Arsenal win the Premier League, Tottenham are officially safe, and Pep Guardiola's farewell: Men in Blazers 05/24/26

20:38And we'll see, you know, this season, they've been talked about constantly in a negative light that they scored, you know, offset pieces, that they were so ugly to watch, you know, that they played with trauma. They didn't win the quadruple. I think it's just like a stick to beat them with. You know, so tight, it's hard to watch. No one cares anymore. When they lifted that trophy up, no one cares. We will retrospectively buckle glory onto this narrative. This season will become more and more beautiful for Arsenal football fans. I believe, I hope, with every single telling. It's fascinating to me that they've won at this moment when City are in total flux, when Liverpool is in chaos, when United under Carriker, an unknown quantity going forward, Chelsea under new management.

21:29Raw, Arsenal are only winners. they are the single most stable now the single most experienced the most settled club in English football dot dot dot when you say what might happen what might happen raw this you know might not be their last title we should get used to first again ole ole yeah so I think there's

21:52Roger Bennett:two ways of looking at it and one is positive and one is maybe a little a little bit more negative. The positive is, as you say, Arsenal are incredibly stable. One of two managers in the league who knows what it is to win the Premier League now, Arteta and Slott. And to be honest, there's not any real guarantee that there'll be both of those there at the start of next season. And I'd be standard if there's two of them there at the end of next season. You've got this incredibly deep squad. They have the chance to go again. Maybe add a little bit more kind of stardust, I guess, to it. You can maybe start to raise your bar in terms of signings to really try and cement your position, that would be maybe the play they've been linked with Julian Alvarez at Atletico Madrid that could be a chance to kind of put your foot down when you're winning that all makes sense and I think that is there's a very good chance that's how it plays out Is there a but coming?

22:41Roger Bennett:The but is that the only manager who's retained the Premier League for an awfully long time is Pep Guardiola that it's really hard to retain the Premier League. Liverpool tried and twice have failed under Klopp and under slot. Chelsea tried didn't work, I think they tried under Conte and Mourinho. Leicester, we can forgive because it was Leicester and it was a slightly weird kind of, no one went into that season thinking, well, Leicester will really let us down if they don't win the title back to back. No one has retained it, I think, since Ferguson other than Guardiola. At a Manchester City team that had all sorts of advantages other than having the best manager of his generation.

23:15Roger Bennett:So it is extremely difficult. But as you said at the start, Pep's gone, Salah's gone, Robertson's gone, Silva's gone, John Stones has gone. Seamus Coleman's gone. Seamus Coleman's gone. Those two teams, they are in flux, Liverpool and City. United have finished really strongly, so they'll be a threat next season. Chelsea have appointed a really good manager. Tottenham exist. But it looks set up for Arsenal, but we've said that before, and it tends not to work that way. Well, I'm just trying to work out what Mikel Arteta will bring into that locker room on the first day of training next season to reflect the notion of double, like doing the double.

23:52Will he bring in his win, the dog? and we have a new dog back to back.

23:57Roger Bennett:A lookalike for every player. Oh, twins. You'll bring a pair of perfect twins in and say, this is where we're going, lads. Thank you, twins. I am happiest for Win the Dog, by the way. That was a lovely moment. I mentioned him to Declan Rice. You just saw his face. Oh, he's very tired at the moment. He's head with great gravity. Win the dog. She, sorry. She, she, she. I want to finish by saying, I think this is very clear. I think it's been clear from the very beginning of the season when we did our preview. I think we both picked Arsenal to win the league. I remember saying at the time, God, I hope they win it and it's not a march of folly.

24:38I honestly would have found that almost too painful to bear. I find there's so much to admire about Arsenal Football Club. Resilience, tenacity, collective spirit, the ability to fail which I think is so important in life but keep believing striving without having your spirit broken football doesn't really allow for that kind of empathy but they are living proof do you either have blind love for your own team or total complete and utter rage probably yeah we've talked a lot about if you can't feel them I guess is what I'm saying you put you either of blind love or just like you know the downside of football um we laughed at how the misery of english soap operas and arsenal were have been an english soap opera um their whole being was meant to make other english fans feel better about themselves because it satisfied their desire you know to laugh at failure to feel better about themselves there's a human impulse to want to keep people in their places we needed arsenal to finish second um we need to see people strive and fail Again, makes you feel better for not striving.

25:49You know, your own lack of ambition, that's all now over Raw. And I'm fascinated to see what replaces it.

25:55Roger Bennett:Yeah, they've gone from the kitchen sink drama to Dynasty, Rog. That's what's happened there. Hey, that's Mikhail Arteta's music. There you go. Yeah, it has. And that's the bit that impresses me most about Arsenal, is the fact that they've picked themselves up and gone again after those three years of two near misses and one not particularly near miss. naturally kind of the story in your head was they've missed their chance they've peaked and it didn't bring them a title and that's you know that's tough but that's how the cookie grumbles to go again this season and to be honest to be so imperious for so much of it is genuinely remarkable resilience and courage are the two things that I think have defined them this season they are they're not the prettiest champions but that doesn't matter as you say that's not how we'll remember them.

26:40Roger Bennett:I remember the really boring teams that Arsenal produced in the late 80s and early 90s. The ones that were crowned boring, boring Arsenal. I mean, they made this Arsenal look like prime 1970s Brazil. No one talks about how dull they were when they discussed what they won, because what they won is what matters. And I think that, yeah, the kind of psychological strength they've shown in doing that is genuinely admirable. Winning changes everything. And to winning of a different kind, in the Premier League Anals, the bowels, the relegation race across London. Tottenham won, Everton Football Club nil.

27:16And so it came to this. Tottenham could still go down on the final day for the first time in 49 years. They're in 17th place, two points above, fellow flatliners, West Ham. It's been an almost surreal reality. Just one year removed from the elation of lifting up that Europa League trophy and Bilbao Spurs battling to get their very top flight status alive. A reversal of fortune so fraught. Emotionally for their fans, the jackknifing, it's hard to believe they had the happiness of that trophy celebration. Sonny there laughing, a drunk Brennan Johnson singing. Spursiness was finally dead. But we all know, children listening, hope is a trap.

28:01We talked on Friday about how there's always a cosmic piano. that spent decades hovering precariously above Tottenham Hotspur fans' heads. It felt banished with the Europa League win, but now 12 months on, the piano's back. It's bigger than ever. The injuries, the managers, the Arsenal coffee cups, the high-core Tudors. Raw. On NBC, they were calling in a prospect of Spurs being relegated the biggest failure of the Premier League era.

28:27Roger Bennett:Yeah, I think it would have been. They're the ninth richest club in the world, Rog. It should be. Everything we know about modern football should make it impossible for Tottenham to be under any threat of relegation. They've got probably the best stadium in the country, almost certainly the best training ground in the country. They are a kind of modern, shiny, sleek, modern club. They came 17th last year and they think, OK, yeah, fine. Ange kind of switched off in February to concentrate on the Europa League, got his gamble right on one level because they won it, and Ron on the other because he got sacked.

29:00Roger Bennett:but they should be Spurs should be finishing 6th or 7th at a minimum they should finish 7th and be disappointed Tottenham, that they went into the final day at risk of relegation was extraordinary I think it would have been the biggest relegation since Manchester United in 1974, Rog, that's a long time It's before podcasts were even invented children look, bad news Spurs and their shiny new stadium somehow have conjured the worst home record of the season. They'd had one win in 17. Injuries meant they had so few options, they couldn't even really change the team. But the good news, they're playing Everton.

29:37Roger Bennett:Yes. A.K.A. the Tottenham of the North. A team who had nothing to play for. We'll talk about them in a minute. Hadn't won in a nosedive of six sad games on our own. Deserve who walked around the field before the game. I found it very moving, actually. Him trying to maniacally whip up the Spurs faithful who flocked quite admirably in once again, hopes and prayers and nerves and disbelief just filling the place, but also roaring with all their hearts for the existence. I mean, it was existential. Everton, absolutely lacklustre. Spurs from the off, three early half chances snatched at by Conor Gallagher, Danso, I think Paulina.

30:17But Everton, no intensity. It kind of meant that whatever early nerves Spurs should have had just burnt off quickly. Yeah, there was the other narrative. Maybe they should have taken these early chances. The answer's no. 43rd minute off the corner. North London special. Spurs 18th of the season. From the corner flag. Only Arsenal had one more. Floated in deeply by Tell. And Paulinho did a one-two off the right-hand post. And then he didn't rifle it raw, did he? Did he fiz it? He did something with it. It was like a put-back dunk. Kind of rolled the ball. Centimeters past Pickford. centimeters the other side of Irabunum and Barry tried to scoop it off the line by a decameter.

31:00I mean, raw game of inches, but the celebrations on the Spurs bench were what were so beautiful. Watching Paulina run over there. If you watch it again, watch Madison injured for so much of the season, just lose his mind, barking at the moon. I think the Zerbe may have been the first ever manager in history to get a yellow card for taking his shirt off. He almost achieved that feat, world but it was human beings in a grim profession in a grim moment just acting like they were eight year olds on the schoolyard and it was glorious yeah it was a total release of pressure rog that's

31:33Roger Bennett:what it that's what it kind of immediately looked like was was this kind of moment they needed it was still goalless at west ham at that stage they knew that it was entirely in their own hands spurs just had to to not lose and you could feel in the first half you could feel the anxiety spurs were playing well, but the longer it took for a goal to come, the fans were starting to expect the worst. As you say, they've got this terrible home record. That team has let those fans down time and time and time again. And you could see them starting to groan, to tut, to kind of worry that the worst was about to happen.

32:07Roger Bennett:And when Pelini sort of stabs home that shot, that's the verb for that one, Rog, he stabbed it. A riffle. Rather than rifled. He didn't, he could have riffled it. I don't mind riffle, that's okay. But he stabs at home and at that moment you just see this kind of, this weight lift. It's the release of all that tension and all that pressure. And I think from that point on, to be perfectly honest, as nervous as the Spurs fans must have been, I think they probably knew they'd be okay. Not least because they had scored a goal and Everton didn't even look like they had any real idea about how they might try and score one of their own.

32:40I have a friend who's a skin doctor and I asked her what does she like about her job and she said, it's just a tremendous satisfaction when you lance a really septic boil. I find it kind of hard to understand what she's talking about. But in that second, that goal, that reaction, that feeling, I felt like I truly understood the joy of skin doctory. Second half, nervy fair, more towards the toxic boil, septic boil. Porro, I've got to say so strong. Everton had spells of possession without really doing anything. I think we didn't have a shot on target until the 95th minute when Tyreek George, I love that kid, art won in.

33:20I'd say subplot, welcome rubberneckers of the world. So the true misery of watching Everton Football Club on the regs and trying to believe in them, it's just, don't do it. First win, four Spurs at home in five and a half months. Survival, you mentioned their wage bill,$238 million a year. It's enormous. They end 17th, it felt. so sweet. I've been there. I've been there, Spurs fans. When we beat Crystal Palace, when we were 2-0 down on the halftime on the last day, came out with those three goals, it's an exhilarating feeling. And all you've done is escape the jaws of relegation. There's no trophy.

34:00There's no medals. But in the words of Winston Churchill, Roar, nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

34:09Roger Bennett:Yeah, they've dodged one, Rog, ultimately. They have done basically everything wrong this season. I have a little bit of sympathy for Spurs because they have had this astonishing injury crisis. You know, Madison's barely played. Kulisesti's not played at all. They've not had Kudas since January. Basically, everyone's been out at one stage or another. They lose Solanke for the run-in. Those circumstances aren't... They're kind of not Spurs' fault entirely. They're not not their fault. I think if you'd have that many injuries, you always have to look at kind of the medical staff, all that stuff.

34:40Roger Bennett:They have been unusual circumstances, but they have also made a succession of poor choices. You wonder whether they maybe shouldn't have sacked Poster Coddlew. That might be the original sin. He did finish 17th as well, but he won a Europa League. I can guarantee you 17th place, but without the first last day agony. I'll bite you off for that. They stayed up so easily last season. They need to make sure. I wonder whether they've happened upon the right manager for the long term. That De Zerbe did come into a squad that was totally bereft of confidence and did get enough out of them to keep Spurs up.

35:16Roger Bennett:There was a point where it looked like they might have gone, not least as West Ham's form was quite good. He's done the first bit of his job. What he now has to do is somehow take that club, take that squad and turn them into a team that can start to think about finishing where Spurs should be finishing. Yeah, I mean, you say the injuries are not their fault. You didn't say that. And you said they're not, not their fault. I mean, again, Again, unless it's like a terrible virus that's contagious, you kind of do have to look at that level of injuries. But you also have the failures in the transfer market.

35:48Morgan Gibbs, White and Eze, you know, the ones that got away in humiliating form. And again, this plummet a minute from winning the Super Cup. You know, the strong start to the season. Then the complete plummet. Dan Levy ousted in almost what felt like a coup. Frank's Arsenal coffee cup, which I still don't understand at all. Players speaking out on Instagram. The arrival of Igor Tudor. Who can forget that just dead wind of a ferryman, the Kinski Champions League game. By the way, huge credit to that man when we talk about tenacity. And probably above all, the greatest agony, Arsenal winning the title as a subplot to your own pain.

36:34Ultimately, Spurs have spent the season as a mean kind of laughingstock, which they're not at all. I mean, they are a proud club with a DNA of joyous, entertaining football. They can't do 17th place three years on the run, Roy. It's going to take some agony and some very hard self-awareness to undo quickly.

36:59Roger Bennett:Yeah, they need to kind of reshape the squad, not least, because there's not that many bad players at Tottenham, but they don't work as a team. It looks like it's been kind of cobbled together, which to an extent it has been by three or four different managers, probably a couple of sporting directors. There's no real vision. There's no real plan there. I think the risk for Tottenham is if they don't get it right, what we see in the Premier League increasingly is that eventually you will get caught out. If you're down that end frequently enough, if you make enough bad decisions or not enough good decisions, at some point your luck will run out.

37:34Roger Bennett:So Tottenham, this is a seismic summer for Tottenham, not necessarily because they need to be back in the Champions League next season, but because they have to start to build some sort of identity back. That, I think, has been completely lost in the last two years. And it's remarkable to think that the work that has gone into turning Spurs into a modern club, a club big enough to get invited to be part of the Super League, which is the kind of the measure of where Spurs were, and how quickly it can all fall apart. That in a year, this club that wasn't for a long time like a byword for self-sustainability and intelligent growth and maximising your output based on your resources has gone back to square one and it's a long, long road back.

38:17Take it from us Spurs fans. I know, again, I say I feel your pain. And a quick word on Everton. The season ends with seven games without a win. Spurs grabbed, was it 11 points from the last 18 on offer when they needed it? Everton won just two in that spell. That is an agony. It's a wilt, which is a painful truth for a lot of Everton fans who renewed passports after that 3-0 win against Chelsea. Only since end 13th, not close to needing those bloody passports. And the sad reality of this, we would have bitten your arm off for 13th. To stabilize the club first after the agony of what we've experienced is an incredible achievement.

39:02But because we dreamt there's a frustration, it kind of feels like Groundhog Day. David Moyes, pretty fascinating. To see his team nosedive at last is just a true disappointment that kind of fermented at the end. I do look at West Ham and I'm like, thank God that could have been us. This is a step forward for me with this squad that was so obviously imbalanced, no fullbacks, no strikers, to do this well, big picture, for me feels enough. But the way it happened, Roar, the last seven games, is a deep stinging agony for a lot of Everton fans who are deeply impatient. I think everyone agrees there's going to be more progress in the offseason.

39:45We cannot have another campaign like this in which the most memorable moment of the season is Garner Gay slapping Michael Keane and being sent off for hitting his own player while we still go and beat United at Old Trafford. I think Hill Dickinson deserves and needs better.

40:00Roger Bennett:Yeah, I think watching Everton in the last few weeks, the City game aside, which was kind of brilliant chaos and maybe individually the most meaningful game of the season, to be perfectly honest, handed Arsenal the title effectively. Tiana Barry, statue outside the Emirates, please. We died so you can live. Exactly. I think there are reasons to be concerned with Everton. 13th is more than enough, Rog. There was no kind of relegation battle. There was no fear, no genuine angst. That is progress from where Everton were last season and the season before that and the season before that. The issue is the squad.

40:41Roger Bennett:The squad really obviously needs work. There are some good players there, and G.I.'s a brilliant player. Dewsbury Hall's been fantastic all season. James Garner, it's a bit harsh that Thomas Tuchel kind of flirted with bringing him into the England squad and then just dropped him. There is talent there, but there's not nearly enough. And again, the Premier League's a shark. It keeps moving. If you stand still, if you don't keep investing, keep growing, keep developing, you will slip backwards. And ultimately, we know where that leads. So I think it's a big summer for Everton as well to try and start, to reinforce the squad, but also to try and accelerate their growth.

41:17Roger Bennett:They've done enough this season. It's fine. But that won't be enough next season. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, with Tarkovsky aging, with Sheamus saying his goodbye, rumours of John Stones coming about, which would be massive, not just as a footballer, but as a leader. It's that leadership kind of core that's deeply in transition at Everton that makes me worry. But I've got to say, big picture, it's just a dominant season of relief.

41:46West Ham 3, Leeds nil. The game now irrelevant. West Ham ultimately kicked off a bit like Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking. Needed two things. They had to win their own game. Had to hope David Moyes would once again save them from relegation. And not on this time. Millwall away. Ole, Ole. He's saying the Leeds fans cruelly. Second half, three goals. Tati Castellanos headed home a corner. Bowen rifled, I think is the word in it. Raw home. and Kellen Wilson got a late, late, most irrelevant goal of the season. West Ham go down for the first time in 14 years. They'd won 39 points for all, which is the most since 2011.

42:29Roger Bennett:Yeah, it felt for a while as though this was going to be a season where you needed 40 points to stay up, maybe even a little bit more, to be perfectly honest. Spurs did need more than 40 points to stay up. That's not been true for a long time. We've seen teams go down with kind of high 20s, mid 20s sometimes, occasionally drifting into the 30s. But the quality of the teams down there, not just West Ham and Spurs, but Leeds and Forest, who were close as well until relatively late on, meant that it has been quite a high total. West Ham seemed to come to form at the right time. Nuno seemed to, in February, March, seemed to get something out of them, which you thought, OK, they look like they've got the momentum, they've got the belief, they will catch one of those three teams.

43:10Roger Bennett:But just at the end, it kind of sputtered out. And as much as they've gone down with a 3-0 win, the London Stadium sees a little bit of promise, a bit of fight, which is important. They ultimately kind of cost themselves in the last six weeks, two months, when I think to an extent their nerve failed them. Yeah, I mean, the agony of this, I think, and I feel for West Ham fans, is a lot of this doom was self-inflicted. Club reported losses of$140 million last year. Only will deepen now that they plummet through, which is purported to cost between$150 million,$190 million in terms of lost sponsorship and broadcast income.

43:48There's going to be a fire sale of talent to try and balance the books. Mateus Fernandez, highly coveted midfielder, Somerville. What a tasty dagger he can be. And the club talisman, Jared Bowen. I think the agony for West Ham fans, as I say, is that it's all so bloody self-inflicted. A lot of fingers pointed at the ownership group. Their team, I think, are the 20th richest in football. and their salary wage bill was the 11th biggest in the Premier League. Just an awful decision-making at every front office level has done this. They've almost drowned by their own hand.

44:25Roger Bennett:They don't really have a front office. That's the problem, Raj. They are, I think, the last great incompetent Premier League team. They are run like the league hasn't changed. They're run like the last 15 years haven't happened. Even at Nottingham Forest, where you are subject to the whim of Evangelos Maranakis, there is a plan. There is an idea of what you want to do. It might not always be obvious to us mere mortals, Rog, but Marinakis will put money in. He will sign players. He has connections around Europe that help him. He's got the kind of Olympiacos side to his business as well. He's appointed sporting directors.

44:57Roger Bennett:He's appointed kind of data people. There is a plan at Forest as much as it's maybe not always the most obvious or logical or simple. West Ham functions like teams did maybe 25 years ago where it's kind of whichever kind of courtier can get the ear of the owner then kind of hold sway. There's no connection between the manager and the kind of the backroom team or the front office. There's no overarching vision. There's no idea of where you want to be. There's no plan. West Ham have brought this on themselves. They shouldn't really be able to go down either. They're the 20th richest club in world football.

45:33Roger Bennett:They have, as you say, the 11th highest wage bill. They are in the top 10 spenders in the world in the last five years. It is just grade A incompetence that's brought them to this point. Sad, sad bubbles. And now their watch has ended. Manchester City, two and I watch has ended. One, Aston Villa. What? Two? Less a game. It's more like a living weight there. So is that watching a Viking funeral for a Catalan legend who walked amongst us? Pep Guardiola, almost the third Catalan Gallagher brother, leaves Manchester, 10 trophy-laden years, single gent who's tactically influenced, modern English football, European football above all others.

46:16Felt massive, this. Not just footballingly, but also culturally. This game honestly felt like it must tune in, like the last episode of The Sopranos or whatever, Breaking Bad's ending or something. It felt like a massive show was coming to a finale. There was a City Pep Tifo fight by one for Bernardo and John Stones, hoisting trophies. Those two also in their final game for the club. Bernardo shed a tear as he walked onto the field. We'll talk more about the goodbyes in one moment. The game itself was a competitive battle, was negligible interest. Aston Villa, fresh off the quite immense Europa League victory that is contractually obliged when you hire Unai Emery and you're not named Arsenal.

46:58It's been lovely watching him, by the way. Unai on the lash, post-victory, drunk Unc Unai, one of our favourite drunk Uncs of all time. He pretended his team would be two hangovers to play and then won. But let's look at the first goal. It was City, it was Semenyo, right, who opened the scoring. And the moment I loved Raw, the cameras cut to Pep Guardiola to see what his reaction was and blew me down. Pep Guardiola decides going 1-0 up. It's a time for him to drill tactical instructions into Bernardo Silva on the sideline. Meaningless game, departing captain, and Pep will not start coaching him up.

47:40Is that not Pete Pep Guardiola?

47:42Roger Bennett:That is Pete Pep Guardiola. That is very much what he is and who he is. It was a meaningless game, but he will have wanted to win it. He'll have wanted to win it in style and in his style. and so yeah he did what he always did which is or what he always does is which is give tactical advice after goals there was no time to celebrate rog why would you celebrate going into the league of all the players the one who is not going to be at city or anywhere it was just so great i would love to know what he said i'd love to know what he said to he might have said let let me do this so it looks like i'm whispering tactical advice to you that's what i thought that's honestly what I thought that he's just like, let's pretend.

48:22Yeah, because this is the moment when the cameras are on me and if I don't make it seem like I'm coaching you, everyone's going to look at my avant-garde cargo pants. Look, second half, Oli Watkins scored twice, Fulham won the game. But let's talk about the exits. Bernardo Silva, let's start with him. Emotional as he walked off. Didn't just receive a standing ovation, got a guard of honour, not just from his own team, but from Aston Villa too. They were class on this day. I think of Bernardo Silva like partially like one of those mythological Greek figures, you know, the half thing, half thing.

48:55He's like half elite footballer, half like little Portuguese terrier. He is supremely skilled, naturally skilled. He loved talking about how he never went to the gym. He's a winner. He's deeply versatile. But as much as he loved winning and really infused whatever team he played on with a hunger to win, he was a spiky dude. He was a real twister of the knife. He hated defeat. He talked about himself. I'm a bad, bad loser. And that probably propelled the team to victory more than we could ever imagine. What's your lasting memory of Bernardo Silva?

49:31Roger Bennett:Just a brilliant, snide footballer. That's what Bernardo Silva has been. A real fire starter, a provocateur. Had this kind of mischievous, devilish sense of humour where he knew he was causing trouble. my abiding memory of him is refusing to give Liverpool a guard of honour holding a coffee cup I think during the Covid season when Liverpool had already won the league and City had to give them a guard of honour onto the pitch and Bernardo just stood off to one side holding a coffee cup in one hand and something else in the other so he couldn't clap because he didn't want to clap the team that had beaten City to the title I think you have to admire that level of pettiness Rog an amazing footballer, an absolutely brilliant footballer could play anywhere, could do anything never played poorly.

50:15Roger Bennett:One of the most important players in City's modern history, probably their entire history. But partly, all of that is true because he was just a little bit petty. I liked that about a footballer. I mean, we'll get to Andy Robertson in just one moment, Ro. But God, I mean, it was a bit odd atmosphere. It was muted. John Stones also received the God of Honour treatment, and an incredible footballer, Barnsley Beckenbauer, also leaving. I think those goodbyes kind of took some of the moment out of the final whistle. Pep received a guard of honour about an hour after the game, introduced by a beautiful video of his accomplishments, Noel Gallagher rendition of that Manchester national anthem, live forever, then addressed the crowd, ended his remarks by using his now, I guess I believe there'll be tattoos of this all over the city.

51:09Faithful, it's been effing fun. which he spits out in a really remarkable way. And I'm quite fascinated by it. I'll talk about that in one moment. City are going to rename the newly expanded North End as a Pep Guardiola stand, commission a statue on the approach to it. Six titles, one Champions League, 10 years, incredible length of time to be that obsessively focused. Remember, he burnt out of Barcelona after four years. I think it was three years he burnt out of Bayern. And he does. The intensity is he of a thousand suns. He's constantly 11. One of the fascinating parts of the goodbye is the story came out how every Tuesday night he would blow off steam.

51:52With all of his assistant coaches, they'd go on the lash every Tuesday night, unleash almost their inner Jack Grealish rule. Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool after nine years, said he was out of energy. 17 major trophies won in those 10 years. There was a stat midway through his tenure, I remember that he wins a trophy at City every 28 games. The 115 charges of financial wrongdoing still await a verdict, but Raw, the consistency of potency is achieved, the relentless hunger, the lack of complacency amongst his players, that is humanly remarkable.

52:28Roger Bennett:Yeah, as is the fact that, and I think Khaldun Al-Mubarak, the chairman, said this when they announced it eventually on Friday that Pep was going, was the fact that he's been able to kind of innovate every single season. He's not found one way to win. He's found multiple ways to win. It's genuinely amazing that City have continually done things differently. He's inverted every position in his time in England. He has taken a position, and like a kind of Michelin-starred chef at a fancy restaurant, he's kind of deconstructed it and made it something else. Heston Blumenthal. He's Blumenthaled every position on the pitch, Rog.

52:59Roger Bennett:That's what Pep has done. I think the longevity thing is to do with the fact that it was the perfect environment for him. It was an environment built for him. It was designed to be to his specifications. You know, at Barcelona, what did for him was the kind of the politics, the swirling kind of backbiting and infighting of all the kind of influencing, all the influential people around Barcelona. At City, it was Pep, Chiqui Badiristain for a long time, the sporting director who was his old friend, his old confidant, and Ferran Soriano, who hired him, who was hired so that he could hire him, and who he knew from Barcelona.

53:35Roger Bennett:There was no politics. There was nothing else to worry about except coaching and coming up with ideas. And I think that enabled City to get far longer out of Guardiola than I think even they thought possible. There was so much cartilage around the boom. Well, exactly, yeah. He was kind of protected. He was cushioned. He could just kind of enact the things that he wanted. He didn't have to argue with people about transfers. He could sign anyone he wanted as they had the money to do it. And there was no kind of, well, we don't want to do that because the sporting director wants this person. The sporting director and Pep for a long time had the same brain.

54:08Roger Bennett:So there was no kind of tension, no argument, no difficulty. It was a totally smooth, totally frictionless experience for him. And that allowed him to keep going. Partly because it saved his energy, but I think partly just for a long time he recognized there was nowhere better in the world for him to be to get everything he wanted. and what he built was a dynasty. Yeah, I'm fascinated by this. You know, it's been effing fun. Because I interviewed Pep every single year he was at City. You know, his first when he was flailing. We forget this, the first season. I don't teach the tackles. The physicality of the Premier League overwhelmed him.

54:46The tabloid media called him the bald fraud, fraudiola. He was really, you know, he found it very difficult. You know, there's one year when I did ask him, what about football management is fun, Pep? Because I said, you always seem so on the edge, so obsessed with what's wrong rather than what's right in moments of victory. And he stopped for one second, thought about it. And then he shouted at me, I like it, which was just not convincing at all. And then the year after I asked him, I said, how do you keep going into the same locker room, many of the same players, one man, one voice, one message and not be tuned out?

55:21It's like, good question. So that's the hardest thing in management. This season, I went the week before the campaign started. We sat down. He did seem relaxed. He seemed the least tired, least manic I've met. And I said to him, if you don't win another trophy, and remember City, we were seen as being very much in flux, vulnerable in transition, head of the season. I said, if you don't win another trophy, will it upset you? And he said, no, no. He said, it's enough. I can't ask for more. Talked about how, this is interesting, He said how hard it is to come second, which I found very interesting in the moment.

55:58And then he just said, well, football has been very good to me. Well, that arc from ball fraud, if you will, I never loved that. But like at Anksville, doubted to this more content, funnier in the way Pep is funny, which is slightly sharp elbow, kind of wacky pointed humour that kind of comes from weird angles, a bit like his fullbacks in the final third. But it's been remarkable to witness. I'll never forget. But most of all, for me, it's been amazing to learn from. You know, I did mine in like parcel minutes. But it made me realize how bloody exhausting it must be to be Pep Guardiola. Remember, I was doing for tiny amounts of time.

56:38And I learned so much about football and life from him in those moments. And you realize this is how he spent the whole of the last decade, whether it's Nico O 'Reilly's coaching up or Mikel Arteta or hundreds of interviewees like me, you know. He's just constantly teaching people, improving them, seeing faults, trying to change them. It must be absolutely shattering.

57:02Roger Bennett:Yeah, he's a natural coach. He kind of walks through life coaching. That is absolutely true. And I think that, you know, you mentioned earlier that Arteta, every season goes into his basement, which is a bit weird, and he sort of looks in the mirror and says to himself, kind of can I do this I think Pep has had that thought every season I think Pep gets to the end of the season he tends to to feel quite tired and looking back and maybe this is an element of of kind of wisdom after the event 2020 hindsight the fact that kind of March April he started to get kind of demob happy he seemed weirdly kind of not intense a lot more relaxed uncharacteristically kind of chill, that was probably the sign that he'd made his mind up, that he knew, okay, enough.

57:46Roger Bennett:My abiding memory of Guardiola is I went to a dinner with him and Jurgen Klopp and lots of other people, not just the three of us, in, I think, 2019. And they both gave speeches. And they were both asked, what would you like to have from the other one? And Guardiola went first. And he said that he really kind of envied Klopp his charisma, his easy kind of charm, the megawatt smile, the kind of the ability to command a room. Yeah, the big laugh, the big kind of larger than life personality. And Klopp is a much more kind of obviously charismatic person than Guardiola. You know, if Klopp turns it on, and I don't, I think there isn't an element of having to turn it on.

58:26Roger Bennett:It's hard to resist Klopp. He does have that kind of natural energy. Guardiola is a slightly more intense, slightly more awkward figure. And when Klopp was asked, what would you like from Pep? He said that he really admired his obsessiveness, the ability to think about football all the time, to always want to be pushing, to always want to be improving, to just kind of consume football in every possible way. And I think Klopp wasn't entirely telling the truth. I don't think Klopp does envy Guardiola that. But I think he had recognised in Pep the kind of drive and the intensity that marked him out and that made him what he was, that made him the best coach of his generation, that has enabled him to win all this stuff.

59:09But at some point, that energy runs out.

59:14Roger Bennett:You know, that isn't bottomless. You think Klopp was making stuff up to be nice? I think within it, and this is purely speculation, Rog. I think within it, I remember as he was saying it, I was like, I don't think you, because you could be like that. Jürgen Klopp could be that obsessive. What's stopping you? You're the manager of Liverpool. Just watch more football, be more intense. Whereas, you know, Guardiola couldn't, he didn't have the kind of whatever natural charisma that Klopp had. That's not something you can teach. Klopp could have been more obsessive, but I don't think he wanted to be, because I think he thought it might be quite kind of, it would be draining.

59:47Yeah.

59:48Roger Bennett:And I think for most people, it would be intense. It was reverse psychology. It was like when Pepi said, so, so good. but he was encouraging Pep to keep doing it. You should be more intense, Pep. You should be more weirdly intense. I think Klopp, I mean, it's a different conversation of another time. I'll always remember one of my last interviews with Klopp. I asked him how he wants to be remembered. And he said, not for winning. Remember, Liverpool come second to Pep so many times. He goes, ultimately, when we go to God in heaven, God doesn't say, show me your trophies. He said, how did you win?

1:00:15And if you say, I won with my heart and my soul, God will say, come on in. and if you say I cheated, God will take you to another place.

1:00:25Roger Bennett:We'll never forget that. I don't want to get into theology, but what happens if you don't win anything? What does God ask? God says, how was it being an Everton fan, my friend? And you stay in perpetual purgatory. We've got to touch very quickly on what Pep does next. Feels like international football is the way. He's kind of hinting or briefing off the record. He was asked yesterday, will he manage England? By the way, I'd love for him to manage the US. I don't think he can do Spain as a proud Catalan. I wish he'd do the US. I don't think our infrastructure is at a level where he'd take it on.

1:01:03But ultimately, England, he was very close to taking the England job. I think England thought they had him, ended up with Tuchel instead. But he talked at the time, he didn't say no about the England job, which was fascinating. and said talked about how he missed watching his kids grow up. Very similar to Arsene Wenger. He once told me he never had the love. He said, I love the cinema. I never had the chance to go to the cinema once when I was Arsenal manager. I miss my kids growing up, he said. Just the amount of life Pep's missed, he regretted. But we both know he's just going to go and work on his golf game, probably get an exemption to the Masters, right, Rob?

1:01:40Roger Bennett:I think, well, he's a global ambassador for Manchester City. He will be contributing his knowledge to the clubs in the group. which keeps him involved in-house. I think Pep will probably have a year off at least and then go into an international job. But as you say, it's difficult to know which one because, all right, Thomas Tuchel's named a weird England squad for the World Cup, so maybe that will be available. But Carlo Ancelotti's got a long contract at Brazil. I don't think Guardiola can be Spain manager. I don't think he'd want to be Spain manager. Can't really see him taking kind of France or Italy.

1:02:10Roger Bennett:I'm not sure why he'd do that. The US isn't a terrible shout. I think that is probably the sort of thing that might appeal to him. Although, obviously, Pochettino dropped the plum US did, which was the USMNT before a US World Cup. So quite what he does next, I don't know. But I think the first thing will be another sabbatical. I suspect he needs one. You know, lots of time ahead of next season to break down the impact of City's next boss. Highly reported to be Chelsea chess master, former Chelsea chess master Enzo Maresca. He managed City's under-23 side, later became an assistant under Pep. It's fascinating where we're headed now, Ru, because the big question for all fans is how does Pep's absence even the playing field between the super clubs?

1:02:55A giant Catalan brain in the bottle was the difference between, I think, Liverpool in many titles. Jurgen Klopp really believed. He wondered out loud how many titles he would have won in a Guardiola-less Premier League. Arsenal fans, no doubt, ask them the same question. We are about to enter an era of parity in the most marginal of games, right? It's a crazy new world.

1:03:15Roger Bennett:I think there's a major difference between seeing a City team that is full of world-class players with an extremely talented coach like Enzo Maresta on the sideline and seeing a City team that's full of world-class players with Pep Guardiola on the sideline. I think there is a psychological difference there, both for City and for their opponents. And it's really hard to believe that doesn't kind of make a difference next season. City might end up winning the league, but I think the idea of them being this kind of untouchable force, this unstoppable force, I think that has probably gone. And it goes with Guardiola.

1:03:46Roger Bennett:It was, they were Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, so they now have to find a new identity. I'm going to miss him. I'm not going to lie. Friday, final press conference, Pep Guardiola was chatting to journalists afterwards and he said, God, I'm so glad I'm not getting a statue because the birds, quote, will poo on it. He was then told he is actually getting a statue. So let's raise a glass to Pep. His brilliant footballing style. His quite surreal persona. His avant-garde ability to muck up cargo pant pockets. And also dream dreams of everything being possible again in seasons to come now. He'll be forever etched.

1:04:25I think in every City fan's mind, smoking a victory cigar. Don't look back in anger. He's blaring in the background. And I think he will be forever. This is what's amazing about him. He's in Manchester. He's waving himself to the history of that city as an adopted son. And it is magical. Across Manchester, also incredible. Brighton nil, Manchester United 3. First game of Michael Carrick, his permanent manager. A game in which ultimately United's quality saw out. We remember for one moment, 33rd minute, outswinging corner. From the right by Mr. Bruno Fernandes, headed home quite emphatically by Patrick Dorgue.

1:05:02A record-breaking assist. Bruno's 21st of the season, Premier League single season record, breaking out held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry. That's the company Bruno's left behind. I find Bruno really inspiring, Roar, to do it on that team, United team, half a season of darkness, half a season in light. And at the age of 31, to summon another level of ability, it's really remarkable.

1:05:26Roger Bennett:Yeah, he's carried the entire club on his shoulders. Obviously, characters deservedly got the job on a permanent basis. there's an element of asterisk by that or a gamble by it because we know that next season will be different when they have to play every three days as opposed to every six weeks that is going to be more of a challenge for United but Bruno's kind of personal individual contribution this season has been genuinely astonishing and as much as as much as Carrick will get the credit for the transformation I think it is not possible without Bruno Fernandes he is he is as much as anyone the reason that United finished third.

1:05:58And it's his spirit of positivity and leadership, which has been doubted at times on United squads of yore, and mostly his humility in interviews. There's an interview we did with him, I'm going to link to it in the show notes. I was blown away, be it by his emotional intelligence in that interview. Huge, huge respect. Huge respect also, by the way, quickly to Brighton's season. Season of spurts in all directions. I think they were fifth at the end of November, one win in the next, was it 13 games until February? Everything seemed over, dead. Fabian Herzl are out. And then the surge. And European football.

1:06:34The Conference League earned just the second time in their history. And I'm in awe of just the cute word alignment, which means everything and nothing in football, but that they truly, truly embody. I look on it with great as an Everton fan. I want to emulate Brighton so badly. Liverpool won. Another club I admire. Brentford won. Second half of this Liverpool season. We've talked about it a lot. It's been like watching them try and almost tweet through the pain to almost ignore reality or their realities. There are like 50 subplots going on by my count. It's like a Thomas Pynchon novel rather than the end of the bloody season.

1:07:14Farewells. Farewells we know about. Players like Alisson, Canate and Gomez we don't quite know. A fan base truly deflated. Portion borderline mutinous. Zero Liverpool players in the England World Cup squad for the first time since 1986. I mean, this game, like a piece of theatre, a year after winning the league, Liverpool, on the last day, still technically needed to qualify for the Champions League. On a slot, has fallen from stoic hero to, I mean, a figure of derision at levels known only to like Ten Hagro or Greg Berhalter. You know, just in a Natalie Imbruglia position, constantly lying naked, shamed on the floor.

1:07:57Wouldn't say pre-game if he'd play. Poor Mo Salah in his last game. He's turned from great iconic striker into the underminer in chief. But, Rui, he didn't have a chance. Leave him on the bench and the cop were going to sing about him the whole game. Also, he hadn't won without Mo's start in 2026.

1:08:18Roger Bennett:Yeah, I think the one thing we'll come on to Slott more broadly, I guess, but the one thing that I think Slott has done well this season is kind of style out the outbursts from Salah. I think the way he handled the first one after Ellen Road in November was quite smart dropped him, said, you know, you can't do that, you're not allowed to do that, that's bad, got through to the African Cup of Nations Salah kind of disappeared for a while heat and the sting drawn from the situation Salah comes back, Slott kind of just eases him back into the team. So even though Salah kind of made that social media post last week, I didn't think Slott would do anything so rash as to say, right, well, you can't be in the squad.

1:08:58Roger Bennett:He couldn't dare though, Rui. He couldn't dare. If he'd done that, I mean, if he'd done that, the fans would have been furious. But I don't... The social media from the top rope, my God. I don't think Slott's like that. I think he has... He is a judicious man manager in that sense. He has plenty of other flaws. but I've genuinely been quite impressed with how he's handled that situation, which has clearly been, from what we know, has been difficult. I suspect there's an awful lot of stuff that we don't know that will illustrate how hard it's been. I wasn't surprised. I expected Salah to play. I expected him to be a substitute.

1:09:31Roger Bennett:I didn't think he'd start. But to be honest, Salah kind of justified the selection because he was Liverpool's best player by a mile in that game. Yeah, hit the post, set up the Liverpool goal. Because when he hit the post, that was like inches away from Scorsese cinema. You know, it's an agony for slot. The slot out banner hung mysteriously at the training centre. Vibes very strange through this one. All the totems we talked about for weeks, the lack of a style of play on display. Side that seems to be desperate for a moment of individual brilliance instead of some kind of a team idea of a goal propelled by, you know, tactics.

1:10:08I mean, it is very, very frustrating. Then the 58th minute, the pinpoint most of the assist, to Curtis Jones, the scouser in the team, gave them the lead. Brentford level six minutes later from Kevin Sharder. The moment, 73rd minute, Mo left the Anfield pitch for the final time, hugged Andy Robertson first, and then the rest of his Liverpool teammates on his way off the field. Andy Robertson followed 10 minutes later. Let's start with Robo. I'd say as an Evertonian, what you said earlier about Bernardo, I feel like his dark arts wound me up probably more than any other player. But the storyline is amazing.

1:10:47And heralded a rival from Hull City for 11 million in 2017. Perseverance embodied. Liverpool's greatest value for money. You can make the case it was worth the 11 million just to see him kind of ruffled in on Messi's hair as he sprinted past him during that 4-0 comeback against Barca. Or to laugh in Ronaldo's face. The little Scott did the double. To me, he was fearless determination. He was winning hunger. we've talked about this if Salah was the soul of Liverpool he was very much the lungs the connective tissue in many many ways between Liverpool's standard setting I mean that's evaporating

1:11:24Roger Bennett:Yeah I don't quite know how to compare Robertson to Salah in that sense because I would have said in a lot of ways Robertson was the soul of that team or representative of the soul of that team in the same way that maybe Henderson was or Milner before them he was the fighting spirit he was the clenched fist he had that kind of sense of being he was the person who played like you would play if you were allowed to play for the team you supported, that's what Andy Robertson did, he was the sort of player I saw a tweet today that said that Liverpool as a city has lost three really kind of important figures in its civic life in Coleman, Robertson and Salah and I think Robertson did he was that really rare thing and Coleman's the same he is a player who you can immediately identify with as a fan, he's obviously a millionaire.

1:12:08Roger Bennett:He's incredibly well paid. He's one of the best at his job in the world in this kind of remarkably competitive industry. But he plays like you would. You can see yourself in him on some level. And it's a privilege to have a player like that. And I get that to opposition fans, he was a source of intense irritation in the same way as Bernardo Silva would have been to people playing Man City. But that makes him all the more beloved to the fans of his team because he's doing it for you and he's doing it in the way that you probably would if you were good enough at football. I think Liverpool, Salah obviously was the headline act today which helped slot enormously.

1:12:49Roger Bennett:So much of the focus has been on Salah and Robertson's goodbyes but I think in a lot of ways Liverpool might miss Robertson as much as Salah. You know, God bless. You make it, we just described it, you sounded like Neil Moupe if Neil Moupe could actually play football. Let's talk about Mo, because he deserves. We've talked about him a lot this season, but this is his farewell. A man who was part footballer, part chess grandmaster. He played chess against many of the listeners of our show online on chess.com, which I just love. He arrived, he won it all, restored a culture of glory to Liverpool, and probably most revealing of all, when he announced he was going to leave, made it clear that this season has been the hardest time of his life, referring to the tragic loss of Diego Jota.

1:13:39257 goals for Liverpool, more than so many human beings who I consider icons of that club. I think only in Russian World Cup 66-0, Roger Hunt have scored more. 435 games, 257 goals, 120 assists. That's a goal or assist every 94 minutes, which is stunning for a guy who grew up in rural Egypt, in their grig and willed himself to glory with tenacity, a truly committed regimen. Once came on this show and told us that he said, the abs are built in the kitchen, not in the gym, and tried to warm me off carbs, which has not worked at all. But this season, Ru, the bleeding confidence, the lack of potency, it's felt like Liverpool have been adapting to this new post-mo world while he was still on the team.

1:14:28Roger Bennett:Yeah, if you were being cruel, you could say that they have been in a post my world this season because because Sal has not really been himself you know in terms of goal output creativity all that stuff he's he's been way short of everything we've seen previously I think in the in the depths of winter Rog there were probably quite a lot of Liverpool fans who thought he stayed for a season too long that it would have been in in retrospect ideal for everybody had he kind of walked away in glory last season yeah but nobody wanted that Everyone was, give Mo his dough, give Mo his dough. We're bolting that narrative on now.

1:15:05Roger Bennett:Yeah, absolutely. I think if you... I don't know, I think there was an argument last season that there were plenty of fans who kind of... Yeah, he was playing at such a high level that it would have been such a kind of blow for him to be allowed to leave on a free transfer. But I think there would have been plenty of fans who would have seen it as quite a Liverpool move. I thought giving him the contract was the right decision. I'll be absolutely honest about that. Same as Van Dijk. I think when they were playing at that level, you just won the league. Salah's produced one of the all-time great individual seasons.

1:15:32Roger Bennett:You don't go, well, numbers suggest he will be falling apart next season. You don't know that. You don't know if he's going to be an exception. So you have to kind of roll the dice and gamble. There is a little bit of sadness that he goes out after a one-all draw with Brentford to finish fifth. That is not how kind of Mo Salah should be saying goodbye. But the bigger emotion this week for me has been, I can't imagine Liverpool without Mohamed Salah. You watch all the videos, you watch all the goals he scored, you remember all the things he's done, all the ways he made you happy as a fan. And I don't think I've ever, even Steven Gerrard, who was there for longer, obviously, and grew up local boy, supporter, all that stuff.

1:16:15Roger Bennett:Gerrard wasn't operating at the level that Salah was because of the team around him. Whether one is more talented than the other, I don't know. But the team that Gerrard was in was nowhere near as good as the team that Salah's been in. And I think that to have that kind of a player doing those things, scoring those goals, those ridiculous, remarkable goals in the Champions League to win all those trophies in the Premier League has been a real privilege as a fan. And it leaves you a little bit fearful for the future because for so long, you've kind of gone into every game thinking, well, I don't really fancy us against this team or that team, but Salah will score.

1:16:51Roger Bennett:and now you don't have that. He was the guarantee and the greatest thing you can ask for as a fan is a guarantee. I mean, it's not just a guarantee, it's also the standard set-up. One filmed in Liverpool got invited to have lunch with the team. Afterwards, it was in their title-winning season and it was remarkable to see these guys who were so joyous in that joint mission. They didn't want to leave the training ground, which you never see in a football team. They genuinely... And he was just holding court in the most remarkable of ways. He's a product of just the joyful lethality that he kind of exuded.

1:17:26Times scored at a pace so sizzling. It felt like he couldn't score a goal without it setting or breaking another record. I think they interviewed someone from Opta today who actually admitted it got to a point where he was scoring at such a clip. Like they genuinely had a record for every single time the ball went in. And you've also nailed it. Watching him cut in from the right, everybody in the world knew what Mo was going to do, but no one could stop him, just as he couldn't stop himself from picking up his annual yellow card for taking his shirt off. And I think there's no better way to pay tribute to him.

1:18:00I thought a lot about John Oliver. John Oliver loved Mo Salah, absolutely adored him, and I know he'll be devastated today, devastated. And when Mo was invited into the Time magazine, most influential people. He came up with these words. These are John Olivers. He said, Mo Salah is a better human being than he is a football player. And he's one of the best football players in the world.

1:18:25Roger Bennett:That about sums it up, yeah. It's been, all I can say is it's been an honour and a privilege to be able to watch him for nine years and be on a personal level to support him for nine years. It is, Liverpool will be a poorer place without him both as a club and a city, I think. Amen. And I'm saying that as a blue who is meant to loathe, but can only admire and honestly can only love. I miss interviewing that man too. He's always, I mean, he's just so honest. And the last interview we did, I asked him, how do you adjust to this new frontline? And he said, that's a good question. And in a way he never did.

1:19:04Nottingham Forest won. Oh, Bournemouth won. A leggy Bournemouth, a tired Bournemouth, Morgan Gibbs, White. Looked over for England by Thomas Tuchel. Still able to thrash a three-kick from distance with precision. Q Forest singing Thomas Tuchel. What a wanker. What a wanker. But the great Tavernier equalised left foot, top right-hand corner. Bournemouth then needed Manchester City to beat Villa to reach the Champions League. That sentence is incredible. Their own fans started to chant, come on City! Come on City! But within second, City conceded. Champions League dream was over. A Bournemouth group chat I'm in, and yes, I'm in a Bournemouth group chat.

1:19:44I've theorised that Pep lost his final game on purpose to get Bournemouth back for ending City's title race, which is just galaxy brain, Roar. But Roar, Bournemouth having to, quote, settle for Europa League, that would have seemed absurd when the season kicked off, right?

1:20:01Roger Bennett:Yeah, context changes everything, Rog. Same as Everton, I guess. There was that kind of whisper of Europe for Everton, and that makes a 13th place finish seem like a disappointment. It's a careless whisper. A careless whisper. For Bournemouth, the kind of prospect of this weird tantalising prospect of needing one specific set of results to get into the Champions League, none of which actually happened on the final day, that obscures to an extent what an extraordinary achievement it is for Bournemouth to be in the Europa League for the first time in their history. The incredible job Irreola's done, the incredible job Bill Foley's done in building that club, in turning them into a team that, yeah, along with Brighton and Brentford, They're the three teams that everybody in the Premier League admires.

1:20:41Roger Bennett:They are the standard setters for kind of how well-run a football team needs to be, should be in the Premier League. It's an incredible achievement. And to be honest, as much as the Champions League is where the glamour is and the money is, and there will be a little bit of regret, I suppose, more than anything else, that they couldn't beat Forest, that Liverpool couldn't beat Brentford, that City couldn't beat Villa, which were the three things that needed to happen. There's a decent chance they don't win the Europa League next year. And I think if that happens, they will not be sad at all that they weren't in the Champions League.

1:21:11Well, it is magnificent. I want to go and watch Bournemouth in Europe. You go to a game in Bournemouth, their home fans, they call them, you know, tiny, tiny Tim Pot Bournemouth. They mock themselves. And you're right. It's not just about Bill Foley. I do believe he's such a critical part of this story. But these golden war cherries, big picture. I mean, yeah, go back to the beginning of the season, lost their entire back line and their goalkeeper last summer. did not miss a beat. We interviewed Tyler in Bournemouth the week before the first game against Liverpool. I actually feared for him. I did, I did, I did.

1:21:42Then they lost Semenyo in January, their most potent weapon, and did not lose the game again. That's beguilingly beautiful. Alex Scott, a phenomenon. Their ability to trust tweens, Junior Kupi and Ryan, they are tweens. It's been incredible. Adam Smith, my friend Tyler Adams, James Hill, just all of them, excellent. But big picture, this is a team in 2008 who were minutes away from bankruptcy, saved by their own fans collecting money. Started that season in League Two on minus 17 points and only avoided relegation on the last day when a player turned rookie manager, Eddie Howe, propelled them.

1:22:23Propelled them ultimately all the way to the Premier League. It's been delirious. Bill Foley came in 2022, one of the most remarkable sports owners I've met. I actually keep a bobblehead of Bill Foley on my desk because it makes me laugh. It's lost a hand, but he doesn't stop him from being magic. He arrived at the club and said, I'm going to take Bournemouth to Europe. And everybody laughed. Bournemouth was 17th when he took them over. He's got the Vegas Golden Knights charging through the NHL playoffs. Ultimately, Roar, when you look big picture, his words, I'm going to take them to Europe. Now they are, in Europe, pound for pound, they are the greatest team in English football.

1:23:04Roger Bennett:Yeah, and it's probably the greatest achievement measured the same way of the season. Just Arsenal, as much as they've overachieved compared to City in terms of wage bills and stuff, Arsenal are still one of the 10 richest teams in the world. Bournemouth are underpowered compared to the teams, you know, the kind of, I don't know, six, seven teams they've overtaken to get into Europe. Bill Foley's Auckland team as well won the Australian Championship or the Australasian Championship last night or maybe Friday night, depending on whenever it happened. I get the time difference wrong. This weekend, anyway, he is good at sports ownership, Bill Foley.

1:23:36Roger Bennett:Like it or not, he is good at it. And Bournemouth have benefited from the structure he's built, from the way that he runs the club, the way that he empowers people, his ability to spot talent, to kind of say, I found this person who's good, I'm going to trust them. That's what he says is his biggest skill, my ability to spot talent and to delegate leadership. Having said that, he does know when you chat to him who their fourth choice left back in the transfer market is going to be. That man is all in.

1:24:09In other games, Burnley won, Wolves won in probably the saddest game played this season. Fulham 2, Newcastle 0, another dead rubber. That could be Marco Silva's final match in charge of Fulham? question mark. And finally, Sunderland 2, Chelsea 1. By the way, what a stealth, sensational season back in the Premier League for Sunderland, who came up via the playoffs, if you remember, and then played as if they were always here. They've earned Europa League football at the last. Huge, huge respect to Regi Labris. Here fending off Chelsea, a timid Chelsea. Trahume finished, opened the scoring, then a feckless Mallow Gusto own goal.

1:24:50Cole Palmer broke his 14th game drought, which is almost, I mean, it's almost more of an agony that you're reminded he had a 14-game drought by him scoring than if he hadn't. For Fana then saw red and the Chelsea season ended, not with a bang or with respecting the ball, but with a whimper. Let's talk about Chelsea's season, Rourke, because, my God, there's wasted seasons. And there's wasted seasons. This was just a self-inflicted wound of a disaster class. They won the Club World Cup final July 13th, 2025, began the season with intent. I remember in October, they beat Liverpool. 95th minute Esteval goal.

1:25:29God, do you remember him? Maresca losing his mind, sent off for over-celebrating. They were second in the league in November, but then they descend into madness. Maresca decided to brief against his own club at every opportunity in press conferences, left in January with the team in fifth. If they decided, well, Liam Rossini is the man for the job. It felt insane at the time, but it looked like his critics were confounded because it was that four-game winning run. But ultimately, that was just like when Wiley Coyote's legs keep running, even though he's fallen off a cliff before he just plummets.

1:26:02That's what happened in the wake. Six straight losses in the Premier League. Just not a serious football club in any stretch of the Cole Palmer agony. Zombie Cole Palmer, Levi Cole out for the season, Esteval disappearing. I mean, this has been like watching the producers, that classic movie or like Brewster's millions in the Premier League. And there was an awful moment. Rhys James was asked after the FA Cup final loss what Chelsea needed for the season to come. And he just said, stability. And he sounded so exhausted, so shattered. You got Xabi Alonso coming. But my God, this team is so broken.

1:26:42He's probably glad, isn't he, Rod, that Chelsea didn't qualify for Europe and he's going to have a season free of midweek football.

1:26:48Roger Bennett:Yeah, do you know what? That same thought occurred to me today, Rog, that from Xabi Alonso's point of view, losing at Sunderland is probably a great thing. He gets what we can call the Carrick benefit, which is that he now gets a 38 plus a few game season when he can train his team. He can embed his tactics. He can keep players fresh. So it may well be that the greatest gift that Callum McFarlane, my man of the season, has given Xabi Alonso is a defeat at Sunderland, which clears his midweek schedule for the next year. That's really important for Chelsea. There will be, there's obviously a financial impact.

1:27:24Roger Bennett:It's not ideal not to be in Europe. They won't care about the Conference League or the Europa League. Missing the Champions League is a big thing. But then they're kind of used to it. Three of the last five seasons, I think they've not made the Champions League. which for a club like Chelsea is astonishing, given the amount of money they have. It's maybe not quite as startling a failure as Tottenham's, but it's a pretty seismic failure that Chelsea keep missing out on the Champions League. It is, and ultimately, you know, you ask, who are we? And you do become something different than you imagine.

1:27:52But I do think Xabi coming is hope. And as they say in Slow Horses, it's not the hope that kills you, it's knowing the hope that kills you, that kills you, which I just love. But before we finish with your letter, I do want to raise a toast. It's my third first Micheloboltre of the day to Hull City. They were promoted back to the Premier League yesterday for the first time since 2017. Beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in a fraught grind of a championship playoff. It was pretty ugly. I'll be candid. Haunted by the controversy and rumble of lawsuits surrounding Southampton's ouster for spying on their opponents in the style of Austin Powers, the spy who shagged me.

1:28:29This clash between the two teams that came fifth and sixth in the league. It's hard to watch. I think I texted you it felt like an MLS game played by men, made solely out of mashed potato with a lot of money on the outcome. The heat wave meant they always looked like they were about to melt. But it was settled quite beautifully in the 95th minute by that tattooed Night King, Oli McBurney, ex-Premier League forward who stabbed home a goalkeeping error. I think it was the game's second shot on target. It was an ugly goal, but he won't score one more precious with$290 million promotion win for. captain incredible journey for the club five seasons ago they're in league one last season they only avoided relegation on goal difference and now they're back in the big time they'll take six points off everton they'll have to find the other 34 on their own won't they rule you were

1:29:17Roger Bennett:there i was there it was not a great game rog they um both hull and middlesbrough would have required major investment in the summer to stand much chance of staying up i think the first the most important thing is it was it was the result the efl the people who run football below the Premier League they needed because Akronilakali, who is Hull's owner, had already said that because of the Spygate kind of furore, that if Hull hadn't been promoted, he would have taken legal action. And that opens a huge can of worms in terms of whether the season would even have been able to start next season. So the fact that Olly McBurney scored in the 94th minute, I think, that obviously huge reaction from the Hull fans, the Hull players, the Hull staff, people in Hull.

1:30:01Roger Bennett:the the legal office offices of the efl would have been just as happy that that was um that that goal went in um they will need a lot of investment they i think in terms of xg they they should have finished about 15 they started this season among the favorites for relegation it's been an amazing campaign for for them an incredibly kind of romantic story um illa carley himself is a fascinating owner a former television journalist rog there's hope for us all yet I think they will go up as strong favourites to go back down but Sunderland came up through the playoffs last season and they're in the Europa League yeah it's a fascinating part of England way up there in the northeast it's an old fishing town Philip Larkin dwelt around there as probably the most famous citizen but constantly James Warncastle yeah up there two poets Larkin constantly laughed at his own town and how ordinary it was which he loved I can't wait to go next season.

1:30:57I also love this tweet from at Tins Cognito. The thing about Middlesbrough is you can't ever write them off. Even if the game finishes four days ago, they may still find a way to win. So Southampton Middlesbrough in the championship twice next season is a great grudge game of grudge games. But we'll finish off this season. This has been a deep and rich and pretty exhausting show. Let's have a final letter of letters. It comes from Vivian Majesta. of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, do the honours.

1:31:29Roger Bennett:I'd love to go to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Roger and Rory, it has been amazing living with you on a weekly basis, watching Arsenal walk their journey to glory and not a march of folly. Walk is an interesting choice of verb. We now know who won, who made Europe. Pretty well everyone, not named Everton. That's unfair. What? And who is going down? Also, anyone who's not named Everton. But big picture, what are your biggest takeaways from this season? Are they about football or are they about life? North London forever, Vivian. What a question, Ruff. 380 games crackled across 283 days like the world's greatest soap opera played out live with the planet watching.

1:32:07When you think about it all, what have you learned from it?

1:32:11Roger Bennett:I think there's various footballing things about the way that the style of play is changing, the rise of the middle class, the fact that the Premier League has been so balanced, all that stuff. but I think the two things that really stick with me when you sent me Vivian's letter, one is that you don't get to choose when and how you say goodbye. I think that's the big thing that this season's taught us. If you look at Salah particularly, but maybe even Pep as well, as much as that had a slightly more triumphal feel, like Pep wouldn't have wanted to walk out with two domestic clubs and a second place finish and getting knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid.

1:32:44Roger Bennett:That's not how he would have dreamed of signing off. Even the very best amongst us don't get to choose how we say goodbye. I think that's been a big lesson of the Premier League this season. And the other is, this is maybe the fan in me, maybe appreciate what you've got while you've got it. I think that is the one thing. The contrast between where Liverpool were last season and where they are now, and obviously everything kind of hinges on the summer and what happened with Jota, that you should really revel in those moments. It's why I don't begrudge Arsenal being insufferable at the moment. You should really revel in those moments because you don't know what's going to happen to change them, to change how you reflect on them, how you feel about them, how you remember them.

1:33:24Roger Bennett:Yeah, I think that's the thing that I'll take away from it the most, that when you do have those kind of fleeting glimpses of happiness and glory, you should allow yourself to live in them for as long as possible. I love that, Roy. It's really big because it's the same for so many teams, like Chelsea, the Club World Cup, Liverpool, the title, Manchester City, their feeling of true potency with Pep. you could go right up and down the league. You know, as I said earlier, Everton, when we, you know, when we watched Gay slap Keane, we thought life wasn't going to get any better in a way it didn't.

1:33:56But mine is, I think, related to that, Vivian. This year, more than any other, I've realised it's just two gears in football. You're either succeeding or you're totally failing. You know, from a fan POV, there's nothing in between. I mean, I've lived it with Everton. Moyes being hailed as manager of the month candidate for getting close to Europe in March. And now, you know, there's like a fermenting Moyes out energy, which I think is crazy. Herzler, I just lived his story out, which is that in reverse. Football conjures only two emotions, which is kind of rhapsody or rage. And it used to be us or them when I was a kid, which felt different.

1:34:38It's now genuinely mostly rage, if I'm being honest. Rage about everything. you know shouted everything um and when you're doing that you can appreciate nothing um or little um and in a way um i think this season's title race has shown us just how knee-jerk and reactionary we really are how idiotic everyone and everything is i'd include myself in this by the way you're going to the season liverpool everyone's pick um you know by the fifth game we'd awarded them the title um you know we were already arsenal are playing must-win games or liverpool have got it Then we gave it to Manchester City. Then we decided, no, Arsenal have got it after all.

1:35:16And then we decided the title doesn't mean anything. They've gifted it. They've not played well. Then we decided that they're bottlers. They're rubbish. They're just jokes. City, after all, have got it all. And now Arsenal are delirious. They're in the promised land. In a way, football is just a reflection of life, culture, politics itself. Social media, I think, makes us all insane, makes us kind of mood swing morons. I just guess the life lesson, Rory, is as long as we're aware of that, I think it's okay. But if we're not, ultimately, we're just going to become the banter sphere, the shouter sphere, I think will ultimately become us.

1:35:55Roger Bennett:Yes, sacrificing. That is something that I've thought about a lot this season, is the amount of anger around it. You do wonder how happy this is making people. I like it. I like it. Exactly. we are all Pep Guardiola screaming at someone I'm having a nice time I'm having fun I think yeah we should maybe try and be a little bit more upbeat and a little bit less angry because ultimately they're all trying their best Rog yeah by the way at the end of the day don't we all just want to be the chief ban's officer by the way I do worry for that guy with the bottle it's hard to be in the spotlight for glorious things and have it just flip on you.

1:36:36But that's a story for another time.

1:36:38Roger Bennett:Shouldn't he not do a live stage show with the hair guy? That would be amazing. Which would culminate in him pouring a bottle of water on the hair guy's hair. Yeah, the hair guy. Maybe the bottle guy should cut the hair guy's hair and then just ultimately it'll all have come full circle. It'll be Manchester just coming together. It'll be dogs and cats living in perfect harmony. I don't know, man. But it's, I mean, we could do a whole show on that. I want to give huge thanks to Bank of America, official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the Men in Blazers media network.

1:37:16Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? I will say one of the things I love most about covering the game for the United States is mostly a football fandom built out of love and choice and not geographical anything and not multi-generational things. so it is far more I think I've been in a ton of sports bars recently we gave an award for the best beautiful bar in Virginia the best soccer bar in America, Michelob Ultra it had eight fan clubs sharing it I was in New Orleans and I stopped off to watch Everton and there were just football fans of every variety because the Finno Cools I think the bar was, has like again nine or ten official fan clubs and there's just it's like a star wars cantina of love and ultimately like i do believe like i said with clop if you didn't appreciate his humanity you're missing out on something in life i feel the same about eze feel the same about arteta feel the same very deeply about the arsenal story so to passion yeah but to more love more appreciation um more empathy in the year to come and that's it rule as ever tell us your takeaways of the year men in blazers gmail.com we'd love to hear them Where are you going this week, Ru?

1:38:31Roger Bennett:I think my weekend's in Budapest, Rog. Like Arsenal, the club season is almost over. There's two more games. There's a conference league final. I'm not doing that. But I am going to Budapest on Friday to see whether Arsenal can see whether this is just a build-up, whether this is just a starter and the main course is still to come, Rog. Main course? Rory's head is like goulash. What can I eat while I'm in Budapest? Yeah, you're not thinking about Arsenal at all. I don't care. I just want some food. It's a huge week ahead at Men in Blazers. We've got the US squad announcement live Tuesday, 4pm.

1:39:03Who will be in the squad? We don't know. The narrator's voice, yes, we do know. But Clint Dempsey and I will break it down here on YouTube. Come join us. Let's talk about how you're feeling. Let's mourn together for poor Diego Luna. We've got Christian Pulisic and Brendan Aronson coming on shortly afterwards. And then Raw flies to New York. We're going to start keeping our World Cup 2026 previews. massive summer ahead. Well, I can tell you, it includes a big orange bus. Roar, it's happening. Are you ready?

1:39:33Roger Bennett:It's not a chocolate orange bus, which is admittedly a disappointment, but in the summer heat in the US would be useless, if I'm honest. Design floor. You said chocolate orange. I thought you just said orange. It is an orange bus, and we're going like John Madden, coast to coast across this nation, reveling with you in city after city. I want to end by shouting out, by the way, talking about cities, He's the Black Sheep Pub in Philadelphia, nominated as one of America's best soccer bars. You know, I'm Michelob Ultra guy. Terrible news. Many of you, so many of you have written that a fire broke out there last week that will shut the bar down for months.

1:40:08I've been to the Black Sheep and they just have deep the passion. The sense of community runs out. I hate for you, for your family, for the entire staff who've been probably so World Cup excited. When the Black Sheep opens, we'll come down. We will raise a pint with you and your patrons. we will celebrate life. There is a GoFundMe for the pub. Please support it. If you love your own football community, do what you can to get that place going again. But Roar, God bless in every single regard. Thank you for being my partner in football.

1:40:41Roger Bennett:It's been a pleasure, Rog. Yeah, we've gone coast to coast on the season and that's all we can ask for. It's been fun. We're about to go coast to coast for reals with so many of you. I just say big, big love to better days ahead for all. And let's not take a moment of watching football together for granted and make great memories together. Big love and courage.