Fulham fell Forest and who’s top of the tree around Europe? – Football Weekly

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:30in Italy and PSG not top of Ligue 1. Then we'll ask why Patrick Motserpe is changing the Africa Cup of Nations to just once every four years. Is it good for the game or is it good for one of Gianni's mates? All that plus some top 100 feedback, your questions. And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

0:49On the panel today, Barry Glendening, hello. Hi Max. Welcome Lars Hivitsen. Hello. Bonjour, ça va Philippe Auclair. Bonjour, ça va très bien Max. Yes. so let's start then with Monday Night Football not a classic I don't know, we'll go down the annals of history will we remember it tomorrow? Fulham 1, Forrest 0 the annals of history yes, well you said it Fulham up to 13th, Forrest down to 17th settled by a penalty who wants to kick off? Baz, go on then, give us your best I stopped watching this game after 65 minutes because I could not take anymore and I wanted to watch the darts I have since gone back to look at the highlights and I noticed the highlights package on Sky was 2 minutes and 42 seconds long and I was thinking god the last 25 minutes must have been really really good because there certainly wasn't 2 minutes and 42 seconds worth of highlights in the first 65 minutes But, yeah, it was a dreadful game.

1:58It was so bad that even Sean Dyche says afterwards it was a low-level game, quality was. Really terrible. Chances at a premium. That means few and far between, doesn't it? At a premium. It does, yes. Chances at a premium. Few long-range efforts from Morgan Gibbs-White, Tom Carney, Sasalukic, I think that all went wide. and the goal that settled it was a penalty from Raul Jimenez. Interestingly, the penalty was given for precisely the same foul that Thierno Barry didn't get one for in Everton's game against Arsenal, the Salibou kick at the back of the leg. In this instance, Douglas Luiz kicked Kevin on the back of the leg as he was trying to stretch for the ball.

2:50Penalty was given. Raul Jimenez scored. it's his 11th Premier League penalty out of 11 that puts him level with Yaya Toure I think on highest number of Premier League penalties without missing and I was so bereft of anything to talk about in this game I went just looking for Raul Jimenez's general penalty record he has scored 42 penalties for CF America in Mexico, Benfica Wolves Fulham in Mexico he has only missed two one his most recent miss was in 2020 while playing for Wolves against Sevilla in the Europa League and that is all I have to say about Fulham 1 Nottingham Forest 0. Interject to reassure Barry that after the 65th minute there were two shots in the game so after your decision to sort of pivot to darts you very literally didn't miss anything and I was trying so hard because I knew this was like the only Premier League game we had to work on for this pod so it's got to be something here it's got to be something.

3:57Don't think there was anything I only just kind of think I came away from watching that thinking at least I'm not one of the people who paid£85 to be sat in the Riverside stand at Craven Cottage to watch it which was the ticket price for this very very highly anticipated matchup with Nottingham Forest. There's been a lot of chat online about the value of tickets over the last week vis-a-vis the World Cup and whatever. I think even the most unhinged American economists cannot argue that there was any kind of value to be had, whatever the demand may have been. £85 for this was not good value for anyone.

4:35I mean, the thing about the Riverside stand is it's beside the river, so there is a nice view of the Thames if you leave your seat and go and look out the other side of the sand. Yeah, I suppose that does imply that the football is sort of, I think the football is often incidental to what you're paying for, really. I mean, I'm not trying to mount a case for the defense for this game. I think it was more incidental in this game than it usually is, but I understand what you're saying. The best view, actually, is when you're walking on the other side of the river, across the Thames, and you see the riverside stand at night, all illuminated.

5:13It's absolutely magnificent. It's beautiful. And it's free. It doesn't cost a penny. so that would be my advice next time so that's where you should have been yes that's where to be the one thing though max is that yeah when when raul jimenez took his penalty the only thing i could i could think of is the the days of uh dial-up internet you know when things were buffering it was like raul jimenez was buffering before he took the pen it took a long time i mean he started from outside the box, then he did a kind of curve, like a giant slalom, and then he stuttered. But doesn't he wait for the keeper to move?

5:52Yeah. Took a while. Yeah, I guess if we're trying to be non-facetious for a second, kind of a nice win for Fulham. I mean, they were all the way down in 15th, I think, before this. Iwobi, Bassey, and Chikweze had gone to AFCON. Yeah, it's only Forrest, but Forrest had been going all right recently. I really thought Fulham would struggle to get something from this. And I find Fulham have become one of those teams that I just don't have anything to say about. And I think that is almost by design. I think Fulham's thing is that they're not exceptional at anything, but they're also not really bad at anything.

6:27They're just kind of aggressively 6 out of 10 at absolutely everything that a football team is supposed to do during a game, which keeps them in the division consistently. But it just makes it a nightmare to talk about them when you're trying to find anything interesting to say. And I think, you know, credit to the Football Weekly Ultras that are still with us, having an entire panel saying, I have nothing to say about this particular football match. I mean, I went on the list of people who'd scored penalty, who've missed just one penalty. Obviously, you've got Yaya Oturi and Raul Jimenez, 11 out of 11.

6:58But of those that have scored 10 or more, you obviously have Letizia, who famously scored 25 out of 26, and Mark Crossley saved his only one. but others who have an almost perfect record danny murphy got 18 out of 19 callum wilson 16 out of 17 james beaty 16 out of 17 julian dix 15 out of 16 i don't know where the miss is probably still traveling now isn't it cole palmer 13 out of 14 really did not expect james beaty's penalty record to come up in this episode or any episode of football weekly this year and uh sakazon 12 out of 13 and then we go people who've missed more than one thierry henry being the best of 23 out of 25 and i just wonder on that penalty and it shouldn't make a difference because it is the same challenge as saliba on barry but i reckon they're given less often when both people are in feet are in the air than when the foot is planted and so i i'm not giving i'm not giving them a pass for the uh the uh tiano barry penalty but i that's that would be my hunch why it looks it looks more penalty even though they both are lars you're wide-eyed yeah no i'm just agreeing i'm saying I don't even agree with the assertion that it's the same penalty because foot on the ground foot in air different position foot not same I would argue well look we've done this game uh we've done everything we needed to do you are look let's do a bit of Arsenal Philippe since you're here and we haven't chatted you since then how are you finding this we were saying yesterday you know still winning but it's sort of it's a bit stodgy at the moment and City aren't stodgy yeah it's a bit painful at times though i i wouldn't be as uh as harsh i think as um as others have been after the last the last win which was complicated difficult and so forth because i saw i'm really clutching at straws here i actually saw two or three genuine team movements which i thought were absolutely terrific and especially the one which led to Trossard hitting the post, which was absolutely magnificent.

9:01To be honest, I think at the moment, everybody's crossing fingers that there's not another injury. Everybody's looking at the fixtures which are coming with, I wouldn't say tremulation, but a certain degree of gentle concern because it's going to be absolutely manic until, I mean, I was looking at it. I could hardly believe the schedule, actually, Max, you know, with all this talk about Boxing Day being cancelled and so forth, which of course it is not and then you realize oh my goodness they're playing on the 31st and the 30th and the 1st they're playing the third and the four they're playing on the sixth and they're playing today today it's crazy it's crazy and i think that's that's basically what everybody's trying to to do at the moment at arsenal it's just waiting for players to come back and because i do i do feel like you that um that car in the uh in the back mirror is getting closer and closer and closer and looks a little bit faster on the straight if you see what i mean i do yeah you wanted to bring up the van der ven challenge on alexander isak he's had surgery after uh liverpool confirmed that he'd broken his leg uh he's successfully underwent surgery on an ankle injury that included uh fractured fibula and we sort of talked about it yesterday and gen there was general agreement that it was just this is unfortunate and it can be unfortunate uh but you had a differing view?

10:26I reacted differently and perhaps it's a cultural difference in as much in France when the incidents like this are reviewed if there had been a card or something like that the impact of the foul is also taken into consideration. I don't think we are in any doubt that it is a foul and that if Isaac hadn't scored it would have been a penalty I think we can all agree on that but does it constitute serious foul play or not this is where people you know I read what you you sent us Max that Dale Johnson wrote about the incident and explaining that what he's trying to do is block the ball rather than tackle the player I personally think that's immaterial but I also think it's interesting to to say that in France if that had happened and there had been a card and there should have been a card because whatever happens is horrendously misdined.

11:25The impact of the foul is such that the player would have been banned for a very long time indeed, which I know is coming from a completely different perspective in as much that the consequence of what you do on the pitch are also taken into account in deciding how you should be punished after the game. Like you would have got, I think he would have got 8-10 games banned for this. I'm not saying that he should do. For me, it felt like a horrible foul at the time, and when I watch it on replay, I can understand that some others will feel, nah, he's really trying to block the ball. There you go.

12:05Yeah, I don't agree with you, and I'm hoping I'm not just myopic, because I'm a Spurs fan. I thought Benton should have been sent off for his challenge on Kerkis, for example. Dale Johnson, who was at ESPN, now the BBC, who is sort of, you know, he's he's the laws Lars for the prince generation of anyway he says opinions may be influenced by the injury to Isaac but it does not have to be the result of foul play it can simply be an unfortunate consequence it's important to look at how van der van makes the challenge also how Isaac comes to sustain the injury as Isaac releases the shot van der van slides in to try and make a block crucially it's his shooting foot that gets injured after he plants it the foot lands between van der van's legs and that's how the sweden strikers injury appears to happen had van der van der van gone through isak's standing foot or tackled his opponent directly this would have been a different discussion but van der van goes to make a block into the space in front of isak it was a genuine challenge and should not be seen as a red card i don't know if lars or barry have any strong thoughts i don't think there was any malice in it i know that doesn't matter i it was a late tackle but i i would be inclined to be on your side of the fence max uh i don't i think it was a foul I think if the ball hadn't gone in the back of the net it would have been a penalty but I don't think Van de Ven would have got anything more than a yellow card and I was a bit bemused by the fact he didn't get a yellow card but yeah I think if he was to get a 10 match band for that it would be incredibly harsh it's a game of collisions and sometimes accidents happen yeah no he does he does slide in in front of him to try to block the ball then he catches him with the follow through with the other leg if the timing is fractionally different and isak lands like on top of his thigh or something instead of between his legs then the injury doesn't happen and i think no one ever talks about this tackle again so so i do think this is coincidence this is like margins and i don't i don't i would concur with the the esteemed mr johnson's analysis and i i think this thing of judging things by the consequences and not by the action i'm not a fan of because there's so many like fractionally weird things that can happen in the game and we've all seen like really bad injuries happen from completely innocuous challenges that happens every year so that seems like an unhinged way of judging it personally okay you are unhinged and we will move on to part not just all of the french i guess in my line of reasoning here i was presenting things from a different perspective and yes we encourage that the The deliberate nature of a particular action on football doesn't actually lead you to, this is a foul, this is not a foul.

14:47Deliberation has got very little to do with it, unless you actually are trying to punch somebody in the head, of course. But deliberation does not necessarily come into it. But that's a different matter altogether. It is. And that'll do for part one. We'll run up the EuroLeaks for you in part two.

15:10Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. We're headed to winter breaks around pretty much all of Europe. So for listeners that don't follow all those leagues religiously, here is just like a little roundup for you. La Liga, Barca are top 46 points from 18 games. Real Madrid have 42. They've won three on the bounce after we had Sidon, who said Alonso has basically gone. Atleti in third on 37. And then come Villarreal, Espanyol and Real Betis. I suppose the big story, Lars, is Xabi Alonso is still there. And we all were waiting for him to be fired. He even could have been fired before that City game.

15:43I mean, it is wild. It's two defeats in 18, which clearly is sackable form. You know, you can't have that. But he has committed the unspeakable sin. He's committed the unspeakable sin of telling the Real Madrid players what to do. And they don't seem to respond very well to that. So I guess the search is on now for a coach who will coach the team, but without telling the players that they have to run a bit occasionally. Again, stuck in facetious mode now, but it does seem very silly. Like, they chased him for a fair amount of time. And it's not like they didn't know that he was a coach who would want to try to implement a kind of system that might tell some of these superstars that actually you have a job to do and you have to do it.

16:28And if they didn't want that, then they shouldn't have hired him, it seems to me. but you can't just hire a guy because he's got good results and he's spanish and looks really handsome sorry baskin looks really handsome you have to like do some kind of research on how he works and what his methodology is and how he would fit in do you like telling your players what to do or do you like them just kind of swanning around doing whatever they want and then if it's the telling them what to do thing then maybe they need someone else sure and i suppose we've had an example from psg philippe in in a side that that finally actually do all the tough bits the out of possession bits and i sort of wonder like how good do you have to be to not do that like football at the elite level is relentless and your fame or whatever counts for nothing right you're playing against really talented people and if you don't do the hard stuff you're not going to win stuff but when did it work for louis henrique it worked once uh the equivalent of vinicius and oh he all went around madrid yeah yeah and you know uh you know so yeah when they all went this is when And actually the Luis Enrique project really took up.

17:32He was able to, I mean, that was the whole situation. Mbappe's last season at PSG was an absolute mess because of the relationship between the player and the club hitting. I mean, it's probably the worst war there's ever been between a player and a club, which is actually still being fought in courts and so forth. And it's only afterwards that he managed to instill that discipline and that ethos into the group of players. You could also argue that PSG's squad has got greater depth than that of Real Madrid, certainly throughout the lines. And I don't think you could compare the two midfields, for example.

18:13PSG does have a fantastic midfield, which Real Madrid certainly does not because they haven't done the work properly when it came to replacing the grand old man, you know, not Rich Kroos and so on. and yeah I mean I suppose you can compare that but the idea that Florentino Perez could possibly ever adopt such a frame of mind comparable to what Nasser Al-Halaifi has done at PSG and decide you know what we might give our coach a manager a chance this time and he can do what he wants because he might actually be quite good that is just not going to happen that's not going to happen Santa is not going to go down your chimney Max I'm sorry I shouldn't have broken the news I don't mind where Mbappe is but like it's really interesting that even he hasn't worked out that he needs to do the like he is obviously amazing but is he good enough when you have other really good players that do that that do the difficult stuff he's never done it he's never done it in his life it was already a problem which was when he was at Clairefontaine he was getting rockets from all his coaches when he was at Clairefontaine, when he was 11, 12 years old.

19:28He couldn't get in the team at Monaco for the same reason, because the guys who were in charge of the U17, U18, U23, so that guy just won't defend. Then he goes into the team, and once he's in the team, that's where the problem starts, because he scores so many goals, which I think is something which should be mentioned. By the way, when you talk about Real Madrid, his stats are just phenomenal this year. You cannot get rid of it. And which can be problematic even if he makes you win an awful lot of games. But the stats are absolutely incredible. And I wish I had a chance to talk to Cid about that because when he arrived at Real Madrid, even though he was scoring and he finished the best goal scorer in La Liga in his first season, with I think the biggest total of goals scored by a player in his first season at Real Madrid, which is, you know, pretty amazing, considering that he was sharing the task with Rodrigo and with Vinicius, amongst others.

20:28And it seems to have shifted completely. The fans seem now to be happy with him and to direct their eye at Vinicius instead. It certainly doesn't look like the guy who should have got the ballon d 'or instead of Rodri, by the way. It always makes me smile when I think of that. But there has been a complete shift when it comes to the dynamics within the players. But, you know, what can you do if you're a Xabi Alonso? You're going to tell Kylian Mbappe, who scored something like 28 in 28 this season, are you going to tell him, you should cover your left back a little bit more than you're doing right now?

21:03Mbappe has just matched Cristiano Ronaldo's record for scoring 59 goals in a calendar year for Real Madrid. and he's on 29 in 24 this season. So the record also held by Ronaldo is 61 in 54 games in a season. So I think Mbappe is doing all right. It should be added that he takes all the penalty kicks and Real Madrid has plenty of them. That's one thing that has been to be taken. Penalty kicks count as goals. I understand. what I'm saying is that Real Madrid do get loads of penalties and a large very large proportion of his goals are penalty kicks this said they are goals and he's not quite as good as Raul Jiménez but he's pretty damn good at taking them as well I just think the mad thing is like would they be sacking Xavi Alonso if they were top of the league I mean surely then it becomes too silly to do it so the fact that they're behind Barcelona is part of the equation here but they're four points back so again it's like it's in the first half season of a new manager who's been brought in big reputation already as a young man you want to try to build something and then like six months in you're four points behind the lead and it's like oh no must get rid of this guy like this is this is bizarre behavior and it just kind of it occurs to me there's a paradox in that the culture around football has never been more focused on the individual than now you know there's there's this obsession with the Ballon d 'Or, which is weird in a team sport anyway.

22:38You have all these sort of social media accounts devoted to one player. There's been a lot of talk about the emergence of the player fan rather than the club fan. I don't think that's happening that much, but it seems to be a trend. I personally suspect a lot of these social media accounts are kind of run by ad agencies anyway, but I can't prove that. But anyway, there seems to be a lot of, yeah, the hero worship is completely... But on the pitch, it's never really been more about the collective than now, because the pressing game is so prevalent. And there is this weird dual developments where the game on the pitch is becoming more about the collective and the culture off the pitch is becoming more about the individual.

23:14And I feel like those two trends kind of collide occasionally and cause really weird outcomes. And this, for me, feels like one of them. Certainly, we will get pushback on Kylian Mbappe is bad five minutes. Yeah, but I haven't actually said that. Neither have I. I think it's a real challenge for coaches because there are very few teams that can be successful today without having a well-coordinated pressing game. You don't have to play the high press. That's not the only way to do it. But you do have to have some sort of collective agreement on how we press and when we press. And that involves actually telling the players what to do.

23:48Simultaneously, you have players who are so successful, so good, and so popular off the pitch, and so rich, and so adored, that they maybe start thinking they don't need to do what they're told. And then that becomes a really difficult thing to deal with for the coaches. I think that's a fascinating dynamic. Beyond Real Madrid, there are other teams in La Liga, Barry? Well, Barcelona played Villarreal at the weekend in that game that was supposed to be played in Miami, but wasn't and was played correctly at Villarreal instead. And Villarreal started really well and couldn't score and then had a man sent off after 38 minutes.

24:26But Barca ended up winning that game 2-0. but interestingly well I find it kind of interesting Villarreal are in this kind of limbo where they're better than the top three teams in La Liga clearly better but they have been beaten by each of those teams in the first half of the season and they're also second from bottom in the Champions League group they've only got one point from six games which is quite odd so there's something weird going on there at Villarreal I noticed Sid's, the romance of Real Oviedo getting promoted, very much seems to have worn off our Spanish correspondent, who seemed thoroughly fed up in this week's column.

25:12He writes that Real Oviedo, they're second for bottom. They've scored seven goals this season, three of them in the same game. They haven't scored at home since September or anywhere else since October. they've had more managers than wins and as many red cards as goals

25:36and that's for the good news poor old Real oh and also their last four home games have all ended nil nil oh that's joyous let's go to Ligue 1 because L 'Anne's the top, PSG aren't top I know Philippe you didn't want to focus on PSG not being top just after we've talked about how good Luis Enrique is and how good PSG have become since Mbappe left. But talk to us about Lens. Yeah, I mean, it's not a big surprise to see them do OK. It's a big surprise to see them do so well. The current series of games is just phenomenal. They've had six wins on the trot and very convincing wins. I mean, there was a 4-1 win at Monaco in that series.

26:22And when you think they started the season with a defeat at home to Lyon and you thought, yeah, they're going to have a half-and-half kind of season. And not at all. They've been absolutely terrific. Pierre Sage is doing the former Lyon coach who was sacked by John Texter, which is probably something that should be printed in gold letters on his business card. He is doing, obviously, a very good job. But what we're seeing, and what is very interesting, is Lens is probably the closest in terms of how the club is run to what we have with Brighton in England. Now, obviously, there's been a little bit of not as good press about Brighton lately with various stories concerning Tony Bloom and his extra Brighton activities.

27:08But there you go. We threw a veil on this for a second. But if you look at the way the club is run, it's very much the same kind of principles. As in, you've got very, very, very sound recruitment, both in terms of the choice of players and also the money that is being spent. A club that, first of all, moved through the gears, went from second division to first division, then established itself mid-table and carried on and then qualified for the Champions League. And now is actually ahead, will be ahead on 1st of January, 2026. Not the first time that PSG is not ahead in the league at this stage of the season.

27:49back in 21 when Lille won the title, they were also behind Lyon of all teams. But what they've done is that they have a very solid group. They've sold extremely well. Kevin Danso was sold to Europe Tottenham for over 20 million quid. Andy Duve was sold to Milan for 20 million. And I know he was sold as well for over 20 million. And the players they brought in have all done extremely well. Mamadou Sangaré unfortunately at the African Cup of Nations unfortunately for loss of course but the big story Hudson-Edouard who came from Crystal Palace for almost nothing but the big story is the return of Florian Thauvin you remember Florian Thauvin the kind of very impish Frank Ribery Light version and who was at Newcastle amongst other teams at Marseille lost his way a bit Isn't he the guy who rocked up at Newcastle wearing a tuxedo for his presentation?

28:50That's right. That's him. That's him. There's some absolutely marvellous footage of Florian Thomas. So the hairdo when he came with his tux was quite remarkable as well. But suddenly, he's going to be 33 in January, and he's having one of those late blossomings. Again, he seems completely relaxed in this environment. He's scoring goals, he's giving assists, and he's back to the Tova. we knew and who was at who was thought at the time he would become a regular in the french team and by the way he's back in the french team which is honestly something that nobody would have believed like a few months ago so you put all that together a good recruitment excellent management team a very new kind of approach of football which is new in the sense of within league and an owner Joseph Gourlian, who is a bit of, yeah, he's a bit the French Tony Bloom, even though he's got nothing to do with gambling and betting.

29:49And this is where we get a little bit perhaps less starry-eyed about Lens, because they're part of a multi-club ownership model. They're part of it, because he's also the owner of Padova in Italy, he's the owner of Real Saragossa in Spain, and is the owner of Milonarios, strangely enough, in Colombia. So that's another aspect of the project that is perhaps not quite as noble as what I described beforehand. You always ruin it, Philippe. I had to mention it. Then you just have to ruin it with truth and facts, don't you? With truth and brutal reality. But on the other hand, it's a proper club run properly, doing extremely well, and that is something to be celebrated because everybody who's been to Stade Bollard, we'll know what a wonderful stadium that is and what a great football crowd that is as well.

30:41So well done, Ercelance, and good luck for 2026. In Serie A, very tight at the top there. Inter 33, Milan 32, Napoli 31, Roma 30. Napoli beat Bologna 2-0 last night in the Super Cup. And Rasmus Hojland posted a photo of himself with the trophy and the caption, what a great decision looks like. if you were to put a milan are about to sign nicholas full crook so presumably that'll that'll do their title chances no good at all but i hopefully he turns up because i'm a big fan of his who would you pick as one of his interviews yeah exactly uh who would you pick out of those lars i mean i you you do have a creeping suspicion that it's going to be inter again uh just on on greater know-how but it is a genuinely fascinating title race like you say there's four points between fifth and first and none of them looked like undefeated yeah unstoppable inter are in the league inter probably have the the best squad on balance but they're not you know running away with it by any means so it's going to be a fun league to follow i i would like to see napoli again just because it's so funny with the sort of manchester united uh i was about to say rejects but that's not really true is it it's the escapees i think it's the ones who managed to get out of there and and and just kind of find a new life in the in the colonies so to speak and just sort of the thing that's surprising with Napoli is that it didn't start super well this season and Conte was starting to like say the crazy Conte things and and from from from experience in history once Conte decides that he's annoyed tends to just kind of spiral from there but it hasn't they've recovered the situation and they're winning games again and they're right back in it so I'm I'm I'm on team Napoli for the for the rest of the season I think Paul says late to the party but I think you can just admit to your anti-american bias considering Christian Pulisic was left off the top 100 list seriously he's got seven goals and two assists in 10 games for AC Milan in Serie A second only to Martinez who's played 15 games with two laughing emojis we did get one other top 100 uh criticism which was from Joe a fellow expat in Melbourne who said I was actually in the drive through at South Melbourne McDonald's when you said your Subaru had been spotted at South Melbourne McDonald's, which was very surreal.

32:58In the next episode, you mentioned a different McDonald's. Not one to argue these things as all personal opinion, but surely this is an oversight. In the last episode, did you, both you and Baz, not have Mbappe in your top 10 footballers? He's got 59 goals this year, equalling Ronaldo's best season. So there we go. I should have put that in the bit when we were talking about Mbappe, but it just sprung to my mind there. But yes, our apologies to Christian Pulisic. It wasn't just me and Barry, by the way. Although I don't believe I had Pulisic in my 40. I don't apologise for not having Mbappe in my top 10.

33:31He's not in my top 10 footballers. No, I don't apologise for that, for not putting Christian Pulisic in my top 40. I don't apologise for that either. Okay, fair enough. He's no more in my top 40. We only submit a list of 40, and Pulisic wouldn't be in my top 60. But he may win the World Cup. Let's see. Good luck to him. I want to end the rift. Bayern, top of Bundesliga. Obviously, 41 points, nine points ahead of Dortmund. We've only lost once, but are still nine points behind. Leverkusen in third. What do we say about Bayern Munich? Well, I just looked at this this morning, Max, just the German golden boot.

34:10Harry Kane, I reckon, if he didn't play another game this season, would probably still win it. he's on 19 and his nearest challengers are on 8 yeah it's turning into like what we occasionally see in the Ligue 1 which is it would be a really fascinating season if the top team didn't exist if the team on top of the table could just get caught up in the rapture or something the rest of the league would be very interesting because it's quite tight sort of between Dortmund and Leverkusen and Leipzig the Bayern are incredible their domestic form is the best in Europe the only reason you'd hesitate to say that they're the best team in Europe is of course they got beat by Arsenal but I still think yeah anyway they are absolutely incredible and they're fun to watch and they have obviously Harry Kane leading the way Harry Kane doing incredible things but I'm also very much enjoying the emergence of young Lennart Kao who looks great doesn't he he's one of those guys he's very young and he looks very young and he's playing with this sort of impish sort of fearlessness of youth and it's kind of for a team that does spend a lot of money and is not afraid of spending money now uh they still manage to get to find space for these academy kids sometimes when they come through and and carl looks absolutely unbelievable so you know and really aside from losing to arsenal it's hard to think how the season could be going any better really for for byron before we end part two last you wanted to pay tribute to aga haraida who passed away last week uh from brain cancer second ever norwegian to play in england yeah very sad uh for really all of scandinavian football and olga harreid passed last week after a short battle with brain cancer he was 72 and he was he was the second norwegian to play in england and when he joined manchester city in 1981 and as such i mean there are norwegian players who later played in the league who have talked about how like he was an inspiration for them but he's more remembered as a manager.

36:09He's one of not too many managers in the world who's won the league in three countries. He won the league in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Won the league in Sweden with two different clubs. He took Denmark to the World Cup in 2018. He led Malmö to two group stage campaigns in the Champions League, which again, taking a Scandinavian club to the group stage in the Champions League twice is not a small thing. I very flippantly called him a kind of Scandinavian Ancelotti figure because he was very he was very he was a very likable guy a great storyteller someone who loved to cook outside of the game someone who was well read I remember hearing one chairman at a club he worked at loved him because you could have the coach over for dinner and it'd be really interesting conversations you would have about the world and about culture and everything so someone who had a life outside of just football and and his style of leadership was very much about inspiring people through making them feel good instead of being a disciplinarian and just almost universally well-liked guy and really from what I'm told just a few months ago he was thinking about coming out of retirement and doing one last job but instead suffered this terrible illness and it just went way too quickly sadly so he's no longer among us and that's very sad thank you Lars and that'll do for part two part three we'll begin with AFCON