Barca, Bayern and Inter top the tree + Fiorentina finally win!

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0:10Totally Foubleshow European edition Today Spain Another round of Obman out at Real And Yamal Called out for being Immature By a 10 year old France Guadeloupe In the coup And Brest Get buried by an avarange Syria Florence and Arabia With the Saudi Super Cup And a renaissance For the Florentines And Germany Rock the Caspar I'm only human by Leverkusen continuing their comeback as they take down Leipzig. It's all in the Totally Football Show.

0:44Monday, the 22nd of December, listener. Not long to go now. Not many sleeps left until our special Totally Extra Christmas edition, which will be with you Saturday morning. I'm not going to sleep Friday night, I can tell you that. a Santa pod you might call it anyway that's out on Saturday but perhaps even more exciting we've got our last Totally Football Show European edition of the year right now here with me in the Totally studio is James Horncastle hello James by accident and in Barcelona we've got Paul Belus hello hello how are you hi Paul and in Hamburg Seb Stafford Bloor hey Jimbo happy Christmas Oh, thank you so much, Seb.

1:31Thank you. Hi, to producer Lucy, who's not here. She's in the Lake District. And this was going to be a remote one. Listen, I forgot to... Be remote. Yeah, in a sense. You just couldn't stay away from the studio, James. I literally could not stay away. Neither, I see, did you, James. No. It's almost like when you all say goodbye and then you kind of wander back in. Oh, you here. Yeah. Anyway, Vinta Pals, Sosta Natalizia. What do they call it in Spain? when everyone does one for the holidays? Wow. When people break for Christmas, what do they call it? Like the Christmas holidays. Happy holidays.

2:13Christmas holidays. Yeah, okay, but it doesn't matter. Let's now move on. No, what I mean is, so in Italy they call it the Sosta, the break, Natalizia, the Christmas break. And in Germany they call it the Vinterpausa. in Spain they famously don't take breaks well we do take breaks it's the fiestas de navidad ok nice excellent well call it what you want but the continental leagues are mostly going to take Christmas off so today we're really checking on the final weekend's worth of action all over the place going to get some moments of the weekend if you will Paul why don't you lead us off I'm going to go to Elche Elche 1 for Neil again Rayo Vallecano Elche, one of the revelations of La Liga this season.

3:01But the thing I wanted to highlight is that Héctor Ford, a Barcelona who is at Elche, he scored the first goal of the game. One of the best goals in the weekend in Spain, just if you can go and watch it. In the sixth minute of the game he did a step over on the ball, run past to one player and then with the back heel he did another dribble, went past another player and then just smashed the ball into the net, like a brilliant goal.

3:38It was in the sixth minute of the game. In the celebration of this goal, he got injured. He got his shoulder sort of dislocated, so he had to be soft off, basically. And, yeah, he played sixth minute of the game, but after the match, he was crowned as the MVP of the game. So just by playing sixth minute of that game, It was enough for La Liga and all the broadcasting just to label him as the MVP of the game. And just as a gesture to Jules on this moment of the week that I just chose, I wanted to highlight how a six-minute cameo can just crown you as the man of the match. Is this because you're going to make a very short cameo on this show before your doctor's appointment?

4:20Oh, yeah. It's not going to be like a six-minute cameo, but it's going to be close to that. All right. Everything well? I'll go, I'll go. Yeah, just like... Oh, excellent. Yeah, that little thing. Nice to have a checkup at Christmas time, I always think. Seb, what's your moment of the week? My moment of the week, Jibo, is Lucas Kwasniok's Christmas jumper. Hey! Kwasniok is... And I'm not a Christmas jumper guy, so it takes quite a lot to impress me. I'm surprised. If anyone was going to be into seasonal knitwear, I would have had you, Seb. No, I know, but I'm just not. It's maybe a little bit of a contrarian streak.

4:54but for clones game against union Berlin on Saturday Krasnok is the FC colon manager turns up and he's got an enormous Hennes the billy goat Christmas jumper so it's Hennes with a nice mane also a massive Christmas hat all in the same jumper it's really really well done this is Hennes 9 so obviously for people who don't know this is a tradition that goes back to 1950 and this is the ninth Hennes who is um they've cloned Hennes now isn't this no they don't use clone he's a Hennis 9, I think, is a descendant of Hennis 8. But very good jumper. Very, very good jumper. If you can find that, have a look.

5:33That was good. Oh, it's the same club, no? It is the same club, yeah. If anyone should have cloned their goat, it should be a club called Cologne. All I can see, because I can't see James, I can just see you chuckling. Oh, can you not? I can just see you chuckling by yourself as if nobody else is laughing. It's just you. Yeah. Yeah, that's about it, isn't it? James, your moment of the week. I liked Lazio's owner's son, Enrico Lottito. He rang the bell at the NASDAQ in New York. It was a Lazio delegation there. And sort of saying, here we are, sort of attracting investment or sort of commercial interest, business, this sort of thing.

6:16There's a club that's kind of currently under transfer embargo. sort of not complying with Cydia's own equivalent of PSR, but sort of very much like, I wouldn't say performatively kind of saying, look, you know, here we are in the corridors of financial power, ringing bells and sort of talking about business and commerce. And it's like, yeah, you hired Maurizio Sarri and then told him we can't sign anybody. So, you know, it's a classic Cydia. How long have they got left on their transfer embargo? So I think their accounts are being studied as we speak to see if they can lift this embargo for the January transfer window.

6:52Right. We can have a lot of transfer talk, I hope, in the course of today's show. And in view of your upcoming medical poll, let's get straight into La Liga. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. El record de más goles en una temporada. Ahí va! Quilene Mappé se frena. Quilene Mappé golpea.

7:22That's the sound of a big win for Xavi Alonso to finish off. What's been an intriguing first part of the season at Real Madrid. 2-0, they beat Sevilla Saturday evening. Xavi Alonso, Paul Gang with another incredibly attacking line-up. Mbappé, Bellingham and Rodrigo starting. And Vinicius too. One of those guys didn't get involved in the goals though. Exactly. Well, Bellingham scored the first one. Mbappe scored the second one. Rodrigo assisted the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then a penalty as well. But yeah, basically, I think that none of those performances have been great from Real Madrid. I don't think that a lot of things have been cleared of all the noise that was surrounding the team and the club.

8:08In a way, Xavi Alonso can keep with his job, can keep going. But everything is sort of gathering. All the momentum is looking towards it. in January when there's a Spanish Super Cup in there. It's the first trophy of the season. And in a way, it's going to be a sort of decider for Xavi Alonso and for everyone involved in there. If he managed to win that competition, which potentially he's going to face Barcelona in a potential final if they both win the semifinals, this is going to be like a make or break for Xavi Alonso, who now, on Christmas, is going to go to the Parón por las fiestas de Navidad with a job, basically, which was the target.

8:43Jude Belliam with the first goal. and Kylian Mbappe scoring the second from the penalty spot, which saw him equal. Cristiano Ronaldo's record for most goals for Real Madrid in a calendar year. 59 goals for both of them. Cristiano's was back in 2013, heated his in 50 matches. Mbappe has taken a whopping 61. I know that both players would want us to point out that Leo Messi in 2012 scored 78 goals in that calendar year in 60 matches. But hey, pretty good stuff from Kylian Mbappe. Really, really good stuff. I don't know if you saw the celebration of the goal. He did the Sioux sort of thing. So that was a nice touch.

9:23And after the game, he had nice words to Cristiano Ronaldo, saying that he was his idol, that he wanted to embrace the challenge of being a Ramon Diedlaysian as well, and that it was a target that he had set for himself, looking at the goal-scoring record that he had been enduring. I think that the Copa del Rey fixture midweek, where he scored a couple of goals, was helpful as well for him. So yeah, happy days for Kylian Mbappe, I guess, because that's what's about that dramaturge, like all the individuals having their awards and all the players having good days. Odd man out in all of this is Vinicius, who was getting whistled.

9:56He was wearing the captain's armband from the start of the game, got subbed off late for more whistles. What's the issue now? So basically, the issue with Vinicius is that the Bernabeu has somehow seen the inside battle between Xavi Alonso and the club as a battle between Xavi Alonso and the players. and Benicio is sort of pictured as the group of players that is against Chagallonso. So there's a section in the Bernabeu that whenever he's souped off, they just boo Benicio because they want to show support to the manager and in this battle just to show support to the other side of the story. And in a way, Benicio is being pictured on that.

10:33We all have to say as well that Benicio was not happy with that substitution. Not with the substitution, but with the booing and everything to the point that he deleted from his social media all the profiles like the profile picture he was wearing a madrid shirt he took it off and now he's wearing a brazil shirt in the profile picture of his instagram account and then he posted the picture as well with a cryptic message on the caption which was in a way like reference to the boos and the whistles that he suffered at the bergbeu what did he say it was like the three dots like etc i don't know how to say them in english ellipsis it's also like a kind of symbol of a pending standby.

11:13Yeah, sort of, sort of. So he basically said that. And yeah, in Spain, all these sort of things are taken like with huge emotion. So that's how the things are right now at Real Madrid. Paul, how do you think this ends with Vinicius and Real Madrid? I think that my opinion, I don't see a long-term future with Xavi Alonso because I don't think that Real Madrid and the players, they have not performed in a way that they want to clear all that out with Xavi Alonso. and with Benicius, let's see because if Xavi Alonso leaves at some point a new chapter is going to start for him and let's see the new manager, how he settles in and all this sort of stuff but if that's not fixed I think that the only way I see him is leaving the club at some point because I think that inside Real Madrid people prefer Mbappe to be the go-to man so yeah, let's see how it unfolds but now it's a bit of an uncertain territory until the Xavi Alonso thing basically ends one way or the other.

12:12Are there any imminent departures? Hendricks on his way to Lyon, yes? Anyone else who you think might be heading out in January? Or in? No, right now the plan is only Hendricks for Real Madrid. They are not in a position just to offload a lot of players because, of course, all the injury struggles that they have been enduring all this season. So yeah, Hendricks is the only one that is expected to live. Okay. Real Madrid stay four points behind Barcelona, who beat Villarreal on Sunday afternoon. 2-0. That's their eighth victory in the league in a row. And they were helped by the fact that Renato Vega got sent off after 39 minutes for a rash challenge on Lamin-Yamal.

12:51Not the only challenge on Lamin-Yamal that was making the headlines this week in Spain. Paul? You are referring to this video of a player in a youth tournament, the Tic Tac Cup, a player from San Andreu, which is a district in Barcelona. Yeah, he was interviewed after a game and yeah, basically he said that he was not happy at Barcelona because they released him when he was seven and he was angry at Barcelona and that he doesn't really like Lamin-Yemal either because he behaves like he's messy and he's only 18. All this, yeah, this video, this sort of footage has been quite viral here in Spain.

13:26Yeah, there's a touch of the Roy Keane's about the way that he says Lamin-Yemal, he's a great player, but he's acting like he's messy and he's only 18. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not sure why Barcelona let me go, but when I grow up, I'm going to find out. I'm going to find out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's been a bit of a debate here in Spain as well, because there's a lot of clips of kids being interviewed in the same tournament. And it's like, should we be doing this? As in feeling narrative with kids and everything. So there's this sort of debate as well. But this clip has gone viral and everyone's talking about it.

13:57Nico Garrido is the name. Is he a particularly good player for San André? I mean, he's a good player for San André. San André is a good team in Barcelona. It's like just a step below possibly Barcelona and the Espanyol and these sort of things. But he's a good defender for San Andreu. Let's see what the future holds for him. Right, well, let's indeed. OK, the future holds for La Liga, a Monday night clash between Athletic Club and Espanyol. When the Liga returns after Christmas, you've got Espanyol against Barcelona in another meaty Catalan clash, while Real Madrid take on Betis, who this weekend beat Getafe 4-0.

14:38Woof. Yeah, I think that the Catalan derby is going to be a massive one. It's going to be a massive one because the Espanyol fans are really relishing for this game. It's going to be the return of Joan Garcia, the goalkeeper of Barcelona that used to be an Espanyol player. His departure was really hurtful to all the Espanyol fans. Last season, he was picture-kissing the badge of Espanyol and pleading his love to Espanyol and then he left to Barcelona. And let's see how the reception is because there's been some reports in Barcelona saying that there's Espanyol fans even planning to buy rats, to throw rats onto the pitch.

15:11Live? Live rats? I mean, there's a sort of debate if they are live or dead, basically. Let's see how this unfolds. But the tension is big. I think that if you ask to the offices at Espanyol, they don't want this to happen because some sort of fines or anything can happen like to the stadium and just to the club. but the fans are really pissed off with John Garcia and with how the summer developed for them Crikey Alright, well that's when we come back Meantime, Atleti moved up to third with that Villarreal defeat That's back-to-back wins for Atletico after that little wobble they had at the start of December Goals off the bench from Antoine Griezmann as usual and also Conor Gallagher too Lovely Yeah, Conor Gallagher scored but he did not end the game really pleased because he came off the bench from after Nico Gonzalez got injured.

16:02I think it was in the 20th minute. And then he was so tough again in the second half in the 70th minute. Yeah, with him being far from placed. Although from this game, what I would highlight, if you can go and watch it, just check a Jan O 'Black save. One of the best saves that I've seen over the last years, like a goal line save in what would have been the equalizer from Girona, if I'm not wrong, the 1-1. Outstanding, outstanding save to Axel Witzel. it's like a computer glitch isn't it Paul like you see it and you think that cannot that's impossible yeah exactly just like how strong you have to place your arm just to stop that shot so yeah if you can check that it's yeah it's just amazing and Atletico Madrid with a ballo ball win in there excellent Paul before you leave us quick shout out to Real Oviedo who drew 0-0 with Celta Vigo that's their ninth 0-0 this season in 17 matches they have as many red cards as they do goals this campaign, seven and they've had more managers than they've had wins yeah, yeah, that's absolutely right with Carrion, who couldn't carry on not in the bench anymore but yeah, Real Oviedo are struggling let's see what they do in the winter transfer window that they're going to bring in new players let's check how the situation with Santi Cazorla unfolds because with the new manager, Guillermo Almada there's been reports that he might not count with Santi Cazorla on the team.

17:27Let's see if this happens or not. He was not on the starting line-up on the weekend and it's going to be an issue in Oviedo throughout the winter. But yeah, a busy transfer window for them. That, to say, by Jan Oblak, it's like they've reversed the tape or something. It's amazing. The ball flies in and then flies away from his hand almost at the same velocity. Remarkable. Remarkable. Time for you now to fly, Paul. Have a Feliz Navidad. Muchas gracias. Moltes gracias. Wow. To you too. To you too. Both in Spanish and Catalan. Yes. Yes, yes. We will be back in your company when the Euro Show returns.

18:05I'm not sure when that is. March. Something like that, right? Yeah. March. Why not? Monday the 5th of January, I'm hearing, Seb. Sounds good to me. Excellent. Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Thank you very much. Paul Belus. Next up, Syria.

18:26This 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 Sydney out, only six games this weekend because Inter, Milan Napoli and Bologna are off cosplaying in the desert pretending to have a proper trophy i'm sorry but the super cup it does feel like i mean this was in january uh last year and it didn't interfere with like a regular season game week so it does feel weird that four teams have sort of been off and we got this sort of diminished weekend right it's going to feel even weirder when two teams are off in february in berth and that's now been confirmed milan are going to play that well hasn't it no i mean so we did the story maybe 10 days ago where the asian football confederation said you're going to have to do this this and this in order for it to happen and that was considered impossible uh and then when the syria delegation got to saudi and did some media they're like oh no still going ahead still going ahead we've sorted one of the things out we just need to sort the other two things out and it's like okay well because one of the things is is the Asian Football Confederation said you can't promote it as a Serie A game.

19:46Oh. Which is slightly complicated when it's a competitive Serie A game. So basically the president of Serie A said, we'll let referees from the Asian Football Confederation be the referees for this game. And then we'll sort out the rest. Okay. So I can't wait for the Football Australia game between AC Milan and Como in February. So let's see. Watch this space. Let's see. All right. Well, in the meantime, six games were played in Serie A this weekend. And the biggest result was the one in Florence where Fiorentina finally got their first win. And not just any win. Udinese, their opponents, the team who just last weekend had beaten Napoli, the champions.

20:27Yeah. And played really well in that game as well. In the second half against Napoli. Well, we were praising them in our last show. But this time around, they were beaten 5-1 by Fiorentina for La Viola's first victory of this campaign. Their first victory, in fact, in 210 days. Incredible. Now, admittedly, the opposition goalkeeper getting a red card after just seven minutes helped. But there was a new vigour to the Viola. Yeah, I think they saw that red card decision and was like, this is our chance. Finally, we've got a break because they have been unlucky in games so far this season. So yes, winless since they last played Udinese last season.

21:08And I mean, some of the goals in this game were fantastic.

21:23You know, some of the best goals of the weekend in Serie A, Goodmanson's goal was great. Moise Khen scored a good goal as well. He got a brace and they've really missed his goals this year. He got 27 in all competitions last season. Even the consolation goal Udinese scored by Solet was a fine finish too. It was Morgan Rogers-esque. Yes, it was. But, you know, sparse crowd at the Artemio Francki, which is under reconstruction at the moment. The ultras have been sort of displaced from their place in the Fiesoli to the Ferrovia. and you know even even when Udinese went down to 10 men and Fiorentina got in front early it was still quite a disgruntled crowd there'd been a communique issued by the the ultras before the game saying look you asked us for unconditional support we gave it for four games now enough basta and with that Fiorentina won 5-1 yeah so I mean the ultras were right clearly Yes.

22:23So, well, it'll be interesting to see what this does to the atmosphere there around the Artemio Franke. In terms of their position in the table, it doesn't shift them out of last place. Verona and Pisa, the other two teams in the bottom three, also picking up points this weekend. But Fiorentina have crept a little bit closer to safety. They're now just five points away. And in the meantime, some big off-field news for the club as they try and rebuild the team as well as the stadium is that Fabio Paratici is going to be joining. Is definitely or likely to be joining? Well, he has an offer from Fiorentina to become their sporting director.

23:01And I think with kind of wider powers within that. One of the criticisms by the ultras of the club is that when people have moved on, be it sort of, well, not just moved on, but the general manager, Joe Buron, passed away and was replaced by the old head of comms who stepped into that chief executive role. When the sporting director, Daniele Pradei, resigned, I think, a month ago, they just promoted somebody from in-house. So there's always been this feeling that there's a vacuum of sort of football knowledge within the club. They want Paratici to fill that vacuum, but it remains to be seen whether this is merely a power play on Fabio Paratici's part.

23:39He's obviously been back at Spurs since October in an official capacity, having been a consultant during his ban. and you know i think it's a case of does he feel that he has the influence that someone with his reputation as the person who won lots of things with juventus and signed cristiano which stopped them winning things um is is due i see james the the tottenham fan in me wants to know what's the scale of the project theoretically of juantino because obviously i mean spurs are obviously not in a great condition at the moment that that's clear but what what would he in theory be tempted away by at Fiorentina beyond living in Florence of course well I mean Fiorentina have the best training ground in Europe outside of Enfield which is their new Bagnaripoli training ground I say new it's been open for about 18 months two years they're very proud of it it is kind of evidence of what you can do with infrastructure in Italy if everybody aligns.

24:42So yeah, clearly, I think if you visit that, you think it's impressive. They have an owner who is very old, hasn't been sort of around recently. That's been another source of criticism for Fiorentina Ultra's Rocco Comiso. But Rocco Comiso does invest a lot of money. And I mean, one of the really big surprises about Fiorentina this season is that they spent 90 million in the transfer window and their bottom at Christmas. So, you know, there's clearly some capacity to spend money there. That said, it is a surprise because even though I think you could traditionally say that Spurs and Fiorentina are almost equivalent clubs in their respective leagues, working in the Premier League at this moment in time is more prestigious than working in Serie A.

25:27You are able to attract a better calibre of player than you are, for example, at Fiorentina. So, you know, I think there are some personal choices there as to as to why you might go back to Italy Paratici's son for example is quite a promising young player he was in Sam's academy and that sort of thing so being closer to someone who is sort of nearing that development into professionalism I suppose might be might be something there yeah he's been he's been between Italy and London since his ban but he spent obviously quite a lot of time in London I mean I know how many Spurs fans have had selfies with Fabio Parathici even during his ban and that sort of thing.

26:06He is very present at Tottenham games even when he wasn't allowed to go to the training ground during his ban. But yeah, we'll have to see. I mean, this was obviously two weeks out from a transfer window. I think even Spurs fans could maybe empathise with Fiorentina's situation. They are desperate. They absolutely do not want to go down. They've got two weeks to prepare for a transfer window. there's a belief that he can not only sort things out for them, but he can attract players to Fiorentina that the current supply teacher, sporting director, just absolutely could not. But as I said before, this might be just a power play at Spurs as well.

26:44So by the time this pod goes out, this might all be resolved. We might know if Paratici is staying at Spurs or if he's already going to Fiorentina. But I expect the decision to be quite quick because both of these clubs obviously need to plan and prepare for a transfer win. Crikey. All right, well, while we wait for clarity on that, Juve at the weekend also got a big win. They played Roma. Yeah. Beat them 2-1. Devastating for us, James. Devastating. Great news, though, for Luciano Spalletti, who continues to march La Signora back up the table. He's picking up a little bit less than twice the points per game of his predecessor, Igor Tudor.

27:23Goals here from Francisco Conti-Sao. And Luiz Openda with the other, getting his first league goal in eight months and nine days. Crikey. Back-to-back victories for Juventus. Stramaccioni, in this morning's Gazette, actually was raving about Spalletti. The cure of Spalletti is working. Yeah, I mean, you can't take anything away from the last week where he has got a couple of big wins. I mean, the first one was away in Bologna. And Bologna have been one of the teams of the year, be it sort of winning the Coppa Italia for the first time in half a century in May. And they sort of keep getting better under Vincenzo Italiano.

28:08And then to beat Roma, who have been title contenders for most of the season, but keep losing these games. And I think it's impressive from Spalletti. He's aware of the limitations of this side. he talked about for example the the wingbacks are not really wingbacks they're wingers and so they don't really defend and that's a problem when they're they're trying to get to get balance into this team there was this issue last week which could have been a moment of the week where the italian media were sort of really focusing on jonathan david not going out for dinner with the rest of the juventus team and a couple of the juventus players saw those reports and then sort have had these selfies with Jonathan David.

28:51And Spalletti sort of addressed this quite funnily in his press conference before the Roma game where he said clearly they'd seen him grating cheese on his spaghetti alla vongole. And they were like, this is a faux pas which is clearly costing his integration into Italian football and stuff like that. So, I mean, you mentioned Appenda scoring his first league goal in eight months. I mean, Jonathan David's still kind of struggling to get into this team. He's been one of the flops, even though he arrived on a free transfer, the commission that was paid to his agents and the signing on fee was big.

29:25Right. And he just hasn't really lived up to that, even with Duzan Vlajevic being out injured. OK, there's been striker flops or attacking flops all over the league. Roma themselves, I read, are preparing to move on. Evan Ferguson and Anton Dobvik as well. And looking to bring in Raspardori, which would be an exciting move. and also Joshua Giergse out of Manchester United. Probability on those? I think it's all quite complicated because, you know, even after the Roma Juventus game, Gasparini said, yeah, I'm just not having Evan Ferguson. Just, he's not convincing me in any way. But in order to sort of break that loan, you have to negotiate that with Brighton because Brighton have, you know, obviously signed off on a deal where Roma will pay a certain amount of wages.

30:11Roma have paid a loan fee as well. So I think Brighton are entitled to say, okay, so you were supposed to be covering his wages. Are we now covering those? What about that fee? Blah, blah, blah. So it's not as easy as just basically returning someone to sender. I thought it was quite curious that on Sky Italia last night, they were saying, okay, well, maybe what they will do is this workaround where they'll send Ferguson back to Brighton. And Napoli will sign Evan Ferguson on loan. And Napoli will send Lorenzo Luca, who they signed from Udinese in the summer. Who's also been a bit of a flop. Who's been a bit of a flop.

30:45To Roma. Or Roma sign Raspidori. Yes. Or they sign Zergze who, you know, apparently in terms of personal terms is quite, you know, happy to sort of let his agent sort of agree them. But again, for Manchester United, it's like, well, we've got players out injured in key positions. And Buemos and Amadialos going off to AFCON have already gone there. Sesko is sort of only coming back from injury. so you know we don't really want to give up Xerxe regardless of what you think about Xerxe's time at Old Trafford so lots of plates being spiked. Okay. Raspedori who's not getting much game time himself at Atletico Madrid would be a very I mean potentially great signing for.

31:26You like Raspedori. I do like Raspedori. Jack and Abonis. Yeah yeah another club who are busy looking to beef up their front line after disappointing signings on Milan. Now, the problem with Milan last season was the fact they didn't have a sporting director. They brought in Iglesias Tare. So I'm a bit misdivied after the disappointment with last summer's recruitment under Tare. They have now decided on Nicholas Fulkrug and Alex de Sassi as the players who are most likely to. Yes. So, I mean, by the time this pod has gone now I think Fulker will have already signed on loan from West Ham to Milan they already looked at him in the past someone who could replace Olivier Giroud so that's going back 18 months ago but you know it does feel like more Iglitari at Lazio than Iglitari at Milan right I don't think a lot of people are convinced by it they feel they've had to do this because Santi Jimenez is out for three months so they need a striker but you know it's like this every transfer window at Milan, they go and throw a lot of money, which they're not doing, admittedly, in this case with Fulcroft, but they spend a lot of money on Jimenez last January, 30 million, and Kunku in the summer, 42 million.

32:41So we're looking at, they've spent upwards of 70 million on two strikers, and they're still looking at another striker, which is Fulcroft, who's always been out injured and I think scored three times for West Ham last year. So I don't know what Seb makes of the Fulcroft. Yeah, don't like it, don't like it. I think he was a great story when he came up from the Spider-Bunds League with Bremen. He's a great guy. He's a really good person to mix zone if you get the chance. He's very honest, very forthright guy. But physically, it's really hard to see that working or going any better than it has done at West Ham at least.

33:14Gazetta notification. Milan Como will not be played in Perth. By now, it's almost sure. So, you know, there we go. There you go. There you go. Now, OK, what is being played a long way overseas? is the Super Cup, which I'm very excited about. On Thursday, Napoli beat Milan 2-0. David Neres set up by Rasmus Hojland, who then got the second himself. One of his best games for Napoli, Hojland. And that put the partner pay through to the final, where they will face Bologna, who beat Inter on penalties after a 1-1 draw on Friday. This is going to be played this evening, as we record, Monday night. Traditionally enough, a big Scott McTominay-Lewis Ferguson derby for the Scottish football fans.

34:01And, I mean, it would be great for Bologna to win this. Yeah, it really would. I mean, I've done it sort of, as has Seb, we did this kind of end-of-year columns. Seb's obviously on the Bundesliga, Manon City A, and, you know, one of the sections is Team of the Year, 2025, and I picked Bologna, because I just felt that Bologna winning the Coppa Italia for the first time in, you know, half a century was sort of more meaningful than Napoli winning the league twice in three years. Maybe if we'd gone back and Napoli had won the Scudetto for the first time since 1990, I'd have a different opinion. But I think Bologna doing what they did last year was, I think, more meaningful to their fan base.

34:39And certainly if there was an N2025 with two trophies, regardless of what you think of the Supercoppa, Supercoppa, Supercoppa, it would be, you know, it would be fantastic. and particularly for Italiano who we've been dwelling on Fiorentina's woes but I mean he was a guy who got Fiorentina to Conference League finals Coppa Italia finals was unlucky not to win something and you know obviously he's broken that duck with the Coppa Italia with Bologna and yeah if he was to get if he was to win back-to-back finals that would again further establish him as one of the he's no longer an up-and-coming top Italian coach he's a top Italian coach Top Australian coach.

35:19Listener by now, you know what actually happened on Monday night since this pod comes out Tuesday morning. Congratulations, Antonio Conte. Now, no break for City Hour. There's a full set of fixtures next weekend, which sees Bologna take on Sassuolo. Atalanta up against Inter, another derby. Creminesi, who's to Napoli. And Milan up against Verona. Fatal Verona. Let's check up next on other leagues.

35:52you'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 no break in portugal everybody where porto are five points clear of sporting and benfica are three points further back all three of them will be playing tuesday and wednesday of this week before christmas and then everyone's back at the weekend as well a shout out i don't know if you saw this to a roca who were playing away at santa clara which is in the azores this is very cool this is very cool and they their traveling support consisted seb of one man one supporter one loyal fan who watched a nil nil draw but the team did he he wasn't just a local lad who liked a rookie he'd actually gone all the way no he'd made the journey he i think it was sort of five or six hours apparently and um at the end of the game they all came to him and uh applauded him as a team and embraced him it was really lovely it's a really lovely moment yeah that's uh portugal ero davisi is on a break they will be back on the 9th of january currently psv are 11 points clear at the top even factoring in their enormous potential for late season collapses i think they're looking pretty good for the title they were the only one of the top eight sides in the Eredivisie to win last weekend Feyenoord who in the middle of last week got knocked out of the cup by Hiram Wern dropped points against 20 pressure increases on Robin van Persie they've only had three wins in their last 12 but they do stay five points clear of Ajax who also drew 2-2 at Nick.

37:36Turkey, they have two games on the Monday and then they have a break until the 18th of January. Galatasaray are three points clear of Fenerbahce. Curiously, 12 of the 18 coaches that started the season are no longer at their Super League side. They've either been sacked or just moved on. Out of the 12 replacement coaches, three have already lost that job as well. so um and you know it could even go up because there's still some games to be played before christmas and in france liguen already paused of course the previous weekend this weekend it was the coupe de france round of 64 which listen i know you got ringed in your diary because that's when the liguen clubs come into the competition and you get those crazy upsets were there any teams from French dependencies based perhaps 5 ,000 miles away in the Pacific.

38:28Yes, there was a Goziers from Guadeloupe who sadly are no longer in the competition because they lost to Lorient 7-0 after making a 4 ,500 mile journey and then back again. Were there any upsets? Well, how about fourth-tier Avaranche knocking out top flight Brest on penalties? It's Avaranche's fourth straight consecutive shootout win in the competition, which begs the question, how many rounds are there in the Coupe de France? Two other Ligue 1 clubs have also been eliminated at this early stage, along with top flight Brest. That's Ouzer, who got beaten by Monaco, and Le Havre, who were defeated by Amiens.

39:09There are two sides, James, two sides from the sixth division still in the tournament as we go to the last 32. Bayou. Oh, yeah? Yeah. From the Bayeux? No, from the tapestry place. Ah, yes. Yeah, yeah, Bayeux. Bayeux from the last... Sorry, they're into the last 32 for the first time in their history. Hanging around. Yeah. One in the eye for their critics. They, though, in the last 32 will play Marseille, who beat third-tier Borg Peronas 6-0 at the weekend. Anyway, the other team from the sixth tier is Montreux, but not that Montreux. spelled different it's probably not pronounced like that either they are from sixth tier as i say they played aside from two levels above them us chevigny who had a player sent off after just 17 seconds of the game 17 seconds it's a new record anyway sa c 'est le magique de la coupe as they say in france jules is back just like jules is back it's just it's it's it's a perfect accent avaranch will be playing liam resenya's strasbourg other last 32 games of interest include lille against leon bayou as we mentioned against marseille and a paris derby between psg and paris fc who will also be playing in the first game back after the winter break on the third fourth of january you've got the paris derby league leaders launch who remember a point clear of PSG will be at Toulouse and Marseille in third spot host Nantes very good that's France next up yay the Bundesliga

40:57Seb go on then who is your team of the year for the Bundesliga I was original spent a lot of time thinking about it and I went for Bayern Munich no FC Bayern tell us more about it do you want to know who my player of the year was as well yes is it is it um harry kane it is and do you want to know who my young player young player plays for i'm gonna say lenny carl it is indeed no yeah it is it is sorry sorry like i good choices i'm just yeah and i'm softening the audience up before they read it tomorrow and give me all sorts of grief but it's it's undeniable buying 55 goals in the first 15 games of the season.

41:40Just twice in league history they've scored 100 goals or more in a 34-game season. They're on course, of course, to beat that. It's incredibly impressive. 11 goals conceded. 4-0 winners over Heidenheim. 9 points clear. Unbeaten at the halfway stage. It's very hard to argue with just to kind of pluck another name out to be different. Felt a little bit silly. No, no. I mean, they are a machine, aren't they? Look at this. They've scored at least two goals in each of their last 22 games in the Bundesliga. Their nine-point lead at the top is the second biggest margin ever at this stage of the season.

42:17They added another four goals this weekend, going to Heidenheim and beating them by four goals to nil. Stanisic, Olise, Diaz and Kane all on the score sheet. Kane wearing the armband for the first time because Manuel Neuer was out with a hamstring injury and Kane with the goal reaching the milestone of 100 goal involvements in his 78th game, which is the fastest ever. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. And he has 19 goals in his 15 appearances so far this season. So he needs another 23 to beat Robert Lewandowski's single season record. Those 19 goals are from an XG I read this morning of about 13.05, something like that.

42:58So he's comfortably overperforming. I think the key thing, Jimbo, is beyond the snark about Bayern's obviously huge competitive advantage. I think in previous years and also in company's first year, when Bayern went to some of these out-of-the-way places like Heidenheim and when they rotated, which they did heavily on Sunday, they had a bit of illness. So there was no Pavlovich. Joso Kimmich was out injured as well. So it was a kind of almost a second string side. They would win, but they would labor. And you would see the vulnerabilities and you would see a kind of a fragility in Bayern, which gave you a sort of sense of foreboding about what was coming around the corner.

43:35Now this season, there's been none of that at all. They've been, yeah, they've been formidable and very, very impressive domestically, clearly. Indeed. Well, nine points clear at the top of the table from Borussia Dortmund, who won 2-0 against Mönchengladbach. Behind them, you've got Leipzig and Leverkusen. Leverkusen, who came from a goal down to beat Leipzig this weekend at the Red Bull Arena, continue their remarkable form under Kasper Hülmann. Yeah, also a vindication of the decision they made back in August or early September to part ways with Eric Ten Hag and change direction. It's been very impressive, particularly because, yes, Leverkusen are one of the strongest teams in the league on a kind of player-by-player basis.

44:20But the advancement of some of the individual players has been really, really interesting. So on Saturday, really, the first half, I can't remember the first half with three such quality goals in it. let's have a schlager open scoring for ebi leipzig and then martin terrier scores as good a header if you've seen it yeah it's just it's absolutely brilliant last week obviously he had his scoping kick his scuffed scoping kick as we described it this is just a fantastic header like near post perfectly flighted across the goal glanced into the top corner lovely lovely goal patrick schick 2-1 and then late in the second half montreal culbraith who is born in germany but he has dual nationality.

44:59I think he has an American father. He was born near Kaiserslautern. So I think my money would be on him being an American GI. Perhaps there's a big base down there. He scored on his Bundesliga debut. Ballverlust. Raum hier. Zwei allein auf weiter Flur. Der junge Kyle Breff. 18 Jahre Bundesliga debut. Und er macht's allein. A word on Leipzig actually because they were really on the strength. So Jandimande is at the Africa Cup of Nations. Jan Bakayoku is out. Antonio Nusser is out. So they're a little bit understrength, which was a shame because they've had a really, really good first half of the season.

45:38They've been very, very impressive since that 6-0 defeat against Bayern. Also, you mentioned Dormund. Now, Dormund, super interesting because you mentioned they got over the line against Gladbach on Friday night. 1-2-0, deserved to. Maurice Nicholas, the Gladbach goalkeeper, played very, very well and prevented it from being a wider margin. Dormund looked leggy And Dortmund looked like a team who had a long season, but had also gone to the Club World Cup in between with many of the same players. There were very few new faces over the summer who didn't go to the Club World Cup as well. So there's been no break.

46:11Got over the line, finished second, which based on where they were a year ago, was a huge improvement. Great defensive record as well. But there's little issues. So one of the things that caught attention was Karim Adeyemi, who had a very strange night. Had one of those nights where nothing really went right for him. um he's trying things nothing was working he got needed a little bit by some of the gladback defenders got very very frustrated lashed out at kevin dix the uh the gladback center back and then got taken off by new kakar back he did not respond well to it at all and it's just one of those things i think if you see it if you've spent enough time watching football you recognize that players having a bad night he's frustrated he's disappointed with himself the reaction within the german media has been quite disappointing been very personal had been very sort of sell him get rid of him accept any bid that comes just get him out of the club because he's bad for everything which i think is way way way over the top he um i think he's he had conversations with people overnight at brissey dortmund and they kind of settled things by by the time saturday came around but um yeah that lingers on and adi amy has um changed agent recently he's now with um george mendez's agency and not a secret that he's kind of um he's been of interest to clubs in the Premier League.

47:23So we'll see what happens there. But yeah, strange old night for him. It's like one of those, when you see someone that's obviously got out of bed on the wrong side, it was that. Just kept kicking out. None of his flicks were working. The ball wouldn't break for him and it just got too much for him. And it was probably the right decision to take him off, absolutely. But a difficult spot and he's had a difficult weekend with the media treatment. Any transfer stories that are bubbling away there, Seb? There's a few little things. I think it's easier to characterize it as what teams need. So Eindracht Frankfurt, need goals, need a couple of forwards, I think, to come in.

47:56Hasn't quite worked out there. Borussia Dortmund would look to probably bring in a little bit of creativity, maybe some defensive reinforcement. There was a story that Aaron Alselmino, the Chelsea low knee, there's a story going around today that he could be called back in January. I understand that not to be the case. I don't think there's any plans to do that whatsoever. So he'll be there for the rest of the season. Bayern, no. I think there might be some Bayern outgoings, potentially. Sasha Boy, the right back who's sort of surpassed requirements there. But nothing major. I think, and you know this from Serie A, I think a lot of what happens in Germany depends on where the English money goes first.

48:32And there aren't a lot of very obvious targets. Maybe someone has a little bit of a lunge at someone like the Amanda at Leipzig. Don't know. But beyond that, I don't really see much happening. That's not a very sort of transfer deadline day of me, is it? Sorry, watch this space. We'll have updates all the way through the month. that's okay we're a long way from from deadline date all right excellent uh we'll just sign off by mentioning that bion's next opponents when the bundesliga returns on the 9th of january that weekend we will see bion taking on wolfsburg who were involved in a seven goal thriller this weekend beaten 4-3 at home by freiburg despite the efforts of their 20 year old star jesnan petjinovic who scored a hat trick did he played really really well and listen like losing 4-3 at home the last minute is super tough to take but it's got better at Wolfsburg six weeks ago they looked like they were heading for the Zweite Bundesliga and now coaching change a little bit of clarity and selection a bit more buy-in I think from some of these players um so it's looking a little bit healthier and Freiburg are a good side so um I'm I think that um things will look up after the uh after Winterpaza well they get a lot more buy-in when they come back because FC buy-in all All the buy-in.

49:44Loads of buy-in. More buy-in than they want. Right. Nice. Seb, lovely stuff. Enjoy your Christmas there in Haberg. I'm guessing they have some really nice markets, do they? They do. They have a wonderful market here. I've already eaten half a stolen today, so I'm having a great time. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That accounts for my sort of sugary, pep-top performance in the podcast. Yeah, 100%. There you go. Excellent. Well, go back and finish the other half. and look forward to hearing from you whenever it was. March. We agree March, I think. March. Yeah, we said March and I'm looking forward to the three months off.

50:20Yeah. First Monday in January. That's what I've got here. Excellent. Many thanks to you as well, James Horncastle. You're off to Yorkshire. That's correct, James. Yorkshire. There we go. And many thanks to Seb as well and producer Lucy. there in the lovely Lake District and you listener, wherever it is that you're joining us from, enjoy your holiday period and we'll see you on the other side for now from all of us here is 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.

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