Advantage Inter, Bayern’s late show - and a reprieve for Alonso at Real?

0:00The Athletic FC

0:10Totally Football Show European edition today Spain a right carry-on Real Oviedo with the wrong one Juventus stay untethered but Fiorentina are at the end of theirs Germany Urs Fischer changes his mites and much much more in this Totally Football Show

0:35Monday the 15th of December and first a montage.

0:43Julian Laurence is here. Hi, Jules. Bonjour, Jimbo. Bonjour, everyone. Hello, boys. Bonjour. Bonjour. Julian Laurence. Hello. Hello, European champions. Yes, I am. And you? Yes, I am. Jules, let's begin with some French football. Tell you what, 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? We'd love to. 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. Touche. That's it.

1:15Which one of the nine goals scored in Serie A this weekend would you pick? Yay! I don't care. You care. And James was very cynical on Sunday in the main football show. What did I say? I don't care. I just didn't like your questions. Very much a child of the club and a child of Paris winning everything. If you count the Champions League that, you know, it didn't win. Say it, Jules. What, Paris Born and Bread, you mean? Thank you. Yes, some French, some not French. Some Paris Born and Bread, some not. Some not, that's true. His goal is straight away. They will forget that he's from Paris and that one day he said he would never want to play for Marseille.

1:47So it's always the same thing. What about Lens, though, and your friend Stonewise? Stonewise. The manager, Pierre Sage, Stonewise. But still, for Textor to sack Pierre Sage, our friend, Stonewise. He's quite bonkers. Stonewise. Stonewise. Stonewise. Very much there. Here in this dressing room, I see small balls. When you play for Marseille, you need big balls. I want to see big balls outside on the pitch. And Brest, I felt for them a little bit because we knew it was either Brest or Monaco. You felt for Brest. I felt for Brest. I love Brest. Jules Brest. You're very sensitive with your nipples.

2:22And I'm quite well-developed.

2:26Let's bust out another screen to keep an eye on that one. Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe. Bust out. Maybe. Oh, no, I didn't mean that. Oh, no. Oh, no. No. We don't really have a word for that. A lot of son of a bitches were like being shouted at each other and everything. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Gary Brick is not French, by the way. Quelle bude. Magnifique. Quelle bude. Chateau d 'Iknebuk and Chateau Latour, if you like your red wine. Yes. I don't know why people are so bitter about Messi joining PSG. I don't understand it. Paul Pogba's update maybe after the international break I'm just saying really?

2:56which international break is that Jules? watches that Julian LeJuan's wares they're 360 grand each so that is very much in your price frame Jules that's it then for today's show thank you Jimbo no thank you anything else Jules from the wonderful word of Ligue 1 all good for me Jules what's it say behind you I love you in French yeah for you my brothers and for all the listeners that can see but can listen Say it, Jules. Je t 'aime. Yes, Julien Laurent's. Our companion in this journey into European football understanding are passed sadly of party company. Party company. This is where, in the YouTube video, maybe producer Lucy would flash up to a little black screen with a little profile photo of Julien.

3:47It says, Julien Laurent, 2012 to 2025 Right Totally Football Show member Listen, he's still breathing And in eventual fact To prove that Here's a little message From Jules Hi guys It's Julian I just wanted to say A massive thank you To the whole Totally Football Show community For having me on the show For all those great years It was an incredible run I didn't really want it to end But sometimes Great things come to an end so it's really heavy hard that I am stopping the show. Thank you so much to all the listeners, obviously. Without you, we would have been able to do all of this, all the nice interactions that I have with people on the street or social media everywhere that like the show and have been listening to the show for a while.

4:34Thank you to producer Lucy, producer Ben, producer Charlie for the amazing work that they are doing, that they've been doing for all those years because without them, you know, nothing would be the same and the show would not have been as good, of course. Seb, I miss you, of course, and all your German stories and, you know, all the snooze or scarves or whatever your wife forces you to wear on the show to promote her business. Paul, I miss you as well, man, and all your Spanish stories and all your sexual things and Nando's innuendos. And then, obviously, my two brothers, Jimbo and Horny. I mean I love you so so so so much and I'm heartbroken not to do this show with you anymore you're the best the best of the best of the best you're not Paris Born and Bread and you know this is the theme of course Paris Born and Bread always but you are a little bit Paris Born and Bread because you're spending time with me for too long now so I love you so so much forever and ever and ever and who knows maybe this is one door that closes another one will open soon but I will I miss you, all of you guys.

5:40And long live the Tottenham Football Show. Just a shame that it's without me. Wow. There you go, Julien Laurent. Listen, just to be clear, there is no two-minute chat on French football at the end of 45 minutes of Serie A at the end of today's programme. We've decided to go the full 47 minutes on Serie A, and there's just no room for it anymore. But, no, Jules has had to move on. Sadly, I'm not sure where we'll be able to hear him. No, I saw him on Talk Sport the other night. He's on the T-shirt. I was like, you can't do this show because of other commitments, but you can do Talk Sport. It felt like a betrayal.

6:18Wow. James is here with us. Yeah, for now. Seb's here with us. Paul's here with us. I am. Yeah. And we're feeling the pain like a shopper in a boulangerie. Still, as the old saying goes, don't be sad, it's over. Be happy that there is Leslie Goinshaw. Sorry, that it happened. Yeah. Have you got a moment of the week to lift the spirit, James? I was going to maybe do Jules's part as Jules. Oh, yeah. Hello, boys. Yeah, no, by all means do. No, I can't sustain that. Neither could he.

6:58Well, you know, he can sustain. Anyway, moment of the week. Okay. Happened at the Ennio Tardini, James. It was an epic game where Parma, coached by presumably Paul's friend, Carlos Cuesta, Mikel Arteta's former assistant, someone who's, I think, as young as Paul as well. He's even younger than me. He's even younger than Paul. Yeah, yeah. And he had a great opportunity to win a game against Lazio because Lazio went down to 10 men. Then they went down to nine men. It's like, come on, Cuesta, you can do this. No. Lazio having been 0-0 when they were down to nine men throw on a substitute Tiziani Noslin Noslin scores the only goal of the game and yeah incredible and Maurizio Sarri afterwards like a lot of the reporters was like we've never seen anything like this and he was like oh yeah it's already happened to me when I was in the fourth tier in Tuscany and my Antelis side won with eight men against ten men eight men what a legend yeah Maurizio Sarri lovely stuff Paul what's been your moment of the week?

8:03I'm going to go to Oviedo actually you spoiled it a bit with the intro but I was planning to go to yeah I mean no it was a good joke it was a good joke so props to that but yeah no I wanted to props to that I wanted to focus on like Luis Carrion yes yeah because he was sacked after losing 4-0 against Sevilla the Vultures were out for Carrion oh very nice I thought you were going to say Yeah, he could not carry on. He could not carry on. Right. Sorry, Paul. Back to you and your number of the week. Keep calm and carry on. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to try. So, no, basically, they lost 4-0 against Sevilla.

8:43Disaster class from Oviedo in there. 4-0 against the Sevilla side that are not great, to say the least. And then they came back to Oviedo. And on their way back, they picked up, like, the whole Oviedo squad, picked up their cars in the stadium in the Carlos Tartiere to go back home. And basically, a lot of fans just went there just to complain, just to shout at the players and the coaching staff. And especially Luis Carrion was the target of all these complaints. And he had to be escorted on his way out to the stadium with his car, which was quite sad. A bit later on, Oviedo confirmed that he was sacked from the role.

9:18And Luis Carrion, just to keep repeating the surname, just to try to let you crack some other jokes if you are able to. So basically, he has a record, which is quite amusing. He is the manager who has managed more games in La Liga without one single win. So basically, he's been in charge of a club in La Liga for 17 games, and he's won zero of them. Wow. He was in charge of Las Palmas last season. He was sacked after nine games and no wins. And now he's been in charge of Oviedo for eight La Liga games, and he's registered no wins at all. So, yeah, not a great record to keep carrying on with the coaching stuff.

9:58Right. Wow. Any more carry on? No, I mean, that was such a long moment of the week. It was almost like a carry on film, you know. Right, right, right. Yeah. Seb, your moment of the week. Jimbo, I'm going to take you to Breisgau for Freiburg against Brissett Dortmund. So Dortmund kind of cruising. 1-0 up in the first half. then. Red card Joe Bellingham. Really unfortunate professional foul, rightly given as a red card. But then Freiburg's equaliser after a succession of really, really good Gregor Cobel saves, distance onto the bar, onto the post. Lucas Hoyer, who hadn't scored a goal all season in the league.

10:3731-year-old Lucas Hoyer, a bit of a journeyman forward in the Bundesliga. An outrageous goal. Very similar to you. Do you remember the Richarlison goal in the World Cup for Brazil? The touch and then the volley, where he kind of pivots around the arc of the ball and volleys it into the opposite corner. This is like that, but sort of physically more challenging. So I'm hoping that producer Lucy is able to find some really, really good German commentary for it. Günther. Höhler. Höhler! John Lugand, Höhler! An absolutely fantastic goal. And for a player that you could kind of see that when he scored, Freiburg equalises 1-1.

11:15And half of him is thinking, right, back to the halfway line. Let's get the game going again. We could do with the win. And the other half of him is, this is a goal of my career. Never going to score a goal that looks like that again. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. It wasn't the goal of the weekend, though, was it, in the Bundesliga? Poor chap. There were a couple. So you could probably have one of three. Martin Terrier's scorpion kick by Leverkusen. The scorpions. It's kind of, I would relegate that to third place, though. Really? I feel very harsh saying this. a little bit of a miskick for a scorpion kick.

11:46Really? There's a Jamie levelling goal for Stuttgart on Sunday night against Werder Bremen, which is just raw violence. What happens? 35 yards. Yeah. 35 yards, 122 kilometres an hour. It's just, and the ball moves just before the goalkeeper who has absolutely no chance. And it's just one of, it's just an old-fashioned banger from distance. Boom. Brilliant goal. Love that. The winds have changed with the scorpions. The scorpions, yeah. Nice. If only it could have happened in Berlin. A song that brought down the Soviet Union. I don't think the Winds of Change refers to Berlin, as she said, but it refers to Moscow and Gorky Park.

12:24It's very geospecific. No, but is it not representative of that period in Berlin? It is very much, but it's perestroika that it's talking about. There's a great podcast series about how the CIA... Well, you call it a great podcast series, and listen, far be it from me to suggest that you don't listen to another podcast, but I got very much on board with the pitch of that show, which is, did the CIA engineer this pop rock classic to essentially bring down the old Soviet Union? And by the end of about an hour and a half of podcasting, I was still no nearer to finding out. They spin that one out.

13:02Eventually, do they ever come up with an answer? It's inconclusive, but there's quite a lot of circumstantial. they interview quite a lot of people who may or may not have been involved in this cultural propaganda. It's the may or may not that eventually I found a bit wearing. I wanted them to, having set the thing up, you know, deliver. It was a bit tantric for me. You're not a tantric man. No, I like bangers like Segwits. Old-fashioned bangers. I'm surprised Paul hasn't come in with an innuendo here. Yeah, I mean, I was trying to. I'm going to talk over Paul to save us from an innuendo. No, go for it, Seb, go for it.

13:42I went to the NFL game in Berlin, and they played Wings of Change before it, and they asked us to kind of fly flags representing Wings of Change before the game picked off. And what I've learned is Wings of Change not as popular in Germany as it is in the US. Seriously? There's not a lot of singing along going on. Really? What about whistling? Do people whistle along? No, mainly it was kind of, Well, we've been waving these flags for sort of 90 seconds now, two minutes now, two and a half minutes. Really? Did they do the whole song? They did the whole song. Wow. On that note, let's move on to this weekend's action around the continent.

14:19We're going to begin in Serie A. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Italy, it's Supercoppa week. Yay! That traditional time of the year when four teams do want to Saudi Arabia to play out in vaguely half-empty stadiums the bloated Italian Super Cup tournament. James, you've got Napoli and Milan and Bologna and Inter currently in Riyadh, heading that way, actually. Yeah, heading that way. So Napoli face Milan on Thursday and Bologna Inter on Friday, and then the final is going to be on Monday. Of course, it was this time last year that Sergio Constitzao was puffing cigars in the Inter dressing room, wasn't it?

15:02Doing his little dance, yeah. Doing his little dance. That feels like ages ago. Anyway, three of those teams, Napoli, Milan and Inter, are, as you know, locked into what's turning into an all-timer of a title race back in Serie A. The lead changed again this weekend, with Inter going top after they beat Genoa 2-1. Milan only managed a 2-2 draw with Sassuolo and Napoli went and lost at Udinese. what's up with Napoli at the moment then James? I think they figured things out a few weeks ago when they had all those injuries and they basically moved away from the system that Conte's been playing for the last year which was that kind of 4-1, 4-1 they went back to a 3-4-3 with what Noah Lang, David Neres and Rasmus Hoyland up front which to start with was quite exciting but none of the injured players are coming back And so those guys are playing over and over and over again.

15:58And they look tired. And they got completely run over in the second half by Udinese. Udinese are really impressive. They only won 1-0, but they had a couple of goals disallowed. They hit the bar. Keenan Davis had one disallowed. Nicola Zaniola had one disallowed as well. Yeah, and Zaniola didn't get man of the match. I mean, Seb was talking about the goals of the weekend in the Bundesliga. But the winner in this one, Jürgen Akellenkamp. Wonderful goal. No way you could rule it out. It's a kind of classic curler from the edge of the box into the top corner. A goal worthy of winning any game. But 1-0 did not reflect how Udinese outplayed Napoli in that second half and were deserving of a bigger margin of victory.

16:42All right. It's their first victory against Napoli in nine years. It was Napoli's second straight defeat on the road without managing to score as well because it was a 2-0 defeat at Benfica as well in the Champions League. and that was a terrible performance. Are there some kind of question marks about how Conte is running things there? No, I think there's a lot of understanding that they have so many players out injured, be it the goalkeeper from their last two Scudetto-winning teams, Alex Meret. Granted, Vanyam and Ikevich-Savic has done very well in coming in. Yeah, they've been spells without Pongiorno, one of their best defenders, although he's back now.

17:20La Botka came on in the second half, but was clearly not fit. McTominay is having to play deeper to cover for the fact that they have so few options in midfield because Billy Gilmore had surgery recently. Angi Saz hurt and he's going to go to the African Cup of Nations, which is why they're interested in kind of Kobi Mainu. They really need to add some options in midfield. And then, you know, Lukaku's not available. De Bruyne is not available. Right. So I think there's some sympathy for Conte that this is a team that is reduced to its bare bones. And whilst their starting XI still looks good, the fact that their starting XI has kind of been playing every three days and he can't really make any substitutions to change these players, you can see fatigue is becoming a factor and they're suffering because of it.

18:08All right. Does fall into that model of Conte's seasons when he's only got one competition to worry about, does really well, throw in a kind of midweek cup fixtures. Things don't tend to run as smoothly. There are some suggestions that Lukaku will be joining them for the trip to Saudi Arabia, where they'll be very much away from home. In the meantime, anyway, Inter take their turn on top of the table after a 2-1 win away at Genoa. Goals from Jan Bissek and Lautaro Martinez. Milan, meanwhile, who, unlike Inter, are good against the big teams, but not against the little ones, had a result which kind of confirmed that tendency, only drawing 2-2 against Sassuolo.

18:49And indeed, they needed to be rescued in this one by a fine Italian prospect by the name of Davide Bartisaghi. Yeah, Bartisaghi, who's come through the youth ranks at Milan, part of their Milan Futuro team, which was playing in the third division, but they were so bad they got relegated. But he is youth product and has been playing more than, you know, some of the players that they signed in the summer. The fact that he's integrated into that team shows that there's a good environment at Milan at the moment. There's a good culture. Things have been going well enough on the pitch for them to basically take chances on someone like Batizagi.

19:28but this is the flaw in their title charge which is they keep dropping points against teams that are in the bottom half of the table or in Sassuolo's case who are not in the bottom half of the table a promoted team and yeah I mean I think both sides could have won this game late on you know Sassuolo hit the post looked very dangerous and they have a really good forward line Sassuolo of guys who played in Serie A before Loriente Pinamonte who set up both of their goals Pirati has been coming back after this Achilles tour that he suffered a year ago but they're a good side Sassuolo fun to watch Bartasaghi excitingly is the youngest defender to score for Milan at 19 years and 350 days since that guy who he kind of sometimes plays in the same position as he is a left backstroke left wing back yes yeah Paolo Maldini was the other guy was the other so Bartasaghi actually got a brace in this game both Milan goals were for him the second one is beautifully taken yeah the second one is beautifully taken he said the hardest one was the first one where he sort of he ends up at the far post and maybe has not a lot of time to think about it but enough time to overthink it and put it away but but yeah Milan I think very frustrating for them that they being unbeaten in all of the big games in fact winning all of them apart from the one against Juventus where Pulisic missed that penalty and Leal had that late chance, which he missed.

20:58The fact that they keep conceding two goals to teams like Sassuolo is why we've got such an open title. Well, yeah, for all those problems, they remain, what, one point off the top of the table. Two points separate the top three at the moment. And this Monday evening today, as we record, Roma can make it four teams in three points if they beat Como. But just on the subject of Barthasaghi, Bonucci I think was there to watch him in the game against Sassuolo he's been in the under 21s some suggestions that he might be part of Gattuso's party I'm a little bit scratching around for Italian talent so this has been a theme of late the lack of Italian players coming through as such he looks an interesting prospect yeah although I think in his position there are good players Federico Di Marco for example I think Di Marco is a very good player even though he had a nightmare in the Champions League final Cala Fiori you could argue as well yeah although yeah Cala's more of a centre back but I think it was a good week for Rino Gattuso because in addition to Batisagi you had Zaniolo who we mentioned Zaniolo who's now 26 onto his 8th club but seems to have sort of matured in Udine maybe there are fewer distractions when you're living by the Slovenian border in a kind of former barrack town and then Gianluca Scamaka for Atalanta.

22:22Yeah. Scamacca who, you know, two years ago scored, what, 28 goals when Atalanta went all the way and won the Europa League final against Xabi Alonso's by Leverkusen. But Scamacca upstaged by Ademola Lukman in that final, who got the hat-trick. Then had a poor Euros with Italy, came back from that and tore his ACL. But yeah, has had a great week. You know, scored against Chelsea in the win and scored a brace against Cagliari. Including a lovely backheel for the first of the two. Yeah, which I think he says, I got a little bit lucky there. He's trying to get a touch on it. But Atlanta, okay, they lost last week to Verona, but Atlanta look a better team under Palladino than they did under Ivan Juric.

23:06Surprise, surprise. Juric being kind of the La Liga version of, well, the Serie A version of carry on, maybe. Having been sacked three times in the last year and somehow still was getting jobs. but again the fact that Atalanta is still 12th and have as many wins in Serie A as they do in the Champions League where they are 5th I think It's a tougher league Serie A isn't it? It's a much tougher league James No you're absolutely right but Atalanta finally beginning to get things going and finally beginning to sort of score the goals that you see the potential in this team has lots of goals in it still Okay and Raffaele Palladino whose former side Fiorentina is very much...

23:45My God James My God, this is tragic. So they lost again this weekend. They had a game against their fellow bottom two side, Hellas Verona, at home. So this looked like a great opportunity for Fiorentina to finally get their first win of the campaign. Up until the 93rd minute, looked like they would at least get a point, but then they didn't even get that, thanks to Gift Orban. Yeah.

24:16What's the situation now? Because even before this, there was talk of police escorts for them to get to training, that kind of thing. Have they gone into an indefinite training camp now? I'm not sure. I haven't looked into that today. But I mean, if they did, they have got the best training ground in Italy in which to do that, which I think some of the ultras would say they don't deserve right now. But, yeah, this is really spiralling. Every time you think that they're on their way out of this by winning in the Conference League, which they did on Thursday against Dynamo Kiev, they suffer this kind of shattering comedown.

24:50And the new manager, Paolo Vinole, keeps talking about... Who may also be the old manager by the time you hear this. But Vinole keeps basically talking in every press conference and he's no longer doing press conferences anymore. They've basically cancelled them. because he basically says, oh, it's really scary, isn't it? Players are really afraid. There's a lot of fear around here. It's not really the kind of psychology that I think the players need. They need hope. They need optimism. They need telling that, you know, you are better than this position that you're in. They're still winless in the league in mid-December.

25:23I think they've only got six points. I think they're eight adrift of safety. Eight adrift, yeah. This weekend, you had teams like Lecce won. Sorry, Lecce sort of pulling away outside of the relegation zone. Verona, who beat Atalanta last week, have now beaten Fiorentina. They're giving themselves a chance of getting out of this. And so it's not just that Fiorentina at bottom. It's their cut adrift at the bottom. It's remarkable, really. I mean, their owner, Rocco Camiso, who's in New York and hasn't been able to come to Florence because he's been sort of recovering, I think, from surgery on his back.

25:57He sort of had to give an interview with the local newspaper saying, the club's not for sale. These are rumours and that sort of thing. another club that's not for sale, James, is Juventus. Well, there you go. Let's finish off then with a little bit of news about Juventus. The remarkable stories that a company called Tether, a crypto finance, would that be a fair description? They have all of your stable coin, don't they, James? That's where you... Well, they declare themselves, and I get this from your excellent piece on The Athletic about the subject, they declare themselves the world's most trusted stable coin, which is a very much tallest pygmy, hairiest Dutch football manager kind of description.

26:39But what I didn't realise was they already own 11 % of Juventus and have made a bid, supposedly, of 1.1 billion euros for a controlling stake in the club that was always the Agnelli's plaything. What has been the response, James? Their bid was unanimously rejected by the board of the Agnelli family holding company. And then you had the scion of the Agnelli family, John Elkamp, basically come out and release a video saying, you know, our values, our history is not for sale. But it doesn't look like Tether are going away. I mean, you mentioned that they have an 11 % stake already, which they've been buying through the Milan Stock Exchange.

27:22They nominated someone to be on the board of Juventus last month, who's a kind of illustrious dentist, which is kind of weird. And yeah, I mean, you gave your own description of what Tether do. I mean, they're based in El Salvador. Right. But their chairman is from Turin. Their CEO is a Juventus fan. And they are potentially worth 500 billion. When you say potentially. Well, it depends. they're raising money at the moment where they would sell a 2 % or 3 % stake, which if they get the money that I think they want between 15 and 20 million, 15 and 20 billion maybe, it would value the company at 500 billion.

28:07When you say value, I can't help putting air quotes given the kind of nature of the massive crypto bubble that there is right now. But as Seb. I was just going to ask James, when they first bought into the club, what was the response of the supporters? That seems like it would be incredibly affronting. Yeah, I think when they first started sort of building this stake, it was such a small stake that, you know, it popped up, you know, it became a story in sort of Juventus media, if you like. but it wasn't that it was not taken seriously. It's just they've had other smaller minority shareholders in the past, such as Tam Oil, the Libyan state oil company, and things like that, without anyone ever coming in and challenging the Agnellis for ownership.

28:56I think this is the first time the Agnellis' ownership has been challenged by insurgent activists or stake builder in the company. I mean, I wrote in the article that we published on Sunday that it comes at quite an interesting time for the Agnellis who have been sort of selling some of their Italy-based assets. Yeah, they've delisted their holding company from the Milan Stock Exchange. They're based in Amsterdam. And so they're in talks at the moment to sell a couple of their newspapers to a Greek tycoon, which I suppose in Italy has been received a little bit like what was happening with the Telegraph here, where you had Redbird and an Abu Dhabi kind of vehicle basically looking to buy that.

29:40And so that's created a lot of talk in Italian Parliament. So there was this feeling where if they're willing to sell these assets, are they therefore willing to sell Juventus? Which John Elkhan, the Yannilli family, the head of the family says no. Right, which I think most people will regard as comforting news, but even more comforting if perhaps the Agnellis became a little bit more hands-on, given what a good job they used to do. Yeah, well, I mean, that is the big criticism, is that Andrea Agnelli was a good chairman for Juventus. Some suggestions he might be, no, moving towards a return. I think that's very, very challenging, James.

30:18Is it? Okay. All right, then. Anyway, that's the situation with Juve a firm no to Tether. Up next, how's about we head off to the Bundesliga?

30:36This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. Buenos Aires everybody with a quick stop in Amsterdam. Amsterdam on Sunday night. New home of the annualies. Yeah, indeed. Amsterdam on Sunday night saw the 200th Classic Derby between Ajax and Robin van Persie's Feyenoord in a partially closed Johan Cruyff Arena. That's on account of all those fireworks that you may have seen in a recent Ajax game against Heerlen Venn, which that game got abandoned because of the excessive pyrotechnics.

31:18Anyway, in front of some fans, Ajax triumphed 2-0. So that's quite the week they had, because they had that extraordinary win 4-2 away at Carabaug in the Champions League, a side who previously hadn't picked up a single point in the competition. Goals on this case from 32-year-old Davy Klaassen and 17-year-old Jordi Mocchio, who had a great strike in the 94th minute. There you go. And there is still the 2-0 of Jordi Mocchio. It is the cash on the table. In a wedstrijd, the Ajax... Anyway, that's four straight wins now, actually, for Ajax. Well done to them. Feyenoord have now lost seven of their last ten in all competitions.

32:01They are still second, nine points. Brian Piers is at the top of the table. Ajax in third place, five points behind the side they've just beaten. Anyway, that's the Eredivisie. Seb, off to the Bundesliga. And here's some big news for you. Bayern their 8 point lead is no more after they got held to a draw by bottom of the table Mainz instead their lead has come oh no it's gone up their lead has gone up to 9 points Seb what's going on there? ok ok we'll start with Bayern this was fun this was welcome back there's Fischer the man who made Union Berlin Union Berlin the man who took Union Berlin from the Zvidebunds League to the Champions League amazing he's in at Mainz now replaced by Henrikson and this was his first Bundesliga game in charge and off to the Allianz Arena which I think many thought was well it's going to be a fact finding mission right probably not going to get anything let's see if we can take some positives but they got a point and I'm not sure whether they deserved it XG 4.5 to 0.6 minus with 16 % possession but you could argue it's the classic Fischer result because the characteristic of his Union Berlin team were to be very very comfortable without the ball defend their box very very well defend narrow and break effectively and they did exactly that then at kyle gave by on the lead 1-0 uh 1-1 through a set piece 2-1 to mines just before half time really really nice bit of direct football and then just before the end what's that contentious harry kane penalty but i think it probably just about is a penalty because you can see a bit of a shirt grab but then 2-2 and um yeah good moment for fisher i think what you've always seen with his teams is this ability to be very very efficient with the chances that they get he's an xg busting coach traditionally and if you look at the forwards who've prospered with him guys like uh taiwa ayoni and sheraldo becker for instance they've always outperformed xg and they've always managed to do great things on the break great things with the chances they get and uh yeah if mines can get in a few bodies during the january transfer window restock a little bit makes it a little bit more dangerous a little bit more solid without the ball then um they have a good chance for avoiding relegation they interestingly they host St.

34:18Pauli next weekend uh which is going to be 18th against 16th in the Bundesliga so that's a really really big game and um the draw with Bayern obviously is a huge moment for the side's confidence so so good news for them heading into that St. Pauli game they're currently four points behind St. Pauli who are in the relegation playoff spot actual safety will be represented by 15th currently held by Augsburg, who are fully six points head of Mainz. So there's some work to do there. Meanwhile, the side that was closest to Bayern going into the weekend, Leipzig, went to Union Berlin, who'd lost three straight games and managed to lose Leipzig 3-1.

34:58Yeah, strange night, strange night, because the previous week Leipzig had been brilliant, maybe given one of the best performances of the last few years in beating Eintracht Frankfurt 6-0. They were absolutely excellent. And after that Eintracht game, they lost Antonio Nusa to injury. He's going to be out until the end of the year. And he's been great. He's been such an important part of their attack. He's been such an important part of keeping defensive attention away from Yandy and Mande and Johan Bakayoku. So it didn't quite work as well. And Union played very, very well. It's a great goal in there from Oli Burke.

35:29Really, really nice finish on his left foot. Very, very well taken goal. And Union were good value for their win. and then on Sunday with the opportunity to leapfrog Leipzig and go into second Brissie Dortmund couldn't hold on they took the lead against Freiburg we talked about that a little bit and Joe Bellingham got sold short by Gregor Coble back pass got red carded by Felix Weier who people remember was the target of Jude Bellingham's rant back in December 2021 well you know what he was the target of something on Thursday morning from the Gazette de la Sport actually because he was the referee at the Inter-Liverpool game at San Siro.

36:06Shocking. You were shocked by the refereeing or by the Gazeta? Oh, no, I was shocked by the refereeing. Oh, right. Yeah. Why? What did Gazeta say? I don't read the Ben Acairo thing. Zwaya, first of all, disallowed the Liverpool goal, and probably correct me for the handball and the build-up, although a lot of people felt that shouldn't have been, but then gave a penalty against Inter in the dying minutes for a shirt tug by, I think it was Bastogne, wasn't it? It's only on Florian Wurtz. Which was a kind of fairly negligible shirt tag, although you could clearly see he had the shirt in his hand and he pulled it.

36:40Yeah, and then Florian went down about two seconds after the shirt had been released. The suggestion was made on the Totally Show following that that maybe the referee should have given the penalty and booked Wurtz for diving, which would have been a fair summary of events. That was on Tuesday night. And then on Thursday, Gazeta goes with Inter, the rage grows. And the sub-headline is money, penalties and disqualifications. The shadows over this referee who 20 years ago was suspended as part of that Bundesliga refereeing betting scandal. Yeah, but match-fixing scandal in 2005, which centred around Robert Huyser, who was banned for life.

37:23But yeah, he was mixed up in it. And this is what happens when that comes to life. That wasn't known for quite a long time after the fact. But then any time Zvair is caught up in any controversy, it comes up. And Bellingham, of course, mentioned it live on Sky Deutschland after that game against Bayern Munich in 2021. And yeah, I would say the decision to send off Job was absolutely correct. He put a spot on. But I think Zvair rubs a lot of people the wrong way. He's quite vicious. He can be a bit haughty in his refereeing style. So it's not a surprise. And a bit naughty as well. And a little bit naughty.

38:00Right, Seb. Oh, what about the Cologne derby? Yeah, Cologne, very, very quietly, they've fallen into a little bit of trouble. I haven't won in five games now. Kwasnjok, not under pressure, of course, because he's done a wonderful job there, but I'm starting to get a little bit nervy because that middle of the Bundesliga is pretty congested and it doesn't take much to both, you know, put a few wins to get out of trouble, a few defeats to fall into it. And they're well beaten. They're well beaten. Not a game that will live long in memory beyond what we'll call Martin Terrier's scorpion kick, his scuffed scorpion kick.

38:33It is to scorpion kicks what that Wayne Rooney bicycle kick was to bicycle kick all those years ago. Great imagination and a great moment for Martin Terrier because his Leverkusen career has been really, really difficult. It's a very serious injury right at the beginning of his first season. Missed almost all of the campaign, which would have been his last under Jabby Alonso. So great to see him have a moment like that because he's still a very, very good player. And I'm sure if Jules was still here, he would go off in a nice Martin Terrier monologue. Is he from Paris? It doesn't smell good for Cologne.

39:06Oh, thanks. Here we go.

39:11We'll clip that one up for your montage, Paul.

39:17Please don't. I have a story from lower down the table, though. So on Saturday, St. Pauli beat Heidenheim to move from 17th to 16th and leapfrog Heidenheim. And their two goals were scored by Martin Kars. Those are his first two Bundesliga goals of the season. And he was a summer signing from Magdeburg back in the summer of 2025. And one of my favorite transfer winner anecdotes. So basically, Magdeburg's round kind of the last week of August. and Magdeburg's under 23 team were playing a like a friendly their sporting director went along and as usual with under 23 games you get like a gaggle of fans who go along to watch and you know support the team unfortunately for Magdeburg's sporting director he took his laptop along with him and he'd recently received the email transfer offer for for Martin Kars from St.

40:10Pauli and he'd opened it and the transfer offer was was kind of attached to a pdf he left it open and one of these fans walked past his laptop, saw the email open, took a picture of it, which is, as you'd say, it's the subject title is Transfer Offer Martin Cars. Right. It found its way into a Magdeburg fan forum. And then from there into the national media. And that's how that transfer story broke. Wow. So look out, David Ornstein. They were selling cars like Colo Torre. he was um he was he was pretty upset afterwards because obviously um he said it's a massive invasion of my privacy and he's right but also the papers who who published the photograph published all the uh the email addresses within it too because there's about four pretty important people on the email um andres bornerman the the simpauly sporting director so it was kind of a very very strange episode but it really was as simple as someone walking past picture of the laptop screen out onto the forum.

41:09Here comes a transfer story. Wow. But first two goals in the Bundesliga and two good ones. The first one was absolutely excellent. Right. Was it a drive? No, no, no. But he did for the second one drive towards goal over 60 yards. Okay. Yeah. But really nice goal. Look it up. Very, very nice first goal. Is he good on corners? He can hold his own. Right. Good. Anyway, that's the Bundesliga. Park that conversation now. What's that? Park that, yeah. A bumper performance from Cars next weekend. Not sure who he's up against, but Dortmund have got Gladbach. How did Gladbach get on very briefly, Seb? They got badly, badly done by Wolfsburg.

41:54Oh, did they? 3-1 at home, which is, off their revival, a real shock result. Right. Yeah, not good at all. Okay, well, they're going to be away at the Signal Iduna next weekend. Then Leipzig face Leverkusen, which is a big one. And Heidenheim are up against Bayern. Is that the last round before Christmas, Seb? Yeah, and then Winterpalser. Winterpalser. Actually, interestingly, they come off that. We started by talking about Usses Fischer. So the first game back for Mainz after Winterpalser will be him going back to Union Berlin, back to Koepernik. Fun, fun, fun, fun. He'll get a great reception.

42:25Right. Mainz pies. Nice. Anyway, La Liga is on the way.

42:38You'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. Ligue 1, everybody. I know I said Ligue 1, but first Ligue 1, where as it stands, Lens stay top going into Christmas because they've already had their last round of the year. they've got the Coupe de France next week who's playing who in the Coupe de France James I'm glad you asked PSG are away at 5th tier Vendée Fontenay foot there's some great names in French football Marseille are at Borg Perronas which may or may not be pronounced Borg Perronas Lens who are top of Ligue 1 host 4th tier Feignes yes Lens under Piersage stone wise beat Nice 2-0 with a brace from Odds on Edouard.

43:32Nice, you'll observe, losing yet another game. That's now nine straight games they've been defeated in across all competitions. The longest losing streak in the club's history. They're also bottom of the Europa League. They're in a world of trouble. PSG, meanwhile, who continue to see the injuries mount up, were able to win 3-2 at Mets. Thanks to Desiree Dewey, who has finally come back and got the winner for them. Marseille beat Monaco to notch up their fourth straight victory. Mason Greenwood again. So it's a point ahead of PSG and four points back from the Parisians. It is Marseille. Did Paul Pogba play in the Marseille-Monaco game, James?

44:17No, he did not. He picked up a very minor knee injury while warming up midweek for Monaco's 1-0 win over Galatasaray in the Champions League. So he was out of the squad. There you go. All right then, Paul. I see on El Chiringuito. Oh, you'll love that. Tic-tac, tic-tac. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the Saudi crown prince is definitely making an offer to buy Barcelona for 10 billion euros. Good luck to him, I'd say. Yeah. Basically because he cannot buy Barcelona. Can't buy it. All right. Yeah. All right. It was a story that made a lot of headlines and at the end of each report there was, yeah, but he can't actually do this because it's owned by the members.

44:54Exactly. I mean, for the ownership model, I mean, I guess it was a good headline, but yeah. It just cannot go through. Okay, let's talk about some real things then. Is there any way that PIF or the Saudis can invest in Barcelona? Yes, yes, I know this one because I read the articles. Go for it. All right, so Barcelona have an entertainment wing? Sort of, yeah. Well, at least they have a side of their business which is classified as their entertainment business. It's the same for Real Madrid and probably Atletico too, for all I know. And there is a way that they can hive off that side of the business, which I guess encompasses TV rights, that kind of thing, various marketing departments, some things.

45:35In a way, it's the department that Barca just sold to do all the levers, these sort of things. Right. That was one of the things. So in a way, it gives you influence inside the club. But when it comes to make decisions, there's no practical power. Okay. Anyway, let's talk about some real things then in La Liga. Barcelona stay top after beating Osasuna 2-0 at the weekend with a brace from Rafinha. And Xavi Alonso stays Real Madrid manager after their nervy 2-1 win at Alaves. Tell us about this game and indeed Xavi's remarkable reaction to the winning goal. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was the game of the weekend.

46:20It was all set up in Spain for all the attention to be like on Sunday night at Alaves Stadium. One of the best stadiums, by the way, in La Liga, if you plan for a trip in Spain towards La Liga again, go to Mendizor Roza. Great name too. But yeah, no, it was basically, I think that Real Madrid were like a bit nervy. You could tell it by the way that they played. It was a deserved victory in the end, in my opinion. Kylian Mbappe scored the first goal and then Real Madrid like slowed down a little bit. And in the only practical, in the only shot in target that Alaves had, they equalized in a goal that left like a really nice sequence, like in the Spanish television.

46:58Because like Alaves scored, the goal was disallowed because of BAR. And then BAR took a look at it. And while the referee was revisiting it, there was this frame on the television with the Alaves manager in one side and with Xavi Alonso on the other side, seeing what was about to come. and when basically the referee heard from the earphone basically that the player was on site, that Carlos Vicente was on site on that goal, you could see from the face of Xavi Lonzo me cago en su puta madre, which we're going to bleep now. Sorry, listener, about that. He sort of covered his mouth. It's quite a common insult here, or like an innuendo here in Spain.

47:39Is it your favourite insult, Paul, or have you got other insults that you... What's your go-to insult? What's your reflexive one? Say someone cuts you off. It doesn't seem like a good idea to wear you. Yeah, no, I think that the camp of like on things, it's one that I work on a lot. Yeah, let's not. Okay. That's your favourite stadium to go to then, is it, Paul? That's one of my favourite stadium to go like in Spain. Plus it's a great city to go. It's quite small and the city centre is really nice. You eat amazingly. Amazing. Nandos? No, pinchos. Well, like a chiqui pincho, yeah, a chiqui pincho.

48:20Chiqui pincho, excellent. Can I say, and maybe we can get Seb on this as well, at the moment I would recommend if people are going to Italy, they should go to Marassi. All right. Genoa, this last season, the crowds, I mean, they're always good. Right. This season in particular, even though the team has had sort of ups and downs, they didn't win at home in the league until the end of November, But, I mean, they had incredible kind of choreography before the Inter game. Inter's coach, Christian Kibu, like, sort of complimented on it. And they played Frank Sinatra's My Way because Sinatra was a Genoa fan.

48:56Was he? Was Sinatra a Genoa fan? Yeah. Also, it's a lovely part of the world. It is. You've got the Ligurian Riviera. Yeah. All those lovely towns. But it's, yeah, I mean, it's stunned me this season. Like, you know, even with the travails of their owners and that sort of thing. the fans have been magnificent at Genoa so I would recommend there you go, Seb yeah I'll say the Altaforster Eye, Union Berlin's ground just because it has that really old fashioned English quality like you walk through East Berlin through the forest to get there there are gaps between the corners there's always versed cooking outside, it's just you've got to I thought that was Florian Wurtz no no no you're really close to the pitch and it's really really loud like sort of face meltingly loud and right good ultras good tifos good pyro's got a lot of things going for it which is a shame because actually they're about to um they're about to build an extra tier on top of it in the coming years so it's going to change soon oh well maybe it'll get even better seb you never know a lot of a lot of changes bring make things better in football i need to you know shorter like yeah um but they don't have the sausage train though that'sst paul isn't it yeah well you you you do bring this up every time some party i'm obsessed by the idea of there being a sausage train in a in a stadium and the fact that every stadium doesn't have one i don't get that at all anyway sorry we were talking about alavis alavis anyway so a real madrid a lot of pressure a lot of interest in this game after their defeat to man city and that run of what was it two wins in eight so when rodrigo finally made it to one xavi alonso i think for the first time really showed how heavy things had been sitting on him.

50:53Absolutely, absolutely. The way he's celebrated, like running all over the sidelines and just screaming. Yeah, it basically explains the whole situation and how he's living through the pressure that has been thrown here at Real Madrid. He saved the match, but I think that the tension still remains. There are like two games for Real Madrid this week won Copa del Rey, March midweek, and then a game on the weekend against Sevilla, which is the last game of the year in La Liga. And those are match balls as well. So basically he needs to win them. If not, there's the general consensus that he's going to get sacked.

51:28The feeling is that Xavi Alonso has tried to get closer to the players by fielding more sort of diplomatic lineups. Not that last night he had a lot to choose from because there were a lot of injured players and suspended players. But looking at the Champions League and everything, all the big guys, all the big names are playing now. I think that the last time that all Mbappe, Vinicius, Bellingham and Rodrigo played together, Real Madrid lost against Arsenal. So just to tell you a bit like how the story goes at Real Madrid. So yeah, let's see how it goes. Big credit to Xavi Alonso in a way to recover Rodrigo from a horrible spell of form because Rodrigo played a great game against Man City.

52:10He was really good against Alavesa as well as scoring the winner, as you James said. But yeah, let's see what happens. There's now the name of Álvaro Arbeloa hanging around as the potential replacement if Xavi Alonso needs to be replaced at some point. Is he currently with Real Madrid's B team? Yeah, he is with the B team and he's really close, really favoured by the current board at Real Madrid. And like, funnily enough, he's really good mate with Xavi Alonso as well, which I don't know if that will remain if he replaces him. I don't have any idea of that. But yeah, they are really close since Mourinho that is at the club.

52:47And now he's at the V team allegedly after being really close to Florentino Pérez and to all the board at Real Madrid. I love Biloua. From Liverpool as well, no? Yeah, exactly. Maybe if Slott were to go. No one's mentioned Biloua. You never know. Paul, is there a reason to is he held in high regard in the coaching sense? I don't think that the coaching sense is the reason why his name is being thrown out in the discussion Fair enough, Paul No, I mean I think that the picture that is being seen about him is that he's more like a figure that could be consensual for all the turbulences that are going around Real Madrid But yeah, he was a manager of the under-19s.

53:36He's been promoted to the B team this season. He has a great team with the B team. And yeah, let's see if he is required to step up to the big ones. Funnily enough, Xavi Alonso's press conferences has been quite hostile over the past few weeks. He was asked last week if he thought that Álvaro Arbeloa could be a good first team manager. I'm not surprised he's hostile then. And Xavi Alonso was like, wow, what's that? And I can remember like... That's incredible. And I remember, I think it was the following week that he was asked, well, Xabi, you are going through a tough situation here at the drum read.

54:11What is tougher, to escape from all this pressure or to escape from the tax authorities like you did in Spain? You're kidding. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, that's absolutely true. Are these questions being asked by our two Madrid guys, Mario Cortagana, Santos and Guillermo? No, no, no, one of them, one of them, I don't know if I should single out, but one of them was asked by the El Chiringuito journalist, by one of the journalists. How far they have fallen. Yeah. Anyway, there you go. El Chiringuito. What actually is it? I see the clips, of course. What is its place in the kind of the TV sphere in Spain?

54:47Yeah, so that's a really late, late night program. Okay. I'd say it's quite influential in the terms of, yeah, the base fan base of like Real Madrid, because of the amount of shouting and opinions and everything that are being thrown in there, which is something that Spanish fans in a way appreciate when they go at sports programs. But then they're quite political as well. I would say that in the realm of the spectrum, they are located closer to Florentino Pérez, which is easy to read that, given that Florentino went there just to present the Super League project and all this sort of stuff. but there's like even Ramadid players who are close to some reporters in there because they feel that they have the impact to influence over the opinions on fans and everything Have you ever been on El Chiringuito?

55:40No, I've not had the look I think that at one occasion they asked me to go on the show but I couldn't do it If you go to Malaga and go along the seafront there there's a succession of very informal, very nice restaurants that all describe themselves as chiringuitos. What does the word actually means that it can apply to both? Yeah, no, so basically a chiringuito is a space, it's like a bar next to the beach where you just have a good time and you just chat a bit loudly, just having a good time with your friends, enjoying the beers and everything. And I guess that what they wanted to transpire with the name of the program.

56:14A TV show in Madrid, yeah. I think, you know, it's like que aquella bar. So I suppose people in England go down the pub to talk football. in Italy you go down to the bar spot or you'd go for your morning coffee and your cornetto and in Spain you go to El Chiringuito when it's summer you go to the beach and you have a beer at El Chiringuito and have a good laugh with your friends or not friends who are in there that's why Paul's always late for this show he's coming back from the Chiringuito on a beach let's wrap up the Liga chat then with one or two more things, so you'll be free to do whatever you fancy, Paul.

56:57Villarreal are not far behind, only four points behind Real Madrid in third place. Villarreal actually with two games in hand because their match this weekend was postponed after a torrential rain warning. They'll be hosting Barcelona-Villarreal just before the break for Christmas, so that's going to be an interesting game. Behind them in fourth spot, it is Atletico Madrid who beat Valencia 2-1. Valencia dropping down into the relegation spots, or just outside the relegation spots, on goal difference alone. As a result, Antoine Griezmann scoring in that game. That's his fifth goal off the bench for Atletic this season.

57:35He's the highest scoring substitute in any of the top five European leagues. And in fifth spot, just a quick mention for Espanyol, who you were flagging up, Paul, the amazing season they've been having. They won at Getafe this weekend. That's now four victories in a row. they've equaled their best ever start to a season of Espanyol. Yep, they're four points away of Atletico Madrid with one game in hand. Wow. Which is going to be handy for them. And then the first game in the new year is the Barcelona derby. It's Espanyol against Barcelona, which is going to be a mad, mad game because of Joan Garcia, the Barcelona goalkeeper who went from Espanyol to Barcelona.

58:14There's rumours in the city that Espanyol fans are starting to prepare the way that they protest or that they create like a tense atmosphere regarding to Joan Garcia. It's going to be the main... That's the talk down the Chenanguito, is it? Yeah. Surely. Surely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're going to prepare... Is it at the Camp Nou? No, it's at Cornellà. It's at the RCVE Stadium. Romantic. I don't know the sponsor now at the name of the stadium, but yeah. It's at the Spaniel's Ground, basically. Okay. So it's going to be hostile and it's going to be tense. Let's see what happens. But yeah, it's going to be a big one.

58:51So a four-point lead for Barcelona, but two big away games awaiting them in La Liga with Villarreal this weekend. And then after Christmas, that trip to Espanyol. Can I ask Paul, when was the last time an Espanyol player went from Espanyol to Barcelona before Joan Garcia? I reported it when Joan Garcia was transferred to Barcelona. I think it was when Johan Cruyff was a manager. Wow That's a while Yeah But I don't remember The name now So kind of Early mid 90s Yeah it was in the 90s Yeah yeah yeah Alright Paul It's been a while anyway We'll leave it at that Didn't Didn't even De La Pena Play for Espanyol Yeah yeah yeah But he went to Lazio Yeah He is actually a legend At Espanyol More than at Barcelona But he went to Espanyol After Barcelona Okay Actually one of the things That I wanted to Now that we're here And I wanted to accept about it Is about Ter Stegen Because there's a bit of a situation in Barcelona with Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.

59:46He is back fit. He could play. Basically, Barcelona would like to upload him, to sell him, to loan him out in any sort of way. There's, of course, the talk that if he's fit and he has some game time, he could be the starting goalkeeper in the World Cup for Germany. He has not started in any World Cup in his life because of Manuel Neuer. Barcelona were hoping that this will push him out to fine for minutes elsewhere. But Ter Stegen's come, they didn't seem too excited about like forgiving money of their current deal. And he could leave on loan or like transfer, but he doesn't want to lose any money.

1:00:23I wanted to ask Seb like the vision in Germany, like, is it realistic to see Ter Stegen making it to the World Cup squad and be the starting goalkeeper in the United States or it's more of a difficult position for him, even if he lives? Yeah, it's a really good question. And actually, ironically, given the role Neuer has played in his career, the conversation about whether Ter Stegen might come back has been overshadowed by whether Neuer might come out of retirement. Obviously, at the moment, Oliver Baumann from Hoffenheim, he's the first choice. And I suspect the Neuer thing will rumble into the new year.

1:00:59But until Ter Stegen plays, I mean, if he's playing for a top-level club, then yeah, he would be the starting goalkeeper at the World Cup. But until he actually does, until he's seen on the pitch, then he's kind of out of sight and out of mind, Paul, really. OK, I don't think that he will play at Barcelona because they want him out of the club. It's a shame because there's no obvious landing spot for him in the Bundesliga either. It's not at Bayern, not at Dortmund, not at Stuttgart, where Alex Neubel is, of course, another name from the German goalkeeping conundrum. Leverkusen is unlikely, even though he would make them better.

1:01:33I can't really see that working. so it's really hard to see his route back into contention unless he were to go to England or something Spurs there you go Paul thank you so much for that it's been a pleasure well hopefully we're going to see you all next Monday for our final Euro show of the year down the Chiringuito down the Chiringuito kind of digital kind of virtual Chiringuito here An atmospheric Charing Keto. I mean, I can try to. It's spirit, right? Like, it's in the back. It's friendly. Everyone has a bit of fun. Yeah. So nice. It could be at the Charing Keto. Well, many, many thanks then, Seb and Paul and James and producer Lucy to our absent friend there in the empty chair.

1:02:20It's a tiny Tim sort of thing. Yeah. I see a crutch without an owner. And you there, listener. I do hope you'll join us again next week and enjoy the Totally Show. In the meantime, for now, from all of us here, it's goodbye you'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 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

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