Arsenal make the Carabao Cup final. Is the quadruple on? – Football Weekly

25:24Recruitment, I mean recruitment combined with Regis Labrie and his like tactical nous is just incredible but recruitment is everything you know like what makes a good manager good players you know that is so key but what he has done is moulded them really quickly. I mean, I watched Brian Broby, Broby, Broby at Ajax against Villa. I think it was last season in Europe. And when I went to watch him and I was thinking, I knew that clubs in England were looking at him and thinking, yeah, he looks like he's got something. But he didn't really show that much in the game. But it's amazing where sometimes you just get lucky.

26:03You get a player like that who's a goal scorer, who then turns into something that even probably the Sunderland hierarchy I didn't expect. But they've got everything right. The recruitment is perfect. They've taken teams by surprise and they need to make the most of this season because then you look into next season and how teams will look at them and think, right, we know a little bit how to play, maybe have the best players taken off them. So absolutely enjoy this season because you never know. Europe, who knows? And if they get Europe, then you're in a situation where you probably can keep that structure in place.

26:43But yeah, recruitment has been absolutely key and having a coach that can manage and coach those. It sounds simple, but not everybody gets that right. I have a question for Barry. What would Labrise have to do or where would he have to finish, do you think, to win Manager of the Year?

27:00Max Rushden:That's a good question. well in the very unlikely event they finish in the top five I think then he has to get it it also depends on whether Arsenal win the league doesn't it because I guess I'd imagine if Arsenal won the league and someone else got manager of the year apart from Arteta if Arteta bottles manager of the year after winning the quadruple was it worth it? I could see that going down badly among gooners, but... I don't know. I think if he gets top five, top six, even if I don't win the league, I think the job he's done is absolutely phenomenal. He's promoted. It's an astonishingly good job.

27:44Max Rushden:It's an astonishingly good job. I don't really care whether he gets manager of the year or not, to be honest. You do. No, I don't. It's a team sport. I'm not fussed about. But yeah, I suppose if he got them into Europe as a newly promoted side from the playoffs, having completely overhauled the squad in one summer, then you've got to give it to him. Burnley, meanwhile, without winning 15, and they've already played Dr. Tottenham, so they don't have that to look forward to. They play West Ham on Saturday, so that is an enormous game for them, isn't it? And for West Ham, but it's looking pretty bleak.

28:25They didn't look good in this game, actually, Lucy, but like, you know, before that, they'd drawn with Spurs, they'd drawn with Liverpool, hadn't they, at Anfield, right? They're just not quite good enough. They made some interesting signings in the window, James Ward-Prowse, but it's just not quite, and they always give it a go, but it's just not quite good enough. Yeah, I think, you know, they were always better at one end of the pitch, but obviously when you move up to the Premier League, then you need your attackers to sort of take the pressure off the defence and that balance just hasn't worked.

28:58They had absolutely no poke whatsoever on Monday night. In fact, I looked at the XG was 0.06, which was probably all the kickoffs that they had just passing the ball forward combined to make 0.06. Because how can you go into a game against... I mean, I know Sunderland are strong at home, etc., but they didn't... Any sort of quality chance did they create? So they weren't taking risks. They didn't penetrate anywhere up the pitch And I think the worrying things for Burnley fans is just the lack of, the look like to be a lack of fight and a bit of desire, a bit passive. And I think that sometimes lack of confidence manifests itself where it looks like people are not trying, but actually it's a complete lack of confidence.

29:44They are trying. They're just bereft of any sort of belief that anything can happen that's positive. A terrible day to be a Sky Sports News journalist outside a stadium or a Deadline Day live blogger. Sani did a gallery of images at Elland Road, his day at Elland Road to Mad World by Gary Jules. Nothing really happened. As Joel says, putting the dead in Deadline Day. Crystal Palace. I should steal these lines for myself, shouldn't I? Yeah, that was a good one. You have to credit the writers. The team of writers. The writers room was amazing this morning. Crystal Palace, Jordan, have signed, have broken their transfer record twice this window.

30:24Brendan Johnson, 35 million. Jorgen Strand, Larson, 48 million. So it's more than £80 million on two players who are kind of okay. Yeah, it's a lot of money on, as you say, okay players. I think, whilst I think those fees are slightly inflated, you know, whatever my opinion is worth, I think their thinking is just, just stay in the league. I think we just, if we've got to spend a little bit extra to get in two players that we think, I mean, they're probably hoping between those two players, they can rustle up 10 to 12 goals between now and May. That could be the 10 to 12 goals that keeps them in the league.

30:59And then they kind of get a new manager in the summer and they go again. It's been, they've gone from having their best season ever to if it goes wrong, what could be one of their worst? So I think for them, we're just thinking, we'll take the hit, spend the money on these two attackers, stay in the league, and then, you know, we'll reset and go again. But yeah, those do seem like quite inflated prices for two. okay attackers? I do think that Palace are a cautionary tale for a lot of clubs that could get into a conference league or Europa League because they got into Europe, they won the FA Cup but they didn't evolve the squad quick enough.

31:36They absolutely hung Glasner out to dry in summer in terms of not supporting him. Lost key players, momentum. You can reach Europe but if you stand still you may as well go backwards. If you reach Europe you then have to build a structure around it recruit properly to then kick on because it's you know those Thursday Sundays are an absolute killer and in the conference league particularly and you travel into you know places that I can't even spell then you know it's it is very very difficult and it tests your structure of your club not just your like the players on the pitch so for ambitious clubs who want to get into Europe it's like a little bit like well we're gonna have to then And if we do get in, then, you know, you can't just go, yeah, this is brilliant because next season actually might test your Premier League status.

32:23So it depends how good your spelling is, Lucy. Where was the last European, what was the last European city you were sent to? Oh, Ferenc Varos. Okay, that is tricky. Fair enough. Yeah, exactly. I was really hoping you just said, you know, Paris. FC Noah. Okay, we know where the level is. Sorry, Jordan, I interrupted you. Sorry, Noah, I interrupted you. I was going to ask, I wonder if Lucy think that teams like Palace, It might sound crazy, but they still have concerns about going down just generally, right? So if they spend a lot of money on players on big wages, they're only, you know, three, four months of bad form away from being dragged into a negation zone.

32:59You don't want to be in the championship with players on 50, 60, 70, 80 grand a week. So I wonder if they still have that kind of, we want to spend to compete in Europe and the league, but we don't want to spend too much. Because if we go down, we're going to be lumbered with, you know, huge, huge, huge salaries. If you think about it, John, in summer, you wouldn't have ever put Crystal Palace anywhere near last summer relegation. That wouldn't have even been a consideration other than in various players' contracts, because they have to be there. But because they didn't build then, they've lost the manager, they have then struggled in Europe.

33:36I've done quite a few Palace games in Europe, and they've struggled with rotating. Yes, he likes a small squad, but he still wants these two or three that he brings on on the bench to be as good as the ones on the pitch. And I just think this could absolutely have not needed to happen, what's happened with Palace. Glasner going, if they would have supported him back in the summer. And I don't blame him. I honestly don't blame Glasner because I just don't think that he's been helped at all.

34:04Max Rushden:One presumes in bringing in Johnson and Strand-Larsen, I can't believe that fee for Strand-Larsen, But I think, weren't Newcastle going to pay even more for him during the summer? And then Palace wouldn't let him go. But he did have a good first season, 14 in 35 Premier League appearances. But he's only got one so far this season. I think he was carrying a fairly bad ankle injury for quite some time. So maybe he deserves a pass. But I haven't been impressed with him at all this season. I know he's been playing in a bad team. But he is part of that bad team. part of the reason they're really bad.

34:44Max Rushden:But one presumes they were expecting to offload Jean-Polique Mateta and that move to Milan fell through because he failed his medical. Yeah, he's got an inflamed knee. They concluded he needed surgery to fix that. And the obvious solution, I guess, is him to get surgery, but he could be in the French squad for the World Cup. He was in a front line with Eketike and Kunku, uh akilush um and the last international tovin barkala turkey all came off the bench there's mbappe alice didn't feature so you know i don't know if i just get the surgery and say i probably won't start for france in the world cup but you know somebody made that joke about mateta 10 years ago and he was very it was wilfrid zaha wasn't he was very upset about it so don't come at me jean philippe when you score the winning goal in the world cup final um with your dodgy knee but yeah be interesting to see what happens with him and strand larsen big man big man up front but they need depth you need depth um they tried to get dwight mcneil and it fell through due to late paperwork um which always seems a weird reason for something to fall through dwight mcneil's partner megan sharply said uh the midfield got radio silence from palace um on social media she said a four and a half year deal had been offered and the bear had quote prepared to move our life hundreds of miles away before having it torn away without explanation we live in a world where everyone is aware of how big a problem mental health is in football why do we find it acceptable school because these young men are on a lot of money and that's okay to mess and toy with their mental health and that it's just part of the job we all deserve to be treated with respect kindness and fairly the last 48 hours have broken my heart to see how the football world you love so much can be so cruel to you to have something promised to you to have been dragged along on an emotional roller coaster and to be toyed with until the final minute for that to be torn away from you at the last second with absolutely no explanation go from everything to radio silence no phone call no communication and be left broken hearted with nothing but confusion has hurt more than i can say Lucy you're a footballer you're also the wife of a footballer Neil Redford and I don't know I'm a wag a wag you are I don't know when you got that is exactly what I am when you got together and I presumed I was thinking before I looked at his Wikipedia that he'd have refused to leave Yorkshire but he had a couple of spells at Watford and Charlton didn't he so I don't know if you had to uproot your life or not or you were part of this sort of this thing that we don't really think about of just oh we're off here I've signed for them kids and family blah go yeah I mean I completely understand how people read that who are not involved in football and think oh god first world problems you know like well your millionaire husband and your your nice lifestyle however right she's obviously fiercely loyal to to him so when when things happen it's very difficult because it's unless you live in that world it's it's very difficult to understand that you're actually at the whim of of you know a team from hundreds of miles away that you could absolutely change your life and obviously her life is is is her life will be around him and you know and and the kids and which school they're at but it's difficult you know it's it is and people will listen to this and going you know it is a harder life than you think I think being a professional footballer because you have to perform every single week otherwise you don't get a contract that the next time but I I mean Neil was a manager by the time or a coach by the time we met and even then you anything that happened negative against him, I was ready to fight everybody.

38:09It's like you just think about your own situation and your own partners. And people come out with things about them. You will be fiercely, in your own private life, you'll be fiercely loyal. So sometimes when that plays out, it's very difficult to sort of stay quiet. But it is tough. And when you're reading it out and thinking, yeah, I can imagine they're thinking, right, we're going to go to Palace. This is great. Well, we'll have to move. We'll get everything ready. then all of a sudden last minute it was like no you're not and he's obviously not playing that much at Everton so yeah it's tough and I think but if you're not part of that um you really can't get your head around that no I remember doing a radio show with Kevin Nolan on Talk Sport and him telling the story of when he I think he signed for Newcastle from Bolton and he didn't really know how to tell Mrs Nolan so literally one day as he was leaving for training he just as of the front door he's at the front door he says I've just signed for Newcastle bang shut the door and then got in the car.

39:05Perhaps not the best way of dealing with these things. Anyway, Liverpool have agreed to sign centre-back Jeremy Jacquet for 60 million from Rennes. There was a tweet, the sort of name Bob Mortimer would make up. He's coming in in the summer, isn't he? I think quite a few people are saying Liverpool needed to strengthen now if they want to try and compete in the Champions League this season. Your mate Calvin Phillips, Lucy has joined Sheffield United on loan from Manchester City for the rest of the season. Look, it would be great for him to get some minutes, wouldn't it? Yeah. I just play football.

39:41I just think he's been so disappointed for Cal the last few years. I genuinely think that City got him so that somebody else didn't get him. You saw the way that he played for Bielsa, so I think it's a little bit of a slight that Guardiola couldn't get him to play like that. obviously it won't all be everybody else's fault, but I do think if he'd have gone somewhere else, he'd have played a lot more. He struggled with injuries as well, but he's actually just a genuinely good kid who wants to play football. And even when he went on loan, everything just didn't work out. He got sent off for West Ham.

40:21That didn't help. And then he sort of became a figure where people sort of laughed at him. but he deserves a little bit more respect than that and I really hope that he gets some minutes, he gets himself match fit and he gets himself back up to the level that we know because it's, I don't know, it's just, I think genuinely nice people you want the best for and I do think he's been, in terms of City, been stiffed over a little bit at the start. I think if he'd have gone somewhere like Liverpool, I think he'd have played a lot more at that particular level when he was a regular, probably the best England player around that time when he moved.

40:58And, you know, that's it. And this is what happens with football is circumstance, opportunity, injuries. You just never know which way it's going to go. It's such a short career, isn't it? And it can be, you're right, the highs and lows are pretty extreme and can happen pretty fast. Angel Gomez has signed for Wolves. They now have four Gomez's. How many Gomez's can you have in a squad? But yeah, at least they were self-aware enough to say, you know, room for another Gomez in their social media post about it all. That'll do for part two. Part three, we'll do some Gianni Infantino on Goody.

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42:16Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. Andy says, is Infantino now preparing the ground so he can award next year's peace prize to Putin. Ukraine's sports minister has called the FIFA president irresponsible and infantile for saying that world football's governing body will look at lifting a ban on Russia. Russian national teams and clubs were suspended from all competitions by FIFA and UEFA in February 2022 after the country's second invasion of Ukraine. The war is still going on, of course. Infantino said this ban has not achieved anything, has just created more frustration and hatred.

42:47having girls and boys from Russia being able to play football games in other parts of Europe would help that is coupled with the uh international olympic committee president kirstie coventry saying throughout the campaign and in many of our conversations since i've heard the same message from you focus on our core we're a sports organization we understand politics we know we don't operate in a vacuum but our game is sport that means keeping sport a neutral ground a place where every athlete can compete freely without being held back by the politics or divisions of their governments uh general understanding without mentioning directly is that she's referring to russia's exclusion ahead of this uh winter olympics i don't know what you think barry i mean the the flip side argument is there are i don't know 116 conflicts going on in the world i think and you know fifa doesn't get involved in all of them hasn't got involved in israel uh i don't bond you know but i don't know if infantino's given back his medal of for whatever it was that Putin gave him.

43:46I'd hazard a guess he probably hasn't.

43:48Max Rushden:Maybe he gave it to Donald Trump. Possible. Nesta rat. Yeah, I can see both sides. I don't think Russia should be allowed back. But I also think other countries should also be banned. And it does seem slightly odd or unfair, even that Russia is subject to this ban when other countries aren't. And beyond that, I don't really know what to say, to be honest. That's okay. It's a complicated situation. Infantino did apologize to England football fans over comments he made at Davos when he said that the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 had been special. For the first time in history, no Brit was arrested.

44:35He said, I need to apologise. It was more of a light-hearted remark to show actually that the World Cup in Qatar was a celebration, a peaceful event, and everyone came together in a peaceful way. Having English fans, real fans, coming in a peaceful way and enjoying cheering for their team is something that is fantastic. I think we've all learnt from many of Infantino's speeches that he shouldn't attempt humour.

44:54Max Rushden:To be fair, I think that was quite amusing. But you know, there's a saying that, I mean, and it is absolutely typifies as Infantino, he has got absolutely pissed on the power that's been afforded to him. He's just got completely carried away with everything and just, you know, I don't know that award for Trump, you know, it's just crazy nothing would surprise me but he is completely pissed on the power that FIFA has afforded him. In Fitbar, Hartz lost last night away at St Mirren Celtic away to Aberdeen tonight, Rangers host Kilmarnock both can move to just within three points of the leaders of a three-way title race in Fitbar.

45:40We'll do a proper Fitbar corner soon and go to the Jazzbar, of course. Lucy, potential changes to the Women's FA Cup reported by Tom Gary and The Guardian yesterday exclusively. What are they? Are they good? Yeah, they basically want to make sure that the best two teams get to the final by just by excluding some tier the tier seven clubs. Some tier seven clubs are quite good you know the ones around the big cities like um London and Manchester but it's like it the FA Cup is the FA Cup it's not broken for 99 % of of of of clubs and they look like they're trying to change it just for the few at all and it's quite interesting back in the day when I played obviously the draws for the FA Cup were held in secret for the women's FA Cup and you just knew that they tried to get the best two teams in the final because you knew that That's amazing.

46:34That's amazing. Honestly, it was incredible, allegedly. So say there was four teams and we'd got to the semi-final, they would make sure the two better teams would play the two worse teams so that they'd make sure, honestly. And we managed to get to the final once and actually proved why that is because we got battered. But that's by the by. But I used to be like, why on earth are these, why are these draws made in secret? it's like oh the FA Cup semi-final draw on the FA Cup quarterfinal draw for women is and in each tie is a better team than the one in and it's like what are you doing so that I don't know whether they want to but they want to seed teams which will be the top four of the WSL to make sure then the that the last 32 will be like that bracket style so you so you could follow your map of your club to the final that's why they want to do it they want to increase make it more appealing for commercial sponsors, but I'm not being funny, but you can't exclude.

47:33The whole point of the FA Cup is that everybody can play in it and everybody can get as far as they possibly can. And honestly, it's not good. Producer Joel writes, I'm sure the FA would deny that. Yeah. But yeah, the FA Cup's the FA Cup. You know, the draw is the draw, right? I agree with you. Honourable mention to Luton Town and their media team. media team their 2026 calendar is 31 days old and already five of the 12 players have left the club this is pretty impressive stuff and regards uh barney who had a very had a brilliant monday pod i think uh surely we need a squires masterpiece of erling harland hugging barney uh while they make pottery together at the uh while they sit at the potter's wheel to unchained melody i have send the message on to squires so fingers crossed he can do his best work yes jordan can i just read do a do my do a barry impersonation if you will i got a linkedin message a couple of months back from a listener joe mccormick um he's director i won't name the company because i'm not sure if we're allowed to name brands on this podcast he's director so he earns a lot of money clearly um this is a two months ago hi jordan hope you are well and don't mind me messaging you on linkedin I tried to find an email but couldn't.

48:49My friend Ewan is getting married on New Year's Eve. Both of us are big fans of the Football Weekly and regularly discuss episodes with each other. You're the pundit he mentions the most, especially your villa takes. Any chance you would have a chance to record a brief good luck message ahead of his wedding day, it would be classed to be able to surprise him. So obviously I'm two months late and the wedding has come and gone.

49:14Isn't LinkedIn your men are really ahead of the game i thought that was sort of the mo of linkedin here we are hopefully they're still together but yeah yeah it might be divorced it could be by now just to say um big up mrs and mrs ewan hope you had a lovely wedding and i wish you wish you eternal love uh commitment and lots of great times ahead beautifully done um thank you jordan and you know if you would like to message us on LinkedIn. I don't believe we're on LinkedIn, but you can. Go by Jordan Jones-Rion. Yeah, yeah. If you want to LinkedIn us, you have to link with Jordan. That's the way it works.

49:54I'm on it. You can LinkedIn me. Thanks, everybody. That'll be for today. Thank you, Jordan. Cheers, mate. Thank you, Lucy. Thanks, Max. Cheers, Baz. Thank you. Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove. Our executive producer is Danielle Stephens. We'll be back tomorrow.

50:15This is The Guardian.

50:52Thank you.