Champions League Preview, Kevin De Bruyne at Napoli, and Erik ten Hag Sacked at Bayer Leverkusen: European Nights 09/16/25

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2:56Some football For football It's Rog and you're listening to European Nights The show that's your reward for having survived a whole off-season With only the pale echo that was the Club World Cup to tide us over You survived the transfer window Closing the only way it knows how Trademark, slamming shut with our greedy, grasping little fingers nearly broken underneath and we survived that awkward first international break as we itch for now our very best selves. Yes, the Champions League's back in our loving arms. And I'm joined by who else? The gem with the most poetic typing fingers in Yorkshire and the finest head of hair who says you can't have it all.

3:45Did I mention he's a European football brain in a bottle extraordinaire? It's my friend, the bard of the newsletter, the correspondent. Sign up for it now at the link in the show notes. Why? It's Mr Rory Smith. How you doing, Rog? I'm like a C +, which is pretty bloody good. But this show is not about me, Rory. It's about, well, the sounds we heard on the way in. The transfer window slamming shut on Sky Sports in England. In this case, like a bar closing and cutting you off after you've been over-served. Almost felt like a mercy in all. Premier League clubs spent over$4 billion, some$510 million of that, in the last day alone.

4:27Premier League splurged more than the other four major European leagues combined. Of course they did. Four leagues could barely muster a paltry$3.94 billion between them. In fact, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. Those three teams combined spent more than all of La Liga or the Bundesliga or Ligue 1. The European Super League is actually here. It was right here all along, just wearing Premier League clothing, widening golf in finances. And now six clubs qualify for the Champions League from England. Roar, will we see the Premier League clubs dominate this year's Champions League? Or are we entering a future where the biggest games are in the English domestic season rather than the Champions League itself?

5:09Yeah, I think it's surprising, Rog, that we haven't already, like, without question, entered a Premier League era of dominating the Champions League. Obviously, Liverpool made finals in 2018 and 2019 and 2022. Chelsea played City in 2021, an All-English final. City won it in 2023. But the last two finals, Spanish team beating a German team, French team beating an Italian team, it is odd, given the massive financial advantage that the Premier League has, that this isn't basically a competition that is the exclusive preserve of the Premier League teams and maybe Real Madrid. It feels like with six English teams in the tournament, that's the first time that's happened.

5:51It feels like this year we should really, the numbers are on their side, we should really get an English Champions League winner. But I increasingly wonder whether the appeal of the Premier League is changing just a little bit like the global hierarchy. Because I think to a lot of fans who are supporters of English clubs, whether those fans are English or not, it feels increasingly like winning the Premier League is a bigger thing than winning the Champions League the one thing that maybe keeps the Champions League at the pinnacle is that the players want to win the Champions League more than anything else the fans might be thinking mainly about the Premier League title about making sure they get kind of domestic bragging rights but for players all over the world the place they want to play is where it has always been and that is in the Champions League We're launching a new Champions League newsletter tomorrow via The Raven.

6:41I actually wrote in the introduction that the Champions League is very much like, I mean, they're a great duo in my life, Champions League and Premier League. The Premier League is undoubtedly the Simon of the Simon and Garfunkel. The Champions League, and I love Art Garfunkel. He's got his own peculiar ways, his own great wonder. It's undoubtedly the Garfunkel, but both think they're the Simon, which is really, really fascinating. It's dangerous. Yeah, and to the players. Champions League is undoubtedly still the Simon, but we will see in the season to come how that shifts and slides, slips sliding away.

7:15See what I'm doing there this week, Tuesday. Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta travels home to Basque Country when they take on Athletic Club Tottenham. Welcome, yes, Tottenham. Tottenham in the Champions League. welcome Spanish Dreamers Villarreal Wednesday sees Harry Kane powered by Munich an epic deal makers Chelsea play the Nico Jackson Memorial Derby loser has to pay his wages next season Liverpool welcome a revamped Atletico Madrid Thursday your bonus Champions League day what a lovely surprise Kevin De Bruyne makes a quick return to Manchester City with his new sunscreen sponsorship building at Napoli Newcastle get to try to defend Barcelona owner.

7:58Also on today's pod, Eric Ten Hag, already setting records in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen. Spoiler alert, they're not flattering records. So let's hurry up and get to the football. De Brunner bends it in and it's gone all the way in. It's a debut goal for Napoli's new superstar, Kevin De Brunner. Turati had to wait. He couldn't gamble on the ball flight. And in the end, And it's the curl which takes it into the corner. That is the sound of ginger prints. Kevin De Bruyne scoring his very first Serie A goal on his Napoli debut. A set-piece curler that, to the untrained eye, looks suspiciously like a cross.

8:39But good thing, Ro, we are footballing experts. And we know KDB only does exactly what he intends. When asked to express the emotions he experienced during that moment, De Bruyne, the Belgian Poet Laureate, said, and I crap you not, quote, it was nice. And if you've muted your Fabrizio Romano notifications because you can't abate the nausea of another Liverpool signing, speaking totally hypothetically, of course, you may have missed that KDB joined fellow ginge turned aura king Scott McTominay as the Conrad to his Jeremiah of SSC Napoli, a glorious partnership made possible only by SPF 150 sunscreen.

9:19Yes, KDB spun the allure of Saudi oil money for a slow descent into retirement on the sunny shores of Naples. Three-inch in seam, on his swim trunks, sunset, reflecting in his oversized sunglasses, all the while collecting a Scudetto or two along the way. Please God. Storyline ripped straight from a Fellini film. Fellini, not Fellaini. Fellaini's movie's also good. And it should warm our collective footballing cockles. if it wasn't twinge with the sadness of his Manchester City departure, because we know it wasn't KDB's decision to leave Manchester back at the end of last season when he announced he'd be parting at the expiration of his contract after 10 glory trophy-soaked seasons.

10:02De Bruyne said, sadly, I have not had an offer all year. They just took the decision. I just have to accept it. So, Roar, before we delve into this kind of Italian coda for KDB to some degree, let's reflect quickly on his English art an incredible career six titles two-time league player of the year Champions League trophy to boot infinite puff red cheeks and passes so delicious they could be on a Neapolitan pizza tasting menu succinctly what should we consider to be KDB's legacy in the Premier League? One of the finest midfielders we've ever seen in England I think that's the obvious way of describing him but I think what really stands out about De Bruyne and this is a little kind of theory of mine that all players need it.

10:46He kind of had a signature move, Kevin De Bruyne. There was a type of pass that other people have probably played before, Rog, that other people can probably play in the future, but they'll always look a little bit like Kevin De Bruyne passes. That in-swinging, fizzing, low, perfectly placed ball from just inside the right-hand channel, that's a Kevin De Bruyne pass. And I think that is something that will stay within English football. He's the sort of player that will be being mentioned in 10, 15, 20 years' time because other players remind us of him. And that is probably the best letter to each and a half.

11:19When we say one, I mean, how many are we talking about, by the way, when we say one of the best midfielders? One of, is it 100? Is it 10? Is it three? Got to push you there. You want an actual number? I want a hard-hitting news show. Got to push you here. Seven. Just stick with seven. One of the best seven midfielders. My brain's exploding. Kieran Jujri-Hall. Yeah. Garner. Garner. Idris Idrissi Gey yes give him there you go 1-1 Abdullahi Ducouré then probably then probably De Bruyne then Leon Osman and finally Thomas Draveson now you're talking nonsense to Leon in there but let's get back to KDB because it's not about me you got me sad when you said Ducouré what's equally as interesting as KDB's departure from Manchester City is that the Napoli team he's joining is one under the tutelage of Antonio Conte the man who would be an offensive Italian stereotype if he wasn't a real person.

12:16I think it was John Oliver that said that and his team, fresh off winning their second Scudetto in three years. But this new iteration of Napoli is completely different than that from 2022-23 from that league-winning side, which was filled with young stars on the way to bigger and better things like Kim Min-J, now a Bayern Munich, Kavaradona, the man with a broken iPhone and an unparalleled name, now a Champions League winner with PSG and quite present Galatasaray forward Victor Osserman. This team, it's more like an island of misfit toys. De Bruyne, cast off against his wishes for Manchester City, washes up on the shores of Naples.

12:55The aforementioned Scott McTominay left another Manchester club last season before lighting the Italian world aflame, where he is, I can't believe this, still on the pitch play and is off the pitch glow up from Premier League reject to Serie A player of the season. those two joined by Rasmus Hojland. Hello, old friend. Also leaving the doom and the drizzle of Manchester for the Serie A Image Rehab Centre. That is Napoli. Scored just 14 minutes. Incredible. And then did this, just 14 minutes into his Italian debut this past Saturday. Corre Hojland, va via Pongraciccia! 2-0 Napoli, 14 minutes. Oilunda, he's put in the field and immediately puts his firm for the double Napoli.

14:04after his infamous crash-out turned self-immolation at Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham's story is this. 20 years that there is the honour and never won something. That is press conference, as performance are, and I will never tire of it. But, Roar, this new Napoli. It's a complete departure in ownership style for Aurelio Di Laurentiis. Napoli's quite bombastic, slick-haired, aviator-clad, overlord. We've talked about him before on this show. The same gent who quite loudly refused to sell Victor Osman in the summer of 2024 for what surely would have been north of$100 million, is now going garage sale hunting for his starting XI.

14:42And it's working. So explain to us, Ru, what is happening in Naples? What is in those San Marzano tomatoes that you found out that Scott McTominay loves and are clearly allowing Antonio Conte to transform Premier League refuse into Syria treasure? and how long is it until Joshua Zerkesy and Benjamin Szczesko join in the fun? You wouldn't bet against it because, and I think the McTominay example here is really important, other players will notice that you can go to Napoli, you can play a high standard of football, you can win trophies, you can eat great tomatoes and you can kind of transform your reputation and that's really important at the core of how Napoli have built this squad.

15:22This quite un-Series squad in terms of its depth and its quality is Antonio Conte. Conte went to Naples as a slightly kind of awkward fit he's from Lecce which is the other side of the south of Italy he played for and managed Juventus who are not popular in Naples he also managed Inter who were not quite as unpopular but still aren't exactly widely liked in Naples and it felt like a slightly awkward sort of match between him and Napoli felt a little bit like a fish out of water like embracing your enemy in pursuit of success and it worked they win the lead last season the fourth title in history second in three years but for a lot of that lead season people within the club were expecting Conte to leave they thought he would come he'd win the title he'd prove to everybody else that he had this magic touch in Serie A and then one of the big clubs of the north whether it be AC Milan whether it might be Juventus again would come for him and he would move back to his natural environment and then after the league title was won something changed and I think what changed is that Conte has this amazing ability that even works with Daniel Levy to an extent Antonio Conte will ask people for players they will sign him players and then Antonio Conte will ask them for more players he just wants more players all of the time Napoli's sense was that that they wouldn't be able to match his ambitions that he'd want too much they had various sort of sets of showdown talks and somehow Antonio Conte managed to persuade Aurelio Di Laurentiis to his vision of reality, which is not something that is easy to do with Aurelio Di Laurentiis, who was not an easily persuadable man.

17:02And Napoli have had this very, very busy summer by Italian standards. They've committed a substantial sum of money on fees and on salaries, and they've built a squad that has, I think, more depth than certainly any other in Italy, and probably compares to some of the lesser likes of the Premier League's Champions League contingent in terms of the calibre of player they've got, the amount of money they've spent and the number of options they have. I think behind that is a dual desire from Conte and De Laurentiis. I think this is the one bit of common ground they had, the Napoli manager and the Napoli owner.

17:39They both want to do something in Europe. Conte's always had this reputation of not being great at the Champions League. he's sick of it he wants to have that kind of honour of not necessarily winning the Champions League but going deep I think for De Laurentiis two years ago felt like a missed opportunity the year that Napoli won the Serie A title the road to the Champions League final was open they would have had to beat Milan and then Inter domestic rivals, teams they were much better than to get to the final in Istanbul against Manchester City and they lost, without any obvious explanation They lost to AC Milan in the quarterfinal.

18:15And I think that stunned De Laurentiis. I think he wants to make an impact on Europe. And he's gone along with Conte's plan to do it. As is the fate bestowed upon us now by the random draw footballing gods or by heated UEFA ping-pong balls, Napoli will travel to begin their journey to the Etihad, 3pm Eastern time this Thursday, to take on KDB's former club, Manchester City. in each team's opening Champions League but it's a fascinating time for this match-up. Two teams headed in slightly different directions you could say. Napoli ascendant, restorative. Manchester City, squad still in transition.

18:55Loses are two of their first four league games. Eighth currently in the Premier League table after this weekend's beatdown of Manchester United. Lots of players still finding their feet, bedding in, as you say. They arrived after the club's trademark season from hell last year in which Manchester City finished Gasp third place, but they've reloaded their squad full of splashy signings, bright young talent like Ryan Cherky, Tijani Reindeers, Ryan Aitnori, and most recently, John Lugie Donnarumma himself. Well, I had the joy of spending time with Erling Haaland at the end of last week. Really fascinating conversation.

19:35You can check it out now on our YouTube channel. But I get to ask him about Kevin's departure. And what he told me struck me as quite soulful and human. Kevin, a huge legend in City, which, of course, we miss every day. I miss him. But again, one day it's going to be me. We're not playing forever. So, Roar, there is that darkness at the end of the tunnel of every footballing career. It's a darkness that seems to be looming over Manchester City as they try and claw back the glory days while Pep drifts, well, by his own proclamation, ever closer to retirement. But Napoli's specialty right now seems to be staving off that darkness, beating it back for just a few more ecstatic moments in the spotlight.

20:23But is it sustainable? And have a team like Napoli already reached their ceiling just by winning a league title? They will feel they can make a bit of an impression on Europe this season. I'm inclined to say that winning the Champions League is probably beyond them. Just because for all the money they've invested, for all the work they've done, for all the depth they've got, they're still shopping in a slightly different pool to the Premier League teams. Manchester City's quality and depth is far greater than Napoli's. Their potential ceiling is higher. But I think there is, as I say, that there's a slight sense in Naples that they maybe could have made a little bit of a deeper run a couple of years ago in the Champions League and that this is their chance to make up for lost time.

21:04But what the Italian sides have all been able to do, I think, recently, is an interesting pattern, is they are more and more taking Premier League rejects, players deemed kind of surplus to requirements by particularly the big six teams in the Premier League. And they're repurposing them and they're saying, look, there are ways of improving your career. You can have life after the Premier League. And that means that Napoli will come to Manchester with quite a lot of players with a point to prove. They're not playing for a move to England. they're playing to kind of show Manchester United in the case of McTominay and Hoyland, Chelsea in the case of Billy Gilmore if he were to play or Manchester City in the case of Kevin De Bruyne, they kind of want to kind of show these teams and these managers that they weren't ready to be put out to pasture and I think that does make them dangerous, you know that in that Napoli team there is abundant match winning Premier League quality because we've seen it in the Premier League and that makes them a threat even And even though City should, because of their depth, because of their wealth, because of their resources, because of their manager, City should have the edge.

22:07But Napoli will turn up with a plan and with an intention of making that first impression. You make this whole game sound like one of those movies where the old agents have one last mission together with nothing to prove other than to themselves. God, roll on Thursday. We will have to wait and see. I personally predict Ruben Amorim will polyfancy what the restorative powers of Napoli. He's like, everything's crap here in Manchester and it gets reborn. Count me in, man. Again, this game kicks off 3pm Eastern time this Thursday, September the 18th. Can't come soon enough. In the meantime, we'll be back with another Manchester redemption arc.

22:46You know, minus the redemption part. It's Eric Ten Hag after the break. We are delighted to bring you the Men in Blazers City Guides presented by Visa. A joyously assembled guide to the best places to eat, drink and explore and watch the beautiful game across the country. It's a guide aimed at helping fans experience the city as a local. It's built by you, our listeners, recommending some of the best small businesses in your communities. Like the finest Viet Cajun in Houston. Yes. The best burrito in San Francisco. Yes. Where to savour lemon pepper wet in Atlanta. Yes, yes, yes. A massive shout out to our sponsor Visa, who's made this guide possible.

23:33Visa gives local business owners the tools and support to be ready for moments exactly like this one, welcoming you to enjoy the games this summer. Start planning your journey at meninblazers.com backslash cityguides. guides with the american express platinum card you can access over 3500 in annual value with benefits and eligible purchases across travel entertainment and more there's nothing like platinum learn more at americanexpress.com slash explore dash platinum enrollment requirements monthly and other limits in terms apply sorry to say this but you don't have any knowledge about football and about managing a football team former manchester united boss eric ten haig has been sacked by Bayer Leverkusen.

24:15Eric Ten Hag, two games at Bayer Leverkusen, out. That's right, Eric Ten Hag. Congratulations, man. You just set a brand new Bundesliga record. Incredible. 99 days after being announced, 62 days after he started working at Bayer Leverkusen. Oh, the Dutch ball brain was fired after, yes, two whole Bundesliga games more than you as coach, if you're listening to this, smashing the previous record of just five games. And according to a German publication, Sportsbuilt, it cost the club$7 million to cancel his two-year contract. If you crunch the numbers, which they have, he made about$112 ,000 per day of employment, which is good work if you can get it.

25:01Bill also reported 10 hard quotes, managed to turn all departments, bodies and players against him in a very short time. It's actually really impressive when you hear it framed like that because you realise that includes physios, doctors, even the nutrition experts hated him, team organisation, even his own new coaching staff that he'd handpicked and brought in. Pretty impressive to burn through that. By the way, the players for their part, they didn't know what to do. Allegedly left quite perplexed as he didn't even bother to give a pre-game speech. Did he not take the off-season to binge Friday Night Lights?

25:35I don't know. Things started out bumpy and only went downhill from there, from an embarrassing 5-1 pre-season loss to Flamengo's under-20s to coughing up a 3-1 lead against 10 men, Werder Bremen, with 20 minutes to go, somehow drawing 3-3. Captain Robert Andrich called it, quote, misery versus misery. Sounds like an incredible movie. Ten Hag will point out he didn't get time to oversee the quite drastic rebuild. $270 million worth of players sold, including worrying whiz kid Florian Wurtz, who cost Liverpool$146 million, as well as a raft of veteran leaders. Really, the heart ripped out of the squad as we know it.

26:18As sporting director Simon Rolfes framed it, it was a mistake to hire Ten Hag, but it would have been a bigger mistake to let him continue. Or as Ten Hag himself once said, quote, in football, it is eat or get eaten. My Lord, was Ten Hag's time at Leverkusen, Roar, always destined to be a mistake in retrospect? How do you understand Ten Hag's 62-day breakup speed run-up by a Leverkusen? Because it is amazing. It's astonishing. I don't think it should have been, or I don't think it needed to be, that much of a catastrophe, to be honest. It seemed like a relatively smart fit that, you know, Xabiolanto obviously left Leverkusen in a pretty good place when he went to Real Madrid at the start of the summer.

27:04That had been telegraphed. They knew it was coming. Not a problem. They had time to kind of line up his replacement. Likewise, with the squad, they would have known that Wietz was going to go this summer. A couple of the others maybe would follow. It was obviously time for a title-winning side, the best side in Leverkusen's history, to be broken up. And Ten Haar does have quite impressive coaching pedigree. You know, he won trophies at Manchester United, and even if you take them out as kind of runners-up consolation prizes, he was an excellent coach at Ajax. He plays a very kind of modern forward-thinking type of football.

27:37He has, you know, the sort of resume that a lot of coaches would dream of having. It's really hard to understand how it broke down quite so badly, quite so quickly. I think that's the bit that I find hard to grasp. I've met people, I've met Simon Rolfes, who runs Leverkusen, the football inside. I've meant Fernando Caro, their chief exec. Leverkusen are a fundamentally very reasonable club. They are not, it's not a kind of viper's nest of egos. It's not a place that's won the lead under Xabi Alonso and decided they've got to be Bundesliga champions every single season and if they don't win every game, then something's wrong.

28:15Leverkusen budget sensibly. They understand their place in the pecking order. They understand what is sensible for a club of their size and their horizons. they obviously have tried to project it as being ten hearts failure as you say that sport built report around kind of annoying everybody i mean that's reputationally just turned them into a toxic force and it's what one side would say when they decide they've made a mistake but at the same time lavertues and i'm not the sort of club who would give up on something out of you know on a flight of fancy it's fairly clear something major has broken down there and broken down basically from the start god it is unbelievable that to me Leverkusen did two things that were incredibly right in football strategic football making decisions number one someone wants to leave Manchester United we want the post Manchester United managerial bounce check and then they did the other thing go against the grain of your last great manager uh Xabi Alonso incredible hair Ten Hag, no hair.

29:17Both of those boxes ticked. And yet, it still didn't work. I don't know what to tell you. Till there's two Bundesliga games in the sun this season. This is what's incredible. Ten Hag's reputation was super solid in Germany. From his time coaching Bayern Munich's second team, that would be Bayern Munich's Y, during Pep's time there from 2013 to 2015, when Ten Hag won promotion to the Regionale Liga Bayern, which is the third division. So yeah, Germany's third division, lower tiers are all regional. It's quite a big country. So that's the Bavarian section of the third division. God bless the feared Bavarian section.