Jerry “the King” Lawlerfication

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3:23That's why there's Noom. They combine GLP-1s to quiet the food noise with healthy habits that help you keep it quiet, even if you get off the meds. Their program is designed to make weight loss a smooth ride, helping you understand what drives you, so you can build better habits to not just lose weight but keep it off noom lose for keeps get started at noom.com not all customers will clinically qualify for medications individual results may vary you've heard of super sunday you've endured monday night football well welcome to hate watch wednesday welcome the football ramble it's thursday 15th of october i am pete donaldson I'm Luke Moore.

4:05And I'm Jim Campbell.

4:20Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Lucky Moore, Jim Campbell. Champions League is back after the long international... I forget what we call it, the long international break. The great international break of Great autumn international break of 2026, right, okay, good Rolls off the tongue It really, really does Not in this village But were you good to see it back? Were you happy to see it back, I mean? Was I happy to see a load of goals? Yes, I was Was I happy to see Manchester City continue to sacrifice Our national sport on the altar of their own egos? No, not really And you're a sport as well I'll be honest Jim were you able to separate the art from the piss artists last night with Manchester City 4-2 home loss in the Champions League of Liars we're well practised at it now aren't we so yeah it's very very easy to do that I'd love the Champions League I know you know this is slightly ridiculous given the circumstances and given the you know given the two teams playing each other but I can get on board with that there's goals everywhere as well Do you not feel like it was...

5:32Because I enjoyed them... I could enjoy it because they were getting pumped in the first half. That's cinema for me. That's what I mean. But I enjoyed the fight back in the same way that the French enjoy eating those songbirds. I felt like I had to put a shroud over my head to watch it. It was somehow shrimp. It's just so annoying, Jim, that I can't enjoy some of the best footballers in the world playing for an English side in the Champions League because Man City have shitted everyone off. Sacrificed the national sport on the altar of their own ego. I've already told you. everyone off i was gonna go for a c word we don't go out on youtube i you know i i i turned the um skid into a slide and i got out of it okay yeah i i would um i would say that um generally speaking i don't really like psg either but when they started knocking it about like that and embarrassing city on their own tatch i thought to myself hang on the enemy of my enemy is my friend yeah And I will accept this as almost like a ceasefire for 95-ish minutes and enjoy it.

6:32But joking aside, well, the Man City stuff isn't a joke. I sincerely mean that. But the other stuff aside, for a large period of that first half, PSG were sensational. They were really, really good. it's rare you see a team you know perform in a way that another top team just literally can't live with it you see games ebb and flow you see teams give other teams a battering even or be on the end of a good result but this was like levels at one point the Dwayne first goal was just unbelievable it was so fast but it still felt like it trickled in at the near post, which felt defendable, but they just couldn't get near it.

7:21You are using every, straining every sinew of the word trickle there. I don't think trickle is accurate, Jim. No, it's too fast to be a trickle. That's come out the end of a super soak of that. All right, fine. I understand what you're saying, though, because it's from quite far out. And in most circumstances, for a goalkeeper, or any goalkeeper of any kind of worth really you would you would normally look at criticizing them from there but I don't really think Donnarum is even at fault because he's hit it with such a zip I think that the really kind of interesting comparison here is obviously you know City have been under a lot of scrutiny since the the guilty verdict came in understandably but PSG are so absurd that they've they're in a situation where half this team they sort of rest in the league so these guys only come out you know in true force for these Champions League ties and I know it's quite early in the season for them to be sort of you know much fresher and fitter than everybody else but I mean that is we've never really seen that in European football right a team so powerful that their first team is rested for the domestic league and is prioritised.

8:33It's also because of the way French football is as well. Yeah absolutely the same sort of checks and balances aren't there are they? It's a symptom of having essentially a you know a state-owned club in a really comparatively weak league, right? If you think of having a state-owned superpower team, it just tends to be in a competitive league, I suppose. And with this, because I'm pretty sure towards the back end of last season, they might have done this before as well, they just reschedule league games to help them. And I think that happened ahead of the Champions League final, Jim. You'd know better than me, right?

9:15It did, yeah. The domestic game moved, so they had more rest time and stuff. Yeah, I forget the exact detail. I think that might have actually been ahead of the semi-finals. But the game was them versus the team in second place as well, who obviously wanted to get that game done. So they really do sort of have a quite outsized amount of power in their own domestic league. But, I mean, this was, if you separate the art from the artist, just a scintillating display though, wasn't it? That first half an hour in particular. It was great. And yeah, there is a distasteful element to this now. Of course, yeah.

9:50This is now essentially, you know, almost, it's not wrestling, but it's like more theatric than it needs to be. It kind of feels like because of these things that City have been found guilty of, because of the way PSG conduct themselves, this is, you know, we are all expected, you know, to listen to Darren Fletcher and Ali McCoy just ignore all the reality of the occasion. Yeah, hurling over Manchester City's play in the second half. You know, their fight back, their spirited fight back. But do you know what it feels like, Pete? It feels like, you know, Jerry the King Lawler and Gorilla Monsoon.

10:27Yeah. Like, the whole point of the... It's a conceit, right? The whole point of it when it comes to wrestling is, of course, everyone knows that it's theatre and everyone's happy with that and people pay the price of entry knowing what they're going to expect. This football we're watching last night now has the element of a kind of, you know, almost like a mass hypnosis event where Fletcher and McQuist, you know, for their own reasons, I'm not necessarily blaming them because obviously they're paid to a job and they're going to commentate on what they see. that's their role but we're all expected to go through with this whole thing because um for for reasons i don't really fully understand and i'm not sure anyone does because we're still waiting for the outcome of some weird appeal that they've already been found guilty of you know fine you've got to get through the process but but they they have no choice but to commentate in that way but just just going back to the football itself i found it quite interesting that it's three nil at half time and what became clear to me i don't know if you noticed this guys but what became clear to me is in the second half, PSG didn't really know how to approach it.

11:28They kind of got caught between two stools. It's like, do we carry on doing what we're doing when we don't really need to, or do we just sit in and try and just keep my arm's length? It felt like I did neither of those two things, really. And because City remain a decent side, to say the least, they were able to force their way back in, and then it became really kind of interesting, and the game became basically just a thriller minute. I mean, the amount of shots was just ridiculous. And it was obviously packed full of incidents. You had that kind of Gianluigi Donnarumma kind of error, really, for the Atlewish goal, which is a brilliant goal all in, really, anyway.

12:05Then you had that penalty situation. I mean, you couldn't catch your breath, really. If I'm going to sit here and criticise it by calling it this kind of elaborate football theatre, which I think it is, given the circumstances, it was at least entertaining theatre, right? It wasn't fucking Lion King live. I wonder if Ferran Torres still getting a salary from Man City based on the way he struck that penalty he's just not he has he got another income stream Jim is that what you're saying yeah some consultancy I wish I did I feel I feel harsh saying this because I think he's a really good player and Jim from what I remember you might have you've got strong opinions on this I think but he's just not a killer no he's not a goal he's not a killer no he's weirdly so i've spoken about him at length um in the transfer window in the past because actually his goal record is surprisingly good and yet so often you see him in those situations quite often in one-on-ones and i suppose a penalty is the ultimate one-on-one uh where he just doesn't look like he's got the confidence to go ahead and score and quite often doesn't he's a really really funny player like that he misses all the time yet scores more than you'd think so it's quite hard to sort of pigeonhole him.

13:20But that penalty, I mean, Donnarumma is of the length where even if he goes the wrong way, you're going to hit his shins, right? So bad. I felt like the commentary around that incident was mad as well because there was a couple of angles which made it unclear, right? And I guess that's, you know, if you're going to get into the detail of how football is kind of refereed and broadcast these days. And I guess one thing you could at least say is you do get a million angles, right, which on one level is helpful and entertaining. But on a couple of the angles, it was unclear. But on the angle from behind, he's clattered him.

13:52It's a definite penalty. It just winds me up when you get the commentary team taking so long to work that out, either because they're slow or because they just want Man City, the home team, to do okay. And it just seems a bit deceitful. I think there's a bit of that, isn't there? I also think they're trying to sort of manufacture drama and create the idea that something is perhaps contentious when it isn't. More contentious than it is, yeah. Which isn't helpful for refereeing, right? No. It's the Jerry the King lawlification of it, isn't it? It is. You happy with that reference, Pete? You're proud of me?

14:27Well, I am very proud of you, Luke. Jim Ross. Well done. I mean, speaking of Jim Ross, I'm going off after the show to record a wrestling podcast where we talk about Over the Edge 99, which, if you're familiar with it, is the one where Owen Hart dies. he drops from the ceiling he dies and we're going to be talking about the matches that took place after that on the same pay per view because they just let the let the pay per view continue blood on the ring all the stuff all of his friends in tears trying to wrestle in that sort of situation but the show has to go on and you do sort of look at that this and you do sort of go none of this matters this football this football team does not matter why am I watching it why does it matter why do I care whether Haaland got a load of chances but I've got a couple in the end am I happy for him no not really it's all a joke This is just complete nonsense.

15:12It really is. On that stuff, by the way, it kind of grated on me a bit when the commentary team, again, I know this is boring chat, but give me at least a room to kind of make it entertaining for our listeners and viewers. It kind of grated on me when Fletcher went out of his way to say it's not the fans' fault and it's not the players' fault, right? We have to remember that, Ali. We have to remember that. Have you seen what the fans have been doing this week? But yeah, the fans on one hand, I kind of get, I mean, they've not shouted themselves a glory. You know, who'd have thunk it? All of us.

15:47But it's not technically their fault. But I don't know how you can give a complete carte blanche pass to the players. Because at the very least, I mean, maybe this is going on, we just don't know about it. But I feel like we would have found out about it if it was. At the very least, the players should be probably asking for some kind of clarification as to what's happening. because as far as they know it, their employer has been found guilty of 114 transgressions on the rules of the game they're being paid to play. And ultimately, I just think it's interesting we've not heard anything from any player with a representative.

16:21I simply don't believe Pep Guardiola. I simply don't believe all those ex-pundits who are talking about Manchester City, how it's a big shame and he feels, you know, conflicted and all that stuff. I simply don't believe them that they didn't know or at certain points weren't complicit with what was going on at that football club. I simply don't believe them. What they all say is that, you know, the people above us told us, you know, it's all fine. It's all a misunderstanding. There's nothing to worry about. And we believe them, which is the easy option, isn't it? Manchini was getting paid twice through a consultancy.

16:51Not his problem. Not his problem now. Not his problem. It is his problem because it is his problem. It just is his problem. But what's the point you're making though, Pete? on that the point i'm the point i'm making is that there's a lot of like i didn't know nothing honestly we were just you know i was just i was just playing my thing i you know politics and you know the governance of the sport nothing to do with me but people talk and and the manager of manchester city was getting paid twice effectively with a hefty consultancy fee on top of that now you can pretend that that wasn't contributing the room you can pretend that you were in good faith providing consultancy to a particular nation state.

17:30But I simply don't believe that no agent, no management team, no team around these kind of stars weren't asking questions about whether they would find themselves at the end of a charge, you know, 10 years, 15 years later. I don't believe them. What I think's happened, if you'd look at the context of how, say, Enzo Fernandes and Elliot Anderson sign for City, What I think's happened is, this is just my personal view, that there would have been an agent worth their salt who's been around the game a long time would be asking questions about this thing that's hanging over the club. And I actually think the ownership and the decision makers at City have just gone, don't worry about it.

18:09We're not going to get... We're never going to get... We're never going to get busted for it. If we do, we'll fight it. We don't think they've got the strength to see it through. We believe we've done nothing wrong. Blah, blah, blah. and they've just cracked on us if nothing's happened. And when I say things like, you know, sacrificing the national sport on the altar of their own ego, what I mean by that is not just the way they've behaved. Oh, sorry, not just the transgressions they've been found guilty of, but the way they've behaved around it. Like they're bigger than the whole thing and it's almost like it doesn't.

18:39It feels to me, and hopefully people will forgive this comparison and take it in the spirit that it's intended, it feels to me like a fucking war criminal at the UN saying, I don't recognise this court. So you can pass down whatever sentence you want. I do not recognise this court and I do not recognise your authority to pass down these punishments. And I'm just going to have a little drink out of this little bottle. Yeah, that's the extreme example of what I'm talking about. But anyway, look, we have to talk about it because it's the big story of the year. We have to talk about it because it just kind of...

19:12But the game was good. The game was really good for all the theatre that was around it. The game started post-firework display. Manchester City in a firework display. It felt defiant. Did it feel defiant to you? City till I die. It was positively Trumpian, Luke. I was surprised the village people didn't rock up. It was like a fucking Trump rally. It's just absolutely insane. It was. It felt defiant. I would just like to say that I do have total sympathy with the attitude of Man City fans that say, I'm supporting the club before this happened. I'm going to support the club afterwards. I totally get that.

19:45I totally understand how you'd always be. because some of the stuff I've seen is like people who don't really know much about football because this is transcended into like the mainstream media. You get people asking questions or reporting on it who don't really know that much about football or the culture of it. And some of the questions I feel have been a little bit kind of boneheaded. Like, oh, are you going to still support the club? And people have been like, well, of course I'm going to still support my club. I always will do. And I don't think they should be criticized for that specifically, but I do think the City Till I Die thing, it felt in the context and in the situation quite defiant.

20:16Yeah. I mean, it could stand for City till it's dead. Maybe. It's a good point, actually. One thing I thought was a fantastic bit of TV was that shot over Donnarumma's shoulder as the PSG fans were doing the Poznan. That was an excellent, excellent bit of camera. Because they stole it so anyone else was allowed to steal it. Well, exactly. It's public domain now, isn't it? It's all AI. It's actually rights-free. It's a rights-free celebration. Yeah. It's been fed into the AI supporter space. Anyone can do it. I mean, the highlight for me, Jim, is very much the referee getting in the way of Enzo Fernandes.

20:44Yes. and he had no qualms about absolutely body checking the referee. He had loads of time not to do that. He did it and then he sort of looked away at the same time he was doing it. It was like a no-look assault. It was brilliant. Do you know what it was like? It was like when he knew that situation would present itself and he's not going to get in trouble for it. It was almost like your mate's dad who owns a sweet shop saying, help yourself to a cup of chocolate bars and you take like 60. You don't need them. It was the man in the red suit behind the tree going, and he absolutely poleaxed him as well the referee was quite in quite good nick obviously so he was fine with it but the thing is it's a lose-lose if you're a referee that situation because if you get haughty about it and start dishing out cards you look like a jobsworth but at the same time you do look a bit silly for being bowled over and nothing's happened because of it if you reference that to Enzo Fernandes this morning he'll have no idea what you're talking about no it's just Wednesday night for him I did that in the post office this morning I always bowl people over I think also So it's another bit of fuel to my world's most boring conspiracy theory, which is that referees are way, way closer to the action these days because the ball always seems to hit them and they always seem to be getting in the way.

21:55I don't feel like that used to happen when I was a kid, but I appreciate fully that no one's got any interest in that as a conversation point. Yeah, it's not your most interesting conspiracy. Football's quite quick though, isn't it? Football's quite quick. You never see it in a slower league, one would suggest. You'd probably see it more in the Premier League than you do in Italy, for example. Yeah, true. I mean, Portsmouth are the only team that are behind the referee being behind play. So it can't make sense. Quite nicely. Box him in. Box him in. All right, then. Yeah, they're ruined the Champions League as well as the Premier League.

22:26Well done, dickheads. Coming up after this, we're off to Trinity Road and Aston Villa have played rather well.

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25:31Welcome back to the football ramble at Villa Park, Birmingham. Aston Villa, Pomp de Hompt, Fenerbahce at 3-0. You quite simply have to enjoy nights like this as Villa fans, Lukey Moore. Definitely. I take issue with whoever it was that put in our running order that it was a six-goal thriller. Incorrect. No. To be a thriller, there has to be a kind of... If you say six-goal thriller, I'm thinking straight away three-all. Is it because the Villa Park DJ played thriller at half-time, though? Which I appreciate. I appreciate that. I mean, as a Villa fan, you've got six goals, a clean sheet, chance to boo Merson Greenwood.

26:10It doesn't get any better than that on a Wednesday night under the lights. It's great. Speaking of people of questionable behaviour in their personal lives, to say the least, how come Mason Greenwood gets stick, but Michael Jackson gets a pass? That's a good point, actually. Does Michael Jackson get a pass? Let's hear him. He's got a West End musical. He's got a West End musical. Yeah, true. There was a biopic about his life the other day. But there are plenty of people making criticism. There's a documentary here and there that surfaces, shall we say. I've seen it and it's haunting. absolutely haunting anyway but it was brilliant we didn't come in to review Michael Jackson no we didn't even though Marcus would like us to do that we didn't come in to review Michael Jackson's work I feel listen I will happily stick the boot into Speller at any opportunity as you well know but I do think I see evidence strong evidence that Marcus is genuinely conflicted by Michael Jackson because it's he loves his work and he always has done Marcus has always been a Jacko purist but he's genuinely troubled as a good, decent Christian man by Jackson's behaviour.

27:14And I don't think it's fair when Marcus isn't here to defend himself to question that because he's carried himself with great dignity around the issue, actually. Okay, good. On the show and off the show. He does hum a Gary Glitter tune every now and then, though, doesn't he? That's just to get the crowd going, though, isn't it? To relax a studio guest. It was, from top to bottom, it was a very naive display from Fenners. There was that moment when... Fenners? Manzambi sucked the defender into making a challenge. And Manzambi was brilliant last night on his 21st birthday. Just step-overs from minute one to...

27:51It made me think about what you did for your 21st birthday by comparison, Peter. Can you remember? I can't remember what I did for my 21st birthday. Can you remember? You know more about my life than I do. I was taped to a lamppost outside a pub called The Old Ship in Leon Solon after about what can only be described as about 15 beers. Nice. Okay. Well, it's more of a stag do than a 21-year-old. It was a different time. It was a different time. There was less to do. There was. There was. And half the stuff to do was in the sea, being a seapot, obviously. But Manzambi in particular, I thought he was probably, I mean, he was in the match by every Metro.

28:33Jackson's first goal particularly was an absolute brutal finish. Yeah, he was. But he was involved in everything good that happened last night for Aston Villa. And it was just such a great performance from him. He's a great signing. He's one of those players where he's really going to thrive if they can get him in space. And he seems very good at finding that himself. Once he starts to get the pace of the Premier League, he's going to be some player. It's just a quicker league. He has less time to think about stuff. And he'll get there, I think. He was fantastic against Spurs. They obviously give you that sort of space.

29:01I think he's a really exciting player. I think it's a real coup that Villa managed to get him because I know there was a lot of interest in him. And he kind of has hit the ground running already. And they were just sort of scintillating last night, I think. They are starting to click a bit now. I think this is going to help them in the league as well. Also, Zion Suzuki is low-key one of the signings of the window, I think. He's come in and refreshed the position really well. He does all of it so well. And his distribution is brilliant as well. That's his main feather, isn't it? He's a great saver of the ball.

29:30And he's great with the ball at his feet. and he's also come in in a situation where he's following one of Villa's greatest ever goalkeepers. And he's done well. He's done really well. I think it's also interesting to see how Villa seem to go through this almost like this kind of bedding in period at the start of each season where they look dreadful and then all of a sudden it clicks. And it definitely clicked last night. Speaking of that Spurs game, I was at that game. And for those who don't remember it or didn't see it, it'll go down on paper as a 3-2 Aston Villa win. But the reality is they fucking absolutely battered Spurs.

30:10And Spurs scored two goals in the last five minutes of the game. And the second goal Spurs scored was literally the last kick of the game. So it looks like a 3-2, but they were much, much better than Spurs. It was like men versus boys. On the Finnebaccio side, I would just say that Opta do a load of stuff, obviously, following every game. They're the stats guys, as everyone knows. And they helpfully list things that they consider as part of their data errors by individual players. Fenev actually had three of them last night. You can't do that away from home in the Champions League where three of your players commit errors that directly lead to goals.

30:47This is not possible away from home in the Champions League. You cannot do it. We've got to love Ross Barkley and Tammy Abraham tearing it up in the Champions League in 2026, right? Oh, it's great to see Barker's doing it. Yeah. He scored a penalty. Two goals in the Champions League in 2026. Brilliant stuff. I forgot he scored a goal, not a non-penalty goal there. I completely forgot. Brilliant, yeah. Is that his level, Benabachi at home? Is that fair to say? Yeah, maybe he wants to get himself a move to Turkey. Just light up the league. Maybe, yeah. Barkley's interesting because he looks quite young.

31:21He looks a bit Elliot Anderson, fresh-faced. But when he smiles when he scored a goal, there's so many wrinkles on his face. Oh, Ross Barkley! you're making me feel old now do you have a concern about that donaldson because you've got i mean i'm trying to pick my words carefully you and i yeah in fact all three of us now right they're at the age where we've got a lot of surface area on the forehead for wrinkle yeah well i've got i'm wearing bifocals so i spend a lot of my time squinting so it's made these little i think they're called elevens i think on on the old uh on the old forehead um so if they suddenly disappear You can do the odd eyebrows.

31:53Look, I've got a lot of stuff to work with. What about you, Jim? Yeah, if I kind of wrinkle my forehead, I look like I've seen three terrible things in my life, each which has left a mark. Jim's been looking after his skin for a long time, though. Jim was the first adopter of the whole, you know, what do you call it when you put something oily on your skin? Moisturise. Moisturise. I'd like to challenge that. I've always been a big Kiehl's man from very, very early on. Yeah, but yours is because you're fair and the sun will get you otherwise. I also try to be well lit at all times. Another thing I'm finding is this is obviously, you know, happening in the summer, but went away a couple of times this year.

32:35Sunburn in the crow's feet. Oh, really? That's a new thing. Oh, okay. Nice. I was like, oh, I didn't even know those guys were there, but suddenly they really had. Nice to get them highlighted. Watch out. Brilliant. I look like that big wizard that they had as a tee for. The Villa Villain? Yeah, the Villa Villain. Is that who that is? That's who that is. I just thought it was a kind of a mage or a warlock, a sort of wizard reading a book. So I looked into this. He's a lot of different things. He looks actually a lot like Giza Butler from Black Sabbath. He does. I think that's for a purpose, though.

33:05Well, it's actually coincidental because the guy was created in 1905. So, I mean, maybe they've modified him to make him look a bit like Giza Butler. So Giza Butler's parents created him to look like the Villa Villain. Yeah, exactly. That's incredible. That's how dedicated they are to Aston Villa. So yeah, they've had him on lots of different Tifos. They had him holding some playing cards and they had him kind of battling a kind of representative of Bologna at one point as well. I like that there's a recurring character. It's cool. But what is he though? What is he? Is he a magician? He looks like he's got a pentagram on his book.

33:36Yeah, he's a bit of a musketeer. I think he's whatever they need him to be, really. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, by their very nature, a lot of supervillains are, you know, obviously very adaptable. But this is a villain without an eye. Hard work is very adaptable. Utility villain. I think Aston Villa's Tifo's too. I remember the three lines one they had, which is fucking great. And they had a really good Ozzy Osbourne one as well. Yeah. They're good with Tifo's and they're good at beating Turkish opposition at home. What more do you want? Exactly. It was their biggest European win in the club's history and their first home win of the season in all competitions.

34:12Emery's got to go down to all-timer for them. That's their biggest win. That's Emery's biggest win as Villa manager. Really, really good stuff. I mean, also, you know, he's won them the Europa League. He's surely the, you know, their greatest manager of the Premier League era. Yeah. Villa fans, get in the comments. Let us know how magical that night was. Either if you were there, or he's just watching it on the telly. Elsewhere, Linz Athletic Sport Club got beaten by Liverpool. LASC 3, Liverpool 6. Brandy Barcola scoring his first goal for Liverpool since showing them from PSG this summer and his first ever senior hat trick.

34:46Jim, he's looked a little bit out of his depth in the Premier League so far, but he certainly looked the part last night, didn't he? Yeah, I mean, out of his depth is maybe a little bit unfair with such a small sample size, but... Nah, fuck it. Fuck it, come on. All right, yeah. He's looked like an absolute fraud so far. Let's be a Ramble villain. Yeah, exactly. And I think what might have helped him tonight is he took his clown shoes off and wore a pair of regular football boots. But yeah, he looked great. I mean, they are obviously, Liverpool are way, way above the level here. I sort of can't believe they conceded three goals.

35:21Yeah, wild. Even watching it, I didn't really understand how it was happening. But Barclay really, really stood out, really shone. Again, he's someone who thrives in a lot of space, which is exactly what you don't often get in the Premier League. But he had absolutely bags of space here, if I can make a metaphor that makes no sense. so yeah I was impressed by him thought Rio Engamara was very good again as well Louis Kumas as well got his goal at the end he looks like it's a really handy option to have if everyone else is unavailable which is obviously a pretty rare situation but I thought he's been pretty game in the games he's played I thought it was a really interesting game this because for a number of different reasons it's a good time to play Lask they're in bad form they've not won their last three domestically and obviously Liverpool are far above the level.

36:09So it was always going to be difficult for them to deal with what Liverpool have. I found it very interesting that Barcola and Wurtz both looked brilliant. Because of course they fucking did. Because you get loads more time in the Champions League generally unless you're playing the true elite teams. And it's nowhere near the same pace. The thing with the Premier League is even the teams who are tipped to get relegated or to struggle are still so fast and so smothering that it's very difficult to find the space. And if you look at Verts, he's just lost in the Premier League. I mean, he's not a bad player.

36:45He's a really good player. He takes good positions, but Liverpool... But the physicality, mate, and the speed of thought and stuff you need in the Premier League is clearly another level from where he's played before. And on the flip side of that, because it feels a bit like Verts played well, he gets an assist, they have a big win in the Champions League. That feels a bit like damning him with faint praise, right? But with Barkela, it's the opposite because I think you go, right, that's what Barkela needs. A hat-trick, you know, to get himself up and running for Liverpool, could just be the added little finishing salt of confidence that you sprinkle all over him and go, right, now he's going to go.

37:22It could be a platform for him. But with Verts, it just feels like it's never going to properly work for him. And to me, weirdly, I just think that last night is evidence further for that because he kind of flourishes in that situation. If you look at some of the Champions League games Liverpool have got this season, he'll play well in a lot of those. But as soon as he gets back to Premier League, he just finds it hard. And I also wonder whether he's struggling a bit because the players around him are nowhere near as good as, say, the forward players that they had settled and playing really well under Klopp, right?

37:58I just think there's a massive difference. If you look at, say, the front four they played last night, it was obviously N 'Gamo to one side of him, Barco to the other side of Koumas in front of him. Well, N 'Gamo is a young lad finding his way, and he's probably got his own things to worry about rather than worrying what Virts is doing. Barco is still trying to find his feet, and Koumas, again, is a huge inexperienced forward. It's not like he's playing with Salah, Mane, Firmino, these legends of recent times for Liverpool, and if he was, maybe it would be a bit easier. Also, what's happening behind him has been tricky.

38:29You know, Gravenberch was actually pretty decent the weekend, gets sent off. You know, McAllister struggled domestically for Liverpool. Neone, who played behind Virts last night, is a young player. So there's a lot of fucking upheaval going on as well. So I just feel like it's a bit of a perfect storm as to why Virts isn't really performing to the level. But I actually also just think the Premier League is another level again. And it just looks way too physical and way too quick for him at the moment. Liverpool this season have been, the way that their movement has been reactive rather than proactive.

39:00They've not taken the initiative with a lot of little one-on-ones and stuff. But one of the stories going into this match was Virgil van Dijk, obviously, was in line to captain Liverpool for a 200th time, which is obviously going to be a big story. But he didn't start. Iriola wanted to rest him, he said, for the games that are coming on. But he did come on and then they let in three goals. So, I mean, that's maybe something they want to look at. Someone also made the point that Joe Gomez must have been fuming with Rowan Araco just scoring after seven games. He's fed up with people looking around at people, everyone scoring goals apart from him because Gomez is like however many games into his Liverpool career he's never scored.

39:37Yeah, absolutely wild. With Barcola, it always reminds me of the K-pop Demon Hunters because my daughter will always request the song Golden from Alexa. She'll go, Alexa, can I have Barcola, Barcola Golden? Every time. So that's what I always think when I hear a bar caller. One of the big stories from elsewhere, Jose Mourinho had a Roma reunion he is going to cherish. Roma were 3-1 up. Real Madrid, I know it's Real Madrid, but they scored three very, very late goals to claim a 4-3 away win. Three goals in the final six minutes, Luke Miller. Incredible. So this was an amazing, amazing game. It had everything you wanted going into it, because it's Mourinho going back to Roma, where he obviously won the Conference League, and he's a legend there, and he actually got a very good reception from what I could see.

40:30And then, like, it had the added soup sum of interest where people who I think probably rightly think, you know, Mourinho's very lucky to be in that job and probably his best years are behind him as a manager, and they go 3-1 down to Roma in the Champions League, a kind of competition they're synonymous with. And you think, okay, yeah, that's exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from a Mourinho side in 2026. And then they fucking win. And the way they won was like so inevitable. It was like the last two goals, one from Hendrick and one from Rudiger, just from corners that Roma had no business just not defending.

41:10It was like Roma themselves knew it was going to happen. Hendrick scores a really great header. And then Rudiger just bundles one in the last minute, like the last kind of knock-ins of the game. and then Real Madrid have another chapter in their Champions League book that they force everyone to read every fucking season. So it's a small chapter, it's a minor chapter, group stage and Roma and fine, but it's still nevertheless this kind of inevitability about it, which I found fascinating. Yeah, I mean, it is their fastest three-goal turnaround in Champions League history. And I know that's a very specific stat, but they have done quite a lot of those.

41:45and also Antonio Rudiger obviously used to play for Roma as well so him getting the winner he refused to celebrate which is weird which is yeah I'm not sure how much comfort that gives you when you've just been done like that after being 3-1 up but after the game Mourinho took a moment to enjoy it as he always does by saying the bad first half is the manager's fault the good second half is the player's fault just like fault just gets no joy from anything anymore I also liked Carlos Espy's score his first European goal he's a kind of interesting really highly rated young forward who they got from Levant I think they got him from and for him to kind of get in on the act and start the comeback was quite interesting as well and so those are the kind of moments that forge great Real Madrid players so fingers crossed he can press on and do something good and two more goals from Doniel Mallon who is like since he's joined Roma has become an absolute goal machine that's the thing Jim like if you go back to the I mean you can link that back to the Aston Villa chat we just had and something we didn't mention, the fact that Villa are still doing things like knocking out, racking up their best ever win under Emery, their biggest win in Europe or whatever it is as well, the fact they've been able to do that when they've lost Rodgers, Konza, Watkins, Tielemans, Martinez and Marlon, who are maybe not in the same kind of category as players as the other ones I've mentioned.

43:06Nevertheless, still a big player that they lost and has gone on to do good things. It's an amazing effort that they've been able to regenerate in this way because those players I've listed there, for the most part are really, really important players and they've lost all of them and they're still somehow managing to turn it around. So Marlon's a reminder of that as well. But I agree, he played well last night and he's been great since he's been there from what I've seen. Yeah, it's one of the talents Emery has actually, isn't it? This regeneration, which is perhaps why they have this weird little period at the start of the season.

43:34I have this theory that people say that oh, Emery, because he came in at Arsenal after Wenger and it was an impossible job. Fine, that's probably true and you've done more about that than me. but I actually think if you look at what Emery did at PSG as well I think he's much better suited at just that one level below the very elite club just punch it up all the time rather than having all the attention all the pressure on him to punch down over and over again like it just suits him so well Villa's like the perfect club for him well maybe it's the word because he's won the Europa League with Villarreal and Sevilla as well so maybe it's just the word Villa I think it might be it's got a problem yeah Oi we all know where he lives Either way Stadio Olimpico You are welcome Alright then Let's get out of here It's been an emotional And very real Champions League Evening We're going to be back Tomorrow Alongside Marcus For more Football Ramble Fun part There's four of us tomorrow There's more of us Four of us Yes I believe so Thank you for listening to the Football Ramble Part of the Acast Creator Network We'll see you then

44:40The Football Ramble is a Stack Production and part of the Acast Creator Network.

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