Como & Roma in the Champions League as Milan crash out of top four

0:00Okay, class, let's begin. Psst, love your boots. I just sold a pair like that on eBay. Oh, really? I actually... Yeah, it took like two seconds to list and they sold almost immediately. I've been selling everything lately. Some chunky boots, a faux fur coat I never wore, and a vintage chair that was more of an expensive clothing rack. You know, I actually bought these on eBay. Wait, are you, Kitty, sell stuff from Brooklyn? Okay, quiet, please. Find what you love, sell what you don't.

0:27James Horncastle: eBay. Things people love. Pool days call for cookouts and lots of laundry. This Memorial Day at Lowe's. Save$80 on a Char-Broil Performance Series 4-Burner Gas Grill. Now just$199. Plus, get up to 45 % off select major appliances to keep dishes, clothes, and food fresh. Having fun in the sun is easy with us in your corner. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's. Valid for 527. While supplies last, selection varies by location. See associate or lowes.com for details.

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1:42Because when it comes to hotels, it's simple. Hotels.com. It's all in the name.

1:51James Horncastle: The Athletic FC.

1:59Pol Ballus: Totally Football Show, European edition. Today, Harry Kane puts on his po-po-po-co-o face. Ma como lo fatto? Coma and Roma win the Champions League race in Italy. There's Friday night, Lens, clear eyes and four hearts in the Coupe de France. And La Liga, the return of Deportivo. And no Spain, plenty of pain for the folks at Real. All that and more in this Totally Football Show.

2:33Pol Ballus: Monday 25th of May. Hey, everybody. It's the European Edition of the Tony Football Show. Bittersweet, because it's our final one of the season. Bitter, because we've still got an hour of it. Sweet, because it's our final one of the season. Yay. Tom Williams is here. Hello, James. Nice to see you, Tom. Yeah, it's been a while. Change Horncastle. That's right, James.

2:56James Horncastle: There will be a totally World Cup show, won't there? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

3:00Pol Ballus: Every night stroke morning. Wow. Yeah. And there'll be previews. Oh, yeah, there'll be previews. You know what else there'll be? Paul Belous on the big screen. Hey, Paul Belous. Hello. Hello, guys. How's everything? Yeah, pretty good. Pretty good. I can tell. I can tell James is having a nice time drinking something that looks a bit familiar to me. Well, thanks for bringing that up and, you know, in a conversational sense, Paul, because James is drinking a Catalan water. Where did you get this from?

3:29James Horncastle: Just down the road, the corner shop. Really? Literally.

3:32Pol Ballus: The incredibly expensive corner shop on the corner. For listeners, just a regular corner shop. Just a regular corner shop. And it's called Vichy Catalan, which is a name that poses a lot of questions. Here's one that you weren't expecting in terms of answers. This is just down the road from the, is it Vichy Golf Club? Tom, you take up the story. So actually, I forgot the name of the town. Paul, what was the name of the town again? It's Caldas de Malabella. That's the one. This is where the water comes from, the source. We were querying the source, in particular the source of the title, because you hear Vichy and you tend to think French collaborators in World War II.

4:11We wanted to clear that up, so Googled it, and it turns out the town where it is made is also home to, it's like random connection, is also home to a golf course that my dad designed because my dad is a golf course designer. It's the Camurai Golf Club, and it will be hosting the Ryder Cup in 2031. So, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Do they serve Jushi Catalan there? I'd be disappointed if they didn't. I mean, that is a great, you know, get on board with the locals, the local water barons. They turn up for their first round of golf. You're serving another sparkling water. They'd be furious.

4:45Pol Ballus: They'll have sold the official water rights to, Official water partner. Official hydration partner. Quite possibly, yeah. But sorry, Paul, you go, and then I've got questions. Yeah, no, I was about to say that they serve a lot of things besides Vice Catalani. It's a nice place to be because I've been in there, I'd say, three or four times. Most of the Girona players that, well, we're going to speak about Girona because they got relegated, but most of the players and the manager, and I would say like the jet set in Girona, lives in there. Oh, really? Because the golf complex has turned into a sort of living complex.

5:19There's a lot of really nice houses in there. A lovely atmosphere. You're on a 10-minute, 15-minute ride to the city centre. So basically, all the VIPs in Girona live in there. And it's also one of the preferred spots of Pep Guardiola. When he plays golf in Catalonia, he basically goes there because it's the best pitch that we have in here. And the Girona training ground is next to the golf course. Really? You can see it. It might have been a temporary training grade.

5:46Pol Ballus: How many times a week do you see an intern going into the golf course to change his clothes, I wonder? Long range Zoom binocular. So my questions relate to your father's profession of designing golf courses. Have you ever seen him? How does he go, I think we need a bit of a trap there, some woods there? Yeah, I mean, most of it is taken up by quite boring things that don't involve sketching out the course layout. Like what? Like soil types. Oh, yeah. And planning permission. Irrigation. Right. And rights of way, things like that, and sight lines, etc. But there is an element of it that is, you know, sketch out the layout.

6:30Laying the golf course on the land. Yes. Is he a golf man? He is a golf man. Are you a golf man? No. No. Why not, Tom?

6:38Pol Ballus: And how disappointed is he? I'm a football man, James. I'm a football man's football man. But those two sports go hand in hand for a lot of people. I mean, I guess we know we're perhaps going to be spending his summer now, potentially. Absolutely. Has he designed other famous golf courses? None as famous as that. There's quite a few in the southeast of England, places like Surrey and Sussex, places I don't know very well. Okay. Okay. Well, well done to him. That's fantastic. Golf, everybody. We've got cup finals coming up this week. Crystal Palace against Raya Vallecano. That's in the Conference League in Leipzig on Wednesday.

7:19Pol Ballus: Paul will be telling us a little bit more about how Raya have been warming up for that later on. Perhaps, Tom, you'll give us the latest on Paris Saint-Germain ahead of their Champions League clash. Of course, it's this Saturday against Arsenal. But why don't we get a moment of the week? James, what's been special for you?

7:34James Horncastle: Well, Como qualifying for the Champions League. I think you referenced it in your intro, James. They had these special T-shirts done last week, which was Come se dice l 'Europa. How do you say Europe? And they just adapted them this time for Come se dice Champions. Very nice. So they will be in the Champions League for the first time after only their second year back in the top flight. I think only seven years ago they were in the fourth tier. Is that a Comasco accent that you were doing there?

8:05Pol Ballus: Oh, okay.

8:06James Horncastle: Interesting.

8:10James Horncastle: So, remarkable story. Obviously, banked rolled by these two Hartano brothers from Indonesia who made their money kind of selling clove cigarettes to people in that part of the world. But I think even if you do have a lot of money, to put together a football project that functions in the way that they have is mightily impressive. And Cesc, he will give a press conference on Tuesday when this podcast comes out. The expectation is that Cesc will stay. He said, speriamo. We hope so. When he was asked about his future the other night. And yeah, that is a club that can keep building. It will be very interesting to see where they play their Champions League games.

8:59James Horncastle: It will be very interesting to see whether they can comply with squad regulations because they've got very few homegrown or Italian players. It'll be interesting to see how they comply with FFP as well because they have aggressively invested in the team, highest net spend in Italy over the last two years. But nevertheless, it's still a remarkable story. Excellent. Tom, what's been remarkable for you? Well, I mean, the only story in town in France in the last few days has been Lens winning the Coupe de France on Friday night, which we will go on to talk about in greater depth. But to pick out a moment, I'd go for Florian Thauvin's opening goal, one of the great success stories of Lens' season.

9:41He puts Lens ahead in the 25th minute against Nice.

10:04And as he runs away to celebrate, I think this is unique to the Coupe de France this season. I've not seen it in any Ligue 1 games. A cameraman is allowed to run onto the pitch to track the celebrations. I know they do this kind of thing in La Liga quite a lot, but I'd not seen it before in France. And basically, this guy runs with Thauvin, and Thauvin runs all the way down the touchline, kind of high fives and embraces all the guys in the dugout all the subs and everything carries his run to the other end of the pitch which is the lance end which is just a sea of yellow and red and then just stands there jude bellingham style with arms aloft and this cameraman who's been doing his level best to keep pace with him does this really cool kind of like you know spinning bit of filming so initially you see tourvan standing there looking at the fans with the fans behind him.

10:51Then the cameraman comes round and you've got Tovan there arms spread wide with the pitch and all his teammates racing after him. And yeah, that was a lovely moment. And obviously, Lens went on to win and ticked off the fairly sizable anomaly of having never won the Coupe de France in their 120-year history. Because now, in their 120th anniversary year, they have. Brilliant, Tom. And that's the French roundup already done as well. There we go. Yep. Tick. Good to see you guys. Paul. I'm going to go to a moment of the week just to follow James Holmcastle and mention an episode that you have already mentioned in your intro, but I'm going to stick with Depor, Deportivo de la Coruña, who are back at the top flight eight years later.

11:33Out of these eight years, four were in the third tier of Spanish football. So they were basically really deep down. A team that we don't forget that in 2004, they were Champions League semifinalists after beating AC Milan in the quarterfinals. So that's the extent of the club. And yeah, basically, they just got promoted after a win to a nil against Valladolid. And there were just scenes after the game. And I would highlight a couple of names. One is Álvaro Ferrello, which is the goalkeeper. I encourage you to look for the footage. But he basically did his mix after the game, just shirtless, wearing his on-dies, I would say, ping on-dies.

12:14And with sunglasses as a sort of a way to celebrate it. He just wanted to do the mix undressed in like that. And then I wanted... You didn't do the podcast like that. Yeah, I was tempted to, but yeah, I'm not going to provide... It's a real show. Yeah, just like a comforting picture for you all. And then I just wanted to highlight Yeremai as well, which is the big star of this Deportivo site. A young kid, 23 years old, but the best player possibly in the Spanish second tier. Last summer, he rejected a big money move to Como. Como was really willing to pay his release clause, which was above€30 million.

13:00And he basically said no. He wanted to stay at that board and give it a go for another more season and try to get his team promoted to the top flight. He signed a new contract, which helped with a good pay raise. Boye, he stayed and he succeeded. He is just 23. He's going to play in La Liga with the club that gave him a real chance to make it in football. He's from the Canarian Islands, but he's been at Deportivo for a long, long time. And yeah, he's one of the names to monitor because he has the quality to, in the midterm, be like a player for the Spain national team, I would say.

13:37Pol Ballus: Excellent. Thank you so much, Paul. Lovely to see Deportivo La Coruña back in the top flight. ooh Tom players in just their undies is something that you see quite a lot of in continental European football hasn't yet made the leap to Premier League yeah have like mental images of like Antonio Cassano after I'm trying to think which game it was having his shirt and shorts like physically torn off him but they will

14:02James Horncastle: they will go under the the culver under the the end where the ultras are and give almost everything shirt shorts socks wristbands headbands there you go what do you think like the ultras do with those items if you get a shirt fine you frame it or whatever but if you've got like one sock like what would you do with that would you frame that would you just well you never know these ultras might be on like only fans and they just might be they might be ebaying this to some people who like to collect to... Tom, it's a big question. Yes.

14:48Pol Ballus: Let's ask again the questions that matter. Let's head to the final weekend of the Top Flight in Italy. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. Yes, James, a big, big final weekend with big news. As we mentioned, the top four racing Roma and Como taking their spots in the top four alongside champions Inter and Napoli. And consequentially, Milan and Juventus both missing out. There's also Antonio Conte announcing that he's doing one from Napoli. But let's start with Sunday night's Turin derby featuring the now champions leagueless Juventus.

15:30Pol Ballus: What happened before the game, first of all?

15:32James Horncastle: Well, there were clashes, James, between the fan bases. also you know the day before the game there was some tension because a statement had been putting out saying that you would not be allowed to wear black and white if you traveled to go and see the Debbie de la Mole at Torino Stadium which Juventus kind of condemned that but it did nothing to sort of calm down so who put that out the Torino yeah organizers yes that's kind of unprecedented isn't it it is um and you know Luciano Spalletti after the game was saying you know who are you to tell a you know a child who's going to a game with a black and white scarf to support their team that he or she cannot wear that black and white scarf so really easy to wear black and white accidentally exactly you know images of innocent old people just being suddenly accosted what on earth are you doing?

16:30I just wear the jumper every day.

16:33James Horncastle: Anyway, so there were clashes before the game and a 45-year-old man was taken to hospital in a critical condition. And so when the fans got into the stadium, the Juventus Ultras called over Manuel Locatelli, the Juventus captain, and said that we do not believe this game should be played. And this was very awkward, to say the least, because Juventus were due to kick off at 8.45 local time simultaneously with Milan against Cagliari, Roma against Verona, and Como against Cremonese, so the other teams that they were vying for a top-four place with. And the kickoff for all the games briefly was suspended whilst they waited to see if Juventus Torino would kick off.

17:28James Horncastle: In the end, the other games went ahead without Juventus Torino. The kickoff for that game was suspended for an hour for security reasons because it's alleged that the Ultras said to Locatelli that they would invade the pitch if the game took place. So the game was effectively held hostage by the ultras. In the end, the forces of order, the police said, we do not believe there is any reason why this game should not go ahead. We will take care of security outside of the stadium. Let the game go ahead. And so the game did kick off, but to a largely by that time, empty stadium because the Torino fans had basically decided to leave the juventus ultras had decided to leave so it was played in this very surreal atmosphere and you know damien camoli the the chief executive of juventus he had he said look it's very sad what's happened you know i'm a football fan you know we hate to hear that somebody is in hospital we're going to visit that person um but it was it was one of those instance and there are a lot of instances like this over the course of the weekend which kind of summed up what has generally been quite an embarrassing season I would say in City yeah

18:48Pol Ballus: well when the game took place Juve took a 2-0 lead by that point I don't think it would have gotten them into the Champions League anyway they're in a 2-0 lead obviously they had like a

18:57James Horncastle: the benefit of an hour in which they knew the results or how the other games were going And so they took the lead early through Duzan Vlajevic. He scored another goal. But you referenced that Torino comeback, James. And I think that comeback is precipitated by the eventists knowing that whatever happened, they would not qualify for Champions League.

19:21Pol Ballus: Koeman and Roma were both ahead of them in the table before the game began. And as bad as that is, and we'll see the ramifications for how Juve approached next season in terms of directors, possibly even Spalletti, although I think he's still likely to be in charge. At the time of recording, Spalletti is still in charge. There is the question of Antonio Conte in his future, which I guess might be relevant to that. But we'll come on to that in a second. But as bad as it was for Juve, and as disappointing as that's been as an end to their campaign, to go 2-2 in a derby in a weird circumstance is one thing.

19:55Pol Ballus: But what happened to Milan is several magnitudes worse. They were at home to Caleri, who had nothing to play for. And they were at San Siro. And they lost 2-1 to the Sardinians. Crikey. They've actually lost three of their last four. A complete collapse from Allegri's side. What happens now, James?

20:14James Horncastle: Complete change. going to sack everyone. So, Allegri, gone. Gone. Fulani, the chief executive, gone. Gone. Igli Tari, sporting director, gone. Ibra? No, Ibra will remain in place. Right, because nobody knows what he does anyway. Well, what we do know is that Zlatan is trusted by the owner, Jerry Cardinal. Although Zlatan will be a pundit during the summer on US television with Titian Rhee. There was this curious announcement over the weekend of him maybe fighting Tyson Fury. I don't know if you saw this. I didn't see that. Okay. So Zlatan obviously does have a say, does have an influence, but he's also got a lot of other stuff going on.

21:02James Horncastle: Oh, yeah. So he's senior advisor to the owner. he works for Redbird but the other stuff the Milan stuff in terms of who will be the next chief executive sporting director or shall we say chief executive football head of football and the new coach you know he will have a input on that but there are other people who will be also shaping that decision okay do we know any of the new names that are going to be coming in not yet but I think it will be drastically different to what we have seen over the last year um so they finished eighth last season after going with a couple of portuguese coaches in paulo fonseca and sergio conze sao and they kind of over corrected that time and just went for a super old school italian coach in max allegri um and i don't think anyone at the club um certainly when elliot took over or when redbird took over ever envisioned having a coach like max allegri on the bench because they wanted to take the club in a different direction and I think you've seen that tension play out particularly over the last few months that this isn't the team that they really wanted it to be I think Max Allegri felt that way still doesn't really explain the collapse that Milan have suffered on the pitch because as recently as 10 games ago they were second remember they beat Inter in the derby sort of March April time and people were beginning to say can they push on and win the league and on Sunday night in that game as you mentioned against Cagliari James where there are all these stereotypes about Italian football how teams with nothing to play for they're already on the beach and they just basically don't turn up and they roll over and instead Cagliari came back from 1-0 down to win that game 2-1 you know they went on the night from third to sixth and then Torino coming back against Juventus meant Milan and finish fifth.

22:59James Horncastle: But to have been in title contention as recently as six weeks, two months ago, and to then find yourself not in the Champions League at all, really, I think, gave Milan's owner, Terry Cuthanel, no excuse, really. He had to get rid of not only the coach, but the executive team above the coach.

23:22Pol Ballus: Okay. Well, there's going to be lots of managerial movement in Serie A this summer. Antonio Conte, who has announced now his departure from Naples, where he's going to be going is a big question. What the future is in Naples, where Allegri is among the names that are circulating as a potential replacement. And there's also maybe even a regime change upstairs with a massive offer that you were talking about on The Athletic this week coming in for the club.

23:53James Horncastle: yeah as we go into the the centenary year um of uh napoli um de la rentes has been in talks for six months with a with a consortium um yeah his starting position was sorry lads um club's not up for sale um but um the offer is is kind of mouth-watering um it has stalled um but um that is a club that doesn't have a training ground doesn't have its own stadium um so it's it's a very big valuation although i think part of it is like what we're seeing with with milan where there are these possibilities to maybe get an nba franchise for nba europe um which i think a lot of american investors are certainly interested in um but yeah they have to reprogram quite a lot at napoli because um as de la rente has told my colleague adam crafton only a few weeks ago like this team is Conte's baby.

24:50James Horncastle: They've gone out and bought your McTominay's, your Hoyland's and that sort of thing for him. And now those players are sort of orphaned, if you like.

25:01Pol Ballus: Do you envisage much movement from the point of view of McTominay or De Bruyne? What a fabulous ball it was from him to Hoyland this weekend for the only goal in the final game against Udinese.

25:13James Horncastle: Yeah, when Kevin De Bruyne's been fit, he's connected really well with Rasmus Hoyland. I think, as with anything, they'll wait to see what the club's plans are. Who is the new coach? Yeah, there was talk about Maurizio Sarri maybe coming back for a second spell. I think Maurizio Sarri would have been a really good fit for those kind of players. But it looks like Sarri might indeed go to Atalanta instead. So this week, there's going to be a lot of musical chairs, I would say, in Serie A. But I mean, to circle back to your point about Conte James, you know, a lot of people associating him with the national team job, a second spell there a decade after he left.

25:57James Horncastle: He said, look, you know, I said I should be on the shortlist. It's different from me saying I want that job. There still isn't a president of the Italian Football Federation. One will be elected in the middle of June. So whilst I'm sure some of the candidates are maybe getting in touch with coaches saying, would you do, would you be my coach? I think it's very premature to suggest that Conte is going back to take over the national team.

26:25Pol Ballus: Okay. The teams that did finish in the top four were Comer and Roma. Comer we talked a little bit about before their 4-1 victory over Cremonese, by the way, confirming the side from Cremona's relegation. So back-to-back relegations for Jamie Vardy. We'll see how they do Comer with their building work over the summer. to see how they... One of the questions you mentioned about them earlier on was how, you know, where will they end up playing their Champions League fixtures? I presume there's not a... Is there a clear idea about that yet? Well,

27:00James Horncastle: Udine has been mentioned, but Udine is a long, long way away. Long way away. It's like four hours in the car.

27:05Pol Ballus: You've got an empty slot down at San Siro. Well,

27:08James Horncastle: yes, and Atalanta, when they first started qualifying for Champions League, they played at San Siro. Juve as well have played there in Champions League. Yes. Yes, James. Yes, they have. But in some of the discussions I've had with Coma, I haven't spoken to them recently about this, but already six weeks ago they were on track maybe to qualify for Champions League. They said, we'll find a workaround. Whether that workaround means staying at the Senegalia, we'll have to see. But yeah, I mean, they have traced the way forward, I think, for Italian football in many ways, particularly in terms of the style of play that Como have put into effect.

27:53James Horncastle: A lot of teams in Serie A play this kind of retrograde 3-5-2. it sounds funny but like if you play 4-3-3 with actual attacking wingers it's almost like a cheat code um in in city yeah so um yeah more power to them absolutely good to see teams playing good

28:11Pol Ballus: football getting into the good positions and you'd say the same for gasperini's roma would you certainly the second goal of the probably both goals actually in their 2-0 victory over helas Verona on the weekend, which confirmed third spot, were nice. But the second one in particular with Dybala kind of channeling his inner Francesco Totti with a backheel and Steven El-Sharawi then finishing.

28:35James Horncastle: Magnificent, James, because Dybala has kind of come back and played extraordinarily well in the last three games. And Roma have been on a tear. They've got 15 points from the last 15 available. So they really put pressure on the likes of Juventus and Milan. and that goal was gorgeous because Dybala is out of contract and Gasparini was like well I hope we can get a deal done for him to stay because you know as Mourinho used to say with Dybala on the pitch it's different music and for him to set up El Suari who is definitely leaving and it was quite poetic because El Shuari was given his debut as a teenager by Giampio Gasparini at Genoa and he was given his debut in Verona at the Bentigodi where they played last night and he scored that goal and he had promised that he would score the goal that would get Roma into the Champions League.

29:33James Horncastle: That's a big promise. He kept his word and after seven years and a billion euros spent the freaking group have finally got a club into the Champions League.

29:42Pol Ballus: Well done to them. Tom, technically speaking, didn't keep his word because the more decisive goal was the first. They would have qualified anyway. All right, let's talk about the first goal. And it was a big one because it was scored by arguably the signing of the season anywhere in Europe. Daniel Marlon, who pitched up in January, had 18 games, scored in 14 of them.

30:04James Horncastle: Yeah, I would have made, I did my team of the year for the Athletic last week. and I did toy with making Marlon like the the player of the year which for someone who joined in the middle of January um is yeah that was the only thing that gave me pause for thought because he's played half a season um and yeah I think only Kane has scored more goals in that time frame um he's broken all kinds of records in terms of in his first I don't know 18 games however many goals he scored 14 and um yeah it's like more precocious than batist duta blah blah blah um but he has been the difference particularly um between roma and i would say juventus and milan in that position because juventus johnson david has largely flopped append is largely flopped vlajevic has been out injured he scored a brace on sunday night in the turin derby but he's He has been on the sidelines for much of this season.

31:03James Horncastle: And then Milan, they tried to address this in January, as Roma did when they signed Marlon to basically replace Evan Ferguson. And Milan signed Nicholas Fulcrug. And who else did they sign? They signed someone else. But they just decided not to play. Oh, they tried to sign Mateta. And looked at his medical and were like, we don't fancy his knee. and so they played Christian Pulisic and Rafa Leal up front who are two wingers and it looks like the team that has the striker who scores goals well that qualifies for you for the Champions League and that was Roma with Doniel Marlin

31:40Pol Ballus: There you go, Jalorossi back in the Champions League for the first time in seven years Very good, that's Serie A Next up, we're off to La Liga

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33:52Pol Ballus: La Liga, Paul. Alright, first of all, we're recording this on a Monday afternoon and the Spanish World Cup squad has just dropped. Paul, any big headlines from it? I mean, I guess that there's a huge headline, which is no Real Madrid player is going to be included in the Spanish squad for the first time in their World Cup history. Wow. It's not, let me add a small caveat, which is in the Euros of 2021, Luis Enrique didn't call up a Real Madrid player either. But that was not a World Cup. So if we go back to 1930, all the World Cups, Spain has been a part of. There was a Real Madrid player, not now.

34:36Amazing. How's that gone down there? I mean, that's gone down quite harshly, but in a way, it's a reflection of the season that Real Madrid has had. Madrid tried to revert it last summer by signing some young neo-Spanish players like Dean Hausson, like Álvaro Carreras Dani Carvajal was the captain of this Spain team but yeah, just as bad as it's been for Real Madrid this season it's also been for all these young players because Álvaro Carreras is nowhere near to be in contention for the left-back role and Dean Hausson has been possibly the biggest surprise But his season has not been amazing. And I would say that Marc Povil and Eric Garcia are deserved owners of this spot.

35:23Pol Ballus: OK, well, the lack of any Spanish national team players from Real Madrid has become itself a bit of a political football there in Madrid, where the Real Madrid presidential candidate, Frentino Perez's rival, Enrique Hikelmi, has put out public statements blaming Perez for this and saying our rivals dominate the Spanish roster. If you vote for me, I'm going to change all that. Can you tell us anything more about Raquelmi? Is he a real threat to Perez when the elections finally come around? Right now, it's difficult to see that he can be a real threat. But in his favour, there's the compelling list of arguments that he can make after the last couple of seasons to try to oppose to Florentino Beria.

36:02I think the way that he's being seen right now is more like he's putting his name into the scene. He's being known right now. And I think that the pressure that Valentino Perez did some weeks ago helped him into that course because he was practically unknown in the Real Madrid world, speaking about fans and the more common people that follow the club. And after this pressure, he gained this reputation and he's made an effort to gather all the bank warranty and all the requirements that are needed to be in this process. poor, I still struggle to see a huge competition for Florentino Pérez. And people inside the club and around Florentino Pérez, behind closed doors, they still believe that having an election is just going to help him to make his power even more blatant and even more evident.

36:54Okay.

36:54Pol Ballus: Any other news about the Spanish national team before we move on to the last round of action in La Liga? No, I would say that the biggest surprises have been on defence, as we mentioned, in Housen out, Lenormand out. And then up front, there's La Minya Mal, who's the big star now, and who's going to miss the opener? And then there's Nico Williams, who's got a bad season, but De La Fuente is not going to let him miss the World Cup. He's such an important player for him. So yeah, let's see how it goes. I think that Spain, in my view, and maybe I'm biased, they might be the biggest candidates to win this World Cup.

37:29Do you think? I think so. I think so

37:32Pol Ballus: Tom's Tom's looking a bit surprised at that one We'll be doing a I can see why I can see why But hey It's a fan of European champions And they We forget how completely They blew everyone away At the last Euros How comfortably Better than everyone else They were So Yeah Okay Alright We'll be doing a big We're doing a couple of big World Cup previews Of course In the course of next week Before we all get on the plane ourselves. Now, on to the Liga then. La Liga, as you insist on calling it, Paul. Final day, so more drama in Madrid as Atletico Madrid got thumped 5-1 by Villarreal and thus lost third place in La Liga to them.

38:20Pol Ballus: Wow. Yep. Yeah, yeah. Not that they care that much, in my opinion. I think that Simeone, in a way, after the game, He said that they gave up La Liga many times of this season, given the space that they had towards Real Betis behind them, that they had other competition to focus. Atletico Madrid, as you said, they were battered by Villarreal for one at halftime, which is a no-contact show. But what stood after this game was the quotes that Simone gave in the mix zone where he was asked about Julian Alvarez and the future of his biggest star in the team. and he said something like, I don't know what Julian wants to do, but I'm sure that he's old enough and he might have an idea in his head.

39:07So let's see what happens. Which has launched a bit. Like, oh, okay, what's going to happen around here? And the debate and the name dropping of Julian Alvarez here in Spanish media is just not ceasing anytime soon.

39:22Pol Ballus: Okay. Real Betis also made the Champions League in fifth spot. that's their first time in the competition since far away 2005-06 when they were in Chelsea, Liverpool and Anderlecht's group now less fortunate were Girona and Mallorca who both ended up going down alongside Real Oviedo to the 2nda division Girona had a 1-1 draw with Elche on the final day needing a win to stay up Mallorca poor chaps a bit like West Ham they won 3-0 this weekend but it didn't matter because of their head-to-head records so down they go as well Osasuna stayed up though even though they lost 1-0 away at Getafe and this was a terrific game and a terrific post game as well as both sets of fans staged a pitch invasion with the away team actually celebrating away in the middle because they'd stayed up and Getafe got into what?

40:22Pol Ballus: The Conference League Yeah, yeah, yeah So there's a lot to unfold here. Like, just to start, I think we mentioned it last week, the biggest game of the weekend in Spain was the Girona Elche. Because whichever team managed to win, they would have been saved. And the team who lost was about to be relegated. It was a draw that was bad for Girona because they were below Elche in the standings. And the funny or cruel thing, if you want to call it that way, is that the goal that sent Girona to the second tier was scored by a guy who was born next to Girona, which was Álvaro Rodríguez, a guy who was born in Palamó, the city which is really close to Girona.

41:04And yeah, there's been a lot of criticism around the club of the squad having lost its local soul, the lack of local players. And it's been a local player who sent them to the second division, which is a huge blow for the project, a blow for the city football group, because Girona, in a way, they had become a sort of preferred destination for Man City to send their upcoming stars. I'm thinking about Savinho, who is now at Manchester City. Vito Reis was long in their decision, and Claudio Echeverri played in there too. So yeah, let's see what happens. They are going to be big contenders to go up next season from the second tie, but it's going to be tough.

41:42Then you mentioned the case of Mallorca, which pretty much, I think that everyone in Mallorca had assumed that it was almost the impossible job. for them to be saved in this final game week. And then the funny thing was the Osasuna-Getafe game. And I want to focus on Getafe, actually, because Getafe, they're going to go to the Conference League. They finish seven. And in 38 games of the league, they have scored 32 goals, basically less than a goal per game. And that was enough for them just to get into European spots. Just hats off to Bordalas, to Jose Bordalas, to their manager, which in a team that is really limited with the resources they had to sell their best player on deadline day Cristian Tuzuche to Crystal Palace because they had no money to register new signings.

42:33Basically they got to the conference league which is quite historical for the club. And yeah, a remarkable season for them. Absolutely.

42:42Pol Ballus: The team they pipped for seventh spot and thus that ECL place Well, Rayo Vallecano are, of course, in this year's final of the Conference League, where they're going to be taking on Crystal Palace, the aforementioned Eagles. This weekend, Rayo with a 2-1 win away to Alaves. What do you think of their chances of stopping a Premier League team, of spoiling the Premier League's chances of an emploi? I think that they are there. Yeah? I think that they have their, yeah. Because there's a special vibe, a special atmosphere in this club. They lose a lot by not playing at home, like every team. But I think that going to Vallecas is especially difficult or really particular for any team who goes there.

43:25But there's this feeling of being a one-off moment in the history of this club. This is one of the most limited, financially speaking, clubs in La Liga. There's a sense of brotherhood in that dressing room togetherness. I don't know if you saw one of the things. I was considering having this as my moment of the week. But this week, there's been a group of Riot fans who basically got scammed buying bus tickets to go to the final in Leipzig, basically. And it was the own players who basically stepped up. The fans launched crowdfunding. And the Riot players paid basically the whole batch for all the fans fans that lost their money and that wasted their money for the providers of that bus.

44:15They just basically paid the bus and did just anything that they can for as much... Royal Vallecano fans can go to Leipzig, just go there and cheer for them because they know that it's going to be a unique moment for the neighbourhood of Vallecas, which is a really special place, a really working-class area in Madrid, and one of the most special stadiums for me to visit if you want to watch football in Spain.

44:36Pol Ballus: Would you call Vallecas the the kind of the Norwood of Madrid. How much similarity, how many parallels can you make between Crystal Palace, say, and Rayo Vallecano? I think that it's even smaller than like Norwood. And it's, yeah, it's even more special, even more particular. There's a sense of being the site of Madrid that it's been a bit forgotten. Right. Totally different than Norwood. Similar climate. Similar climate, similar culture. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. okay who should we keep our eye on from the Vallecano players I would tell you to keep an eye on Jorge de Frutos a really good player he went with the Spain national team I think three months ago he didn't have a huge role but he went there then Ratio the right back I think he's a right back that he can play in a much better side he could play like in big six in the Premier League easily in my opinion and then yeah I would tell you just to keep an eye on Sergio Camello which is the striker there's a big chance that he doesn't start he's in a great form right now he's scoring goals for fun but he's not the starting striker but he's a particular character he's a really fun guy and he's a bit of how to say like a bohemian like he loves his breathing he loves his cinema and in the past couple of weeks his letterbox account has been leaked and like the reveals of films that he's put in there are just really fun and really hilarious.

46:12Yeah, yeah. And he's become a fan favourite because of that.

46:15James Horncastle: Excellent. All right. Well, they'll be taking on Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening, Tom. I was trying to find if South Norwood was twinned with anywhere in Spain. Right. But the Wikipedia page left me none the wiser. All right. So it's been forgotten. Still open. Any South Norwood residents in any different, let us know.

46:32Pol Ballus: Wow. There you go. Some other cup news Cup final related news. Got the Pokal with a word from Seb Stafford-Bloor and the Coupe de France, which you kind of did already, Tom. And also the extraordinary events in Portugal as well. Anyway, all that sort of thing coming up next.

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49:42Pol Ballus: Saturday night in Berlin, it was the Pokal final by Munich against Stuttgart and a 3-0 win for the Bavarians. Seb Stafford-Blo is here to tell us more. Yeah, Bayern completed their domestic double hat-trick for Harry Kane, 59th, 60th and 61st goal of the club season. An amazing record. Interesting match actually because for 45 minutes Stuttgart were definitely in it. And while you consider probably Bayern Munich likely to win 9 out of every 10 games between the two teams, this was one of the nights when you thought they might be able to get a result. They weren't at their very, very best. they're still suffering from Serge Gnabry's injury Jermon Mazzardo isn't quite sinking with the attack in the way that Gnabry did but then after the break after the break Bayern turned on the power Bayern turned on the power really really impressive the moment that actually changed the game was a Michael Lisset cross which came headed in at the back post really kind of typical of Lisset's season and how impactful he's been because he was doubled down the right side two defenders both ushering him onto his right onto his right, weaker foot.

50:51Still managed to get to the byline. Perfect cross to the back post. There's Kane. Can't miss. And yeah, Bayern thoroughly deserved to win by the end. They were dominant. And yeah, fitting reward for just a magnificent season. And for Kane in particular, because his all-round effect has been something to behold. There's actually a moment about 86 minutes into the game where it was won, it was over. Stuttgart were fashioning a late attack down the right side and Kane made a block about four yards off his own goal line and Lothar Mateus, who was doing co-commentary, just loved it. Absolutely loved it.

51:29Kind of emblematic of just the range of Kane's influence this season. And yeah, man of the match, hat-trick ball, another trophy. Yeah, what he deserves from this season.

51:41Pol Ballus: Sib-Stephan Bloor. Very good. On the subject of cup finals, quite remarkable scenes in Portugal where this happened.

52:14The name of Torres Vedras, Torriense, is in front of the final when it's left 5-6 minutes for the finish.

52:22Pol Ballus: That's the Portuguese Cup final. That was second tier Torrenci beating Sporting Club de Portugal 2-1 after extra time. It's the very first time that a lower league team has beaten a top team in the final in the competition's history. Torrenci celebrated, but not too much because they, on Thursday, have got the second leg of their promotion relegation playoff against Casapia. The first leg was a nil-nil, so they're very much in the mix for possibly getting promotion as well. What a week that would be for Torrense. But they'll certainly, whatever happens with that, be playing in the Europa League next season.

52:57Pol Ballus: Extraordinary. The Portuguese Cup is the first trophy that they've ever won in their 109 years of history, which is not that surprising when you realise that they play in a town just north of Lisbon in a stadium that holds 2 ,500 spectators. Crikey. Incidentally, the player who we heard taking the penalty which won them, the first cup in their history, et cetera, and so on, was a guy called Stopira, who only about six days before had got his first call-up for Tom. What's it called? No. Colombia? No. Stopira, Stopira. Yes, but it went viral because his teammates filmed it in a changing room. Yeah.

53:37He's going to the World Cup. He's on the plane.

53:39Pol Ballus: Curacao, man. So close. Heighty? Paul? I would say.

53:46James Horncastle: Cape Verde boy? Yes, Cape Verde! Good. Yeah. All right. I advise anyone who's not seen the footage to look it up. It is heartwarming. Is it? Same in the change room. And I guess the Cape Verde coach is reading down the list. Right. And it gets closer and closer to the moment. Oh, that's good.

54:03Pol Ballus: Because I need one of those after watching the really tragic scenes of Jean-Pedro's family gathered. Yeah. You don't usually see that side of it. When you're seeing players sitting down with their families waiting for the call, 99 times out of 100, their name is read out. So that was bleak. Yeah, really. At least Chelsea had a great season.

54:26James Horncastle: I did like how they announced he was their player of the year sort of 15 minutes after that went viral, his non-selection for Brazil. I thought it was quite a human and empathetic moment from Chelsea, not something you've come to associate this ownership group necessarily with. They could have used the moment of his non-announcement as the inspiration for their own player of the year announcement. Read out all the Chelsea players who aren't player of the season, because who is? It's Jean-Pedro. And then cut to the family.

54:58Pol Ballus: Yeah, that would have been a lovely thing. Right, okay, Tom, you've already told us about the Coupe de France. What more could there possibly be? Well, I just want to say the long story this season, is I think one of the best and most heartwarming stories of the last 25, 30 years in French football. And I think this season, when we look back on it in years to come, if indeed we do, will be remembered as the last season. Yes, they didn't win the league, but they chased PSG all the way. They won the Coupe de France final and did it in fantastic fashion. So we have discussed, Florian Thauvin puts them ahead, then tees up Odson-Edouard to head in their second goal and they're completely in control.

55:39Nice pull a goal back in first half stoppage time through 17-year-old Jibril Koulibaly. And all of a sudden it got a little bit tense. It looked like Lons were just cruising. Nice rallied at the start of the second half, hit the crossbar through Antoine Mendy. So it looked like they were wobbling a little bit, but they held firm. And then Abdallah Sima ran through and towed in the third goal about 30 minutes from the end. So the Lons players and the fans could finally relax, enjoy the moment. And then after the game, they jumped on the team bus and went straight to Stade Bollert, where all the fans had been watching on big screen.

56:19And at four o 'clock in the morning, Pierre Sage, the Lance coach, leads the players back out onto the pitch. And some people had gone home because it was four o 'clock in the morning. But there were thousands of people in the stadium and they had this like big old party, classic open top bus parade the day after. and yeah, just the most fitting end to the season for this fantastic team, this fantastically coached team who've produced so many feel-good moments this season. And now they've got a Champions League campaign to get excited about. Piaçage has confirmed that he is going to stay. There was a little bit of doubt as to whether he might be lured away, but he's staying.

57:00And yeah, the Lens fairy tale ends in perfectly fitting fashion.

57:04Pol Ballus: Excellent, excellent. And Nice, meanwhile, beaten in this game 3-1, have a perhaps even bigger match coming up for them later this week. Or two, in fact. They've got the relegation promotion playoff for them not to go down or for Saint -Étienne to come up. That's the question. The two legs happening on Tuesday and Friday of this week. Yes, that is correct. And actually, Nice gave a better account of themselves than I think people expected. I mean, Leicester were strong favourites. ended up winning reasonably comfortably, but Nice did produce a decent performance. But yeah, I mean, it will all be immaterial depending on the outcome of the relegation playoff.

57:46Saint-Etienne, one of the most historic names in French football, who were relegated at the end of last season, who've changed coach. So when they went down, it was with a Norwegian guy called Eric Horneland at the helm, who tried to bring some sort of, you know, dynamic front foot football to the club didn't really work they turned to Philippe Montagnier former Nostig and Forrest coach they were in the mix for automatic promotion for quite a long time eventually fell away but they are now in the yeah the relegation slash promotion playoff final and yeah Nice will have their work out of there to avoid slipping into Ligue 2.

58:28Pol Ballus: All right so one last thing next Saturday I noticed that Paris Saint-Germain are taking on arsenal there's been injury concerns over the likes of hakimi and usman dembele how are they looking the parisians so they were in action themselves over the weekend uh but uh in a an in-house friendly at the training session that fans were invited to go along and watch and yeah the main news was that ashraf hakimi was not involved uh he limped off in the first leg of the semi-final against Bayern Munich with a thigh injury. He's due to return to training this week because he trained individually over the weekend but I think that has to be a fairly sizable question mark over the chances of him starting.

59:15Jusman Dembele who went off in PSG's final league game away at Paris FC with another calf issue seems to be a bit more positivity around his chances of being in the starting 11. If Hakimi misses out chances are that Wahine Zayemi will will be asked to fill in. And he did so exceptionally in the second leg against Bayern. And that will also make it slightly easier for Luis Enrique to decide on who to align in midfield because Fabian Ruiz is now back fit, giving Luis Enrique the possibility of realigning last season's midfield three of Vitinha, Joao Neves and Fabian Ruiz. But Zayah Meri has played more minutes for PSG than anyone else this season, has been brilliant.

59:57So it looked like it was going to be a battle between him and Ruiz. as it turns out he might end up starting Zayemarim but right back so yes watch this space

1:00:07Pol Ballus: Excellent very good on Thursday we'll be back with the Totally Football Show reacting to the Europa Conference League the night before and also of course looking forward to the big game in Budapest but that brings us to the end of today's edition many many thanks to Paul Belus to Tom Williams to James Horncastle producers Lucy and Xavi and to you listener as we mentioned this is the final Euro show of the campaign so many thanks to your company through these long months but do stay around with us through the summer as we wrap up all the cup finals and that and then of course get into the big thing happening in the United States.

1:00:48Pol Ballus: For now though from all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:00:55You've been listening to the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Football Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

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