Mourinho fury as Real lose Madrid derby while Kane breaks more records

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2:37Pol Ballus: Totally Football Show, European edition.

2:46Pol Ballus: Today, why Real have a housing crisis in the Madrid derby and why Barcelona are moving home again. Germany, yes we can can as Harry Kane sets another record and Dortmund have their best start for a decade. Italy, there's Roma Inter and has Amorim learnt his lesson. And France, Marseille get caught out and want them a caught out. And Liam Rossini produces his latest post-game special. It's the Totally Football Show.

3:12Pol Ballus: Monday 21st of September. Hello there, it's a Euro Totally Football Show And of course that means James Horncastle and Tom Williams here in the studio Hello James Hello Jimbo Nice to see you both And nice to have a little visit from Seb Who's probably come over because friends or other important things that you're doing Friends, just loads of friends Too many friends, yeah, just coming over Never have too many, in my opinion Paul Belous is a friend Wish you were here with us, Paul

3:39Jimbo: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was here too Okay It's here in our hearts. Maybe not, but yeah.

3:45James Horncastle: You're an existential statement there. I wish I was here too. He actually sounded very sincere to the point where I felt a little bit sad about that. AI Paul speaking to listeners.

3:55Jimbo: Have you had a good weekend, Paul? I did have a good weekend. I have a nice wedding. I attended to. Congratulations. I was actually officiating. Is that a word? Oh, you were officiating. What? Yeah, yeah. I was doing that. You were officiating. You were ordained, Paul. Yeah, no, because it wasn't like a religious... What were you, the linesman or something? Yeah, yeah. Something like this. Yeah, what were you doing?

4:16Pol Ballus: Do you mean that you were like an usher or you played a role?

4:19Jimbo: No, sort of, yeah, presenting the whole event or something like this. Oh. Yeah, just making like a speech before it and introducing like all the… You were emceeing. He was master of ceremony. Exactly, emceeing. That's a nice way to put it. Yeah, that's a nice way to put it.

4:34Pol Ballus: Wow, who got married?

4:36Jimbo: Did they hire you for this or do you know them? I mean I wish like now I wish they had hired me but no they did pay me nothing because it was my best mate from my hometown so yeah hard to ask for payment in those circumstances still should have got something if you were getting married Tom

4:55Pol Ballus: which one of us would you have MC I'd go Horncastle I think Horncastle Horncastle would be very smooth they'd be very smooth very smooth right listener if you're getting married and you fancy having an MC I reckon get in touch I don't think the rates are going to be it's going to be competitive it's going to be competitive yeah to begin with at least and then he'll realise the fire that he has in his hands and it'll be

5:16James Horncastle: I would back James although I think James would also be very good as the band front man for the ooh really yeah but I'm not musical but you sing James

5:27Pol Ballus: no but not Horncastle sings so that's double threat

5:31James Horncastle: I don't have costume change

5:33Pol Ballus: oh he's behind the mic

5:35James Horncastle: entertainment level so from I don't know I don't know hey why not get all five of us i mean yeah well why not a barbershop quintet very welsh yeah

5:47Pol Ballus: yeah yeah some harmonies yeah you know i'm so sorry tom when we talk about singing if you're talking about singing you can't say fairer than tom williams that's not an invitation tom anyway we must move on uh congratulations to the happy couple paul and uh well done to you for you know playing such a part in their special day. Was that your moment of the week? It's going to be awkward if it's not, right? That's one match you saw.

6:12Jimbo: Yeah, I do have another one because I prepared myself. My scoring, potentially, I don't know.

6:17Pol Ballus: Okay, what's your moment of the week?

6:19Jimbo: My moment of the week, I'm going to stick to Friday. I'm not going to disclose what happened beyond Friday because, yeah, I was on the wedding. So I'm going to stick to Friday, which was the La Liga opening game of the weekend. It was in Barcelona, Espanola against Elche. basically Elche were this team that they were the team with more goals considered before the weekend, still do have a clinch this season a lot of things to worry about defensive-wide. The game starts against Espanyol sixth minute of the game and Federico Redondo one of the centre-backs of Elche is just sent off. So basically you think, well it's all downhill from here.

7:02Jimbo: At the The official Elche are going to go down again. And, yeah, surprisingly enough, they got ahead 2-0 by halftime. So basically two outstanding goals by Ferninho. They're a striker. The Espanyol goalkeeper won't have a night that, yeah, he won't remember it fondly because he was a bit at fault in both goals. But a 10-man Elche side were ahead by two goals by halftime. Espanyol reacted a bit in the second half, but they didn't really create a lot of problems. They could one goal back. and Elche ends up scoring a third one at the counter. Yeah, just basically to win the game 3-1 and just to become the first team in the 21st century that wins a La Liga match by a two-goal margin after seeing a red card in the first six minutes of a game.

7:49Jimbo: That's extraordinary. Christophe.

7:50Pol Ballus: Also, the young man who got sent off, that surname sounds familiar, Paul.

7:54Jimbo: I mean, I was about to mention that because Elche, like we mentioned Federico Redondo, who is the centre-back that was sent off. He's the son of Fernando Redondo, who, as you will know, he's a former Tenerife and Real Madrid player. Bo Elche are quite a niche team in La Liga because they have four players in their team that are children of players from the 90s in La Liga. So a striker who scored two goals, Ferninho, is the son of Fernando Ninho, who used to be the captain of... The one who played for Liverpool, no? El Nino.

8:33Pol Ballus: Yeah?

8:33Jimbo: Yeah. No. He's only eight years old. It's incredible.

8:39James Horncastle: He's been causing havoc all summer.

8:40Pol Ballus: He's been hot. Has he been hot? Yeah. Oh, right, yeah. Oof. Yeah. There's a lot of pressure on him. Anyway, sorry, Paul. That was one of them. We've got three more to go.

8:52Jimbo: Yeah, so one is Ferninho, one is Federico Redondo, as we mentioned. The other one is Roy Revivo, who is the left back. He is the son of an Israeli player, Chaim Revivo, who played for Celta de Vigo back in the 90s too. And then Marc Aguado, who didn't play in that game, but he's that Xavi Aguado is the player with most appearances, I think, for Real Zaragoza. He was the captain of the team during 13 seasons. So yeah, a lot of 90s culture in Spanish football in this team.

9:23Pol Ballus: Magnificent. Magnificent. Tom, what about your moment of the week? So I went to watch Paris FC on Saturday against Strasbourg. First time I've ever been to the Stade Jamboy, just across the road, quite literally from Parc des Princes. Paris FC were absolutely superb. One of the most convincing and coherent team performances I've seen in a long time. almost literally didn't give Strasbourg a kick, pressed really aggressively, lovely combinations between their attacking players. And they've got a very likable midfield pairing of Maxime Lopez, who came through at Marseille, spent a bit of time in Italy, is now back in France, Pierre-Lys Malou, briefly of the Premier League.

10:09Briefly of Norwich, is that right? Briefly of Norwich, yeah. And that kind of, they sort of set the tempo for all of Paris FC's attacking play. There's some lovely combinations and they scored two really nicely taken goals either side of half-time. Strasbourg were just suicidally trying to play out from the back every single time they had a goal kick or the ball was in the keeper's hands. And one of those instances led to Paris turning the ball over. And Ilan Kibal, who's this very talented left-footed right-sided attacking player chipping in from the edge of the penalty area. Pablo Pagis puts them ahead, puts them 2-0 up early in the second half.

10:56Strasbourg pulled one back late on, but I mean, you know, it was pretty flattering. But the moment of the game slash the week was what happened after the game. So Liam Messina, formerly of Strasbourg, fleetingly of Chelsea Football Club, is now in the dugout at Paris FC, has had a very successful start to the season And inevitably, perhaps in the second half, the Strasbourg fans start goading him by chanting something that wasn't very nice about his mum. I mean, there were so many, like, there weren't any LinkedIn references. I was hoping you might get, like, a LinkedIn, like, LinkedIn, like, profile page mocked up being held aloft.

11:37None of that. There was an announcement over the loudspeaker, please stop the nasty chanting, whatever. Final whistle goes and the players go onto the pitch and Rosinia's walking around applauding the home fans and he gets to the Strasbourg section and just kind of like goads them. He really goes for it. Like, yeah, yeah. And he's got the camera right up in his face. Yeah. Anyway, one of his former players at Strasbourg comes up to him to say, look, leave it at home. No need for that. At which point Rosinia tells him, look, don't make a scene. Don't make a scene. okay sure fine too late unfortunately because a scene had been made so some of the Strasbourg players come over to him there's a little bit of argy-bargy there's a big melee everyone kind of piles in and finally he's extricated from it and carries off walking around the perimeter of the pitch you know kind of cheering the fans and giving it all that and then he doubled down in his post-match press conference in his post-match interviews he said you know I spent a year and a half at Strasbourg I had a fantastic time there I you know built great relationships with people at the club.

12:42I've got so much respect for the supporters. What they did was completely out of order and so I was entitled to go and give them a bit of, and yeah. If you're clipping out

12:54Pol Ballus: bits of Tom, out of context, Tom Williams. That's an all-time, terrific noise. Your 1930s voice the other day went over hard. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Well, that was quite the moment of the week. Seb? not sure I can follow that Jimbo I'm going to try so lovely moment in Bremen over the weekend so Vela Bremen go 2-0 down against Augsburg at home pull back to 2-2 Niklas Fulkerug scored for the second game in a row nice to see him scoring goals again 93rd minute Mitchell Weiser scores a winner now Mitchell Weiser tore his cruciate ligament in July 2025 missed the whole of last season made his comeback finally lost in the last game week as a substitute this is kind of like his 29th cumulative minute back and curled in from the edge of the box left footed to the opposite top corner look really really emotional in his celebration right in front the fans place went absolutely crazy goal horn goes off proclaimers over the tannoy great moment really lovely they still have the proclaimers which one do they go a thousand miles all right then all right it's uh yeah it's not quite the old status quo at leverkusen which has now been replaced but which did they have rocking all over they they had yeah um i like it yeah rocking all over the world um it's now being replaced by some sort of euro pop called uh it's just all around the world now all right around the world but what does the gold horn for them to change it's a ship horn indeed yeah it's a it's a very very loud ship foghorn um which is referenced to kind of Raymond's industrial past.

14:35Okay. Yeah.

14:36Pol Ballus: Very cool. Very cool. Very loud. Let's go to our own horn. Nice. Yeah. Your moment of the week, James.

14:44James Horncastle: Well, I will be following Tom's example of showing a lack of respect, James, which in Italy, if you show a lack of respect, doesn't go down well. And this is what happened at the Juventus Atalanta game, where there is a minute silence for one of the all-time greats of Italian football, Sandro Mazzola, someone who played for the Grande Inter in the 60s. and because of that rivalry that tribalism well at least this is the justification of some event is ultras during that minute silence they turned their backs on it and began to sing for their own fallen heroes um instead of sandro matsola so this was roundly criticized and the club Juventus put out a statement saying that they had not shown compassion empathy very unsporting

15:47Pol Ballus: of them to act in this way I thought it was really strange the ultras have their own culture but everybody liked Sandro Mazzola and I don't don't recall any particular beef between him even as a player he turned down I think the chance to go to yes Juve largely because his dad would of spun in his grave according to his mother because his dad was part of the greatest italian

16:08James Horncastle: side ever valentine mazzolo of the grande torino exactly and yeah i mean yeah not to make elce look like um a very budget nepo baby team right but sandro mazzolo is kind of the original nepo baby um in uh as you mentioned his father uh has been playing away from home as they say uh in in turin for the last whatever since 1949 right um the superga air crash you know that team the grande torino side that went to play a testimonial in lisbon uh for i think the benfica captain at the time and never came back um and you know he and his brother ferruccio were orphaned um strange strange moment where um his his father's partner at the time basically um ran off with uh young young sandro oh and so he was even more sort of disoriented it's like not only lost his father but didn't know where he was and then right well he was only six poor child he became an inter legend he did second to croix in the ballon d 'or 1971 Yeah, very famous for, he was known as Il Baffo for his mustache.

17:25James Horncastle: Scored in that European Cup, scored two goals against the great Real Madrid side of the early Champions League, early European Cup, sorry, era. And I think along with Giacinto Facchetti is probably the player you most associate with. not only the first great Inter team, but when Italian football was really, well, for the first time, it's club football. Milan was the center of the world, both Inter and Milan. And it was a lovely piece written by Gianni Rivera, who was the number 10 of Milan at the same time, celebrating Sandro Matzola's memory and how they both kind of completed each other and they were made to do the famous Stafetta relay in 1970, the World Cup, where Italy's coach at the time would only play one or the other rather than both.

18:24James Horncastle: And it kind of created this idea that there was antipathy between Mazzola and Rivera, and instead they got on, they respected each other. Gerard, an unpod of that day. Yeah, wow. James, when Italians refer to the Grande Torino side, is that Grande prefix something that's just designated to any great side or is it related to the tragedy itself? There are only, no, because the Grandi Torino, I think some people would still say they're the greatest Italian team of all time. And if they had lasted into the beginning of the European Cup, you know, Real Madrid would not have won the first five European Cups.

19:06James Horncastle: That's, you know, a legend that they tell themselves, I suppose. But there are very few teams that get the Grande moniker now.

19:14Pol Ballus: Inter, you mentioned on account of winning the back-to-back European Cups. Yes. I'm not sure which other ones I mean you wouldn't say Il Grande Milan you'd say

19:23James Horncastle: Saki's Milan or Milan had their own you know the invincibles the invincibles but I think grande teams in Italian football you have Grande Inter and Grande Torino don't you?

19:37Pol Ballus: Okay Interesting question Learn something There you go Hopefully we'll learn loads more in the course of today's show We're going to begin with Spain poll

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21:06reporters. Or come hang on an off night for an inside look at how headlines happen. We want you dropping questions in the chat and we'll bring answers straight from the source. The Athletic Live is presented by Google Gemini. Subscribe now on YouTube. Therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough. It shows up in the smallest moments. You bite your tongue instead of escalating. You put your phone down instead of firing off that text. You say what you actually mean instead of what would hurt someone else the most. Nobody applauds those moments, but they quietly change your life.

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22:42Pol Ballus: The Madrid Derby.

22:44Jimbo: Yes. Tell us all about it. I mean, it was quite an eventful game. Who would have thought at halftime? I was watching the game and I was like, that's a really poor game in terms of football and the fluidity of the game. There was nothing, a lot happening. But then in the second half, it all blew up. Atletico de Madrid scored the first goal after the break thanks to Dean Housen's special delivery. He basically pulled Juliano Simeone down. Last man, sent off, penalty for Atletico Madrid, and Alejandro Grimaldo scored. And then Real Madrid from there, 10 men. 40 minutes to still play into the game.

23:27Jimbo: They just disappeared. Mourinho took Vinicius off to try to gain a bit more balance and more work rate in the team. But it wasn't enough. You could see a team that was not connected, I would say, between all the lines. And then James Horncastle best mate, Jonathan David, came in again, back at it. Another goal. Really good delivery. I think it was Simeone from the right hand. It was. and then a lovely tap-in as well from a clinical goal scorer as you could witness in the Serie A last season yeah just putting Atletico Madrid two goals ahead just before the end of the game Antonio Rudiger from a set piece he scored, he could one goal back but Atletico Madrid got the win Real Madrid are six points behind Barcelona at this point of the season and then after the game possibly the most interesting thing happened which was Josie Mourinho bringing back his antics in the press conference.

24:23Pol Ballus: Yes. So he turned up in almost a bit of a throwback to Rafa Benitez's facts press conference. He turned up with kind of A4 printouts of admittedly pretty controversial decisions by the referee. The one on Valverde, the tackle on Valverde does look very much like it should have been sanctioned. The Bellingham one from Romero was brutal. It was brutal as well. Yeah, it's nasty. So he has a point. but for a man who turned up in Madrid saying, look at me, I'm the nice guy, this seemed a bit of a regression to the norm. No, you can't roll over in front of such egregious decisions, James. Come on. All right then.

25:03Do you agree when you are someone who follows him around printing things out for him in the same way that Donald Trump does? It's definitely a crossover there, isn't it? Yeah. Does Trump ever somebody who prints stuff out for him? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

25:13Pol Ballus: His close aid. Okay. It did seem that... I'm not sure why they went for A4. Because it did. Normally, he's so savvy about these things. You remember when he grabbed the laptop that was sat on top of a camera thing? Yeah. No, sorry. He grabbed a laptop and pointed the camera and put it in front of the camera. Yeah. I mean, that was smart. This just looks. I mean, everyone sniggered when Rafa brought out. It was a bit van Harless. Do you remember when he did that after? Did he? He was at Manchester United and there was a game where he had someone print out loads the statistics for him so that he could go through them during the press conference which did not go that well as far as I remember.

25:49James Horncastle: Paul correct me if I'm wrong he'd done this before he'd done this in his first spell at Real Madrid when he left all the Negreira scandal kind of sort of came out no did it after he left so.

26:03Jimbo: I mean he did it once in like the Pep and Mourinho battle when they were on top of it, he brought a list. It was a full list of all the mistakes that had been favouring Guardiola's Barcelona instead of them. As in, look, I have this from this game, this game, this game, this game. And just read them during a press conference. But putting a couple of images, which, I mean, I have not mentioned the refereeing sort of controversy, but I agree with the fact that at least Kangen Lee should have been sent off. And the two tackles are like... rough.

26:38Pol Ballus: Mourinho says the referee wasn't up to it. He couldn't handle the pressure, but he specifically makes a point of not accusing the VAR of... He said, I don't want to accuse the VAR of conspiring against us.

26:52Jimbo: Yeah, but I mean, I don't want to accuse him, but if you read between the lines, you can see that I'm accusing him. But yeah, he basically criticised the decision-making into bringing the referee into the game because he was 41 years old. He had not managed like an international game yet. He's Ortiz Arias is the referee. He basically said that he's not experienced enough and that he could not cope with the pressure. Poor guy. In such a big game, he could not cope. And then, yeah, he went to the bar referee saying what you just mentioned. But he also mentioned that he, well, Daniel Trujillo, he has a history with B.A.R.

27:26Jimbo: and Real Madrid. A very interesting history he has. So basically, yeah. And then he went out like the comparison route, which is something that he likes to do, saying that Barcelona have been given soft penalties instead this season and that Atletico de Madrid have had disallowed goals to their favour that were a gift to. So, yeah, they make it very difficult for us to compete. But if they let us compete, then there's still a lot to play in this league. But they have to let us play.

27:55Pol Ballus: How's that gone over there in Madrid?

27:58Jimbo: Oh, proper meltdown. Proper meltdown. And in all the Madrid-based media, there's the fact of... Because when they analyse the football, there's the same problems that everyone saw at Ramsey last season. The lack of balance, some players not committed enough to the overall work, and the lack of creation in midfield is just not there. And despite the result and how bad the referees were and how lucky Ramsey might have been, there's a football problem. And this defeat just exposes something that has been looming over for a few weeks, I would say, because midweek, Real Madrid were lucky to win against Oce.

28:36James Horncastle: Yeah. My favourite thing, Paul, was the tweet that Real Madrid put out. Oh, amazing. A dreadful refereeing performance decides the derby.

28:45Jimbo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like a top headline.

28:48Pol Ballus: And that was the link to the match report, wasn't it?

28:49James Horncastle: Yeah. Yeah.

28:51Pol Ballus: So six points behind Barcelona, who show no sign whatsoever of slowing down. Midweek, they put seven goals past Racing Santander. 7-2 their midweek victory, and they followed that up with a 3-1 win against Sevilla at the weekend. Rafinha with a perfect hat-trick. He's got 12 goals in seven matches now. 14-8 if you include the Champions League.

29:15Jimbo: Incredible form. Just outstanding. I think that they are two or three levels above anyone else in La Liga. The only thing that Barca fans are worrying is if we are this good right now, maybe we will drop in the future. We will drop the form. But right now, the way that they are playing, how well has panned out the Rafinha experiment? Because basically they put him as a nine because they had no one else. And now he feels like he's the best in the world. The year that Vinicius claimed the Ballon d 'Or with big rights to claim that Ballon d 'Or trophy, but he scored 15 goals in La Liga. Now, Rafinha, after seven games, he has 12.

29:54Jimbo: Wow. So it's just remarkable. and praise for Rodri as well who I think that he had the best game so far in the Barca shirt and that proved in a way that he can make them go to an extra level.

30:08Pol Ballus: Excellent. How would you compare this Barcelona team with the great Barca sides of the past?

30:15Jimbo: I think it's a different team. It's a Barcelona team that I mean they play really well but I don't think that it's the Barcelona way that we used to see with Jochen Grauven and Pep Guardiola. They're more like rock and roll just running all the time just counter-pressing, just really fast attacking, not that patient. I think that with Rodri they are gaining this sort of patience and learning how to manage better the games. But this is a really fun team to watch, a really fun team to watch. I think that there's a level of La Liga levels dropping a bit if you compare them to 20 years ago. But this is a team that has all the goods to build on and stay in the memory of all the Barca fans for.

30:57Jimbo: long, long time. Okay. Because of all the sense of belonging that there's inside the team, a lot of La Masia players, you can sense that they are really hungry to win titles, especially to win the Champions League. And yeah, a team that excites a lot, all the fan base, which is basically what Joel Laporte needs to keep the financial machine that Barcelona is going.

31:19James Horncastle: I was going to ask, Paul, are you going to have to leave the Camp Nou again? Yep.

31:24Jimbo: I'm writing about this like now, basically. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So basically, Barca are going to leave the camp now next season, at the start of next season, and they're going to play again in Montjuic, in the Olympic Stadium, by the first half of next season because they are going to build the cover of the stadium. And just to build the cover, there's a period of work that basically make it impossible for the club to host games in there because I think that the cover is going to be built from the ground and it's going to be lifted up from there. and yes, so the first half of next season, Barca are going to be back in Montjuic, and the expectation is that they are back in January, playing at the Camp Nou with 95 ,000 people.

32:06James Horncastle: Doesn't Porte have to raise half a billion again, Paul?

32:11Jimbo: Exactly, because all the loan that they requested for the Camp Nou is basically gone, sort of gone, and they need a bit more money just to complete all the works, and that bit more of money is half a billion. So I guess that is going to be pretty handy for the club just to finish all the work and do whatever they feel is needed.

32:32James Horncastle: If they sell La Minna Mal, they'll get quite far along to raising that half a billion, yeah?

32:39Jimbo: Yeah, but that's not going to happen in a way. And I think that's, well, because that's just Laporta's way of thinking about the club. I think that it makes sense in a way that Barca need to be good to be this profitable and just to generate this sort of revenues and have people paying this crazy money for a ticket. So they need to be good. They cannot afford to drop those levels because if they lose that, they're going to lose the income-generating machine that the institution is.

33:09Pol Ballus: I hear you, Paul. They are, after seven rounds, five points clear of Atletico Madrid and Betis, with Real Madrid fourth, six points off the lead. Sevilla a place behind them. Valencia have moved off the bottom. They got a win midweek, but they're still in the bottom three, along with Elche and Malaga, who are 20th. Paul, Spain plague England next Saturday. Just finally, is that a big deal for Spain? Are they wistful about how that could have been the World Cup final, if only?

33:38Jimbo: Oh, yeah, they are thinking a lot about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really, every day is in the front cover of Ajax and Malaga. Every day, yeah. No, but, I mean, yeah, yeah, no, it's a game that is written down, like just for everyone just go to Wembley and England versus Spain in Wembley doesn't happen quite often I'm gonna actually I'm gonna interview De La Fuente on Wednesday okay we had to do you are gonna love that we had to do the interview on Tuesday so basically tomorrow I was about to go to Madrid tonight but it had to be cancelled because last night De La Fuente had a tooth broken had a what?

34:18Jimbo: I don't know how he broke his tooth oh Yeah. I have not been specified how it happened, but one of the tooth was broken, basically, and he's going to the dentist tomorrow morning when we had the slot for the interview. So basically, it had been postponed. You don't want to interview him after he's come back from the dentist, can you imagine?

34:34Pol Ballus: No. Is the interview scheduled for 2.30? No, I mean... Very good, Tom. Very good. Jesus. All right, then. Anyway, anything about the Spain squad or anything else you wanted to tell us about?

34:45Jimbo: Yeah, well, just wanted to mention that, like, De La Fuente has signed a new contract. extension, six more years of contract. Dream job for him. He would love to stay here, I don't know, for life, but like for a long time. And a deserved contract for a manager that not that long ago he was basically without the job, he was jobless. And he realized through a newspaper that the Spanish Federation were looking for a coach in the youth ranks. And he basically called people in the Spain of A. And he moved a bit what he needed to move. and he went to do an interview and he got the job and yeah, that's how it all started.

35:24Jimbo: Incredible.

35:24Pol Ballus: Now he's world and European champion. Amazing. Amazing. Not too bad. Excellent, Paul. Thank you so much. Spain taking on England on Saturday. And in actual fact, we'll do a live Tony Football Show after that game because it's huge, of course. Spain against England. Yeah. The actual world champions against, for many people, the people's world champions. The people's world champions. Are you going to get talk sport favourite Duncan Alexander on to do a rant? He's inked in much as Luis de la Fuente. And yeah, so do join us for that. Because what else would you be doing on a Saturday night than watching some people sat around talking about football?

36:03Jimbo: Is that okay if I live now? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because it's like my birthday today. And I have like... That's not my birthday. Yeah, yeah. Why would you not tell us? I mean I want to yeah Feliz Cumple Anos I mean say Vien because Cumple Ano Ano means Anos yes that's right that's what we meant to say happy Anos happy Anos yeah okay Cumple Ano how old are you Paul? I'm 33 so where are you heading off to now? no I'm basically going to go for a beer with my friends here in my hometown and then maybe tomorrow because we I don't have the De La Fuente thing I'm going to go with my mate in Barcelona.

36:46Jimbo: Nice. Nice. Nando's. That's what I'm hearing about. Nando's in Spain.

36:52Pol Ballus: Otherwise. Yeah, yeah. Wow, Paul, happy birthday. Happy birthday, brother.

36:57Jimbo: I'm so glad we could be part of it for you. Yeah. Nice.

37:01Pol Ballus: It's been a pleasure. My happy anus. And cut. Birthday boy, Paul Belus. Seb, let's go Bundesliga.

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40:36Pol Ballus: Oh, bad weekend for people who don't like listening to the Can Can music in the Allianz Arena because there was a whole lot of it, wasn't there? Yeah. Bayern pumped poor Union Berlin. Seven nil. Seven nil? Yeah, seven times we had the Can Can at Allianz Arena. Do you think they choose that because it's a particularly painful piece of music to listen to for anyone, but particularly away fans? No. So I was actually commissioned to write the story of this about a year ago. And so back when they were playing at the Olympia Stadion, there was a bit of an issue with atmosphere. Because you remember, it was pretty cavernous.

41:10A lot of the noise would just disappear out into the air. And the can-can music was about German football at the time. There were a few clubs that played it as a sort of, you know, happy jingle. And it was a token attempt to improve the atmosphere, to make it a little bit more jovial. And they cycled away from it for a few years. So you remember they had Seven Nation Army for a little bit. That was their Torheim. And then they came back to it. It's very, very popular with the Bayern fans. But if you go to Bavaria and if you actually ask people why, they're searching for like a deep, you know, philosophical meaning to it.

41:48No one knows. No one's even really thought about it. I remember asking a couple of people and they couldn't believe that I was even bringing it up. It was weird. I thought there would be some... Is it because they're like kicking their heels up and bringing them down? They just love that in Bavaria. Yeah, okay. You know, Raphael Honigstein used to, you know, you just couldn't stop him doing that when he was on the podcast. So, yeah, there's no deeper meaning to it. But it did play seven times.

42:10Pol Ballus: But now it's become a cherished part of the match-coding experience by that. It's very, very popular with a lot of people. Yeah. And, yeah, 7-0, the victory at the weekend over Union Berlin, which featured a brace from Harry Kane. A brace from Harry Kane. Which set a new record, Seb. Yeah, it took him to 100 goals. Well, the first goal took him to 100 goals in 98 games, which is a Bundesliga record by quite some distance to. Previously, it was held by Dieter Müller, who took 128 games to get there. So this wasn't ever going to be close. And now, of course, Kane is on 101 with a really lovely header from a Michael Isay pass.

42:46Isay, hat-trick.

42:48Pol Ballus: And with the assists, so hat-trick and assists, that's four goal involvements. It's the fourth time that he's notched up four goal contributions in a single Bundesliga game. remarkable which only levendowski miroslav closer and iron robin have ever managed yeah it's pretty pretty rare rare and actually obviously it's a shame that pole's gone because we could have talked about lamina mal who was speaking about the ballon d 'or and he's upset a lot of people in in bavaria by just saying i don't watch by munich and it was interpreted as a bit of a dig towards harry kane of course but also it's been seen as a bit of disrespect towards michael lisa who's played an extraordinarily high level for a long time and if i had a ballon d 'or vote i'd be placing at least above laminya mal i think yeah he's he's um i don't want to but i'm gonna no because laminya mal also said i believe the award should go to the world's best player full stop not to a player who scored 80 goals because when you score 80 goals you're given the top scorer award for the season that i guess is a reference to yeah that's that's kane and just to say doug did you email in that's you yeah you said how can harry kane achieve the second highest goal scoring season ever behind messi and not win the ballon door well i i think there's a little bit of snobbery there i think in this case the best player in the world and the highest scorer are the same person in my opinion i'd also say that if you say if in well let's not have a go at him he's young boy he's being brash and we we were all the same when we were his age of course but if you're not watching by munich then maybe you're missing some of that and you're missing just how profound kane's effect has been on that side and how important he's been to bring out the best in Alise or on the other side, Luis Diaz, who is not far off the top five himself.

44:30I'd say he had an excellent season. Forgive my biases towards German football, but I think it's fair enough. James and I had a conversation when Bayern were playing in Bergamo about just how good that side was. Alise in particular, I remember we were talking about him.

44:46James Horncastle: I would put Alise over La Minima for the last season as well. Yeah. I mean I went to the Champions League quarterfinal by an Atletico Barca Atletico

44:58Pol Ballus: No I'm joking He was exciting to watch

45:02James Horncastle: He was nutmegging but they lost that game and they went out and great they won the La Liga but as Paul says is this one of the great Barcelona sides it might become one of those but still not one of those yet it's fun to watch but they won La Liga at the World Cup a lot of people were sort of hanging around scratching their heads thinking when is La Minima going to turn up in this tournament and for much of that tournament the people who were getting the job done was Ferran Torres who we'll get to who's had a great start to his life at PSG Rodri Mikel Moreno Kubasi Daniel Mann and it was like Michael Lillie and Harry Kane and it was yes but for Spain it was very much a case of well this team has got this far wait until La Minima Mal turns up and it never quite happened.

45:52James Horncastle: And so, you know, I understand that he has a talent which one day probably will lead to him winning the Ballon d 'Or. But the idea that it's just a conversation between him and Kylian Mbappé for the season is falsissimo. I think it's also, I think it's a little bit of a communications failure because a young player, you are dependent upon your self-belief and your ego. you have to have those things to perform at the level that Lamin Imel does and he's a wonderful player and there are very few players in terms of spectacle that I would place above him but someone's going to say hey man this this this is not going to play especially well and if you're if you're propping up your candidacy ahead of the Ballon d 'Or it means it's not strong enough in my opinion.

46:38Pol Ballus: Wow there you go Bayern Munich now two points off the top of the table. By the way Side note, the Alise Hatrick is as pretty as you will see all season. The third goal especially, it is just a work of art. There you go. Has he loosened up at all in his post-game comments? No, this is interesting because this is... Almost the opposite. We've reached a little bit of a point where he's started to upset a few people. Initially, it was fun. It was gimmicky. Hey, he's nonchalant. It's, you know, it's aura. But it's not nonchalant, is it? No, it's a, when he did his first press conference for Bayern, a lot of people interpreted it as him being a bit uncomfortable at such a big club.

47:21Because Bayern Munich to Crystal Palace, that's a pretty different world he was suddenly inhabiting. Over time, it's been reinterpreted as occasional bit of rudeness towards reporters who ask him questions. because we've all reported on the game. When you ask someone about a brilliant piece of skill, you want them to be quite, you want them to be as verbose as possible. Tell me, tell me, let me understand. How does it work? Whereas he's very blunt and matter of fact. I don't really care about that. I don't think he owes anybody more than what he gives on the pitch. That's absolutely fine. But there's a little bit of a change in mood around that.

47:56So we'll see, but he's certainly not, he's certainly not campaigning for the Ballon d 'Or. I suppose that's what you're asking. I mean like I said I absolutely adore Michael Alissé he's already one of my favourite footballers of all time and I don't mind the kind of you know monosyllabic responses and interviews but I saw a clip recently that completely changed my perspective on it and it was an interview with Alissé during pre-season when he was just breaking into the first team squad at Reading and it is a very normal interview Oh, Michael, you're joining up with the first team squad. How are you feeling?

48:30Oh, yeah, it's great to be here. You know, I'm buzzing. I'm learning so much from the other players. You know, we've been playing some really great football and the facilities here are so great. And it's like, oh, wow. Like he is capable of doing something more normal in his interviews. And so this is very clearly a choice. It doesn't bother me. I think he's brilliant. I just like if I was a kid, I would think he was the coolest thing in the world. Yeah, me too. But like it is very obviously a bit. I wonder whether, see, I've never spent any one-on-one time with Michael Eise. I've never interviewed him privately.

49:02So I don't really have any insight into his personality. But I wonder whether, I don't know, there's been a negative experience with the media somewhere along the line, whether there's been a change in personality.

49:12Pol Ballus: I think I'm right in saying that there are individuals that he does speak normally to. And I think possibly Byron's own TV channel, he gives normal. Maybe. Which does make it seem like a bit of a choice to be just kind of rude. And I, like Tom, I'm kind of okay with it. The player is enough for me. I feel entertained by it. However he feels comfortable, go for it, Michael. And also Erling Haaland was that. He was that. That was the thing. At the beginning of his career. Look how much fun he is now. Maybe that's the journey that Aliso will go on. Bayern. Yes. And now two points off the top of the table.

49:45Pol Ballus: Again, after four rounds. In first place, though, are Dortmund. who are off to their best start in 11 years. They've won all four of their opening games. They beat Stuttgart 1-0 away this weekend. They've got Bayern and Freiburg right behind them. Then you've got a lot of five teams, including Leverkusen and our friends Elversburg. Yeah, who drew a Schalke over the weekend 0-0. So just to run back on Dortmund, because I had a Joe Bellingham point, Jim. Okay, good. Yeah, because Joe Bellingham, when he came over, obviously the biggest problem, his brother, and the comparisons to him, Joe Bellingham is not Jude Bellingham by any measure.

50:20Imagine if he was. That would be a tremendous amount for Dortmund. But he's also a more conservative player. And so the knock on him is, what does he do? Why are you taking up one of those two midfield spots at the base of Kovac's side? And he had a really, really good ball for Maxi Bayer to score the only goal against Stuttgart. And it wasn't a miracle assist, but it was a good ball across the six-yard box. It was the decisive moment in the game. and you could see by his reaction his celebration was a little bit Jude-esque as well turning to the supporters you wonder maybe that's going to unlock a little bit of self-belief and really good to see but also good for Dortmund because I think it's the first time in over a thousand days it's much more than that that they've been top of the table and they deserve it they've played ever so well and also they won in Europe in addition to those five straight wins in the Bundesliga four straight wins in the Bundesliga

51:13Pol Ballus: bottom two in the Bundesliga are Union Berlin freshly pasted by by munich and our friends barista mudge and gladback who just got a new manager in but well so ugan polanski resigned last weekend i think alex blessing formerly of st pauli james will know him his former red bull coach i think he's going to be in at gladback and blessing is a terrific coach he's going to need to be that is a depleted squad looks shorn of confidence, goals, can't defend, huge trouble, huge trouble. So they need blessing yesterday, frankly. All right. I wonder if he'll arrive in disguise. Well, yep. I don't know. Thank goodness.

51:53You just cut him off. I could see him twitching in the corner of my eye.

51:56Pol Ballus: There we go. All right. Excellent stuff, Seb. They've got three weeks to sort that out before the Bundesliga returns. Next up for us, let's head to Italy. quick pit stop in turkey ecchi what's going on in the super league well after six rounds you've got the top nine teams separated by just three points it's really really tight the leaders right now on goal difference ahead of galatasaray are a side called amed who are in the super league for the first time in their history and they're top of the table they're very much a kurdish team as he was representing the kurdish population anyway they've got the lead over galatasaray on goal difference partly because this weekend Galatasaray got done 4-0 by Trabzonspor, also in that glut of teams, with three goals from Mo Salah and he set up the other one as well.

52:48Pol Ballus: So there you go. Turkish Super League news, tick. In the Super League in Portugal, it's seven wins from seven for Francesco Farioli's Porto. They beat Marco Silva's Benfica 3-1 on Sunday night. What did Benfica do to Milan last midweek? Oh, my word. Yeah.

53:08James Horncastle: No, they played very well. A lot of their transfer business passed me by. I didn't see that John Duran had shown up in Lisbon. Luca Bacchio had a good game for them as well. They're right back. They played pretty well as well, the Ukrainian. They have a teenage right back, Benfica, who was one of the outstanding players of that game. But yeah, put a little bit of pressure on Ruben Amrum, which he responded to this weekend.

53:37Pol Ballus: He did. They are five points clear, Porto, in Portugal. Top of the league in the Eredivisie are Arzete, who were beaten 1-0 by Sunderland in that Europa League. Anyway, they had a 1-0 win themselves over Telstar this weekend. And speaking of moments of silence and that, there was a really emotional spot during this game where Ronna Koeman's wife, who passed away last week, Bartina Koeman, her picture was put up on the stadium scoreboard. And their son plays in goal for Telstar. And you can imagine he was in floods of tears, poor chap. It was a nice celebration by the whole crowd. Nobody turned their back.

54:23Pol Ballus: There was a lot of applause in that, but yeah. And as you mentioned, James, lots of minutes of silence in Italy for Sandro Mazzola as well. Let's get on to what happened in Serie A then. Coming into the weekend, Inter and Roma were the two teams who'd made a perfect start to the season, and they met on Saturday in Rome.

54:44James Horncastle: Yeah, game of the weekend in terms of billing and in what it delivered as well. Inter are a lot of fun to watch. in Serie A this season because they just keep going two goals behind and it sets up these great second halves where they have to make these swashbuckling comebacks which they did against Napoli, a game I attended. They won that in stoppage time. They did that against Udinese as well where they not just won 3-2 but 4-5. This one they were able to come back and draw the game Christine Kivu the Inter coach afterwards was saying I'm not going to tell you what was said in the dressing room don't ask me what was said in the dressing room at half time so everyone was then asking him I'm not going to tell you I'm not going to tell you what we said but we really had it out with each other but this idea that Inter are conceding too many goals at the moment and their depth and their attacking talent continues to kind of bail them out.

55:54James Horncastle: They have the confidence of kind of champions. Lautaro Martinez has scored four goals the first five games. He's been at the heart of these comebacks as well. Lautaro, who had a good World Cup, scored the goal against England, scored in extra time against Switzerland as well, didn't strangely start against Spain in the World Cup final and then didn't come on at all. But he was talking about how the summer before he'd come back from the Club World Cup kind of destroyed by playing in that, by not being able to get away because they'd lost the league on the final day to Como. They'd lost the Champions League final to PSG.

56:38James Horncastle: and instead he's come back this summer in kind of top form and was able to pull a game back for Inter which looked away from them because Roma playing at the Stadio Olimpico played an outstanding first half. Manu Kone who stayed at Roma on the final day of the transfer window after a bid from Chelsea showed why Chelsea and other clubs have looked at him in like he's in the France squad for these Nations League games. Pepo Martinez the Inter's goalkeeper who's come in for a bit of flack for one of the reasons they keep conceding goals is because he's made a few mistakes but he pulled off an incredible save in this game with his I don't think he knew much about it but Daniel Marlin hit him in the face and it would have been 3-1 and I think it was a belief that had that gone in Roma would have run out and won that game

57:34Pol Ballus: why are they conceding so many goals when they sign John Stones and Jed Spence and well so

57:41James Horncastle: John Stones is injured at the moment and Jed Spence is hardly I don't think he has played Curtis Jones has come in Curtis Jones gave the ball away in Madrid at the Bernabeu for the first goal where Inter actually played really well in that Champions League game but mistakes were there undoing so there's a combination of that They've sort of obviously changed the goalkeeper who I've mentioned. And Kivu hates being asked about Josep Martinez and whether Inter have a goalkeeping problem. He was asked about this and he had the microphone where I had my microphone and he headbutted the microphone five times.

58:25James Horncastle: People basically saying, you've got a problem with a goalkeeper. No, no, no.

58:28Pol Ballus: Did you not see all the saves you made? I mean, luckily, the previous guy is having an absolute mare of a season for, where is he playing now? Is it Bruges? Jan Sommer. Yeah. Bruges. Bruges, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, there you go. Well, Inter still level with Roma at the top of the table and level as well with Rino Gattuso's Lancia, which has caught a lot of people, I'm sure, by surprise. Fourth place, this is a bit of a turn up as well, Arcagnari. We mentioned Daniel Maldini's road incident last week, but that hasn't deterred him. Not only has he furnished new tests, which showed that there was nothing untoward about his state of mind when he was driving the vehicle.

59:08Pol Ballus: But also, he can't stop scoring. He's got a call-up for Roberto Mancini's New Italy side as well, and he scored the... God, I can't think. Who did they beat? Udinese. They beat Udinese one now.

59:19James Horncastle: Yeah, he got the only goal of the game. That's been a bit of a trend for Caleri so far this season. They've won these really tight matches. but um daniel maldini he's unlike his father who obviously was you know like sandra mazzola like one of these bandiera talismanic one club figures maldini daniel maldini has kind of done all the things that his dad didn't get a chance to do which is play for several clubs by the time he's 24 he's never quite um settled at any of them um he's sort of been to atalanta been to spezia Yeah, he keeps getting passed around and people think, will he fulfill his potential?

1:00:01James Horncastle: He's not a defender, you know, unlike his father and grandfather. He's sort of, he's an attacking player who you'd think is a number 10 or a shadow striker and that sort of thing. But yeah, to score three goals in three games, Roberto Mancini couldn't really ignore him, even though, as you mentioned, he crashed his car after scoring the winning goal against Atalanta. There were a few people injured. He failed a breathalyzer test for alcohol. There were some initial reports that he'd failed a test for drugs. He then went to an independent clinic in Calgary. It showed that any of these drugs were absent from his bloodstream.

1:00:45James Horncastle: And then there was this kind of sample that came out today from the test that he had when he crashed his car. And that's come out clear as well. So no reason for Roberto Mancini to sort of discipline him and say we're not calling you up for the longest international break ever.

1:01:02Pol Ballus: Okay. We mentioned the pressure on Ruben Amirim after the dismal performance against Benfica in the Europa League. And they responded, as you mentioned, well this weekend with a 3-0 victory over Lecce, which saw a return from Christian Pulisic and a fantastic goal.

1:01:19James Horncastle: What else did it see? Well, the owner, Gerry Cardinal, said it was the best 90 minutes that he's seen from Milan all year or certainly this season. I think Milan have occasionally played a good 20 minutes here and there under Ruben Amorim, but they haven't really been able to have a more sustained performance. I think what was really good about Amarim going into this weekend is he wasn't under pressure but I think there was some frustration some disappointment with with how things had been going for the last couple of weeks and after the Benfica game he said look I might need to change here the thing that held me back at Man United was I was too stubborn I didn't change and I'm learning from that and so at the weekend he effectively played with a back four with Mario Gila, one of the centre-backs assigned to play in his back three, playing as a right-back.

1:02:17James Horncastle: He brought Christian Pulisic back into the side for his first start. Milan are just completely different with Pulisic in the team, more dynamic. He gives defenders so much more to think about because he takes them on and that encourages his own teammates to be less static to move around. And the second goal that they scored was a really nice team move. Now, granted it was at San Siro, the 100th anniversary of San Siro as well this weekend. So a big celebration of that before the game. But granted it was against Lecce, who've been sort of struggling a bit. I know they won last weekend, but you would expect Milan to put away Lecce.

1:03:01And this was one of the games he was kind of hired to make a difference in

1:03:07James Horncastle: because too often last year, against teams in the bottom half of the table, Milan would really struggle against teams that would come and park the bus, play with the low block. And instead, they not only dominated, they showed that they could cut through a team like that. So it's a good way to go into the break for Amaro.

1:03:27Pol Ballus: Absolutely. And for Luciano Spalletti as well, who maybe was beginning to feel a bit of pressure at Juventus, results hadn't been great for them either, but they had a big win in the Europa League last week. 5-0 against Neck. Oh, with your man Volta Mardes scoring in that. And Alubegovic as well. And Alubegovic was on the score sheet again this weekend as they beat Atalanta 2-0. So that was good. James, you were just chuckling because... Funny team name, right?

1:03:58James Horncastle: Neck is a famous pop star in Italy. So there are a lot of things. Juventus basically taking on a one-man show in Neck.

1:04:07Pol Ballus: If you had to choose one Neck song for the listener to experience, you'll go with Nero Verde.

1:04:14James Horncastle: Yeah, he wrote the Sassuolo anthem. It's a great anthem.

1:04:18Pol Ballus: Are you familiar with it, Seb? No, but I... Nero Verde, siamo forti, siamo noi. Oh, yeah, baby. Beautiful harmonizing. What was the name of the Italian singer who wrote the song in... Gibberish. In gibberish. What was his name? Celentano. That's it. Yeah. That guy. Another buyer. That one. But for me, the next song that I would go for would be... Laura Nonce. Oh, no, I wouldn't. Endata via. Laura non è più cosa mia. No, I would have gone for... This could be its own podcast, really. Oh, yeah. Tom and I can just leave. Why would you? Well, no.

1:05:00Pol Ballus: I don't really know the words to that one actually

1:05:11Pol Ballus: And this guy's called N-E-K N-E-K What does that mean? I don't know, it's his name Tom Right, it's not a stage name I can't remember why he's called it But it's kind of... He sounds a lot, and you won't have got this from our rendition, but he sounds a lot like Sting. I was getting big Sting vibes. Were you getting big Sting vibes? Particularly from you, James? No. But when Sting would tour in Italy, he would often have neck as the support. So he would be the headliner with neck just below. He's a very Italian-looking man. Makes a lot of sense. Biologically. That's superb.

1:05:55Pol Ballus: anyway neck uh next let's go to france

1:06:03Pol Ballus: big game well one of the many big games in ligan this weekend was sunday evening in marseille the classic as marseille took on paris saint germain yeah marseille who have had a wretched beginning to the season um very predictably because they sold almost all their best players over the summer and didn't replace any of them didn't sign any players at all they went into this off the back of three consecutive defeats in Ligue 1 and a bit of a schlapping at the hands of Besiktas in the Europa League stadium wasn't full for this game which is pretty unusual because the velodrome is very often sold out and particularly when psg come to town there are a few empty seats um there was some angry banners as well mccourt out frank mccourt the owner of course who's been there since 2016 and when he came in there was lots of talk of the om champions project was coming in to turn them into league champions and another banner read 2016 Champions Project 2026 Ligue 2 Project question mark oh nice because that appears to be the direction of travel but they're last in the league at the moment they're second from bottom oh second from bottom sorry

1:07:28James Horncastle: can I just quickly ask you a question you mentioned the Besiktas game there were some reports last week that Marseille were like reluctant to be in Europe or participate in Europe because it would cost them more money yeah so that was I mean, they considered not competing in the Europa League because their finances are being monitored by UEFA's bean counters. And there are certain targets that they have to hit and there are certain spending limits that they must not exceed. And so there was a calculation as to whether it would cost them more to play in Europe than to not play in Europe. because generally speaking, Marseille hoping to be in the Champions League every season, Europa League is a level down.

1:08:16I think the calculation they came to was that we will still make enough money from this to make it worth our while. But they did have the conversation, which is a sign of how low they've fallen. Good Lord. In spite of all that, they actually put together a reasonably creditable performance against PSG. they fell behind midway through second half Ferran Torres scoring his seventh goal in six PSG matches having come off the bench he didn't start on this occasion Marseille equalised almost immediately Angel Gomez who came through at Manchester United was briefly at Wolves last season he's supposed to be the starting number 10 for OM this season they don't really have that many other options He's been really poor, so he was dropped for this game.

1:09:08But Igor Paixão, Brazilian left winger, was forced off by injury in the second half. Sorry, in the first half. Gomez was sent on in his place and ends up scoring a really nicely taken equaliser. Amin Gwiri plays him in down the inside right channel and he cuts inside William Pacho, plonks a shot past Matvei Safanov. And then two minutes later, PSG go ahead again. deep cross from Nuno Mendes Marquinhos comes in at the back post scores at the second attempt his third goal of the season Timothy Weyer is then sent off for Marseille second yellow card for holding back Nuno Mendes who was excellent and so PSG run out 2-1 winners I mean a deserved win in the sense that PSG were dominant you look at the stats number of shots expected goals etc they're still not quite firing on all cylinders Although that's three wins in a row now in all competitions Yes Yeah Okay Tom I was going to ask When McCourt began his Champions Project in 2016, what was the basis for that?

1:10:08Because obviously that's a post-QSI PSG world in Ligue 1. So what was the thinking? Well, the thinking was, you know, this is the second biggest club in France. I mean, traditionally, you know, the best supported club in France before PSG came along. They had been league champions under Didier Deschamps only five years earlier. and you know there is enormous potential at Marseille and the thinking was you know if they construct things intelligently and if they have an owner who's prepared to put money into the club there's a possibility to close that gap on PSG and at least compete with them. So I mean yeah I guess as plenty of new club owners have learned to their cost it doesn't always pay to go into these things with very bold, you know, stated ambitions.

1:11:02But there is an expectation amongst the fan base at Marseille, which is the most demanding fan base in French football, one of the most demanding fan bases in all of European football, that they will be competing for honours. So they were trying to harness that, basically. And as it's turned out, yeah, I mean, it perhaps wasn't the smartest ambition to have announced.

1:11:25Pol Ballus: But you've got to have ambitions.

1:11:27James Horncastle: And also during, you mentioned QSI buying the club. I mean, people overlook this, but like three clubs have won the league in the time that QSI have won. So it's not a completely out there thing to say.

1:11:38Pol Ballus: I mean, the first season after McCourt's arrival, Monaco, you know, win the league. It's just interesting. Lons have made the Champions League. So, you know, if Lons can do it. If you come in with such aggressive ambition, then it's usually because you're confident of your ability to outspend somebody, which obviously in that instance is not going to happen. and it just, yeah, I thought there was some sort of... Or you're American. Exactly. There you go. They are second from bottom. Yes. Paris Saint-Germain moving up to, what are they, two points off the lead? Oh, no, they're five points off the lead in sixth spot.

1:12:11Pol Ballus: Top of the table are Monaco, who beat Lens 2-1 with another goal from Paris-Brunner. Indeed. Paris-Brunner. Brunner. Brunner. He's got four and five. Eric Dyer, did you catch his post-game interview? Yes, yes. Someone said that he sounded like he was... A Frenchman speaking English. Yeah, I don't think he necessarily sounds like a Frenchman speaking English. And I find that Eric Dyer, having kind of spent so long in Portugal as a kid, just he has quite an unusual accent. So I don't think this was a Joey Barton slash Steve McLaren thing. I think he just has quite an international accent, which you're not used to hearing from an English footballer.

1:12:50I want to defend people who do this because it's really easy to lapse into this habit where if you're talking to someone who's speaking English as a second language, you adjust your own cadence and rhythms and you end up sounding a little bit strange. I don't think I'm not going to defend everybody who's done it. But in this instance, I think it's quite... Yeah, they don't do it on purpose. No, it's unwitting.

1:13:12Pol Ballus: You get used to hearing people speak that way unless you adapt to try and make yourself more understandable. I can see how that would happen. So I've got some sympathy. Do you do that when you go to Paris, Tom, on the weekend? Do you start speaking all, I will sit in this chair for you? No, because I'm only speaking French. But I guess in a way. If I were to call you up, not in the middle of the show, God forbid. Sorry, James, I am in Paris. I'm very busy with my French friends. There you are. That's straight into it. Tom, what happened? They'd be put down to the jetang. What if I was to call James Horncastle up?

1:13:49Pol Ballus: When he's at a game in Italy, how would he sound? Hello, James. Okay, tut okay. Tut okay. Should we do a podcast like that in our chosen specialist accent? I have to ask you. No, these are politically really difficult times in Germany. I'm not doing it. No chance.

1:14:09James Horncastle: It depends what accent you would shoot. Yeah, none of them are good. Tom, can I ask what happened to Dino Topmuller, please? Yeah. I'm just changing our direction here. Yeah, so I mean, the reporting has been that the players and some of the coaching staff were used to operating in a certain way under Pierre Sage and Tothman came in. Stonewise. Stonewise. And Tothman, you know, kind of changed things up. There's a bigger emphasis on pressing than there had been previously. But it seems to have been one of his assistants who was particularly problematic and Lanz decided that this guy's face just didn't really fit.

1:14:50And there was a falling out over that. And so, you know, Tottenham has been shown the door despite it being very early in the season and despite Lanz's form not being disastrous. And I think what has raised eyebrows is that the guy who's been chosen to replace him is a guy called Yannick Cahuzac, who was already on the staff, never been a head coach before. Very highly rated number two, previously Lorient. And he's from Corsica, as is the long sporting director, Jean-Louis Lecker. and the connection between the two of them doesn't stop there because they are very close friends they were best man at each other's weddings they played together at bastia they also played together at lance and so the accusation is that legger has basically got rid of topmuller at the first sign of friction so we can put his pal into the hot seat and he was yeah he is he was initially announced well the reporting was that he was going to be the interim coach but he's been appointed you know full-time head coach at lanc and he was in charge on friday night but at the same time it's going to cost them an awful lot of money to get rid of topmuller so i don't think yeah well as that's what they're calling it it's a good coach though there's a good coach though he had a tricky old time eintracht towards the end but there's a there's a smart coach that will work somewhere i'm sure yeah and he seemed to tick a lot of the boxes you know he's he's he speaks very good french you know his team's invariably play pretty dynamic football where's the hell out of a polo neck yeah that too yeah yeah always helps one of his post-game interviews is going to

1:16:24Pol Ballus: be all anyway yeah german french yeah yeah take your pick there you go that's that's it that's the state of european play ahead of this international break we've got loads of exciting matches coming up which we're going to be reporting on in the totally football show germany homen germany homen coming up on thursday is it yeah that's with germany squad one of two. Oh right, because Jürgen's got his two different squads. He's got his two different squads. How long are you in England for? Until the end of tomorrow and I'm going to go to Lisbon and I'm going to watch Portugal against Wales. Might see Tom, question mark?

1:17:00Yeah, no. Welsh confidence going into this international break is if not an all-time low, then a fairly historic level. It's great being promoted to the Nations League A when you're a small country, But when your manager looks like he's kind of like casting around for an exit and a lot of your most important players are injured and you haven't won a game since last November and you're playing Portugal and Norway and Denmark. Yeah, could be a painful one.

1:17:33Pol Ballus: Well, we'll catch up with all the Nations League results as they happen in the course of the next few totally football shows. No Euro show next week, though, or the week after, on account the league's not being in operation, Tom. Patrick Beachwatch. Oh, yeah? Very briefly. Only because he had another forgettable outing. Oh, dear. Two nil defeats, 4-3 at Angers. He got three out of ten from the keep and was officially, again, the flop du jour. Three out of ten in the keep. seems like a I mean not a disgrace I mean there's been you know man of the match Messi performances that have got like a 7 oh yeah yeah yeah I mean yeah he wasn't the only 3 this weekend but yeah there were some 2's but yeah he's racking up the 3's old Paddy Beach very good many thanks Tom many thanks Seb many thanks James to Paul happy birthday to producer Xavi to you we'll catch up with you soon on Tony Football Show for now from all of us here it's goodbye

1:18:37Pol Ballus: the Totally Football Show podcast is available three times a week bringing you all the football news you could reasonably be expected to care about, we've got views we've got stats, we've got analysis we've got some of the best football writers around and the whole thing is absolutely free, so have a listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or all the usual places by clicking on the link below Think of a toilet as just an everyday object. Your entire perspective shifts the moment you experience a Kohler smart toilet. Design changes everything, transforming a basic routine into something extraordinary.

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