Chelsea champions of the world while England send Wales packing at Euros – Football Weekly

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23:42Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. It's England 6 Wales 1. Robin, a lot of people played up the local derby element of this game and England not taking this for granted. And I guess England didn't take it for granted. It was very straightforward. Very straightforward. And I think actually Susie said this on, I think maybe the Guardian Women's Football Weekly, that Wales and England, it's a chasm. It's a chasm. And it's, you know, respectfully, it's through no fault of the players, but they are so early on in their development as a nation, Wales. And they were exposed yesterday by England who've the last kind of, well, probably since 2015 or so have been very successful.

24:22And since Serena Vigman has come in and demanded the best for them, the best facilities, you know, So Wales haven't had that. Yeah, it would have been an absolute, it would have been a total shock disaster if Wales had got anything in this. You know, they were very limited. Great for them that they got the goal in front of the Red Wall, but England were totally dominant. They didn't really have to get out of first, second gear. And everything's looking very, very good, actually. That France game feels like a very long time ago. We had six different goal scorers yesterday for England. We had, you know, Aggie Viva-Jones coming off the bench, providing an assist and a goal.

25:03Russo, Beth Mead off the mark, Lauren Hemp as well. And what was great was that because they were four and up at half time, Serena Viva could take a couple of players off and start substituting the team. Because I think she's now got her starting 11 sorted. And yeah, so going forward, it's all very positive, but albeit a pretty tough quarterfinal coming up. Yeah, I mean, you're right. The balance of the side looks so much better. it's interesting would you say she's chanced upon this starting 11 or look you know this because because the preparation hasn't been amazing and but it does really look like okay you you know you you you swap carter and greenwood right that that's quite interesting that you do that mid tournament that's a that's a strange thing to do but it seems to work you know granted given the opposition they had yesterday um moving james out wide that looks like it works looks like you know just do this in the France game.

25:57I mean, it doesn't matter, but it's great that she has found this. Yeah, I don't think it's chance. I think Serena Vigman, they've never lost consecutive games under her, England. So it just shows that when they do get things wrong, when she perhaps makes a bit of a misstep, she corrects it. It's really worked. Ella Toon coming in, she's now having a really great tournament. She got a couple of goals, got an assist yesterday. she had a 100 % pass completion rate in the first half. Wow. Yeah, incredible. And yeah, it's just, it's all looking very good. Down that right side in particular against Wales, it was Lucy Bronze, Ella Toon and Lauren James.

26:36They just couldn't handle them, these kind of little intricate passes. Ella Toon and Beth Mead have both lost parents pretty recently. This is the first tournament where they haven't been there, their biggest supporters, and they've both spoken very movingly about it. And so Beth Mead scored her first goal of the tournament and spoke about her mum, June, who died. And it's just, yeah, but they seem like a really tight-knit group. Beth Mead is kind of a bit unfortunate that she's been the one who's been sort of dropped really through no thought of her own. I mean, she wasn't like the weak link against France, but the team now has more balance with Ella Toon's industry and Lauren James now out wide.

27:13She had another great game. I mean, I've played against those sort of players that, you know, and you just want to kick them because they're so annoyingly good. But they try and kick, you can't even get near her. It's so frustrating. Just so pleased she's on our side, really. Yeah, and that is interesting, Dan, isn't it? That Lauren James has that kind of, she is doing it at her own pace. So when it doesn't work in the France game, it's quite easy to sort of, and obviously she hadn't played for a long time, to sort of pinpoint that as the problem. But when it works, it's a bit like talking about Cole Palmer.

27:47Like it's just somebody who is sort of different. Yeah. Someone that sees the game differently and plays the game differently. I'm not a great double screen watcher when I'm trying to watch two things at the same time, but I had the England game on my iPad. And every time I looked over, it was Lauren James that was doing something. I think sometimes she doesn't get the credit for some of the finesse that she possesses. It was one of the goals where she kind of flicked the ball through. I don't feel like when people talk about it, they don't talk about that side of a game. She's just a lovely, unique footballer to watch and was involved in everything good that England did, particularly in that first half, I thought.

28:23And if England are to progress and go far, she will be the most important player because like we kind of just alluded to, I think she's the most different and unique player that England possess, and I think that's what makes her special. And in classic England major tournament mode, John, finishing second is good. Emma on the good side of the draw. You heard this before?

28:42John Brewin:Well, lucky manager, isn't it? I mean, Gareth Southgate was always good at getting through the draw somehow that you had to face a relatively easy opponent. But you can't say, as Robin says, you can't say Serena Vigman is a lucky manager. She's just a great manager. And the thing is about after that France game, there was a panic, wasn't it? There was a panic about that. And a panic, I think, among broadcasters, among the media, because it's like if England crash out of this thing early, we wonder about the health of this tournament in this country, I should say. And despite Uncle Gianni's best efforts, we will get to watch, thankfully, the Lionesses without men's football going all over the top of it, which is great.

29:32John Brewin:I've watched more of the second game than I did of this game, but the Netherlands, they seem to have dropped off a hell of a lot since I recall them back in 2019 in particular. that and by the sounds of the tournament as compared to the Club of Cup it's in those 30 ,000 stadiums isn't it it sounds great it looks good it sounds like it's a great atmosphere there everyone's enjoying it hopefully that tournament is a success and it is going to be able to step out into the four that it deserves and should have had in the first place if you ask me the lack of Donald Trump celebrating probably took a while you never know he could just take parachuting

30:13were you scared Robin I mean after that France game I really thought oh wow these guys look hopeless oh yeah no no we really were all of us we were very we were in the press room ahead of the Netherlands game we really didn't know because we saw Netherlands dispatch Wales fairly easily but that's the thing I think that we're still a little bit concerned not concerned but you know England have chucked in a really bad performance at this tournament Sweden haven't who they face next um actually the netherlands is really interesting because yesterday they had to beat france by three goals so difficult they were winning 2-1 yeah and by all accounts they were playing really well but because they had to keep you know they had to score more they were left very exposed i haven't seen the fallout but he kept vivian midema on the bench the whole game now i don't know if that was because she was injured but that is going to cause a meltdown And I'm sure you're aware that the Netherlands manager was told, you're not staying on after this.

31:09Yeah. And the England assistant's going there. Yeah. Serena's assistant is going there. I'm just thinking that's not conducive probably to a great atmosphere. You know, he was very pissed off by that. By all accounts, you know, he was like, well, why should I even do this tournament? I think he kind of was thinking about not bothering. So, yeah, just a very odd situation for them. And it was a difficult group. Obviously, France, England and Netherlands would usually all think they're going to get to the knockout stages. It's the Netherlands who are not going to make it. So, yeah, just very odd, very odd situation for the Dutch.

31:44Yeah. Would be the first time there'd ever been a bad atmosphere in a Dutch squad during a major tournament.

31:50John Brewin:I was going to say, they really do these things in style. Talk to us about Sweden, Robin. They had a great result against Germany. Because once people who probably don't follow the women's game every minute of the day, here, our easy side of the draw, they'll then just go, okay, well, this is just, it's England's guaranteed path to the final to probably lose to Spain. Yes. Well, it's easy in the way, in the sense that we're really getting ahead of ourselves. It's an easier semi-final, potentially. Right. But I think a more difficult quarterfinal. So it would have been Germany, who I think maybe England against Germany has a different vibe, but they've not been very good this tournament.

32:27And yeah, the, well, literally giving Sweden a helping hand. I don't know if you saw the handball and the red card for the Germany player. It was literally like a really good goalkeeper reflex save. So she was sent off and Sweden kind of ran riot. But Sweden, you know, in terms of women's football, they have a fantastic history. They're always there or thereabouts. They keep kind of falling just short. They've got a lot of bronze medals from the World Cup and the Olympics and things like that. so the Peter Elliot yeah exactly but they've got a really good coach Peter Gerhardson he's great oh John you'd love him he's well into his music he's always talking about yeah he likes to play sort of music from the opposition sort of famous well anyway but I'll leave that to you I was going to say that was some terrible music chat Robin I'll leave it to you it's very vague vague vague music chat with Robin Catt whoever hosts Sixth Music Breakfast is shitting He's shitting bricks right now, Robin, I'll tell you.

33:27John Brewin:Robin, I'll write a treatment. We can do this. We can make money of this. We'll finesse it. But yeah, he's a really good coach. They like him. England beat Sweden heavily at the previous Euros in the semifinals, 4-0. That was the Russo backheel. A lot of players that they play against, Laxinius is there, a lot of WSL players. Yeah, they're very well coached. This is the harder quarterfinal. it means you miss the Spain semi-final but let's hold the horses a little bit first Am I right in saying Blackstainis because I did the column for Jonas Odeval we were chatting about him obviously Blackstainis is a great presser of the ball so he said that that's her strength that she is always there waiting and obviously we know how good she is for Arsenal but my limited knowledge I thought Sweden doesn't look that promising a draw really, as you say.

34:25John Brewin:I mean, we're seeing the Lionesses post-success, aren't we? And that's the difficult part for so many teams is to repeat that. And as you've said, there are players who've had life changes that have gone on since then, you know, and it's never that easy to repeat that success and repeat that feeling. And if they manage to do it, it would be an unbelievable success really, wouldn't it? I think so yeah because you can't just go on an upward curve the whole time and to reach you know again we're getting ahead of ourselves. Apart from this podcast the greatest podcast in the world. But you know they won the Euros or Donald Trump.

35:05If they got to the World Cup final if they get to another final I mean that is it's ridiculous really because it's not the same squad as well it's very different from the last Euros in particular. So yeah as I say I think the Sweden game I think England have better players and more depth on paper but as I say that France game is still just a bit of a niggle and you know if that happens again Sweden will take advantage. France were really good uh second in that second half when they beat the Netherlands 5-2 uh Delphine Cascarino is some player got a better touch than her dad Tony that is for that is for sure.

35:38It's a shame she didn't play for Republic of Ireland isn't it? Exactly so the quarterfinals are Norway Italy Sweden England the winners of those two will meet and then Spain, Switzerland, France, Germany. So I mean, I guess, Robin, you're expecting a France-Spain semifinal, which would be sort of box office, this should be the final, inverted commas, type game. And then you think the semifinal, you know, whoever progresses between England and Sweden would be expected to make the final in a game against Norway. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, Norway have been so strange. they've not played well and they find themselves where they are and they've got a very favourable draw against Italy.

36:19Although I did Italy's game against Spain and they played very well. They couldn't last the 90 minutes, but they were kind of very typical Italy, very good defensively, scored a good goal on the counter. They were creating chances from set pieces and sort of breaking this very high Spain line. So they can be got at. But my favourite bit was the club doctor coming on in full suit. the Italian club doctor. Lovely. And I just thought, yeah, that's brilliant. That is absolutely sensational. Not a tracksuit in sight on that Italian bench. It all suits. Guardian Women's Football Weekly is three times a week and we're actually going to have the rest of this week off.

36:59So we're going to put some of their pods into our feed. So listen to them and then subscribe to Guardian Women's Football Weekly wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back in just a second.

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37:49welcome to part three of the guardian football weekly um let's start talking about liverpool's first game back um in pre-season at deepdale where they played uh preston north end first game since the tragic death of diogo jotter and his brother and i don't know if you've seen or or like heard some of the um the you know when they played you'll never walk alone actually me and Barry on the radio and we crossed there and we just let them play it. I can't remember who the singer was, but she did an amazing job. Even without the pictures, it was incredibly moving. It's just one of those moments, John, where because of how quickly the news cycle goes and even in football, it's not you forget that something has happened, but you just move on and you're thinking about the next thing and the next thing.

38:32It just felt so... This won't obviously be the last time that Liverpool commemorate his life, but I just found it incredibly moving. Just like a salient reminder of this is still so raw, obviously for his family and his family and his friends and his wife and his kids, but for the Liverpool team as well, just how raw this is.

38:52John Brewin:Yeah, I mean, it happened only last Thursday and, you know, as I'm sure we all know, part of the grieving process doesn't happen that quickly, does it? And of course, Preston, a very fitting club for Liverpool to play because of the connection with Bill Shankly. As you say, we will see this again at the start of the season. I'm sure come the end of next season, Diogo Jota will not be forgotten. It's such a strange situation. I can't remember this being repeated in English football. I know it has. Jose Mourinho talks about how he lost a player when he was back at Benfica many years ago with Bobby Robson.

39:36John Brewin:But it's so difficult to carry these things off. Liverpool have to. it's Preston did the job properly as you'd expect and it's one of the great clubs of English football of a different era and it was very very well it brought it back to you didn't it that he is not long gone and for his teammates that's going to be very very difficult and it's clear that it continues to hang over them as it will do I think for a long time as we all know well we've discussed it before on a pod grief is one of those things that comes and goes and you have to live with eventually you have to accept it as part of your make-up and I think it's going to be part of Liverpool's make-up for some time to come There's an amazing image Dan of Ben Whiteman the Preston captain just going on his own and laying a wreath there and standing in front of the Liverpool fans and as John said you know this was about Liverpool but Preston did an amazing job actually I think yeah like John says Preston a classy club a traditional club I expected them to handle it well and I think they handled it as well as you could do of something of this circumstance and same as John I don't remember anything like this ever happening since I've watched football such a prominent current footballer playing for one of the greatest clubs in the world passing in such a tragic manner and I find it difficult to talk about it and try and comprehend what what people will be going through, particularly those Liverpool players, because they're coming back to pre-season expecting to, you know, this band of brothers that have just won the league, they're expecting to see their mate, someone who sounds like he was an absolutely massive and huge part of that Liverpool dressing room, a very, very popular player.

41:22And we're used to players coming and going in football, and I think a couple of Liverpool personnel have alluded to that. But to lose someone in that way, someone that you definitely would have expected to be spending the whole season with, I think that's really, really hard. and John's right, grief does hit you at different times. You go through the different periods of grief that come with loss like this. But I think it's going to be really, really tough for Liverpool. A club that, you know, lots of tragedy has happened to Liverpool, unfortunately, as a club and the fan base, unfortunately, are used to having tragedies happen to them.

41:55But I just think it's going to be, there's going to be times this season where they'll want to celebrate him and there's going to be times this season where they're going to find it really, really difficult and they're going to feel that loss. Yeah, Arna Slott said, if we want to laugh, we laugh. If we want to cry, we're going to cry. If they want to train, they can train. If they don't want to train, they cannot train. But be yourself. Don't think you have to be different than your emotions tell you. We will always carry him with us in our hearts, in our thoughts, wherever we go. I think, Robin, he just has actually shown like real statesman, like whatever the right word is, just incredible emotional intelligence, the way he's spoken, and what an incredibly difficult job that he has to do.

42:36And I guess, you know, players are different, right? For some players, football will be, even though they're that good at it, what football is for most of us who clog around a pitch, it'll be this amazing escape where they don't have to think about it. And so playing might be perfect for some of these players. And playing might be really difficult for other ones. And having to manage all of that will be incredibly difficult. He seems like the perfect person to do that, though. When I read those quotes, it kind of blew me away, actually. I was thinking, wow, this guy gets it. Personally, I'm very fortunate I've not lost anyone prematurely that I've been really, really close to.

43:17And I think as a sort of society, we're quite uncomfortable, aren't we, talking about death and grief? And the way he summed that up, that it's okay, and saying Diogo Jota was himself the whole time, no matter what happened on and off the pitch. And he just said, we should lead by his example, do what you need to do. You're allowed to laugh. You're allowed to cry. You're allowed to say you're not up to this today. And yeah, I think that's right. We need to kind of be sensitive to the players' needs. I'm sure it's not just him. They probably knew his family as well. They would have known his wife, his children.

44:00I think we can't underestimate the impact this is going to have. And it's probably going to, as Dan said, this is going to have a huge impact for the rest of the season and beyond, isn't it? Because it's such a tragedy and a shock to the system that it's not something you get over. It's going to be something that lives with them for the rest of their lives. and people are going to try and analyse, I guess, their performances on the pitch and the sort of impact it has. It's just kind of a bit pointless really, isn't it? I mean, that sort of comes back in. It's a very stark example and one that obviously we all know, but a stark example of whenever we're analysing footballers and how well they're playing and whether they had a good game or whether they did this or did that.

44:44It is an acknowledgement that it's always at a kind of superficial level, however deep we want to think we are, because we just don't know about every individual's feelings at any given moment. And you can't always caveat that. Like, as the season goes on, you can't caveat every Liverpool game where they might have been feeling sad about this. Or, you know, his Portuguese teammates were playing, or just, you know, anyone else who's been touched by that tragedy. Liverpool have announced they're retiring the number 20 shirt, which is, you know, one of a number of amazing gestures that club has done and have continued to do.

45:19Elsewhere, Crystal Palace have been demoted from the Europa League to the Europa Conference League. Steve Parrish has said they'll appeal. John Tex's involvement with Palace and French side Lyon was deemed to have breached UEFA's multi-club ownership rules, which state clubs with the same ownership group cannot play in the same competition. Any conflicts of interest for next season had to be sorted by the 1st of March. Steve Parrish said on Sky Sports, there's a real crossroads here for UEFA to look at. Do they intervene and do the right thing, which is what I think they should do, which is what I think they want to do, or do they let this process play out and see probably one of the greatest injustices that's ever happened in European football.

45:54He said in the same interview, Remarkably, UEFA were emailing the general address, info at cpfc.co.uk, about the rule change in January, and that wasn't picked up. Producer Joel says, I can sympathise as Football Weekly at theguardian.com gets sent to all sorts of crap, as well as brilliant listener emails. It is fascinating, John, isn't it? And I am left thinking, I spoke to Kevin Day yesterday, the big Palace fan, host of Price the Football podcast. And I think if I was a Palace fan, I'd think, you know what, if this was a bigger club, and I don't have any evidence for this, but if I was a Palace fan, I'd be thinking, you know, they're sticking to the rules because it's us.

46:28And I know every football fan thinks it's their club and there's an agenda, et cetera. But I would just be left feeling that as a Palace fan. I bet they'd have found a way to let Man United in.

46:39John Brewin:Yeah, Crystal Palace haven't been in the UEFA camp before, have they? and those special members club, and this is their first time. This thing about the email address is interesting. There's a few people have pointed out that they have actually, in official documentation, used this email address as well. Right, okay. So they're kicking it. But at this point, everyone has their own agenda about something like this, don't they? because they might be coming from the point of view that their club is under attack for its own malfeasance with UEFA or whatever. I think one of the things about Crystal Palace is that most people have sympathy for their plight.

47:26John Brewin:They don't think that... OK, they have sympathy for the fans, right? Unless you're from Brighton or whatever. Because you think that you've got... I suppose one thing is they've got the Conference League and actually the Conference League will be winnable if you were Crystal Palace, if West Ham could win it or whatever. The Europa League might not be winnable. But it's the fact that the prestige is greater in the Europa League, the money is greater, the fact they might not be able to hold on to players like Eze if they drop into the Conference League and that the drawbridge is being pulled away from them because of this practice of multi-club ownership that goes on across the game.

48:04John Brewin:And the biggest clubs in Europe have this thing going, but because they've dotted I's and crossed T's, they get away with it. And Palace will fight. Steve Parrish is a very able administrator, is a very able politician within the football framework. It's probably not the last we've heard of it, but it's a shame because so often what goes on the pitch where you watch Crystal Palace that joyous day when they beat Manchester City, and yet it's someone on a laptop in a room in neon or whatever saying, actually, correction there. And, you know, the legal. And who wins? The lawyers, always. So there we go.

48:50Rules get broken in football all the time. Let's be brutally honest about it. Crystal Palace aren't the first club to break rules over the last five to ten years. And to punish them in this way, when I actually think they've got a good chance of winning the Europa League as well. And then potentially that's Champions League football if they manage to win the Europa League. and to demote them at kind of a time when half the Premier League is going to be in Europe next season. Just let them play. Just let them stay where they are. This has got to be rectified. I think it's a real, real injustice.

49:22And I agree, I've got no proof like Max said. If this was someone else, it wouldn't be getting handled in the same way. Hello, Manchester City. Well, yeah, I didn't want to pick anyone out, but yeah. We're still waiting, aren't we? We're still waiting. Yeah, we are still waiting. The beneficiaries of these are prolific complainers, Nottingham Forrest, who are reportedly considering legal action over Tottenham's interest in midfield and Morgan Gibbs-White. Forrest are believed to be looking into whether a specific confidentiality agreement in the£60 million release clause in Gibbs-White's contract has been breached.

49:54It feels odd to have a release clause but not be allowed to tell anyone what it is. It's like, you know, Morgan Gibbs-White signs for Forrest from Wolves and he says okay yeah i want this much a week finally i'd quite like a release clause let's call it 60 minutes says okay we can have that but you cannot tell anybody what it is like what is it like what is that how is that surely a release clause is literally that it's just like if you want this guy this is what you want i understand and like like tapping up clearly someone says would you be interested in joining like someone text someone otherwise what are they going to do

50:27John Brewin:like i don't know i wasn't aware that you were allowed to have a secret release clause because No, me neither. You think of over in Spain, you have, say, Athletic Bilbao that do all their deals by Wrigley's clause. It's like, this guy will cost you this much. You need to pay that money into this account. Like a shop. Like a shop. Yeah, exactly. Well, you're like buying something. As far as I'm aware, it is illegal to sell something without putting a price on it, isn't it? You know, you can't just sort of go in and go. It's one of those things where you mentioned Nottingham Forest. They do get involved in stuff like this a fair bit.

51:01John Brewin:I think that's probably where we should leave it because they get involved in stuff like this a fair bit it's to do with the fact that Gibbs White is such a franchise player for want of a better phrase for them the thought of losing him would you know, Forest are in Europe of course next season and they would lose a play like that yeah, this whole idea that okay, well you bid this much and somehow trigger this and that he's got to go, but then you can't trigger it because you weren't supposed to know. What? What happens if Tottenham bid 75 million then? Would they just say, okay, that's fine, that's fine and no one ever knows about this clause?

51:40But like, what do you do? Do you ring them up and say, does Morgan Gibbs-White have a release clause? And they say, I'm not telling you. And then you go, okay, I bid a pound. It's not like Championship Manager where you only had three goes. You bid, you know, a million, two million, three million. No, no, no. And that was it. That was your chance. You know, you could just go two pounds, three pounds, and eventually they'll go, okay, you know, like, I don't know. I'm not objective. Did Arsenal do it with Suarez? Yeah. They'd be a pound over a release clause.

52:08John Brewin:But again, I think in that case, Dan, they weren't supposed to know either. So obviously this isn't the first time that's happened. And the inference is, I suppose, that someone, some other operator, presumably an agent, has let it slip that this is what it'll cost you to get my boy to your club. And that's where the, this is the illegal tapping up thing. Now, all of us will know that certain players arrive at a club and it's not the first time they've spoken to that club when they arrive on that day. What's that footage of, I think it's Patrick Vieira arrives at Manchester City and he, Gary Cook, hey brother and all this.

52:48John Brewin:It's like, well, you two aren't supposed to know each other or whatever. It's one of those things of where we all know it goes on, you know. But we're not quite at the service stations and brown envelopes of days gone by. It's the transfer business. Players are up for sale. Gibbs White is a player that was linked with Manchester City earlier on in the transfer window. He's linked with other clubs. Tottenham put in a bid. There you go. I do quite admire Forrest's kind of siege mentality in a way with all these issues. Like we've said, they are serial complainers. essentially they've messed up because they've put a release clause in the contract that is probably undervaluing their asset.

53:32I know from experience that when Villa sold Jack Grealish to Manchester City for£100 million, when they put that£100 million clause in the contract, they didn't think anyone was ever going to pay that and Manchester City did. Forrest essentially have undervalued an asset and my feeling with this is that they'll speak to each other, Tottenham and Forrest, and they'll resolve it and maybe Tottenham will have to pay a little bit more than 60 million and then Forrest will be happy but Forrest on this occasion like I say there's elements of it I admire but it's kind of their mistake. Yeah I like the idea that you know all players in their first interview have to appear completely shocked that this is where they've turned up like I had absolutely no idea until a minute ago and suddenly like we haven't met before I suddenly found myself in North London.

54:16I didn't know where I was going. They put a blindfold on me and here I am. Victor Jokeres is trying to force a move to Arsenal. He's not training with sporting at the moment. What have you made of Villa's transfer business so far? Has there been any, Dan? Well, yeah, I've not made much of it because nothing's really happened. It's probably the shortest segment on a podcast ever. I don't think Villa are going to be particularly active. I think obviously not qualifying for the Champions League and the financial rules has hindered them a little bit. They haven't sold that kind of big player that we were expecting yet but I do feel that to be able to reshape the squad and be able to make multiple signings they will have to sell someone who that is.

54:56I don't know but probably the biggest thing to come off the back of the transfer window so far is that they won't be buying Marco Asensio who I think everyone expected them to buy because now they're in the Europa League not the Champions League and we've got all these rules essentially we can't afford his wages and can't justify his wages so it's been a Been a quiet summer so far. Andy Carroll will play sixth-tier football next season after signing for National League side Dagenham and Redbridge on a free transfer. He's reportedly taken a minority stake in the club as part of a Qatari-led takeover.

55:26John Brewin:Have you ever been down there to the Daggers? I've never been to the Daggers. Interestingly, I have. I have a couple of times. Tell me more. Well, I live in East London, and it's still a long way away. It is a long way out of East London. Proper Essex. Yeah, and my memory is I've got to see Macclesfield play there is that the main, back in those days, and this would be, say, 10, 15 years ago, the main sponsor was a funeral directors. And I remember the advert said, the oldest business in Duggan. And I thought, yeah, that's probably right. Anyway, well, look, good luck to Andy Carroll. As I said, we were taking two off.

56:03Baz is traipsing around Nova Scotia. A bit like Alone. He's like that. He's doing the reality show Alone, where he has to find and kill a moose to eat it to survive. I am going to get over PTSD of taking two small children on a 24-hour flight. Pray for me, Robin. Pray for me. I'm sending you so good vibes. And yeah, the fewest arched backs and sick episodes as much.

56:29John Brewin:Are you coming to see Oasis, Max? Is that why you're flying over? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just fine. I'm just for the gig and then back again. Anyway, that'll do it for today. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Dan. thank you Max thanks Robin thank you Max cheers John cheers Max Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove our executive producer is Phil Maynard

56:52John Brewin:this is The Guardian