometer I think taking losing playoff finalists is quite a good place to start for teams who are going to do well the season after like unless it's a one off incredible campaign you think back to you brought county who got so close under uh Michael Flynn against all odds so you know those not necessarily the case when you've got one of the highest spending teams in a league who have a squad of players that have been you know put together to improve motion they're just full short the chances are they're going to go well again the season after um they've hired any manager called Peter Klamovsky whose nickname is now the clam on our podcast um who is angiposter cogluz number two uh in the Australian youth system and then also in Japan before he went on his own management journey and in the jail league um most recently manager of Malaysia it doesn't seem like an obvious choice to be into league two but we're excited to see his brand of front footed attacking football was he the guy who was telling ang that he was too defensive or was he a guy that was telling ang you know we what are we gonna from what we're we're being told he's very much an angi disciple um so he he will be following in those footsteps rather than yeah he's not the the missing um ying to um to angioselle league two is not the place for that i mean i might hunch is having watched a lot of league two it feels a risky place to play angi ball yeah that was our i said to alien may like i can't remember for the ones 24 was that teams who win lead to always kind of keep the ball in the air good from set pieces and then here we are putting up the team that are probably going to have 70 percent session on pitches um that are going to resemble our very little grass uh from january through to to march um but they've just got a ridiculously good squad of players and then off the back of the player final defeat they've added two players who we've been pretty good signings for for a league one team uh a top-end league one team to the calling Langstaff score 28 goals in a season Fox County last time is playing in league two and got a move to millwall where he wasn't prolific but still um you know wasn't unpopular with their fans for the for the the you know the his movement and his ability to um to at least press from the front he's now dropped back into league two at solford and then um we've got uh Molinu from from donkaster who posted ridiculous numbers when he was last in league two when donkaster won the league i think it was 16 goals and tennisists or something like that a player who pays off the right hand side very good delivery but also an amazing long shot on him and adding those to to what's already a very good team um at league two level i just find it hard not to see their quality um really pain dividends i said who you're looking at for i would say grooms be town i've always had a soft spot for them i i went to bundle park quite a few times actually and i i feel in this particular situation they've been i almost don't want them to go up in a weird way i just want them to be a presence in that part of the league i feel it's a lot to ask to push up but then you look at Lincoln City what they've done and grooms be being from the same county will feel well maybe that's an aspiration for us sorry to say that um but i say david artel jibalta international i like works like that but for grooms be town i seen them in the national i can see them come up uh essentially being a club in league two where you think that's where they should be now i want to know and this is maybe a throwback to the gentleman here we look at sulfurnet and the pressure on them weirdly grooms be town or it's a club we're seeing a satellite sulfur maybe screen part you think oh they're going to go over the hills wrecks some style but it's never happened just the fact they can mix it with them in that league and say remind them this is where you should be you're not going to go any further the experience of seeing them beat south hampton in the FA Cup i love that so much this is experiencing the knockout Manchester United last season on penalties i love that so much and even though grooms be town sports or maybe some of them in position as well why shouldn't we push on but actually i think english football needs clubs like grooms be town to hold the whole fabric of what makes our football so great you have a club playing for a coastal town essentially and in fact they're based even more east where the actual town is in cleathops it just it just spreads the geography around the nation but also it's that reminder with your another club from London from Manchester area and you go and play at these clubs these the places where people stereotypically say we don't want to go there we're going to make it hard and when you do go there you do get that sense Manchester United experienced it but there will be clubs even in league two solford to pick them out again who was still experiencing thinking like just can't wait to get out of here because of what we believe where we should be another reason why i have a soft spot for them Paul Hurst who was the manager there me and him both did a journalism course together a master's degree about over 20 years ago and ever since then he i think is at roderham at the time i've always thought and he you spoke about wanting to be a manager and all this sort of stuff to see his progression is always good to see and i always wanted him to do well and he did he did well at groom's b before our tilt took over so he did better in the journalism course well not to go into detail but we were split from the footballers because we've done degrees under one of the provisos of them being on the courses we don't want to talk to the normal journalists we don't want to talk to them it's not business from the real journalist looking down at the foot yeah exactly yeah exactly that final word from you allie on lead to yeah i think i'll add Bristol rovers into the mix here they were i mean spiraling last season um they came down from from leone surprisingly i think they all felt they were in a pretty good position starting to establish themselves as a leone club that was the plan they got some very rich q 80 owners in and that felt like that was going to help you know boost their budget and naturally would lead to improvement up towards the top of league one instead they got relegated uh and and last season they lost 10 games in a row in the first half of the season and they were in and around the league to a relegation spots so they turned as so many have before to steve Evans and uh you have to say it worked out pretty well um they didn't start uh unbelievably quickly under him but from the 27th of january onwards so that's three and a half months of football they got five points more than anyone else in the league they rattled off an eight game winning streak to end the season um Evans has very very very clear style of play which maybe unlike peter clemovsky is the kind of prototype league to his successful team um he's got aerial target men at the top of the pitch he's got individual quality out wide he's got solid midfielders big strong defenders and i see them you know certainly in the top three i wouldn't be surprised if they win the league so yeah that's that's probably the the one that i wanted to mention thanks everyone i had a nice time uh thanks allie thank you max pints and championship football friday night uh for wolves blackburn at the volley south in bermancy see you there i'll ask mrs russian if i can get a pass uh thank you george thanks my pleasure uh thanks sir thank you max uh for what weekly is produced by will we simon and jesse howard the executive producer is daniel stevens will be back on monday yes on monday this is the guardian
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