Arsenal pull away at top and Spurs grab a late point at Liverpool – Football Weekly

26:40And we should talk about another teenager, Dan, Rio Ingramoa, who again, a bit like Dalman, just looks, well, just full of confidence and actually he was given his first start in the Premier League and possibly looked the liveliest from a Liverpool perspective. Yeah, I think Liverpool fans, from what I've read and seen, wanted to see more of this player. He obviously, at the start of the season, had some important moments, won a massive game at Newcastle. I think it was late on and you thought maybe you'd start to see a little bit more from him but he almost got lost a little bit because Liverpool were mixing it up trying to find the best combination.

27:20They had Isak and Eketika. They were trying to basically fit everyone in at the start of the season. Now things have settled and they're obviously going in two competitions at the moment in terms of the Champions League games and the Premier League games being quite tight. If they can get themselves back into the tie midweek he'll play more because they'll have more games. There will be that element of rotation. And he looks ready. He's a very, very technically gifted player. I think maybe the end product might be something that needs working on. I've heard that alluded to. But just to kind of replace his Diaz a little bit, that just direct silky runner.

27:56They've maybe missed that. He's obviously departed in the summer as well. They've had that complete change of the front three. I think he maybe offers something in that Liverpool forward line that not anyone else there, the more senior players have got. So if they can stay in the Champions League, I think you will see more of him. To Old Trafford then, Manchester United 3, Aston Villa 1. So Manchester United won all five home games in the Premier League under Michael Carrick. The clamour for him to get the job permanently continues. To be fair, I mean, how he's changed it around, and he's changed it around by doing sort of common sense things, which, you know, sort of anybody with any sort of ounce of football knowledge will realise that what Mamre was doing wasn't working.

28:38However, it's easiest to sit on the sideline doing it when you stood on the touchline like Carrick is. I just think that it just shows you that the combination of things behind the scenes, obviously he's quite a gentle bloke who's quite positive with the group, putting round pegs in round holes, amazingly works very well in football. And I go back to Spurs being the same. I sort of played like a 4-4-2 and worked hard, didn't play back three, try and play out for the back. Well, who'd have thought that that would make it difficult for a team like Liverpool? It just depends on where Man United want to go now because the thing is, if he finishes with a flourish like he is and they get in the Champions League, which it looks like they are doing, and it shows the head-to-head battles with the likes of Villa helped, then if they choose someone else, he's got to come in and hit the ground running and then you're back to the, you know, Amarim coming in.

29:33They've just got to choose well. recruitment is the be-all and end-all of football. Ruben Amorim's decisions look more and more ludicrous by the week, Jonathan. I mean, Bruno Fernandes is a quality player. As we mentioned, he's now on 16 assists for the season, set to possibly break the record. Kevin De Bruyne is 20 for a Premier League season. Great assist for Cunha's goal, who was a great finish. Sesco firing. Casemiro as well. There have been calls for him to stay now after he scored again. Again, are we falling into that trap? I've seen this tale before. All looking very good. Do you feel like he might have a bit more substance or longevity, let's say, from the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer era, which actually was quite good for a while?

30:18I think people forget that. Yeah, I think Solskjaer was at 14 wins and three draws in the first 18 games. so you know that's actually pretty similar to what Carrick's I mean there was obviously within that the defeat was the home defeat to PSG and then they went to Paris and won and it went through and away goals and Carrick just hasn't had that but you know Carrick's managing a team who aren't playing a lot of football they're going to be fresher than every team they play this season and I think you've got to take that into account it's really hard to judge whether he's he's any good or not um and you i think the only way to you can't even really assess it from matches or or or results you you've got to sort of have a feel for what's happening on the training ground have a feel for our players our players just happy because suddenly they're allowed to play in the positions where they're at their best and they haven't got this sort of bloke squeezing them into their straight jacket if it doesn't suit them even brina finan just playing deep in midfield i could sort of understand it because of the recruitment in the summer bringing in the three forwards didn't really make much sense and the only way to sort of accommodate them in that system was to bring uh bruno deeper but the thing i just did not understand was trying to play amad jalo at wing back because i saw a lot of amad jalo at sunland he's a really technically good footballer he's much stronger than he looks like he's going to be because he's tiny but if you ask him to defend the back post when the ball's on the other other flank and teams are knocking it to the back post.

31:47A 4 '2 bloke cannot defend against a 6 '0 bloke. And that's what you're asking him to do. And again and again, United got done by teams lifting it to the back post. So that just seemed totally baffling to me. And I sort of feel quite defensive towards Ahmad because he was so good for Sunderland. But yeah, he's now playing well, playing as a forward, not as a wingback. So yeah, I don't know what Amman was doing. and that's the... I guess the recruitment didn't deliver him what he needed which was a holding player and somebody who could play right wing back. He didn't get that and therefore it was more square pegs than round holes.

32:24But the sense of release, I mean, I think if the season had started when Carrick took over, United would be top of the league. I think they'd taken 22 points in Arsenal 21 in that time. And you sort of think if Hamer had picked up two more wins, if two of their defeats had been wins, are United in the title picture then they probably are because Arsenal aren't playing that well so they've kind of blown a title opportunity by just pissing away the first half of the season yeah on Carrick I mean he has managed you know he managed Middlesbrough and he did pretty well there didn't he I know it kind of went sour at the end and I know he obviously has a huge amount of respect for Alex Ferguson and he he talks about him a lot but he's not kind of doesn't give them this sort of deference that I don't know but Solskjaer kind of came across as a bit of a sycophant, didn't he?

33:14And it was a bit of a joke how, oh, I've got to ask Sir Alex first. Wouldn't park in his parking place. Exactly, yeah. She's kind of mad, isn't it? It's almost like, no, I'm not really the manager, it's still him. So I just feel like Carrick has got a little bit more distance. Would that be fair to say, Lucy? It's not quite so kind of like a joke that it's still him, he's a sort of puppet. Yeah, I think that Carrick is, you know, he's had his own career, hasn't he? He's not just been brought in from absolutely nowhere. And I know Solskjaer did as well. And he obviously is a good coach. But I just think that sort of standalone Middlesbrough experience will have taught him a lot because, as usual, for any job, it mostly sort of ends sour, doesn't it?

34:02and the Middlesbrough fans weren't happy with the football that he was playing or his reaction to how they played at certain points. But it just seems to have that sort of measured... You need to be quite measured and if you are going to blow your top, then people don't need to see that emotion. You also need to be authentic. There's a couple of other managers, or at least one manager in the top five or six who could learn from being authentic and being yourself and not having to say stuff to be performative. but I think he's got he has that and the most important thing is that the players buy into it that is key because if you don't get the players to buy into it and they obviously weren't buying into what Amorim did so I think he's put himself in a really good position From the Villa perspective Dan it's been a really tough run hasn't it?

34:48Three wins in 12 now in the Premier League somehow you're still fourth though which is a positive obviously a lot's been made of the midfield and we're not underestimating the midfield that Villa are currently having to field and are missing the absences are big is it as simple as that do you feel? I mean how we are still fourth I have absolutely no idea It's because you did so well Dan you did so well in that phase you know Yeah I think that may be and I'm probably guilty of this as well it may be created a bit of an unrealistic expectation of where this Villa squad is at and look Unai Emery's a genius and he's improved every single player at that football club but we're coming up short right now and we don't have the strength and depth and the midfield's been absolutely decimated.

35:32Obviously John McGinn's coming back into things now which is huge for us and I'd have left him on at 50 % to be honest at the expense of bringing Leon Bailey on at 100 % because a 50 % John McGinn at the moment is better than 100 % Leon Bailey but Tillemans and Kamara in particular Kamara makes everyone around him better. Inanna played next to Kamara when Tillemans was injured earlier on in the season and it looked like a good partnership but you take Kamara away and none of the midfielders really look like they're settled or can control a midfield. So the midfield's been decimated. The attack at the moment I think is probably the worst functioning attack in the league.

36:10Ollie Watkins has just completely fallen off a cliff. Nothing stuck to him yesterday. I thought he was probably his worst game he's ever had in an Aston Villa shirt. So I feel sorry for Rodgers in there at the moment because everything around him feels broken. I can't remember the last time he had a shot. he was scoring 30 yard screamers every single week it felt like at the back end of 2025 now as I say I can't remember when he's had a shot Emery's tried to be more resolute and that's actually made the defence worse we're conceding goals left right and centre now so we've just completely gone away from everything that made us good for a variety of reasons and for the last few weeks people who talk about Villa a lot and me included will have been saying, it's okay, we're still third.

36:54It's okay, we're still fourth. There's only so long you can keep saying that. This run of form now is worrying and the squad, like it did at the start of the season, looks very, very stale. Villa have made a lot of recruitment errors at a time when you can't afford to make recruitment errors because of the constraints that they're working under with PSR. The fact that Harvey Elliott just sits on the bench when he is fit week after week, not coming on because we don't want to pay the money to buy him permanently. To me, he's exactly what this attack needs. Some fresh impetus, someone young, someone who would have been full of confidence coming off the back of the under-21 Euros in the summer.

37:32The fact that I'm still watching players like Buendia and Leon Bailey play and we've got Harvey Elliott just sat there, it absolutely blows my mind. So, in conclusion, loads wrong with Villa at the moment. But you'll win the Europa League, won't you? I don't know. I don't think we will. I honestly don't think we will. I still don't think we will. it's Aston Villa though Robin so that's the that's probably the bigger thing there what trumps what I mean the Harvey Elliott situation though Jonathan is that is mad isn't it it's a really sad indictment of modern football actually isn't it yeah it is and I mean I don't I mean I maybe Dan can explain why they're so reluctant to spend the money on him because he seems to me if he's a good young player you're prepared to do that deal for last summer what have they seen in him that makes them think this is definitely the wrong player for us to buy full-time?

38:22Why are they so unimpressed by him? In one of his first games in the midst of the run where we couldn't score a goal to save our lives he came on against Sunderland we played against 10 men and we got our first goal of the season but really struggled Sunderland should have won that game and we said that he was passing the ball and moving the ball too quickly like I would suggest that's probably what what Villa need right now it goes against the grain of what we're doing But to me, that's the kind of thing that Villa are absolutely missing. And from that moment, Emery just didn't fancy him. The structure of the loan deal was very, very strange.

38:54And Monchi left the club quite quickly after that deal. The last couple of transfer windows have been awful from Villa. There's been very few big pieces of business that have gone well. It's actually been the players that are low-maintenance, that were bought in for low fees, that have turned out to be the ones that have been Villa's best buys in the summer window. You know, Gasson's playing for Crystal Palace now after six months and spending£30 million on him. So we've made loads of mistakes. But quite simply, Unai Emery does not want to buy Harvey Elliott permanently. And the club is run by Unai Emery, rightly or wrongly.

39:27And so they won't do it. It's as simple as that. He just doesn't fancy him. And so, yeah, it's just it's not a good situation for anyone, is it? Right. Moment of the weekend, everyone. Chelsea in the old Newcastle one. We'll get to the football in a second. But the huddle. Oh, the huddle. This was incredible. So, yeah, just before the game, Chelsea have now started to huddle around the centre circle. And Paul Tierney got trapped or he wants to get involved. I'm not sure exactly what happened. Brad on Instagram said, should Chelsea try huddling around someone who knows how to organise a defence, which I think is lovely.

40:05One of the strangest moments of the season, the eye contact between Paul Tierney and Cole Palmer is superb. Just sort of like in a situation that neither wants to be in. And then Liam Rossini afterwards saying, I'm going to make it really clear. I want to protect my players. I'm respectful to the game. My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership. Lucy, what the hell is he talking about? Oh, it's just absolutely unnecessary. performative rubbish honestly it's like he everybody's talking about that no one's talking about the game no one's talking about which probably is one of the reasons why he talked about after but i just think some of the results he's had have been absolutely brilliant some of the way the way he's got them playing and and at times have been brilliant but everybody just talks about everything else so you've got to stay under the radar if that was me and i would been given that job where everybody probably thought that I shouldn't have had that job for whatever reason it's probably just best to just just stay calm and but I don't know whether he feels like he has to sort of project this different sort of persona I'm not sure but I feel a little bit for him to be honest but then he he sort of comes out with respecting the ball and I'm not I'm not joking it's it's a free ball system so there's there's loads of balls everywhere so which ball are you respecting because you might not necessarily use that ball to play the whole game that might be the one that sits on the sideline or somebody in the crowd nicks you know honestly Does that logically mean they were respecting Paul Tierney by standing around him?

41:41It didn't feel like that I have to say It did feel like they were about to break into some sort of musical number didn't it? Yeah that was very bizarre and yeah I think he said they're going to write to PGMOL I think that's going straight in the shredder that letter and then I would love for in every Chelsea game that the referees just come together and say, right, let's all do it. Let's all have a go in the middle of the huddle in the next games. I hate it. It's the worst thing I've ever seen in football. I can't. Villa, Villa, it really wound up Villa fans, didn't they, by doing it? It's wound me up.

42:13I hope, as long as they do that huddle, I hope they lose every game of football that they ever play. From the first team down to like the under 10s, I hope Chelsea lose every single game of football whilst that huddle is in existence because it's just weird and doing it in the centre circle as if it's some form of marginal gain. Honestly, sometimes football just eats itself up and that is one of the moments where I just think, what is football like? Why am I watching this? Because it's not clever. It's just self-indulgent rubbish. There's no way the players have come up with that either. Cole Palmer in the dressing room saying, you know what we should do, lads?

42:50We should do a huddle in the centre circle before the game. They looked so awkward, didn't they? There's no way they've come up with that. That's come from, might not have come from a senior himself, but that has come from within the Chelsea coaching staff. Honestly, it's the weirdest thing I've ever seen in football. But in the days when we used to do the podcast in the studio, we would always do a huddle around a microphone. I mean, that was just standard practice. And did you feel that helped? No, I felt disconcerted by it. But, you know, you just go along with what the senior players are telling you to do.

43:18What Bluco say. Yeah, absolutely. Before we move on, we should mention the actual game. So it was a defeat for Chelsea. and the defending for the winning goal what turned out to be Jonathan was laughably bad, wasn't it? Just slice through and Gordon with a tap in. Oh, dreadful. And they've won one of the last five in the Premier League. I mean, I know we're talking about United getting up to third and how well they're playing, but Villa and Chelsea are making it easy for them. And now the possibility has opened up that the Premier League could have seven teams in the Champions League next season.

43:50Because if Villa win the Europa League and don't finish top five, And if Liverpool or, I guess, Tottenham, we should say, but Liverpool more realistically win the Champions League and don't finish your top five, then there'd be five plus the Champions League winners plus the Europa League winners. I mean, that's nonsensical that you could have seven teams in the Champions League. We've got to stop that. Yeah, I mean, it's already kind of ridiculous, isn't it, in terms of European football and English teams. But yeah, that's a conversation for another day. That'll do part two. In part three, we'll do Brighton's win at Sunderland.

44:24and the three goalless draws.

44:35Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. Palace nil, Leeds nil. The biggest talking points here. Lucy, a missed penalty from Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Another one of those penalties that have given away when you think, what on earth are you doing with your hand, Will Hughes? Yeah. What's going on there? Why does this happen so often? I don't know whether he panicked in the middle, but I mean he's not the tallest is he so maybe he thought nobody would notice but yeah and Calvert-Lewin it's either he scores them or misses the target he has missed the target before but that was key that moment but I was just laughing this morning and watching Canvo celebrate the red card the second yellow for Goodmanson and I've watched him quite a lot I've done Palace quite a lot in the in Europe and he's and he's got a right rick in him Canvo so he needs to be celebrating nothing and he keeps making mistakes.

45:23He's only a young player and he keeps making mistakes and it's like, just concentrate on your own game, mate. Because what then happened was, obviously, it's have the mickey taken out of him. But I don't think... They had a goal disallowed, didn't they? Palace. And then there's been this start that they didn't have a shot on target since the red card. And I was like, well, they obviously did, but that doesn't count. So they did have something, but Palace must rue the fact that they didn't get the win there. But they're quite comfortable. So it's quite a negative environment, I think, around Sellers Park at the moment that I think the sooner Glasner, they both separate, the better for everyone, I think.

46:03And it sort of settled down a little bit, but I think at home, I think it's the problem. I did the Zrinski away game, which was an experience in Bosnia, and it was pretty awful, the atmosphere between the manager and the fans at that stage. But it sort of settled. They got some points on the board. But another thing out of that was the second yellow card for Govansom, which shows that there is a higher threshold for second yellow cards because the referee thought, oh, shit, I've already given him. But, you know, it was weak. But I think that shows everybody what that... I felt a little bit for the referee, actually, because he must have thought, oh, God, I can't go back on this now.

46:44I've pulled the yellow card out. First of all, on Canva, I mean, I've seen goals celebrated with less vigor than that. It was pretty extraordinary. But yes, Thomas Brammer, we had a lot of messages saying just how bad he was in this game. And yes, we do feel for him. He clearly didn't realise that he'd already been booked. And then he also perhaps should have given Brennan Johnson a second yellow too. Possibly the better vibes with Leeds, but clearly Daniel Farker was pretty disappointed with the refereeing in this game. But they remain above the relegation zone, 15-3 points above it. Forrest 0, Fulham 0.

47:23And yeah, Forrest now just really struggling to score goals, Jonathan. They hit the bar in this game. They mentioned on Match of the Day that the last time that a striker for Forrest scored was on the opening day of the season. Yeah, I mean, you bring in Sean Dyche and the after effects can still be felt. I mean, I think they have picked up under Pereira, but that clearly is the issue. I haven't actually seen them live for quite a while, I'm seeing them next Sunday at Spurs, so I'm looking forward to that. But I'm going to see if Spurs can carry on as well. But it does feel, I mean, maybe I'm discounting Leeds slightly in that, but it does feel one from three to go down.

48:05Maybe it is one from four still. And Dan, I mean, they were a bit unlucky with Ndoy not getting a penalty after being a sort of inch offside. Vito Pereira saying he can't celebrate goals anymore. Yeah, I thought it was a decent-ish performance. I'm surprised they did create chances and they are just probably missing a Chris Wood to get on the end of things. Obviously, Lasse's scored so many goals and he's been a huge miss with the amount of football he's missed through injury. When I tweeted that Villa had the worst functioning attack in the Premier League at the moment last night, a lot of Forest fans replied, no, it does.

48:40So there's obviously a huge problem there. Also, Dan, Sunderland have scored one goal from Open play in the last eight games. So I think they've got a pretty good shout as well. I'm going off the test where I feel like other teams are creating chances and Villa just everything breaks down as soon as it gets the attack. But look, I probably haven't watched loads of Forest and Sunderland recently, so it's probably a fair shout. I think Forest home games are critical right now. They've got to win their home games. And when they're coming away with a 0-0 draw in the game, they probably should have won.

49:13That feels quite big in this relegation battle now. if Spurs can pull it together and beat them next week, they suddenly feel like the ones that are in the biggest danger because I do think Leeds will do enough at Ellen Road to stay up. So I think Forest's home form right now is absolutely paramount. It's really exciting at the bottom of the table if you don't have a dog in the fight, of course. So yeah, West Ham in 18th, 29 points. Nottingham Forest just above them on 29. Tottenham in 16th on 30. Leeds United just above them on 32. Burnley 0, Bournemouth 0. Again, not a classic. So Bournemouth unbeaten in 10.

49:51But they keep up their record of failing to beat a promoted side this season. But they do have an Oscar winner amongst their ownership. So Michael B. John took home the gong for Best Actor for his role in Sinners overnight. Bournemouth are really frustrating, Lucy, aren't they? Because I think they're really close to actually being, you know, challenging for Europe. Yeah, it's funny because I looked at the, to watch the highlights of this, obviously, as I do if I don't see any. the highlights were 13 minutes long and I just chose not to watch the highlights that were 13 minutes long of Burnley nil, Bournemouth nil.

50:21But yeah, I do like Bournemouth. But Bournemouth, Orala is such a good manager. I think that, I don't think he enjoys having his best players. So you can't build anything. And obviously he's now a manager where he thinks, hang on a minute, I can make something from somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me if he went somewhere else where they were allowed him to build and not sort of pull the rug under his feet. And, you know, you understand why Bournemouth do sell players. But if you've got a manager as good as Irawler, then I think that you've got to support him. And that's obviously how he looks at things.

50:57But, yeah, it's interesting that they have so many draws. I did their game against Sunderland the other week. And I think that was the last time, Jonathan, that Sunderland scored an open play goal. I just think it's just so difficult for them to get any sort of momentum going. So if they did and did well, I mean, the performance against Newcastle last season, away at Newcastle, Bournemouth, was the best performance I've seen in a long time of an away team. And then this season, they have to go again and try and build again. So it must be frustrating. Yeah, it's out of contract to the end of the season, like Marco Silva and Oliver Glasner.

51:33So yeah, it could be a really interesting summer, actually, in terms of managers. Sunderland 0, Brighton 1. A third straight home defeat after unbeaten starts at the Stadium of Light for Sunderland. Chris Rigg had a goal ruled out for offside. And then Minter scored one of the most weird, the weirdest goal you'll ever see. If you asked him to do it again, he wouldn't be able to. Habib Diara was down and he sort of stumbled and was squirted off his foot to deceive everyone from a tight angle. Jonathan, is it a bit of complacency perhaps creeping in after hitting 40 points? No, they're just rubbish.

52:06They can't be. They were so good. The fixtures fell in exactly the right order for Sunderland. They got a lot of fairly straightforward home games at the start. And I included that Villa before they had the good patch. And they got points on the board. It was a bit of confidence. And they held things together. Then they've got a load of injuries at the minute. They're really struggling for creativity. Bertrand Traill has been a much bigger loss than I expected. They've got two left backs injured at the minute. Trey Hume's having to play on the left. they sold Masaruaku in January or let him go in January and so yeah he was playing on the wrong side which means um they're tired of playing at right back and he's doing all right but I just I'd rather he was in in midfield and yeah they they just have absolutely zero spark I think a lot of the confidence gone I think for some players they played a bit too much a bit a bit weary and sort of it's a regression to the mean that that I think was was always was always likely it's just that win at Leeds where they were pretty fortunate to be honest that that is it's a good thing they've got that because otherwise I think they might be in in bother tonight in the Premier League Brentford against Wolves a quite a big game for Brentford in terms of their push for European qualification Chelsea women won the League Cup final retaining their trophy beating Manchester United by two goals to nil at Ashton Gate Lauren James got player of the match she was excellent scored the first goal after a bit of a gift from Manchester United and then Aggie Beaver-Jones wrapped it up and more on that on the Guardian Women's Football Weekly, which will be out tomorrow.

53:36Max did joke that we weren't going to mention the Europa League and Conference League last 16, so we'll just give it a little bit of a mention. Lucy, you were Forest 0, Michelin 1. Did you have a nice time, as Max would always ask? Yes, and it's quite a nervy place, the City ground, which sort of feeds into the reaction around the draw yesterday against Fulham. But yeah, they don't create many chances and the ones that they do, they sort of fluff because they don't have a Chris Wood whose conversion rate last season was absolutely incredible, which obviously helped them score the goals that got the points that took them far away from where they are now.

54:16but if I could have put a bet on halfway through that commentary of the second half when it was pouring down with rain and Forrest weren't scoring that Michelin would score I would have done because it was one of those going you just knew what was going to happen everybody could sense that Forrest aren't going to put the ball on the back of the net Michelin would score and that's exactly what happens it's going to be tough for Forrest but again it's getting in the way of the Premier League survival isn't it and who would have thought you would ever say that about the Europa League but the travelling this week may affect them at the weekend.

54:48Yeah, it's pretty mad. We now have teams that are battling relegation and are in Europe as well. That might become more of a regular occurrence, actually. Oli Watkins will be a goal in Lille-Nille, Villa won, but Villa won't win the Europa League, as we've just been told by Dan. 0-0 with Crystal Palace in the Conference League with AEK Lanarka as well. Let's go to any other business then. Wilson, you mentioned you're in a hotel, but there is a certain hotel chain that you will not frequent and do tell us do tell us why right so the only reason i'm in a hotel is because i was a very late switch from the united villa game to liverpool spurs for reasons i don't need to go into i was i was in yorkshire on on saturday thought i'd stay up and do a northern game um which the guardian accommodated but then because we shifted so late to liverpool spurs i think it was the right decision i think spurs you know were the biggest story um the trains were footy book going back on sunday night so that's yeah looking around for a hotel in liverpool obviously i have no say in this as a travel department does it i came here in february 2004 i'd flown in from stuttgart where i've been doing the champions league game and there was snow and i was late liverpool playing levski in the uefa cup and so i had to go straight to anfield from from the from the airport and got to the hotel probably about half midnight and they'd sold my room and they put me in a taxi and sent me with a bottle of I would say insultingly bad red wine and they sent me to St Helens to a disgraceful hotel in St Helens and I looked up the rack rate of the rooms there's 140 quid less than the one I was meant to be in in Liverpool and so I said to Thistle Hotels well I think the very least you can do for the extra time it's taken me to have to get a cab to St Helens, this dreadful hotel you put me in, is you could give me the 140 quid.

56:36And they refused. I've been boycotting Thistle Hotels ever since. And I've written, over the first five years afterwards, I wrote to Thistle Hotels on the anniversary to explain the ongoing reasons for my boycott and not a peep out of them. Do you have an insultingly poor bottle of red wine every anniversary just to have a memory of it? I'm a very I'm quite an ascetic man generally but wine is where I let myself go I like good wine I'm very much a quality over quantity so no I will not drink bad wine I worked for a Thistle Hotel in my university days I mean no offence but that doesn't surprise me I knew you were going to say it was probably around the same time do you remember handing a disgruntled journalist a bottle of wine I did get told that I was fucking useless by Ozzy Osbourne when I worked for that hotel.

57:28What a privilege. Similar vibe. A lot of people would pay to have that from Aussie Osborne, especially. Yeah, it was quite a satisfying. Yeah, that's wonderful. Right. Before we go, an update from Max and Barry in Texas. Max, Barry and producer Joel having a great time, it looks like. The live show will probably have happened by the time you're hearing this, but rest assured they're working tirelessly on serious football journalism. We've had photos and videos of them on a guided duck tour on a boat and at an Alardis Morissette concert, singing along to Ironic. But those with nervous disposition, please turn off now.

58:12Yeah,

58:16I wonder if Baz has his cowboy hat yet. Check out our Instagram page to see more behind the scenes on the Football Weekly tour and they'll be hosting a panel asking serious non-duck questions. They might slip a couple in there about the USA's suitability to host the tournament. They'll be back on Thursday's pod and I'll be back with you on Wednesday. Thank you very much, Jonathan. Cheers, and you? Thank you, Dan. Thank you very much. And thank you, Lucy. Thanks, Rob. Football Weekly is produced by Taiopopola and Jesse Howard and our executive producer is Daniel Stephens.

58:53This is The Guardian.