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This is The Guardian. Hello and welcome to The Guardian football weekly. Southampton, knock-ass, and out of the FA Cup to set up a semi-final with Manchester City Shay Charles, side-footing into the net with five minutes to go. They were the better side for almost all of it, hands up if you'd heard of Leo Cienz before the game. He was brilliant. Now that's half the quadruple over for Mikhail Arthetta. The two big ones to come, but people are readying the bottlegifts, a huge test of the gunners mentality now. Is it time up for Anna Slot? Liverpool swatted aside at the Etihad, they had a couple of chances early on, but once City led from another Virgil Van Dyke mistake, they had nothing. Their big players aren't performing, and rightly or wrongly it'll take something extraordinary for Slot to keep his job now. You might have looked at West Ham Leeds on Sunday and thought, not for me, but it was probably the game of the round. An incredible comeback and a debutant goal for penalties, and in the end, the first semi-final for Leeds since 1987. They'll play Chelsea after Port Vale held out for 64 seconds or something before opening the floodgates. Also today, Fitbar's getting tight, Will Mill will be in the Premier League next season and a wild rumour begins that could change Barry's life forever. We'll do all that, answer your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today, Barry Glendennick, welcome. Oh, this is insane. Can we skip straight to the end, please? As you say, you'll be a wreck for the whole of the part. John Bruin, welcome. Hello, Max. And welcome, Dan Bardell. Hello, Max. Ian says, is the quadruple bottling on? Oliver says, our Arsenal doom, could this be their worst season ever? If Spurs stay up, Southampton 2, Arsenal 1, it was a brilliant game, Barry, and we'll of course get to the Arsenal bit, which I suspect, neutrals are foaming at the mouth to hear. But should we begin with Southampton, because they were absolutely brilliant in this game. Yeah. And those of us who don't pay huge amount of the attention to the championship are used to Southampton, you know, haven't seen them last season when they were absolutely diabolical. I was completely shocked to see how good they were. I think this is now their 16th game on beaten. I think they've won most of those games, maybe 12 of them or 11 of them. And I was so, so impressed with what I saw. You mentioned Leo Cienza in your intro. I'd never heard of him before a Saturday, but he left a very good impression on me and on Arsenal over the course of the 90 minutes of this game. I was delighted for Ruff Stewart, the Loch Ness Drubba. He's a former Sunderland player who didn't really get a chance. The Sunderland career started ruined by injury, but the club made a nice few quit out of them when they sold them to Southampton. And I think Southampton were, you know, totally worth their win. They give Arsenal plenty to think about. Tonde Eckert is a really interesting guy. I think they've a real star, management star of the future there at St Mary's. For anyone who hasn't read it, Ben Fisher did a great interview with him not too long ago. He's got a good backstory and he's very young and I'd say Southampton will do well to hold on to him for much longer. But yeah, really, really good win for them and thoroughly deserved, I thought. Yeah, Appleton says, as a Saints fan, should I be annoyed now everyone knows how good Leo Cienzer is? I mean, then he wasn't the only good pair on the pitch for Southampton. I just thought the way they passed the ball everywhere was brilliant, but he looked like a total superstar. Yeah, it looked like a special talent first time. I've seen him play like Barry after I thought he was absolutely excellent, but it was just a really, really strong team performance. Southampton, last time they're in the Premier League, looked like a championship side in the Premier League, watching them on Saturday night, they looked like a Premier League side that's currently playing in the championship and as Barry just alluded to, the run that they're on right now, is incredible. I thought they used the conditions to their advantage really well in the first half court arsenal, a little bit cold. And even in the second half, the game management to be able to respond to being pegged back to 1-1, the substitutions that the manager made, I just liked everything about them. It was a really, really fun game, and Southampton looked to really fun team to watch, which was all the wrong reasons why they were a fun team to watch when they were last in the Premier League. Yeah, and John, like, as Dan mentioned, as soon as he goes 1-1, you're a bit like, ah, they played so well, but they're going to lose now. So to get the impetus back, and it's such a lovely run from Fellowship, it's a brilliant finish from Shay Charles. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Shay Charles, um, Sheffield Wednesday listeners will know his talent. It was a big, big hero to people up there. And yeah, Southampton have had a troubled recent few years, haven't they? They're one of those clubs that have tried to do the Brentford Brighton born with model, and it's not worked out for them. They've had a few experiments. The reason Tom DeEckett is in the job is that he didn't work out well still. They also had, you know, Rishi Sunak, wishing them the best. I think I was at the game where they got relegators, and Rishi Sunak was there, and then had to sort of not leave early. We'll get onto leaving early later, I would have thought. And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they've had a troubled time, and the will still experiment did not happen. They tried to be progressive, and have hit on Tom DeEckett, and they've been on that great run. And anyone just thinking, oh, Arsenal are going to roll over this championship team, haven't paid attention to on what a good run Southampton are in. They've got a decent claim to being the best team since in 2026 in the championship, so it proved they were absolutely brilliant on the night, brilliant atmosphere. The FA Cup, it's the best, isn't it? When it's like that. And also a mention, of course, for a couple of Irishmen that had had a terrible week, last week, 10 days or so, you know, Ryan Manning, Finn Azaz, they played the part as well. So well done Southampton, fantastic. Okay, here we go then, Barry. Arsenal, then. I often, the pod is very Arsenal-dominated. It isn't today, you know, but I imagine it's one of those podcasts that Arsenal fans are probably not listening to. That is too big defeat, isn't it? The Carabout Cup final and theirs. And it's not just defeat, Barry, it's two pretty flat performances. Yeah, look, Farabid from me to repeat myself on this pod, but I said before a ball, we'll click this season, that Arsenal have the best squad in the Premier League, and the only thing stopping them from winning the title would be potentially a lack of mental fortitude, which they've been accused of having. Those accusations are bubbling to the surface again now, people are, you know, the bottle of memes and gifts were all over social media. On Saturday night, an awful lot of people were reveling in this Arsenal defeat, and they've had two bad performances, got knocked out, two cup competitions in two games. I suppose if you're an Arsenal fan and looking for positives to cling to, you could say, well, it's one less competition to worry about, and they're only inverted commas of the cops. It's the Premier League and the Champions League that won or both of them that really matter, and I think they're right to say that. But those two defeats, they were bad defeats. Manchester City really pulled their pants down in the Carabout Cup final, and Southampton, I would say, they pulled their pants down on Saturday night as well, and they're a championship team. I didn't realistically expect Arsenal to have any trouble with this type. Well, that's my own ignorance of how good Southampton are. They entertain Bournemouth in the Premier League at the weekend, after their match against sporting. It's a big week for Arsenal. Sporting, they're presumed to have the easiest quarter final draw, but sporting have been playing well and scoring a lot of goals recently, and Bournemouth, on their day, could well be Arsenal. So there's a big, big week coming up, and I think if they were to lose both those games, then accusations of a potential bottle draw, it would have a certain amount of validity. The thing is, Arsenal have seven Premier League games left. If they win five of them, draw one, they are champions, no matter what Manchester City do, and that should be doable for them. They sure, I mean, apart from the City Game of the Etihad, they're running is nice. I'm trying to think of the analogy, if City pulled their pants down, can then Southampton pull their pants down if their pants are already down, or are you presuming during the international break, they pulled their pants back up again, only to have them pulled back down. I mean, I guess Dan Arsenal fans will point to the fact that, you know, David Redden played in this game either. So Kepp has played in both these cup games. They were missing Declan Rice as well, who chewed the important to them. And there is a sort of ridiculousness to the bottle narrative, which is, if you go far in all the cups, you may get knocked out in the cups late on, which is, which, you know, you have to do well to get this narrative. If they've gone out in the first, you know, the third round of the cup of the FA Cup and earlier in the carabal, then this conversation doesn't really happen as much. Yeah, I guess it's the timing factor, isn't it? If Arsenal get knocked out the FA Cup a few months ago, or at the start of the journey, the narrative now is probably not as strong, it's the fact that they've been knocked out of two cups in a very short space of time. The quadruple has gone from a quadruple to a treble to now a potential double very, very quickly. And now suddenly, you look at the games that are coming up in the Premier League. You look at the Champions League game midweek, which felt like, you know, they were comfortable favorites to me. Now you start to think, well, actually, if the players got the mentality to see this through, like, what's going to happen to this club now? Gabrielle's going off injured on Saturday. He's a he's a massive player. The image of him just sat down on the floor. Does that suddenly become an image that defines their season if they have a bad night in the Champions League midweek? I guess it's just the timing of it all amalgamating together, but no one, you couldn't have seen them getting knocked out by a championship side. I guess it's the nature of being knocked out by a championship side. I mean, they got stick for losing a cup final to Manchester City, who are obviously a very good side. So if you're going for a treble now and you're getting knocked out of the FA Cup, which is a winnable competition by a championship side, look, questions are always going to be asked, aren't they? I suppose mentality is such an interesting thing, John, for all these elite sports people, because they've all got such great mentality to have got where they've got, right? You like, it's you have to be so mentally strong to have got to Arsenal, right? So it seems it is a valid question, but it is the levels of it's not you have zero mentality, right? You know, it's it's fine. It's a cliche, but it is the fine margins of it. Absolutely. Obviously, the weekend, I was sent a series of memes, I never know how I pronounce that word anyway. All right, granddad. Yeah, yeah, it's true, it's true. No one's ever it's like Bowie and Bowie, you know, it's how do you pronounce it? Well, my favourite was over the film post at one bottle after another, which I think is very cruel, but yeah, and it is mentality, absolutely right, Max, that we are discussing, but there is another element, and this is the one, I checked, the one who deals quite closely with Arsenal over the weekend, they're talking about physicality, and on the word that is sort of come into the lexicon in the last few years, is that they're tired, that they're being put through too much, that they're loading, and so someone like Declan Rice has to sit out the game, you know, David Raya maybe needs a rest, so that's why Kep is about. I suppose the thing is we talk about mentality, and we talk about how you win trophies. In my mind, it's always about clutch moments and big players coming through for you, particularly in the forward line. And I suppose at this point, are we asking questions of Arsenal's forward players? Martinelli, that was not a great performance by him, was it? Yoko Rez, who essentially powered Sweden to the, to the World Cup, you know, they brought him on late. Gabrielle Jesus took a lot of stick from Arsenal fans over the weekend for his little coming over there. It was not a great performance by their forward line, you know, Sackers dropped out of form. And at this point, we think of big moments and big players coming through and supplying and nailing down and, you know, go Holland and people like that. Where cities, where are Arsenal's big players here? Who is going to step up? Gabrielle, as Don mentioned, is such a big player for him. He's injured, you know, it's about leadership, and that's part on the mentality thing, isn't it? And Michele Arterta has been in charge for a considerable amount of time, but there's still questions over his leadership, aren't there? He's not really been, he's been in this position where they were not expected to win a league. This one's different. This one is different. I'm going to have to see how he can do it. Yeah, I mean, they still should win it. They should. They should win it, but I think when those players look across to the touch line and see Michele Arterta having one meltdown after another in his technical area, I can't see how that's helpful. I've never mentioned it before, but, and we talk about Arsenal having big official fried in the FA Cup and feeling a below strength team, but Southampton 2 have bigger fish to fry. They're trying to get promoted back to the Premier League. They were missing their captain, Jack Stevens on Saturday, and Shay Charles and Samuel Didosi both started on the bench, and so they were rotated out. So, you know, it wasn't just Aris and we were resting players and have their eye on bigger prizes. Yeah, on the last pod, Dan Jordan was talking about how Ben might should go to the welcome because he's fresh, but he didn't look that fresh on this one. Poor guy, like he just said it to Barry on the radius that I like, he gave away so many fouls, and he looks so, he looks as frustrated with the ref as like a teenager on holiday with their parents on their own. He's just like, oh, God, he's just like, oh, that's so embarrassing. And then that is a big mistake for the first goal as well. Yeah, a serious misjudgment from him. So, I remember watching him play loads of times this season for us. Also, I guess the fresh point is true. But I thought by the end of the game, he looked absolutely terrified, and this is Southampton. So, God knows what's happened happening if you go into a world cup. It was a truly difficult game for him. I mean, he had probably the best Arsenal player on the pitch plan in front of him in Max Downman, but he just looked like the week with England had completely taken its toll. It was like going back to the times when players used to go and play under Fabio Capello and that they come back and look shell shocked. I thought he just looked by the end of the game completely bemused by everything that was happening. Ben White had the arm band on as well, but by the end of the game, real nasty, horrible week for Ben White really was. It's just an interesting bit of context in their invincible season. Arsenal got knocked out the FA Cup semis, and the Champions League court is in the space of a week to many night in Chelsea. They were called bottlers. We know what happened next. There's form here. It's just not what people think. Whoever runs the most positive way of looking at it. The Southampton social media person had a nice time. Enjoy your quadruple pal. It said to some Arsenal fan, quote, tweeted Peers Morgan, but I, you know, with a picture of Shay Charles looking happy, but I don't need to mention him particularly. But yeah, well done, Southampton, and they go on to play Manchester City, which takes us to City for Liverpool, Neil. We have probably stuck up on a slot, John, more than most people have, I'd say, over the course of the season, given the turmoil and the tragedy of Diego Jotter. It's not up to us whether slot keeps his job and how much grace you deserve for winning a title, but this was a disaster for him, wasn't it? Absolutely. They've been preceded by a week of, let's call them briefings from out of Liverpool that, you know, the Arne slot was seen as the man to take the club forward. And maybe there might be a reshuffle behind the scenes or whatever, but Arne slot is the man. And then that performance happens. And it was a fairly, watching Arne slot press conference after the game he talks, and I think this is fair, you know, until Liverpool conceded, they were probably really playing quite well, but then they conceded. Yeah. Oh God. And, you know, Virgil van Dyke, is it the fourth penalty he's conceded this season? And you know, having continued. So Andy Hunter had that, four and 46 games, and he previously given away four in 319. Well, there you go. I mean, you know, that statistic shows you a player who is perhaps struggling, you know, another player given an expensive new contract like Mohamed Salah, Salah's performance. You know, it's painful to watch, but he wasn't the only painful player to watch. Curtis Jones, you see that bit where he started doing some sort of, you know, Brazilian style flick just before. I think starting started to go very, very wrong. And it's like, what is that? What's the thinking here? Why are you doing this? Because it was quite an entertaining game. Both of them were quite nice football. But, you know, leave that to Ray and Chirkey. He's better at it, mate. And then just the city just took them apart. And it was an awful performance from Liverpool. Painful. Another mention of people leaving early. There was a footage. It wasn't over the Liverpool fans peeling out over the Etihad. And then afterwards a player that I'd praise an awful lot. And I think deserved praise with performances. Dominic Zobber's lie. Given it the big one to the fans. And as now made himself a parry, which is, it just shows you that a club is turning in on itself. And what's happened to Liverpool? I mean, I accept the mitigating facts, as you mentioned, start. But it is a disaster for slot. And this was preloaded as 14 days that will define the Arne slot regime. Well, day one did not start. Well, did it? No, it didn't. And Danny wanted to talk about Van Dyke. Because up until John's right, you know, Salah has a good chance, a really good chance. Etihad has a decent chance. But that challenge, like, I know it's a great turn from O'Reilly. But even if O'Reilly does the normal, what you expect, which is just hold the ball, there's no way Van Dyke can get that ball. It's such a, and it's so odd seeing someone who's been so brilliant, make challenges like that. It's a reaction to it as well, like complying like there's some form of injustice against him as well. The whole passage was absolutely staggering. Liverpool and Van Dyke let the game get completely away from them as well. At the moment, I saw a Liverpool fan writing on social media that there's no team in the league that responds to adversity as bad as Liverpool. Now, Tottenham fans might have something to say about that. At the top end, I think that that's probably fair because in minutes terms in the game, it went from nil nil to three nil, I think in 14 minutes. These are just massive collapses from Liverpool. And last time I was on, I said that they're so weird, like it's so passive. The distance is the gaps between them we'd filled in the defence, the gaps between the defenders, like absolutely everything looks off about Liverpool. And I'm repeating myself from the last time, but Slutcher doesn't look like he knows how to rectify it. And I thought he was quite funny pep linders on the side line for Manchester City. Obviously bought a book out when he was Liverpool assistant manager called Intensity. The sequel at the moment, passive from the Liverpool term, right? It's just the complete opposite of everything you associate with Liverpool. And to get dismantled for nil in one of the only things you've really got left this season, because I can't say that they're going to do anything in the Champions League. I think PSJ might have a lot of fun with them midwake. To go out that the way that you have, it's a really, really difficult look for Slutting Liverpool. And it's difficult, Barry, because I don't know if Liverpool would have pointed out your lancer, but the fact that he's sort of he looming somewhere puts pressure on Slut, because if you get rid of Slut, you have to get someone else in the summer. And that is someone who you really could get. It looks like it. I mean, there's every chance they already have approached the lancer or in talks with them or have arranged for him to succeed Slut. I think the worrying thing for Slut is that they seem at best among certain sections of Liverpool fans. They seem completely indifferent to whether he stays or not. So he doesn't seem to have any firm support among the fans and quite a lot of them want him gone. But there is no point getting rid of him unless you have an upgrade ready to step in and take over. There's going to be a lot of managerial churn in the Premier League in elsewhere after the World Cup. And I would be surprised if Slut is in charge at the start of the next season. It could be argued he may not be in charge at the end of this season, if things go really badly against PSG. So we shall see. Yeah. Meanwhile, John City were excellent. Erling Harland has called 46 goals and 50 games for club and country this season. So strikes me that he's not had a great season either. Do you know what? Yeah, this is out of form Erling Harland, isn't it? Because he had it slightly since it's under the air. He's not been quite himself. And the thing is, what is himself? himself is a guy that scores, I mean, for giving this 26 ha or whatever it is, it is just an incredible footballer. You know, ever the plundering, and it is plundering because that sort of fits his image, doesn't it? I've just saw him just raiding and just destroying. And the header is just this. Good Viking, some good Viking cliches here. Yeah, all that stuff. You know, you know, in a long boat just coming in and just destroying and rampaging and slicing through villagers as he scores another hat trick against Liverpool. Yeah, I mean, you know, even the you know, they sort of it was like a fairly fast out finish, but it still lashes it with this, yeah, and it just looks amazing. And we've seen actually recently a city team that wasn't, it wasn't quite as reliant on Harland. And they did slump a little bit when he wasn't at his best. But if he's tied to hit form, then you know, ask those wobbles, they may get even more wobbly. And then I mentioned actually for a player, I don't know if you have this in the running order, but Pepin Linda's mentioned after. And I don't think I don't think anyone really knew this, that Benardo Silva would leave at the end of the season. Yeah, I do think he has been a brilliant player. Like, you know, obviously everyone knows how good Benardo Silva is, but he's sort of underrated because he's a player that just knits that team together. He was signed as a player player from Monaco, you know, like a non-Betern, and he just became like an ultimate midfielder that can play in any of the three midfiel positions. And just I've had this argument before, like if I was talking favorite silvers to play for Manchester City, mine would be Benardo over David, who was a brilliant player. Let's just not say that. So I think Benardo is, he's my type of player. And the master of just getting into the midfield, sometimes the rather professional in his fouling, it's fair to say, but you know, the ultimate professional city will miss him. I have to say, don't you have to say that. Is it a good five aside team? David, Benardo, Marco probably plays a bit longer than Benardo. And I'm out. Well, I mean, you're better. Okay, Tiago Silver, maybe Long John, maybe Long John, Long John on the bench, I guess, easing net. Yeah, so 40 pieces. Yeah, very good. It is Easter. Harlan's got 12 hat tricks across all competitions since his city debut in 2022. The most across Europe's big five leagues, moving at one clear of Harry Kane, and Turkey as well, Dan is worth mentioning. I mean, I like, he talked about knitting it together. I thought Turkey was so good in this game. Yeah, the, the weekly Cherokee. And I was, he had the adversity with the, with the Cher once and once he got substituted, but he is fun, isn't it? He's, everything about him is, is, is funny, such a, such a brilliant player, like just completely let off the leash, which Manchester City are a team that's based so heavily around structure and what they do on and off the ball, like, like many teams, I guess. But Cherokee just seems like a, a complete wild card, doesn't, I guess that's why he doesn't play every week. But for Manchester City, because maybe Pep doesn't quite trust him in that, and the absolutely massive occasion to, to be able to keep you disciplined and, and do what he's asked to do, but he just buzzes around, around that football pitch. He's such a, such a delight to watch his, and they both, both footage, full of trickery, so insolisive with, with what he does as well. I love watching Ryan Jerker. And, and also Barry, I mean, the, all the goals were, were lovely, I mean, penalty aside, but the Semenio finish, that that is so hard, he just made that look effortless, and that is not easy to do. Well, he ran on to this beautifully weighted pass in behind from Cherokee, I don't think he even looked at the goal, and just this nonchalant flick over the keeper with his left foot, and he knew it was going in, he was no question, he, it was a splendid finish, just, yeah, really, he's, like, just hit the ground running as the City players, it was, took him no time whatsoever to bathe in, and he looks like he's been there for years. Should he be a PFA player of the year, and I don't know whether anyone's ever won it playing for, playing for two teams, but a massive par of what Bournemouth did at the start of the season, and if City were to win the leg, he'll have ended up in a massive par as well. He might have played more, because he won't have played everybody at the same number of times to get his votes in, you know, he might get double votes from people. Obviously, Harry Wilson. Well, then you'd have to give it to Marquis, because he's played and beaten Liverpool five times, this season. That's a good point. You were coming in, John? I was going to say, yeah, Cherokee, Guayhee and Semenio all players that Liverpool heavily linked with and didn't sign. That's painful, isn't it, really? Yeah, that is. Yeah, well, a big week for Liverpool, they play PSG, of course, we'll cover that on the midweek pods, and I'll do for part one, part two, we'll begin at the London stadium. Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly, West Ham two leads, two leads, winning four, two on penalties. John, this was brilliant, this game, wasn't it? Oh, the true cup of dreams, the magic cup. It's funny, you said, start with that, I just thought this game would never end. That's part of it. And he wants it to end either. Yeah, it had it all, didn't it? And funny enough, when you actually looked at those two team selections, you thought, hmm, do these managers up for this? But what we saw from both sets of players and managers is both going at it, cup style, throwing everything into the match and producing a classic, a classic comeback. Obviously, the thing that will be on the back of the newspapers this morning is the pictures of West Ham fans locked out, having departed, which is absolutely magnificent. I mean, you know, so was that sort of one of them, one fan was showing it to his mate on FaceTime, so his mate is outside the ground and he's watching through his mate FaceTime, which is wonderful, technology is wonderful, isn't it? A time like that. And it just, it's so good that we are introduced to someone we've never seen before, someone who didn't evenly have a Wikipedia page, thinly, Eric. But it being the essay. Yeah, I mean, for the narrative, he needed to win, he needed to, you know, that saved me to mean more. I mean, AJ does say, did anyone tell Barry who the West Ham keeper was at the end of the match? She wouldn't be forgiven. For not knowing. Like, like, if this is, if this is Hollywood, he needs to win the shooter. Yeah, when he came on, I presumed he West Ham would prevail and he'd be the hero. Obviously, he saved the first one from Joel Piro and you're going, oh, well, what a start to your career. He's more or less his first action on his debut to save a penalty in an FA Cup quarter final shootout. But sadly, it ultimately wasn't Finley's day and it wasn't West Ham's day, but this match was absolutely terrific. I couldn't really get my head around why the West Ham fans were leaving because even though they were 2-0 down, they never looked quite out of it. No. And I, you know, I wouldn't have left. If I was a West Ham fan, they didn't look down and out or dead or buried by any means, even though they were 2-0 down. And I'm just wondering, I'm not sure, was Danny Dyer at this moment? He's got more screen time than he did on East Enders, didn't he? So, yeah, Danny, obviously, Jared Boone's father-in-law was at the game and TNT's obsession with cutting away to him was almost bordering on the creepy by the end of it. Yeah, a fantastic game of football. And I think neither manager will have been too fussed ahead of the game. Neither manager will have been too fussed about winning it by the end of it. I'd say West Ham's players, if not noon or were definitely gotted to lose it. Do you think leads deserved it? That is also hard to tell. You know, you're tuna up in the 92nd minute. You sort of feel like you've deserved to win it. But like every time the game was basically cutaways of Jared Boone hitting the post and then Danny Dyer and then Jared Boone hitting the post again. And you know, Lucas Perry had a brilliant game in goal. I know he's part of the team. TNT leads just about deserved that? That's a tough question because it did feel like a West Ham hit the post every five minutes or if they weren't hitting the post, they were having a goal disallowed. I mean, Boone's a very prolific finisher, isn't it? But they just wasn't his day at all yesterday in the game. I think when you tune it up and you chuck it away with the amount of time that there was left, I think it's difficult to say that you deserve it. But out of the two teams, I think it's less of a distraction for lead. They're better placed in the Premier League. They've West Ham get to that semi-final. Does that become a little bit of a distraction to them staying up? But I expect leads with a couple more wins or even just one more win than a few draws will be okay. I think it's a really, really nice thing for leads and Daniel Farca. I've actually really enjoyed watching them all all season. It seems to try and just think to say about a lead team but I've found them quite likable. This season under him, they've got an honest set of players that really work hard and play for the badge. They're recovered from adversity really, really well at the start of the season, both the players and the manager. The manager was in a lot of trouble and the players rallied and got him out of it and they managed to string like a consistent run of form together and I thought at one point they were going to come to be stay up. I still think they will stay up and stay up and maybe have one or two trips to Wembley as well. I think leads have had a really, really brilliant season and the players and the manager deserve a lot of credit. I think leads are far from safe. I'm not saying they'll go down but they're really in it. I think that's just about having enough. The only thing is that they last stand on stack yesterday and Joe Rodin don't know how serious those injuries are. Stack who has been brilliant for them this season looks like that could be him gone for a few weeks. I'm not sure how that wasn't a penalty, by the way, that Max Kiliman challenge on stack. It was so late. I mean, it's because he got his shot away, isn't it? Yeah, he made up for it. He really wanted to give away a penalty, whatever. I mean, you know, he got that was a penalty, wasn't it the first one and then the second one, there could be no doubt. Does anyone else think, sorry, that disaster was a high foot? I think it was a strike. I can't remember who sort of pretends their heads hurt. If he really goes down a ton of bricks, I think that gold is disallowed because this foot is, I mean, I'm glad it was given, but I think it's a high foot. Was not the clarification, which I think hilariously, Peter Walton, I think, message flatched during the commentary to tell him why it stood. We don't get to see it. We don't get to hear Peter Walton on the telly anymore, but he still him and Fletcher still great mates. There's still time. Yeah, yeah, still time. Yeah, but I think the word is that because the high boot was in front of the head, then it can stand. Okay. So it wasn't, so it hit it hit the high boot first. So there you go. Leads, I was going to talk about Leads being in the FA Cup semi-final for the first time since 1987. And I just about, well, I do remember that because he played Coventry, which is the 87 FA Cup Final was probably, if you're old enough, was it the all-time classic, wasn't it? But I was looking at the team, and you know, I buzz off this stuff, but the Leads team of that day, where they lost three to a classic, day aspen, Adam Stiles, that son of knobby Stiles, Ash Hurst, Orms, Be Richie, Sheridan, Pearson, Bad Rennie. Now Leads fans of a certain age will get, will feel shivers thinking of that team. Billy Bremner was a manager, you know, oh, that, that's the classic. And then that's when Leads are in the second division and trying to fight their way back. Yeah, very evocative, very evocative. I cried after the 87 Cup Final. Yes, sorry, John. Despite being in Manchester, as you know, I always have a sneaking admiration for sort of the Leads thing, you know, just a fervent of that sort of Yorkshire man thing. But yeah, I've delighted that that'll be a big day at Wembley, won't it? Chelsea Leads. Yeah, really good. Yes, absolutely. That's, that's a great tie. Yeah, Ian says, how, as a West Ham fan, how do you bounce back from a loss like that? I just want to take my son Daniel to one big game before I'm no longer able to his GCSE calendar made Praga no go of all the exams to clash. It was maths and he wasn't allowed to go and I really thought on FA Cup semi would be the big game I'm looking for. I'm pretty down. I haven't been denied the opportunity. It was so close. You'll understand when Ian rushed in his in full Cambridge kit at a Papa John semi final in a few years. But to get me over the angst this evening can Barry tell me to man up and point out that Friday's game at home to wolves is just as big a game and we should bond at that before the sun goes back to uni the following day. You guys have helped put smiles on faces in very difficult times. This isn't one of those but the pep talk from you guys will be the perfect medicine going then Barry. I mean it is to be fair wolves on Friday is absolutely enormous for West Ham. Yeah, I don't really like that phrase man up but I would not take my son to the wolves game because if you're taking him if it's the first time you're taking that they will lose and obviously we don't want West Ham to lose that game. I don't think it's the first time. I mean his kid studies GCSE you presume had been before. I maybe it might be wrong. I don't know. That was I didn't read into it that it was his first ever go. Just he wants a big one. He wants to come to a big West Ham game which is you know they're all big you know actually just have a nice time but yeah I would love it. I would love it if we'll speak you because I'd rather tell them weren't in the relegation zone when they go to Sunderland on Sunday. Let's go to Stanford Bridge Chelsea 7 Port Vale Neil. Dave says can you please talk about Port Vale as little as you did on the preview show on Thursday and on what you want down from a lower league side is to hold out and battle and keep it tight and this was this was done after a minute. Yeah it's a dismal start isn't it the whole week goes out the window with with that start. Obviously you expect Chelsea to be Port Vale I don't really have much to say on it. They just got completely outclassed didn't they the levels of the two team showed I mean Chelsea have spent 10 billion pounds or whatever they've spent and Port Vale haven't spent anywhere near that you would expect Chelsea to battle Port Vale but the whole game is dependent on the start and Port Vale style was just absolutely awful the goalkeeper who's actually alone from from my team Villa he had a he had a horrible day of Emmy Martin as departing the summer I hope it's not Villa's plan to put him in goal I don't think it would because he had a real tough day at the office didn't he just completely outclassed Port Vale Chelsea were very very very very comfortable it's just what Rossini and he did a guess off the back of the time that I've had reason. I think him Rossini really missed a trick in this game because after all the grief he got following Chelsea's exit from the Champions League I think when Chelsea went six and seven nilope he should have started performatively sending notes out onto the pitch for the instructions for his players. That's a big mistake it's from him. Yeah I suppose like the interesting story if with Chelsea John is the suspension of Enzo Fernandez you know drop for two games I don't think that happened when we did the pod on Thursday and we talked about Enzo and Kukarella sort of saying I might be happy playing for a big team in Spain but it's quite interesting they didn't just drop in for one isn't it you know they could have easily gone he's dropped for this game because we take this seriously but they dropped in for the Man City game as well and they are in a they are in a fight to get into the Champions League. Yeah I think the biggest problem for Chelsea is that they won this game too well so that they actually wants the focus on we'll go about to the Enzo thing because that's a bit more interesting than rolling over a yeah a struggling EFL team. Is that like a that's that's one step beyond hitting it too well it's a whole game of winning it too well it's what you're saying it's like it's a new footballing thing right okay if anything Clive for the fun not too well yeah if anything if anything Max they've won that too well and it meant that yeah we were returned to the so they you know if they fought on FA Cup classic you know that plucky port Vale the Vale throwing it down to them maybe the Enzo cloud would have dissipated but it remains over the club of course because you can't play against Manchester City I don't understand this decision I don't understand why you would seek to harm your team by dropping one of your best players it seems fairly unprecedented to me I mean you've had stuff in the background where you know famous old managers have taken players out but they've not formally told the press this guy's out for two two matches and okay you missed the port Vale game no would have noticed that could they not just give them a big find you know or something like that and just he's been internally disciplined and we all know that it just and the other thing is it being Chelsea who made that decision who you know and Liam Rossini as is the case and we've talked about this quite a lot no one else comes out and explains the decision Liam Rossini has to explain decision not possibly in fact very probably wasn't his decision so yeah collectively we've got no come on who's made that decision it speaks to a club where you know we don't know who's running it because there are so many people that are putting their aura in and it looks weird and also them falling out with Enzo Fernandez you know presumably the reason I did that they might sell him well how what does that do for the price you know so it just I don't understand the decision at all yes but you know it being Chelsea it will be a year of everyone on podcast saying we don't understand Chelsea and then they win the FA Cup and qualify for the Champions League that's sort of the most Chelsea thing to do here I yeah Barry when Everton spank Chelsea before the international break Enzo was really bad he didn't play well at all he kept giving the ball away he's very performatively criticises his teammates on the pitch and I'm not sure he'd be that big a loss in the game against City to be honest right it's not where the Chelsea model falls down just a little bit so they buy these players and then they expect them to grow in value and so Fernandez was over a hundred million like you know I'm not going to make a profit on that player and certainly if you're operating within turn or bands which is one of the strangest things I've ever heard it's also like Chelsea thought we've not been in the news for a few days shall we don't have to announce that we've got an internal disciplinary procedure going on like there's a reason that nobody else does stuff the way that Chelsea do it and another example for me there's two arguments that one is that Enzo was bought in that initial phase of the Bluco ownership where they just splashed a load of cash and then they changed their approach they don't really do that anymore that and then do the thing is and this is the accountants answer is that his amortiser station level will be you know it's the accountants principle that actually we can make a profit on him because his amortisation level is or whatever it is you know that they can flog in but I agree down it is you know yeah it is silly it's silly all right that'll do for part two by the way down on the guardian women's football week lead tomorrow reaction to the women's FA Cup quarter finals including Arsenal getting down at home by Brighton and we will begin part three with a bit of fit bar going to part three of the guardian football weekly to fit bar corner then um and Barry it is very tight at the top of the Scottish premiership it is indeed um syringes beat dundee united on saturday uh four two to go top of the league on goal difference ahead of hearts having played one game more uh fast forward to sunday lunchtime when hearts went to bottom club livingston and could only draw two two so that took them a point above rangers but uh i'd imagine the hearts were very much viewed that as two points dropped it was a weird game because it started in lovely spring sunshine and ended in lovely spring sunshine but at some point in the middle it was basically a snow storm storm day arrived yeah and i think when when hearts scored a second goal to go um think to win two won up uh yeah there was sleet snow sideways rain the very best of Scottish weather with that abated and it was grand again at the end and then uh later yesterday uh back in third place Celtic went to dundee uh it was their fourth match in the city of dundee this season they'd lost the previous three uh under three different managers Brendan Rogers uh what's his name Wilford Nancy and Martin O'Neal uh but they finally got one over the line yesterday so they beat dundee two won made heavy enough weather over the game to each e and at show uh came open the winner in the eighty first minute and so uh hearts are top by point from rangers and Celtic are two points further back uh everyone's played 32 games so after the next round of games i think it is they have the split so top six bottom six and everyone has five games left uh so it's going to go right to the wire it's looking like rangers are going to win it but who knows who knows yeah i also like easter is big in the e fl full rana fixtures having a good friday for rana fixtures today so uh we run a survey preview them because the most of the results will happen by the time it's out but but john Roy Hodgson winning his first game in charge of Bristol city being in charge two won at the valley uh afterwards he said there were a few five minute periods where i thought this is fantastic and there were a few periods where i was saying what on earth are you doing here uh john did miss a lot of chances rights producer Joel Charlton fan but even he was pleased for a resplendent Roy in sunglasses on the touch line i looked amazing didn't he um my previous previous favorite wear of sunglasses on the sideline was louis banhal i think but but nourish about ten years ago you know the the elder statesman of football you know needs to wear his shades in a sort of spring day doesn't he welcome back Roy don't i'm not sure Bristol city fans were necessarily they're longing for him had been uh particularly strong but hey i still can't get my head around that story uh other than Roy's continuing love for the game uh but but well done well done yeah there was a really brilliant tweet you know someone some football account tweeted you know Roy Hodgson wins his first game as bristol city manager in 44 years and someone quote tweeted and says just so's the value of giving a manager time which i just really enjoyed millwall scored a late winner against middlesbrough uh to put them into the top two which i've got games in hand um but what an amazing achievement it would be uh for millwall to get into the premier league uh coming to beat derby three two on the late game on friday so uh they are eleven points clear with six games to go um no do you know we didn't do which we should do uh we we touched on it but the uh the the the the turkey echatee uh shirt debarkled barry because i mean of i've all the meltdowns people have had i mean i did like the fact he put a Liverpool shirt on while sitting on the bench while the game was happening that and itself is funny but i do like the obsession of you know it is it is just the biggest crime in football to swap shirts until long after the game has finished yeah so if you swap shirts with a player after a game and he puts it on your shirt and you put on his that's perfectly acceptable i think but apparently if you're both substituted and swap shirts even if you're made to play for the same national team putting on your opposite number of shirt while the game is ongoing and you're sitting on your team's bench is very much a no-no and that's what raid turkey did he put on echatee's shirt someone sitting behind him i think it was one of the medical staff had a word uh and then he promptly took it off again but it it did prompt quite the meltdown from fans of balls clubs i think but uh for this outrageous act of disrespect i thought it was kind of funny to be honest is it not just him saying the game was done like it's always a lot of the game you say we can't do it until until the game is finished i think that game was probably finished yeah at the time he did it yeah probably um some fun sami and asri news thanks to lekeep for this i don't know if you've seen uh some in asri is a tax resident in Dubai where taxes are virtually nonexistent he is suspected by the french tax authorities of actually residing in paris uh according to an investigation by uh lez echo uh the detail that led to his arrest more than 200 home mill orders placed through the delivery route app uh producer jol writes did somebody say just is uh which you know is quite a good play on words thank you jol for that um it doesn't remind me of uh we said i can't remember which army you know some secret uh submarine you know nobody knows where it is and then it was uh they found out because someone just some i think it was a french sub some in the pacific some soldier on strava gave it away by just doing a really odd run as the submarine was just sailing through uh the pacific ocean Italian football fans are being encouraged to put their national teams world cup qualification failure wow this is exciting what happened there uh i sat on the wrist it was i mean that was me i sat on the remote control and it suddenly started belching out some sort of what were you playing i don't know pop that was really good and is that the sort of way of saying the pod is done that's your way of say it's a bit like uh ray and jerky putting a shirt on isn't it it's just saying i've had enough of this let's put the music on and maybe they'll finish all over on such positions there's very surprised here sundeland fanbarry goes out of his way to be polite to magpies uh k max says barry's thoughts on the irish herling league final um what did you make of it barry uh i didn't see it and i don't know who won so uh i hear my thoughts on the national i mean final yes guardian herling weekly shitting bricks with that kind of review and oh in this is good from oh and if you could stand by your phones please gentlemen uh uh the specifically the football weekly whatsapp group uh a difficult weekly team says oh in obligatory thanks for all the content over the past years although i have no plans for a resectomy i have recently been referred to an orthopedic surgeon for what my GP calls a surgical solution to your knee issue so i do plan on keeping a pod to see me through it should it be a minor procedure however those platitudes are not the reason for this email full disclosure i have had some correspondence with barry in the past about some pedantic corrections to his minute by minutes my corrections and advice on the best watering holes in burr his advice where i regularly find myself for work in this situation though i do not have confidence in the email actually reaching the remaining members of the team should i send it directly to his account to the meat of the matter while watching a tv show here in Ireland i guess the show is irrelevant but it was a home renovation show where the person involved is a primary school teacher hence the footage of him with his pupils a young figure appeared from a school in kilkenny given the popularity of kilkenny as a stag in hand destination i immediately wondered if barry had potentially passed through the town at some stage and so in a wild oat or two and perhaps has a relative in the area i shall leave it to the team to decide on the level of likeness which i felt was uncanny and hopefully this young man has a long and storied career ahead of him as a sports journalist chicken slaughterer amateur athlete regards oin magra and he sent us this photo to which we have to ask is this is this the unknown sun of barry glen denning your thoughts please gentleman wow that is incredible whoa this isn't it young baz must be what 11 years old would you reckon somewhere about 11 in there yeah or maybe a bit primary school probably 10 10 years old i was actually sweating a bit there max because i have been on a sag two in kilkenny okay where i may have made a new friend okay but it was way more than 11 years ago so right okay i see if he is that friendship had yielded shall we see dividends the childhood question would be very much an adult at this point and i think i think i would have been careful anyway so yeah i was starting to get very nervous that's that story but use the job send it to me and i was like he was like this is fine for the end of the part i think i think it's fine unless this is barry sun and then you had a fictional one for a while but you know now it's good to put a face to your fictional sun anyway that will do for today thank you everybody and you know you've got a lot of all that money you've raised for the marathon has to go on child support barry so you know it's still helping the children in a way is he's going on child support max i'm supporting sick children of course it is not that i like to talk about no but we're above 50 grand so i mean you not we you're above 50 we we very much we effort yeah thank you everybody and that'll do for today and we'll be back for the Champions League Wednesday Thursday but for the time being thank you thank you John thank you marks thanks Dan thank you very much welcome to Fatherhood thank you barry thank you football weekly is produced by Silas Gray our executive producer is Joel Grove we'll be back on Wednesday this is the guardian
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