Liverpool v Manchester United, Parker v Farke and joy for Cape Verde – Football Weekly podcast

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:30Elsewhere, how long left for Ange's Forest against Chelsea in the early Saturday kick-off? Clearly a manager needs more time to implement a new style, but that's not how it. Brackets Maranakis works. Sean Dyche watching on eagerly. Arsenal have a great chance to extend their lead at the top of the table as they go to Arsenal reserves at Craven Cottage. Bournemouth Palace is the battle of the two most saw-terrified managers in the division. It's unlikely, but Spurs could end the weekend top of the league. Wolves go to Sunderland in the search of their first win, while it's Parker versus Farker that turf more.

0:56For those of you worried we'd lost our mind by not booking Paul Watson during an international break. We've booked Paul Watson during an international break. More on Cape Verde, Burkino Faso and Pakistan. While marginally closer to home, Ben Fisher wants to talk about Stevenage. All that plus your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

1:16On the panel today, Barry Glendening, hello. Hi Max. Hello Paul Watson from the Sweeper Podcast. Hi Max. And hello Ben Fisher. Hi Max. Let's begin with a Premier League preview then. it's always nice to have it back even though this international break was quite a fun one Super Sunday is Liverpool-Manchester United it is very I mean it's always a big game and it always feels cliche to say but this time it is a really big game but it feels quite significant for both these teams It is obviously always a big game and I thought before I delved into it that Manchester United's record against Liverpool was quite good but it isn't Liverpool have only lost one of their last 14 Premier League games against Manchester United.

2:03And United have not won at Anfield in nine years, but they have drawn their past two games. And the more I looked into this game, the more I think Liverpool will probably win it. As you alluded to in the intro, you don't really know what you're going to get with Manchester United. you do have a fair idea and it generally isn't great. I wouldn't read too much into United's defeat over Sunderland because they should be beating Sunderland. I think people expected a bit too much of Sunderland at that game at Old Trafford. They didn't play well and it was over as a contest quite early. Liverpool obviously go into this on the back of three defeats.

2:46They were all away from home. There are concerns over the form of Mo Salah, but I suspect he will definitely start this game because his record against Manchester United is second to none. I think he's scored 16 goals against them since coming to England. I would like to see Arnaz Slott pick him on the right, Eketike on the left, with Verts in behind Isaac. and let's see if he can't whip this team into shape and end this unbeaten run. As you're saying, play all the best players. Yeah. The thing that always screws it up for England. Call me controversial, but it might just work. It might. I'd be harsh on Gakpo, I think.

3:33I mean, look, Mo Salah had a good international break, didn't he, Paul? Yes, so he's fresh off becoming the all-time top scorer in African qualifying football history. So he's had a decent little break. Yeah, I would play him. Absolutely. Julian Nagelsmann was talking about Florian Vert saying he needs to get used to the league. I saw him playing with total freedom. He knows what he's capable of and how things work. It's not his fault if his teammates don't convert the chances. The statistics don't even tell the whole story. According to Opta, no player's created more chances in the league so far this season, which is one of those stats that doesn't feel like it's accurate, but it is.

4:1321 chances he's created. No, and I didn't watch him, didn't watch Germany against Northern Ireland, but it didn't seem like he had a sort of, you know, unplayable game. Sounded like he maybe struggled a little bit again. But I don't know. I feel like we just need to let him have some time. There's this obviously eagerness for him and the East SAC to just, you know, rip it up. We're not really seeing it yet. We're not seeing it yet. I think it will come. He's obviously clearly a great player. They've done their homework. Liverpool's recruitment has been so impressive for quite a long time now. You know, they don't get too many wrong.

4:44I am interested probably more so in Kerkhez and what they do at left-back. Andy Robertson's only started two games, I think, this season for Liverpool. So reliable for them. You know, what career he's had there alone. Play for Scotland, sort of this, you know, great reliable figure. But it feels like, you know, Kerkhez was signed to compete with Robertson, I believe, as opposed to replace him. And at the moment, it feels like Kerkhez is probably struggling even more than maybe Wurtz or even indeed Isak, who's not obviously had so much game time. So, yeah, I think it will be interesting in the selection, what slot goes for, because he has persisted with Kerkhez, with Wurtz.

5:19It's interesting, isn't it? Because we're saying, you know, Liverpool are not on it. They've lost three in a row, but actually they're second in the league in a great place. And I really fancy them to win on Sunday. The one thing I would say about Andy Robertson is he did not play well for Scotland during this break. And in that game against Belarus, where everyone played badly for Scotland, he was conspicuously atrocious. And I'm a big fan of his as a player, but I think that could be a problem for Liverpool, that left-back position. Yeah, I thought it was interesting, isn't it, Paul, that you, I wonder how much like the first few games, like the impact that that has on perhaps an entire career.

6:00And obviously there are lots of examples. Bergkamp didn't start quickly and he think he was, you'd argue he did quite well for Arsenal over time. But actually for a player like Kirkhead, you know, if you come in, you don't hit the ground running, the pressure on you is enormous. yeah and it and it mounts and it mounts every every game and i think there's that catch 22 where you start to play less well as especially if you're expected to score goals and you're not scoring goals you probably make poorer decisions because there is a weight on you isn't there to to make that impact yeah i think it's amazing now how fast people get on the back of everyone in the social media age right there's so little patience i saw actually saw a hilarious uh tweet from a liverpool fan which i was not tongue-in-cheek saying you know we we've we've all got behind Arna during the good times let's get behind him now we're in the trenches so how deep are these trenches you know yeah well this is this is I dig deeper trenches on the beach than this you know he's it's amazing how quickly people turn on managers and players isn't it like it's there's no patience left in the game at all yes I think that message said you know he can get us out of this mess um look we alluded to it last week a couple of weeks ago Barry and I wrote a column about it.

7:07That's always with Liverpool. Just the whole Diogo Jota factor. And there's no way of saying it quickly and without seeming trite about that tragedy. But that will just impact this team. And it's really, really, really hard to know to what extent. And actually, it also goes for the Portugal team. And it goes for all the Portuguese players that knew him wherever they happened to be. But especially at Liverpool, because they were all there. Yeah, absolutely. I think we said, or maybe Aaron Sloss said, and we just reported or commented on it at the time, it doesn't really matter if Liverpool don't win anything this season because they have this tragedy to deal with and nobody outside the club really knows how deeply it is affecting them, but it must be affecting them.

7:59It would be very strange if it wasn't. it could conceivably affect them in a positive way, but it will have an effect on them, either detrimental or positive or a bit of both, if you know what I mean. Absolutely, yeah. For Manchester United, Big Sir Jim has given Ruben Amram his backing, saying he has three years to prove himself. I'm trying to think, I can win for him here at Anfield, because I sort of feel sorry for him, and the relief it would mean for him, although it is difficult to see how they do it. Yeah, I just don't buy that Ratcliffe line at all, to be honest. I mean, let's face it, if they'd have lost, what was it, to Sunderland going into the break, I don't think we'd be talking about Ruben Amarin, his Manchester United manager.

8:42That win was worth a three-year extension. That's how highly he rates Sunderland. It just feels a little bit, again, like, I mean, it's different, but it feels a little bit like Ten Hag in the FA Cup, you know, win that. OK, this guy must be great. Yeah, it almost does feel like an overreaction to that game. right we've won a game now everything's Rosie everything's great let's back our man I think there's there's just so much wrong still there and if Liverpool turn up I just think they'll yeah and you know and perform it as they can and maybe some of these new players that we've spoken about click I just think Manchester United won't be able to handle it At the City grounds the early kickoff on Saturday Nottingham Forest play Chelsea Luke got in touch appears to be a Nottingham Forest fan having an existential crisis what happens if Forest win in relation to Ange?

9:30What happens if Forrest lose in relation to Ange? What if it's a draw? The absolute season of our lives looks like blowing up in our faces. What should we do? Ben, you'll be at the city ground. Yeah, I think it's an interesting point, actually, because obviously that's a fan. And I think the fans' reaction on Saturday will actually be quite critical in terms of what Maranakis and Forrest do with Ange Postacoglu. He's in a lot of trouble, I think. I basically think they probably have to win or certainly perform pretty well to avoid him maybe going. I think there was probably a bit of an expectation that that may have happened again in the international break.

10:05I think the sort of pragmatic approach that he took at Newcastle, and let's face it, they still lost 2-0 and didn't really threaten, was deemed just enough to let him hang on. But maybe it's actually a case of Forrest can't replace or they can't find somebody they really want to replace him and therefore Poster Kockeru still in. Look, I sort of go along with what Paul said earlier, that it does feel crazy. whatever you think about Antipostokoglu and how bad the start has been, that we're already saying, what, seven games basically a month in. It doesn't feel like, well, it isn't that long, guys.

10:38It is unveiling that we're talking about him possibly going. But it's a really tricky game. I think the fans' reaction, it was so negative against Michelin when it was a dreadful performance, dreadful evening, dreadful result. And I think that has really made Maranakis think about his decision. because let's face it, it was his decision to go for Postacoglu. Maranakis wants to win the Europa League. He believes Forrest can and maybe should be in that conversation. I probably agree with that. I think they've got a good enough squad. But at the moment, they've got, what, five points from seven league games, one point in the Europa League, Porto next Thursday.

11:17Time is not running out, but it's already kind of at that stage where they can't just keep sort of hoping it's going to happen because at the moment, everything we've seen of Forrest under Postacoglu has been generally quite poor. You know, they look frail. Yeah. I think, I don't know, Barry, you said some of their performances. They probably merited a win somewhere within that seven, I guess. I thought they should have beaten Sunderland. I thought Sunderland were very lucky to beat them. And I thought they played well in the draw against Real Betis. They're the two I just can remember off the top of my head.

11:52I mightn't have seen all their games. They were terrible against Mitchell and Ben's right there. I'd like to see Anne stay there, just out of curiosity. I have no emotional investment in Forrest. It's hard to get away from the fact. I think it's 17 or 18. He's only won one of his past 17 or 18 Premier League games, and that was against Southampton last season. That's really bad. Yeah, it isn't great. It's terrible. I mean, I still love the guy, but that isn't great. I mean, he's had an international break, Paul. to get on the grass with the players not on duty but 12 were on duty so I'm not sure sort of what you can because people will say oh well now you've had some time because he hasn't had any time really to train these because he had so many games and now the time he has no games he's got no players yeah it's such a weird job in that respect isn't it it's like coming into this role he had absolutely no time to build up a little bit of uh kind of time with the players get get get to know them he was just thrown in he hasn't they haven't done particularly well but as to judge him at this point is crazy but then he does get this little window to sort of take a breath and he's almost on the edge of being fired he's probably probably spent most of it looking around to see if you can see Sean Dyche anywhere probably opening cupboards so he's not in here is he um I feel I feel really sorry for him I also think it's partly the fact he came in and replaced a manager who should never have been fired in the first place I think that's what makes this one particularly difficult because the fans are going to get on his back but they're probably getting on his back because they made a completely nonsensical decision they want the old manager still in whereas if he'd come in at a time when fans were saying look the manager's probably got to go he probably would have got a lot more leeway there but instead yeah I feel sorry for him because he doesn't really have the backing of the fans by the sound of it and that that could cost him immediately yeah and that Michelin game was what a week or eight days after they played in Betis and as Barry said they were really good in the first half could have scored four or five goals but there is that vulnerability which you They squandered Leeds.

13:51I was at the Swansea game as well, and you're thinking, okay, it's basically cruising. And then they somehow lose 3-2, and it's just like, how has that happened? How have you let this fall apart? Just alluding to what Paul said there, the thing we maybe forget is, obviously Nuno was sacked, but it wasn't a football decision. It was a, you know, this guy is clashing, basically, has a personal issue with Maranakis, but more so with Edu. So actually the decision that maybe Maranakis needs to reflect on is, I've brought Edu in to be this global kind of figure across all of his clubs, obviously Olympiacos as well.

14:28But it's that decision which has kind of set this chain of events, which maybe is getting lost in the kind of, you know, is Posta Coglu the right guy? What about Nuno? We love Nuno. It's like, well, Nuno was never going to be able to continue in that environment as it was. As sad as that is, because the fans obviously love him, amazing job. but Maranakis' decision to push for Edu is the one that's created friction and problems. On Chelsea, Enzo Moresca will have to serve a one-game ban and was fined£8 ,000. Somebody texted me on TalkSport yesterday to say, won't someone, that presumably means that his dad will have to keep on fishing.

15:01Won't someone think of the parents here now that he's had that fine? He pleaded guilty to the charge of abusive language or something. I couldn't work out if it was just for the celebration in that winner against Liverpool. because if it was just for the celebration, it feels mightily harsh. Cole Palmer still out, not expected to return until mid-November. Arsenal go to Fulham. Feels like Paul, a great chance to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League. Yeah, it does. And if we know anything about Arsenal, they never blow chances like this, right? They're very solid. Whenever you think Arsenal are looking solid.

15:34Yeah, yeah, you would think so, right? I think Fulham have got a terrible record against Arsenal. fulham i think also probably needed that international break to get over that bournemouth game because that was a shocker wasn't it they absolutely had that that that was three points in the bag it looked like and then to to come out having lost that i think uh they probably wouldn't have minded having a little break just to just to get over that but yeah you would think arsenal look pretty solid here but that is those are always dangerous words at any time aren't they the worrying thing for fulham in this one is i think both their strikers are injured rodrigo Muniz and Raul Jimenez.

16:10So do they play Jonah Kusiasari who is a 19 year old Swede they signed from Bayern Munich on deadline day who I don't think has got a look in yet or he might have made a couple of fleeting cameos or do they play Harry Wilson or Josh King as a false nine Josh King made his debut for England under 21s on Monday, I believe, and is supposed to have played very well. And he has been a revelation for football, or for Fulham even, and football this season. And for football. And brackets, not that Josh King. This is 18-year-old Josh King. As Barry says, not to be confused with Joshua King of former Bournemouth and Manchester United fame.

16:58But no, I've been really impressed with King. You know, as Carsley said after making his 21s debut on Monday, You need to remember he's only 18. As Barry said, Munez and Jimenez out, but Marco Silva's trusted King to basically play up there on his own, which I think is pretty remarkable for somebody who's 18. I think the key point is he looks capable of doing it against Bournemouth. He was hurting them, runs in behind his speed. He can take the ball in tight areas. Obviously had that goal against Chelsea, which wasn't a goal, but still Fulham gave him the goal of the month award for, which was quite nice.

17:33I've been really impressed with him. I wouldn't be too worried about their lack of forwards because I think he looks like a player that teams are worried about. I know coaching staff, opposition coaching staff, are all saying they need to look out for him. Yeah, I think he's a player who will be extremely well-coveted. Palatine Bournemouth, sixth versus fourth. Steve Parrish has said publicly that talks have started with Oliver Glasner over a contract extension, which is interesting, isn't it, Paul? I mean, whether it's worth the paper that it is written on. I was trying to avoid that phrase, but it seemed impossible to avoid that phrase.

18:09It would be amazing if they kept Glasner for a long time. I mean, same goes for Bournemouth, New Ireland, but given what Glasner's actually got silverware, could well win the Conference League this year. If they managed to keep him for longer, it would be mightily impressive. It would, it would. But how many times have we seen examples of managers in Glasner's position go to a club that is supposedly a bigger club, are traditionally a bigger club, and struggle and that reputation is gone so quickly isn't it as we've seen you know you have to look at managers like i don't know graham potter or you know there's countless examples you jump for the big job the big job is is actually a club that is sort of propped up on a house of cards to some extent it's going to take a really big job to get that team uh back functioning again and very quickly the patience runs out and you are generally you know however however good you are your last job does taint you um and so yeah it's all about when you jump if you're glasner isn't it like at what point actually do you want to leave crystal palace because he is a hero and he's doing an amazing job but do you do you want to take that step and there's a morgan gibbs white situation developing with antoine semenyo at the moment barry he has a release clause but bournemouth are keeping it to themselves okay surely you would just keep offering another pound until you know i don't i can't i just can't work out like ebay yeah i mean i guess so i mean other people are bidding but if you say 100 you know 10 million they say no you just keep going up anyway he played brilliantly in that fulham game later on didn't he i i was reading about him after the fulham game in which he was outstanding and he's having a brilliant season I hope he stays at Bournemouth for the entirety of the season but he was rejected by pretty much every single club in London as a kid so much so that he just gave up football he sacked it off for a year or two until he was persuaded to start playing again but you just wonder how could that happen because he's so good now Or actually how many players that does happen to, you know, who are...

20:17Who pack it in and don't take it up again. Yeah. He decided to give it another go and it's worked out for him. But yeah, it probably happens to loads of kids who pack it in and maybe even go down the wrong path and who knows where they end up. I think the thing with Semenya as well may seem a quite simple kind of point, but it's almost this is the power of coaching. somebody I saw quite a lot of when he was at Bristol City this rule kind of explosive you know all the kind of traits we see now strong tear against tear the sort of full back apart but all of that stuff but he was very rule and kind of you didn't really think he had maybe the end product the way he took that final goal against Fulham and yet actually Iriola and Bournemouth have kind of polished this rough diamond and made him better to the point where now when he's going through one-on-one or maybe putting that final ball in you're expecting him to deliver whereas I don't think that was maybe, and I think he would probably say that as well.

21:13I remember talking to him years ago and he said, you know, I've had to work a lot on just getting to the back post because so many times, you know, the ball would come in and I'd be nowhere to be seen. And that was something I think he sort of developed while out on loan at Newport. He was at Bath City. As Barry says, he's done the hard yards, sort of restarted again. I think he went to Bishop Abbey on some sort of trials day and Dave Hockaday brought him to SGS College on the outskirts of Bristol, Gloucestershire. Yeah, from there he kind of hasn't looked back, but he's not had it easy because he goes to Bournemouth and his kind of development has been so impressive.

21:45I must admit, I said to somebody at the end of last season, I thought he kind of peaked and yet he's just started this season like a train and probably been one of the players of the season. As a Bristol City fan, people ask me sometimes, did he look like he could go on to be this good? And I always say, I thought he looked like a Premier League player in the making but not the best Premier League player potentially. He didn't look like he was going to ever be this good. I think the big thing of course is the sell-on clause, do you know this Ben what is the sell-on clause for Bristol City because I think I speak for everyone when I say I want to see him transfer for about£600 million I think they were hoping for that in the summer it's fair to say yeah they're definitely owed I think it's either 10 or 15 % oh that's exciting isn't it elsewhere then Spurs, Villa Man City, Everton, Sunderland, Wolves Brighton, Newcastle Burnley, Leeds, any strong thoughts on any of those games?

22:37I'm getting slightly concerned by Sunderland's growing injury crisis. Omar Alderete was injured playing for Paraguay during the break. Noah Siddiqui, who has been incredible for Sunderland since signing from Union Saint-Gilois during the summer. He twisted his ankle playing for DR Congo or sprained it quite badly by the sound of things. We'll find out this afternoon how bad that is. So he might be out. He's Sunderland's little midfield dynamo and he's been playing to devastating effect this season. Habib Diara is out. Dennis Sirkin is out. Various others. Yeah, I'm slightly concerned about that.

23:23And while the Stadium of Light is a difficult place for a team who are at the bottom of the Premier League to go, I think Wolves might get their first win of the season this weekend. Maybe. That might just be the pessimist in me, but that growing injury list is a worry. So Matt says, Parker versus Farker at the weekend, the first instance of rhyming managers. I don't know if anyone got anything. No. Spent a lot of time thinking about this. I did wonder if Arsene Wenger and Walter Zenger came up against each other, but Wolves weren't in the Premier League in 2016. Producer Joel says, has offered Eddie Howe versus Chris Powell.

24:05No. Not having it? producer Joel is fired I agreed, I said it didn't scan the 30th of August 2009 Swindon maintained their promising league form with a narrow win against 10 man South End at the county ground, Scott Cuthbert neatly converted a John Paul McGovern cross to put the hosts ahead midway through the first half etc etc etc Swindon manager Danny Wilson told BBC Wiltshire, we were scrappy in the second half, the tempo wasn't there we're just delighted to come away with the three points in the end South End manager Steve tilson says i don't know how we've come away without a point to be honest uh got very excited googling danny wilson steve tilson was that um ai did you did you actually type the question into ai i will not surprise you to know i don't know how to use ai yet i know i know i need to take it seriously i recently had to do a course oh really how is it um it's kind of helpful I suppose I'm slightly wary of it it's coming for me Max it's coming for us I was going to say is this AI Baz or is this real Baz that we're getting oh no this is real Baz this is real Baz ok alright well that'll be for part one but that's exactly what I would expect AI Baz to say in response to that question we'll be back in a second

25:33Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Let's do some international stuff. Paul, he wanted to talk about Kosovo, second in Group B, benefiting hugely from Sweden being absolutely hopeless. And they've beaten them twice this campaign. That's their two wins. But a great chance of getting in the playoff. A great chance, which has sort of come somewhat out of nowhere. They're also the unofficial world champions, Kosovo. I don't know if you knew that. Uh-huh. I didn't know that. How does that work? So it's like someone sat down at some point and went back to the first ever international and treated it from there on like a boxing belt.

26:06So, you know, England, Scotland, England win England, get the belt until they lose a match and then it transfers to the next team. So someone's done this for like decades and decades. And once they had a winner, they then just have kept it going. And Kosovo took that title and have actually successfully defended being the unofficial world champions. They took it from Sweden and then beat them again. but but yeah on a on a sort of more interesting note i don't i don't think it's going to be more interesting that was interesting well it's kind of a little quirk but yeah kosovo's kosovo's kind of um campaign has been pretty ridiculous that they've come from nowhere really with these these wins as they take advantage of the fact sweden are so bad but they are now in a situation where they only really need to take a point from slovenia and they would be in the playoffs uh which isn't a huge achievement for Kosovo.

26:55But an added little quirk is that they play Switzerland in their last game. And Switzerland and Kosovo obviously have this incredibly close relationship. In the Swiss team, at any given point, there'll be a number of players with Kosovo ancestry, you know, famously Granit Xhaka, born in Basel to Kosovo and Albanian parents and have spoken very movingly about what Kosovo means to him. So there's an enormous amount of goodwill and fellowship between switzerland and kosovo they could meet on the last day and it could be a battle for automatic qualification or more likely kosovo will need a result and switzerland won't and you do wonder a little bit what happens then switzerland actually yeah our good friend and neighbors cyprus i wouldn't suggest anything like interesting switzerland actually were the ones who helped get kosovo into uefa they they weren't they weren't in switzerland were the ones who really moved that and put that onto the table at uefa and drove it forward so yeah it's an incredible story and the fact that in 2014 they played their first ever fifa sanctioned game and to already be at this point where they're you know because of the extended format of the world cup they are on the brink of a playoff is really exciting i think san marino are still in the running how is this i mean they are bottom of group h seven games no points for one against 32 too and i and i love san marino you know i love san marino of course you do yeah i love minnows but i have to say this new qualification format it has exposed a crazy element in it right but because of their nation's league they won the group d they therefore are one of the teams that could get into playoffs via the nation's league as long as enough of the other teams come first or second in their groups and already take those places so what it's come down to is this ridiculous situation that could arise where they actually need Romania to take one of those places so that they can so they can access that Nations League qualification of space right so they might come up against Romania basically needing to lose by as many goals as possible so that Romania's goal which they could do without anyone anyone smelling a rat it's the only game they could yeah where you could lose 10 nil and people go I think they were trying that's so interesting isn't it and I saw you tweeting about the pharaohs that they've gone a bit mainstream for you now they've won a three in a row yeah they sadly they they are absolutely not going to make the playoffs unless that they still require a two results that would be some of the biggest shocks in the history of international football so they would need to beat croatia in croatia and they would need the czech republic not to beat gibraltar so they need a pretty huge swing of results but it's been yeah remarkable uh achievement from the faroe islands and i think it just kind of goes show what you can do if you just sensibly put down the markers for youth development and create an environment where people play the sport regularly and that's not that easy in the fair islands but um they've done an amazing job they've just made it really easy for for people to play football and it's got one of these crazy stats where it's like the most percentage of the population play football weekly of anywhere in the world something like that it's because everybody just loves it and there are just really good pitches around and people play.

30:03I was just going to say, Max, sorry, I went on AI to ask if it could provide examples of Premier League matches through history in which the opposing manager's names rhymed with each other. And I think we're safe. It's come up with Martin O 'Neill and David Moyes, Sam Allardyce and Steve Bruce, Paul Jewell and Mick McCarthy and it hasn't come up with Danny Wilson and Steve Tilson which isn't a Premier League game to be fair to your AI. Anyway I've gone off piste I apologise I was just curious No that's ok no don't apologise it was very important stuff I'm glad you were concentrating on what Paul was telling me.

30:48I racked my brains for this rhyming managers I think the problem is the lack of Italian managers because that must happen it's not a big deal in this leader rhyming managers right but we don't never have two we of course i mean i thought of pellegrini and another one but you know the enies if you have two enies it doesn't work that's what i was gasparini i was like that's that's not really a rhyme because it's basically the same i suppose ilson wilson and tilton is the same by my own logic i've i've messed up anyway let's go to cape verde paul we did a bit on them yesterday specifically roberto lopez but it's an astonishing story of qualification isn't it yeah it's absolutely incredible really is second i'd say second smallest by population uh nation to ever qualify and in fact what was really amazing was uh this moment being described by people there as not just the biggest moment in their football history but the biggest moment in their national history and i think that kind of says something about the scale of this achievement and what it meant to people there um what what also is amazing and i was hearing this from people on the ground is how laid back everyone was you think the size of that you know the pressure on the players apparently the players were just sort of hanging out with with people in the streets just walking around the market and no one was mobbing them but they were just sort of standing around having a chat with people the day before the game apparently when journalists went to go and try and get into the stadium like you know suitable number of hours before kickoff stadium wasn't even open they had to sort of find a ground effectively to open it up and this is like the biggest day in their history um so yeah it was impossibly tense especially because they basically had all but qualified against Libya, which looked like a harder tie away to Libya.

32:30It was a ridiculous game where they scored one of the weirdest goals in international football history, where the goalkeeper, the Libya goalkeeper, sort of just let the ball through him. But then they went 3-1 down, battled back to 3-all, and had a goal in the last minute disallowed for a completely nonsense offside. So they sort of thought they'd already done the job, then had to take on Iswatini, who looked on paper very weak, but actually were just trying to kill the game, basically. that the goalkeeper was time wasting from like minute four and the only real reason that ace had to win was just to simply sort of annoy cape verde they had nothing to play for um so the fans didn't love that also one thing people don't necessarily know about cape verde is it's insanely windy on that pitch so it's really hard for anyone to play decent football and because all the cape verde players play away from there they all the whole team were playing in europe somewhere they They were actually sort of having to struggle with the conditions themselves a little bit because they only play those home games in Cape Verde.

33:28Even assembling the team to get them all there in time is like an insane battle. So, yeah, it's a remarkable achievement. And I think one of the one of the biggest sort of fairy tales and however much we will bemoan the extended format at certain points, what it means to a nation like that to be part of a World Cup. It just it can't even really be defined. Sure. So does that mean you are because they FIFA have suggested a 64 team World Cup? Are you like, yeah, I'm in for this? No, that's where that's where even I hit a bit of a wall because I just think it I just don't think that is good for the actual competition.