You had to feel for Ange Postecoglou. Seven minutes into a must win Europa League opener and Radu Drăgușin gets himself sent off. If he’d lost this, the pressure would really have made itself known. But against all odds and expectations, Spurs prevailed. And in style. Jack Pitt-Brooke was there. Eventually. After a two hour walk in the rain. Meanwhile, flu-ravaged Producer Lucy was watching Serie A crisis club Roma as they battled Athletic Bilbao. They started well, but then Athletic brought out...
Sep 26, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Manchester United dropped two points on their first night in UEFA’s giant new Europa League, they were leading against Twente right up until the moment they weren’t…United have only beaten Fulham, Southampton and Barnsley this season, they just don’t seem to be improving. Liverpool and Arsenal are all right though. The Red breezed past struggling West Ham at Anfield and a team full of teenagers did the business against League One’s Bolton Wanderers at The Emirates. Talking of teenagers, Barcelon...
Sep 25, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast After all the criticism over the summer, Chelsea are having a lovely time right now. Sure, Barrow are a League Two side (top of League Two though…) but a 5-0 win will boost the confidence of all concerned. They go through to the next round along with Man City, Aston Villa and Leicester. Real Madrid spent 85 minutes making their critics eat their words and then switched off, allowing Alaves to come from three goals down to pushing hard for the most unlikely of equalisers. Carlo Ancelotti looked d...
Sep 24, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast It is the bleakest of news for Manchester City fans. Rodri, the man who holds their shape together, the man they really miss when he’s out, could be gone for the whole season with a knee injury. Sam Lee is here to tell us just how bad this could be for City. And how good it could be for everyone else… City aren’t the only elite team to have been rocked by injury news. Barcelona’s Marc Ter Stegen is out for the rest of the season too. Pol Ballus is here with more. A deal has been agreed for the s...
Sep 23, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast You’ll be hearing and reading about City 2-2 Arsenal for some time this week. 20 players were camped in City’s final third for all of the second half, Arsenal were a stones throw from victory - well Stones’ head in the end. We have your full round up from the rest of the Premier League, get your pen out, there’s loads of stats for you to take note. In Europe Milan defeated Inter for the first time in seven matches, James Horncastle has the details. Bayern continue to score a truck load of goals....
Sep 22, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast There was once a time when Arsenal fans didn’t like David Raya. Didn’t like that he’d taken the number one jersey. Didn’t think he was one of the top goalkeepers. Well, Thursday night’s double save against Atalanta has surely by now changed everyone’s mind. Amy Lawrence was watching Arsenal come away with a hard earned point in Bergamo. In the night’s other matches, Barcelona conspired to beat themselves, although Monaco helped as well. Leipzig lost in the last minute to Atletico Madrid. Bayer L...
Sep 19, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast It wasn’t quite as rip roaring a night in the Champions League as we had on Tuesday but still plenty to ponder after night two. Such as, how Inter were able to quell Man City. Why PSG REALLY needed a win against Girona. And why we all need to go to Celtic Park for a Champions League match. Spurs were very nearly the headline as they needed an extremely late comeback to beat, um, Coventry in the League Cup. It was a mixed evening for Arsenal and Man City in the Women’s Champions League. Plus we r...
Sep 18, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Was it goals you wanted? Well, you’ve come to the right place. The Champions League had plenty of them last night. We have your full round up from the day’s action including Liverpool’s win over Milan, Real Madrid’s sketchy result against Stuttgart and Villa’s start to life in the biggest league of them all. Elsewhere, players are starting to make noises about strikes due to the amount of games they’re playing. Plus there was a 34 penalty shootout in England’s EFL Cup, Manchester United won a ga...
Sep 17, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Monday began a significant week in the world of football. Yes the Champions League is back, we’ll get to that. But first it was all about Manchester City, whose trial against the Premier League for alleged spending breaches got under way. Matt Slater is on hand to tell us what we should and should not expect. We also had football on Monday in the form of League One’s finest: Tom Brady’s Birmingham facing Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham. David Beckham was there, but so was Richard Sutcliffe. And finally a...
Sep 16, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Arsenal won the North London derby and, after Liverpool’s slip up at home to Nottingham Forest, they re-take their place as Manchester City’s closest rivals. Because City obviously won again, didn’t they? In Spain, Barcelona continue to impress. On the pitch, at least, and Real Madrid still don’t look quite right. AC Milan have finally won a league game, that’s great news for manager Paolo Fonseca. How Roma must wish for such relief. A last minute equaliser consigned them to another weekend with...
Sep 15, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kylian Mbappe has claimed that PSG owe him the better part of £50m in unpaid salary. He’s refused the offer of mediation and it looks like this battle is set to run and run. In public too, which will be entertaining. Phil Hay drops by to tell us more. And Mikel Arteta has signed a new contract with Arsenal, removing the nagging fear that someone else might snaffle him at the end of the season when his contract runs out. Amy Lawrence explains why this is such reassuring news for Arsenal supporter...
Sep 12, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pretty bad. They’ve lost four of their eight World Cup qualifiers and, while it should technically be impossible for them to fail to make it to the World Cup, somehow they’ve made the prospect plausible. Jack Lang joins us to tell us more. Mauricio Pochettino has been confirmed as the new manager of the USMNT, but how big a job is this? You would think that his time at Chelsea would have prepared him for anything but the USMNT are really, really bad right now. Where does he start? Pablo Maurer g...
Sep 11, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast England are two from two in the Nations League, which makes it a pretty decent start for interim boss Lee Carsley, anthem nonsense notwithstanding. Michael Bailey tells us what he made of a wet night at Wembley. It’s not a new start for Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann, but so many key players retired in the summer that it sort of feels like one, Seb Stafford Bloor was watching that one. And what’s got Kevin De Bruyne so riled up? Find out right here, right now, no delays, press play immediately. ...
Sep 10, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Didier Deschamps was not messing around. After France’s defeat to Italy on Friday, he rang the changes. Eight of them, in fact. And, after a wobbly start, he was rewarded with a comfortable 2-0 win. Italy are top of Group A2 though, they beat Israel 2-0 and have maximum points. But the real question today is: What’s going on at Chelsea now? The Athletic reports that the relationship between key shareholders has completely broken down and they’re trying to buy each other out! Liam Twomey is back ...
Sep 09, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast He’s done it again. Just as Scotland dared to believe they could take a point from Portugal, up pops You Know Who with goal number 901. It was a tough break for Scotland, though they should be used to that by now. They deserved more than to end this international week empty-handed. Spain put in a fine performance in a soggy Geneva, they were reduced to ten men early on, but rallied to beat Switzerland 4-1. Also, we’re lobbying for 20 year jail sentences for people who run onto the pitch to try t...
Sep 08, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yep, we all laughed at him and so obviously he went out and scored. Cristiano Ronaldo helped Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 and, in doing so, broke the 900 barrier. Lionel Messi’s on 865, by the way. Sigh. Spare a thought for Scotland. They were so much better against Poland than they were in Germany during the summer, but they still ended up getting beaten after giving away a 96th minute penalty to Poland. And congratulations to San Marino, victors in a competitive game for the first time ever. Nick...
Sep 05, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Behold the new Nations League! Come on, it actually sounds like it might be fun. And anything’s better than an interminable stream of friendlies, right? The new structure means that every position in the group means something different, which means that there will be something on the line in every match. And that’s got to be good. Tomas Hill Lopez Marcheno drops in to let us know if Spain are still likely to steamroller everyone. Plus, Steve Bruce is back! But is he ready for League One? And whi...
Sep 04, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast The late, great Eric Draven used to say that it can’t rain all the time. Manchester United supporters may disagree. It’s been another bad start to what might be another bad season, but Carl Anka isn’t so sure. He’s here with lots of reasons to be at least sort of optimistic about the future. Can Everton be optimistic about anything? They’re the real crisis club in England. We’ve borrowed Matt Slater from The Athletic FC podcast to assess the situation. Got something to say? Oh, please say it, it...
Sep 03, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Well, sort of. He’s certainly got the lowest goal per shot ratio across Europe’s five biggest leagues. But then again, he does take a lot of shots. And now he’s got his eye in and he’s broken his duck, we can expect those numbers to change. Plus, who won the transfer window? Tim Spiers is here and what he says may startle and alarm you. Because he’s been quite kind to Manchester United. On that note, UEFA have done something good and constructive. And I, for one, am startled and alarmed. Got som...
Sep 02, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast For their supporters, the most galling aspect of Manchester United’s heavy defeat to Liverpool will be the suspicion that this wasn’t even Liverpool at their best. It really could have been much worse. So where do they go from here? Carl Anka was at Old Trafford and needs a hug. Kylian Mbappe has opened his account for Real Madrid, his brace against Real Betis gave his new team a confidence building result, but they’re still four points behind Barcelona. And Bayer Leverkusen’s long unbeaten Bund...
Sep 01, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’ve been quite critical of the new-fangled Champions League here and a lot of that criticism still stands, but…did anyone else watch that draw and think, “Well…it’s not perfect. It might not even be good. But it does look a bit more fun than the old way.” Plus, how did Chelsea get on against Servette? And what on earth happened to Real Madrid when they went to the Canary Islands? Got something to say? Post it on the app or send me an email (imacintosh@theathletic.com) or, you know, write a rev...
Aug 29, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast A shock in the League Cup and Atletico Madrid drop more points. Poor old Ipswich. Dealt a horrendous pair of opening Premier League fixtures with Liverpool at home and then Manchester City away, they must have been looking forward to their little trip to fourth division AFC Wimbledon. Abi Paterson was there for this cruellest of blows. Nottingham Forest met Newcastle and one Sandro Tonali in the glamour tie of the round. Guy Clarke was watching that one for us. Atletico Madrid spent big this sum...
Aug 28, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dani Olmo is finally a registered Barcelona player and just in the nick of time. The Catalans were staring down the barrel of a nasty shock away at Rayo Vallecano until Olmo appeared at the break and inspired a spirited fight back. That’s three wins from three for new boss Hansi Flick. Everton were in the League Cup against Doncaster and, after the start they’ve had, that was quite the banana skin. Producer Steve was watching to see if anyone slipped up. Transfer deadline day is looming and the ...
Aug 27, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Did you know that Kobbie Mainoo has more interceptions than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues? Or that Brice Samba is one of only six unbeaten goalkeepers on the continent? Of course you didn’t. You’re a normal human being with an exciting life outside of football. But if you do like that sort of thing, you’ll love today’s show and a feature that will run until you all write in to demand that it stops. Plus, it was a very good night for Juventus, we’ve learned how to say Cagliari and...
Aug 26, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’ve been very mean about Chelsea for several weeks now, but are they about to have the last laugh? They put six past Wolves on Sunday. Tim Spiers was watching, he’ll tell us if we’re all in a lot of trouble. Manchester United lost too, Carl Anka is looking for positives there. But we don’t just discuss the Premier League here. Seb Stafford Bloor went to Saxony for the Bayern Munich game, I was watching Napoli, we’ve got all the news from Spain and France and then we’ll quick-step through Portu...
Aug 25, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Another weekend filled with football approaches so we have your one stop guide to the fixtures you should be keeping an eye on - and a mini Bundesliga preview. Though you really should read Seb Stafford Bloor’s words, he knows what he’s talking about. Elsewhere Chelsea were in action, so was David De Gea, and Cristiano Ronaldo, find out how they got on. Plus the big transfer news too with James McNicholas on Mikel Merino and George Caulkin reacting to news that Kieran Trippier might be off. Got ...
Aug 22, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Enzo Maresca certainly thinks so. He says that Chelsea, “is not the mess that it looks from the outside.” So…has he got a point? We’ve got Simon Johnson from Straight Outta Cobham on the show to tell us more. Plus, who’s the latest EFL manager to get sacked? Did anyone know Neil Lennon was at Rapid Bucharest? Don’t worry. Doesn’t matter now. And how do you say Cagliari? Hint: Don’t ask Google. Got something to say? Get it off your chest, post it on the app or send me an email (imacintosh@theathl...
Aug 21, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Look, I love Georgi Mamardashvili as much as Mama Mamardashvili, but the timing of his move to Liverpool seems a bit odd. He’s a fantastic goalkeeper, but so is Allison and he’s only 31. And then there’s Caoimhin Kelleher, he’s as trustworthy as any number two in the league. What’s going on, James Pearce? And what’s all this about Ilkay Gundogan returning to Manchester City? He only left last summer, why’s he leaving Barcelona? And I know that I said we’d watch one of the U21 EFL Cup games, but ...
Aug 20, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast A draw away from home is never a terrible result, but Tottenham supporters will wonder how they didn't take all three points from their trip to Leicester City. Foxes fans will have a concise two word answer: Jamie Vardy. The 37 year old striker stepped up when he was needed most, stayed switched on after a miserable first half, dragged his team back into the game and could have won it for them too. View From The Lane, our Spurs podcast, will be unmissable this week. Danny Kelly may actually comb...
Aug 19, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's DFB: Welcome to the first Giant Monday Round-Up of the season. In just ten minutes, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the weekend’s football. Like how Big Dan Burn chased Ben Brereton Diaz down the tunnel. And how Real Madrid slipped up in the Balearics. And how Bayer Leverkusen still haven’t lost a domestic game. You need this podcast, so click now and set yourself up for the week. Need something to read? What about Michael Cox on Ipswich? https://www.nytimes.com/athle...
Aug 18, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
