Huge week for Slot and Alonso in the Champions League

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30This is Club Rock Up at San Siro. We look ahead to the midweek games, get more reactions to Friday's World Cup draw and hear all the rest of the weekend's news. Napoli-Juventus, the return of the Nord Derby and why Hamburg want to free Voskovic. It's the Totally Football Show.

0:52Monday the 8th of December and off we go with another Euro Poderoo. James Horncastle is with us. Hey James. Hello. Morning to you. Paul Belous as well from sunny Spain. Hello, hello. Bom dia. Buenos dias, Alstead. And good morning, Slipstopper. Good morning, Herr Richardson. All right. How do you say, how are you? Vigates. With an inflection at the end. Of course. Of course. No jokes for us today, but loads for us to talk about. But not least, hey, last Friday's World Cup draw, what was the reaction? In Spain, Italy, Germany, to the World Cup, asterisk, perspective, in Italy's case, World Cup groups.

1:39Paul? Yeah, no, I think it was quite positive in Spain, if that's the word that you can use. They see a group that should be feasible to go through with all the teams that they could face. They are quite happy with it. The only caveat is that there's no room in a way to slip up because if you finish second, you're going to match up against Argentina, most likely, with the team at the top of the group in the Argentina group. So that's a bit of a caveat. So if things like go normally, possibly Uruguay is going to face Argentina in the next round, which is quite tasty. Well, that would be tasty, eh?

2:15Spain's group, Group H, Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay. Germany in Group E, along with Curaçao, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador. How'd they feel about that? They called that Nagelsmann's nightmare, didn't they, Bill? Yeah, they went a bit overboard. I mean, they're nervous because of what happened in 2018 and 2022, back-to-back group stage exits. But Nagelsmann said it's perfectly achievable, it's not an easy group, and I don't think it will suit them. There's some tests in there, some good opponents, the little bit of security you'd imagine with Curaçao, I guess. being such a small nation and a debutant nation.

2:52But I think they would have taken that. Now that Germany's sorted out their centre-forward problem, all looking sunny. And then Italy, whose group is Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wales and Northern Ireland. James, in the playoffs in March. And if you get through that, tasty Group B with Qatar, Canada and Switzerland. Now, OK, Switzerland, some bad memories from the last Euros. But otherwise, that looks, oh, it's tantalizing. It is tantalizing. But I think Gigi Buffon, who is now their kind of head of delegation or sporting director, whatever role you want to give him at the Italian Football Federation, has said, you know, one game at a time, lads.

3:34You know, let's focus on Northern Ireland and that's it. The Italian media, however, have got very excited by this. They're like, we have to be there now because that group is, for a team that is in pot four, which the italians used that to attack fifa tino as they're now calling him because jenny infantino is now more loyal to fifa than he is to the to the country of his home nation italy even though he's swiss and so they i think they thought it was a very good draw considering what they could have got having said that it's a draw that they they still need to win two games to be a part of. So we could be talking about how, is it a good draw for Northern Ireland?

4:21Is it a good draw for Wales? Is it a good draw for Bosnia rather than the Italians? Right, okay. Still, if they do get through, Qatar, Canada and Switzerland, that's got to be the easiest group since they drew, what, Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. Do you remember that in 2010? That went brilliantly, didn't it? Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. I mean, they haven't qualified obviously since 2014, but they haven't got out of the group since 2006. so. Boy did they get out of the group then. Anyway lots to look forward to Italy's playoffs will be 26th of March and the 31st of March as indeed will all the playoffs first and decisive games we're looking forward to those.

5:01Meanwhile loads of exciting league football and champions league football to talk about today how about a moment of the week Seb? Yeah my real moment of the week is actually Luka Buzkovic's score pin kick but we had a bit too much Hamburg last week So I'm going to go to the Zviderbundsliga and Hertha Berlin against Magdeburg over the weekend. Now, Magdeburg have had a really tough season, really struggled away from home, and they secured only their second away win, their first since August in the 99th minute. Ray and Grabe scored, and he made off towards the traveling Magdeburg fans at the Olympia Stadion off across the running track and then jumped across the hoarding just in front of the guest block.

5:40What he didn't know, three meter gap between the hoarding and the fans. And he just vanished. Smagdeburg! 2-0!

5:50Oh, God! Have you ever seen the hardcore parkour episode of The Office, the US Office, where it just jumps through the box? It was like that. And so Greb just vanishes and then sort of climbs up sheepishly later. He was absolutely fine, no injury. But then as he was walking back to the center circle, the referee rather humulously booked him. It's his fifth yellow card of the season and he's suspended next week. Wow. How deep was the trench that he fell into, Seb? Three metres. Three metres deep? Three metres and it's concrete. How did he survive that without any injury? Well, there's no footage of how he landed, but he must have landed on his feet and he was fine.

6:29He wasn't limping or anything when he came back. I think he was more embarrassed than anything, as you would be. But when he first fell, you could see the faces of the supporters right at the front of the guest block and there's some concern but then quickly everybody was laughing and smiling and it was clear that everyone was there was no injury but yeah he didn't do his due diligence on the um on the stadium architecture yeah wow what a moment paul what about you i mean i wanted to bring you some moment of the week related to anthony because i was in sevilla in la cartuja this weekend watching barcelona playing in there but i think that last night basically blew up all the plans because I'm just going to stay with Willard Swedberg, Sweden international, just walking his way inside the Santiago Bernabeu's goal to just basically blow everything up at Real Madrid.

7:18It's crisis time in there, or it's a dramatic time. We're going to speak about that later on because they face Manchester City midweek, which is going to be a bit of a clash in there. And Xavi Alonso's situation is tense after losing against Celta de Vigo last night. Yeah, losing 2-0 at home to Celta Vigo, who hadn't won there in 18 years. And Williott Swetberg walking it in for that second goal. Right. All right. Yeah, much more to come on Real Madrid. Crisis club, Real Madrid. James, what about you? Well, so going into the weekend, there were still a couple of winless teams in Italy, but now there's only one, and that is still Fiorentina.

8:02Fiorentina who got in front against Sassuolo. They got a penalty, put it away. There's some feeling that the tension would ease after that, but no, Fiorentina lost 3-1. I think we spoke last week about how if you haven't won by this stage of the season, which is the sort of thing like Benevento did maybe five or six years ago, then you are kind of destined to go down but the team that is no longer winless is Hellas Verona who if anyone saw this game it was difficult to see because there was just so much fog which is maybe why Atalanta lost 3-1. Atalanta who recently sort of in the past week picked up some real form under Raffaella Palladino which sort of deserted them in this game but some really nice goals from Verona who We've got one of the best young players in the league whose name just happens to be young because his name is Giovane and he's a Brazilian.

9:00So look out for him because he'll probably get a move up to another club in the summer. Excellent. Atalanta will be taking on Chelsea this week in the Champions League. All right. Speaking of which, what are the fixtures that we're looking forward to as we head into matchday six of the league phase? Tuesday, you've got Bayern Munich taking on Sporting. Atalanta, as mentioned, hosts Chelsea. Atletico Madrid, who had a rough week beaten by Barcelona, and then this weekend by Athletic, will be off at PSV, who's suddenly looking very dangerous indeed. Barcelona host Eintracht Inter will get a visit from Liverpool at San Siro.

9:41The Spurs are up against Slavia Prague, who haven't won in a long, long time in this competition. Leverkusen host Newcastle on Wednesday, Real Madrid up against Man City. Arsenal take their wobbly away form to Club Brugge. And Athletic Bilbao face PSG on Thursday. All sorts of delights, including Celtic Roma, a Roma side who all of a sudden, Well, we knew they couldn't score goals. They couldn't beat the big sides. But all of a sudden, they can't beat the little ones either, James. They lost a calorie this weekend. How are they looking for Thursday's visit to Celtic? I mean, they enjoyed their last trip to Scotland where they played Rangers.

10:20I mean, yes, they've lost back-to-back games. But one of those games was against Napoli in a sort of early indicator of what a title decider might look like. this was the most surprising defeat of their losses because as you mentioned they've only really lost to the big team so far this season they were down to 10 men for essentially 45 minutes in this game but they didn't really play well before that and they're as much as Roma still have the best defense in City and one of the best defenses in Europe this problem that it's sort of been managing in attack where they're not scoring enough goals is becoming something that they absolutely have to address in january if they are to be still in the title race come april and may because you can't just keep playing these gnomes in attack you know they need evan ferguson to do something ferguson came on this game had one of the only two chances roma had and sort of really looked awkward and sort of fell over himself and still had the ball then fell over himself again but yeah that's something that has to be resolved if they are to to still be in the title race I think they'll be fine against Celtic frankly so let's see I mean Caleri a great week for them we should mention I mean they they played Napoli in the Coppa Italia and they took Napoli to penalties where they they only lost 9-8 they've got some really good young Italian players and a good promising coach in Pisa Cane as well.

11:51So we shouldn't diminish Caleri who got, yeah, it was their first win in two and a half months, but they've been pretty awkward opponent teams that have faced them so far this season. Okay. Celtics clash with Roma coming up on Thursday. Before that, all sorts of Champions League delights. Paul's already touched on the big news coming out of Spain with Real Madrid's latest mishap and perhaps worst moment yet of this season. So let's begin today's show with their prospects at home to Man City on Wednesday. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

12:42William Swetberg, crazy name, crazy guy, and a crazy ending to that game at the Bernabeu, 92nd minute, walking it into the net, a complete humiliating evening for the Marengues. Two men sent off, three actually, if you count Enrique, who got a red card on the bench, and the headlines the next morning. Yeah, no, it's been quite mad to see the reaction. I think that after the game, it was four questions to Xavi Alonso in the post-match press conference asking about his future. If he felt that he was in serious danger to be sacked, if he understood that the fans were considering if he was the right man for the job, and if he felt that on Wednesday he's basically playing for his place against Man City.

13:24There's also the caveat that it's Pep Guardiola coming to Santiago Bernabeu. So if Pep Guardiola does what he did in the past, it's a sort of a fantasy that all Barca fans are having at the minute. Just seeing Pep Guardiola winning in there and just creating another bit of fireworks in the Santiago Bernabeu. But yeah, no, the performance was bad. First 60 minutes, Celta de Vigo were just a better team. Then I think that Real Madrid improved when they found themselves with 10 men, because Fran Garcia was a bit silly, in my opinion. Just he saw two yellow cards in one minute. In Xavi Alonso's opinion as well, his reaction as Fran Garcia comes off is very bleep-worthy.

14:03Yeah, Fran, no me jodas. But then I think that round really had a go at the game, and they played there. But yeah, it all went down south. When Álvaro Carreras had another go at the referee and the words that he threw at the referee, which were not that bad, but just a sort of thing that the referees are not taking this season. He basically told the referee that he was so bad, really, really bad. And the referee decided that he was good enough to send him off. And it's what he did. But the headlines the next day, Marca, Madrid is lost, Desquisiados, they've lost their heads. As goes with La Dia de la Bestia, Day of the Beast, but I'm guessing there's some significance beyond that, and panic at the Bernabeu.

14:45we should talk about the fantastic performance from Swettberg and Celta in general they hadn't won at the Bernabeu in 19 years I said 18 before it was actually 19 they're the first team apart from Barcelona to beat Real by two goals at theirs since 2019 and two magnificent goals as well I mean the second one the nonchalant walking it in but the first one was a glorious back heel kind of deflection flick thing. Yeah, yeah, sort of a scorpion, well, in a way, like from the side side of kick. I mean, it speaks quite badly of how Real Madrid defended. I think it was really poor because he was on his own in the box in a way that you don't expect that from Real Madrid happening.

15:27But yeah, Celta de Vigo deserves a lot of credit. I think that we spoke last season on the pod about Claudio Giraldez and the manager. I praised him and I think that he's a really top, top manager, top manager. What he's doing at Celta de Vigo is one of those teams that is like self-made. You can tell that there's like the manager's hand in there, really intense, really involved tactically. He's switching things all the time, in-game as well, switching systems. It's impossible to catch a line-up because he changes all the profiles depending on the opponent that they are just facing. And it's a team filled with academy players, filled with players from Almadroa, from just Galicia, Celta fans.

16:05So I think that Celta, are seeing like one of the best generations they've seen in years. And yet this season, I think that they've been struggling a bit more because they play Europa League as well. So the amount of games they have, it's been more difficult for them just to handle and just to have all the players available. But yeah, whenever they have the chance and they can set up like a proper game plan, and given the fact that Real Madrid are a team right now, that it's easier to take on because they are not in perfect form. Yeah, I think it was the perfect platform for them. And Claudio Geraldo and his team just delivered us in the best fashion that they could.

16:38Absolutely. For Real Madrid, the bad news includes the fact that Ede Militao went off injured again in this match. They do have a decent record against Man City in the competition. This is, what, the fifth season in a row they've met, and they've put them out in the last two seasons. And the season before that, there was that big Man City 4-0 win against Real Madrid at the Etihad. But this time around, with a lot of talk of the red cards being a sign that indiscipline is rife in the team, that Xavi's lost control of this side. How real is this notion that Wednesday Xavi is actually fighting for his position?

17:12I think it's quite real in the fact that there's serious doubts around Xavi Alonso. There's been a lot of reports of the disconnection he has with the team, the sort of rows that he's had with big stars. It's something that is still going. He's been a bit more diplomatic over the past few weeks, like making the lineups which are most likely expected, leaving the manager's touch to more of an approach of like being a Real Madrid manager, more like a political sort of figure. But yeah, no, the doubts are big. The doubts are big because the team doesn't seem to be able to translate what the manager wants to do.

17:46And as I said, there were already four questions in the post-match press conference asking Xavi Alonso if he felt that he was playing for his future on Wednesday. And I think it can be the case if the defeat is really, really bad. I think it can be the case that, yeah, Real Madrid just take action or do something else because the atmosphere around the club is tense right now. Okay. Any of the players under fire in the Sermoy is Xavi himself. There's been a lot of scrutiny, of course, like with the stars, with the way Benitez performed, the way Bellingham performed. I think he didn't have a great game last night either.

18:20Rodrigo, who has not been scoring for the last 30 games. But yeah, no, I think it's more like a general shambles around the club, seeing that everything is just malfunctioning. and yeah you mentioned the name of Edermilitao by the way which is a massive massive massive blow. Real Madrid have no defences available basically to play against Man City let's see who plays left back is going to be Alvaro Carreras because he's just suspended for La Liga but who plays right back who plays centre back. Edermilitao was the best defender by a distance at Real Madrid and the injury doesn't look good he might as well have surgery in the hamstring and he might miss the rest of the season or something like that.

18:57Wow so let's see how it goes but it Looks a bit bleak for Ranglund right now. Okay, Trent Alexander-Arnold also out for at least two months after picking up a thigh injury. Seb? Yeah, Paul, I just... When Xabi got to Leverkusen, for the first couple of months, it didn't go well there either. There were even people talking about him playing sort of Sean Dyche football because that's how stale a lot of the attacking processes were. Did they call it that in Germany? No, they called it... It caught on in England. I think a few people caught a few Leverkusen games and they were still at that stage in the autumn.

19:29they were kind of horseshoeing around the penalty box and there was no cohesion and there's no sort of dynamism a die shaft was that was the accent that just slays me um and then it was really only after the winter break and then in the summer when they kind of they altered the chemistry of their dressing room that things really took off properly i know obviously levercus and real madrid are worlds apart in so many different ways but is there any recognition of kind of hey maybe we need to adapt a little bit around Xabi as well. Or does Real Madrid not really work like that? Yeah, yeah, Real Madrid doesn't really work like that.

20:06Basically, that's the reply to that. There's a group of players which are really empowered. Florentino Perez has filled this model as well inside the club. And it's one of those cases that either you have to replace five, six players or you have to replace one man. And you know who is the easiest target in that regard. Yeah, I don't think that Florentino Perez is a big fan of really active managers in terms of tactically being really active, really involved. So that doesn't play in favour of Xavi Alonso, but let's see if he can turn the tables. I see it. I think that they have a chance to win against Man City, of course, but I'd say it's difficult right now to see Xavi Alonso engaging again with a group of players that he expected to.

20:48Oh, wow. They do always seem to turn it on when they take on City. Some remarkable games in the last few seasons, but what a key matchup this looks to be. Although I'm guessing that if he really were to be on the brink of dismissal, we might be hearing about some prospective replacements already. Is that fair, Paul? Yeah, that's fair. I think the biggest name, I've mentioned it in previous podcasts, but the biggest name that has been making the rounds on social media in the short of Tav is Zinedine Zidane as a temporary replacement. As a man just for the club, do it for the club, come in, do what you did the last time you did so because the last time that he came in mid-season, He won the Champions League, if I'm not wrong.

21:28So, yeah, it's like the name that has been broadly more discussed, but more like gossip going around rather than like a clear candidate for Florentino. OK. Real Madrid currently on 12 points in the Champions League in fifth spot. So in line for an automatic place in the knockout stages. Back in La Liga, meanwhile, what a turnaround there's been there because Barcelona, who six weeks ago after that big Clasico defeat at the hands of Real Madrid were five points behind the Marengues and now four points clear. Paul, you saw them extend their lead this weekend with that magnificent 5-3 win away to Real Betis.

22:11Yeah, exactly. And I think that they were really, really good. Really good. They were much closer to the version that we saw last season of Parca being really dominant, especially like up front being a really intense team. relentless high pressing and everything. And Barca are getting closer to that. One of the major tweaks or one of the biggest highlights of the game was that Lamin Jamal didn't play as a right winger. He played as a number 10 inside as an attacking midfielder. Because Barca had a lot of injuries in that position. Daniel was injured. Fermin Lopez was coming off after injury. And Rafinha got injured in training.

22:45Nothing important, but yeah. And Flick said, why not starting Lamin Jamal in there? And he was brilliant. He was really, really good. and you wonder if that's the next step in like la mince malprogression as a footballer if he's going to end up playing inside and being, yeah, a difference maker in there but that's possibly for another day because Barcelona were like really, really good 4-1 up at half-time Ferran Torres hat-trick Ronnie Bargi, which was a surprise signing in Soma scored a goal, an absolute and excellent goal delivered an assist and was involved in the setup of another goal so he was really good It was his biggest night as a Barca player.

23:23A guy that was signed for three million in summer. And now if you think that after that game, Barca would be able to sell him for 35, 40 million like to any random team. A pretty good night for Barcelona. Two weeks ago, Hansi Flick, after the Chelsea game, said in the press conference, said that he was really optimistic about this team, which was a quote that left all the Catalan journalists just staggered, basically. How on earth can you be optimistic after being outplayed by Chelsea here in Stamford Bridge in the way that you did. Well, two weeks after, he's been right because Barcelona has been in the best two weeks of the season beating Atletico de Madrid and André Albetis in great form.

24:00Yeah, last midweek, the 3-1 victory of Atletico Madrid, which saw, though, Dani Omo dislocating his shoulder in the course of scoring one of the goals. Poor chap. He'll be up for how long? At least a month. So maybe we'll see him next year. All right. Seb? Yeah, I had some really bug-aggy trivia, actually, because I went up to do some work with FC Copenhagen just after he joined the club and they produced this in-house documentary about his rise through their academy and into their first team. And there was a point where obviously he's Swedish and he was going to school in Sweden and training in Denmark at the same time.

24:39He would just make that train journey every week. He's a really, really interesting person. He's had a very interesting background. It's really well worth watching that. It's still on YouTube now and I think it's like five or six parts, but it's a lot of fun. It's kind of the making of him, basically. Is it true that he's named after Onion? Sorry, Wayne. Yeah, so this is in dispute. So he's called Rooney, his brother is called Ryan. And for a long time, it was said that they were named after the two Manchester United players. And that was kind of true for a while. And when he broke through, I think he started to crack back against it and say, oh, no, no, it's just, you know, it's a coincidence.

25:14Don't know, don't know, Sean. What coincidence is his parents called him Rooney and his brother Ryan? apparently so yeah but it's not spelt as in gigs it's r-a-y-a-n so it's not quite the same but he was also he grew up as a barcelona fan there's a um in that documentary there's a picture of him training with his father was originally from kuwait i think um and they're this tiny pitch by the side of the house where he used to him and his dad used to kick around a football and he's maybe about two and a half foot tall the ball is kind of over his knees he's so small and He's got his Barcelona kit on.

25:47He was kind of, grew up idolizing Messi and watching him on YouTube and learning how to do the things that Messi and Neymar did. He would see it on YouTube and then go and practice it. And so that's kind of, he's one of those sort of self-made footballers. He's fascinating. You basically destroyed my next comment now because I was about to say that like in the Pope quiz sort of thing that this is going to unfold in the future, Rony Baradji turned out to be the first player born in Cubay to score in La Liga. So he, Swedish, of course, but he was born in Kuwait and he's the first ever to score in La Liga.

26:19I don't think I destroyed your part. I think that's great trivia in its own right, Paul. I think I stood up. I think we both contributed to that segment. That's right. I'm going to take that. Excellent. Rony Bajie, good week for Barcelona. Will it continue on Tuesday night when they host Andra Frankfurt in the first Champions League game at the Camp Nou in over three years? Barcelona have got an actually surprisingly dismal record in the Champions League of late. They've only won two of their last eight fixtures in the competition. However, Eintracht Frankfurt, they got beaten by Atalanta 3-0 last time.

26:53And this weekend, Seb, a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Leipzig. Yeah, got monstered. Absolutely ruined by Leipzig. Yandy and Mandi scored a hat-trick, but I think that really doesn't describe just how dominant Ebi Leipzig were. And it was kind of the high-water mark for this next generation of Leipzig talents they played ever so well and doing with without uh asana drago who's injured who might be the brightest star of them all potentially eintracht i'm starting to worry about because this was extremely flimsy and i remember speaking to some people last week said need to do some things in in the in the january transfer window need some goals need some wingers and that's all true but defensively this was oh it's just a shambles absolutely dreadful all right nice opponent for barcelona to have for their first Champions League game back.

27:41Should be quite an event. Should be quite an atmosphere there, Paul. I mean, it's going to be an event because it's quite fresh in all the memories of our Barca fans and to Joao Laporte, the president, the last time that Aintracht Frankfurt visited the Camp Nou, which was the Europa League quarterfinals three seasons ago, if I'm not wrong. But basically the whole Camp Nou was dressed in white, which is the colour of the shirt of Aintracht Frankfurt fans, which in a way they bought tickets. I think it was over 60 ,000 people just in the stadium. It collided with the day that it was bank holiday in Barcelona.

28:11So a lot of fans just were out. And Eintracht Frankfurt fans just offered any money that you could get for a ticket. So a lot of Barca socios sell their season ticket for that game. But it was quite a humiliating bill for Joan Laporta, for all the club. Eintracht Frankfurt ended up winning that game. It was quite a traumatizing night. And for this game, Barca has set up a new scheme in order to give the tickets away to their socios. they are really monitoring that they don't resell their tickets to Eintracht Frankfurt fans with, yeah, basically following every socio with their ID number and everything.

28:46So yeah, there's a process really dedicated to that, especially and focused on Eintracht Frankfurt, not to repeat what happened in that Europa League tie, because even Laporte himself this last week confessed that it was quite traumatising for him as well. Paul, elsewhere in La Liga, Villarreal won again, beating Getafe 2-0. Atletico, meanwhile, slipped to four points behind the submarine guys with a defeat at the hands of Athletic Club to Bilbao. Wow. This straight after the 3-1 defeat by Barcelona. And they now travel to PSV, who've got a real run of form in the Champions League, the Dutch side.

29:25They beat Liverpool 4-1 last time out. And, of course, before that, there was that 6-2 victory against Antonio Conte's Napoli. What's up with Atletico, then? I think that is Atletico doing an Atletico, playing really good for some spelt of the season, beating big teams with Real Madrid and Internacional de Milano. And then out of the blue, losing two games, playing quite badly. I mean, you can lose against Barcelona, and in a way you can lose at San Mames against Atletic Club. But Atletic Club have been struggling seriously this season as well. And the way that Atletico de Madrid played in Bilbao was not encouraging.

30:00It was not a great one. And yeah, basically, they made just the perfect weekend for Barcelona because Real Madrid lost, Atletico de Madrid lost, only Villarreal from the top four won. And Villarreal are one point away from Real Madrid. I think that Atletico, I would still place them as the favourites against PSV. Really? In a way. Yeah, yeah. I would say so. But yeah, let's see what happens. Julian Alvarez is not in great form right now. There was this event on, like, Friday. There was, like, Barca were setting up their annual Christmas dinner lunch with all the local reporters. It's like a sort of chit-chat going on.

30:35And a lot of executives at the club are just present there and just speaking off the record with all the journalists. And there's one moment in every Christmas lunch where all the executives just hold court and all the reporters start asking them questions about the future signings and everything. And they were signed, like Barca were about to sign Julian Alvarez next summer. And the reply was like, well, did you see him play last week here at the Camp Nou? He did s***. He did nothing. So we possibly are not going to spend 200 million on that. I mean, just to paint a picture, Julian Alvarez is not going in great form right now, and Barca executives even take the pleasure of saying that he's not worth it, that money.

31:17No, Julian Alvarez is on the menu for Barcelona then, but I know Julian Laurence would not forgive me if I didn't ask you what was on the menu at Barcelona's Christmas lunch poll. any chicken dishes? Unfortunately not. Unfortunately not. It was a bit of a sort of a canapé sort of lunch. Canapés at the start, then you have a bit of small cannelloni, a bit of costilla, ribs. Good ribs. Costilla a la Donostierra in like San Sebastián sauce. Then some fish as well. And all sort of turron for desserts and everything. I think it was good. I think it was a good weekend. We cannot complain. Excellent.

32:00Paul, anything else we should know before we leave La Liga? I think that's fine for now. No, I think that's fine. All covered. Espanol, a big shout out to Espanol because in my opinion, they are like the revelation team in La Liga. They are fifth right now. Big up for them because they are playing really, really good. They won against Rayo Vallecano this weekend. And yeah, one of the teams to keep monitoring. Very, very good. Very, very good. Next up, we're off to Italy.

32:32This 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 Kaye and the very best football writers around. James, in here, Napoli went back top of the table Sunday night with a 2-1 victory over Juventus. Inter are second, just a point behind the partner pay after their 4-0 victory against Informcomo, ending indeed the Lakeside team's 11-game unbeaten run in the league. Milan this evening, Monday night, could go on top of the table if they get the win away at Torino.

33:13Further down, back-to-back defeats as mentioned for former leaders Roma. They've slipped to fours. Creminezi were on quite the run of form were up to ninth and Fiorentina are now last on their own five points from safety after that defeat to Sassuolo Napoli events us then James how was this? Well I mean there was a lot of trepidation going into this game because it was the first time that Luciano Spalletti returned to the Stadio Maradona since he won the league at least as an opposition manager and you know Napoli fans haven't taken too kindly to the opposition he takes over, it's Juventus, the old enemy.

33:51And so before the game, there was a lot of talk, are Juventus going to come to Naples the night before? Ultimately, they decided not to because they didn't want Neapolitans launching fireworks at the hotel and sort of beeping their horns in the early hours to keep them up all night. And, you know, I mean, it's very tense between Spalletti and Napoli's owner, Arelo de la Rente, still because, well, his entire two years in charge of Napoli, they didn't enjoy the best of relationships, particularly when he decided to leave. And then you had Conte, you know, Conte, whose Juventus past was kind of underplayed, really, going into this game.

34:33But Napoli were very impressive, particularly in the first half. Opening quarter of an hour, you know, press didn't really let Juventus breathe. Some criticism of Spalletti kind of overthinking this game because he didn't play a striker. Yeah, they sort of played 3-4, 2-1 with a load of midfield players and a couple of tens and didn't really lay a glove on Napoli until the beginning of the first half. But yeah, I mean, you have to kind of tip your hat to Conte because Conte has got a hell of a lot of injuries to deal with. he's had to move away from what won them the league last year and he has found not only a way to win but it's a different look to Napoli you know they've got two really exciting wingers in Noah Lang and David Neres Neres who's been in fantastic form the last three weeks Rasmus Hoyland scored his first goal for some time but Hoyland's sort of always been involved in making Napoli look good in this new system and kind of you got scott mctominay who's is sort of going through the wars at the moment sort of playing hurt gritting his teeth showing real leadership when yeah other players labocca and gissa lukaku de bruyne alex merritt the goalkeeper from when they won the league last year and two years ago all of these players out injured and yet napoli keep on keeping on they win the big games and i think the big story from i suppose this weekend this is it it looks like milan permitting it could be a title race that's very similar to last year which ultimately comes down to napoli and inter wow yeah as you mentioned milan permitting because tonight as we record uh they go against torino spalletti going with this new look formation up front that's partly of course because Dunas and Vlajevic is out for the foreseeable future Yildiz now the key man I guess has been for a while but looking far and away their best player once again in this match yeah and criticism of Spalletti for taking him off because the feeling was that the only person who could create something or score as he did at the beginning of the second half was going to be the young Turk Yildiz you know I think only Lautaro Martinez and Nico Paz have scored and assisted more goals in Serie A this season than Yieldis.

37:00So Spalletti had to defend that decision and say, look, he came to me a couple of weeks ago, said he's tired. I have to protect him. We played in the cup in the week where they knocked out Udinese. But the surprise, again, if you are going to withdraw Yieldis and you're not going to start with any strikers, it's kind of like, what's going on here? And sort of in the week where Italy prospectively drew Canada, I mean, Jonathan David, he scored in Bodo against Bodo Glimt as a substitute. But you'd have thought that Vlajevic injury and the duration in which Vlajevic is forecast to be out is a bad muscle injury where he might be out for two, two and a half months.

37:43Now's the time for Jonathan David. and Spalletti looked at that and thought, no, it's still not the time for Jonathan David, which is, I think if you're Jesse Marsh, the Canada coach, you're probably looking at that and thinking, why doesn't he like one of my best players? Still got his Italy manager hat on, perhaps. Juventus this week have Champions League. They're hosting Pafos of Cyprus, who had that memorable 2-2 draw with Monaco last time out and are indeed level on points with Juventus in the competition right now. Juve currently in 22nd place. Napoli, who are only a couple of places higher, will be taking on Jose Mourinho's Benfica, who had a 1-1 draw with Sporting at the weekend in the Lisbon Derby.

38:34That'll be an exciting matchup, Napoli out at Jose's side. Yeah, it should be. I mean, we've meant to be seeing how Napoli doing this because obviously they got back to winning ways in the Champions League last time out and were quite impressive. But you mentioned where they find themselves 20th in the league phase. It's now where they have to start kind of motoring to put themselves in a good position for the playoffs. But yeah, Jose always loves to play to the gallery whenever there's... I mean, you could say just whenever, but particularly whenever there's an Italian in town. One with Antonio Conte at the helm as well.

39:18Very good. In the Champions League though, the fixture with an Italian side in that that's drawing, I imagine the most attention is Inter's clash with Liverpool who arrive at the end of a very difficult weekend. Liverpool who beat Real Madrid of late in the competition but also last time out being humbled at home by PSV Inter. whose perfect start was disrupted last time out by that defeat away to Atletico Madrid, but with an amazing record at San Siro. And indeed, a good run of form since the Atletico defeat. They've won three straight games in all competition by an aggregate score of 11 goals to one.

39:57Most recently, defeating Cesc Fabregas' highly rated Como 4-0. How good did they look here? Yeah, really good. This was arguably their best performance of the season. And I think it was not unexpected, but I mean, they played in the cup in midweek. They beat Venezia 5-1. And, you know, as easy as that looks, sometimes when you're playing three times in a week, it can take a toll. And, you know, Como are the team that press the hardest and, you know, make life so difficult for teams that want to play out the back. and in this game Kibu was very clever I think he was like okay well we're just going to let you have the ball then so you can't really press us but when Inter did have the ball I think Fabregas was saying you know it was it was like trying to press peak Barcelona so Cesc felt that the money that Inter have made the difference at the end because I think this is one of the sort of stories of Inter's season is like unlike last year where the backups to Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Churam underperformed and limited the team particularly when they're playing three times in a week sort of Anjo-Anne Bonny and Pio Esposito do make a difference when they come on Andy Duuff a player that they signed in the summer is starting to make a difference Luis Henrique played well in this game as well so a lot of the signings that inter made in the summer have given them a depth that they didn't really have last year and you know i think even in those losses james to atletico to milan to napoli to juve they've been the better team in large spells in those games um they've just been a bit unlucky um so i'm looking forward to this one um particularly in the vulnerable position that Liverpool find themselves in.

41:57Yeah, Inter, I think, are still one of the best teams in Europe on the basis of what they've showed, even though Simone Inzaghi is currently, I think he's currently literally on a beach in Saudi Arabia. Simone Inzaghi, who could very well be Mo Salah's next manager because we just don't know. We just don't know. Anyway, Inter up against Liverpool is on Wednesday. Now, Atalanta-Chelsea is on Tuesday in the fog, quite possibly, in Bergamo. Chelsea winless in their last four away games in the competition, but did beat Barcelona at home last time. Atalanta beaten by Verona, a shock defeat this weekend.

42:37What happened in that and how worried are you about their prospects against Enzo Mariska's side? Well, it was foggy, James. I mean, it was really foggy. To the point in the last 15 minutes of the game, it was pointless watching it on TV. I can't imagine what it was like from the stands at the Bentigotti. But how worried am I? I mean, it felt like Atalanta turned a corner over the last sort of 10 days under Raffaele Palladino. They'd won three games in a row. They kept clean sheets in them all. He'd sort of begun to unlock the attacking potential that this Atalanta team had under Gasparini, but didn't have under Ivan Juric.

43:18and so for them to lose this badly against a team that hadn't won a single game was surprising you know i mean of the italian teams with the exception of inter i mean they've been the best italian team in the champions league so far i mean this this was one of i suppose the surprising thing is uric was doing better in the champions league than he was in in city air obviously they got that win a couple of weeks ago against eintracht i think there's still there's still a handful and and I mentioned Inter's depth you know Atalanta have a depth which only the very best teams in Italy has I think they've got a they've got a deeper bench or a more effective bench than than Juventus have you know you might even say Milan certainly when it comes to attacking players they've got more players who are fit and ready to make a difference off the bench than Milan have so that will be tough for Chelsea I I still think regardless of the result on on Sunday You know, Atalanta are a team, yes, in transition from one coach to another and to another coach, but they still have an identity and players who can, you know, if you have an off night, they can still beat you.

44:28Adam Ola-Lukman back very much in the side. And of course, losing 3-1 to a team in the relegation zone can happen to anybody, as Chelsea themselves showed only a week ago in the Premier League. Anyway, there you go. one last thing james i mean a lot of people have been remarking on on how bunched up the premier league is um this year and yeah it has been the case in cdr particularly in the top half of the table and the only other time where it was this bunched up was last season and so something is sort of changing i think in in football whether it's because we've got too many games you know sort of expanded champions league which is affecting the big teams and they're dropping points where they would have otherwise taken them whether it's a toll from the club world cup in the summer i mean i'd be interested to hear seb and paul whether this is also sort of taking place in germany and spain because there are sort of parallels between how bunched up city and the premier league are so i don't know what it's like in in our other leagues i think there's definitely In a case that, certainly among the upper middle class in the Bundesliga, there's a chaos to the form.

45:43And Bayern are a little less susceptible to it because of their squad depth. And so they're able to kind of rotate away from issues. But Leverkusen were dreadful this weekend. Dortmund had their moments certainly last season. A couple recently. Eintracht Frankfurt, we talked about a little bit earlier. The result they suffered in Leipzig. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And it's really strange because it's really, really hard to diagnose why. Yeah. I actually think in La Liga that, I mean, Barca and Real Madrid, who have not been great in the start of the season, they got away with being on top of La Liga anyway.

46:16Because I think that their level, compared to the other teams, there's a big difference in there. And besides that, it might be the case that in the mid-class or something like that, on the table, it's more a bit packed. But yeah, basically, I still think that the difference between the two giants and the rest of the teams that is still too big here in La Liga. In that mid-table pile-up in Serie A, James, just one last thing on the Italian game. Creminezi now up in tonight's spot. Jamie Vardewatch, since our last show, the evening indeed that we recorded our last episode, he was a major factor, the protagonist of a 3-1 upset victory over informed Bologna.

47:01They followed that. He got a brace in that match. that's been followed by a 2-0 win against Lecce, Vardy Fever in Cremona. Yeah, I mean, those goals against Bologna, I mean, I remember this time last week, we were talking about how if Bologna, as expected, were to have won that game, they would have gone within a point of the top. So that was unexpected. It was maybe not on a par with Cremonese beating AC Milan on the opening day of the season at San Siro, but certainly to go there and do that I think also underlines how smart they were with their recruitment because Vardy is kind of perfect for playing against these big clubs, even at 38.

47:46And Bologna are a team that, along with Como, are the team that plays with the highest line, presses relentlessly, sometimes unwisely. and the goals if our listeners haven't seen them check them out because they're just great counter-attacking goals really or not even counter-attacking goals just old-fashioned style of goals sort of long ball up from the keeper win the second ball play a first time through ball Vardy catches you on the hot and he's through on goal and the second goal was another long ball first time volleyed cross he's in at the near post goal you know I mean really sort of cover a lot of distance in not a lot of time, quickfire, boom.

48:29And Bardi's, I think he's scored four goals so far this season, which given how few goals strikers and players in Serie A generally are scoring, it kind of puts him in the mix at the capo canoniere, sort of already. So yeah, great, great to see.

48:55Pieta, la prima in Serie A di Jamie Vardy, uno, tre. Pippo Inzaghi's performance because that's a de la sport called it. Remarkable, lovely stuff. Lots of fans travelling over from Leicester to watch him in action, which will be fun for them. We'll speak more about all of that next time out, because coming up next, it's the Bundesliga.

49:22You'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 tools this week, but a quick check on Ligue 1. Lens, they're still top. They beat Nantes 2-1 this weekend. That's a fifth straight win for Pierre Sarge's side. They stay one point clear of Paris Saint-Germain, who themselves beat Rennes 5-0, a brace from Kvartoschkelier in that. There's now a four-point gap from PSG down to the side in third place, Marseille, who lost to Lille. Lille are now level with them on points.

50:011-0 that scoreline, the Lille victory. The goal coming from Ethan Mbappé.

50:15Monaco lost again. They got beaten at Brest, 1-0. It's now four defeats in their last five for Pocagnoli's side. He is making the worst start for a Monaco coach since. Anybody? Thierry Henry. Thierry Henry in 2018. Absolutely. All right. There you go. That is Ligue 1. Midweek, Paris Saint-Germain at Athletic Club de Bilbao, Paul. Olympic Marseille will be away in Belgium against Union Saint-Germain. Monaco hosts Galatasaray. Athletic Cup to Bilbao have some work to do. They're currently in 27th place in the Champions League league phase. Paul? Yeah, Paul, I think it's going to be a stroll in the park for PSG, Athletic Bilbao.

51:04I think that in a way, they know that it's difficult for them in the Champions League. Today, none of their main players is training. Unai Simoni, Nico Williams, Sanced, Jauregui, Berenguer, like some of the main players are not even training before the game just to have a bit of a rest. They have some physical discomforts. But yeah, maybe it's a case of Athletic Bilbao having to prioritize what they do and saying that the Champions League, they're hardly up there anymore, so possibly they will focus in La Liga. Is it mañana, mañana for them? Mañana, maybe, yeah. Having a pinch of tortilla at home for breakfast instead of training.

51:40Indeed. All right then, Seb. Let's hear some Bundesliga, whether top three or one. And Bayern with a 5-0 win at Stuttgart. Leipzig with a 6-0 win against Frankfurt and Dortmund, who are nine points behind Bayern, but only a point behind second place Leipzig. Just the 2-0 for them against Hoffenheim. Who is Jan Diamonde? Seb? A phenomenon, actually. I was speaking to someone at Leipzig over the summer when he signed. And they said to me, this guy, 100 million euro player within two years. And I think we've all heard that. Everybody here has had that set to him, a bit of propaganda from a club. So yeah, yeah, sure, of course.

52:21Yeah, absolutely. As the weeks go by, I'm inclined to believe him. He's a phenomenally talented player. So Jan Diamonde with a hat-trick inside 20 minutes in Leipzig's 6-0 win against Frankfurt. He's the second youngest player to score a hat-trick in Bundesliga history. Yeah, and it's been coming. It's been coming, not just because of his individual talent, but the group of players he's playing with there seems a balance in the Leipzig side that hasn't been for some time so the weekend Conrad Harder who was Victor Jokeres's replacement at Sporting Club and then moved to Leipzig over the summer he started the centre forward Antonio Nusser who you'll remember was at Club Rouge but then he nearly moved to the Premier League and then went to Leipzig he's in the form of his life he's playing ever so well and there's so much chemistry and there's so much verticality amongst those players and it's almost like a kind of a pick your poison situation because when teams have defensive weaknesses they're left one-on-one with some of these players and Diamande is a great example of the kind of the perils of that because he's very technical he's very quick he's very aggressive in shooting positions he's also extremely physical as well so he's the whole package and he's in one of those situations where you know sometimes you watch a player and every 90 minutes they do something that you haven't seen from them before he's doing that at the moment and um playing ever so well deserved his hat trick he's been terrific for probably about eight weeks now and um it's no surprise to me that already the premier league room is a picking up a pace i don't think he goes anywhere in january i think the plan is very much very much to look again in the summer leipzig won't accept anything less than 100 million euros for him so so it's a pretty pretty steep price but his story is amazing um i'm sure paul knows more about him than me but he was at high school in in the u.s for a bit he was at legoness was it is that right yeah yeah before he came over and his ascent has been remarkable the progress in his career and even even since the summer where you could see the talent that's a little bit unrefined the difference six months later is amazing yeah no i was about to say because when i saw the hat trick of the monday i was like amazed and there's like two really weird cases in the Bundesliga.

54:37One is Yendio Mande. He played in Leganes last season, but he didn't play for the first team like the past majority of the season. He played for the second team. And just at the final stages of last season, he had like some good cameos, some good stints. You could see some talent in there. And then out of the blue, I think he played really good at the Santiago Bernabeu, but by the way, now that I recall. But out of the blue, in summa, it's Liza coming in and paying 20 million for him, which is quite mad for a player that had barely played for Legan's first team, a team that got relegated last season from La Liga.

55:09Yeah, one of the technically worst teams on the league, which is normal, given the state of the club. But then there's another case in Kofane, like the Bayern Leverkusen striker who played for Albacete in the second tier last season. He had a massive impact coming into the team, but with Albacete he played with the under-19s, with the second team, and with the first team last season in a remarkable way up to the first team. But, I mean, you could hardly envisage those two guys who are starting doing the runs in Spanish football, like being the stars of Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen. I'm not going to say that Kofan is the biggest player of Bayer Leverkusen, but he's been decent.

55:49He's certainly been decent and also someone they have amongst the highest hopes for. I think when that transfer happened, the reaction in Germany was a little bit, hey, you saw all these players, you have all this money, and people have seen you coming a mile away with your negotiation and you've overpaid for this guy. But actually, there's some rawness to Kofane and I would probably put Ernest Pacu ahead of him in terms of just the scale of talent and what I expect from them. But again, it doesn't take much imagination to see him developing into a really, really quality player and also a very adaptable player.

56:18He's already played three different positions in the Leverkusen starting lineup. Didn't play the weekend. He was left on the bench ahead of the game against Newcastle and they were terrible at the weekend against Augsburg. but a really really interesting talent so yeah that is Jan Diarmane with a side of Christian Caffane very very nice indeed Leipzig in second place eight points behind Bayern Bayern midweek are up against Sporting Eintracht Frankfurt as we mentioned who are down in 28th spot in the Champions League league phase are at Barcelona on Wednesday Dortmund take on Bodo Glimp and also So Leverkusen, who are currently 17th, take on the side in 11th place, who are Newcastle's Seb.

57:01Leverkusen coming off a 2-0 defeat at the weekend to Augsburg. You mentioned the wildly fluctuating form. They're a good example of this in the Bundesliga. Yeah, and it's kind of part of James' point because they rotated their defence again, Nye Kwanzaa, in their starting line-up. Robert Andrich played in the back three. Kasper Holman was angry, angry after the 2-0 defeat in Augsburg. They were two down in the first half. Augsburg who sacked Sandra Wagner at the beginning of the week and are under interim management he said it's okay to lose because we're a young team we're learning and we're getting experience but this was a question of character which is obviously a very strong thing to say I mean it's it's provocative as well and not unreasonably so because this was a bit insipid this was you know we talk about a lot about young players and this is a young team but how volatile they tend to be and how not just how they react to adversity but how they react to success you have a good couple of performances and all of a sudden you can just walk through the league and they got upended in augsburg and so this was a very timely remark from holand that i liked it as as man management just to kind of chuck a few stones at the right moment um because they weren't good enough and actually what's interesting about leverkusen is yes those young players are a volatile it's actually the more experienced players you've let them down i think so i i'm Not a great fan of Mark Fleck and the goalkeeper.

58:19I don't think he's had a particularly good season. I'm not sure he's quite been good enough. Andrich has picked up a few really poorly timed red cards. Was not good at the weekend either. He's a club captain. Knows better. He's played with Germany. He's a veteran in the Bundesliga. And so I think it's a little bit... Some of his comments, those remarks were aimed at them as well. And not unjustly so. So let's see what they do against Newcastle. Because that's very interesting. Leverkusen are well capable of beating Newcastle. but not of their players they did at the weekend. All right, that's Wednesday night for Newcastle away by Leverkusen.

58:52Set me time this weekend, saw the first Noor derby in the Bundesliga for seven years and you went along to the Volksparkstadion to see it. No, I didn't end up going. Oh, did you not go? No, no, no. We had a series of unfortunate events which led to a lack of accreditation request, which is entirely my fault, not handbags, but a brilliant game. A brilliant, brilliant game. And the thing about this rivalry, this is a historic rivalry. It goes back centuries. There's an economic rivalry between the cities long before there were football teams, both based in the north and northwest, both dependent on their harbors as the backbone of their economy.

59:29So this is Hamburg and Werder Bremen? Hamburg and Bremen, yeah. And yeah, it's a fabulous occasion. And if anybody's seen any footage of the TIFOs at the opposite ends of the Vox Park, please do look those up. but the game was a bit tense in the first half. A bit bitty. The occasion got to some of those players, a little bit much for some of them. Romano Schmidt gave Bremen the lead right at the end of the first half, capitalizing on some shoddy, harsh foul build-up play. But then the second half, 1-1, Samuel Okonga from Arsenal. Lovely drag back in the box to equalize. And then Luka Vuscovic mentioned this a little bit in Moment of the Week.

1:00:08Vuscovic on loan from Spurs. his brother Mario is serving a drugs ban which everybody in Hamburg thinks is completely unjust and the city is full of these free Vuscovich stickers everywhere, lampposts, train stations any way you can stick a sticker there is a free Vuscovich somewhere anyway, Luka gives Hartzfell the lead with this kind of standing score pin kick from a Fabio Vieira free kick goes to celebrate in front of the free Vuscovich banner that's hanging from the stand and he's tapping his arm he's got his um he's got a tattoo on his forearm of him and his brother when they were kids and it was just an incredible moment an incredible moment and an amazing goal but kind of ridiculously overshadowed by the symbolism of it and marries in the stadium as well as all the sort of the the Vescovic family and amazing 2-2 Bremen equalized and then 3-2 Yusuf Paulsen who joined the club from maybe Leipzig over the summer and has actually received quite a lot of flack so Hearthfall spent a million euros on him which is quite a lot for an indie promoter team in Germany and Paulsen hasn't really been fit he's had a few niggling injuries hasn't been able to get on the pitch very often started very few games came on as a substitute with 20 minutes left and scored his first goal in the Nord derby and yeah you saw a little gesture to the crowd and to some of the people on TV when he scored, but just an amazing occasion.

1:01:36And then, of course, because we're supposed to say, oh, you know, you never want to see that, but a great big fight at the end of the game at full time. Fantastic. Glad you enjoyed it, Seb. Mario Vuscovic, what are the circumstances that lead the club and the city to believe that he is being unjustly punished? The contention locally is that there were issues with the testing process. Mario has always disputed the result always protested his innocence the club has stood by him to the extent that when his ban expires which is in 10 months there is a contract waiting for him to be signed so that he can return to his playing career whether he can ever return to where he was different issue but they will give him a chance and they'll give him every opportunity so the club have had his back and have never really wavered and have supported him throughout I mean, he spends his time between Hamburg and Split, but he's pretty much at every Hartz-Fahr home game and has been for years.

1:02:37And it's not uncommon to see at the end of games, different Hartz-Fahr players holding up the free Vizkovic banner. When they got promoted in the summer, a lot of the players were celebrating by grabbing the stadium microphone and leading chants. And one of them, Robert Glatzel, the center forward, led the entire stadium in a kind of Vuscovic chant with sort of 57 ,000 people in the Volkspark joining in. And then quite a few of those players also, they would go over to Split to visit him in Croatia when he was at home. There was a whole gang of them. That's always one. Ludovic Rice was another.

1:03:10Sebastian Schoenlau, who now plays for the Vancouver Whitecaps. He was club captain for a bit. They had a little delegation of friends that would go over. So yeah, it's never really wavered. And this is the context into which luka viscovic arrived which for an 18 year old is an amazing thing to have not only the talent and the reputation that he has in the game but also to come in with that surname to be mario's brother to play the same position as him and then to sort of to walk into what is quite an overwhelming outpouring of affection right from the beginning i remember when he scored his first goal for the club the stadium announcer did the call and response because he scored their first goal back in the Bundesliga since Lewis Holtby in the season when they got relegated in seven years before.

1:03:54And the call and response was deafening. And for an 18 year old, this is quite something. This is quite something. And it's been an amazing story and this I don't even know how you call it, sort of standing scorpion kick, however you want to describe it. It's just the latest chapter, but it's a it's a wonderful thing to watch up close.

1:04:18smartphones over at least here ands the heading for the HSV.

1:04:37Mainz, that's three away wins in a row without conceding for Gladbach. Mainz, meanwhile, are now under the auspices of Urs Fischer, the man who did such wonders at Union Berlin. He's come in after the Glambeck victory is that right? That's correct. He was appointed officially yesterday after the 1-0 defeat on Friday night when they were under interim management and Fisher, like great appointment great appointment. You mentioned Union Berlin, he took Union Berlin from the Zweig der Bundesliga to the Champions League which is an amazing achievement and yeah it didn't end well and I think that was a kind of a failure a multi-department failure I think is what we'll describe it as but a very very capable coach who gets the very best out of players and has done for a long time and has a proven record for understanding his way around the bundesliga so i can't wait to see what he does first problem is minds who look well they're swelling the plug hole at the moment and um they lost jenny burkhart over the summer who was sold to eintracht frankfurt he was their main source of goals and the confidence is completely drained out of that side so that is a just to save them from relegation will be some achievement for him i think but great to see him back and hey Gladbach yep those three away wins uh three games um away from home without conceding but it's now five Bundesliga games unbeaten they've conceded just once under Ugin Polanski who has done a brilliant job anyone who saw that defeat Eintracht Frankfurt back in the autumn they were right off Gladbach absolutely right off and um there was some suggesting that Polanski would just be you know dismissed as an interim there and then but gradually they've got better and better.

1:06:12He's earned the job full-time, done terrifically well for someone coaching at a senior level for the first time. Amazing to deal with that situation. Well done, him. Their only goal difference off eight in the Bundesliga now. Gladbach-Mainz, meanwhile, are a whopping six points away from safety. Crikey. One more line. I just wanted to point to Ricky J. Jones' 94th minute equaliser for St Pauli. He joined from Peterborough over the summer, got injured in pre-season, got a nasty shoulder injury, came on, this is Bundesliga debut, and headed goal to break St. Pauli's losing streak against Köln. Goalkeeper fell over a little bit, all crept into the corner of the net, but a wonderful celebration.

1:06:54Again, another one to go and look it up. That's what a first goal in the Bundesliga meets. That was very, very cool to see. Excellent. A little bit of posh spice to finish things off then for us today. Seb, thank you so much. James Horncastle to you as well, and Paul Belouc. many thanks as well to producer Lucy and you listener insert name here we'll catch up with you in a week's time of course on both Wednesday and Thursday we'll have Totally shows checking up on all the previous night's activities in the Champions League so do hope you'll be joining us for that for now from all of us here though it's goodbye you've been listening to the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network for more great podcasts just like this one including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts search for The Athletic we're also at the Totally Football Show on Insta and at the Totally Show on YouTube The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production