Tactical Dogma, Corporate Ruin, and the Ballon d'Or Paradigm: Inside Guardian Football Weekly

This is The Guardian. Hello and welcome to The Guardian Football Weekly, a EuroPod with a panel of galacticals. Part one, Sid is here for part one, to talk about the spline star, and if Jose is settling things down at rail. The Serie A brick watch stones, chalable winks, Bowie, as well as Lazio top of the table, as Mike Chaos off the pitch. In Germany, they're talking up Harry Kane, Ballon d'Or, while in France, PSG of 15th, they always do this. Short intro, big panel. This is The Guardian Football Weekly. Welcome to The Galacticals, Philippe O'Claire, bonjour, Sevain. Bonjour, Sevain, and may I correct you immediately, Max? Perry, Perry Sashoma, after their crappy little victory, are now 7th in the team. OK, well that does take away a lot of the sting of the intro. I mean, really, a professional would re-record it, but we don't do that here. You have to, for integrity's purposes, you have to keep this stuff in, but I will have many people fired. Are the racing post-Market Langdon, hello? Oh, I'm Max also, if this is the sort of galacticals, I feel like the pavon in the Zidane will sit Nicky and Philippe, so I'll take you. They're always needed. They're always needed. Nicky, Madini, hello. Good morning. And welcome, part one, Sid, hey, Sid. Good morning. Well, let's start. We better start with you, Sid. It'd be good if we did the Bundesliga in part one. And we'll be brilliant. Can I just talk about Harry Kane? You know what? I'd actually really like to talk about Harry Kane, if only so that I can be involved in a discussion that isn't tiresome about how Killing Member Pay or L'Aminia Mile has to win the Ballon d'Or. I'd like to talk about someone else winning it. Go on then. Well, we start with that. And then you have to stay to do the Spain business. Oh, I've got that wrong. Nevermind. Yeah, sorry. It's a tactical blunder. Extra five minutes. I mean, I don't care who wins the Ballon d'Or Mark, but Harry Kane's record is good. Like, do you think he'll, I still don't think he'll win it. I still think I reckon footballing snobbs won't give it to him. But he's got a very bad record in this. I don't know if he's ever finished in the top 10 in the voting. You could argue the season individually was great for him. But the World Cup finished at the semi-final. They didn't win the Champions League. And I think as Sid alluded to there, L'Aminia Mile was spent kind of this weekend saying it can only be me or Killing Member Pay. And like, Harry Kane just isn't as famous and doesn't, he doesn't talk in that kind of way either. I think the Ballon d'Or, you do have to do, you know, the political voting and the kind of being seen in, you know, saying the right things and Kane doesn't do that. But there is also this, I think certainly in the background, the feeling that Kane is quite a strong favourite despite what L'Aminia Mile thinks. In fact, you're saying to them, be more like Jenny in Fantino, Manuver, the dark recesses of international football, go and talk to each Member of the jury. That would take you a while. It would cost a lot of money as well. My money, my money, if I were putting money on it would be on Harry Kane. Still. I think there's a feeling as well within the, because don't forget it's the football journalists who choose to battle d'Or, there's a feeling that this guy deserves more recognition, that what is achieved with Bayern is absolutely astonishing. I mean, we could talk about the bully later, but here he is. I have to say, when I read that he had just scored his 150th goal for Bayern Munich, I could barely believe it. Like what? 150 goals. And England actually were not rubbish at the World Cup and all these things put together and he's got a nice image. Kiki is not good to get it, he's ruffled too many feathers. But yeah, Mal, if he carries on, like, because the voting is still going on, right? So if Yamal carries on what he does, but I think I would vote for Harry Kane by himself. I mean, I think 150 goals of Bayern is worth about 4,000 for Tottenham. If you look at, you know, really, he should have got it for many years, considering how they can't hit a barn door now. Come on then, Sid. Barça Top 15 points, five wins from five. Rail have 12. I feel like like a massive hypocrite and deeply disappointed in myself. But I can't believe that I've effectively introduced the ballendor as the opening subject of this. I know. I know. Probably we probably lost all our subscribers, but I also love Philippe's definition of England and the World Cup as being not rubbish, and that's a winning, that's a winning formula right there. Fantastic. I'm sorry. What did you actually want to ask me about, Max? I wanted to say I wanted to just tick off how a Barça doing, how a Real Madrid doing. What are the other stories? Bugger off. That's my, that was my, you know, that's not my generic. I try and ask the questions in a more intelligent way, but really that's what I'm going for. We'll begin with Barcelona then. Top of the league, flying scored 21, conceded four, had a bit of a fright. I guess later on against Levante, but it's been a brilliant start. They had a bit of a wobble. Try and help me work this out, Max. So I wasn't watching this game live because I was at a far more important game in Spain's second division at the time. And when the alert flipped up on the screen for me, Barcelona won the lap. Quickly look at the stats. Barcelona won the lap, one shot, one touch in the opposition area, 98% of the possession. This is five minutes in and a 0.05 expected goals. And I was sitting there at this other game I was watching. Kind of work out. How are those statistics possible because if you've kicked off and kept the ball and scored, surely it's 100% possession. Where is the 2% for the other team coming from? You can't have reached 100 passes. Does that mean the other team has touched it literally once and completed one pass? Have you really racked up 50 passes in five minutes? Anyway, I then watched it back and basically, yes, they did dominate. But I was still dubious about the stats. Barça started well with that, but actually this was possibly a day they scored four goals. They're worse performance of the season. And you're right, they were up against it a little bit. I think the context of this is that the game had already gone. They're freeing it up. They can see it too. It starts to get a little bit wobbly. Wobbly's probably in exaggeration. And then Adi Emis scored a fantastic fourth. But Barça and her are very, very exciting in this game a little bit less so. Yeah, I do love that the penalty was funny because they're all claiming that this guy on the floor has handballed it, the Levanti player. So just to confirm, he then just kicks Le Mal over to say, well, maybe I had balled it, maybe I didn't. But I failed him just there. It's definitely a penalty. It's interesting how Adi Emis scored that guy. He's got a brick on the Champions League and Anthony Gordon's come in and apparently with man of the match in this game. Are you, are you, how impressive has he been? Well, I think what he's been, probably the best way to look at Anthony Gordon is, is to say that he's been exactly what Flick wants him to be. And there was an interesting remark from Danny Olmone, who's talking about the arrival of Adi Emis and Gordon. And actually some of the others as well, but in particular those two. And he said they bring us what we want in an attacking sense, incredibly fast, very direct. The Spaniards always use this word vertical, you know, everything straight line straight out to him straight through them. He said, but actually the most important part is a defensive side of what they do. And that insistence on pressing very high, because if Barcelona are going to play the way that they want to play with the, with the back line very high and with lots of people pouring forward, that they need that press to be right. Because as soon as it gets even slightly wrong, they're going to get caught. And that begins with a front free. And in particular, it begins with a Athena, but I think Gordon has been, if you like the perfect embodiment of that. Now they've got Roderick that protects them a little bit in those moments when the press isn't quite so good, but what Gordon's done so far. And I think Flick was asked this at the weekend, whether Gordon was a little frustrated not to have got the goals yet that he might have wanted being in that position. But he said, but again, he was full of praise for the performance, because I think he's been exactly what his manager wants him to be. And Sid, Sid, you mentioned Rafinha there and there was an amazing touch that they brought down out the sky before he assisted Laminio Malford for one of the goals. But do you feel like he can be the solution for Barcelona all season in that position as to the false nine, or have they got other options at the same level that can sort of carry them through a busy season? No, I don't think they've got anyone as good as him. But I do think they've got players with a different profile. I mean, for this work, I think Rafinha now there's very, I can't think of a player in the world at the moment that I enjoy watching more than him. Because this kind of mad intensity about him, everything he does, the quality, you're talking about that touch, the quality does at speed. And he seems to do everything at speed. He's been fantastic for at least a couple of years now, there's I think a real sense of him kind of growing into this role of leadership. And I think that false nine role suits him in certain games. I think this is why they've bought Gabriel Jesus, because it's about the type of game drawn on the level, I think. And Barcelona have been, we're very clear, even when they knew they couldn't get Julian Avardeth anymore. And even when these first few games of the season were going so well, they scored all of them, they've scored five goals, four in this one and two in another, but five across the others, they're pouring through teams, they're going at teams of Rafinha's been the heart of that. But I think there is a recognition that there will be teams that propose different types of games, different types of structures. And in those circumstances, they'll need a different type of forward. So I think the answer to the question is, will it be like this whole season? I think it will be like this, the immense majority of the season, yes. But I think there's a recognition that there will be moments when they need someone who's a different profile. And that's where Gabriel Jesus comes in. Caring on in that vein, are there any regrets in Barcelona to have let Ferran Torres go away when you see jumping ahead of myself, what is doing for PSG at the moment? And he's also that kind of player, you know, talk about the job that you're supposed to be doing. He's doing that for PSG. Maybe he could be doing it as well for Barcelona. And there's sold him funding that much money in the current market. Any regrets? Funny enough, I was looking at the stats yesterday for this. Last season, non-penalty goals, I've realised that taking penalties out is maybe a little bit, you know, a little bit foolish. But, you know, non-penalty goals as a way of judging forwards. Ferran was actually only one goal away from Member Pay last year in Aliga. And this is a guy that wasn't always a starter. So his contribution was enormous in key moments. I think there's always been a feeling that Ferran maybe wasn't quite good enough to be Barcelona's starting centre-four, but he was really useful. I think if they'd known that they've gone to somewhere without getting the centre-four, they wanted. They might have thought differently, but the Ferran thing, I think, has a couple of other elements to it. One is the need to renew his contract. His desire, maybe, to go somewhere else and get a bigger contract, and not necessarily a bigger club, because, you know, although they double European champions, I'm not sure if PSG are a bigger club, maybe a better team right now, but not a bigger club. And so, I think, in a way, actually, I wouldn't say there are regrets. No, I think, you know, there might be a feeling that, well, he could have been useful, and in fact, he would have been useful. But I think there's also a recognition that actually this was probably the right thing to do. And I think certainly those Barcelona fans who are critical of Ferran would probably respond to what he's done so far by saying, all right, well, let's see him in February. You can do it when it's easy, but, you know, World Cup final, that's not for Ferran. Exactly. How's the, we heard the booze that Jose got in the Champions League game after they'd beat Inter, wasn't it, but they didn't play brilliantly. You know, they, they are second, they're three points off Barça, but what's the kind of, what's the vibe? Yeah, caveat, caveat alert. I, in fairness, I don't think the booze were for Jose. I think they were just that kind of traditional Spanish and Real Madrid thing of, of Whistling when the team's playing a bit bad, and they weren't very good in that game. And they, they got beaten the game before against Betis, but actually played pretty well. And really if there's going to be an analysis of the Betis game, it would be well, you know, it could have been very different, so it doesn't really matter. They, I think the feeling is that Marino is starting to get at least a structure and a commitment from his players. One of the, it's a bit simplistic, but one of the kind of the key analyses, and I think actually it's true, despite being simplistic last year, was that, frankly, a lot of the time, a lot of players didn't seem to be trying hard enough. And, and one of the big things that always comes in when you get someone like Marino, and the reasons why he returns, as well as the nostalgia that went with the last time, is this idea that he's the guy that can impose upon in the dressing room that, that has maybe some bad habits that doesn't always integrate well, and that actually while the football hasn't always been great this season, there is a bit more intensity about them. And so I don't think Marino is under a huge amount of pressure. I think the player that is under pressure a little bit is vanishes, and there is a contradiction here because actually he is running, and he is trying, it's just not coming off from at the moment, but Marino keeps saying this, he's close, and very soon he'll be brilliant again. Sid mentioned that Vinicius being the player is under pressure, and I was just curious, I know Denzel Dumfries has had a bit of a mixed up, since he went from Inter, of course, is also Trent Alexander Arnold, who could be starting in that right back position. So I just, I was wondering for a quick word on those two, basically, and what that side of the pitch is looking like. Yeah, the quick word I suppose is that right now it feels pretty clear that Dumfries is the first choice that Marino has a little bit more faith in him. Marino played Trent in midfield in the Champions League game, and it was a very interesting post game because he tried really hard to be nice about Trent's performance, and he said, you know, I'm really grateful that he filled in there because we didn't have anyone else, and you know, he worked really hard and he played very well. And then he said, but the specifics of that position, he basically said Trent's not midfielder. The specifics of that position right now, Trent can't do them, I don't think he used the word can't do them, but he essentially said, this isn't when he's trying to be nice Joseph, he essentially said, we won't be doing this again or this can't happen. Of course, the question mark then would be, well, why did you do it in the first place? In fairness, Marino, there really wasn't anyone else, but it was very interesting how kind of definitive that answer was, you know, Trent's not midfielder. All right. Alive as a third, help me impress my friends by telling me what I need to know about them. I didn't expect to be seeing them there. Well, they're managed, of course, by Kiki Sanchez Flodos, who is presumably managing Watford at the same time. Yes. I think he is. He's also, and he has done for a while now, so maybe this isn't new, but you're like it. He wears this incredible kind of shipwrecked look, but devilishly handsome with it. Yeah, yeah. He's a sheep. It's hobo sheep. It's fantastic. And the thing to really impress people with is Mariano Diaz, the centre forward, who has now scored more goals this season than the last six years, but that's the last six years put together. This is a guy who hadn't gone on a goal or an assist in Maliga since I don't know when. And he's actually playing, he actually looks like a footballer. Oh, he's just going to ask about another striker, what, a striker that's setting Maliga like a Bami Yang, and Sid. Brilliant. He just says about he start. Well, it's just brilliant. He's scored in every game so far, he scored a header at the weekend, which was a little bit disappointing because all of his other goals have been the same goal, basically. And that's quite interesting as well, because it's same goal has been a ball that sort of semi-releases him, a touch that's good enough to get away from a defender, enough pace to get away from the defender, and then a clean finish, all of them, slightly different clean finishes, but a very similar goal. And for a guy that's theoretically too old to be playing top level football anymore, that we weren't sure, still had this level, although Philip, you can probably tell us how good he was in France last year, he's been absolutely brilliant. And do you know what a thing I like about him, as much as anything else, and this is probably really superficial, so apology for being superficial, but he seems to be enjoying it so much. He seems to be having such a great time, and he's playing fantastically well. What does that have to do with Athlety, of course, Alvarez? I don't know if he's having a great time or not, but he's not. No, he's not looking like he's enjoying not playing. I will defend him on one, well, defend him's not the right word. He is not looking like he's enjoying it, and I think certainly until the transfer window close, I think that was deliberate. I think there was a desire to stage his discontent to people. I think what we saw in the game against Liverpool in the Champions League was positive, in that he was a player that actually seemed to be playing and engaging and trying to play, but they do have a problem there. That said, he wouldn't be the first player who's forced to stay, who's forced to stay unhappy and who eventually they find a place for, but it's definitely created an internal division. It's created a sense of dissatisfaction from him. He doesn't want to be there. That said, for now, he's got no choice. I was just wanting to pick up a song on Adam Olyllicman there, said he had a stickett start there, and I think the thing about Baron Dorgon tenders earlier, he was on that short list not so long ago for Way to do that, Lantern, and seems like it's gone off the boil for him. Yeah, you're right. He had a brilliant start, Athletic Goat. I think I'm right in saying that his first game was a cop Olyllaray against Betis and he scored one, and I think he provided one as well, and they batted Betis away from home, and he was really dynamic, and he was making things happen. He played a game early this season, I say false night. It wasn't even false night. At number nine, because there was no one else available, Saul off was injured. This was when Olyllaray was still very much in this kind of this funk that he was in, and this sort of, he wasn't fully fit either. And Simeone played him there. And Simeone off the game, and she said, look, the first thing I did with Lookman, because he was asked about, you know, how do you prepare a guy who's clearly not sent a forward to play up front? It's the first thing I did was say, sorry to him. I'm sorry you've had to play here. I'm sorry that you've got to take this role on, and I promise I will give you back what you like, which is to have space to run into, which is to be on the left, which is to have a degree of freedom, which is to dribble at people and score. I think he's been actually played okay, but it's true that maybe not at that first level of a really huge excitement that we had with him. But I think there's time still, and I think obviously there is time once the forwards are fit. John from David's now signed, so they've actually got three forwards now. Once all the forwards are fit, and he's playing regularly with a four that he knows, with a defender behind him that he knows, and with him having the freedoms to play his way. Valencia, a bottom one point from their first five. Is that the scene that Rodry got caught on camera saying these are shite, or something like that? Yeah. Are they in? Yes. Absolutely. No, no, no, no, no. They've just sacked their manager. They just sacked Carlos Corbanan, but they haven't just sacked him. They sacked Ron Gouli, who's the CEO of the club as well. This is less than 10 days after Gouli in a press conference was asked if he was thinking about resigning because, frankly, their transfers, having gone that well, the team hasn't gone that well, and he said, quite rightly, to be fair to him, he sort of said, well, you know, people stick with a superficial analysis, but we're doing work behind the scenes. And he said, well, ask if he's going to write a sign. If you're waiting for that, your coffee's going to go cold or 10 days later. I think his coffee's going to go cold. I mean, the coffee would be cold after 10 days. I mean, a big talk after 10 minutes, I mean, yeah, but he wasn't lying. You know, maybe he was actually saying, you know, give it five minutes and I'll be gone, but the coffee will no longer be drinkable. He, they've both been sacked. They are terrible. The Roderie thing I thought was very interesting because I think we should probably clarify this for those people who haven't seen it. Roderie doesn't say this publicly. No. Roderie doesn't say this on the pitch to a Valencia player. You know, it's not a confrontation in which he says, as we've seen many players do recently, not least that Rodrigo the Paul incident with Levantoski, which was, which was comic. What have you ever won? Well, why don't you sit down? Your coffee will, your coffee will also go cold. If you wait for me to reel off what I've won, whereas you've won three trophies in your career sunshine. Admittedly, one's a well-cut. But anyway, that's another issue. But Roderie wasn't doing this to confront someone. He wasn't doing this to have a guy at someone. This was on the bench and it was an expression of surprise. It was him saying, this is not a really, really bad. It got picked up by cameras. There was a little bit of a, kind of, all what a lack of respect thing. And Corberan even said it was a lack of respect. I don't think it is at all. In fact, if anything, it was an expression of a truth. It was an expression of a truth in a private conversation to a teammate. And actually, some Valencia fans, there are even some who put it on a t-shirt. This lot are very bad. Some Valencia fans, I think, actually, were semi-grateful for it. Because someone needed to say this, because Valencia and theory are a massive club. They're just not a very good football team at the moment. Just think about the Harry Kane and the Ballon daughters. Is it that he'll be brilliant at the start of the ceremony? And then he won't be able to move by the end of who's screaming for all the walk-ins to win it? And they both walk off the stage looking sad. Well, think he's going to win. And then at the very last minute, Tuchel will send everyone back into the audience and he'll finish that. Exactly right. Thank you, Sid. Have a lovely day. Very much a pleasure. Cheerio. I said, low out in Spain there. And I'll do for part one, part two, we'll do Italy. Boats, part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Lazio, top of Serie A, a point ahead of Roma Inter and Calgary with AC Milan and a point behind them. And everyone's new favourites, Como in sixth. Where do you want to start, Nicky? Do you want to start with Lazio? You've done a column about good on the pitch, chaos off the pitch. Because there are games on Monday night, Roma Inter could ever take them. Lazio, this weekend, missed the chance, actually. It's the first game they haven't won this season. They missed the chance to have their first ever season in Serie A, starting with four consecutive wins. So they were tuna up against Milan and ended up drawing two, two. So they're first setback of the season. But still, the surf is at least a very, very good start to this season for Lazio. And that's noteworthy because nobody I saw, and certainly not me, was predicting them to have a good season. Given that you had the backdrop of having to say goodbye to some important players during the summer, and then hiring Giannana Caduzo, who's star, we could say, probably is never been... Sometimes maybe good. Sometimes maybe shit. And tending towards the latter, of course, after failing to qualify at League of the World Cup. But he's doing brilliantly. And what's made this even more extraordinary is that he's doing brilliantly winning three games, I say, and then drawing the fourth one. Despite the fact that the fan base is essentially in open war with the owner Claudio Lottito, to the point that they're just not going to the games. So last season, that's your soul about 30,000 season tickets. I think it was just shy off this season. The figure's been reported at four and a half thousand. So we're talking about 15% of the season tickets. They had last season. Last season, the home game against Milan was 50,000 pounds of stadium. This time it was still about 20,000 for this one, but I would say a good 14,000 of those were probably Milan fans. It felt like a Milan home game of anything. And what you had on Saturday was actually like hundreds of Latsio fans did go to the team's training ground and did this convoy of moped's going to the stadium. And then when they got to Ponte-Miniville, which is this British stadium, they all peeled off. And there was a statement about how they were always going to go watch the game in the pub or at home instead. Because they are trying to make their point to the owner, not Tito, and not in their words about the team or about them, the manager. So it's an extraordinary situation. I feel like every time I talk about Lattito and Latsio, I always want to say it's kind of a big topic and maybe too long for us to talk about. But at some point, I try and work out way of giving it a synopsis. Part of it is the usual, we're not happy about your ambition, not spending enough money on the team. There was an open letter earlier this year that went on Change.org and got tens of thousands of signatures saying, you've shown, basically, no ambition in 22 years, last seven years, we haven't met a trophy and more than that, you haven't signed anyone who's made us feel like excited. And there's this story brought up about commemorative event for Vincenzo Papareli, who was killed in a Rome derby in 1979. He was hit by a flare that was fired from the Rome end. There was a commemorative event for him last year where his niece was going to come out onto the pitch with some other people and then she didn't and there was this two different versions of this story went out. The fans saying that Lattito said she couldn't go out on the pitch or Tito came out and said, that's not true at all. What happened was she was going to go out and then four members of the organized support were trying to go out with her and we didn't think that was appropriate. It felt like they were trying to show their influence. So there's layers to it, but it really, that are really complicated. But there's also layers that are not that complicated, like the fact that Lattito bought another football cup, Selle Nietana, got them promoted all the way to Selle Nietana and then wound up in this ridiculous conflict of inter-situation where he wasn't forced, I best himself, about until after they got there. You know, Lattito is a political figure. Literally, he's in the Italian Parliament. He's a political figure in football terms. He has, I would say, outside his influence compared to some of his peers in the Serie A. The Lega Serie A, the decisions to get made about how the league is run. And there's a lot of feelings about that that all add up to this extremely toxic relationship between the fans and the president. And of course, we're saying that Lattito's organised support in so many ways that so many times has also behaved in ways that I think a lot of people would consider very disgraceful. It's a mess, it's the short way of saying it. If we try to leave the mess outside, the Olympico, not easy with Lattito, how long has it been since two Roman teams were top of the league in Serie A? And both of them, I mean, and on also, I'm sure you're going to talk about A.S. Roma, but some of my Romanists of France said this could be the year. This could be the year. I mean, how is there a feeling that there is, I wouldn't say, a transfer of power, but that Rome is becoming a proper footballing power in a time football again? Despite everything I've just said about Lattito, I'm still not sold that they're going to be at the top at the end of the season. Davide Prattese has been a fantastic signing for them from Inter, this guy who was a big signing for Inter a few years ago, is supposed to be one of the coming players of Italian football and wound up on the bench there a lot, has been brilliant for them. But to me, that team is still overall, overperforming its quality. Rome are a different case. This is obviously year two of the Campiro Gasperini project and really ever since he won that power struggle with Claudio Ranieri, the team has been flying. Donio Marlin has been sensational. I think Gasperini kind of admitted it the other day, said, listen, I thought he was going to be good, but I didn't think he was going to be this good. He scored five goals already this season in Serie A. Matthias Sule is continuing to develop into a really classy player as an alternative to power to Davide. It is worth saying that when they really need that quality, you do feel like it still needs to be Davide. He sees such a classy player and you worry about how his fitness will impact that. And I think for me, that's my reservation with Rome and General of the season. It's Gasperini's acknowledged it. The squad is still thin, but the first team looks really, really good. But on paper, at least, you look at the squad depth and go, it's not up there within tear. You expect in tear to be able to outlast that. Having said that, it's kind of also the hallmark of Gasperini teams that I've learned that you think have they got that depth of quality and they'd keep finding players and making start with great quality out of players that you didn't think of as being that. So I do think they're a brilliant team to watch right now and the results speak of themselves. I mean, first three games, 10 goals scored one, conceded and said, yeah. Of course, by the time we put this out, they'll probably have got hammered last night and I thought, you know, and embarrassed me, but I think they look really good. I still think it's been very difficult to be Philippe. So maybe your Roman friends might have to wait at least another year, but I want you to ask Nikki about Milan and Ruben Ammarim who criticized very heavily in the UK for what Apple and Manchester United. How has he started? Really a mixed bag. Really a mixed bag. I think there was a lot of optimism at the start. I keep saying it, but I think it's not because I felt like this, but I think there was a lot of buzz around the fact that they beat Man United in preseason and look good and everyone thought, oh, maybe there they are. Coming in hot and then they won their first couple of games and then the last two, the draw against Juventus and then the draw against Laxia this week and I think have checked that a little bit. To me, my to me, preseason is always not worth getting every excited about, but to me, the team has never really looked that fluid yet. They haven't looked like a team that even when it was winning was completely convincing. They've got this teenager, Alphadro Cise, who was on loan at Katanzaro last season, who he's been really, really good. I think the goals he scored have been really impressive. You see a real technical quality there and got them results against Juventus when they really hadn't done anything to earn it. I think there's some bright points like that. There's some players that you're still not sure about that Gonzalo Ramos, of course, sent for me in signing. I'd say again, mixed bag of his performances and he scored once so far. But then Diego Moreira, who was the other big signing this summer, playing at the weekend was the guy who dug them out of the Horde against Laxia score, with goals from Wingback. So there's some good signs and there's some bad signs and I think kind of reasonable to say, listen, you've only been there since the summer, the verdict is set out. I wanted to ask about Calgary, managed by this guy, Fabio Pizzacane, who you wrote, you didn't interview with him nine years ago, Nicky. And I've just read it. So you never know when people are going to get to this stuff. Because he won the first ever Guardians Football of the Year award. I didn't even know that was a thing. I don't know if we still do it. But his story is absolutely fascinating. Yeah, he's one of those really inspiring characters in football. And I don't know how people do know his story. He was, as a teenager, he suffered with the young Barry syndrome, which is this conditioning attacks your immune system. And he was essentially completely paralyzed and had to be intubated and wound up in a coma for 20 days. And it looked pretty scary for him, recovered from that, so as one does, wound up becoming a successful professional football. They're not one of the names that is a household name, not someone who's playing for the very biggest clubs, but Métis is debut in Serie A with Calgary at 30. And he also had a moment when in 2011 where he was recognized for reporting an attempted match fix by the Ravenna director, a general performer when he was in the third tier. So he's a character who's gone through a lot in his life and has shown character in some difficult situations to go and have a top flight career. And now he's showing himself to be quite a county top flight manager again at Calgary, showed some good stuff late last season. This season has started with three wins and a loss, the only loss being two in tear, which is the joint best start in Calgary's history. The only time they've won three of their first four games before was, they don't know twice. One was the season they won the league in 1969, 70 the other time was when they just had just won the league the year after, so they really haven't played this well historically at all. And it's not a team of standout stars, it's a team of mostly young players, some interesting young players there, including Paul Mendey, you scored their first goal at the weekend, you know, win a way to Atlanta. And then a few familiar faces, I know Mark Watt, one to me is mention Harry Winx's role in the middle of it. Harry Winx is playing in the field for them and playing quite well. And it is interesting how many British players there are now. You know, you obviously had sort of the glory years, years ago, like top rated British players going to Serie A. And now it's not necessarily that, but you know, John Stones and Curtis Jones, that's nice to have a rhyming couplet at Inter. You know, you've got Trevor Chalibret Como, and then you know, this sort of Scottish contingent, Kiran Bowie, who I remember, because he's got an amazing goal, I think, for Hibbs in Europe, like, and is playing for Sassuolo. So it's quite interesting to see how many of them are kicking about now. Yeah, I haven't got the number in front of me. I know it was, was 21 near the end of the transfer window, but I think it moved again at the very end. So it's a, it's around that number of, of Brits in Serie A. You've mentioned some of them, Stones and Jones, neither of them starting yet for Inter, but both have made some nice cameos, Trevor Chalibret is starting for Como, who of course are having a, a flyer to South of season themselves, the only Italian team to win the Champions League, and boy did they win, by the way, four-one against Leipzig. But then even last night, the evening game last night was, you went against Sassuolo, which was mostly quite a bad game, and then it all went completely off the rails at the end, it looked like Kieran Bowie had scored the winning goal for Sassuolo, because he scored for them to put them to happen that in the 88th minute, only for your enters to equalise, and then Sassuolo scored again, so they did win, but he wasn't the winner. So, yeah, it would take me a full podcast, to do a full Brit watch of all of them, but definitely a few, and I'm popping up everywhere. I was so tempted to do a sort of David Bowie voice. Yeah, for Bowies and Bowie, but there's no need for that, Max. All right, I'll do part two, part three. And we'll do Jemini in front. I was part three of the Guardian football week. Look, Mark, we've already talked about Harry Kane, but look, Bayern, they are down in fourth, disaster. You know, a massive two points behind Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund, and Augsburg above them. Yeah, as she says, there's no title race, so. Yeah, I mean, Kane had been on a drought of a two-bundes league again, and he was like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 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I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. Friends, you don't. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. A team, which, by the way, is only going to get better and better. 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The German forward from Monaco, former from Borussia Dortmund, former from Borussia Dortmund, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, has been in the youth teams, Thank you, Philippe. Thank you. For a week, it is produced by where we sign, and the executive producer is Ty the Boehler. We'll be back on Thursday. This is The Guardian.