Was that the night Arsenal won the Premier League? – Football Weekly

17:21John Brewin:And he came over promising to behave himself, a promise he hasn't kept. But with Arsenal, Jonathan talked about how they had this history of winning with style. Well, again, I'm going to do it. If you're of a different age, mine and Barry's age, then you remember a different Arsenal that won with a distinct lack of style, though it was a style in itself. I remember the Arsenal team, the famous back five or whatever, was a fascination in France. They couldn't believe this team that would just turn up and just bore themselves through UEFA Cups and all the rest of it because they were just, and a Cup Winners Cup, but just, you know, how good can you be at defending?

18:09John Brewin:How strong are these guys at doing the job? and that's what this current Arsenal are. I mean, listen, I don't ever use XG other than to make a point, right? OK, because I'm not really an XG type of guy, but I did see that their XG for the first half was 0.01. Now, if that's not making a statistical point, I don't know what is. But I don't know how that counts because Saka did take on that shot that could have sort of gone in and did. but I mean Verbruggen made a hell of a mess of it

18:46John Brewin:listen I suppose there are a few things Arsenal fans if they win the league they will celebrate wildly it will be one hell of a night it'll be one hell of a summer the rest of us are going to have to put up with it and well whatever that's okay that's fine but I suppose one thing is that playing with style offers you a bit of a fig leaf at times doesn't it because at least we played with style. At least, and if you only play to win and you don't win, that's when the brickbats come, that's when the criticism comes. And that's what Arsenal, and that's the, I suppose, the tightrope that Arsenal walk in playing that style of football.

19:24John Brewin:But it's, you know, to go back to old man cliches, grinding out a win away from home on a cold Wednesday night, that's how titles are won anyway.

19:36Barry Glendenning:Can I just ask, if England go to the World Cup and Bikai Osaka and Declan Rice are taking corners for England and England adopt the Arsenal approach to set pieces, will all the people currently criticising Arsenal be fully on board with England doing this if it starts to prove effective? I made this exact point in my column this morning.

20:01Jonathan Liew:The 2018 team, set pieces and whatever. But that's not how people decide their opinions.

20:08Robyn Cowen:No, we'll be handing back the trophy to Trump.

20:10John Brewin:The England team that won the 2003 World Cup are regarded as probably the dullest team to win the Rugby World Cup. But, you know, the streets were filled with celebrations and wildness, even for those that weren't actually big rugby fans. So, you know, success is OK. But if you don't do it with style and you fall short, that's when the criticism comes, I suppose. And that's maybe a tightrope England are going to have to walk.

20:38Robyn Cowen:Right, that'll do for part one. In part two, we'll do the rest of last night's action.

20:51Robyn Cowen:Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Aston Villa 1, Chelsea 4. So two wins in nine now in the Premier League for Aston Villa. And it was sort of a story of a malfunctioning offside trap from a Villa perspective. And João Pedro with a hat-trick, a really instinctive finisher. And there was quite a big moment, wasn't there, Barry, in this game when Oli Watkins thought he'd made it 2-1. He was just a whisker offside. And then João Pedro, just before the break, managed to... Well, he was a whisker onside. I mean, you could say that that turned the game, but I think Aston Villa just looked ragged again.

21:27Barry Glendenning:Yeah, this was their heaviest home defeat in two years. I think it could have been a lot heavier. 4-1 flattered them a little. They're really missing John McGean, Uri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara. Huge loss for them with those guys injured. but they're still well placed to finish in the top four but they need to get going again because it's just one win in seven for them. I think their last two matches of this season are against Liverpool and Man City. They could be really tough encounters but Unaimer is quite philosophical after the game. He admitted they were well beaten, and admitted they're in a bit of a rut, and you can't but admit that because it's quite obvious to everyone who's following their progress, but they need to just look at where they are in the table and try and regroup and get on with things.

22:33But this was all about Chelsea, I suppose, and all about João Pedro,

22:40Barry Glendenning:who's been a brilliant signing for them. And I think at the start of the season, People were wondering, oh, who'd be Chelsea's first choice? Stryker him or Liam De Lappe? There's no question about who's first choice now.

22:55Robyn Cowen:No, absolutely. Yeah, Unai Emery was very sanguine about this. Still in their hands. They can wrestle this back despite this poor run. But I think Barry makes a really good point about João Pedro, Johnny, because I feel like we don't, I feel like I certainly haven't appreciated just how good he is because Chelsea, you kind of, they're a bit of a banter club in terms of their transfers but he is i mean his instinct his his

23:19Jonathan Liew:movement he's a very intelligent player yeah i mean the scattergun this carpet bombing of signings which is is almost kind of overwhelming to take in uh but obviously some of them are going you know occasionally one of them is just going to come really good cole palmer was an example of that oh wow he's actually really good estevao as well uh pedro i think it wasn't entirely clear whether he was going to whether they went to they signed him as a nine or ten initially i think he He ended up playing 10 a lot because of Palmer's injury. But if you watch him play, he gets into what I call real number nine positions.

23:53Jonathan Liew:The way he anticipates the through ball. Just to be able to get that half yard on the defender, who's also obviously anticipating the through ball. He's quick, but he doesn't rely on his speed. He's strong, but he doesn't rely on physicality. And his finishing this season has been absolutely elite. I mean, this is a guy who we weren't sure whether he was going to make that leap from Brighton. And six months on, Chelsea have basically solved a problem that they've been trying to solve ever since Diego Costa left. That number nine position has been a real huge problem for them. It was a Nicholas Jackson problem.

24:33Jonathan Liew:It's a Liam De Lapp problem. De Lapp's probably, within 12 months, he's probably going to be on loan at Forest within the year. so Pedro has just has managed to make that issue go away through sheer relentless excellence

24:48Barry Glendenning:It's probably worth giving Alejandro Garnaccio his flowers for this game as well because he was brilliant he had Matty Cash on toast but when he puts in a performance like that it's almost infuriating I'd say if you're a Chelsea fan because he does it so infrequently you go well why don't you do this more often you don't expect it every game but he was outstanding last night as well.

25:14Robyn Cowen:No, you're right. It just seems to be sort of one in every six or seven. That's the problem with Garnaccio. But yeah, clearly, I mean, still a long way, you know, he's still very, very young and yeah, can certainly improve that consistency. So Aston Villa remain in fourth, Chelsea and Liverpool behind them on two points and they They are Manchester United in third after a very entertaining game at St. James's Park. Newcastle 2, Manchester United 1. Jacob Ramsey sent off for a second bookable offence after a dive, sort of. But it looked like he wasn't really asking for anything. And then he was given a yellow card.

25:54Robyn Cowen:But despite that, Newcastle managed to get through this game. And I know Barney Rone has alluded to this, but Michael Carrick, looking more like a detective in a gritty crime drama set on the coast by the day um perhaps his best friend's daughter has gone missing and he owes him a favor um even when manchester united um equalized here he still had that look that thousand yard stare um and so john carrick out first defeat now under his charge here's where the decline begins here's where we

26:26John Brewin:all you know yeah here's where we reach for the criticism of Jim Ratcliffe Jason Wilcox out what a disgrace one of the reasons Manchester United lost it is because they were trying to win it at the end which they left themselves open for Sula to score that fantastic goal and it was a fantastic goal remember actually he scored very early in the season a late goal for Newcastle against Liverpool and then was overshadowed by Ungamoa's late goal in an early season classic that we had. What a finish, by the way. Brilliant goal. Michael Carrick, of course, remained impassive in the style of a detective in a Midwestern US town.

27:17John Brewin:He took the defeat really well. there was no Amorim-style histrionics afterwards of digging out the players or anything like that. I suppose Michael Richards made a good point, which is that United are asked to play over twice in a week and have sagged a little bit with having to do that. Casemiro, you'd suspect, probably isn't capable of playing two games in a week these days, picking up a couple of injuries. but let's actually credit Newcastle for the grit. Kieran Trippier, a manager's dream, isn't he? I mean, Kieran Trippier is one of those players that you watch is either hurt himself, hurting someone else or is down or is talking or is at it.

28:04John Brewin:You know, that's his game and I think he sent Isula away for that goal but before that he was saying that he was injured and that his calf or something had given out and just he's all action. I remember watching him play as a youth player and that was what he was like then. He's just always in the action and a few Newcastle players have felt that a player was obviously key to them staying up and key to their establishment, that it was time up for him. But he's one of those players, a bit like, say, Seamus Coleman for Everton and Ireland, that, you know, put him into a game and he'll do that job for you.

28:43John Brewin:He is a warrior and Dan Byrne, of course, is the classic of that. And Newcastle dug it out. Credit to them. It's something that they've not done enough this season. You could see the relief on Eddie and Jason's face afterwards. They were trying to remain calm. And when the final whistle came, there was just this great big gleam from Jason Tindall. He could only gleam, I suppose.

29:16John Brewin:Manchester United I should say because it is of course Newcastle United have a poor record at St James's it's one of those places and it always seems to be played at night that game and it's always a big stormy occasion that they fall foul there and if there's anyone aside from Sunderland that Newcastle enjoy beating it is what they call Man U so there you go credit to them great win brilliant goal

29:43Robyn Cowen:yeah I mean they did deserve it didn't they I mean they started really well and then you thought oh maybe maybe it won't be their night because of the red card but Anthony Gordon scored a penalty after Bruno Fernandes brought him down and then yes that goal from William Asula I mean the step overs looked like he was trying to step over a particularly tall style in a field it was a bit but the finish was there the finish was there he managed to get over it

30:08Jonathan Liew:sorry what I do want to say about about United and Carrick is that when Carrick took over, there was a lot of stories coming out about how much more fun his training sessions were. The anonymous sources, anonymous dressing room sources were going to the sun and saying, look, Ruben made us do tactics. He would stop the sessions incessantly to move people around and do tactics. And Carrick doesn't make us do that. Carrick, his training sessions are shorter. They're really intense. They're like 60 to 75 minutes long and they're much, much more intense and he doesn't make us do boring tactics. And I find it interesting now a few weeks on that this really intense training session that lasts about 60 to 75 minutes have led to them conceding a lot of goals after the 60th to 75th minutes.

30:56Jonathan Liew:So they conceded it. There was a late goal against Arsenal. There was 85th and 90th against Fulham. Now 90th against Newcastle. Half of the goals that they conceded under Carrick have been after the 80th minute. They're in totally uncharted territory. It's like, hang on, this game lost 90 minutes. What are we doing? I'm knackered. We haven't trained for this. But, you know, I think personally that's why I think Carrick maybe hasn't, he's obviously done a lot of work on culture and tactics and basically getting the vibes right, getting the dressing room back on side. he's not done it doesn't seem to have done a lot of work on the longer term strategy which suggests to me that there may be no longer term strategy that maybe he doesn't want it maybe he doesn't maybe he's not really looking beyond these few weeks because what what he seems to be doing how he's training these players is exactly what you do if you if you're looking for a little short-term burst of energy uh but you're not thinking too much about about how it's going to pan out in

31:56Robyn Cowen:the longer run i mean you couldn't blame him really um given given what's going on there But yeah, so yeah, a bit of a blow for Man United's European push. Newcastle, I mean, realistically have nothing to play for on the league now. Go up to 12th, but a great night for them. On to Fulham 0, West Ham United 1. Huge win this for West Ham United. Somerville with the winner. Eight goals in 13 in 2026 now. And it seems, Barry, that Nuno is a sort of, I don't know, a kind of striker whisperer sort of. He's working his magic that he managed with Chris Wood on Somerville.

32:30Barry Glendenning:now well i mean if west ham needed anything it's a a striker whisperer they could have done one with one about 20 years ago and yeah if if that is his gift then hold on to him for dear life west ham i mean they must have got a great um boost when they saw the fulham team sheet and harry wilson wasn't in it that's that would have definitely put a spring in the collective west Sam's step he was out with a foot injury apparently I thought they deserved this win to be honest Fulham weren't great West Ham were quite courageous in that they weren't prepared to settle for a draw they tried to get the win and eventually they got the win and they had to rely on a sort of comedy mix-up between Bert Leno and Calvin Bassie to get their goal but it was a well-taken goal with Jarrett Bowen teeing up Somerville to score into a sort of empty net and this is I mean Spurs fans that have been watching this game with their heads in their hands, this is a terrible result for Spurs it's a brilliant result for West Ham I for one am delighted because I can't be the only person who thinks it would be absolutely hilarious if Spurs got relegated.

33:54Robyn Cowen:Yeah, we have had word from our noble leader, who's back in Australia, who just simply said Spurs are fucked. So yeah, more on that later.

34:04Barry Glendenning:He also texted me to tell me to buy a EuroMillions ticket. So he might be planning on just fleeing. He's trying to get a war chest together.

34:18Robyn Cowen:Yeah, we could join you on your post-England World Cup victory. exile. But yes, back to this game. I mean, it could have gone either way, couldn't it? They both had penalty shouts turned down. Well, actually it was given Fulham's one, but it was overturned by VAR.

34:38Jonathan Liew:Players like Juan Bissaka and Diouf, who spent most of the season basically being condemned as not good enough. You know, we looked at this West Ham team and said, like, they are not, in terms of individual quality good enough to stay up. But that's not always how it works. The signing of Castellanos has given them a lot of energy, I think. It's given them a new dimension. Somerville is turning into their Carlos Tevez, their 2007 Carlos Tevez. And I thought the goal looked like this kind of almost random freakish piece of quasi-football. But if you look at what actually happened, Jared Bowen, it's a long ball from Fernandes and Bowen chases it down.

35:24Jonathan Liew:And he's chasing down, like it's basically a lost cause because obviously Leno's going to get there. There's a defender in the way. Why are you chasing this down? But it's the perfect metaphor for the West Ham mission. You are constantly chasing down this entirely hopeless cause. And Bowen's the perfect guy to do it as well. The guy who will chase down that cause all night. And just every so often, it pays off and he wins the ball and Somerville puts it away. I just thought that was a really telling, symbolic moment of what it is to play for West Ham, to support West Ham, to just follow this, do this walking zombie corpse all the way through to the end.

36:05Jonathan Liew:And I can't, I can't, honestly, I can't believe they'll stay up, which is exactly, I think, why they'll stay up.

36:10Robyn Cowen:West Ham remain in the bottom three, but are now level on points with Forrest on 28. So a bona fide relegation fight we have, which we haven't really had in the last couple of seasons. Now, on to tonight's game. Oh, we need to have skin in the game. This is going to be absolutely glorious. Spurs against Palace. Macy says, are Spurs actually a social experiment on how much the human psyche could endure? And yeah, I mean, that's a good, good question. And I mean, the introduction, I feel, of Igor Tudor has really elevated the Spurs social experiment as well. I mean, he's rode a little bit back on the criticism of every single aspect of his squad ahead of this one.

36:52Robyn Cowen:He says, it's me sending a message to everyone that I do not accept the situation. We move on. We had a good but short period to prepare for the next game and I've seen the guys react really well. John, you were at Tudor's press conference yesterday. Your impressions of the man?

37:07John Brewin:Well, people say he's aggressive, but I'd say he's more passive-aggressive in a fairly... he's actually quite good company in a way. And you could, and you know, sort of teeing up, you know, how much pressure do you get? Are you feeling at the moment? And he said, oh, well, seven. And I was like, what, seven out of 10? He's like, oh, I never said how many it's out of and all this. So he's slightly playful with it. He's, he's all of a, I think I got the impression that someone had told him not to completely keep digging out the players in the fashion he did. But he still did say that this is probably the biggest problems that he's ever had when he's gone into wrestling club.

37:52John Brewin:So, you know, the players were talking to each other and it seems to suggest that that's a good thing. He's in such a difficult position. There were wild and crazy rumours that this is his final game in charge, which I think is absolutely crazy. And if that does happen, that's not actually Igor Tudor's fault. That's the people that run Tottenham's fault if that happens. They've made a completely wrong choice. He's just like, well, eventually we'll have to work out and find a solution. At no point did he say, I've got the solution to this. He spent a lot of time talking about the players that were injured, which probably tells you that he holds out hope that some of them might return.

38:32John Brewin:Just Spurs, at the heart of Spurs, and I find this, there's been such a complacency at that club. There's been such a complacency that this was the club that wanted to be a member of the Super League, that just thought by hiring big-name managers that could remain part of the elite. And then, you know, they actually win a trophy. But it seems to pay... I've sacked the manager, but then just thought, OK, we can just reset as a top-six club again and back we go. But that can't just happen, and it hasn't happened. And players they have are not fit for what they're supposed to be doing. And even the better players are either too young in the case of, say, Bergvall and Archie Gray or flawed in the case of Romero and Mickey van der Ven.

39:27John Brewin:It's just, it's a mess. And it's a lesson to everybody that you just can't try and get away with it. And that seems to be what they've done. And then at the heart of the club, we had the change of Daniel Levy. And then we don't even know. I think someone was saying the other day that the people that actually own the club aren't even on the director's list or anything like that. It's just a complete mess. And it's of their own making. And if you're a Tottenham fan, you're paying all that money. You're just looking at it going, how did we get in this mess? Igor Tudor cannot be held responsible for the state that Tottenham are in at the moment.

40:03John Brewin:and I think he knows that and I think he knows that eventually he'll get a bonus if they stay up but I don't think he'll be staying next season. No one's clamouring for Igor to stay probably at least of all the players but anyway, that game against Palace yeah, massive. I mean, who would have thought that Spurs v Crystal Palace would be the game of the season that we all want to watch but it feels like it, doesn't it? It feels like, yeah, oh God, I can't miss this one. Can I cancel all plans tonight? Yeah, all right, I'm staying in for that one.

40:34Robyn Cowen:Well, because also Palace have Oliver Glasner, who seems to be on a knife edge the whole time as well. But Jonny, your perspective as the Spurs fan here, how has it come to this? I mean, how much of that do you agree with Jon?

40:46Jonathan Liew:I agree with pretty much all of it. I mean, with, I guess, a little bit of a company and gallows humour. Lots of anyone got a spare to QPR away on the group chats next season. I think it would be marvellous, absolutely fantastic if Spurs had a season in the Championship. And as part of research for this, I was looking up West Ham's 2002-03 season, because I think that they were pretty much the best team, certainly in terms of points. I think they went down with 42 points, but also in terms of quality. You look at a squad that has Freddie Canute and Jermaine Defoe and Joe Cole and Michael Carrick and Trevor Sinclair and Lee Bowyer.

41:33Jonathan Liew:And you think, how did you go down? And I think people will look at this Spurs team and look at the quality of it. How did you do it? How did you end up with 12 points from 19 games? And if they carry on their trajectory, they've been relegation form since about November. and well relegated as well, not even close, it's got to the point where they actually have to turn things around now. I think they can't rely on West Ham dropping points and Boris dropping points. They have to, I think they have to believe that they're going to probably need four or five wins to keep themselves up. Otherwise, that's going to be it for them.

42:14Jonathan Liew:And if that doesn't induce a sort of sense of mission and resolve that is going to keep them up. I don't know what is, to be honest, because there's just nothing happening there. The patient is basically dead on the slab and it's like defibrillation time. It's clear and you're plugging the wires together.

42:36Robyn Cowen:Oh, it's just too delicious, isn't it? Yeah, put the kids to bed early.

42:41Jonathan Liew:Lincoln City against Tottenham is going to be a league game next season. a league game between Lincoln and Tottenham.

42:50Robyn Cowen:It'll be Friday night on Sky Sports EFL

42:53Jonathan Liew:and I will be watching.

42:55Robyn Cowen:Yeah, wonderful stuff, everyone. That'll do part two. In part three, we'll preview the FA Cup and talk KSI becoming a shareholder at Dagenham and Redbridge.

43:11Robyn Cowen:And welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So yes, the FA Cup returns this weekend. Wolves against Liverpool again at Molyneux on Friday. And then on Saturday, we have Mansfield against Arsenal. Wrexham against Chelsea. Newcastle against Manchester City. Barry, any of those really tickle your fans? There's quite a few interesting ties there.

43:32Barry Glendenning:Yeah, I've had a feeling for a long time that Wrexham are either going to win the FA Cup or get promoted to the Premier League this season. They're at home to Chelsea Saturday night. obviously we'll have all the Hollywood nonsense. Given how good they were last night, I would not be at all surprised if Chelsea were an absolute dog's breakfast on Saturday at the race course. They should win. No idea what kind of team Leemar Senior will pick, but that is obviously an interesting tie given the Wrexham story. I presume everyone wants Mansfield to beat Arsenal because it's a classic giant killer fare.

44:15Barry Glendenning:They're at home, but Arsenal, whatever team they put out, should be more than good enough to beat them. You never know. The Wolves-Liverpool one is a bit meh. I don't really care who wins that. I mean, Wolves should be going all out to try and win the FA Cup, but they probably won't win it. Because they probably won't be good enough to win it, but who knows.

44:39John Brewin:I'm going to that one, Barry, so I'm glad you really teed it up for me.

44:45Barry Glendenning:Well, I think it's obviously the least interesting of those. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot about Newcastle and Man City. That's beautiful.

44:53John Brewin:Newcastle should be going all out to try and win there for a couple as well. But I was thinking the results this week meant that Rob Edwards won't rest players for the relegation. What was his decision over resting players for the Premier League? because Wolves are probably cooked by now. I mean, funny enough, when I was at Tottenham, a few of the sort of cub reporters there were trying to work out how many points Wolves can get because they were now considered a threat to Tottenham in their relegation battle. You mentioned Wrexham. I don't know, did we do this story about how Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, as we have to call him these days, are going to be doing their, and it's probably not good news for you this, Robin, doing their football commentary debut during Wrexham's match with Swansea on Sky.

45:46John Brewin:You can listen to them commentating. They've asked for the bleep button because they're wild and crazy guys. I mean, you can imagine my thoughts on this. I probably don't want to voice them.

45:59Robyn Cowen:This is another Games Gone moment, isn't it? And I, for one, hope they totally mess this up and are awful, obviously, in my interest. but I mean it might be really good I think it could be good and this I think this might be where it's going actually you know TNT had they kind of dabbled with it in the Women's FA Cup they had comedian Maisie Adam and I think her podcast pal Susie Ruffell doing a little bit of the commentary or it might have been on Sky actually so yeah it's you know these experiments are there so

46:31John Brewin:TNT had Noel Gallaher didn't they when City got gumped by Sporting Lisbon and Noel didn't say a word in the second half It was great listening, actually.

46:42Robyn Cowen:So the Saturday ties look fairly good. Sunday ties, Fulham against Southampton, Port Vale against Sunderland. Yeah, great for Port Vale after they beat Bristol City in midweek. And I mean, this feels like a big opportunity for Sunderland, actually, Barry, to make the quarterfinals of the competition.

47:03Barry Glendenning:It is a big opportunity. and it's also, I'm looking at it and thinking it's one they could very well lose. And obviously the people's choice will be Port Vale to win that. They're at home. I guess Regis Libreel gave a chance to fringe players, although he doesn't really have much of a choice at the moment because Sunderland have quite a few people out injured. But that's ripe for an upset, but Sunderland should win it. I'm drawn Leeds-Norwich is clearly the least interesting of all the ties I think but it's a Daniel Farke derby there so that's the main talking point there isn't it Sam Byram derby

47:51John Brewin:John Newsome

47:52Robyn Cowen:I thought Leeds and Norwich would be a well trodden path

47:55John Brewin:Robert Snodgrass

47:56Robyn Cowen:good stuff good knowledge yeah on Monday West Ham against Brentford I mean neither side will be that

48:02Jonathan Liew:Is it another of those Friday to Monday deals as well?

48:06Robyn Cowen:Yeah.

48:06Jonathan Liew:It's like a really shit Nations League. I don't know. It's not... We talked about Wrexham and, you know, it's not for me. I don't find it interesting, but I'm not going to shit talk it. You know, the FA Cup, I plan other stuff on FA Cup weekend because it just holds very little interest for me. But that's just me.

48:25Robyn Cowen:Well, occasionally it's gone from Thursday to Tuesday, I think, sometimes. So, yeah, just be grateful that it's just the four-day spread this time around.

48:31Jonathan Liew:It's a disgrace.

48:32Robyn Cowen:Well, talking of a disgrace, KSI has, well, as you know, that's a bit harsh. That's a bit harsh, isn't it? So he has taken over at Dagenham. His money is from YouTube subscribers. So 17 million he's got.

48:46Jonathan Liew:Look, I mean, I watched him. I remember watching him. This would have been like 10, 12 years ago, watching him. He played FIFA. That's how he got famous. He played FIFA on his YouTube channel and he was very entertaining. You could watch him play FIFA and he would just scream and shout and gesticulate and people flocked to him. Young people liked to watch this guy go nuts playing FIFA. And then came the rap career, the music career, the business investments, this energy drink, this prime energy drink. That's him. There was the boxing. He's symptomatic of this era where if you can get people's eyeballs, that is basically the currency of the world these days.

49:33Jonathan Liew:Everything from politics to sport to the media, your metric is how many people can you get to look at you. And if you're good at that, if you're skilled, and he undoubtedly is, he's a genius at that kind of stuff, then you're qualified to do anything. Somehow you can be a football commentator, you can be a football owner, you can box, you can make drinks to sell us. The world will just reward you in endless ways. And so I don't condone or – no, I do condemn this. because I think it's a really morally redundant world that we've created. But that is what he is. He's the guy who can play this world and who embodies it better than anyone else.

50:14Jonathan Liew:And just the doors will swing open because everyone is after that essential currency. How do we get young people to watch this thing? And everyone is trying to crack this code and he's cracked it. And he has the keys.

50:29Robyn Cowen:Producer Joel has asked, how do we get those eyeballs? I will tell you, Barry, live streaming your jog, they're going to come in their millions. Are we going for a run today?

50:38Barry Glendenning:Yeah, yeah. Don't sound too enthusiastic. I'm not enthusiastic. I hate it. It's really unpleasant. People keep telling me, oh, you'll learn to love it. No, it's not. I just hate it every time. It's not too long today, though. I think it's only four and a half miles today, only, in inverted commas. But, yeah, that's a nice short one these days.

51:08Robyn Cowen:Yeah, I think it's very impressive, though, Barry, and even more impressive, we've just learned the totaliser is over 44 grand at the time of recording. I mean, it is quite incredible, the pressure on this man.

51:21Barry Glendenning:The generosity, but it's not generosity, it's vindictiveness. and I can see through these people with their generosity and every penny of that 44 grand is going towards sick children and I begrudge them every penny of it. I should be getting at least half.

51:43Robyn Cowen:Give me that drip. So if you want to contribute, just search Barry Glendening on Just Giving and that'll do for today. Thank you very much Barry And well I won't say enjoy Endure the run I will indeed

52:00Barry Glendenning:Yes Thank you

52:01Robyn Cowen:Thank you so much Johnny

52:03Barry Glendenning:Cheers Robin

52:04Robyn Cowen:And thank you to John

52:06John Brewin:Thanks for having me Robin

52:09Robyn Cowen:Our hero returns on Monday Max will be back live From his shed in Melbourne Probably on about three hours I thought I was the hero

52:15Barry Glendenning:For doing all my good work For charity That I don't like to talk about But somehow managed to mention Every week without fail

52:22Robyn Cowen:Yeah no absolutely you hate to talk about it and Max hates to talk about how little sleep he gets as a father of two I'm sure that won't be mentioned as he returns to his shed in Melbourne probably on about three hours sleep but he has had a very long flight which is wonderful solitude Football Weekly is produced by Tayo Papula and Jesse Howard and our executive producer is Joel Grove