A Ballon d'Or for Dembele and goals galore for Kane

0:00The Athletic FC.

0:30Pol Ballus: Totally Football Show.

0:39Pol Ballus: Monday 22nd of September. Hi, listener. Thank you for joining us. It's your classic EuroCrew lineup. We've got some James Horncastle. Hello. Say hello, Julien Maron. Hello. Also on the big screen from Hamburg, Seb Stafford-Blo. Hello. And also, freshly back in Barcelona, Paul Belus. Hello, hello. Here we are. Here we are, and there you are, Paul. Paul, James Horncastle has got a question for you.

1:10James Horncastle: Paul, what's your restaurant review of miso in Newcastle? Yeah, so I wanted to chat with you about this, because of course you hyped it up, and this obviously so, before I went to Newcastle. I planned to go on Friday for lunch after the game. No, Paul.

1:29Julien Laurens: Don't do this, Paul. Don't do this. You didn't do your homework. Don't do this. This is so disappointing. I had one job. I had one job and I didn't make it. No, actually, you did do your job, Paul.

1:39James Horncastle: This is why you didn't go. Well, he went to the game. No, he did some reporting. Oh, yeah. Nice. Basically, I was planning to go to Miso. But last minute, I got this call from a contact, like a personal contact that was in the city for the Newcastle game

1:56Pol Ballus: alright and this guy invited me to have loan oh nice you probably went somewhere really nice yeah to Miso no? not really we went to the Nandos next year in Newcastle that's nice wow the Chiqui Nandos you were weak Chiqui Nandos I mean you can never go wrong with the Chiqui Nandos but I guess that Miso might be a bit better Chiqui Nandos

2:19Julien Laurens: Chiqui Nandos alright woo Chiqui Nandos Just a grilled chicken wrap with a bit of parisopter chips. All right. How spicy do you like your Nando's?

2:28Pol Ballus: Do you know what? I think I've been to Nando's once about 15 years ago. Okay. So I don't really have a hot.

2:35Julien Laurens: Hot. Paul, what did you take? Hot as well? I go with medium and I feel a bit wild. Listen, I'm so sorry about this. Seb, we'll ask you and then we can move on. Seb is plain. Seb is plain. You can tell. I'm not plain. I'm also medium. Medium? Get some macho, please. Why would you I don't know You felt like You were going to be A plain Nandoz guy I felt that was a dig No I think it was a dig No I'll take plain I'll take plain I don't like the spice I'll go plain There's nothing wrong With going plain I thought Seb would be In my team But clearly not So F you then

3:10Pol Ballus: I'm sorry Juz No I'm just saying I misjudged you Yeah Hey A lot's happened Since last week A lot of Champions League Matches that's for sure some pretty exciting ones touch on some of those maybe and the repercussions and that in the course of today's show also today and this did catch me by surprise the Ballon d 'Or is taking place this Monday in Paris is it just me or is there much less fuss about it this year?

3:36Julien Laurens: I don't think so I think there's been quite a lot of fuss yeah really?

3:39Pol Ballus: okay I mean

3:41Julien Laurens: certainly in Spain and in Paris because the winners would be either from Paris or from Barcelona

3:45Pol Ballus: strong favourite is Ousmane Dembélé formerly of Barcelona now very much.

3:51Julien Laurens: Yeah. And Lamin-Yamal to be fair still has a chance. Still has a chance. Yeah, yeah. Lamin-Yamal has gone to Paris with a groin injury that he has that prevents him from playing. Right. And he's invited around 20 people from his family just in case they have to celebrate. Paul, if he were to win how would he celebrate? Who would he invite to his party? A lot of, yeah, a lot of close people to him. big and small I'm not going to get into high distinctions with I guess which is the territory that you want to throw me into Jules I've had a Ballon d 'Or related question is it quite weird because obviously PSG have rearranged their Marseille game for Monday evening as we're recording is that not quite a weird decision I mean or is it just something that was unavoidable because obviously

4:40Pol Ballus: they're going to miss out just to preface this this is due to be played on Sunday night but an amber alert for floods and storms in the Marseille area. Meant it had to be rescheduled for exactly the same time, almost as the Ballon d 'Or ceremony up in Paris, which means that many of the nominated PSG players won't be able to attend. Although so many of those nominated players are injured that they will actually be showing up, including Ousmane Dembele. Paul, if he does win, and it seems likely no, how much of a surprise looking back on the kind of rep he had when he was at Barcelona. How much of a journey has he been on to now be getting the Ballon d 'Or?

5:19I mean, it's something that nobody would have expected, taking from his days at Barcelona. At the same time, I don't think that he's missed in Barcelona, in terms of just the legacy that he left and the fact that he was one of the names that Barca signed with the Neymar money and how bad it panned out, basically. People at Barcelona, they don't have fond memories of Ousmane Dembélé, despite all the managers that he had were happy about him in the end. But yeah, I don't think that this will be one that stings or that is painful for the Barca fans because in a way they were not too bothered that he moved on to leave to Paris.

5:54Pol Ballus: Because his rep at the time was what? Lazy? Inconsistent? Yeah, lazy. Not showing up in time. He was known for being late to a lot of team meetings, to a lot of training sessions, to missing training sessions because he fell asleep at home. I think that Dembele has considered himself in interviews that he was a young kid back in the days and that he has learned from that. I think that he has, that he's a different player. And that even in his last years at Barcelona, his teammates could tell you that he was a different figure. But yeah, Dembélé in his early days, I can remember that even he got married without none of his teammates knowing that some of them didn't even know that he had a girlfriend.

6:32So that was the extent of the particularity that Ousmane Dembélé was in that dressing room.

6:38Pol Ballus: Wow. But the move to Paris, the wise hand of Luis Enrique on his shoulder, transformative, Jules.

6:44Julien Laurens: Yeah, completely. I mean, I think for a long time, he didn't fulfill the potential that he had from a very young age. He was a bit of a, I think he was an incredible player, age 17, 16, 17, even when he went to Dortmund and Seb that first season with Tuchel. He was really incredible. And that's why Barcelona were ready to pay and pay that much money because he was really something else. and after that whether it was the move to Barcelona the price that they paid for him all the expectations playing with Messi I mean I don't know but he stagnated very much in his own career despite the talent that he had and that could be even better and so I'm glad that it's in Paris but it could have been maybe somewhere else in another club with the right manager that finally at 27-28 which is his age that he's now in last season felt that finally that potential that was really incredible I went to Rennes last week to speak to some of his first coaches and they were like we've never seen anything like that and we haven't seen anything like that since with all the great players that we had at the academy in terms of his talent yeah yeah they said it was something like we'd never seen right foot left foot so quick so good technically it's just incredible and so I think this comes now and it's a great reward for the amazing season that he had him and his team but in a way it's not surprising that at some point he wins something like the Ballon d 'Or because he was just that good from the beginning it's just that it took him a long time to get to this level of maturity and excellence in a way, which can happen to any player.

8:09Pol Ballus: That's so true. Would you give him the Ballon d 'Or, James, who would you be polishing that glorious object up for?

8:16James Horncastle: What an image that is. Just let me put my white gloves on and get the polish out. Look, I mean, the best performance that I saw in person last year was the Champions League semifinals with Lamin, where he seemed to be able to do anything and everything. And, you know, I do feel like I've been present for some incredible Lemian moments. Paul and I were together when he scored that goal in the semifinal of the Euros as well against France, which was one of the best goals I've ever seen live. but yeah I suppose in terms of Paris Saint-Germain's first ever Champions League the image that really comes to mind stays with me is Dembele's eyes on Jan Sommer his kind of determination willingness to press him and I thought that was just evocative of the mentality that Luis Enrique had been able to instill in that group of players and a club that was seen as capricious, full of itself, self-interested.

9:20James Horncastle: And instead, he brought them all together and he even got Ousmane Dembele not only on the straight and narrow, but able to kind of fulfill his potential. So I would not begrudge it, even though it does feel like we're in a new Ballon d 'Or era, where I think someone who has an outstanding year, outstanding tournament, can win it in a way that wasn't possible in that Ronaldo and Messi era. Seb, if you were going to give it on the old Messi and Ronaldo criteria, who would you give it to? Who do you think is the best player? I think there's an argument for someone like Ashraf Hakimi. Obviously, we all have this hopeless offensive bias now.

9:59But I think that's really about, it's very hard to measure defensive contribution in a way that's as literal or as obvious as it is offensive. But I love the Dembele story, Jimbo. like the idea of when how often do you see a young guy breakthrough get hyped to the moon and then fail because he is just a young person with flaws they don't often come back they don't often kind of rehabilitate themselves become disciplined and james made some really good points like in a way old dembele fit the the mood of old psg so well right like he would have come in and it would have been this very uh self-indulgent lax player in what was not considered in a particularly strict environment.

10:40And now it's the opposite of that. And to see this disciplined player make good on all that talent, it's just such a great story. It's so compelling.

10:47Pol Ballus: Fabulous. Well, see, you probably know by now, let's know, because Monday evening it's going to take place. It's Gigi O'Donoghue. He won the Ballon d 'Or. I mean, whoever gets it. Best of luck to everyone who was nominated, because they're all winners for me. All of them.

11:00Julien Laurens: Football is the big one.

11:01Pol Ballus: Football is the winner, Jules. You know, that's a lovely phrase.

11:07Pol Ballus: What's been your moment of the week Jules

11:09Julien Laurens: well it's the moment that never happened I'm still waiting for the classic to kick on but the only thing I would say and we'll continue that in the Ligue 1 chat anyway but that for once the weather forecast well you know that two minutes at the end after 45 minutes of Italian football and saves long answers that's it but for once yeah of course she does I've gone to that grievance for a whole when you said Ligue 1 chat

11:32James Horncastle: I thought you mean the cat the cat the old ladies

11:37Julien Laurens: the cats but for once the weather forecast was right because they did say the day before tomorrow between 7 and 10 it's going to rain heavily on Marseille and it did so

11:47Pol Ballus: okay that was your moment of the week the weather forecast was correct

11:50Julien Laurens: well yeah the moment of the week that never happened was the classic that didn't happen on Sunday night okay

11:57Pol Ballus: Seb your moment of the week Luka Vizkovic scoring Hamburg's first goal back in the Bundesliga so their first goal since 2018 in the Ester Bundesliga first time a handbook player has scored in top five jump football since lewis holtby so there's a little bit of a spurs connection but also luca viscovic is the younger brother of maru viscovic who has been a hard-file player since 2021 but is currently serving a doping ban for until 2026 club stand by him all the supporters stand by him when luca viscovic signed for the club he wore 44 his brother's number his brother was in the stands to watch him score and it's one of the loudest call and responses i've ever heard uh just a wonderful moment i put it up actually on my on my twitter but just a lovely moment and to see what it meant to him and obviously to his family and uh yeah great for hammer interesting that everyone's standing by him is that because he says that he's innocent and has he provided a suitably colorful explanation as to how these extraneous substances got into his sample yeah he's always denied it and he's always taken issue with the testing procedure so it was for EPO and the testing procedure for that as cycling fans will know is pretty inexact it's quite binary as well in its determination but the testing procedure itself is not particularly binary it's very weird and I spoke to a lot of people at the club all of them stand by him to the point where actually whilst Maribizkowicz is not able to be employed by Hamburg until his ban expires he's got a future contract post dated and ready to start when his ban does and Foy is an awfully long time to be out of football he is still only 23 but tall order to reclaim his career but they're going to give him a go as and when that happens and Luka Vrskic although it is just a loan and Tottenham have no intention of letting him leave the club Luka Vrskic said one of his big dreams was to eventually play centre-half alongside his brother at some point so that's nice but yeah we'll see that's a lovely moment of the week when you were just talking about Mario I was remembering Marco Borriello and his doping ban which he always put down to a cream that his girlfriend was using in an intimate place which had somehow rubbed off on him.

14:05Pol Ballus: Of course. It happens. Yeah. That's science. Is that a flashback from last week? Yes. Cream in the flashback. Paul, your moment of the week. Yeah, my moment of the week is a night out in Newcastle. And mine? Marcus Rashford's.

14:24I'm not going to disclose further details about my night out in Newcastle. But no, I think that the Marcus Rashford game was quite telling, quite fitting. I did this piece for the build-up of the game, as in how Rashford had been settling in in the Barcelona dressing room. What did players think about him? And everyone was like, Rashford, when he came in, we knew him. We knew all the flashy headlines and everything. But he's such a chill guy, relaxed. You can see that he's a good kid. And the fact that he scored at Newcastle in England, and with all that means, I think that it was a really good story quite fitting and yeah a really good one for Barcelona that possibly Rashford topped it off in the weekend being late being a bit too relaxed

15:06Julien Laurens: I was going to say he passed it so hard that he was late for Sunday yeah yeah yeah

15:10Pol Ballus: well we'll talk about that perhaps in a bit a French football roundup notwithstanding James your moment of the week

15:17James Horncastle: it was Sunday really which one

15:20Julien Laurens: which one

15:22James Horncastle: Sunday was glorious you get up make yourself coffee yep

15:25Julien Laurens: Oh, here we go.

15:27James Horncastle: He got the kind of 11.30 game in Serie A. Beautiful day. Rome Derby, beautiful game.

15:31Pol Ballus: The TIFO, as you like to call it. So we've all got pet things. Jules doesn't like shooting boots. Absolutely. James can't bear it when people talk about TIFO. The choreografia, we would say. Yeah, scenografia choreografia. Okay. But the two cour they had, beautiful, as they generally do for Derby. It was lovely. Really nice. And you know what else looked beautiful? That Lazio jersey. Oh, yeah? Do you not like it? I mean, neither shirt had a sponsor on. But Lazio's is very deliberately kind of 60s style. White round collar and a slightly darker hue of blue, I felt. And I think it just looks gorgeous.

16:10Pol Ballus: Gorgeous. You changed, James. Are you becoming Laziale in your later years? But anyway, you were going to tell us about the game and a special redemption style moment for one Luca Pellegrini. Lorenzo Pellegrini.

16:25James Horncastle: Because Luka was playing for Lazio. But it's easy to get confused. Because Luka came through at Roma as the Lazio-Romagnoli, the Lazio captain. And they both hid their support for Lazio. And I think that's what makes this game so special. Because there is a disproportionate amount still of homegrown players who play for both these teams. I think Rome is like one of those cities. It's like Bilbao. it's like Barcelona in terms of how important it is to have players from the city playing for both clubs and that can often mean it's a really terrible game because Roma Lazio history five Scudetti between them success and failure in a season comes down to this game often and when you've got players from the town who can't go out if they lose who are reminded of this game every day for months leading up to it, it's really, really tough.

17:17James Horncastle: And it's been particularly tough on Roma's captain, Lorenzo Pellegrini, because Pellegrini for the last 18 months has been kind of mercilessly criticised by the Roma faithful because he has kind of been blamed for Jose Mourinho's dismissal because there was this story that went out that when Jose was sacked, he took off this ring that the players had given him when they won the Conference League and put it in Lorenzo Pellegrini's locker, kind of as a way of saying, you betrayed me. It was always you, Lorenzo. It was you. Now, I mean, this is a story that Il Messaggero published and it's created a lot of problems for Lorenzo Pellegrini.

18:01James Horncastle: And, you know, sort of subsequent coaches of Roma, some of whom are kind of Roman born and bred as well, Daniel De Rossi, Claudio Ranieri, have always stood up for Pellegrini. And I remember in the derby last January, Ranieri had taken Pellegrini out of the firing line because in every game he played, with every touch of the ball, he would get booed, whistled. And for the rest of the team to pull themselves out of a crisis, Ranieri basically told Pellegrini, right, I'm going to have to sit you out of these games. And then he brought him back in the derby and Pellegrini scored. and flash forward six months we've just come out of a summer where every question to Roma's new coach Gian Piero Gasparini is what are you going to do with Lorenzo Pellegrini his contract's up, you're not playing him has he been frozen out are you trying to move him on Gasparini hasn't played him at all and then he starts him in this game and Pellegrini scores the only goal of the game

19:08James Horncastle: He doesn't celebrate, really. He sort of puts his hands to the air, but his head is bowed. Actually, I was in the stadium, James. Okay, yes. Fair enough, Jimbo. In the Coupe de Nord, yeah? Yeah, in the Coupe de Nord.

19:25James Horncastle: And, I mean, just to put that into some perspective, a Roman, born and raised a Roma fan, scoring a goal in the derby against Lazio and not celebrating is quite a powerful image really and you know afterwards he he blew a kiss to the coup de basude and he said yeah there's one thing that's constant and will remain constant for my life I love Roma and you just hope that the fans who've been so critical of him not all of them but because some have stayed supportive of Pellegrini but you would hope that some of the fans that have been critical have been whistling you know forgive him a little for something that he doesn't feel he needs forgiving for because he didn't turn on jose he didn't all of a sudden start playing better under under new coaches as a way of getting back over jose it's just one of those things that happened and um you know i think the derby is so special because of of these local players and you know you don't want to chase them away.

20:27James Horncastle: So, you know, good on you, Lorenzo.

20:29Pol Ballus: And good on Gasparini for sticking him in. Magnificent. There you go. Let's get going with some in-detail league coverage. And we're going to start, Paul, with La Liga. I thought we were going to go to La Liga.

20:42Julien Laurens: No, we keep the best for the end. La Liga. Best for the end, I think. Right when we could. Okay. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

20:55Pol Ballus: Right. La Liga, Paul. Real Madrid, two points clear of Barcelona. Those are your top two. Real Madrid continuing their perfect start this weekend, beating their Catalan top four rivals, but not those ones. The other ones. Espanol. A 2-0 victory here, which featured a couple of absolute belting goals. That Militao opener. Oy, oy, oy.

21:32An absolute cracker. An absolute cracker. Militao has been in great form. I mean, you are at risk of forgetting that he had a serious knee injury last season when you see him playing because he's been outstanding. It's now him and Hausson starting a centre-back partnership at Real Madrid and you feel that nobody's going to be able to move them away, basically. I think that Real Madrid they were okay, they were not great they were very good at the Champions League game in my opinion, they were lucky with the penalty call but they created a lot of chances and again, Espanyol, they didn't need a lot to at the end get it in their way what is making the headlines after the game is Vinicius once again, Vinicius Jr.

22:15because he was taken off the game in a cooling break and Xavi Alonso told him on the cooling break look, I'm going to shove you off and basically he was caught by the TV cameras being angry at that and being not pleased by the fact that he feels that he's always the fall guy ahead of Bappe or any other player and yeah, it's not the first time that we've seen these sort of images with Bini this season because there's the contract situation about him that he doesn't seem to extend his contract his role is not as clear as it used to be a couple of seasons ago but Xavi Alonso has an iron hand in that regard and he doesn't get too attached to anyone.

22:54He makes the rotation. Then if he has to change Vinicius, he does it. So it's something that is lingering on in the coming days in the Madrid press pack about Real Madrid for now on the top of La Liga with the perfect score.

23:05Pol Ballus: Right. Xavi Lonce, in fact, the first Real Madrid manager to win his first five Liga matches in charge since a fellow 21 years ago. Anybody? 21 years ago. Yeah.

23:17Julien Laurens: So, Fabio Capello? No, Capello. No, Capello.

23:21Pol Ballus: Jupp Hankers? Not Jupp Hankers. So 21... 21 years ago, won his first five league matches. One of the greats. No, shall I just... Is it Luxemburgo? Boom! Seb Stafford-Blanc, Wanderle-Luschenburgo. To give him his correct name. Yeah. And how much did Los Blancos go on to win that season, Seb? Oh, I don't know. I'm done. It's nothing. I've had my triumph. Okay. Nada. Nothing. So, you know, good start. but it's a marathon not a sprint as I always like to say I mean a marathon as well is a good description for that opening goal because 26 passes from Real Madrid before Militao as you say a centre-back put it in the net magnificent and Mbappe's goal 5-5 now that was pretty nice as well

24:08Julien Laurens: yeah I think he scored already 9 or 10 times outside of the box Paul something like that very good full of confidence you can tell I think he's the most informed player in La Liga Mbappe in one of the best in the yeah yeah of the charge. And he's the man that is just, he has saved Real Madrid from some games that could have gotten a bit more complicated. It's just too much for a defensive life to handle when he's in that form.

24:33James Horncastle: It still feels surprising to me in Ballon d 'Or week that other people in this kind of post-Messi Ronaldo, when that was starting to fade a little bit, that the person who didn't win the Ballon d 'Or was Mbappe, because Modric has won it, Rodri's won it.

24:49Julien Laurens: Benzema

24:50James Horncastle: Benzema's won it Dembele may have won it and you know this guy's scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final lost but you know everyone thought it would be him immediately and it just goes to show still a lot of things have to go your way and you have to make the right choice but that was it if France won the World Cup

25:09Julien Laurens: he wins the Ballon d 'Or 2023 and not Messi yeah but as you know they didn't

25:12James Horncastle: so there you go

25:14Pol Ballus: so true big week for Real Madrid they've got Levante away on Tuesday in a big midweek round from La Liga and then the Madrid Derby next weekend against an Atletico side who went and dropped points again this weekend. Are they now nine points already behind their neighbours? Yeah, yeah. They are like the sort of disaster continues for Atletico. I think I said last week that I felt that they didn't play that bad in some games that they lost points. I think that they were sloppy against Mallorca on this weekend because somehow they managed to get ahead with 10 men on the pitch, thanks to Conor Gallagher.

25:52And you cannot let those sort of wins just to slip out of your hands. And it was a last-minute move from Jan Virgili, a really good player from Barcelona's academy. He signed for Mallorca. Keep an eye on this guy because he's going to move up quite quickly. Good cross and Bela Morici headed it home. Another draw and Atlético de Madrid. A lot of debate circling around Diego Simeone, the end of his cycle, if he has to continue or not. It feels like we've been in that territory for the last three, four years at least.

26:26James Horncastle: Paul, is there an obvious candidate to replace Simeone? He's been around so long, you say the end of his cycle, he's had three or four cycles. He's the longest serving coach, I think, in European football at the same club. but there's no kind of like, you know, Koke or people from his first team who've started coaching. Felipe Luiz. Ah, Felipe Luiz. Felipe Luiz. I was about to mention Felipe Luiz because he's a name that most of Atletico fans would like. I think that he provides a different game style than like Simeone tends to use basically. So Felipe Luiz might be a good shout, but I think that nobody really dares to drop names because Simeone is that big of a figure in there that even for like Felipe Luis, who was a former footballer, and the Diego Simeone, he wouldn't want like his name to be put out there just to put pressure on his former manager.

27:23So yeah, it's going to be a bold call for the board at some point. But yeah, it feels that Simeone at some point, it's closer to the end of his cycle for sure.

27:33Julien Laurens: And Juliano Alvarez was not happy, a bit like Vinicius to be taken out. Then we saw on the bench him saying like, it's always me. Always me. and a picture that I'm sure that Joan Laporta will be very happy to see.

27:44James Horncastle: I mean, Pep could have done with Julian Alvarez at the weekend. For another defender. Use him as a left-back.

27:53Pol Ballus: Also on the bench this weekend was Marcus Rashford, as you mentioned, for being late for training. He found himself dropped from the starting line-up. He was out with Paul, you see. Yeah, Anandos. He came on and contributed an assist in Barcelona's 3-0 win against Getafe. although it wasn't anything like as good an assist as the one Danny Olmo provided for for Antares' opener. Oh, if you're a fan of saucy backhills, check that one out. Medium hot, lemon and herb. Oh, yeah.

28:21Julien Laurens: Playing like me and Seb.

28:23Pol Ballus: He was playing, it's true. Barcelona, who had their game this weekend at their cosy little 6 ,000 capacity training ground because Camp Nou's still not ready and a lot of financial stuff being said about Barca this week because in and around the confusion over their stadium, which is a big financial blow to them, I imagine, not being able to move back into their ground. You've also got the news that their salary cap, already so asphyxiatingly tight for them, has been reduced by a further£100 million. Yeah, which is basically the VIP sitting liver that they tried to pull last January. When they said, we've sold the skyboxes, give us the extra credit and the new auditors have said no where where yeah yeah yeah sort of that because as the camp now is not built basically they cannot count as an asset settings that are not being able to use that's the criteria why the new audit said no no that's that's not counted in and those are the 100 millions that barca have seen their salary limit just reduced it's quite able to compete against the Real Madrid side that has the double of his weight limit set by the competition.

29:43But yeah, that's a bit how things are at Barcelona. People from the club told you last week that they hoped to play at the Camp Nou on the next weekend when they host Real Sociedad. If you ask me right now, I don't think this is going to happen. And I think that they are going to continue playing away from the Camp Nou for at least another week. So let's see what happens. They go to Obiedo midweek and then Real Sociedad at home again.

30:07Pol Ballus: And then they have Paris Saint-Germain in the middle of the following week. That we know already that's in Montjuic. That's going to be in Montjuic. That's going to be in Montjuic.

30:14James Horncastle: Paul, when they pulled this lever at this time last year, didn't they use it as like, oh, we've got that money now and so we can register a couple of dollars? Danny Elmer. Yeah. So that's a beautiful story for you. Because basically when they pulled that lever, they had a different audit company which approved that movement. And when this was approved and sealed by La Liga, they changed that audit company like five days later. And the new audit company said, that doesn't look great to us. But yeah, basically, it had been approved by La Liga and by everyone. They managed actually in January just to sign a lot of contract extensions because Pau Cubercy, Gavi, Pedri, Araujo signed contract extensions back in that month.

31:00because Barca were in a stable situation regarding inscribing new contracts in. And basically when the new audit company was hired in, they checked the numbers again and they said, that doesn't really fit to us unless you can operate in the new stadium, which is not the case. So they went back to a square one, but at least with some new players.

31:18James Horncastle: So are they going to find a new audit company in the next few days? Maybe. I don't know. I'm going to try to find out.

31:26Pol Ballus: Paul, let's talk about Real Betis, who had a nice win against Real Sociedad who are having a rotten time this season. And next up are going to be facing Nottingham Forest in that Europa League. How are Betis looking this season? Betis are going through the best moments since they started the season. I think that the arrival of Anthony lifted them up a bit. He has not scored yet, but he has added just a new level to their attacking game. They don't have Isco, which is a massive blow to them, but they have Giovanni Lo Celso in that number 10 role. And then up front, Cucho Hernandez is in form. He has scored in the last two games.

32:05So I think that attacking-wise, they are much in a better place. And in defence, they have recovered Diego Llorente, which is the centre-back they had. He was injured, his back. They have a bit of a problem in the goalkeeping area. They don't have a clear starter in there. There's Álvaro Vallès and Paulo López. None of them are too convincing. That's possibly the biggest doubt they have. but I think that Betis will start in that Europa League season with, yeah. I'm not going to say decent chances to go all the way, but clear chances to give problems to any team they face.

32:35Pol Ballus: Okay, made it all the way to the final last time around, as did the Nodigan Forest manager, Ange Postokoglu, who was the Europa League winner in his previous job at Spurs. Crikey, Forest this weekend, less spectacularly, a 1-1 draw for them at Burnley. Anything else we should know, Paul, from the world of La Liga before we move on? I wanted to bring the name of Alexis Sanchez back to the table because he signed for Sevilla on deadline day and he scored the winner for the Andalusian side against Alaves. Sevilla won 2-1 and he scored the last goal of the game to become the third oldest player in the history of Sevilla.

33:13Wow. To score a game in La Liga. I'm trying to check who are the top two.

33:18Pol Ballus: How old is Alexis now? He's 36 now. Right. One is Morales, surely. He's no longer El Nino. No. El Nino Maravilla. I have to say, you know how when the transfer window ends, you have weeks that go by with players cropping out like odd socks that have been put away in the wrong drawer. Alexis is that sock for me now. I did not know he'd gone severe on that. Yeah, left to Udinese, who he'd gone back to. Yeah, there you go then. So Alexis is the third oldest one to score the goal for Sevilla in La Liga. second one is Sergio Ramos okay let's see if Seb can give us the top okay I think the top sorry Seb Guico what was the question I'd zoned out I was on a Wikipedia page and I found out that Eric Lamella would you like to share that with the rest of the class Seb yeah yeah well I just learned that Eric Lamella is actually Alexis Sanchez's coach at Sevilla what that's where that's where I was yeah he's the assistant manager yeah he's not the manager he's not the head coach still

34:12James Horncastle: still wow yeah for Roma Roma favourite yes scored a wonderful Rabona yeah against Arsenal against Spurs but he was he was Zennig Simmons yeah Paul who was the Spanish guy I mean there are many Spanish guys who played for early Abu Dhabi Man City like but there was a striker who Nolito Nolito was he the striker yes ah yeah Nolito Nolito was it him no well yeah he played for Pep City yeah but was he the one of the oldest players to school. No, you mean Álvaro Negredo. Álvaro Negredo. No, no, he's not among the oldest.

34:52Julien Laurens: Do we know the oldest guy? Do we know him? Yeah, yeah. I don't know it. Who is it? Do you want to guess or do you want me to say it? No, just say it. We all got life. At this point. So the oldest guy is Jesús Navarro. Oh, yeah.

35:04Pol Ballus: A City player.

35:05Julien Laurens: Another one. Another one.

35:09Pol Ballus: Paul, that was terrific. Thank you so much. Listen, I hope you've enjoyed that. Next up, I might touch on one or two of the other Europa League fixtures. And hey, also a bit of Serie A.

35:46Julien Laurens: It's always, you know, Nice lost against Brest,

35:49Pol Ballus: but it was away at Brest this time, this point to me.

35:52Julien Laurens: Yeah. So, yeah, it's the other way around for the... But still, it's still... 4-1. You mean in the order that he says on the screen, right? Because you love it.

35:59Pol Ballus: I suppose it's a disappointing result. What did they look like? They lost 4-1. 4-1, yeah. 4-1, yeah. What else have you got? You've got... So, there's Bennis Forest, as we mentioned. Red Star against Celtic, two former European champions there. That's right. Rangers are up against Genk, which will be fun after their most recent match with the Belgian side. who beat them, what, 6-0? Yeah. Yeah. Rugger-y.

36:21Julien Laurens: Villa Bologna.

36:22Pol Ballus: Well, I was saving that for the end for a bit of a chat, but you're right, it's there. Lazy Villa, as I call them. Lazy Villa against Bologna. Bologna who had a 2-1 win against Genoa this weekend. Bologna who've never beaten an English side in European competition like ever, but given the way that Villa are performing this year, what do you think?

36:43James Horncastle: Yeah, they won in stoppage time against Genoa. Riccardo Orcellini, their joker, talisman, Italy international, increasingly got that call. They've had a bit of an up and down start to the season. They played Roma on match day one, lost. Chiria Mobile, their big old signing, got injured. They also lost to Milan as well. And yeah, I mean, put on your lost a few players as they did this time last year. so just as 12 months ago they were adjusting to losing the likes of Califuri and Zirkze they're now reacting to losing Dan Indoi and a sulking centre-back John Lukumi who didn't get a move to I think it was Sunderland but they will have learnt from last year's experience in the Champions League

37:30Pol Ballus: which included a trip to Phillip Park where they lost 2-0 they actually played quite well in that game but lost 2-0 maybe it'll be a different story this time around And other games include Lil' Brand, VfB Stuttgart against Celta Viga, RB Salzburg against Porto. Some interesting clashes there. What about Nice-Roma? Roma, Gasparini, are you seeing some signs of the gasp man having an effect?

37:58James Horncastle: Well, he bristled a little bit in his pretty much press conference on Saturday because a reporter was like, well, this team's not really kind of shining like your Atalanta teams, is it? And I thought Roma played well, particularly the first game against Bologna. But I think what the journalist was meaning, you're not scoring goals like your Atalanta side did. So they've won three of their four games, but they've only scored three goals. So they've won those games 1-0. And look, I think things will click further forward for them. I think Evan Ferguson, for example, was unlucky in that first game against Bologna not to score.

38:37James Horncastle: Yeah, I don't know much about Nice this year, Jules.

38:40Julien Laurens: It's just not very good. They're struggling defensively. They consider a lot of goals. So that may be the game where Roman Gasperini score more goals than just one. Yeah, yeah, completely. I mean, Dante is still the captain and part of their squad, although he hasn't played much because of injuries. But yeah, it's difficult for them. This will be a difficult game. Okay. tell you what

38:59Pol Ballus: Jules since we're talking about Nice why don't we have a bit of a chat about this Ligue 1 that you're banging on about

39:05Julien Laurens: I would love to

39:06Pol Ballus: Paris Saint-Germain or Marseille this week because of the Le Clasique getting played on a Monday night

39:11Julien Laurens: and you know the league getting heavily criticised by people back home about that rescheduling yeah because and the keep made a good point today he said what if Ousmane Dembele was not injured so he would have played in that game yes and not being obviously he can't be at two places at the same time so would they have still scheduled the game to be tonight on Monday night and not later on? PSG wanted to play at three o 'clock today but the league didn't want five o 'clock so they could do both so PSG would have to split Nasser Khalafi we expect would be in Paris for the Ballon d 'Or and other people would be representing the club in Marseille but if you are Hakimi as we said or Vitinha who have maybe a little chance of winning but they still have a chance and they will be amongst the team of the year won't be able to be there, which is a shame, really.

40:01Julien Laurens: And L 'Equipe was making, again, a good point by saying, if Dembele wins the Ballon d 'Or, this is great for French football. And this is the biggest game that French football has to offer, is the Marseille PSG. Right. And yet, how can you schedule the two biggest things that you would have in French football this year at the same time is just a ridiculous decision. So, yeah, a bit of backlash from why. And the rule says that if a game is postponed due to the weather, it should be replayed 24 hours later at the same time. But they were still free to do it in, I don't know, December or October or whatever.

40:34Julien Laurens: So, yeah, it's a weird decision.

40:36Pol Ballus: Oh, it leaves Paris Saint-Germain level with three other teams at the top of Ligue 1 on 12 points. You've got Monaco, who rebounded from their Champions League disaster against Brugge, with a 5-2 win against bottom of the table Mets. You've got Lyon, who beat Angers 1-0 with a goal from the American midfielder, Tanner Tesma. Yeah, that's right. Nice. and you've got Crisis Club Strasbourg, who did Paris FC. Yeah, great game, that. 3-2. Ooh. And you know who got the key game? You obviously do. You know who got the... For Strasbourg. Yeah.

41:11Julien Laurens: The winning goal. Emmanuel et Mégane.

41:13Pol Ballus: The man at the centre of this maelstrom of... I think it's the word malaise, would it be? Well, when you said maelstrom, was that game abandoned as well? I meant metaphorically. This is all relating to the ongoing unrest. after Chelsea went and very diplomatically posted a picture of the Strasbourg captain with a Chelsea shirt saying, I'm looking forward to playing for a proper club next year.

41:36Julien Laurens: He assisted the second goal after coming off the bench because he was still not fully fit. And then scored the third one, as you said, took the shirt off and showed the a la Messi, showed his number and the name to the Strasbourg Ultras who travelled from Strasbourg to Paris for the game, kind of making his point of like, you can boo me you can have banners against me but look I'm still reliable here look I can carry this team to winning he's a great talent he's an outstanding player but I think himself even would acknowledge that the timing of all of this was not right right

42:11Pol Ballus: do you think that will smooth over the yeah of course

42:15Julien Laurens: because that's what fan base do they forget also very quickly if your player starts doing well unless you're Lorenzo Pellegrini

42:20Pol Ballus: unless you're Lorenzo Pellegrini never forget never

42:22Julien Laurens: and for Monaco great win against Mets or low 5-2 they should have never been in that position. But the big news for them is that Ansu Fati, who scored already in midweek in that, like a consolation goal against Bruges in the Champions League when they were 4-0 down, came on a halftime this time when the score was 1-1, scored on his first touch after 37 seconds in that second half at the start of the second half, and then scored a second goal. So I know Paul and a lot of people in Spain and in Catalonia especially still love him dearly. And it's been two years since he last scored a goal. He struggled with the Serbia, Brighton last season, had a nightmare last two years so it's good to see him he was so smiley so happy after the game as well so it's a good thing to see

43:01Pol Ballus: that's lovely do you know what I really enjoyed from that game no

43:04Julien Laurens: tell me

43:05Pol Ballus: is it Gauthier Hine is that how you put it it's penalty yeah it was glorious he looked like a baddie in Scooby-Doo trying to sneak up on the gang he kind of bends right down and kind of sneaks towards the spot like ooh it's quite

43:20Julien Laurens: he's really good on penalties but yeah it's a weird it's a weird runner for sure

43:24Pol Ballus: for sure already what else do you have a very dramatic Brittany derby

43:28Julien Laurens: yes by a much so between Nantes and Rennes and the last equaliser from Youssef Al Arabi remember him who came back to France to play for Nantes but the big derby was the derby between Lens and Lille and the two World Cup winners who played against Giroud for Lille and Thauvin for Lens under the pouring rain on Friday night and it was a great win by Lens they win 3-0 they should have won really 4-5-1 5-2 they were outstanding in those difficult conditions, really, to have scored and was really good. And I know he was very good at Udinese last season. He was Udinese captain, which I think says a lot for a fine player.

44:04Julien Laurens: And a lot of people were surprised when he told you to leave that aside and come back to France in a team that doesn't even play in Europe, for example. But well done to Lens for attracting him into the club because he's been great since he signed.

44:17Pol Ballus: Magnificent. Anything else, Jules, from the wonderful world of Ligue 1? All good for me. OK, next up, it is the rest of Serie A.

44:31This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

44:36Pol Ballus: Champions League, it was interesting midweek. Very. Featured a quite extraordinary match, James, between Juventus and Borussia Dortmund. The Dortmund players who got a point away to Juve looked absolutely destroyed at the final whistle. So they should. I mean, it was an unusual set of circumstances. Nil, nil at half time. They then took a 4-2 lead, which they were still holding on to. 94 minutes on the clock with two minutes left of added time. And one man earned the old lady a point. And it's Duzan Vlaovic's performance of the midweek. I thought it was extraordinary. When he came on in that game, what, I think about half an hour to go.

45:15Pol Ballus: Jean Mario came on at the same time. but Vlaovic who's hugely inconsistent player certainly in his Turin incarnation what he did in that half hour I thought was amazing and then of course he started this weekend did absolutely nothing in the draw with Verona but that half hour the passion the drive the glinter scored two set up another you just wish he could do that every week

45:39James Horncastle: he's the highest player in Serie A that's what he should be doing look the motto at Juve I mean they've got a few but one is Fino alla fine. This is a team that goes right until the end. They did that against Inter in the Debit Italia when they scored the winner in stoppage time. Did it in this where they scored twice in stoppage time. And yeah, Vlajevic, you mentioned the two goals, but turning provider as well. He crossed for the equaliser for Lloyd Kelly. And yeah, what a week for Lloyd Kelly because he'd been sort of much maligned, you know, ever since he signed in January. the sporting director who bought him was sacked in part because he'd sold Dean Hoyssen to Bournemouth and then Hoyssen went to Real Madrid 12 months later and Juventus are stuck with Lloyd Kelly and going into the Dortmund game Igor Tudor said you've all been really unfair about Lloyd yeah he's made a few mistakes but the truth is he's been pretty damn good for us over my time at the club Two big goals in the course of the week.

46:46James Horncastle: I mean, he had his own 10-minute redemptive arc in that Dortmund game because he handles the ball, gives away the penalty, which is the 4-2, looks like it's game over, and yet who is there in the 96-minute popping up in the box like a centre-forward?

47:02Julien Laurens: In transition as well. Is it Lloyd Kelly?

47:04Pol Ballus: It is Lloyd Kelly.

47:05Julien Laurens: In transition as well.

47:06Pol Ballus: Well, Juve had another handling offence given against them this weekend in the game against Verona, which they were very unhappy about. And perhaps, rightly, Jean Mario conceding a penalty with which Hellas equalised after a gorgeous opening goal from that man Francisco Conceição. Nice to see him back.

47:25James Horncastle: I mean, this is the thing about Juve. They keep scoring lovely goals from outside the box. And just where you think that they can't keep doing this, they do it again. So if you think about it, the Yildiz and Adzic ones against Inter, Yildiz's wonderful Del Piero remake. against Dortmund, and then this Conte Sau goal. But yeah, Juventus dropped points in the league for the first time. The referee who was in charge of that game has been essentially demoted. He's got to spend like six weeks in the second division, not only for giving that penalty, but for not sending off gift or ban. But Juventus were understandably tired in that Verona game, having played in these eight-goal and seven-goal thrillers back-to-back.

48:11Pol Ballus: Not tired from midweek because they're not in Europe. Milan, who had arguably the result of the week, their 3-0 win over the previously on a bit of a roll, Udinese.

48:20James Horncastle: Yeah, Udinese, who'd won two of their three games. Including one against Inter. Yeah, at San Siro as well. And Costa Runiaic, their coach, has sort of gone under the radar. He's done a pretty good job at Udinese. But Milan made very light work of them, particularly in the second half. Pulisic scored a brace. And I think Pulisic has made people forget that they've been without Rafa Leão all season, really, apart from that Coppa Italia game against Bari. And, you know, Pulisic's numbers are as good as anybody's in Serie A. You know, I think the only player since he joined Milan who has scored more goals and assists is Lautaro Martinez.

49:04James Horncastle: So, yeah, that's lofty company when you think of some of the strikers who finished top scorer Moisey Ken last year, Matteo Retteghi last year. He's been consistent as Pulisic. But he's not really considered a star in Italy, I would say, in the way that he is obviously back home in the States. Because I think most people would still think that Rafa Leao is the star of Milan. Right. Maybe because he's associated with them winning the league the last time that they won the league. because he's got such great potential and maybe because he smiles every now and again.

49:40Julien Laurens: Well, it's nice. Rabiot was excellent in that game as well, by the way. Rabiot was excellent.

49:45James Horncastle: Yeah, but Milan and also like their defensive numbers this year. Okay, it's only four games, very small sample size. You look at who they've played as well. Cremonese, Lecce, Bologna, Udinese. Aside from Bologna, they're all bottom half teams, but their defensive numbers going into next weekend, game against Napoli are the best in Europe's top five league. Good lord.

50:09Pol Ballus: Napoli who are only one point off the top of the table with a game in hand. Juve in pulled position but Napoli playing on Monday night against Pisa and that's a huge game coming up next week. Como continue to surprise and delight. A 2-1 win with Nico Paas playing a key role in that game away at Fiorentina and the fans in Florence now getting restless.

50:35James Horncastle: I think this was one of the themes of the weekend, like big clubs, historic clubs saying enough is enough. Basta. Basta. So we saw the Laziali after the Rome derby sort of fed up. Our team's on the transfer embargo. Poor Nuno Tavares kind of left at half-time after being subbed off by Sarri for making the mistake that led to the goal. you have the Roma fans showing banners saying Lotito resisti, resisti because Lotito the Lazio owner he'd had a funny turn over the summer and was hospitalized and so the Roma fans there sort of get, stay alive Claudio please. And then you had the Torino fans as well protest against their owner Udobano Cairo because they got absolutely hammered by Atalanta.

51:26James Horncastle: Do you know I didn't see any mention of that in the newspaper Yes, the newspaper run by Torino's owner. No double page spread on that. And then in Florence, as you say, only two points from four games. Moise Ken still yet to score on the new coach Stefano Pioli. They were obviously 2-0 down after 15 minutes against Napoli last weekend, 2-0 down after 15 minutes against Policia in the Conference League or Europa League, one of the two. And yeah, lose in stoppage time against Como. and yeah Fiontino have spent 90 million uh in the summer and you know have assembled this kind of not all-star team of young Italians but they've got some of the the players that Italians are most hopeful about you know your Nicolucci Caviglias your Fagiolis your Piccolis obviously Moise Ken Mandragora yeah although he's been you know we did his first game years ago for BT back in the day when he played for Genoa and man-marked Pogba out of the game.

52:32James Horncastle: But yeah, three really historic teams, Fiorentino, Lazio and Torino, sort of really feeling it at the moment.

52:40Pol Ballus: Pressure's so intense, of course, in that league, perhaps more than any other. A quick word on Jamie Vardy. He didn't manage to feature for Gremonese this week.

52:48James Horncastle: No, in the 0-0 with Parma. They could probably have used him. He was injured, wasn't he?

52:53Julien Laurens: Yeah.

52:54James Horncastle: He did come on Monday night, so a week ago, in Verona. But yeah.

52:59Pol Ballus: Goalist draw in that one as well. Yeah. Okay. But they're up in sixth place, Cremonese. Lovely stuff. They are facing Como next week. Juve will be playing Atalanta, who we read or hear have now managed to convince Adam Ola Lutman to put his boots back on and do some of that football. Yeah. And they had a big win this week as well against Torino. sparking the unrest.

53:23James Horncastle: Yeah.

53:23Pol Ballus: Yeah.

53:24James Horncastle: One of their summer signings to replace Viteki was Capo Canogneri last year, Nikola Kristović. He scored. And yeah, Lukman back in the fold, you know, which I wouldn't say they need because they've just had two really big wins in Serie A, okay, against Lecce and Torino. Right. And in between, obviously, they go to Paris and PSG could have been 6-0 up inside the first 10 minutes were not for Marco Canisecchi there, the Atlanta goalkeeper. But I think for Juric, you know, it has been strangely a positive week if you ignore going to the park and getting ran off the park by PSG. But, you know, I know he has a lot of haters, people like, how did this guy get the job?

54:07James Horncastle: But, you know, he has just pumped two teams in Serie A. So there you go.

54:13Pol Ballus: Very nice. Very nice. Seb, you're up next with the Bundesliga.

54:24you're listening to the totally football show with James Richardson now with you four times a week keep up to date with us on insta and enjoy us in glorious technicolor on youtube at the totally show

54:34Pol Ballus: jose marino started life uh with his new club benfica and he got a 3-0 win away at uh

54:41Julien Laurens: avs yeah and it was all about him as well did you see i didn't see that it was all about him

54:46Pol Ballus: What did he do?

54:47Julien Laurens: No, just the camera was always about him. He celebrated this. The first goal, he stayed pretty. The second and third goal, he went a bit mad. There was obviously the punchline on Fenerbahce before the game. Before the game? Or after the game where he said like, it's not my level. Fenerbahce is not my, it's not for me. I should have never gone there. It's not my level of football. Like, good old Jose.

55:10Pol Ballus: Boy, that's classy, isn't it?

55:11Julien Laurens: Yeah. And in a week time, he comes back to Chelsea. which is like if you could write the script of another chapter in the incredible life of Jose Mourinho this would be it right 25 years after he goes back to Benfica so who would believe that go back to Chelsea

55:25Pol Ballus: and then you know the game the next game after the Stamford Bridge one he plays Porto

55:29Julien Laurens: yeah sorry in the league yeah yeah and then he finishes with Real Madrid the league phase in January so it's just like if he's still in charge obviously

55:36James Horncastle: if he's still in charge it's a one year deal though yeah

55:38Julien Laurens: I think Ricosta is like come and see what happens basically but yeah it was a good start against a bad team

55:45James Horncastle: to be fair it's also because it's election season yes that's why can't commit

55:52Pol Ballus: just parking him there until Amorim is available and then yeah anyway good start for Jose lovely to see that in the Eredivisie there was a big game Pérez-Ve against Ajax finished 2-2

56:04Julien Laurens: two leg goals 81st and 88th did you see these yeah I watched Oscar Glock with a lovely with your man Oscar Glock yeah Glock with a lovely equaliser for Ajax in that blue shirt. That is lovely too.

56:14Pol Ballus: It is a nice shirt.

56:15Julien Laurens: And Feyenoord won. So Feyenoord, I think there's a point between Feyenoord in first, PSV second and then another point with Ajax third. Shall I check? No, he's... You're confident about that? Yeah. Okay.

56:24James Horncastle: You're watching Ajax again now that Jordan Henderson is not there.

56:27Julien Laurens: Who?

56:30Pol Ballus: Seb, you very, very, very patiently waited to tell us about the Bundesliga where this just in Bayern are absolutely flying and Dortmund and Leipzig are close behind. But Bayern, once again, you've got a record-breaking start. which they seem to put up record numbers at the start of quite a few seasons. How special is this campaign that they're on here, do you think? I think special, certainly in the context of recent years, because if you look at this Bayern team as a group of components, perhaps it doesn't jump off the page. You're not necessarily impressed by them. But what Vincent Kompany has been able to make, Kompany and his coaching staff been able to make, is really impressive.

57:05As a group, so many interesting things are happening in that Bayern side at the moment. You would have seen a little bit if you watched the Bayern-Chelsea game in midweek and seen things like Harry Kane taking the ball off his goalkeeper between his centre-halves. Serge Gnabry doing pretty much the same thing. A lot of fluidity, a lot of flexibility, a lot of chance creation, which actually, strange as it is to say, has been a little bit of a Bayern weakness. They've been quite predictable going forward, quite Kane-centric. And now chance creation is very varied. And all without Jermal Masiala, who won't be back until probably around January.

57:40Also, Luis Diaz, yeah, they probably overpaid for him, but perfect fit, perfect fit. Just his ability to go out to in, to combine with those other forwards, to kind of almost mimic what Michael Lise does on the right, on the other side of the pitch. It's given Bayern a real symmetry, and they look so, so dangerous. And hey, would you like to hear about another Harry Kane record?

58:00Pol Ballus: Yes, yes. Yes, so he scored his 17th straight penalty in the Bundesliga on Saturday. Got two against Hoffenheim in Sinsheim, and that is a Bundesliga record. No player has ever converted 100 % of 17 straight penalties. Wow. It was part of a hat trick. I mean, although you wouldn't have caught it that in Germany. Dry pack, please, James. And he's on the brink of another record potentially. So Kane now has 98 goals in, I think, 103 Bundesliga appearances. Now, if he gets a double, double pack, against Werder Bremen at home this weekend, he'll have bettered a record which is jointly held by Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland which will be the fastest to 100 goals in the history of the top five leagues I'm not sure is that a record that you count but the German media are counting it Yeah sure, it's pretty cool I mean as you say we get used to Bayern being good and we get used to Kane scoring loads of goals but it is extraordinary 70 goals in 67 Bundesliga matches 9 hat-tricks in the competition, crazy Nicholas Jackson got a start for Bayern.

59:07Pol Ballus: This was against Hoffenheim at the weekend when Bayern won 4-1. Yeah, it was a bit of a weakened side because obviously Bayern were playing midweek, played Chelsea. So Lenny Karl, the young prospect, he got a start on the right midfield. That was his first start in the Bundesliga. Is he special? He is. He's got a great left foot. He is very, very special. He's someone... I don't know if he's going to grow into a number 10 or just be one of those kind of wide drifting forwards, but wonderful left foot. actually got his uh got an assist for carry Kane's first goal for a really well worked set piece but as you mentioned Jackson started played kind of rotated between nine and ten with Kane did fine nothing special it wasn't a particularly energetic buying performance they were good enough scored a couple of goals played pretty well but I think Jackson's role there is is to kind of is to make sure the doomsday event of Kane of a Kane injury doesn't happen or if it does buy and have another centre forward on their books.

1:00:01He's fine. Very 7 out of 10 kind of performance. He was perfectly reasonable.

1:00:05Pol Ballus: Very nice. Was Lillard Carl, was he the one who was in the Club World Cup? Was that him? He played a bit in the Club World Cup. He also, if you saw the pre-season friendly against Spurs, he scored that bending left-footed goal to the top corner. Yeah, the Teckers

1:00:17Julien Laurens: are very high with him. Okay. He is. The Teckers is strong. He's really, really high. Very strong. Very nice.

1:00:24James Horncastle: This Kane fellow you speak of, would he be able to do it in the Premier League?

1:00:29Julien Laurens: I mean, don't start. You said it's a bad league. No, no, no. That's what you said.

1:00:35James Horncastle: No, I'm not saying that. My genuine question is, with these records that he's putting up, where would he rank? Because, I mean, this is in terms of great buy-in forwards, you know, Rafa always says it's Gerd Muller and then everybody else. But, like, I mean, what would he have to do, I suppose, to sort of elevate himself? Because his numbers are better than Lewandowski, by the sounds of it. I mean, what would he need to go above someone like Lewandowski? Like, I mean, is it Champions League and be decisive in the Champions League? No, if Rafa was here, he would say a couple of things, I think.

1:01:18He would say... He would say, I think the real question...

1:01:24he would like government's position is unimpeachable because he's attached to a transformative era in Bayern's history he's one of the players with which they go from being a club to what we now know as Bayern Munich um the super club Lewandowski different because he's attached to an era of unprecedented dominance he's part of a team which was just far too good for German football and on a couple of occasions too good for the rest of Europe. Now I think that's the case with Kane. The caveat here James is I think there are people in Munich who are now waking up to the idea that Harry Kane is a superior player to Robert Lewandowski.

1:02:02You can argue about goal scorers that's perfectly valid but what we're seeing at the moment is Kane the footballer in inverted commas because he's doing so many things that he never even really did for Spurs. I know that Spurs fans will jump in here and say he's always been a playmaker, he's always He's been a creator. Absolutely true. But I'm going to pause while a helicopter goes above my house.

1:02:24James Horncastle: I like that. Same one that flew over here. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, it sounds like an Apache. It's so loud. Like an Apache. Chinook. Okay. Yes, that's absolutely right. Kane has always been a playmaker. Now we're seeing him doing things which have no real playmaking utility. He's taking out balls off defenders. There was a moment, for instance, in the Chelsea game where Kane took possession of the ball, probably 10 yards off his own goal line with Chelsea pressing just as a way of helping his team to alleviate pressure and navigate those last few minutes and he's doing all these things to kind of fill in the gaps that have been left by Masiala's absence and also to a certain extent contributing bits that Bayern don't really have because this is not a vintage team is it like Kane's playing wonderful football and they are like they're interesting and they're playing very very well do they compare to a Bayern team under Guardiola no absolutely not and yet he's giving that sort of level of contribution which allows some of those things not to be quite as noticeable so that's not really the question you asked but it's a better one I think in a way his task is is impossible because that era is gone and it's not coming back and there are so many homegrown players attached to it as well that Levandowski was part of this wonderful story which um there's that the helicopter is back are they coming for you looking for you yeah increasingly someone's It's going to come through the window any minute.

1:03:43James Horncastle: Wow. Minority report. It's a fleet. It's like a kind of... A squadron. It's an apocalypse now. Nice.

1:03:50Pol Ballus: This Harry Kane fellow wasn't the only British player to score a hat-trick, though, in the Bundesliga this weekend. Was he Seb? He was not. This is the return of Oliver Burke. Yay! This is a great story, right? Has he uploaded some software? It seems his hard drive is no longer empty. yeah so EFS by the way obviously first turned up in Germany in 2016 when he joined Ebi Leipzig and didn't succeed there was physically good enough for German football but um had some difficulty with uh with tactical comprehension particularly a club where tactical identity is so important and such a non-negotiable return to England uh after a year came back to Werder Bremen in 2022 he was on a free transfer and for two years didn't really go well two and a half years really didn't really go well then either right at the end of last season he had a sudden burst of form scored a couple of goals against Stuttgart scored against Eintracht and that was as his contract was expiring and that earned him a free transfer down to Copenic at Union Berlin and scored his first three goals for the club at the weekend in a 4-3 win over Eintracht in Frankfurt and at one point Union were 4-1 up in that game and he becomes the first Scottish player to score a hat-trick, dry pack, in Bundesliga history.

1:05:12It's also because Kane also scored what we'll call a British hat-trick the first time two British players have scored a hat-trick in the same match day. Wow. That's amazing. Amazing, isn't it? Can I give you one more record? It's a goalkeeping record. Yeah. So we had a weekend of penalty saves. On Friday night, Nicola Vassil saved, St. Pauli's Nicola Vassil saved Angelo Stiller's penalty in the game against Stuttgart. St. Pauli lost, but still. and that was the sixth penalty he saved out of his last seven fades.

1:05:42Pol Ballus: That's incredible. Now, on Saturday, Freiburg's Noah Atabalu saved his fifth straight penalty and that's a Bundesliga record. Wow, but Seb, I mean, if anyone's famous for taking penalties well, it's German players. Alas not, alas not. So these goalkeepers managing to save penalties in the Bundesliga, I mean, I get what you were hinting about goals worth, of goals scored in Germany before. But the worth, if that's not the same as if they don't count as much as Premier League goals, penalties saved in the Bundesliga presumably count at least double. Given that Kane has scored 18. Yeah, that's for 17, isn't it?

1:06:22James Horncastle: 17. Seb, are both of those goalkeepers German? No. Vasil's Bosnian and Atabelo's German. Actually, he was born and raised in Freiburg in Breisgau. And he's an academy product so kind of fun right like he's um previously there were four players jointly who held the record for four straight uh penalties saved one of them was burnt leno hans your butt and frank ross and one other who i forget but you know the record that's still you said him already but but i suppose my point was going to be it's a world cup here would julian nagelsmann consider taking the German national of these two as a kind of, for a special event, like a shootout.

1:07:06James Horncastle: Oh yeah, nice. A special occasion. Well, potentially, because Atavalo has long been regarded as a coming goalkeeper of the next generation. He's very, very highly thought of. Whether he's quite ready to displace, so currently the three goalkeepers, I think would probably be Tashagan, Baumann, and Alex Nubel, I'd imagine, for the World Cup. Atabolo is, I think, still only 23, so he's got a long time, but some people think of him as a German number one of the future. Perhaps not. I mean, he's not going to be a number one for the World Cup, but perhaps not quite ready for the squad yet. But a very, very good goalkeeper, not just a penalty saver, a very, very good all-round goalkeeper.

1:07:42I can just see Van Gaal doing that, you know, sort of brilliance about the goalkeeper. Oh, in the meantime. This is a huge non-sequitur, but did we see that both the sons of Ruben Nistroen and Klaus-Jan Huntler are playing for PSV's under-17s together up front this season? No. No. Okay. Van Gaal prompted me. Ah, very nice.

1:08:01Julien Laurens: And Van Bommelsson scored for PSV in the Champions League too. He suffered a really bad injury yesterday, apparently. Yeah, yeah. Or did he? Yeah, apparently.

1:08:09Pol Ballus: I don't want to finish, Seb. I don't want to finish. But I don't want to finish particularly without mentioning that Mönchengladbach have finally scored a goal. And Tabakovic is it?

1:08:19Julien Laurens: The first season for Borussia Mönchengladbach Haris Tabakovic lets the fohlen locken Since May yeah yeah finally finally finally and it was 92nd minute equaliser in Leverkusen scored by Haris Tabakovic also it was from a corner taken by Charles Herman 19 years old making his Bundesliga debut Is he German? He is German he is German and he'd had about four touches before that so that's a pretty great way to introduce yourself brilliant cross brilliant header finally a goal and fk polanski who's the the interim coach has taken over from gerardo sione he's going to be given a chance to earn the job full time um and yeah they got a point they scored a goal also gladback much improved played really really well nice counter-attacking football um very very promising performance so um yeah nice uh nice nice change in form at the end of what has been a really miserable period for them.

1:09:15Pol Ballus: Excellent. I think with that, we'll conclude today's Totally Football Show European Edition. Many thanks, Seb. Thanks, Jimbo. And Jules and James, Paul Belous, who was with us before, producer Lucy in the booth, and you, listener, in the cans. I mean, not in the can, but with headphones. You might be in the can, actually.

1:09:35Julien Laurens: Who knows?

1:09:36Pol Ballus: I hope it's gone well for you. Careful in the showers. Who should listen from there?

1:09:41Julien Laurens: Oh, my God.

1:09:45Pol Ballus: So, anyway, we'll leave it there. We'll see you next time. From all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:09:55You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify, and all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Football Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.