Wasteful Leeds pegged back at Everton and an EFL roundup – Football Weekly podcast

28:49Bringing you back to EFL, there's talk of Nigel Pearson going to Leicester. I'm sure we'll talk about that. And he's already had two spells there. And at least he kind of has all that credit there to kind of then go in there and have a different reputation with the players and the club and a bit of deference, perhaps. And Carrick gets that at Man United because of what he's done in the past. And so I think that kind of intangible is the bit that gives Carrick that edge. And I actually think he'll do okay because of it, which is a weird one because, you know, what's he actually done? Not a huge amount.

29:20George Elek:But my understanding, George, was actually at Middlesbrough, he really got them playing quite quickly and then it didn't carry it on afterwards. yeah i mean there are definite similarities to what happened early on in carrick's reign where he came into a side um really down i mean they were they were either in the relegation zone or just outside i think they were in the relegation zone when he came in after sacking chris wilder and and a club that basically needed an injection of quality energy and everything else and carrick got it straight away and they went on this ridiculous run and for a time they looked like they might even crash the top two and chubarak pom in particular um found a goal scoring season that can kind of rerouted the trajectory of his career so in that sense it tracks identically like manchester united sacked manager they're really down even though the position wasn't that bad they needed an injection of energy and quality and they got it straight away by beating manchester city and arsenal longer term would be where my my issues would probably come in where you know that he was sacked by Middlesbrough for his performance like this wasn't a case of character saying I've had enough here Middlesbrough fans by the end of his reign weren't enjoying the style of football at all they saw it as being overly possession-based but you know if you're a championship manager and you're that's your criticism you're probably going to benefit by having much better players to execute your your kind of in-possession plan um defensively they were never you know their best attacking moments they were always pretty poor in the back but you You know, again, it's his first job.

30:49I'm sure Michael Carrick would have learnt a lot from that first job. Yeah, my warnings would be just, you know, whether or not, and of course what they did with Solskjaer back in the day, maybe not to give him a three-year contract off the back of a few wins. But, you know, it's not a huge surprise, I wouldn't say, to see him come in and lift the place immediately.

31:05George Elek:Back to the championship then. So Coventry have 58 points, Middles with 55, that's the top two. Then Ali, you've got Ipswich and Hull on 50 points, Millwall on 49, bit of a jump to Wrexham on 44. and then what Bristol City, Watford, Preston, Stoke, Derby is incredibly tight below then. Who are you looking at in those teams that I have read out in an exciting list? Well, fourth, fifth, sixth at the moment, Hull, Millwall and Wrexham. They are in those positions because, certainly Hull and Wrexham, because the last eight, ten games have gone really, really well. So in the championship, you know, it's hard not to be blinded by those who've been picking up results most recently.

31:42Hull have been a massive story all season. They are, in terms of if you wanted a season ticket anywhere, you would want it at Hull City because they score so many goals. They're really exciting, really attack minded, but leave the door open massively at the back. They've conceded 40 goals in 28 games, which is one of the worst defensive records in the league. But they end up on the right side of these crazy high scoring games more often than not. Millwall have picked up again in the last couple of weeks after a strong start to the season, gave them a good foundation. the way they've played particularly in the last two or three games Charlton game in particular Watford game springs to mind really exciting getting some players back from injury and Alex Neal is just a very savvy operator at the level and then Wrexham who have come on unbelievably strongly after taking a month or two to kind of get to grips with championship football and the style of play that they would need to kind of take on compared to in the National League League 2 and League 1 where they've spent the last three seasons previously and also more or less a whole new team which they bought in the summer and eventually Parkinson as he has done in the last three seasons has got them rolling where you know he's now got a very clear style of play it's creating a fair amount of chances for them and they've got an excellent group of attacking players particularly they get a lot off the bench when they're chasing games scoring twice in injury time to come back and beat QPR on the weekend a good example of that none of these are the perfect team and that's why it's exciting because at the moment Bristol City Watford, Preston, Stoke, Derby, QPR, they're all looking upwards and wondering, have we got enough to make the playoffs?

33:13But I dare say with another 17, 18 games to go, all of the teams we're talking about will have another strong spell and probably all of them will have another bad spell. So it's a very entertaining game of footballing musical chairs.

33:25George Elek:Just in that QPR Wrexham game, Harvey Vale's opener for QPR is just an unbelievable volley, like left-footed volley, sort of behind him. I mean, Rathbone's winner was good, but that was a brilliant goal and it was nice for me to learn that steve cook plays for qpr uh sanny you wanted to come in well just to give kieran maguire another name drop i don't know if you saw that he tweeted out rexham have issued one additional share for 47.83 million pounds as would kieran just yesterday actually and i just double check with him the the rough share price generally at rexham is about four between four to eight quid i think so that money's come from the u.s holding company that has four million shares in the club already and that would therefore give them it's all within PSR but it then means that money can go towards transfers and the like so you know we've got another transfer window closing on the 2nd of February so next Monday and expect some movement from Wrexham just to mention on Hull I've seen Hull the last two games and Olly McBurney is having a great time but just on that they have been under a transfer embargo so Sergei Yakirovich has been doing all this with loan signings and done a fantastic job, considering that, yeah, they can go all hell for leather and they are able to sit back as well, albeit against Swansea on the weekend.

34:43They kind of just let Swansea come back into it, but were able to hold on. But yeah, they've been very impressive. And you mentioned, by the way, right at the start, Preston are doing well. Preston are now doing terribly. I've watched a couple of their games in a row as well. The pitch hasn't been invested in at all. like if you were looking at that game you would be you'd assume it was league two and it was a giant that had fallen like the pitch is proper old school against Hull they uh the first goal they'd worked a corner and they'd over committed but the ball got stuck in the mud and then it allowed Hull to break and score right the fans are really not happy with that and it add into all of this by the way uh Militin Ozmaic who you recall had the ban for uh racially abusing abusing Hannibal Medjabry in the Burnley game last February, which he vehemently denied in that whole game, decided to headbutt John Lundstrom.

35:32And he can't deny that. These days, it could be a deep fake. It could be AI. It could be AI. You're right.

35:37George Elek:Yeah, yeah, yeah. He bit Owen Beck at Blackburn the season before. So now this ban, I'm not sure how long he's got now, but I think it's roughly around 21 games he'll have missed over a season and a bit. So that's just another story. but yeah, Preston have completely fallen off a cliff and Osmaiic hasn't helped things either. Producer Joel's saying maybe that pitch would be a leveler and Pele could score against Preston. At the bottom, Martin says, what are the EFL going to do to Wednesday when we can't put a team out in a few weeks' time? Vulture's circling for first team as young players getting injured by playing too many games when they're not ready.

36:11George Elek:Barry Bannon's set to leave. Quite emotional shots of him applauding the crowd in the last match. and Ali like I saw there was sort of a moment of hope wasn't there you know when the big screen was like you know reboot and all this and Wednesday are back what's happened? Well the administrators are still in kind of trying to do their thing which I guess is try and save a sinking ship that has just absurd financial issues and no one putting money into the club and loads and loads and loads of costs every single month that need to be paid. And all the while trying to find a new owner among, as you can imagine, a list of kind of prospective owners that involves probably some tyre kickers, probably some that might be all right and some that feel maybe like they wouldn't be great, but you kind of just need them right now in order for the club to complete the season and continue existing.

37:10So, you know, off the pitch, it's just it's just a case of pure survival mode at the moment from a financial standpoint. And that's why Bannon will have to leave. That's why they can't really resist those sorts of offers, because Bannon will be on a hefty wage. You know, it is as simple as meeting the wage bill every single month. So the month of January that needs to be met this week, February next month. and they have to keep cotton casts and or find ways of bringing in money the only way of doing that because season tickets are sold months and months ago that money was burned off well early on the only way of doing that is by selling players right now and and uh bannon is the the first teamer that's leaving and the and the best player and the star player and the the kind of beacon of hope but they're also selling off all their best academy kids uh some of whom 17 18 years old have had to play a lot of games recently because as has been alluded to in the question they just don't have very many senior players and a lot of them are injured because they've been absolutely flogged by having to play every single minute so yeah uh they're selling off a lot of the the the family silver if you like and that's incredibly i mean it's all just still horrendous for the wednesday fans even if getting chan ziri out was a big moment and should be the first major step in a turnaround but it's a turnaround that doesn't happen at the click of a fingers It's going to take many months and, dare I say, many years for the damage to be repaired as long as someone does buy the club and a deal gets done that has the best interests of the club at hand.

38:43So, yeah, I mean, it's interesting from a player welfare point of view, because I sort of understand that the question that they are kind of running out of players. And obviously, they're also under various embargoes, I think, because of previous indiscretions and bills not being paid and whatnot. That's kind of automatic for EFL clubs. You have to be placed under embargo in order to stop you doing it. But in this instance, it is probably quite bad for the players' welfare that they are being forced to play all of these games. injuries are being picked up young players are being played far too many senior minutes than they would ordinarily be and um i don't necessarily know how this could work but if there were a way of allowing them to sign half a dozen new senior players ideally who can handle the physical side of it they need to be able to kind of get to the season i mean they've lost their last fire five games they haven't scored in their last six so on the pitch it's it's all she wrote there's no there's no question about that but they still need to fulfill their fixtures they're on minus

39:41George Elek:seven points then at the bottom above them george oxford your oxford 27 black men 29 portsmouth 30 west brom 32 charlton 32 uh norwich 33 but sort of going upwards maybe this always happens in the championship but you sort of look at that and you think oh there's some big sides in in trouble here i'm just looking at you know which game i have to fly back for when the user in league one you know ewood park you know the hawthorns what do you make of it at the bottom yeah it's it's it's becoming clearer now who is going to be involved in this relegation battle you know there was this idea that norwich would probably get get out of it they're obviously not out of it yet they're only four points clear but the way that they're going you think they'll leave it behind pretty quickly the same can be said of sheffield united and swansea have been brilliant under the tomatoes and look like they're um putting their bad start to the season to uh you know to bed charlton sorry producer Joel look to me probably the worst team in the league apart from Sheffield Wednesday at the moment as is often the case with teams that win promotion out of um League One and especially through the playoffs or any league really you know you start the season with a bit of a bang because you're you know the the confidence is still there um and then as the physical demands on a small squad become more and more and maybe teams work out um a bit better what your side of players and the way you approach games um things kind of tail off a bit and Charlton the team right now who you know the performance against Millwall uh on Saturday I mean Millwall were excellent and were deserving of their win but Charlton couldn't really get anywhere near them and it was a complete mismatch in terms of quality and they're a team who now just three points clear of the bottom three look in real trouble West Brom fans will believe that they're in massive trouble Eric Ramsey's come in and it's been a pretty disastrous first three games for him although Chris Meppham's last minute equaliser uh on Friday night they always play on Friday night was enough to at least get his first point you know there were some signs in the Middlesbrough game they lost 3-2 but again like they're probably the one team you would expect to improve enough to get out of the mess but um you know they're running out of time Pompey and Blackburn are both definitely in trouble um Portsmouth's business in the in the January window so far it's pretty good Ebu Adams has come in and made an immediate impact scored a goal um that certainly came off his hand the what is it El Coastical or whatever they call it now against Southampton and Blackburn under Vlerian Ishmael looking in real trouble.

41:56Oxford put a brilliant performance away at Leicester on Saturday who Oxford's last three wins have come against Leicester, Ipswich, Southampton, the three relegated teams from last season in the Premier League which is quite strange. All three of them coming under different managers as well. Matt Bloomfield's come in and has been, I guess, a bit of an antidote to Gary Rowan in terms of the way that he talks, the celebration in front of the fans and the way and very passionate wants his players to play with a certain degree of freedom and on the front foot and the fans are buying into it but the one team to mention at this point we keep being told that we're going to find out about Leicester's points deduction soon and it does feel like noises are coming around that it could be imminent and if Leicester are deducted the nine points that has been widely kind of discussed then that would put them level on points for Blackburn in 22nd and anyone who's seen Leicester to play football in the last six weeks eight weeks will know that even though they've got a lot of players who are way too good to be down at the bottom of the championship Jordan James Abdul Fattahou amongst others they're one of the worst teams in the league at the moment and I think if the deduction is nine they've sat the manager Martis Fuentes we'll have to see who they bring in some talk of Rauert going in which I think given the the players they've got um I personally think you'd want a manager to come in and not play kind of pragmatic football you want someone to come in breathe life into the players that they've got who should be able to dominate games at the level I think Leicester could be in massive massive trouble if they get that nine points deduction and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them in a properly in a scrap at the bottom and

43:26George Elek:between now and the end of the season it's going to be fascinating at the bottom you look primed Ali I was about to move on to league one but you look so ready to say something it was it was just quite funny that George said that Bloomfield was the antidote to Rowett as if they were sort of chemical properties and then if Rowett is the answer for Leicester then that means he's the antidote to the fuentes who could be that's my issue who might be the antidote to val ishmael if he gets sacked at blackburn who then might be the antidote to i don't know sheffield wednesday if they ever need any right so you're thinking about sort of a chemistry are you you envisaging sort of superheroes and kryptonite and that kind of thing exactly or like a chemistry like beakers and pipettes that's exactly what i'm imagining yeah they need to find us if winter's antidote i'm not sure it's gaz so that's my that's my concern they're going to treat the suspect with the wrong the wrong efl man if you pipette a little bit of gary rowat into the sif wentes beaker it won't do what you want it to do it might be something yeah it's possible it'll get launched the beaker will get launched won't it as an ex-science teacher i'm getting hives this is just so wrong you know i spent 10 years teaching kids the periodic table and here you are talking about bloody homeopathy for football managers i'm not liking this okay well okay well we'll end this part and in part three we will discuss the halogens.

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45:59George Elek:Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So, look, the top of League One, Cardiff 56 points, Lincoln 52, Bolton 46, Bradford 46, Stockport 46. a bit of a jump down to Huddersfield then come Luton, Stevenage, Peterborough and Exeter I mean the story Sani is Lincoln isn't it we all know Cardiff are great and Brian Barry Murphy's in a great job and they should win the league but for Lincoln to still be on their coattails it's just phenomenal it is amazing um and Michael Scabala takes all the credit here um Leeds fans will remember him because he had a spell as interim manager as well but they've just done so well and it's not like it's you know there's no like big bad evil uh oligarch behind all this although uh the boys are going to probably turn around and go actually there's a there's an investment firm in here um but yeah well that's an incredible run and the fact that being able to keep it up and go up against like the big teams in the division as well and hold their own is is really something i mean i joke last time that the the prospects of west ham lincoln in the in the championship.

47:02It's a very real possibility, but it would only be there on merit. I mean, it is amazing. They are 10 unbeaten now and the goals are coming from everywhere. Hackett's got, what, seven, I think? Draper as well, doing well. And then Jack Moylan with a double against Burton. So they've got a great range and they're not afraid to go out there and just go and attack. And that's really refreshing. and as much as Brian Barry Murphy is bringing the kids and play possession football and stuff, just having a team kind of play without fear in Lincoln has been very exciting and yeah, very much deserved to be there.

47:44They do stick it in the mixer a lot, Max, which I think you appreciate.

47:48George Elek:Yeah, that's what you want to see. I mean, it feels straight back down, but you never know, maybe they could be like Cambridge in 91 when we got to the playoffs in the old second division and actually we were top of the old second division, just sticking it in the mixer. We would have been in the Premier League for the first year of the Premier League. It would have been so good to see that football mixing it at the top. Ali, of those sort of there or thereabouts sides, who are you pinning your hopes on? I mean, they're all kind of there or thereabouts in different shapes and sizes. Bolton have probably got a points tally that doesn't reflect how good they've been in a lot of their games this season.

48:31They've been that sort of team that's just in the final action, in the opposition box, they've been quite wasteful at times and then give away soft goals at the back, but actually are a pretty dominant side and a good side. So they're in third at the moment, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have a strong end to the season. Bradford struggling in attack, just dropping away with three defeats in their last four, but their last two defeats against Cardiff and away at Huddersfield. There's no great shame there, and I definitely don't think their story is kind of finished. It's not a case that they'll obviously drop out of the top six, but they need to kind of find something again.

49:06Stockport expected to have a strong end to the season as well under Dave Channiner, who's a manager that only ever finishes in the top six and quite often in the top two divisions. And then Huddersfield are interesting because they sacked their manager Lee Grant last week. They replaced him with Liam Manning. This time last year, Liam Manning was taking Bristol City into their highest finish in decades into the championship playoffs then got a move off the back of that to Norwich which couldn't have gone any worse and now finds himself back in League One again so it's a classic game of managerial snakes and ladders which is what happens a lot in the EFL it's probably a pretty good appointment you have to say for Huddersfield because Manning's done a lot of very good jobs as well as that one really really bad one and they looked pretty good in his first game Luton just outside it three points back Jack Wilshere in charge I wouldn't say he's made a massive difference to be honest they're quite good at home and they're not particularly good on their travels and they're still working a lot out you know when you suffer back-to-back relegations from premier league to league one and you have these huge squads which look good on paper but which i think in reality actually can cause quite a lot of confusion at the training ground and and and make it difficult to find like a a rhythm and a consistent team selection something they're still struggling with 27 games in so um there's some quite sort of formed teams in mid-table now.

50:19Posh, Exeter, Argyle as well have flown up the table recently, but they've all got quite a lot of work to do, I would suggest, to hunt down that group of playoff teams who are all, you know, kind of sharks, I would say. Bolton, Stockport, Huddersfield in particular.

50:33George Elek:Isleon Manning, the league-run antidote. That's what we need to know. Look, at the bottom of League One, Port Vale have 18 points, Rotherham 25, Doncaster 27, Northampton 29. So just outside of the relegation zone, Burton, you know, who have been circling the drain for ages but you never know they could just sneak out of it Wigan at AFC Wimbledon at Blackpool George you pointed me in the direction of the Doncaster Wigan highlights a great game including one absolutely tremendous yeah an incredible game Doncaster fans will I mean I'm sure are still wondering how they didn't win it they went two to it up relatively routinely Wigan barely in the game whatsoever and then the goal of a game scored by harry clifton um where the ball came into the box and will amerson the wigan defender tried to clear it and he missed the board and fell over and therefore went to james carrigan son of jamie who then kind of shanked his clearance towards the now uh prostrate um amerson who last lying on the floor could only head the ball whilst lying on the floor into the path of clifton to sweep home um it was basically like a cross in the box set down header into the path of someone but the only thing was the the attacking player was just assisted by two defenders it was incredible to watch and at that point you're thinking if you're a Wigan fan like can this get any worse with three nil down we've just seen our defender lying on the floor assister goal um and they scored three goals with basically their only three well three very rare attacks within the game and Doncaster nearly won it and hit the post in injury time too so crazy game Wigan wondering how they managed to get out of it a comedy goal and Doncaster who in 22nd and three points off safety just there's no way they should be there really like they started the season well um they've had a uh a difficult run the performance is now better but the results aren't really coming uh with that um Paul Vale appointed John Brady which you know there's a lot of positivity after a 5-1 win they came a couple of games ago against Blackpool but they've lost both games since and you know with the gap now 12 points it feels like Brady's gonna have to do a ridiculous job to get them out of it uh Rotherham another team that look destined for the drop in my mind Matt Hampshire still there which maybe is a bit of a surprise but they had a better performance that ended a losing streak at home to Wimbledon last time but couldn't get over the line you mentioned Burton and I think Gary Bowyer's done an amazing job to have them where they are continues to kind of punch above their weight but the team even though we're talking about relegation I just want to mention Exeter City who are way clearer at the moment they're seven points clearer the drop in tenth and the job that Gary Caldwell does just it goes massively under the radar really um like exeter have so much to kind of fight against in terms of you know the the fan ownership model meaning and they're very open about this that it's very hard for them to make ends meet um drawing manchester city away in the cup despite that ending in a 10-1 defeat was big for them financially had to deal with a fire at the stadium recently the the geographical impact of being annexed for most of the rest of the of the league and there's something that isn't particularly flashy or exciting about a low budget team consistently punching above their weight and finishing mid-table um but that doesn't detract from the job that he's doing and and i think you know he doesn't get his flowers often enough for what is perceived you know even if you are a team with a budget that's 22nd 23rd you're expected to outperform that but calder does it consistently um and they are especially at home like their home form is remarkable they barely can see the goal um so yeah credit to him and his team league two then Bromley are top 55 points stent very tight Salford 49 MK Dons 47 Cambridge 47 Walsall 47 Swindon 46 Notts County 45 Swindon were second going into the games at the weekend they went to Bromley they should have been they should have been three up a half time I think and then conceding the 89th minute and fells a sixth because everyone else won yeah and Ian Holloway afterwards said I guess we're bottlers I think which I thought was quite you know a refreshing well it's just him isn't it it's just how he is which um he's great i love being holloway i think he's still reeling from the whole uh team sheet fiasco from the from the virtue trophy i mean the virtue trophy they named a player uh not named a player on the bench and on the official team sheet but on the graphic or something i don't know and then he came on and it's all a bit mess so they might get thrown out of the the virtue trophy so that's a little bit of a cloud but yeah they were ahead in this one yeah should have been ahead should have been way ahead and Bromley turned it around.

55:00Nicky Cabamba, who's been like a bit of a non-league journeyman coming off the bench for the winner. So a nice little moment for him. And funny enough, ITV, who I spend a bit of time going, on the commentary, actually did the actual program from Bromley and started with Bromley Swindon. So fair play to them. I think it kind of really brought League Two to life and showed what brilliant work's been done by Andy Woodman, what the club's doing as well. They're on this incredible time and they are embarrassing the rest of the EFL, especially with the free-up campaign from the National League that wants to have an extra promotion place.

55:37Well, you know, if a team come up from the National League and win the bloody league, it kind of tells you that they're at the level. So that needs some resolution, albeit we know the league's run by the clubs and they're all self-serving. So they've done brilliantly. Swindon, I think, will go back right up there. I think they really will. And I was very much a kind of like, what on earth is Ian Holloway doing back in football? And I've been thoroughly proved wrong. Walsall, I think, are defying the numbers. I think they've run out of steam again, having seen them a few times. They played Notts County.

56:09I was there on, well, I think it was New Year's Day or in that period of time. And they're so negative. I can't remember a team going away from home, being so up the table and being so negative. And I'm holding that against them. They're playing with fear. and I'm not sure Matt Sadler's side can do a plan B I think it is quite direct and but yeah I do like Swindon but I do really like what Bromley are doing as well

56:33George Elek:AJ says where did the top 20 boys have Cambridge in their pre-season predictions again yes this is exciting George where are they fourth I think that's where we had them I'm sure that's where we had them fourth what I loved about this is that Max every week you tweet any questions and you so rarely read them out unless they're specifically about Cambridge in this in this particular occasion this was from autumn soccer too right and he said a few questions the first was where did george nanny have cambridge in their pre-season predictions again right the next one was what clubs will be making the playoffs in the championship it feels almost impossible to predict so this very next question he's pointed out how hard it is to predict things happening within the efl even halfway through the season um so so to call us out for not getting can quit cambridge right before a ball was kicked seems unfair um yeah you know cambridge are doing amazing things and i think we we kind of caught on to it relatively early on the pod that it felt like after a middling start suddenly they clicked into being a proper neil harris team of just in in the total chaos that is league two with apart from bromley recently generally the best teams going through periods where they look unstoppable and then going on a really poor run cambridge are that side where you can basically go to their games knowing that they're not going to give much away they're probably going to keep either a clean sheet or concede one goal and they've got enough attacking through us to probably come out of most games having created the better chances because of that low um goal line goal expectancy line against them and that you know in a in a chaotic frantic league where consistency can be so important and crucially in a league where as well as Salford are doing now as well as Swindon have done for much of the season um you know Sani mentioned there about Walsall and their style of play the the style of play that generally gets you up out of league two is the style of play that we're seeing from from walsall from bromley and to an extent cambridge it's low margin stuff it's been pretty attritional and you know it's teams who tend to try and play a bit who go through their poor runs and i think cambridge at this point you know they're how far off bromley are they uh eight points you know they're one of the they're one of the teams in this title race for sure and there's every chance they're finished in the top three oh very so harrison is harrison Bonner look inspired appointments from the club now.

58:44George Elek:How dare you say attritional but I'll take it. Producer Joel says end on this bit please. Well we haven't mentioned Pato. Well I know we haven't but you know Pato wanted to buy someone who's got 30 caps for Brazil buying Colchester is not as important as the attritional form of Cambridge United. We'll do it next time. But look thanks everybody and sorry we didn't get to the bottom of League 2 Harrogate 18 points Newport 20 Bristol Rovers Shrewsbury Crawley and Barrow all in the mix too but that'll do for today. Thanks everybody. Thank you Sanny. Cheers, thank you. Thanks Ali. Thank you very much Max.

59:16George Elek:Cheers George. Thank you Max. Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove. Our executive producer is Daniel Stephens. We'll be back on Thursday.

59:26This is The Guardian.

59:36Scotland has natural beauty in abundance but beyond the stunning landscapes it's a fertile ground to build, grow and succeed, filled with people who are ready to push boundaries in the pursuit of breakthrough ideas. That's why today, Scotland is a dynamic hub of opportunity across growth sectors, from clean energy and life sciences to digital technology and space innovation. Scotland, for the head, heart and the spirit. Discover more at theguardian.com forward slash brand Scotland. This message was paid for by Brand Scotland.

1:00:10Thank you.