Thomas Tuchel’s England labour again and Levy out at Spurs – Football Weekly

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1:02Max Rushden:This is The Guardian.

1:15Hello and welcome to The Guardian Football Weekly. Just imagine if Bill Murray had had to watch England struggle but eventually break down a smaller nation's low block on that day. Not sure the film would be quite as successful. it's hard to break down a low block Andoran or otherwise it makes for bad football and bad football matches someone in the whole end spent the whole game choosing what kettle to buy frankly a big life decision that will stay with you for years unlike this one Tuchel's England though are yet to be good also today a stirring comeback from the Republic of Ireland Northern Ireland beat Luxembourg and scare the Germans Wales win in Kazakhstan and Scotland get a creditable draw in Denmark Elsewhere Daniel Levy is eased aside by Spurs was he good or was he terrible is this the best news for Tottenham or a huge case of be careful what you wish for There's some League 1 and League 2 to get through as Cambridge lose to a couple of melons, while Sergio Ramos has released a song, Does Barry Even Know?

2:01All that plus your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

2:09On the panel today, Barry Glendening, welcome. Hello, Max. From NotTheTop20, Ali Maxwell, hello. Hello. And Dan Bardell. Hello, Max. I like, Ali, how you said hello like you were just picking up the phone in the old days when you didn't know who it was. Hello, 360307. Anyway, England 2 and Dora 0. Rich says, I feel for the people who have to talk about this game like it matters. Tom says, from what we've seen from England, can we be 100 % sure that Barry didn't have something to do with the Tuchel appointment? It wasn't good, but it was never going to be good, Ali. Or is that giving Thomas Tuchel an easy ride?

2:45Like, we knew what would happen. What happened is exactly what we thought would happen, and it happened, and it's over. I'm pretty much on that side of the fence. there are some people and we've had some people replying to our review of the game on the England pod by saying well actually if you look at the results under Southgate against Mino Nations we normally scored five six seven even scored ten once so the exact number of goals has been lower under Tuchel the way that the games look and the general lack of jeopardy on them is pretty similar England have won all four qualifiers to nil and they've faced 12 shots in total so far so I think you know there is one of the aspects of it is that these aren't interesting football matches to watch on any level really and I don't yeah kind of what you're already to I don't think there's really anything that England could do to impress either neutrals or England fans in these games having said that they have still managed to get sort of yeah put out a pretty poor imitation of an england team dominating and beating minor nations um we'd like to see more goals we'd certainly like to see more than 11 shots if we have more than 80 percent of the ball and it's it's all looking um not great at the moment and the serbia game on tuesday night is is pretty pivotal I would suggest I do believe that a really convincing win and a performance in which the players clearly step up and show off some some Tuchel tactics and dominate a decent nation in a tricky environment and things will calm down a little bit anything other than that and yeah Tuchel's going to have to manage a bit of a media storm and some some fan apathy which is what most managers before him have had to handle in then in varying ways and with varying levels of success So Dan, what side of the fence are you on?

4:35That, you know, this is what it is. It will be nothing else. And we just have to, you know, float with it. Or are Tuchel's England bad? Well, we do have to float with it because I don't think it's going to change. I do think that, you know, people talk about how tough these games are for the players, breaking down the low block, et cetera, team that's come there to defend. Nobody talks about how hard these things are for podcasters afterwards. Yeah. It's difficult to talk about, isn't it? You almost dread being booked after an England game. you think oh no not England why couldn't I have been on the Premier League preview the week before the Premier League starts I'm struggling a bit with England in general because of Tuchel nothing to do with the fact he's German I couldn't care less what nationality he was I think part of what's made England a little bit successful in terms of how they've done with with tournaments and the feel-good around them has been that Southgate looked to the long term now I liked Southgate he He had flaws.

5:32I, you know, he did things I didn't like, but by and large, I was a Southgate fan. I'm struggling with the fact that everything is so short-term around Tuchel. You know everything is geared around that World Cup. His selections are geared around that World Cup with absolutely no look to the future whatsoever. And I just think when we get there, I'm just not convinced that we're going to do anything in that tournament because it's all so short-term. I think the pressure is going to be so big that it's all geared around that one tournament. I actually think it's going to work against us and I think it's working against us now with what we're doing so I'm just really really struggling to get behind this iteration of England because I think the way they were under Southgate and the way he was I think that's why they were good if that makes sense and don't you think that would make more sense as well if we actually had a really settled and established core group of players that understand how to play with each other like you think it's all over the place Spanish the famous Spanish teams who look like they were telepathic even Italian teams that have had success where you've got 37 year old centre-backs who've been playing together for 15 years like we don't have that at the moment we have Kane who's going to play every single minute and maybe causing a bit of a tactical issue at the top of the pitch or maybe our greatest ever goal scorer and we shouldn't worry about that we don't have a particularly fixed back line we're still working out midfield balance and in the wide areas well Saka should be a lock and Bellingham should be a lock but Saka has barely played for the last year or so for England outside of major tournaments so isn't having much time to to kind of create relationship with Rhys James for example and on the left side of attack we're not really sure either so yeah it's uh it's not a great moment for the England team is it I'm trying to to keep perspective because we it doesn't really matter until next summer I think And I think everyone kind of knows that.

7:21But equally, as Barney wrote in his piece, in his excellent piece, we have to react to it. We have to watch it and enjoy it and talk about it because whether it's for content and podcasts or whether it's just with your mates, that's what we all do. Yeah. I mean, the eternal issue is, Barry, that if Elliot Anderson has a really good game in the sixth, which he did against Andorra, that doesn't mean he'll win us the World Cup. And if Everichy ESA misses a couple of presentable chances against Andorra, that doesn't mean he won't win us the World Cup.

7:51Max Rushden:We're kind of obliged to try and read things into this game and games like it. And I honestly don't think there is anything you can learn from it or that you can overanalyze. Because, as you say, we knew what it was going to be like and they won. So that's fine. And it was a grim watch. we spoke last week about this game being at Villa Park because Coldplay were at Wembley I would be interested to know which capacity crowd was treated to the more cloying performance there's no competition Barry I reckon if you went to Coldplay and I haven't been this is from osmosis from just when Jamie comes home from a Coldplay concert you'd be walking on air like you know Chris Martin is like a born performer I call players very good at their particular thing.

8:44Max Rushden:It's not for me, but I do appreciate other people really like it. My issue with this game was, so they interviewed various players and Tuchel afterwards, and they all sort of said, as if reading from the script, we knew that Andorra were going to be difficult to break down. And I'm thinking to myself, well, Andorra shouldn't be difficult to break down. And I think these players seem to have it ingrained into their heads in training that this team are going to be really difficult to play against. And Andorra's breakdown ability becomes this mystical sort of. There's no, it's like the Dawn Wall.

9:26It's like K2. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

9:31Max Rushden:And, you know, they're there with their crampons and their ice picks trying to break down Andorra. and I don't think Andorra should be particularly difficult to break down when it comes to this team of fine players that are lining up against them. But I think that the players might have had it ingrained in them so deeply that it becomes a sort of phobia. But eventually they did break them down and they won 2-0 and that's fine. I agree with you. I mean, California Canary on that note just says, I don't want to hear that there are no easy games at international level. It's tripe. Andorra has the same population as Wigan.

10:09And maybe 10 % able to play football. I see no plan or direction from Thomas Tuchel. This should be clear by now. Andora is a ski resort.

10:18Max Rushden:A tax haven and a ski resort. You could fit the entire population of Andora in Wembley. They probably were all watching Coldplay, having a great time. I think you make a really good point, Dan, about that short-termism. Because I just, do you think there's anybody apart from, and it's not, I mean, I'd say this is nothing against Dan Byrne, but it sounds like it's against Dan Byrne. Nobody thinks he's a starting centre-back to win the World Cup, do they? I mean, maybe they do. Is that wrong of me to just instantly go, well, that's not who I'd go for? Or am I being really brutally unfair and he deserves to have that role?

10:55I think there's a difference between being good in Newcastle's setup and being good in England's setup and players fit into different setups. Obviously, all players, that's exactly the same. He strikes me as being a Conner Coder. He might go to the World Cup if it's 26-man squads again. He might be in that squad. But he probably shouldn't be playing, though. He's played every game, hasn't he? I've got a little bit of bias because I watch Konza every week. But surely out of those centre-backs there, it's Konza and Gaye. They're both a bit more progressive on the ball. They've both got recovery pace.

11:28That would be the more logical pairing for me, especially even for that game against Andorra. I'm not even convinced Dan Byrne's the right pick against Andorra because when it came to him, Andorra were quite happy for Dan Byrne to have the ball and he didn't really do much with it, not very progressive. That's not his game. That's why I think there's probably a time and a place for Dan Byrne. I'm not sure it's Andorra, but I'm not sure it's the World Cup either, like you've just said. Yeah. Maybe Thomas Tuchel knows that we'll play Germany and then he'll mark Voltaudrager, his now teammate and fellow giant, out of the game.

12:00And it's all, you know, world-class planning. Lisa says, Tuchel put up the creativity bat signal for Jack Grealish. Oh, I'd quite like a 2026 clamour for Grealish. I can't remember. Was it 2022 was the last one? I forget. 21 was when he got sung. His name got sung every game, didn't he? When they wanted him to come on. Well, he was very good in the Euros in summer of 21, wasn't he? He did genuinely have the impact that had been sort of much discussed for a long period of time. and then from that high point has had a horror two years back at his club level, lost out on his England squad. It feels like Tuchel is quite a big fan of his and I wouldn't be surprised if he's in the next squad.

12:39But on that left side at the moment, Tuchel clearly loves Rashford and really wants to use these camps to get Rashford confident again. I don't think we're really seeing it in his performances either at international level or so far at Barcelona. uh as a played in the in the 10 role which is Jude Bellingham's so it kind of seems like moot for anyone else to play there I mean someone should probably play there just in case yeah that's that's a fair point but I guess my point is as if he's going to start for England it'll likely be on the left wing so I'd quite like to actually see him play there maybe against Serbia um and and Morgan Gibbs-White can um who looked like he was the one player that actually really enjoyed himself at him and Elliot Anderson against Andorra Gibbs like pulling out a lot of back heels and quick flicks and quick passing in tight spaces which I think is what we want to see more of so yeah um it's uh it's it's it's quite a big game on Tuesday night and I I gather that in Serbia this is like they are framing this as one of their biggest ever games which might surprise people who don't think World Cup qualifiers could ever get to that level but uh although we played them in the Euros summer 2024 we've never played them in Serbia while they have been Serbia and I think they're going to be going all out in this game so it will be a massive test and of course the only real test we've had so far was Senegal albeit in a friendly in June and we looked miles worse than them miles second best and so yeah this is probably our toughest fixture between now and the world cup and they've moved that game haven't they to a bigger stadium to their national stadium i think it's their national stadium yes although they have they have got a sanction for uh racist chanting so i think that it's quite a strange sanction or at least i thought it was they're only allowed but they have to have a 15 reduced capacity behind the goals which doesn't strike me as a hugely significant sanction but um you can't be you can't be racist if you're in the main stand is that what they're saying yeah if 15 of you aren't behind the goal much harder to be uh to be racist apparently yeah yeah um i mean there is a real danger that they we would just have to see berry no i'm really struggling for the right question because you're right it is a big test there's nothing to say there's nothing that we've seen so far that means english should be confident but i suspect most fans are going into this game thinking and we'll probably win.

15:08I'd imagine so. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this game

15:10Max Rushden:because it will give us a better idea of how good, if good at all, England are. And I think if they play badly, it would get a few people's spidey senses tingling, like, ooh, this isn't going according to plan. But I would fully expect England to win this game, probably quite comfortably. but we shall see. We shall see. Anyway, look, that's enough England. We'll do them after the Serbia game. And that'll do for part one. Part two, we'll do the other internationals.

15:48Hi, this is Becca Moore of For the Girls Podcast. All right, a quick shout out to our presenting sponsor, Apple Cash. Summer is here, which means the group chats are already spiraling with festival and summer plans. And we all know the worst part of being the one who fronts the money for the passes or housing. That's why this year we're only using Apple Cash. It's a super easy way to settle up because you can do it right and messages. Just tap the plus sign to get started. And the best part is you can spend the money you get right away anywhere Apple Pay is accepted. Every payment is secure and protected by Face ID, Touch ID, or Passcode, and your transactions are never shared on a public feed.

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17:22Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly, your chance to be a hero. Dear listener, this Thursday, we are playing the Troxie in London. We may have mentioned it. We have an up a tear to fill thanks to everyone who's bought a ticket since my charming instagram offensive or my offensive instagram whatever you want to call it jonathan wilson nicky mandini johnny lou barry glendening secret cameos from john bruin jordan jarrett brian paul watson maybe philip um uh if we can get the wi-fi working for him tickets can be purchased by going to theguardian.com slash Football Weekly Live. Just imagine when we do fill that top tier, Barry.

18:00It will be the greatest triumph. It'll be a wonder of the world. It will be. It will be. And look, I guarantee it will be better than England and Andorra. And if it isn't, so help us, dear God. We're live streaming it around the world. No excuse for any of you. We do all of this just for you out of the kindness of our hearts. So just get a ticket. Thanks. TheGuardian.com slash Football Weekly Live. So then the Republic of Ireland, Barry. An exciting game. Limbs at the Aviva when Adam Ida equalised in injury time against Hungary.

18:31Max Rushden:Yeah, this was a bit of a crazy game. I think if you'd offered me a draw before it started, I'd have happily taken it because I thought Ireland would lose. If you'd offered me a draw when they were 2-0 down, I would have bitten your arm off at the shoulder because it seemed so implausible, so desperately bad were Ireland in the opening 15-20 minutes. and then by the end of it after getting a draw I was kind of disappointed Ireland didn't win because I think on the balance of play they probably should have and now we can't ignore the opening 20 minutes because going in the build-up to the game Heimer Halbusson had stress and his players in their press conferences had stressed the importance of avoiding sloppy errors and there were sloppy errors that led to Hungary's two goals.

19:24Max Rushden:And annoyingly, it was sloppy errors from experienced players, Nathan Collins and Doherty. I keep going to call him Ken Doherty. That's the snooker player. Matt Doherty. Sloppy errors from them that led to Hungary scoring the two goals. Hungary could have gone 3-0 up, apart from a good Cuevin Kelleher save. then shortly after half time Evan Ferguson bundled one over the line to after Hungary failed to clear a Ryan Manning free kick Hungary lost a man to a daft red card daft in that it was a silly foul an act of petulance after he didn't get a free kick rather than he shouldn't have got the red card once Hungary were down to 10 men Ireland just threw the kitchen sink at them it reminded me very much of of Graham Taylor's England or Jack Charlton's Ireland, just getting long balls, crosses in from the left and right.

20:22Max Rushden:I read somewhere that Ireland sent over 40 crosses into the Hungary box in the course of the game. Eventually, Adam Ede scored in, I think it was the first or second minute of added time to get a draw. No one thought it was possible. And Ireland had had three or four good chances before that. yeah, Darrell Shea had a chance to win it right at the death, but headed over the bar. It's such a shame that didn't go in, because that would have just been... Because the scene was so great when Adam had a score, but that would have been brilliant. And actually, that scene, when Isaac Price scored for Northern Ireland in Germany, the Northern Ireland fans were just...

21:04You just saw that that was such a moment. Germany had lost to Slovakia, right, Baz? And so you just thought for a second, and Northern Ireland can hang on to this for a while. They did for a while.

21:13Max Rushden:I thought Northern Ireland played very well, I have to say. Yeah, I agree. Even though they lost. And I'm not going to say Germany were there for the taking, you know, playing at home, but they'd gone into this game on the back of three defeats. No one expected them to get beaten by Slovakia in their opening game. Northern Ireland went into this game on the back of a good win against Luxembourg. and when Northern Ireland equalised I was sort of thinking ooh, hold on here this could be interesting but Germany were ultimately a bit too good for them but I did think they played well and I say Charles in that Northern Ireland midfield he is different class he's a really good player I know he used to play for City I'm not sure where he is right now Yeah, yeah, he plays for Saints he had an amazing loan at Sheffield Wednesday last season and has gone straight into the Southampton starting 11 and will be sold for 60 million quid within the next two years I imagine all right and he's a sort of 10 Ali is that right no more of a kind of six or eight he is one of those midfielders that genuinely doesn't have many obvious weaknesses he's strong in the tackle gets around the pitch well pretty good on the ball he's not a massive sort of goals and assist guy but yeah brilliant all-rounder did played in the midfield too with Barry Bannon for most of last season and did the running of two men and a hell of a lot else as well.

22:39Yeah, really, really good player. Oh, well, Barry Bannon deserves having someone do this running for him. You know, Wales won in Kazakhstan 1-0. Kiefer Moore doing the business, Baz.

22:48Max Rushden:This was a game. I think Wales got away with this one. It's a long way to go. It's a tricky assignment. They did just about enough to take the three points. but I think they were a little bit lucky to escape with all three points. Obviously, that's a big positive from the game. Dylan Lawler came in instead of Joe Roden. He was very good, very impressive debut from him. But Kazakhstan had this fellow called Kenjaba, who came this close to scoring three really, really good goals, but didn't score any of them. and then weirdly he was taken off with about 20 minutes to go now I don't know if it was a fitness thing or not but I thought I was a bit why are you taking him off because he looks a real goal threat Muzikov hit the bar with the last kick of the game so Wales good win but I'd say used up a fair bit of luck in that one I was on air at the time and the game was on in the in the studio and every time I looked at Kazakhstan, it looked like they were going to score.

23:57I couldn't believe what I was seeing. But the result, can I say the result's the most important thing after what we've just said about England? But I think probably a way to Kazakhstan more so. Yeah, probably. I mean, for perspective, Belgium beat them 6-0 last night. So, you know, Wales hosting Belgium in October, and it's a different game, of course, is a really big one. To have a realistic chance of qualifying automatically, they need to win their three remaining games and hope the Belgians slip up more than once. think so otherwise they'll enter the playoffs in March which I guess in being in the group with Belgium is probably what you aim for and then Scotland Barry fit bar they went to Denmark and drew nil nil you've got to take that you've got to take that and it is undeniably a good result

24:36Max Rushden:but there was an interesting discussion in the BBC studio afterwards over whether or not Scotland could have been it was a bit like that the discussion about Arsenal after they lost against Liverpool now obviously Scotland didn't lose so it's a different scenario but could they have been more positive because Denmark weren't very good and the Denmark manager Brian Reimer left out Christian Eriksen didn't pick him for the squad because Eriksen doesn't have a club at the minute I think he's been training with some team in Sweden Malmo maybe he scored in each of Denmark's previous three games and he's the kind I know he's played recently like he's pulling a caravan but he's the kind of player Denmark were noticeably missing as they tried to break down Scotland this wasn't a particularly good game there's not many chances Lyndon Dykes John McGinn Ryan Christie all missed fairly presentable chances I would say tip of the hat to Angus Gunn who we've been critical of in the past on this pod.

25:40Max Rushden:He played very well for Scotland. And then there was the incident with Max Johnson, who just come on as a sub, literally seconds previously. Kasper Schmeichel booted one long to a striker. Max Johnson, the ball came down, he was wearing a short sleeve and the ball hit his sleeve. So it's not a handball as far as I know but he was booked for the handball and it was a denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity the ref was sent to the monitor everyone thought Johnston was going to get sent off but the ref stuck by his original decision and and left him on the pitch so Scotland dodged a bullet there but uh yeah a good win for Scotland and only time will tell if they should have been maybe a little bit more gung-ho and gone for the three points against the Denmark team I thought were poor.

26:35You said a good win, but we know what you mean. A good draw. But I mean, as for... Oh, sorry. Good draw. As for any referee just going to the monitor and sticking with what he decided, I almost don't care what the decision is. I just... It's just nice to see a referee just do that, isn't it? Elsewhere, McCombrino scored a hat-trick for Spain against Dark Horses Turkey in a 6-0 win. Netherlands won 3-2 in Lithuania. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Portugal beat Armenia 5-0. He's now scored 58 ,000 goals for Portugal. Let's talk about Daniel Levy. Left his role as the chairman of Tottenham, eased aside after almost 25 years.

27:12This is David Heitner writing in the paper. In charge, leaving a legacy that is best described as Mix, the Lewis family, who own the club, have put a new leadership team in place with Peter Charrington, who was brought onto the board in March, stepping into a newly created non-executive chair. Some news out right now is the board of Spurs say its owner has unequivocally rejected two expressions of interest in the North London club. It's not for sale. The board of the club and Enoch confirmed that Spurs is not for sale. Enoch has no intention to accept any such offer to acquire interest in the club.

27:43A lot of people thought this might pre-empt to take over. Enoch's got an 87 % stake in Spurs. The question, Dan, is Daniel Levy. Good, not good? The cynic in me thought that when he did that Gary Neville podcast, he must have known this was coming. But it sounds like he didn't know it was coming at all and is very upset by this. I think because I'm not a Tottenham fan, I can look at it and say, I think you did quite a good job. If you look at all the off the pitch stuff, I know football is played on the pitch and they've not been successful in terms of trophies. And probably other than the Pochettino years, they've not really been where they'd like to be as a club.