Premier League Preview Part 2, presented by YETI: Men in Blazers 08/20/26

21:17Roger Bennett:There was no kind of sense of he's out of his depth. He built a really good staff around him. He did everything right, Michael Carrick. And by the time they appointed him, what would have in certain circumstances looked like a decision of weakness, looked like a real kind of, a really obvious choice. But the big test now is, can you do that with a much more realistic schedule for a club of that size? Because yeah, to be honest, Man United had a squad built to be in the Champions League that were playing once a week at most for the entirety of his reign. He had nothing to think about except the Premier League at a time when all of his rivals around him had players who were battling huge amounts of accumulated fatigue.

21:53Roger Bennett:This is the real test of Carrick. And so the answer is we just don't know. There's no input. There's no control group. Carrick probably doesn't know. What's fascinating, and this is a great tribute, I think, to Carrick, is we're entering a season almost feels drama-free at Manchester United. The noise that we kind of traditionally, the complete foment is just silence. I think it is a reflection of their manager. It is going to be fascinating though to watch this squad adapt to the absence of that perfect square footballer, Casemiro. Phenomenal nine Premier League goals, big goals in his last dance.

22:31In comes young Brazilian Andre Santos and the battle-hardened Yuri Tillmans. I think he's going to be quite fascinating watching him spring. Bruno Fernandes with his quick-release passing and his slinging of long bombs is possibly one of the more inspired new acquisitions. Even though the midfield, I'd say, still feels at least one player short in attack. Benjamin Sheshko has been hobbled preseason by a shin injury. Brian Mbumo has been leading the line. Marcus Rashford is back. If there was noise, they're almost trying to subdue the noise. Not really talking about it, but he's back for the first time in two seasons.

23:08he's 28 18 months on loan at Aston Villa and Barcelona not played for United since I think November 2024 well this is an incredible storyline it's a biblical level prodigal son return fare how will he do and do United have enough in that squad to return to searing relevance the Rashford story is like the prodigal son

23:29Roger Bennett:if the prodigal son's parents have been like no are you sure you don't want to stay away look we can find you we can find you a new house but just stay away you know maybe go for another year Just be the son. It'll be fascinating to see. They've given him a new squad number though, Rog. So it's fine. It's actually a different guy. Totally different guy. It will be fascinating to see whether he can rediscover his joy at playing for the club he supported as a kid. There will be something really beautiful about Rashford, who seemed to have found himself a bit at Barcelona and looked kind of like the Rashford of old for England during the World Cup.

24:02Roger Bennett:With England, he's fine. Thomas Tootle likes him, rates him, trusts him. there is no reason why he can't come back and be one of Man United's best players, to be perfectly honest. And if he can rediscover that form, then he turns them into a more serious proposition. He's another option for them, alongside Mbwemo and, when he's fit, Szczesko. I still think they're a bit short in attack, if I'm honest. You've also got the growth of Amadiyalo. There's kind of a degree of youth in that squad. Kobi Mainu, obviously. Leni Yoro, who when he arrived was really highly rated. if they can kick on again there is a squad there at United that can certainly push them towards the top of the table but Rashford is the outstanding question mark because the way it seemed to have ended for him at the club he had always supported was really devastating this is his chance of a do-over the question is can he take it and can the club allow him to it's going to be fascinating to see if more games means more game time for some young academy graduates we're not talking about a lot unless you've been really salivating over the pre-season games.

25:03Two 19-year-old prospects attacking Mike, Shea Lacey, then defender and Latin verbs sound like Harry Amass. Here's my question for you, Roar. Yes or no, those are the only two possible options. Manchester United have to win a trophy this year for Michael Carrick's first full season to be considered a success. No.

25:24Roger Bennett:They don't have to. They'd help, but they don't have to. There you are. You said it. Short answers. Raw sticking to the mission. Kindies for United opt to have declared they have the easiest big side opening to Premier League season. Hull, Ipswich and Chex note to Everton. That'll be nine points then before they charge into the fourth weekend looming Manchester derby. And talking, let's call it the pivot future broadcasters of America. Let's talk about City. another team in big time transition swamped by the uncertainty of the post Pep Guardiola moment yes it's happening the bald scourge of sideline water bottles everywhere has decided finally to look back in anger after 10 glorious seasons on the City's sideline enter Enzo Moresca City's PR team doing incredible work painting him not as the man following the man but a Pep protege manage Manchester City's elite development squad during the 2020-21 season led them to the Premier League 2 title.

26:30Yeah, we feel good about that before returning as Pep Guardiola's assistant during that 2022-23 treble. Well, to follow Pep Guardiola feels like an impossible job, I think, for everybody. So, should we just write off Enzo Morescu as like a do mission? How do you follow the man who claimed 20 trophies in a decade ranks along Sir Alex Ferguson as the all-time goat? Or do we watch and monitor to the extent Maresca feels free to make a team his own, to play in a style of his own, to make Manchester City feel Maresca before writing him off as, like, you know, on the slot, but even bolder.

27:08Roger Bennett:But the thing that's interesting with Maresca is that City seems to have leaned in so much to the idea that he is just another kind of version of Guardiola, that he even looks a bit like Guardiola. I presume that's a decision that Enzo Maresca... Take your glasses off. Has made himself. The beard, the bald. It's all very Guardiola coded. Don't give me that until he waddles up wearing cargo pants with a pocket in avant-garde thigh positions. He does need to work on his trouser game. His truiser. His pant game. Sorry, I forgot my audience. I think if you look at clubs who've replaced those big iconic managers, they've all tried different things to escape what we might call the Moyes paradigm.

27:44Roger Bennett:So when you look at United, when Ferdison leaves in 2013, they take the guy who looked like he was set fair to be the next version of Ferdison, which is the tough-talking Scottish manager who had been doing a brilliant job at Everton. And it doesn't work. So by the time that Arsenal come round to replacing Arsene Wenger in 2018, they very consciously don't do that. They go and get kind of a tactics guy, a tinkerer Unai Emery that doesn't work when Liverpool have to replace Klopp in 2024 they went one step further and got someone who was almost the antithesis of Klopp they got the guy who was calm cool collected very emotionless and it works brilliantly for a year it's exactly what Liverpool need and then it stops working entirely and they sack him a year later City seems to have gone back round and said, well, it's worked so well with Guardiola.

28:42Roger Bennett:What we need is a continuity candidate, effectively. And Maresta is the best bet. He's worked for him. He's worked with him. He looks like him. He plays the same sort of football. This should work. The evidence of the community shield is not great. Maybe that's not a fair thing to judge him by. And the other thing that happened is that the squad's not the same anymore, Rog. And that's a real challenge for Maresta. So let's talk about that. By the way, it will not the Moyes what did you call it the Moyes paradigm will only have come full circle when Manchester City actually hired David Moyes that would be genuinely amazing no the Moyes paradigm comes full circle when Everton appoints Alex Ferguson that's the that's the way it stops by the way Tommy's like hmm would I yes I would he's only he's only my goat look you mentioned the community shield I think we've got to try and resist the urge to read too much in that City of Lost is it four of the last five however having said that It was a truly curdlingly lifeless performance.

29:37Let's talk about Enzo. Intense. You know, he's an incredible leader. English presser feasting off the detail that he, how does he choose his captain? Choose his captain as the player who doesn't celebrate too much so he can bring him over to the sideline to immediately download tactical information throughout. His arrival's not the only change there. This is a squad in total flux, a layer. I mean, more than a layer, just strata, if that's a word, of winning leadership. Gone. John Stones said ciao, gone off to Italy. Bernardo Silva, adios, on his way to Real Madrid. I mean, the enormity for City fans, for the entire league, really, of the departure of Rodri.

30:17Four league titles, a Champions League, off to Barcelona. Not just a football player. Really, I don't like to be hyperbolic, but an arc of the covenant. Whoever carries him wins. Rodri, this summer, I think the Premier League has lost

30:31Roger Bennett:its most devastating player of the last 10 years in Mohamed Salah and its best player of the last 10 years in Rodri. They are the two kind of tenets of Premier League football, these totems that have just gone. And Liverpool, and this is not to bring it back around to Liverpool, the problem for Liverpool is they've been managing this kind of decline and transition for two or three years, and it's getting progressively worse. City, there's maybe an argument to be made that ripping it all off at once isn't a terrible idea, that you say, right, Stones, who didn't play a huge amount last season anyway, but it's still a big figure in the dressing room, big figure in the club's imagination.

31:04Roger Bennett:He goes. Bernardo Silva, who's been trying to leave for quite a long time. He goes. Another massive figure. Rodri, the linchpin of that side, it's not ideal that he goes. He would have been a perfect kind of player to manage that transition between Guardiola and Maresca. But to be honest, I wonder if the argument is, let's make this pain as short as possible. So Rodri goes, Silva goes, Stones goes. but at the same time, Elliot Anderson comes in. We think Ayuboad is going to come in. Maybe Enzo Fernandes comes in. You just redo the whole thing and start again. You might need a transition year this year.

31:38Roger Bennett:That's true. Very rarely can you just kind of hit the ground running but at least you don't drag it out over a couple of seasons. Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of money. 157 million on Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson. They still have that backline. Kuzinov, Ghegi, Ruben Diash, Gvardi. That is a repellent muscle. is the way I'd describe it. Can you explain what an Elliot Anderson does? That is a lot of money for that player. He's industry. He's a smart passer of the ball. He works incredibly hard. He has that, what Maurizio Pochettino would describe as grinter. That's what Elliot Anderson has.

32:13Roger Bennett:That's not a word they use in the northeast of England, where he's from, but that's what they mean. He was brilliant for Forrest for six months last season. He did tail off a bit, but his growth as a player justifies certainly the move to Man City, the fee is extortionate because it's the Premier League but he looked for Forest last season like potentially a generational English midfielder and I think City were at the head of a very long queue of teams that wanted him. You maybe are looking at City rebuilding, retooling for a new generation. That's what's happening. Whether that can happen instantly is a different question but they are thinking, right, the Guardiola era has finished.

32:50Roger Bennett:They've gone. Who are the kind of totems that we build around now? Anderson and if Guardi, as we expect him to comes in, that might well be your midfield sorted for 10 years. They also have still, remember, France's version of, I guess, jackass. He's like a football playing Johnny Knoxville, Ryan Cherky, and America's sweetheart, Erling Haaland up top. Mareska said, you need to adapt, you need to evolve. Here's the question for you all. Erling Haaland exited the season, an absolute superstar after his World Cup, not just performance, but off the field as well. a raccoon clutching master PR stroke, became America's kind of the global phenom, truly a phenom in this World Cup, won the golden boot with 27 goals last year.

33:36Does he go over or under that total in the season to come?

33:39Roger Bennett:I think this will be a season defined on the pitch by Erling Haaland. He is the Premier League's biggest star by a million miles now. He's the face of the league, the face of the franchise. I think he scores 30. His anger, his frustration, his channeling that to potent levels of leadership. It's going to be very, very fascinating to watch him with this team in moments of challenge more than anything, which you will not truly have experienced those depths and the consistency that I imagine he's going to experience in this season, in the year to come back across the Northwest and to your people's Premier League champion, 2026, 27, Everton Football Club.

34:20Champion of our hearts, yeah? Last season, I've got to say, was in many ways a revelation. No relegation fears. Spells of real team football. Sparkle of the new stadium, the big dick. And for 80 % of the season, didn't we almost have it all raw? You know, a squad shorn of real fullbacks and without, let's just say, a functional, barely reliable striker. Everton seemed like on a rollicking, unstoppable run to Europe. In March, we crushed Chelsea in a virtuoso performance. It was the end of bloody March. Nothing could go wrong now, lads. We then proceeded to fail to win again in our final seven games of the season.

35:04Only the relegation doomsides fared worse and we imploded to 13th place. And the fume was back. God bless Everton fans seething. Raw, we've lived too many times the, let's say, the edging thrill of relegation battles in which the fans have been the greatest thing. And then there's the outside tilt for Europe, which is a thrill kind of Cinderella darling bus. I do realize in this modern Premier League, the greatest cardinal sin is to simply deliver mediocrity mid-table. Like there's no emotional connection to that. And that's where we are right now. I feel vindication here, Roch.

35:46Roger Bennett:In what way? Because I said to you last season, I'm pretty sure I said to you this time last season, Everton will kind of finish mid-table, could be like ninth, could be 13th, whatever. And by the end, you'll all be really unhappy because it'll be boring. And you shouldn't be because you should treat that as success. And here we are. It's exactly the same. Everton had a really good season last season. It had a bit of a damp squib ending, but you weren't threatened with relegation. You didn't have to appoint Frank Lampard. There was no kind of embarrassment or humiliation. There was no existential crisis.

36:14Roger Bennett:It was just a good, solid season. The worry going into this season is that they haven't really moved on from that. There has to be a second stage. Otherwise, the fume, the Evertonian fume, suddenly becomes justified. The stage curiosity, let's just say that, has been a lack of activity in the key areas that we know are deep vulnerabilities. That has most certainly fueled a sense of anger. Christian Norgard's arrival in a post-Adrisse Garnagay world has brought a really competent, hungry, he's a leader. We had him on a live show at the Hill Dickinson. He really seems to be a man on the mission in his late stage career, trying to prove himself to himself after a wasted title season, which feels like an oxymoron, but that's what he lived.

37:01It's his mission to try and teach people how to pronounce his surname. How is it pronounced? He corrected me on a lot. Did I also butcher his surname?

37:08Roger Bennett:It was too nice to correct me on that. You know that the Premier League put out those videos of each player saying their surname. Yeah, most of the players just say things like... So with some, it's justified. Some people do have more complex... My name's Roger Benet and I don't correct people. But occasionally you'll get a Smith. They'll be like, Smith. And that's it. Rory Smith. Rory Smith. And then they'll say it again for emphasis. Rory Smith. I think Christine Norgard is trolling. the producers of that segment. Because I'm pretty sure that when he was at Brentford, he said Christian Nordard in That's My Danish accent.

37:44Roger Bennett:It's very good. And then when he was at Arsenal, he went Christian Nordard, like that, as though he was like, all right, let's put a bit of mustard on this. Did he really? Yeah. Yeah, but he's big time now. So it might be that he's, maybe he's just Nordard as Christian. Christian, like a magician, like a stage magician. Oh, God bless. Nordard. No, it wasn't even with a G, it was like a yurt. He was like, Nordy Yard. They tell me now, 24 hours after I could have got the guy. You should have asked him. Say your surname. Put you on the spot here. Is he Nordy Yardy? Yes or no? I now feel like you're doing psyops against me, double briefing.

38:16How do you feel about that? I do ask him that. And then I look like an idiot. He's like, no, you dildo. It's Christian Nordgard, same as it ever was. How do you feel about Hayden Hackney? I love Hayden Hackney. That's how he pronounces it. That's properly. Double H. Is he not from Middlesbrough? He's from Redcourt. Yeah.

38:33Roger Bennett:Yeah, so he'd be sort of semi-Geordie Hayden. Hayden Hackney. How would you describe him? It was a jaunty. It was a jaunty. Hayden, you say a jaunty, lyrical, poetic form of Englishness. But he's a good signing. No doubt he's a good signing. But Andy Burnham, our beloved prime minister, who's not very popular. Yes, I was going to say, this is where we are now. Is a blue. Yes. Part of the world blue conspiracy. Britain's crisis is so bad that we've appointed an Evertonian to run us. Yeah, I wanted it to be Molly Meatball. But we all love him. He's very popular anyway, but his polling numbers are through the roof.

39:08Roger Bennett:One of the most popular moments he's had is when someone asked him, what do you make of Everton's transfer window? And he gave this really impassioned play of, will you please just sign a right back? By the way, this is the kind of thing that puts so much pressure on the club. It's just true. This is like the right back search has been like, you know, as I said, in episode one, there's the Odyssey, which was still, you know, that was quite a journey for these years. But like Everton trying to find a right back for the last five years has been a human agony, and it has elevated as far as the Prime Minister's office, which is genuinely killer.

39:41I'm waiting for an official statement from number 10 on our search for a lethal striker role. Get on it, Andy Burnham. Don't worry about affordability. Get us a bloody striker, man. Hayden Hackney. Hayden Hackney. Hayden Hackney. There you are. Thank you. I think it's going to be interesting to watch. We've got this nice tradition of taking really good, I mean, James Garner, before really good championship players and giving them the time and the space. I'm thrilled he's going to ride with us. By the way, a team that's not always in the modern period have been great to young talent. Brennan Johnson coming in from Crystal Palace in a deal that saw Dwight McNeil swapped and dispatched to Selhurst Park, which someone on the internet compared to neighbours swapping identical garbage cans, which I didn't really like.

40:25I think that's a bit unfair. Just say, Shai McNeil, I wish you well. you and your family you were in our darkest hour one of our best players in the Sean Dyche era I'm only saying that because I think you're going to score on us when you play against us this weekend

40:38Roger Bennett:I think the nickname Shite McNeil is harsh but I do think Everton have got massively the better end of that swap I hope you are bloody right Roar but we're not fixing the things that ail us right back the striker watching Beto and Tierno Barry I love Beto Tierno is a I mean he's a character Let's just say that. I was reading a little bit about nature. I was reading about the spotted hyena. The animal is widely considered to have the most painful, dangerous, difficult birth in the animal kingdom. Stay with me here, Roar. Do you know, female spotted hyenas deliver their young through an elongated pseudo-penis instead of a traditional vagina canal.

41:19That process frequently causes severe tearing. It can be life-threatening. What do you want me to say? Why am I bringing this up? it's because even spotted hyenas look at those two boys play striker and think oh my god that's painful

41:38by the way if you're a spotted hyena watching this your pseudo penis is still throbbing from giving birth I'm sorry for making a joke I think they might resent the term pseudo penis do you? well how are spotted hyenas going to tell us this? you know how? with their paws menandblazers at gmail.com how dare you? No one likes to be told they've got a pseudo penis. I have been watching you since 2012. How dare you call it a pseudo penis? Well, yeah, no one likes that term. If there's any, is it a botanist? That's a flower person. No, a zoologist. If you're a zoologist, can you please confirm or deny about the pseudo penis?

42:14I don't even know what that is. I'm going to Google it now. What kind of penis gets to the level where you're like, hold, hold on, bro. That's a pseudo penis.

42:22Roger Bennett:It just means that some poor hyena has had a zoologist looking at him going, Well, you wouldn't really call it a penis, would you? By the way, I don't know if it was a zoologist or it was a Millwall fan. That's just a pseudo penis. Can we get away from this? It's about strikers. You brought it up. What, you drew it out? That's how they did birth. Well, we went to, oh, update from Wiki. And a large penis. I can't read this out. My God. Just Google what a pseudo penis is. I'm just telling you. I've got to get back to this. Here's the challenge for Everton. The challenge blew the challenge. It's not just about hyenas, pseudo penises.

42:58It's about the new Premier League sustainability rules, squad cost radio, SCR, which caps squad spending at 85 % of revenue per season. What does it reward? High revenue clubs rather than punishing overall investment as it used to do. Everton just do not have the same revenue as other clubs. So you're seeing a lot of teams. It's a sub-theme of this season. Aston Villa, why have they had to sell up all of their stars? Newcastle why have they sold everyone Everton are kind of in that realm we're super limited on cash to spend so all the pressure optically the fault falls on David Moyes that to its father I did I was at Hill Dickinson yesterday someone made the joke the search for the right backs taken so long that because David Moyes firmly believes that he only made £60 ,000 for a right back like he did on Sheamus and we're going on more

43:47Roger Bennett:so what I would say I don't like the new financial rules particularly but but I also don't want to talk about them because they're very boring But the other problem Everton have got is they've got no saleable assets. Who do you sell? If you need, the way that all of these rules work is if you don't have the massive commercial revenue of Liverpool and Man United, then you have to buy players well, sell them for a lot more than you bought them for, and then you get to reinvest that money. So Newcastle, who we'll come on to, might have lost their three best players this summer. But in theory, that means that they've got this huge amount of money they can spend in the transfer market.

44:21Roger Bennett:They haven't done it yet. They might in the next few days. Everton don't have anyone they can sell for 70 or 80 million dollars. Saudis, if you're watching, there's a player, Michael Kean. He's very important. I mean, will Beto maybe one day score 12 goals in 36 appearances for Al-Kadzia? Almost certainly. I'm not sure this is Beto's 20, I swear, 20-goal season loading. He's finally coming good. But that's what's punishing Everton, is that they've been kind of a patchwork team for so long, just trying to stay up and survive and make things work, that they don't have the money in place. to really go into the market and address their issues.

44:56Roger Bennett:So as much as I think Hackney's a good signing, I think Norgard's a good signing, I think the presence of David Moyes means Everton will not be threatened by relegation. I do worry that by the end of this season, my prediction for Everton this season would be that by the end, the fume will be greater and that the fume will kind of have reached fever pitch once more. The ball fandom, the delta between the fume and the fun. And yeah, that's ultimately determined the future life of a manager. David Moyes, oldest Premier League manager. He's 64. I actually thought he was older, to be candid. We were just back in Liverpool.

45:31We taped a show with many of the Everton stars, including Christian Orgott, blew my mind, actually. God, I love. Jesus, we all adore that human being. I was quite surprised at the vibe around the David Moyes issue. He's not done any press conferences, just did his required ones for the Premier League last night. But the whole summer avoided even the club media and putting some distance between him and the club. It's a bit dark. And I do worry this tactically limited squad that did so, but then kind of like started a wobble once Jack Grealish was injured. I was quite shocked at how the tone around him was falling.

46:12You can make the case what he did was incredible to lift Everton. And such a tactically limited squad. Remember, no fullbacks, no striker. Teams could really play us and try and absolutely hold us at arm's length. Somehow the culture kicked in. Yeah, we fell apart. The injuries, Jack Grealish being knocked out, Kiernan being out with a hamstring for an extended period of time. But right now, everything's about squad build. It's late tactical adjustments. I kind of feel if we do not get off to a good start this season, row the hill dickinson's gonna feel a bit like goodison park again and not in a good way yeah

46:49Roger Bennett:i think that's the problem that for the most part last season mid-table felt like paradise for everton because they the memories of the relegation battles the previous favorite jimmy buffet album was still was still fresh he's boys has done that and he deserves huge amounts of credit he didn't get enough credit for doing it the risk is that if you do it again this season that starts to feel a lot like standing still while others move forward but then i don't know what he's meant to do with this squad without major investment. I love this tweet from Jim Kearhan again. Man, it's proper funny. Some players have a move or skill named after them, like the Cruyff Turn, the Penenka, the Berber Spin.

47:27How about the Michalenko Bloom Cross to the other side of the 18-yard box where absolutely nobody bloody is? So here's a quick question. Which one's more likely? Everton in a battle this season for a European place or a battle for relegation?

47:42Roger Bennett:battle for a European place. You're just trying to butter me up, baby. By the way, I find that strangely soothing that you just pulled out your arse. From Everton to one of the other teams who've been a strange seller and not a buyer, Aston Villa, aka Visit Rwanda FC. They now have that on the front of their jerseys. They put out an amazing tweet. I don't know if you saw it last week when Visit Rwanda were announced. They said, if you bought a jersey from the official club shop, you can return it and have Visit Rwanda ironed on for free. And somebody tweeted about the publicly polarizing brand.

48:20Could he come into the shop and have the logo taken off for free too? Modern football, this is where we are. But to the bodies beneath the polyester, fresh off Europa League glory, first European silverware for 44 years. Was it just 92 days ago that John McGinn hoisted that trophy into the Istanbul night? So much has changed. Three Kings, Morgan Rodgers, Yuri Tillemans, Lucas Digne have gone. Esri Konza might also be on his way out. Emi Martinez looks like he's been pushed towards the exit. Young Newark, New Jersey born Zion Suzuki. 23-year-old Japanese international coming in from Palma for, I think it was around 40 million.

48:5817-year-old Luxembourg, England scoring sensation, Brian Maggio doing the business. And perhaps, though, the real move we talked about in the other episode, set-piece sensey Austin McPhee. That long-haired guru spent five years at Villa and turned him into just a dominant muscle, a dead ball juggernaut. Chelsea triggered his release clause so he could join Xabi Alonso's staff, which is like losing a whole side of your brain. I don't advise that children watching at home. Some lovely acquisitions I'm excited to see. I think we both are. Johan Manzambi, the Swiss starlet of the World Cup, young European player of the year, real coup to sign him.

49:38Savvy battle hard and João Gomez, 25. And they're said to be incoming. Mateo Ruggieri from Atletico to replace Dinier. These are all signs of renewal. I've got to say, though, the decision that they could be the ones who could rehab Alejandro Garnaccio optically and mentally, that's a choice, Roar, one I don't understand. But let's just say this is profound transition. Unai Emery excels at transition. His Villa have finished in the top seven for the last four years. Can he do it again?

50:06Roger Bennett:Yeah, absolutely, if that's the bar. There's no question that Villa will be towards the top end of the table. There were various points last season, Rog, where they looked like they might mount a proper title challenge. Got a friend who works in football, but not for either of the clubs involved, whose theory was that Villa needed to go top when they had that great run in January. If they'd gone top, even if it was just for 24 hours, well, you know, just Arsenal were playing after them or whatever, then that might have been enough to kind of kick them on. but in the event they won 11 games straight and never went top and at that point you feel as though all that momentum you're building gets you nowhere they will be a force to be reckoned with even with those changes and I think there's two reasons for that and one is the amount of trust that the club and the general public have in Emery's ability to get results because you've lost Tielemans who was a cornerstone of your midfield you've lost Rodgers who was probably your best player Dean I think you can probably cope without a little bit more easily he's their best French fullback he was their best French left back by a mile who looks like he smokes 20 cigarettes a day this door but like Noah Wiley lips in a lot of the but in most circumstances you'd look at that and think this is going to be a bit of a risky season for village they've lost these two key players plus Luther Dean but because of Emery you don't think that's all you just think well this is going to be fine and the other thing is it's amazing what finding a 17 year old striker who looks like they could be a kind of sensation a global sensation will do finding a player who on his debut bullies Marquinhos and William Pacho that's a really good start is that good the sort of thing that fans that changes the mood around the club which sounds really stupid because they lost that game and it was only the European Super Cup and PSG will have been at best like a third fit but it still totally changed the mentality around the club of it wasn't just him it was Alisson and Hemmings as well I think played we've got young players we've got this guy who could be a kind of generational hero for us.

51:58Roger Bennett:This is a good time to be a Villa fan. And that means they go into the season despite those departures with this huge amount of positivity. Here's your burn-up question. Is it more likely that Villa challenge and return to the Champions League or finish outside of the European places altogether? Villa will be in the Champions League 100%. I love these questions. Yes or no? I feel like I'm on a hard-hitting Sunday news show. Let's head up north to your neck of the woods, Roar. Your crib, as they say, Leeds United. Relegation favourites this time last year. November tactical switch to three at the back by a seemingly doomed Daniel Farker.

52:33Resurrected his own job survival and lead season. They swaggered at the end easily to 14th place in a sense of feel good. I think mattering again was what the definition of joy was last season. This one, though, it's about consolidation. The build back towards, I think, aspiration. We've been a Leeds heavy platformer at Men in Blazers this summer. I've really loved it. We spent a lot of time with Daniel Farker. Really fascinating human being. Levels to that man in a way you wouldn't think just on the surface. Loves a warm room. He loves a warm room. He's a big reader. I find that interview, I find him really, really complex in a deeply endearing way.

53:15Beautiful, beautiful Dominic Calvert-Lewin. That's his official name. As well as 49ers group Leeds chairman Parag Maratha, who have come to know quite well. They all talk about this next phase, which is emblemised a little bit by the quality of the players coming in. $62 million spent on goalkeeper James Trafford. That is not nothing. Britain's most expensive goalkeeper ever. Freed from pet purgatory in Manchester City. The Welsh can opener, Ari Wilson, kind of flair creative. He's signing is a statement of things to come. I like Tarek Mohamerovic. How do I say that? I think like that. There you go.

53:51I just say things. Take a pause. Roar confirms. I love him. Bosnians, please tell me how badly I butchered your tongue. He's a defender. Brought into a place. Pascal Strzok. Well, Parag said that when they were promoted, that according to data, data, it would take three seasons before they could truly behave like a quote established Premier League side. Can their fans really expect them to be that 12 months ahead of schedule?

54:18Roger Bennett:The thing is, I don't know if they're behaving like an established Premier League side, but they're certainly behaving like a really clever one. The other signing that I think they're about to make or about to announce is Nico Elvedi, the Swiss defender, defensive midfielder from Borussia Mönchengladbach for something like 10 or 12 million dollars, which in modern soccer might buy you someone's foot, but very rarely the rest of their body. These are all, as they did last summer, they are buying players who make them immediately better. They addressed it last summer with people like Sean Longstaff who gave them this physical presence.

54:49Roger Bennett:they brought two or three just big defenders Beall being the obvious one who could make them much more kind of doughty, redoubtable, tougher to play against that was what led them to survival that and the goals of Dominic Calvert-Lewin this summer they've repeated the trick Elvedi, big experience, not going to be phased Mohamedovic, the same you know, a little bit younger but has got that kind of that spirit that should mean he doesn't take too long to adapt Trafford's a really smart signing Harry Wilson is a brilliant bit of business similar to Calvert-Lewin a player on a free transfer picked up judiciously I think if you look at the business Leeds have done it's the business of a club that knows the profile it wants knows where it has to improve and can still go and get those signings without being ripped off without being uncertain it's big boy stuff Ellen Road is a fortress here's your button up question can you quantify those night games how many points a season do you think they are worth as an intangible for Leeds United.

55:50Six points. That's all the time I've got for you. Thank you. But I think in terms of brand... Going to stop you there.

55:57Roger Bennett:It's been really important for Leeds. That's what they've got. The fact that Ellen Road has become known as... Same old. The atmosphere stadium in the Premier League. Bear pit. I think it's given Leeds a real identity and it's something that Leeds needed. Rather than just being another of those clubs sort of trying to survive in the Premier League, they've got a thing. Leeds after dark. Like a hyena with a pseudo penis. You've got to have a thing. Yeah, for Leeds after dark, I've got to be honest. I mean, by the way, A, a pseudo penis. And then who says, you know what? I'm going to give birth out of this damn thing.

56:26It's a pseudo podcast, isn't it? I know, I know, I know. But let's keep going then. North, further north of the wall is where we're going to the wildings of Newcastle. What is going on, Roach? Dot, dot, dot, question mark. All I know is we've just gone through that familiar rite of summer when Newcastle been turned down by a mid-player, Pierre-Emile Heuberg, saying no to a Premier League return. Just the self-soiling antics of Newcastle and the transfer market is, it's up there, we're having a nice glass of Pimms by the river. It's just like an English tradition at this point.

57:01Roger Bennett:There's a lifestyle question there though, isn't there, Rog? Do you want to swap the Vieux Poch in Marseille for the big market in Newcastle? And I love Newcastle. I studied there for a little bit. I worked there for a little bit. It's a great city. It's a proud city, Rog. Yeah, I think there's a but coming. But it's a worse city than Marseille. Yeah. By the way, once when I was in Newcastle, I interviewed Rafa Benitez. Great man. And he would interview with the camera team for five minutes and then brief me off the record for like an hour and a half. And one of the things he did, I didn't get a question in, he just kept telling me things about his job in case he was fired so I could advocate for him, was he drew a map of England.

57:37And he said, if you're a foreign player, you want to go London, Maybe go Manchester, but you have to pay a little bit more wages in Manchester or Liverpool. But he said, and then drew lines. He's like, every one of these lines up north, you have to pay more and more. He goes, Newcastle, no one wants to come here. It's one of the greatest secrets in football. I think about his crappy little map that he did in Magic Marker on that wall. Every time I think about Pierre here, Heuberg, be like, oh, no.

58:05Roger Bennett:Pierre-Emile Heuberg is from Denmark. He can talk. I think the fact that Newcastle find it hard to sign players has always been true because it is a long way from London, certainly by European standards. To Americans, it's a small commute. But by European standards, it's a long way away. I think that has been a problem. But in previous years, Newcastle have managed to sign, for example, noted foreigners, Bruno Gamaraj, Sandro Tonali, Alexander Izak. They can get players in. They might have to pay a premium for them, but they do get players in. The big question with Newcastle is, why has that stopped happening?

58:37Okay, let's get to the bigger question because I kind of buried the lead here. Last week's news that Eddie Howe had decided to abrupt departly as manager after five seasons and with Newcastle had won the League Cup in 2025. That was a new dawn. It was joy. Qualified twice for the Champions League. I'd say that gratingly disappointing 12th place finish in the Premier League last season left Howe on the edge. Felt like he and the Saudi owners had reconciled a little bit. but raw decamping this summer have been Toon's best winger, Anthony Gordon. Egeo lingered his way to Barcelona with the best midfielders in combination.

59:18Tonali will be thumping all comers at Tottenham. Guy Mares is going to hopefully tattoo more trophies on his body at Arsenal. And that previous sell of Alexander Isaac and the club, missing out, as I've said, on pretty well every single player with a pulse. Victor Munoz went to Liverpool. James Trafford chose Leeds United. Manzambi signed for Aston Villa. Even teenager Zadok Johanna opted to sign for Brighton and not Newcastle. How do we understand how was he pushed? Did he leave? Was it the owners in action? Was it a bit of both?

59:53Roger Bennett:I think he definitely jumped rather than being pushed. The timing tells you that. There's no way that Newcastle would have kind of countenanced that being their preparation for the season. my instinct is that it was it was an inability to see where the next phase was I think more than any other case you can see that you can see exactly why Eddie Howe would think well what am I meant to do here by that stage I think Gordon had left and Tonali had left I think it was before Bruno I think Bruno was sold afterwards but it was clear that Bruno was going they they seemed unable to get those deals clinched and as much as there is a geographical factor with Newcastle that is just the truth of it.

1:00:32Roger Bennett:If you are working smartly and ahead of time and quickly and decisively, you can counteract that. They can sign players. Newcastle aren't playing the same team they had in 1888. The problem was that they don't seem to be able to get deals done. They have since signed Amar Dedic from Benfica, but I think Eddie Howe looked at it and thought, well, hang on, all of my best players are leaving and we don't seem able to replace them. The slight quibble there is that Eddie Howe had quite a lot of control over Newcastle's transfer strategy. So it might have been, he might have been standing in opposition to himself almost, but it was that lack of direction that did for him.

1:01:04We don't do mites on this show, Roar. What we can say is a freshness definitely needed. Enter new head coach, 38-year-old Matthias Jaisel, a.k.a. Saudi Ted Lasso. Can you tell me what you think of him? He's like a Ralph Ragnick-inspired, forward-thinking coach who came through the Red Bull organization first at FC Leifeling, Saltsburg's feeder club. Then he became the head coach of Saltsburg. Perpetual Austrian champions. Mere 33 years of age. A couple of seasons there, went to the Saudi league with Al-Akli, winning whatever the Saudi Super Cup is. I'll have to look on Bruno Guimoresh's body for definition.

1:01:44He also won the AFC Champions League elite. I have no idea if they're impressive achievements or not. Doesn't exactly scream. Premier League manager resume. and even though Newcastle's CEO, God bless, is telling everyone that Yeisle is a, quote, rock star. I mean, so is Kid Rock, so I don't know what that means to do. Ro, tell me, Liam Resinia did not die for nothing, dot, dot, dot, question mark. Yeisle's reputation's really good.

1:02:11Roger Bennett:When he was at Salzburg, who were perennial Austrian champions, but now are very much not perennial Austrian champions, which does suggest that winning the title there takes some skill. He was widely seen as kind of the next gem from that production line of that Red Bull school. He was seen as the next kind of gem off that production line, the next, the next kind of product of the Red Bull school. And it was a real surprise when he went to Saudi because it felt like it was far too early for him. I remember Tony Kroos criticizing a young Spanish player for jumping to Saudi kind of at the age of 2021.

1:02:42Roger Bennett:And I always thought the same about Yaisal. You take that job towards the end of your career, you should be looking to establish yourself first. This is his chance. He's not, the negotiation is weird as Newcastle is Saudi owned and they negotiated with another PIF owned club or PIF connected club I don't know whether that was just Yassir Al-Ramayan talking to himself I don't know how that works but Yaisal's not a stooge he's not a kind of nobody who's come in he's a genuinely talented coach the problem is when he came in he's not had a pre-season he's not had much of a transfer market there's going to be like a trolley dash element to Newcastle restocking their squad.

1:03:19Roger Bennett:Trolley dash. Did you have supermarket sweep in America? I love it, man. I love it. I mean, this whole transfer window is a trolley dash for so many teams. It is, and I don't understand why they've all left it so late, but Newcastle are not going to be able to build sensibly and judiciously from this point, which means Yaisal will have a tough job initially, but he is a good coach. I mean, part of the problem is the financial regulations. When you splash 170 million, burn 170 million on Joran Wieser and Toothpick Nick Voltamada, it's tough, man. It is super, super tough. It isn't because they've sold Tonali and they've sold Gordon and they've sold Bruno, which gives them all this headroom.

1:03:56Roger Bennett:But as you said, Roger, they just can't spend it. Squad is bereft and they've lost the heart of it. All of that experience, especially in the midfield, they've got young Dutch prospect, Sean Stuer, one of the shining young stars of pre-season, but they look so blunt in attack. Desperate in need of full-back reinforcement. First three games, super tough. Liverpool, the Tenali reunion at Tottenham, and then Bournemouth. Get off to a losing start. And what, Ro? Here's your burning question. How long will the ISIL be Newcastle, coach? Three years, four months, and 17 days. Bacon, do you say? Pray for Newcastle fans.

1:04:36You know who won't be praying for Newcastle fans, Ro? Sunderland fans. Yes, that's called a pivot, young broadcasters. The team surge into the new season with the North East good vibes. that the footballing equivalent of Rachel Leigh Cook shaking down her hair at the end of a rom-com. She's all that. The ugly duckling. The only takes is take off your glasses. You've got the stunning beauty that lies within. That's manager Reggie Labrisse, overseeing the club's highest finish in half a century, one of the most dominated, newly promoted campaigns of the modern period. Delighted for you, for a team that have suffered a fan base of, you know, been in League One, to go from there to the Europa League in just two years is just absolute ecstasy.

1:05:22Back in Europe, first time since 1970, hard to begrudge humanly, I think. Granit Xhaka reveling in the opportunity to lead Alicia's spite, fuel fury. Keeping him and Le Fay, I think has been really crucial, along with Brian Bobby screwing at Will and sounding most like the footballer who could be a Nickelodeon character. Not a lot of incoming talent. Club spent£210 million on 14 players last summer. They've had to be financially cautious. This one, Lebris, proved to be a tactical prodigy, thoughtfully, but he's never been in Europe before. How do you expect him to manage on both fronts in the second season syndrome, that Sunday-Thursday Europa League schedule, which has been an eviscerator of dreams for lesser men?

1:06:07Roger Bennett:It has, and we've touched on this with quite a lot of the teams, in fact, with all the teams in Europe, Palace, Bournemouth, Brighton, they're all doing a struggle with that schedule. It's difficult to manage it if you're a team in the traditional top six or seven who have built a squad and can afford to run a squad that can compete on two fronts. It's almost impossible if you're not one of those teams and you don't have that squad. Sunderland is a bit larger than most because of the spend they had last summer. They've added Thomas Mounier to it, who's smart, experienced, makes sense. Other than that, I think very little so far.

1:06:39Roger Bennett:They will need a couple of other bodies in just to get them through. but there's no way, Rog, ultimately, and I say this with great love and affection, there's no way it doesn't affect their lead form. So let's button this up with a look at the tiny and weird table. We're going to combine Newcastle and Sunderland, jam them together. Which one of those two teams will finish higher? Can only be one, Roar, Sunderland or Newcastle? Go. Sunderland. Where will I think? Come to our third episode and I'll reveal all. Let's plummet to Middle Britain. The Arboretum of Nottingham Forest. do you know someone who loves forest do you know what they're called an arborophile close but no cigar nemophilist a haunter of the woods okay I thought you were a classicist it comes from the Greek nemo which means I love this word I've never used it before glade never said that word before glade I think there's got to be a great chant for that neophilist you'll never sing that forest a new dawn and what was Vito Pereira's reward for turning around a relegation threatened season, taking them to a Europa League semi-final along the way to be dismissed via email out of nowhere, which felt a little cruel even to me.

1:07:53But there you are when you're the fourth manager of the season and Evangelos Maranakis is your boss, Roy. You kind of know what you're getting into, right? Is that on the way in the same way as if you step out onto traffic in a six-lane highway? It's kind of clear how it ends, right?

1:08:07Roger Bennett:Yeah, I don't think Vitor Pereira would have been shocked. It's also quite a sensible decision by Maranakis standards. I think for where Forrest wants to be, Pereira probably wasn't the right coach. And too often in England, we think, well, you've achieved that one thing, so you get the right to achieve the other thing. But often those two things are completely separate. Wow. That is one of the most un-theological things about reward and punishment I've ever heard. Look, Maranakis had seen Oliver Glasner leave Crystal Palace. He'd looked at Glasner before in 2023, He's really made a decisive power move.

1:08:39I think Probst just to prolong his beef with Crystal Palace. But Raw, I'm kind of fictionalising here. Oliver inherits a squad with an enormous Elliot Anderson-sized hole in it. Jordi Maradona departs after two seasons as an England-dominating World Cup midfield. It's going to be fascinating to see how Glasner goes about reconstructing that midfield. Forrest will still over-rely, I think, on Morgan Gibbs-White up front. and 35-year-old carcass Chris Wood being up to no good, as well as the moves to a backline three, which is going to be fascinating to see. But he's got a ton of centre-backs at his disposal there.

1:09:19He'll be able to weave, please God, some magic. Look, Glastner, I've got huge respect for him. He's shown us he is a winner. Is he going to be the Forest manager who will be there at season's end? He is, isn't he, Roar? Tell us, Roar, he is, isn't he?

1:09:32Roger Bennett:I think he will be because they've committed so much to him. And to be honest, Forrest getting Glasner is a bit of a coup for them. It's a bit of a step down for Glasner, who is, there's an element of hubris and timing about his story, I think. He maybe didn't leave Palace when he should have done or in the way he should have done. Although actually, he maybe should have left Palace a bit earlier. And when he did leave Palace, he maybe should have left them in a slightly different manner. But for Forrest to get him, that is a real coup for them. I think Marinettes will stick with him for the toss of the season.

1:10:07What Roar's saying is live by the Greek shipping magnate, die by the Greek shipping magnate, always has been. Okay, Roar, we've done it. We have reached the 20-year team, Hull City, winners of your championship playoffs after finishing sixth place last season. By the way, just ahead of Wrexham. 12 months on from avoiding relegation to League One by goal difference alone. They'll now, what? Premier League? How did this happen? because football, like life, is just a flip of fortune. Let's talk about the big question. Everyone in football is talking about what is a hole? What do you think of? Shipping, fishing.

1:10:43My favourite poet, the misanthropic Philip Larkin lived there. When asked why, he said this, Roar. I like it because it's so far from everywhere else. On the way to nowhere, as someone put it, it's in the middle of the lonely country and beyond the lonely country, there's only the sea.

1:10:59Roger Bennett:I was going to talk about white phone boxes and James Horncastle, but I think Philip Larkin probably does a better job than I can. Similar to Ipswich, actually, on our last episode, Hull is a place of itself. It's out on the East Coast. It's technically Yorkshire. We don't really want it. It's a proud city, as you say, shipping, fishing. That's what Hull's wealth was built on in years gone by. It has since fallen into hard times. But what sums Hull up is the fact that it has its own train network and it's got its own phone system. Hull is a place of itself. God bless strangers. Beware. I do remember, I think it was our second or third Men in Blazers show ever.

1:11:37We had one of my acting heroes, Dominic West, Jimmy McNulty from The Wire, come on the show. He walked in. He goes, sorry, lads, I don't know anything about football. So we conjured up this, what we thought was a good idea. We got a big map of England and we wanted to point to the 20 Premier League teams then who were in it. And we started up north with Hull City and live on television. and I just pointed to it and he just looked at the camera with a grim stare. I went, oh, he goes, centre of the British heroin trade. And it just went down from there to the team back in the Premier League for the first time in nine years.

1:12:12Spell that included dropping down to the third tier five years ago. They are some underdogs. Their owner, Turkish broadcast mogul, Akane Likali is quite a character. Recently tweeted out the transfer dream list because he was, quote, disturbed by false rumours. I will say, the lack of unhinged creative players in the game, pushed out by kind of well-drilled attacking systems and the fear of turning the ball over. Same. I think it's wonderful to have an old school, another unhinged owner back in the Premier League room.

1:12:40Roger Bennett:You need a little bit of the kind of renegade energy that Ily Kali will bring. Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. Fewer lawyers, fewer equity guys, more madness, more joy. There's too many corporate types. They're all too sensible. They all dress the same. You want the Turkish Simon Cowell. do we though? Getting up, I've got to say, was a miracle, isn't it always? Staying up is going to be, I mean, just, I mean, yeah, I mean, ask a spotted hyena. No, don't. 11 new arrivals, still overrely on the presence of journeyman, striker, wonder, warrior, Oli McBurney, playoff hero, screw up 19 goals last season.

1:13:20Avant-garde Algerian winger, Mohamed Baloumi, new bodies, Jack Butland, I think is going to be very, very busy in goal. The coach, Bosnian Sergej Yakirovic, is a pragmatic tactician and performed wonders at so many of his stops, unfortunately. I mean, Dinamo Zagreb and Kayserisipor, we all know that he saved them from a perilous situation, right? They're Turkish, if you're wondering what a Kayserisipor is. Premier League, let's just say it's going to be different gravy for him, different challenge learning curve. It's going to be quite a lot. Can you give Hull City's fans a case for hope, Will?

1:13:58Roger Bennett:Can I give Hull City's fans a case for hope? Stranger things have happened. They had the fourth... It's a long way of saying no. The fourth lowest XG in the championship last season. Yeah, this is shocking. They were massive outsiders to get promoted. They looked well short. They have done a lot of business. I think Herrington, the Australian defender who missed the penalty against Egypt, who they signed from the Colorado Rapids. They're all the stronger for it, mate. He is one of those players who will have real resale value. I think he will emerge as kind of one of their best players this season.

1:14:28Roger Bennett:Elliot Stroud, the Swedish midfielder that they've brought in, is a good player. It's going to be a real struggle for Hull. I guess the case for Hope, Rog, to answer seriously, is quite a lot of established Premier League teams are in a bit of a mess. And that means there is an opportunity for teams like Coventry and teams like Hull. Quick question. Of the 38 weeks of the Premier League season, how many will Hull spend outside of the relegation zone? Seven. He's making up numbers. I think 38. I'm kidding. I think one.

1:15:01Okay, let's finish this off raw. Here we are. End of the season. We got a relegation sentence. One of them left to dole out because that's who we are. We're in control. You're the Premier League script writer now. We plan to do it with all of the smugness of a television judge. Let's get to a reminder. Two young viewers. You had, who was 20th and 19th? Hull City in 20th and Coventry in 19th. Who are you putting 18th, baby?

1:15:25Roger Bennett:So my choice was between Fulham, Ipswich and Crystal Palace. Those are the other three that I think will be down there. Just like the worst episode of the Bachelor Rose ceremony of all time. I think Newcastle will struggle but not get relegated. And I think 18th place will be filled by, sorry, Charlie, Fulham. God, we did not plan this. No, it's the same thing. The twinsies, two electric boogaloo. Fulham are the West Ham's of 2026, 27. Fail to plan, plan to flail, or whatever the hell that saying is. We will release the full 1-20 on a separate show, so you can see where we think your club will land and where Everton are going to fall.

1:16:07Roar, I can't wait for the season ahead. I really, really can't. Come back football, sweet football, into our loving arms.

1:16:14Roger Bennett:What we've proved over these last two episodes, Rog, is that we don't know what's going to happen, And that is really exciting. Yeah, somehow we've spoken about it for 17 hours in a sweat box just outside of Manchester. It's what we do for you. Tell us what you think in the comments. Big, big love. Courage.