Wolves ditch Vítor Pereira and are Liverpool back on track? – Football Weekly podcast

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0:30who saw that coming? The highest quality gamers that the Etihad looks like Ray and Cherky might help Erling Haaland score even more goals a 3-1 win for City over Bournemouth who had their moments Liverpool needed a win to go in off their backside and they got it home to Villa who were desperate to give Arna Slotsman a win 5th and 2 points off 2nd but a Spurs really bad a woeful performance at home to randomly good sometimes Chelsea an XG of 0.05 seems like not enough XG there's Ahmad's wonderstrike in the dodgy corner at the City ground as Forest and Man United share the points elsewhere a great header from Mateta and another goal for Danny Welbeck.

1:01Get him on the plane. We'll do some FA Cup first round giant killings and Zielinski scores the perfect goal ever for Inter. As always, we'll answer your questions and that's the Base Guardian Football Weekly.

1:15On the panel today, Barry Glendening, hello. Hi Max. Welcome Jonathan Wilson. Morning, how are you doing? I'm very well and bonjour ça va, Philippe Auclair. Bonjour ça va, Max Hodgson. Let's start at the bottom and the sacking of Vitor Pereira. After the game against Fulham, Barry, he said his team were technically, tactically and physically not good enough. Was that the first time the owners had noticed when Pereira said it himself? Hands up for a start. I actually thought Wolves would win this game. I thought I'd seen enough from them to suggest they would have enough about them to beat a Fulham side that had lost four in a row and weren't showing a great deal.

1:54and boy was I wrong about that. They were absolutely walloped. It was an embarrassing defeat. Obviously not helped by the fact that Agbidou got sent off for denying Josh King a clear-ish goal-scoring opportunity, I would say. It's no great surprise that Pereira has been sacked. He was relieved of his duties yesterday around lunchtime, I think we got the news. and I think Sam Johnston, the Wolves keeper, who was probably the only Wolves player to emerge from the game with any credit, said it best after the game when he looked genuinely traumatized and said, we should be embarrassed. And I know it's not what they want to hear, but we need to apologize to the fans for that performance.

2:45I mean, the problems at Wolves seem to go a lot deeper than just the coach. Their transfer policy seems to be an absolute mess. They keep selling their best players summer after summer after summer. And it's finally catching up with them. The fans were chanting against the owner and the regime in charge of the club long before they were chanting for Pereira's head on Saturday. but when the final whistle went, they were singing Sacked in the morning and prediction was only an hour or two out. I think it was afternoon when he went. Yeah, it just doesn't quite scan, does it? You're getting sacked in the afternoon.

3:28It doesn't quite fit. I mean, he did do a really good job last year, Wilson. I mean, I guess he did. There were three teams that were going to get relegated, so it made a dramatic recovery the same. But they were in a similar position last year. but Barry's alluded to it if you look at who they've sold in the last few years Kunia, Ait Nori, Neto, Kilman, Nunes, Ruben Neves, Nathan Collins, Morgan Gibbs, White okay it's over a few seasons haven't really replaced them with players of remotely that kind of quality. Yeah I wonder if there's almost a degree of complacency crept in among the sort of bottom 17 of the teams who have not been the promoter clubs in the last two seasons there's always there's all been this sense of well we'll be better than the promoter clubs we can cut costs a bit here yeah the truth isn't a point where you can't keep cutting costs and you know some of them got themselves in this cycle of they'd you know finance would look terrible they cut costs over summer and then the january got a mad splurge to try and survive and the danger then is when you finally do go down you go down pretty quickly and pretty far i wonder as well is this a sign of george mendez's declining influence with i mean yeah it's it's to the extent it's coincidence and there's different issues at each club and Nuno hasn't been at West Ham for very long.

4:44But it is three Nuno teams in the bottom three. Or maybe Nuno's just this terrible toxin, given how Tottenham are at the minute, that Nuno just drags everybody down eventually. I think, I mean, Wolves fans, I think, could probably see it coming in the last season. And then, yeah, they had that great bump under Pereira. But Pereira's career, this is what he does. He comes in, he has an immediate impact, it goes well for a few months, and then it collapses and he moves on. That's his job. The key is don't employ him for more than a year. well they haven't to be fair don't employ him for more than more than the season he's in he's like the littlest hobo i mean actually there's a littlest hobo there's a littlest hobo much like samuel i never had a relegation on this record till he went to leeds um the george mennes thing is interesting for leeds isn't it i hadn't i hadn't thought about that but that's the one i was actually looking at the i mean i think the problem is not so much who they have sold this who they haven't bought because you you can sell and sell a lot and sell very well like Brentford and Brighton have done in the past.

5:41I know he always uses examples, but in the case of Wolves, as to George Mendes' influence, when you look at the players who came in, I actually think that I'm not so sure which ones are part of the Jesse Fout stable. And I can't think of one. I think so his influence has definitely diminished, certainly in terms of the players and the quality of players he brings to the clubs. because one thing you could say is that, yes, when he is involved in the running of a club, basically, and especially in the recruitment, one thing is that he used to bring his players, but they used to be good, or his managers, but they used to be good.

6:20And now it doesn't seem to be quite the case that they are as good as they should be. And I was wondering, I don't know, are there any Portuguese managers who are currently looking for a job who would carry on this great tradition of Wolverhampton wanderers looking to Portugal for a head coach. I can't think of one straight away. I suppose maybe George Mendes, once you run out of good jowls and good nevases, or you get one jowl nevase and then he takes all the good jowl nevase-ness out of things. So then to the next possible manager, Brendan Rodgers was definitely touted yesterday, Barry. Now it looks like, well, Gary O 'Neill is the favorite with some bookmakers.

7:02Rob Edwards as well being mentioned. Interesting if O 'Neill went back there. It would. Or would it be interesting? Would it be interesting? I'm not sure it would. I mean, isn't he the guy who got them into the mess that Pereira had to get them out of last season? I would imagine Wolves fans would be pretty underwhelmed by that performance, or by that appointment if it came to pass. Brendan Rodgers again seems an underwhelming choice would he even want the job because he's just sort of left one bin fire would he want to walk straight into an even worse one I don't know Michael Carrick was a match of the day last night he's apparently in the frame I think he's a very good pundit by the way the way he explains things to a thicko like me really good if he could bring that kind of clarity to the Wolves dressing room if I'd help.

7:57But I would have to say, looking at the list of likely contenders, I would be just looking at it with a giant shoulder shrug and a meh. But I don't really care who ends up managing Wolves. But I imagine Wolves fans are looking at the shortlist or the apparent shortlist and also going, eh, bit meh. Yeah, I agree with you on Carrick. I mean, I suppose it does depend, are the Wolves dressing room as thick as you, Barry? We just don't know that, do we? Let's talk about the other terrible team, West Ham, who beat Newcastle 3-1. They hadn't won a league game at home since the 27th of February. Their fans do not enjoy going to that ground, and that is a long time to wait.

8:40However the lasting toxins of Nuno are, Wilson, he was dancing and smiling at the end of this one. Yeah, I mean, to go behind that early, everything seems to be set up for a classic sort of West Ham afternoon of misery that they hit the post early on, they go behind they have a penalty given and overturned by VAR and that was all in the first 12 minutes I think, so you're sort of thinking this is going to be a classic West Ham afternoon and then they spoiled it by playing really well and winning deservedly and Newcastle were as bad as they've been for well, this season certainly, I mean they just look naked they have had 5 games in 15 days and nick valdemar has started all of them which maybe doesn't help but that was i think one of the problems they have is that eddie howe's way of playing is so it's so uh based on energy that if energy declines the drop off is pretty sharp but yeah and they were they were absolutely awful i mean you've got got athletic coming up on wednesday in the champions league so So they need to get that sorted quickly.

9:49Well, Newcastle seem to be able to rouse themselves for the big games. It's the games like this that they're letting themselves down. I mean, we've eulogised Anthony Gordon on this podcast for his England performances. And when Newcastle lost against Barcelona in the Champions League, he was really good. But good God, he was diabolical yesterday. Absolutely awful. And it's probably unfair to single them out because pretty much everyone in a green Saudi Arabia shirt was dire. They were so bad. It's difficult to remember a worse performance under Howe. Is it possible, Philippe, that West Ham made them look bad?

10:29Because we've talked a lot about West Ham not having any legs, but they definitely looked like they had legs yesterday. Yes, and they used them to good effect. but I think that it's a lot about Newcastle more than about West Ham in some ways I mean if you look it's it's been one of those stop start stop start stop start seasons for them I mean from from the very beginning and I don't know if it's just about the the energy because it's something we have seen since the very first day of the season you know when they they drew against Villa, they lost against Liverpool, and then they drew at Leeds United, and then they won against Wolves, and so on.

11:11And you look at it and you think, well, it's actually never got going, never got going. And you have to wonder, you know, the impact the E-Zac-Affaire had on the club as a whole, and what it showed as well of the dysfunctions within the club. And then we thought, oh yeah, but they got Valdemar, and Valdemar is wonderful and so forth. But no, it hasn't quite gelled the way it should be. They've never got going at all. So I think it is more about Newcastle United than about West Ham. Or is it about Nuno Espirito Santo as well? The way that he's taken this team and suddenly has given them some belief.

11:48I have to say I'm not exactly surprised as to what's happened in Newcastle United, but the extent to which they look dysfunctional, that's what surprises me rather than the actual phenomenon that they're stuttering. I've tried three times to ask a question about West Ham. I'm going to... Barry, you want to come in? Is it West Ham related? I think the inclusion of Freddie Potts yesterday made a massive difference in West Ham's midfield. He's a young kid, 22. His dad, Steve, played for the club over 500 times and is now on the coaching staff. We had Sam Delaney, a big West Ham fan, on the radio yesterday, and he said there might have been a reluctance to start him because it might be seen as nepotism.

12:34I think that's what he said. But he was thrown in yesterday, and he made a massive difference. He was brilliant. And I think he got player of the match. But he gave West Ham some much-needed steel and some speed in that midfield area where steel and speed has been sorely lacking. So I expect he will start for the foreseeable. but he he was a huge plus for them yesterday obviously winning the game was also a huge plus for them when they started so badly as as jonathan pointed out it looked like it was going to be another one of those days but i would say west ham deserve an awful lot of credit but newcastle made them look like world beaters which is some doing i mean i guess on i guess on freddie pots if you are a fan base that i've got nothing to be happy about like the son of a legend like coming in and being great and you know like they'll they'll start thinking could he be that you know the next mark noble this guy and be a sort of total west ham legend there was a lovely moment when he scored it was disallowed but you know his dad's on the coaching staff trying to look as professional and actually did a very good job of not looking like he cared you know going that's my son scoring his first goal for west ham i really enjoyed the sucek goal just because as a fan you'd have known for so long that that's going to go in the ball's you know just sort of there and he's going to take everything in with him and what a moment to be like yes we've won this game um and of course we would never criticize robin cowan but on match today she did say regards west ham there's never a dull moment supporting this club and i thought i'm not sure i'm not sure about that robin anyway the other game yesterday uh was man city three bournemouth one uh you were there wilson i thought this was the one game this weekend where you had two really good teams and a a game of really high...

14:24City were obviously better and deserved the win, but two really high-quality teams going against each other. Yeah, I mean, I think from a moment they took the lead, although they then conceded the lead, I don't think there was ever any doubt City were going to win. They were better. It felt, from a neutral point of view, it sort of drifted the final 20, 25 minutes because it was so obvious City were going to win. But yeah, it was a high-quality game. And interesting the way that Guardiola... City, the only team this season yet to score, in the Premier League, yet to score from a set play. you look at the five in midfield, if that's how you want to describe it, four of them are under 1m80, three of them are under 1m75.

15:02So Iguodio has changed, but he hasn't changed that much. But where he has changed is he now lets his team play balls in for Erlingholm to chase, and it turns out he's really, really good at that. So the first two goals are both Cherki laying it on for him. Cherki looks really useful drifting in from the right. The one thing I'd say about that is your docker stays wide on the left. Foden's done it, now Cherokee's coming in from the right I do think they are vulnerable down that side when teams break on them but they leave some of the things a little bit exposed so while City were always going to win that game they probably did concede more chances than Guardiola would ideally like and then he was quite annoyed afterwards with the refereeing and I sort of think he semi has a point about the Bournemouth goal It's one of those isn't it where where you know it's sort of that rule where if you hold on to someone's arm but you let go early enough then it's fine and it is i think you're probably right it is a foul i agree with you so i mean yes he's i don't know why donnarumma makes such a mess of it because brooks has let go but equally his balance is probably affected and the reason i really don't like this and it might be why we're getting so many goals from set pieces is that because of the way bars applied the rule is asynchronic so you saw that in the manchester fulham game for instance where there was two fouls happening in the box simultaneously one by a full-on player one by a manchester player but it's the one that can concede a penalty is the only one bars allowed to look at because the other one would only be a free kick to the defense and that's nonsense so that forwards can basically commit fouls with impunity because even if it is given so what it's a free kick you know 120 hours from your goal whereas if a defender commits that foul it's potentially a penalty yeah no i agree with you and i think the law that i would have is if there is a foul being committed by an attacker anywhere that should over uh that should sort of trump a foul by a defender because i don't want lots of penalties on the subject of no set piece goals it would be great uh that you know at some point this season we discover that bernardo silva can hurl the ball 600 yards into the box i wanted to talk a bit more about jerky uh philly because you know we know about harland but like he did look both those assists are really clever actually he's an absolutely magnificent player um still very young and he's always been a bit of an enigma because I remember very well when Cherokee, my friend at Lyon, started to talk about Ryan Cherokee and they all said, you'll see we've got this player, you know, Lyon has produced some exceptional players in the past, you know, we produced Karim Benzema and so forth.

17:31He's really one of them. And then for some reason, some people say because of his temperament, perhaps, he hasn't been, well, he hasn't been quite what we expected from him. There was also problems with his agents. At one point, interestingly enough, he was supposed to be managed by Kylian Bappe's mother, Faisal Amari, to be the only other player that she would be looking at. And it didn't quite happen in the end. But there was always a lot of frustration. But now people are talking a lot about him in France, about what is happening with Manchester City after this particular game. And wondering if he's finally found the manager or the environment in which he can become the player we all know he can be because he's got the skill, he's got absolutely marvellous vision.

18:18You saw the assists for Erling Haaland, they were just magnificent. Now the question is, is he going to have a run in the side because he was in the starting line-up against Tottenham, wasn't he? Beginning of the season, he was taken off and then he got injured. And so, again, stop-start. And here, what we are hoping is that he's going to get a run in the side in that particular role and he's going to be the round turkey we think he can be, which he hasn't been so far. I insist on that. But if he does, that would be an absolute blessing for Didier Deschamps and for the French team, as well as for Manchester City, because we do not have any other player with this kind of profile.

19:02We don't. Who is a pure creator. Hang on, Rabiot could do it. Yes, he could, I suppose. Yes, Ran Shurky is the answer to the Rabiot conundrum. Maybe that's what it's supposed to be. He's never been particularly prolific, by the way, in his career. He's more of a creator. He's full of imagination, full of tricks, full of skill. And again, he has absolutely superb vision. But we've never quite seen him do what we thought he would be able to do, only by bursts here, a pass here, a goal there. You think, wow, and then it doesn't quite happen. So let's hope and pray that's the case this season. Since you're up to second, Barry, of course, Sunderland could overtake them tonight.

19:49Sunderland will go second in the table after 10 games when they beat Everton tonight. So mad. I don't think I've ever looked forward to a game more. They'll probably get thumped. Well, yeah, I mean, football has a way of biting you. I have to say, whenever I hear Turkey's name, I immediately think of Christmas dinner at the Carragher household. Pass the Tcheky. Who wants some Tcheky? I was going to ask if you, you know, they're six points behind Arsenal. There's a lot of season left. You know, they're starting to look a bit more balanced. Their fullbacks look like they know what they're doing.

20:27Midfield is, you know, coming together. So they could be the, they are the most likely team, right, to stop Arsenal. You say that, Max. You just said something. I was watching this game live and I kept going, why are Doku and Cherokee, they're spending all their time in the centre circle or they're not out in the wings, they're in the middle of the pitch. And that is where Michael Carrick came in. So he explained how City were playing deliberately, narrowly, trying to play through the Bournemouth press. The number of players they had in that area, the pitch meant the Bournemouth centre-backs were getting sucked in and then leaving space for Haaland to run into.

21:09So a brave tactic, Mr Carrick explained, but one City or one of a few teams good enough to pull off because you're risking Bournemouth launching one of their lightning-fast counterattacks. So I thought that was interesting. I can't see past Arsenal at the moment, but I would certainly have City as the most likely team to catch them. I think Liverpool's win over Villa was massive for them. But yeah, City with Haaland, of course, if he stays fit, are obviously going to be a threat. Yeah. Oh, well, let's talk about Liverpool's victory over Villa at the start of part two.

21:59Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. The Sizzler writes, Good evening, Max. Just want to say as a Liverpool fan, last night's results and performance made me feel as elated as a worker in a lion enclosure whose supervisor has just come back from a day off and their understudy has been mauled while he was off. The lion keeper analogy has been very popular on Instagram and it did prove wise, Barry, for Arna Slott to rest players midweek. I mean, ahead of this game, Liverpool had six defeats in seven. Villa had won four on the spin. But Philippe, you know, Villa just handed this to Liverpool, I thought.

22:31I'm a little bit surprised at the way that this win has been described in some quarters. And I see Mohamed Salah being celebrated. Of course, he should be celebrated. 250 goals for Liverpool is absolutely extraordinary. But as if it had been, as if the performance had been of the level you could expect. And I mean, did we see the same game? I don't think Liverpool were particularly good. But what I think is what I saw that Aston Villa were particularly bad. It's absolutely extraordinary. And I don't know if Michael Carrick was on call to explain that. But one thing I'd like to understand is that if you're playing against a team like Liverpool, which is known to have at the moment huge problems against long balls and second balls, why do you insist to play from the back with players who are obviously not feeling quite at ease doing that?

23:21and you give the first goal that way. I have to say, I don't quite understand that. Liverpool hate chaos being thrown in their half of the pitch and Villa didn't do that. And also you're wondering, well, what if that shot from Morgan Rodgers doesn't hit the bar but goes in as well? Villa created loads of chances. There's absolutely nothing. And Liverpool created a few and it was a game between two not very good sides. Is it all right to say that? Actually, maybe two very good sides, but which had no control over what they were doing. And so I think, yes, I mean, to use that expression we use all the time in French, it's the tree that hides the forest.

24:05It is the kind of wind which I'm sure is more than welcome, but it doesn't say much about Liverpool having suddenly gone into being in the phase of convalescence or whatever. They're not much different than they were last week. This time they just found an opponent which basically gifted them the game. Yeah, it was interesting, Wilson, that maybe Arnazlott had said so many times that they didn't like long balls, that Unai Emery thought it was some kind of double bluff, despite having seen all the games that Liverpool had conceded these goals. Because it wasn't just that Salah goal, which I actually thought was quite a smart finish, even if it was an open goal.

24:46Like, they'd been warned already. oh i mean a number of times they lost the ball trying to play out from the back i i have no idea why they were trying to play out i mean the other thing you know in terms of the caveating you know the idea liverpool might be back 10 of that 11 were it was liverpool from last season yeah i could take a for for darwin basically but that's fine isn't it i mean they're still the part of the they're still the squad well yeah but but the you know you then do have the question of remind me why you spent that 450 million quid in the summer on on the most expensive bench in the world you know it's uh you know it's uh you would assume that the plan is to integrate the new players they haven't just been signed you know to look nice on the bench and they don't seem this this win no it's it's it was essential that they won it was essentially they you know they stopped the rot and confidence can can do huge things in football if that sort of helps shore that up well great but in terms of moving to the the new future moving to to you know whatever new Liverpool was meant to emerge after the summer they don't really feel any closer to that it's sort of you're going back to absolute basics but what comes next because at some point you do have to find a way of playing Vietz and the two fullbacks and Isak I was actually googling the most expensive bench in the world as in a bench that someone could sit on but I ended up at Luxe Habitat's 10 Most Expensive Pieces of Furniture in the World, to which the badminton chest at$36.7 million is the most expensive piece of furniture.

26:24But I don't know if producer Joel could get to it and find how expensive the most expensive bench is. Back to probably more important matters, Philippe. I don't know. I'm just making a point that a lot of people are talking, when we're talking about the most expensive bench in football, of problems of adaptation. You know, players take time to adapt to their new environment, etc., etc. In the case of Liverpool, I don't think it's a case of a problem of individual adaptation. It's a problem of collective adaptation, which is a completely different thing. Because if you look like Florian Vietz, who is a super player, wonderful player, I think the problem of his adaptation is not so much him as the players around him, And the communication which is happening, communication works both ways.

27:14And which is why I do think that Liverpool's problems are a little bit more serious than we think. Because if it was just a matter of a couple of players struggling to find their marks, that's completely understandable. But I think the problem is more that the actual system which is in place, the adaptation is not happening at a collective level. And there's a big difference. Speaking of teams that aren't working, Tottenham 0, Chelsea 1. Jan says, is Thomas Frank just Nuno Mark 2, overachieving mid-table manager who makes his name with compact teams who are efficient in the final third? Can't transition to a team which enters most games as favourites?

27:52I mean, I thought Barry Chelsea were really good in this game. They pressed relentlessly, should have won by a lot more. The story does feel to be more about Tottenham with an XG of 0.05, which as producer Joel says, sounds like it could have been achieved by just kicking the ball forwards once. their lowest ever in the Premier League Well I think that.05 was a very weak Mohamed Kouda shot which sort of rolled gently towards Robert Sanchez so that's where that came from Tottenham were awful in this game it was as comfortable a 1-0 win as I think you'll ever see and they were I think they were the third in the table going into this game If you looked at the games they'd won, they'd beaten Manchester City, but the other teams they'd beaten weren't all that.

28:45I suppose if you're a Spurs fan, you're going, well, at least it's not as bad as last season when we just lost half our games. But I think it's too early to start judging Thomas Frank. I think he's a good manager. I think he'll sort them out. But this was a dismal performance. And Spurs seem utterly incapable, or they are utterly incapable, of beating Chelsea in their own stadium because they've never done it. I think they've lost six and drawn one against Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It's clearly some sort of issue. And on another day, Chelsea could have won this by 3-4 or 5-0. Gittins missed a sitter.

29:32How Pedro missed a few chances as well as scoring one. And then the catalogue of defensive blunders in the build-up to Chelsea's winner was just comical. My man Xavi Simmons, he didn't cover himself in glory. Having a great time. That's for sure. he came on for Lucas Bergval well done by the way Tottenham medical staff for making sure he went off and then got subbed off again later and was awful during his time on the pitch but yeah it was a bad day at the office for Spurs I mean yeah Philippe they're fifth you know two points off second three points off second after Sunderland's victory of course unbeaten in the Champions League and you know They have tightened up the back, but the vibes are not great.

30:23I mean, that's... And I agree, it's too early to judge Frank. And, you know, there are all sorts of personnel issues there and there's a lack of creativity. But it is interesting how sort of dour it appears. And to be honest, it's a kind of dourness that you wouldn't associate with Thomas Frank. He's not a dour manager. You know, his Brentford was actually quite fun to watch. in a different way. But I think one of the main problems is, I was looking, you know, you were talking about the most expensive bench in the world. You look at the players who've come in this season at Spurs, it's huge spending by Spurs, you know, standards.

31:09I mean, over what, 150 million? Over that, actually. And you're wondering, well, can you see a difference? Not really. I'm a little bit puzzled, to be honest, how mediocre they have been. I mean, as a fan yourself, I mean, are you not expecting, Max, more from the players you've brought in? Precisely, Mohamed Koudus, Matisse Stel, Simons? I think Koudus has looked good, but now it's just get it to Koudus and there's no other plan. I don't know what you think, Wilson. You know, they have a real problem up front with Nostalanki. You could tell Richarlison, Colum Wani. They have no service. but you have to the way they're playing they need drogba they need someone who can hold it up and get in behind but there seems to be a real lack of creativity i mean you know kurlicevsky and madison being injured obviously doesn't help solanke being injured and that's a slank injury i don't talk to me but specializing in this the injury said oh it's fine be back in a couple of weeks and before you know it two seasons have gone past and he hasn't played so he got injured in what this city game which is second game of the season and he has had a i think the thing they're was a procedure not not surgery on the ankle was the ankle i think was it the ankle but you know he doesn't seem to be any close to coming i presume he is close to coming back but he doesn't seem imminent so yeah he knows what's going on there i mean thomas frank you know earlier in the season was talking about those three issues obviously son has been such a big part of spurs for years and then it's gone so you know there's there's adaptation there but but equally as philippe says they've spent a lot of money and none of the players he put in seem quite ready or quite right I mean Savvy Simmons looks so lightweight.

32:48I'm always slightly sceptical of a player who's followed around by a documentary crew as well. But you do wonder just how focused he is on what actually matters about football. Is Savvy Simmons being followed around by a documentary crew? Yes. Oh, I didn't know that. And has a massive entourage generally. Football is gone. Surely you have to take a look at your entourage when you've been that bad in a game. I mean, I agree. You can see he's a good player, right? It's a bit like Wurtz. I'm not necessarily comparing those two as players, but like just physically aren't there at the Premier League and some players don't ever get there and some do.

33:22On the subject of expensive benches, Max, by the way, my dad has a memorial bench in the grounds of Burr Castle and I cannot stress enough, it did not cost anywhere near as much as either Florian Verts or Xavi Siemens. What about that£31.6 million bench that Max was talking about before? The badminton chest. No, no. Edison, Deion, Stones, Rodri, Gundogan, Silva, Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland when they played Chelsea and beat them 1-0 in 2023 worth about£500 million. Then I told Joel I met... What a memory you've got, Max. Then I told Joel I met an actual bench and he said he found a story about Torbay Council charging a family £12 ,000 for a bench.