Statement wins for Spurs and Arsenal, as Man United make the Champions League

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1:27The Athletic FC.

1:57played Michael Jackson's side and beat it. All that and much, much more in this Totally Football Show.

2:09Hello, everybody, and welcome to another Totally Football Show. It's Sunday evening, May the 3rd, 2026. And here in a special late-night edition of the Totally Show, we're joined in the studio by Seb Stafford Bloor. Good evening, Jimbo. Hi, says Stafford Bro. Hello, hello. Good to see you. Tim Spears is with us as well. Hi, James. I'm the one on the right, everybody. And joining us on the big screen, there he is, the SGA Feature Writer of the Year. Joining us in person from the eye, it is Daniel Storey, live from Nottinghamshire. Thank you very much, James. Pleasure to be here. Yeah, congratulations on your award.

2:57Daniel. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, best moment of my career. No point playing it down. Absolutely brilliant. All right. Thank you very much. Excellent. Well, nice to have a bit of recognition for your stellar work. And we're looking forward to some of that glorious footballing acumen as we analyse what is, Tim, is it round 35 of this Premier League season? Yeah. Okay. I think it was. Yeah. All right. It is. Yeah. Still is because there's two games to go. It being a bank holiday weekend, there's two games on the Monday. will roll through the results so far, shall we? And then get stuck into the big Sunday evening game, which has caused our start time to be a little bit later.

3:36But anyway, the results, eh? Sunday, Spurs got their second straight victory. 2-1 away to Aston Villa. Earlier in the day, Man Utd beat Liverpool 3-2 in a hugely entertaining match at Old Trafford. It was 3-0, meanwhile, for Bournemouth over Crystal Palace. Spurs thus, after West Ham's 3-0 defeat on Saturday at Brentford, move out of the bottom three. Also on Saturday, Arsenal beat Fulham 3-0. That's the first time in nine matches that the Gunners have managed more than a single goal. It takes them six points clear of Manchester City, although they have played two games more. Newcastle beat Brighton 3-1 on Saturday, and Wolves and Sunderland drew 1-1.

4:20Friday, meanwhile, a 3-1 victory for Leeds against Burnley means Farkas side are now seven points clear with three games to go. Two games coming up on the Monday, Chelsea Forest in the afternoon, Everton Man City in the evening. Let's begin with Aston Villa's first. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Crossed back in and headed in. It's Richarlison. It's 2-0 to Tom and inside 25 minutes. bearing dreamland here at the park the sweet sound of spurs going two goals up away to aston villa scoreline eventually read 2-1 but the three points taking spurs out of the bottom three giving them as i mentioned their second straight win after a long period in which victory seemed well beyond their reach i can't remember being so proud of a spurs performance since bill bow says sam east 9-2-7-3 Did Unai do a dirty with his team selection?

5:21Asked Taker Fnatic Two of the viewpoints that you'll see recurring a lot in relation to the two teams' performances but let's start with Spurs Seb, you've watched a bit of Tottenham Was this the best Spurs performance of the season? Yeah, by quite a long way I mean, maybe you would put the Man City away win up there right at the beginning of the Thomas Frank reign which feels like five years ago Man City against this Aston Villa Probably you go with the Man City. I think so, but given everything that followed, I think it's safe to say that there's a little bit of a sour taste in the mouth as a result of everything that happened.

5:56But this was a Tottenham performance where it felt as if every dial had been turned up and clearly the ball retention was a lot better, the defending was a lot more sensible and secure. But also, I think they even mentioned it on commentary a few times, the battling and the willingness to compete in the individual moments, all of that was a lot better and it was interesting that conor gallagher i suppose will be many people's man of the match after that performance it's definitely his best performance for tottenham and i think he characterized the relentlessness of it which is this this tottenham team does not have a lot of talent really does not have a lot of depth but there's a willingness to fight which i think spurs fans would say they haven't seen for a very very very long time and so whether it's technically the best kind of irrelevant whether it's one to be really proud of definitely definitely because backs right up against the wall.

6:46West Ham's defeat gave Tottenham a massive chance today and they took it. And so you have to salute that. And yes, I'm sure we're going to get to the other side of the conversation with Villa, but this is what happens at this time of the season. You run into teams who have got bigger priorities, especially when they're safe in the Premier League or when they're secure in their ambitions. And it's just a kind of, it's part of Premier League life going through April and May, I think. Are Spurs safe now? Oh, goodness, no. No, there's a long way to go. One point. Well, so they will play, their next game is on the Monday night against Leeds United, which is going to be after West Ham play Arsenal.

7:20Now, if Spurs beat Leeds and West Ham, West Ham would have to beat one of Arsenal or Newcastle the following week, which makes it very, very tricky. But this is a step forward for Spurs. It's by no means the end of the journey. I thought West Ham were pretty unlucky I know we're going to get to their game against Brentford but they played probably not well enough to win the game but well enough to get something from it and they're certainly capable of beating a Newcastle team who yes they won over the weekend but they're still very very hit and miss and very beachy I think is the word we'll use so no by no means is this over but it's a rare positive and an overdue positive Right overjoyed Spurs fans there at Villa Park Daniel and a lot of Villa fans for whom the game was over a long time before the final whistle.

8:08Yeah, it's the biggest gamble of Emery's tenure at Villa to date, really, because he rotated the team to such an extent that it set the tone of this game doesn't really matter. And the mathematics of that make complete sense, right? A, if they beat Burnley away, then they will probably almost certainly be in the Champions League next season by finishing the top five. there's this kind of slightly conspiratorial air of if Tottenham beat Villa then it means Forest who play on Monday probably have to pick a slightly stronger team than they would like because that gap has now gone down to three points to Forest and Forest are not safe yet either and Villa rested players for Thursday night and they're behind in the tie and they need to win by you know one goal and penalties or two goals on Thursday so it kind of makes strategic sense if if the emotion of your fan base isn't a thing.

9:04And unfortunately for Emery, the emotion of the fan base is a thing. And it sounded toxic at Villa Park. It really did. They were booed off at half-time. They booed the slow passing. They booed no subs at half-time. They scored with the last kick of the game, but Villa had 0.03 xG, I think, in the first 90 minutes before stoppage time in the second half. They were almost a stooge for Tottenham as a player game for most of the game. And again, that's fine Many of you can leave that in isolation, but it means if you don't start quickly against Forest on Thursday night, then the fans will be unhappy again because they'll think, well, hang on, you sacrificed Premier League.

9:42Villa have only beaten, by the way, Sunderland and West Ham in the Premier Leagues in the last two months. So they're not there yet. They are now six points ahead of Bournemouth with three games left and Villas will have to play Liverpool and Manchester City. So they're not there yet. So it was a risk and it will only be viewed as a success in a week or two weeks time, I guess. Dave Norton asks, does rotating teams ahead of or between big games ever work? Why do coaches do it when playing all the players you don't rate week in, week out is clearly the wrong thing to do? And as Daniel mentioned, it also sends a bit of a message to the team that this one doesn't count so much.

10:19That whole winning is a habit, you need to keep that momentum going. Do you see that playing a part as Nottingham Forest turned up on Thursday night at Villa Park? I mean, that atmosphere at the end of the game, you know, they were absolutely livid. You know, the cameras kept sort of closing in on the Villa fans. To then ask them to turn it around for Thursday, 8pm, for this sort of cauldron that they'll want, you know, against France for a European semi-final. I don't know. Yeah, it doesn't send out the best sort of signs, as Daniel said, to the fans as well as the players. For anyone who didn't see the game, how bad was the Villa performance?

10:52How right do you think were the fans to be that angry? It sort of reminded me of, like, a second round Carabao Cup performance. You know, when, I don't know, you'd be playing like a championship team at home as a Premier League team and you'll make nine changes and the team out there is really still very good and full of quality but because they've never played with each other before they just ended up putting in a terrible performance and look like they've never played with each other before that's what it looked to me they just had no answer to what Spurs were doing in terms of their press which was very organised and very effective and very high and very intense and all they kept doing Villa was trying to play through the press I was so confused because you've got Tammy Abraham up front, who's a pretty tall fella.

11:32Just knock it long just to try and relieve some pressure. I assumed that they would at least redress that at half-time. But no, they kept doing the second half. And they were playing in like a daze, really, just sort of following the players around and just incessantly trying to play through this very effective press. It just wasn't working. I think it's really difficult. If you're in Villa's situation, if you're a Villa player, you've got kind of two problems. First of all, the general fatigue that you accumulate across the course of a season. And then ahead of what, you're four days away from one of the most important games in the club's modern history, and you're facing an opponent that's scrappy, that's well-rested, which has nothing other than this Premier League game to focus on, and who's bringing into the game a level of competition and combativeness that you don't really want to face when you're a couple of days away from the semi-final.

12:23I've also got sympathy for Unire Emery because we were less than a week removed from the whole conversation which came out of the PSG Bayern game, which is kind of, well, you know, Premier League teams can't behave like that and they can't play like this because they're short of energy and you just can't bring that intensity into a game of that nature if you play English football. And then so you rotate players and you rotate to the extent where you've got second string players and it's not as if, you know, Emery sent out his under-19s to play this game. They just played like it. And it's a very, very difficult situation also because naturally, as a Villa player, your eyes are drawn over the horizon.

12:59Well, I was confused about why Emery himself didn't actually make any steps to change things. He just stood looking like a man who discovered his cats had collectively peed in his chips, essentially with a face like thunder, throughout the game. I guess you could also, my memory's not that good, but Spurs a year ago, were they the team doing this? Absolutely stinking up the Premier League but making a run to that Europa League final. I think what's interesting there as well, because we heard on commentary, Jimbo, a couple of times where they said, you know, I can't understand this because this is an opportunity for some of these players to play their way into the team.

13:34And yeah, you're absolutely right. Spurs did do this. And what happened is you had the European team, you had the first choice combinations that sort of the side was built out of, and you had the players that were just there to kind of, to run minutes in the Premier League in a campaign that was going nowhere. There wasn't a lot of meritocracy between those two camps. There wasn't a sense that you could, if you scored a couple of goals, that you could promote yourself into. And someone who's as meticulous as Unai Emery and who plans as diligently as he does, he knows what his team is for next Thursday.

14:07There's no sense of, well, you put in a couple of good crosses, so I'm going to tear up my game plan ahead of it. It's just not going to happen. I was just going to say, with the sort of anger in the stands, it's not new. it's not just from today's or Thursday's performance. I was looking at the table earlier, the Premier League table, since Michael Carrick had taken charge to see where Man United were. And I noticed that Villa, this is early January onwards, Villa are 15th in that table. So, you know, I think we spoke a lot in the first half of the season about generally sort of XG over performance with Villa, lots of long shots being turned into goals, haven't signed a player for years who can impact the first team.

14:40You know, all these things are catching up with them now. OK, Cautious Horse writes in and says, All I have to say about Villa's performance is Marco Bison. With that then, Daniel, should we talk a little bit more about Spurs? Because, as mentioned, that's two straight victories. They couldn't win for 15 games. What's De Zerbi done for you? I think there is a clear pattern in managerial replacements this season, the ones that have worked. So Amarim to Carrick, Tudor to De Zerbi, I'd say Deich to Pereira is another, of just not being the last guy, of being able to point at, you know, figuratively point at an old...

15:20But Igor Tudor was also not the last guy. Yeah, but Tudor was... Not Tudor was Frank. But that wasn't enough. Yeah, but he was worse. He was worse, wasn't he? Don't be the last guy and don't be worse than the last guy. Yeah, Deserby gets to point at a situation. And he also, he doesn't just get to point at it. He gets to say it. these managers get to say it in every press conference they get to say a version of I don't want to criticise anyone that's come before me but I found a situation that I needed to improve and it's my job to get players to believe in something and to take them on a path and I won't have that long on the training ground so it needs to be about attitude not tactical intuition and at the same time they're giving them the tactical intuition that they want to and they're telling them that everything can be alright if you listen to them.

16:05There's always this situation, there's always this accusation against players that they don't care when they're doing badly. And it's almost never true. What they actually are is subconsciously demotivated by a situation that is not particularly pleasant to work in, partly because you're doing it in front of tens of thousands of people who are criticising you. So people want to change. So you get some momentum. And in Spurs' case, that momentum was a pretty grubby 1-0 win at the worst team in the Premier League this season. And that does seem to have sparked something. The stars have aligned in the last couple of games because they weren't very good against Wolves and they won.

16:39They ran into an opponent today who were ready to be pushed over and they've won. They now have a chance, as Tim says, before they play a game, they will know what West Ham have done and they will probably expect Arsenal to beat West Ham, which creates a huge position of opportunity, which, you know, a month ago it didn't feel like they were going to get. Doing a job badly in front of tens of thousands of people sounds like a Sunday night podcast. Hey, Seb. You, as I say, watch a lot of Spurs. Do you see something beyond the motivational? Is there something tactical that De Serbi's done? And is he now the man to take Spurs back up the other end of the table?

17:14Yeah, two things. I think the style of play has been simplified. I don't think players are being asked to do things that they're not comfortable doing, which they don't have the skill sets to do. So I think Spurs' football is relatively simple. There's a lot of short passes. You're not having players, you're not having round pegs in square holes. You've got, I think, something that makes a huge difference to Spurs, you got a left footer on the left side in destiny a doggy um because for a lot of the season because of injury jet spencer's had to play there uh last season archie gray had to play there uh and that inversion causes all sorts of issues down that side the other thing i'd say about the zerby is the messaging has been a lot better so this season thomas frank comes in and one of the first things he says is we're going to lose loads of games this year or you know something similar to that and And he was very negative in the issues that he focused on.

18:04And when Igor Tudor came in, he was initially quite bullish. And then after his first game, he said something along the lines of, God, there are so many more problems than I thought there were. Whereas this week, if you listen to the Zerbi, he said, stop crying. Stop talking about injuries. Stop talking about referees. Stop talking about what's happened. He said something like, losers cry. and I think that's the kind of micro thing that media focus on. I think that was important for a lot of people to hear because a lot of these starting players have had excuses across the course of the season.

18:36This has been, you know, Chris Romero criticized the club hierarchy, of course. Fans took some criticism for their treatment of Guillermo Vicario against Fulham, his performance in that game. There's been a lot of finger pointing and not a lot of let's sort this out. And if you match that with the performance we saw today, which was very much a kind of let's sort this out performance in attitude and commitment and following game plans. And I think you saw, I mean, you know, we're sort of amateur body language readers, aren't we always? But you're looking at the way players respond to individual tackles and mistakes.

19:12A couple of mistakes got made. Nobody was kind of throwing their arms up and gesticulating with futility. Some of that stuff has gone. And these are tiny little things, but they matter. They matter. And so he's done a good job with that, I think. I think they were brilliant today, but I think you just add a note of caution. One, obviously we've got to say about it was Villers' reserves and they were probably their worst performance of the season. And two, you know, there are hurdles to overcome. I think West Ham are still capable of getting sort of six or seven points maximum. Me too, yeah. You know, they've got a point against Man City at home.

19:41I don't think it's beyond them to get a point at home to Arsenal and I think they can win their last two at their sort of maximum. And also what Spurs haven't done yet is win at home, which they've done once since August. So that's the sort of next hurdle, next week against Leeds at home. As for Villa, Daniel, you mentioned they're six points ahead of sixth place Bournemouth. Their final three games are away to Burnley, which should be a gimme, but you never know. Then at home to Liverpool, which quite possibly will be a gimme as well, who can say. And then finally against a Man City side who you imagine would be very pumped up for that final game at the Etihad.

20:19Before any of that, they will be visiting Villa Park. Sorry, they will be at home. at Villa Park to Nottingham Forest for the return leg of the Europa League semi-final. You were there. I think, Tim, you went along as well to see the first encounter between Forest and Villa. Any quick thoughts? I mean, honestly, I would ask Tim because I am very lucky in my job to work quite a lot of big European games and my brain cannot process that Forest being in one. So it was just a complete blur for me. So, I mean, it sounded great. It was exactly what Forest needed from that night in that they got the goal they needed.

20:58They nullified Villa's threat pretty well and the city game was absolutely bouncing. But other than that, I'm just scared about Istanbul. There are a few Forest fans in the press box. I didn't get to speak to Daniel all night, but there were a couple of others that were so nervous. It was remarkable, the feeling around the place. I loved it. I was so jealous that it wasn't my team. it was an incredible night and yeah I thought they nullified Villa really quite easily Villa were basically just Rodgers or nothing or Buendia who for pretty much 90 minutes Buendia would take the ball on the half turn he'd turn run into some space and then run into a forest challenge again and again and again and again without passing it it was the theme of the match again and again and again you know a forest that's one for the older viewers but yes and obviously there was the red cards VAR no on right from Elliot Anderson on Watkins which probably more should have been made of that it happened quite quickly at the time the VAR check was very quick but I thought when you saw it live what was your initial reaction to it yeah you did the Gary Neville noise right a bit deeper anyway there'll be time for a bit more VAR chat perhaps later on in the show Forrest anyway have Chelsea away on Monday afternoon, for us still in the relegation picture.

22:24West Ham, meanwhile, you mentioned them being unlucky in their visit to Brentford. They hit the woodwork three times, Cathy Cachillanos twice, and then Crescente Somerville with the crossbar. But this was a bit of a surprise because West Ham, the perception was we're on a good run. Brentford, not so much. They hadn't won in six, but they certainly won this one. Yeah, I'm going to offer some non-analysis here and sit on the fence because this was a game that West Ham were unlucky in. They probably deserved to lose. They might have drawn. All sorts of things happened. It was pretty chaotic and lose.

22:59And they had the disallowed goal, which we should mention too, which was disallowed by, it looked like inches. It was one of those. It was a shoulder, wasn't it? It was a shoulder and a little bit of a head. They played well. I don't think they defended particularly well. I also, yeah, I thought Brentford had a couple of other chances which they should have taken. back post header which should have gone in I think it's quite dangerous to kind of and this is kind of the point that I was making with De Zerbi I think it's quite dangerous to fixate on refereeing decisions I absolutely understand what happens because the decision that West Ham didn't get yesterday it's one of those where because we've added so many technical layers into refereeing but let's skip it there I mean they lost 3-0 so well no because I think it's important to because Tim made the point that you can absolutely see them getting points from the next few games and I agree with him because there's technical quality in that team.

23:50But in that situation, you tend to focus on the chunks of time within a game which went your way rather than the moments which actually cost you the match, which weren't really very good from a West Ham perspective. But yeah, that's what I mean. It's a hodgepodge of non-analysis because it was just that kind of game. It was chaos. Tasty. Daniel. The only thing I do think, I'll set this up as actual analysis, but I'm not sure. You make your own mind up. I'll call that down. Award-winning analysis inbound. We know that Nuno likes to control a game, likes a circle press and likes to hit on the break.

24:29And that seems to be what West Ham, the West Ham squad looks good at with Somerville and Bowen. But I think he's changed quite a bit too much from it. So he's playing two strikers now. So he's playing Tati and Pablo. West Ham fans were annoyed that Callum Wilson didn't start, but two up front, whatever. then there's the two wingers and then there's Mateus Fernandes who is one of the best attacking central midfielders in the Premier League if he starts to play in a good team he's had two years where he hasn't done that but I think Fernandes wants to be kind of high up the pitch but because of the two strikers if he's high up the pitch on Saturday it was a one-man midfielder Thomas Suchek who's not particularly mobile so what's ended is happening is that they're creating these sort of basketball type games Everton the Everton game last week was very similar in that it could have been three all and West Ham won that one in the last minute and they lost this one they sort of they got the rub of no green in this one and I'm just quite surprised that Nuno's gone for that almost like roll the dice football rather than control football which is what we know I wonder if he just you know he saw foresaw Tottenham improving and he was thinking look we're just gonna have to get try and get some points on the board here and look if they if they win two of the remaining three they might well stay up I was yeah I was quite surprised that he'd gone so even for the last kind of 10-15 minutes he went with three at the back and he had I think he had a drama triore in Somerville's wing backs and it just didn't work like Brentford were just able to pick him off it was kind of odd from Nuno that maybe slightly worrying given that's not normally his jam Win two of the remaining three so it's Arsenal at home Newcastle away and then Leeds at home Leeds who will also be playing Spurs in their run-in that's Spurs next fixture Leeds who are now almost safe after their 3-1 victory over Burnley.

26:19A win that was saluted given that it came against a side coach by Mike Jackson by the Leeds PA playing smooth criminal by the King of Pop. Sorry, Seb, you had a point to make about, I think, West Ham and the whole relegation picture. No, I was just, I remember watching their game at South House Park and that was a match where they played Palace after Palace had won the European game, had a little bit of a night off. There was a few rested players on that Monday night. Yeah, the West Ham game. And it was very conservative, which surprised me a little bit. And I just wonder whether what we saw against Brentford was a bit of a response to that, which was something a little bit looser, something a bit more basketball-y, as Dan said, something a little bit more chaotic, because it felt at the time, and this is hindsight talking, of course, but that feels like a massive missed opportunity now to kind of get something.

27:07And had they won that game, goodness, Spurs would have been a very, very deep hole. and I think that might have probably been it for them. And this felt a little bit more aggressive at times. So I don't know. I feel like I can understand it is what I'm trying to say. Okay. Seb and Daniel both have skin in the game. So, Tim, who do you think is going down? Oh, crikey. I think it's definitely the last day.

27:34I think West Ham are going to stay up. You think West Ham are going to stay up? Yeah, I do, yeah. With whom going down in the bottom three? I think Spurs might get better. Still? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. They were so bad last week. One of the worst teams I've seen play Wolves this season. Against Wolves? Yeah, and today is against Villers Reserve. So I'm not sold on Spurs yet, to be honest. I agree with that. No one should be sold on Spurs at all. I just think it's kind of, you have to look at it as sort of incremental progress, from absolutely dreadful to awful to a lot better. I'm happy with that direction of travel, Tim.

28:10yeah yeah yeah but I absolutely but then West Ham have also had a pretty sizable direction of travel just just a slower one you know since Christmas and I do fancy West Ham to get sort of yeah six points maybe even seven from the last three it's important to note that talk about incremental travel because you know coming from my skin in the game Forrest are unbeaten in more than two months now in the Premier League and they're still only three points in the bottom three so everybody has got their stuff together uh you know crystal palace are now like sort of looking over their shoulders a little bit that's how kind of mad the situation we've got ourselves into with tottenham west ham and forest all getting better and leeds kicking on palace seven points clear despite their victory sorry their defeat today away at bournemouth right we'll get on to some of Sunday's other results, perhaps including that Cherry's victory, but beginning with Man United-Liverpool next.

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30:52This 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. Lifted up by Luke Shaw, Ahmad, away by McAllister, Kobi Maynoe! Ruffles it in at the stripper end! That was Man United, Kobi Maynoe making it 3-2. on Sunday afternoon against Liverpool. As United claimed, their first league double over the side from Anfield in a decade. Indeed, this is the first season in 113 years that Liverpool have lost all four games against the Manchester clubs in the same league season.

31:39Sounds like a lot. We'll talk about Liverpool's performance perhaps momentarily, but first of all, a great afternoon for Manchester United, beating their old rivals back in the Champions League, making it 10 wins from 14 matches for Michael Carrick, who is now indeed defeated Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool since he took over back in January. Those are some big names managers that he's seen off. Eh, Daniel? Yes, and he is putting himself into a position where it's going to be really, really difficult not to give him the job full-time. despite there being this slight whiff of Oleg and Solskjaer in terms of, you know, it was interesting hearing Kobe Miner after the game.

32:22And he didn't really speak about tactical stuff. What he said is, we would die for Michael Carrick. So, I mean, which is a pretty big statement from a young lad who won't remember watching Michael Carrick play much. But does that not speak to... Yeah, does that not speak to what he brings to them as a manager, not the fact that he used to be a big name. I'm really curious because they do have a similarity, Solskjaer and Carrick, in that they used to be United players and they both enjoyed a terrific run of results, somewhat unexpectedly when they took over. Beyond that, do you see similarities between what Solskjaer was doing and what you see from United now under Carrick?

33:00So the really interesting thing, and I'm not sure if this is a compliment or a criticism yet, is that Michael Carrick's Middlesbrough team were really, their flaw was that they were really quite slow on the ball, that they got a bit stuck, that when things started going wrong, they didn't really have a second gear to get out of it. And yet at United so far, and I think it's a result of his predecessor doing exactly that, Carrick's come in and said, and we should say come in with Steve Holland as well, who's an exceptional coach and assistant manager with him. And they've said, these players look like they need to have fun.

33:37They look like they're at their best when they have a little bit of fun. We need to get the guy who is the best chance creator in the Premier League and has been playing as a defensive midfielder. Hey, maybe we put him 30 yards at the pitch and it looks better. And obviously it does look better. The question with Michael Carrick, and it may not come until after he has been given the job permanently, is what happens when things do get a little bit stuck. When you've played everyone once or played every manager once and they've kind of worked you out. They know what to expect. and there is a reason I suspect that it failed at Middlesbrough there's a reason that he wasn't in line for any other Premier League jobs or actually even any other top level championship jobs at the time and it's whether that outweighs the Manchester United-ness of all this and that you know you can we can say let's forget he played there but it's the only reason he got the job because he played there and then was a coach there and then left so it's relevant I just don't know if it's relevant enough but all of that sounds like me like pissing on the chips of a fan base that is really enjoying watching their football club again and that's that's actually really important particularly when you absolutely hated life under the last guy who told you that the club was nowhere near and the squad was nowhere near being a top four competitor and here they are third in the Premier League 40 games for Manchester United this season totally different job next season with more precious as Thomas Callen.

35:00It's an important point. Best first half of the season, a lot of Man United fans were calling their performance in the first 45 minutes against Liverpool, who did then come roaring back at the start of the second half after a couple of monumental mistakes. Well, it was all about Man United, wasn't it? If they were playing well, they looked like they could score with every attack, and it was their mistakes that let Liverpool in. I didn't think there was any great sort of a tactical change at half-time from Arna Sly, didn't make any substitutions. They showed more intent, as you'd expect. But yes, a couple of horrendous mistakes from Ahmad, who just come on, and then the keeper for the second goal.

35:36Yeah, I mean, I would just... Daniel summed it up really well. But there are a lot of things that Carrick has not had to deal with yet. And you mentioned, you know, before competitions instead of one, it'll be adversity, it'll be no Casemiro. You know, players will be unhappy, knocking on his door while he's not in the team. New signings to bed in, tactical innovation. you know there's lots of things he hasn't had to prove yet but it's going to be so hard not to give him the job they've had such a miserable two or three years and they've just had the best sort of four or five months and they are enjoying it again and I referenced the league table earlier since he'd taken over they're top of that league table so he can't have done since he took over yeah since he took over I think Man City when they're two games in hand they might they would have in that form table but they're I think five points clear of Arsenal who are second in that form table and Mainu who we heard about earlier has come into the team doing really well.

36:26Sesko's scoring loads of goals since he came in. Yeah, so there's lots of arguments and lots of reasons to give him the job. I suspect that they probably will do. Oh, okay. Do you think Slott will still be there next season? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think once you reach a point where enough of a fan base have checked out and have kind of retreated into position to say, this is not my guy, I think that's kind of the point of no return. I don't, it would take, nothing can happen this season which is going to turn that around it's very very difficult to to kind of to get rid of some of the negativity without him going to and i yeah it's what i saw today was even after that they came back to tutu liverpool were pretty poor i think roy keen described them as a bad five-a-side team i'm not sure i'd go that far that was that was pretty harsh i'm not even sure really what that means but they're missing a lot of players a lot of players a lot of open spaces i'm not quite i i just heard the the soundbites i'm not sure really what he what he intended but they are missing a lot of players to be fair to them they are missing a lot of players i think the goalkeeper is a huge miss i just don't know i don't know you attempted to think the answer is right more more turnover in the transfer market and i don't think that is the way forward i think they need a few players sure but not not in the way they did last summer i think it needs a change of direction i need it it needs something which is going to create Bayern from everywhere and I don't think on a slot staying is going to be that.

37:52When you said create Bayern from everywhere because it's you you just need to create a whole lot of Bayern Munich all over the place. That would be amazing wouldn't it? Seb was at you were at PSG Bayern last week weren't you Seb? I sure was. I sure was. What was it like watching regular football after that? It was a letdown. It was a letdown because that game was just it was exhausting. It was also one of those where we can all relate to this when you're watching a game and you just think to yourself, goodness, the technical level is high. Ridiculously so, to the point where everything seems to be sped up and even tiny little things that happen which will be forgotten because of the score and the result of the game are just so, so impressive.

38:32And it spoils you. It spoils you for the rest of the season and probably many months afterwards. But it was an absolute privilege and it's a bit of a trite thing to say and a bit of a cliche, but there were times when I was watching and thinking, I can't believe someone is paying me to do this. Are they paying you to go and watch the second leg next week? Sure are, yeah. Lovely stuff. Daniel, what other thoughts do you have on Liverpool? As Man Utd were hailed as producing their best first-half performance of the season, Liverpool's equally was certainly among their worst, I would think. Yeah, and you mentioned the players missing, and that is relevant.

39:10But when a team is missing players like that, I think that's sometimes when you see more of its personality. That's sometimes when the manager can make more of a difference. You know, Seb said earlier about Emery knowing his team for Thursday, and it's absolutely right. But if you don't know, if you have six of those players out, that's sort of when a manager earns their court. And this is a match in which, you know, this is Liverpool's biggest away game of the season, having already lost to Manchester United at home. and whoever is on that pitch, that first 45 minutes needs to contain a number of non-negotiables.

39:45And I thought Liverpool were awful first half. It looked like a first half in which Arnestad hadn't watched Manchester United since Michael Carrick took over because they just presented themselves in a way that made things really easy for United. Overlapping runners on the right because Robertson had been caught up. Nobody tracking Bruno through the middle or getting close to him when he got the ball. He was just really poor. And yeah, I don't think that will change. And there is the kind of looming figure of Xabi Alonso. And I think there's probably a sense at Liverpool, or at least there should be, that if they don't go for Alonso this summer and go for someone else and say, we're going to give this guy two years, then they might miss out on Alonso.

40:21And that would be really foolish to do, in my opinion. On the subject of Bruno Fernandes, he didn't get the assist for the second United goal, which means he's still one off the Premier League record with three matches to go. Sir Alex Ferguson was in attendance prior to the game, but was then taken to hospital as a precaution, said the club. I don't think we have any update on his condition, but we wish him the very best for a speedy recovery. Very good. The other game on Sunday was Bournemouth Crystal Palace, 3-0 to the Cherries, 15 games unbeaten in the Premier League four Bournemouth, who are six points behind Villa, and unbeaten since they sold Antoine Semenyo, which felt like a big deal at the time.

41:11Palace, roundly thumped in this encounter, do, of course, have a Conference League semi-finals to look forward to on Thursday, in which they'll be up against Shakhtar Donetsk, who they roundly thumped 3-1 in Poland on Thursday. Do you see that, Tim? Oh, no, you were busy at the game at the city ground, weren't you? What about you, Tim? Oh, what about you, Seb? Is that the lack of hair coming to... Yeah, there's just no value in any peripheral vision at all in the studio. If he starts calling you James, you've got a problem. Ball pundit too. What did you make of this game? Generic character. Re-gen.

41:46I was on the plane back from Paris. All right. I mean, I saw the highlights. You probably have two, viewer. You don't need my model thoughts. Write in and tell us what you thought. Yeah. Perhaps you're a Palace fan. Anyway, they go again on Thursday. It featured Ismail Assar scoring the fastest goal in the brief history of the Conference League. 21 seconds in. Very good. Next, let's talk about all sorts of other things, including, but not limited to, Arsenal's victory against Fulham, which was fun.

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44:56You'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. Saturday was the final day in the Football league daniel you went along to portman road for what turned out to be ipswich's premier league promotion party they beat qpr uh in uh well in handy fashion how was it yeah it was great i mean it was their perfect afternoon and they were playing a team who are emphatically 15th they finished their last season and finished their this season as well so we're not really up for the game it scored after three minutes then nine minutes which meant that everybody could just enjoy the next hour and a half until they got to run on the pitch and another triumph for Kieran McKenna it was a different promotion this time because it's such a pre-season title favourites whereas last time in this division they'd just come up from League One but McKenna has done a phenomenal job there he's kind of very easy to overlook that he took over a team that had finished mid-table in League One and has earned them their second Premier League promotion he's only been there for four seasons.

46:03So a fantastic job. The challenge now is obviously to consolidate there in a way that Sunderland have set the tone. It won't be easy, but it's just a really, Portland Road is one of the most undergrated grounds in the country. It's great. It's always loud. It's a really nice football club. I'm glad to see them up. They have had some interesting off-field issues this summer regarding the hosting of political parties and their leaders. We'll gloss over that. But other than that, it's nice to see them back in the Premier League. And yeah, fair play to Kieran McKenna because it would have been very easy for him to start looking around at any point over the last 18 months for a bigger job and it doesn't seem like he's done that.

46:43Kieran McKenna, four seasons there, his record promotion, promotion, relegation, promotion. Matt Davis-Adams addresses the question of controversial visitors to Portman Road. He just wants to butt in, doesn't he? Even when you're hosting, he's just trying to insult himself into that. Matt Davis-Anon says, what can be done to minimise the impact of Ed Sheeran on the Premier League next season? Ed, of course, was a big part of the Ipswich dressing room celebrations yesterday. I'm not going to mention the other fella. No. Why do people hate Ed Sheeran? I don't hate Ed Sheeran. No, no, but why? Who are these people?

47:18What are some of the reasons? I'm not saying. How do you feel about Ed Sheeran, Seb? Indifferent. Indifferent. Yeah, I'm Sheeran neutral. I don't. Okay. I mean, if you don't like him, don't go to Portman Road because it's basically Ed Sheeran ground or stadium. He's having a good time. He's everywhere. He's not hiding anyone. Even if he's not there, he's everywhere. The players look very happy singing a slightly questionable choice of song with him, I thought. But then I guess they would have been happy whatever they were singing, having just one promotion. Daniel, are you the Ed Sheeran hater that Seb's referring to?

47:52I'm not, but I did enjoy the tweet that quoted the video of him going in the dressing room and saying, let's all sing my song to say fair play to Ed Sheeran. It would have been really easy to make this all about him. So, which was a beautiful tweet. Indeed. Elsewhere in the championship, oh, big story was Hull sneaking into the playoffs at Wrexham's expense. They lost Wrexham their fourth consecutive promotion chances on their playoff spot after drawing it home to Middlesbrough, while Hull City, you remember last season, only avoided relegation on goal difference. and came into this weekend winless in six matches, beat Norwich to steal ahead of Wrexham and earn their playoff spot.

48:34So they will be taking on Millwall, while Middlesbrough take on Saints. Those clashes begin Friday and Saturday of next week. At the other end of the championship, shout out to Sheffield Wednesday, who have been taken over by the American consortium Arise Capital. It means that the Owls will not now begin next season in League One with a 15-point deduction. I don't know. Did you see how they let their fans know about this? I did. Yeah. Did the fans already know, or was it genuinely surprised? I don't know, but the video is still worth watching regardless. So they put up on the scoreboard points deduction 15, and then it wobbles and it goes down to 14, and the crowd go, ooh, and it keeps going down and down.

49:22But then it stops and gets bigger. You think, okay, fair enough. But anyway, spoiler alert, that gets down to zero. How did that crowd react there, Jimbo? What kind of noise did they make? It was like somebody singing an Ed Sheeran song with Ed Sheeran. That kind of pure joy. I'm quite a fan of this. I feel like if it was to go the other way, they should do that as well. If it goes up to 30, just to see the reaction. Yeah, why not? Why stop there? Shout out to Sheffield. So the game this weekend against West Brom was the highest attendance in the championship this season, which is really quite a nice way for that horrible season.

49:56And obviously they also won, which got them up to zero points this season and starting on zero next. Well done to them. In Scotland, how about that Scottish title race? Hearts and Celtic are level on points at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Hearts play Rangers tomorrow. If Rangers win, there will be one point separating the three teams. And I think if Rangers win by four goals, that means that Celtic go top of the table on goal difference. Wow. Anyway, big Monday in Scotland. It was quite a sizable Saturday at the Emirates in the old Premier League where Arsenal played Fulham and scored more than one goal.

50:39As I mentioned, this is the first time that that has happened in a very long time. Indeed, there were scenes of Arsenal players playing loose, attacking football, fans enjoying themselves, all sorts of things. A rare tension-free afternoon, producer Charlie called it. Oh, Victor Jocherez scored two goals and an assist. David Raya was having fun. Did you see him make a tackle in the opposition half? Sure did. All in all, I guess this was a great argument for not resting your players ahead of a big second leg of a European fixture. Mikai Saka looked good. Yeah. And he looked pain-free and uninhibited, which is a really nice thing for Arsenal fans because he makes such a difference to them.

51:18Yeah, all in all, good stuff for Arsenal. They take a six-point lead over Manchester City. However, they have played two games more. Tim? Well, I should say it's not just about who's out there because having watched quite a lot of Arsenal in the last few weeks, I've seen nothing anywhere near approaching that. They look nervous, ponderous within themselves, playing through treacle. Like it was the exact opposite, no matter who they've been playing the last few weeks. I guess psychologically you have to put it down to the fact that they were knocked off top spot a couple of weeks ago. And now they've adopted a bit of an underdog mentality.

51:55You know, I know they beat Newcastle last week, but they're still, people probably still have City as marginal favourites to win, or at least they did before the weekend. And, you know, they fully embrace that. They look like they've been freed of whatever was inhibiting them a few weeks ago. Right. So whatever Arteta's done on the training ground, you know, with his slogans and his lighting fires and, you know. I think there was some talk of a virus sweeping through the Fulham camp during the week. So that's a little bit of an asterisk. OK. But against that, I would also mention that on Wednesday they went to a difficult ground to go to and probably should have come away with a 2-1 or at least a chance to make it 2-1 from the penalty spot against Atletico Madrid.

52:39So, yeah. So, positive things. The run-ins. You may know these off by heart. I require some notes. I'm going to read off this. Arsenal are at home to Atletico on Tuesday. They have West Ham away, a fixture which in the last two seasons they have produced big victories in. Then they're at home to Burnley and then they're away to Palace. That sounds like a good run-in. The Manchester City fixtures, Daniel, and these are six games that will take place in the space of 20 days so it's going to be a testing time. They, Monday, are away to Everton. You know that because you're going along. Then they're at home to Brentford.

53:18Then they're at home to Crystal Palace. Then they have the FA Cup final against Chelsea. Then they're away to Bournemouth. Red hot, informed Cherry Bournemouth. And then they are at home finally to Aston Villa who might well be at that point battling for their Champions League place. What do you think, Daniel? Still cities? No, I've not swayed from Arsenal and I'm sticking with Arsenal. They'll win the title on goal difference. It's going to be all good. So this was an important scoreline for that GD. Yeah, and also Arteta did show something different. He rested or left Zubimendi out of the team and picked Myles Lewis-Gelly, who has had to play left-back so often that you kind of forget that he's meant to be a natural central midfielder.

54:02And he looked like he really enjoyed it. he was able to get closer to Saka and be a bit more dynamic than Zubi Mendy is. And I think that probably set the tone for them looking a bit quicker. It helps when you score early against a team that looks, yeah, 80 % is probably being generous. But yeah, Lewis Gelley is better. It has to be better. It has to be moving them all quicker. That's what it's all about. Zubi Mendy is really good at controlling a game, but Arsenal are full to the brim of control. What they need is some surprise. Anything else you want to add about Arsenal-Fullam, Tim? No, just those last two Arsenal fixtures.

54:40Literally, he couldn't handpick better matches, I don't think. Burnley and Palace. All right, well, we'll see. We'll see. Seb, we mentioned that you're going along to the Allianz Arena on Wednesday for Bayern Munich against Paris Saint-Germain. We'll be proving that with you here in the studio tomorrow. It'll be out on Tuesday in our European edition of the Totally Football Show in which we'll also discuss all sorts of other things. All sorts of other things. Sundry other continental biz. The Women's Champions League final, meantime, has now been decided. It's going to be Lyon against Barcelona.

55:18Barcelona brushed aside Bayern's women's team in the second leg of their clash on Sunday. Arsenal had been knocked out by Lyon on Saturday. Now, back in the Premier League, Newcastle came up with a win just when they needed one most with a 25-man delegation over from Saudi to evaluate how things are going under Eddie Howe. They beat Brighton, who'd been in a nice run of form themselves, 3-1 on Saturday. Goals from Ursula, Byrne and Harvey Barnes right at the end, just when Brighton looked like they maybe were going to snatch a point. They also had the assist of the weekend, probably from Jacob Murphy, hurdling over and then sliding down on the turf after Bart Verbrocken's ruvid, as the Italians would say, rustic challenge, and getting up and then setting up the opening goal, it was.

56:13Anyway, all of this apparently is adding up to Eddie Howe staying on as Newcastle manager. Is that a good thing, bald pundits and Daniel? Which bald pundit are you directing? I don't know. Anyone who's got a strong opinion. I think there are some adaptions he needs to make. I think Eddie Howe should have a lot of credit in the bank. I think the way Newcastle have defended Leeds at different times this season shows something that needs to be fixed. I'm biased, but I don't like the treatment of Nick Valdemar. I think that hasn't been handled particularly well. I think he hasn't really got the most out of a very, very, very expensive player, which is always a little bit of a black mark against you when you do that.

56:50So there's work to do. I don't think it's a kind of your coach Emeritus situation. I think it's a, you know, learn and grow, but you've done good things at this football club. We need to have a bit of a rethink about more than just the coaching over the summer too. Like the transfer strategy needs a little bit of refocusing. And maybe somebody else in charge of it, which is, I'm not sure exactly how this all panned out last time with Eddie and his son, as far as I can recall. Nephew. Oh, nephew, is it? I think nephew. With Eddie and other members of the Eddie Howe diaspora taking charge of the whole market strategy.

57:23But this time around, was that not because the man who was meant to be in charge of it had left? I don't know, Jimbo. But what I would say about recruitment is it's important not to have any sagas this summer because they sap organizational energy like nothing else. So you've got a situation with Alexander Izak, which went on for a long time. Before that, you go to TK. Was that going to happen? Was it not going to happen? I think these things aren't good. and I think whatever Newcastle do this summer, if there are players who want to leave and want to be sold, sell them. That's just part of football life now.

57:57It's not a statement of whether you're a big club or a small club. It's just what happens. Move on and move swiftly through the market. I think that's probably the key. Well, and the Johan Wisser saga, which has gone almost as badly as all the sagas from last summer. I mean, he missed an absolute city yesterday. I was reading reports last week. He's probably gone in the summer. Really? For all concerned, apart from Brentford, shining, it's gone very badly. Daniel, just before we move on, strong thoughts on Eddie Howe staying at St James'. I'm surprised because the fan base is split down the middle about whether he should stay or go.

58:35It creates a heck of a lot of pressure both on the work of this summer and definitely the start of next season. It's quite easy to see how Newcastle might have a good season next season because it's back to one game a week, which Howe's much better with. But there has to be a kind of longer term vision here and they can't afford to be as, well, shambolic defensively away from home this season. And as Seb says, really, really bad at managing leads, which is, again, kind of where a manager shows his best, shows his mettle and Howe's been poor at that. I thought it was really interesting before the game, or sorry, after the game, Howe saying that, you know, he never normally feels pressure, but he hadn't really slept before the game.

59:16that sort of stuff that feels like a job that's getting to a guy that's tiring him out a little bit so this summer is not going to be quiet for Newcastle if you know there's Gordon there's Liveramento there's Bruno there's potentially Visser on the way there's a Volta Mada question there's a lot to sort out there and it's going to require double energy to do it and yeah I'm surprised he's staying I thought this might be the summer that Newcastle the owners tried to show that they were still committed to this project by going after a big name manager just to say quickly on Newcastle nothing sort of encapsulates the madness of this the tight Premier League table this season and also the fact that there's never a dull moment at Newcastle by the fact that they went into this game worried about relegation and because they won it I've heard them talking about Europe again and it's the 5th of May today how far are they off Tim?

1:00:06well they're 3 points off 10th which could be Europe could 10th be Europe? there's a world in which 10th could be Europe? 3 points off 9th as well All right, I mean, ninth. OK, so you could have six teams in the Champions League, which would then mean that the next two or three would then get into Europa and Conference? Yeah, I think that would involve Palace and Villa winning their respective tournaments. Right. But yeah, I believe that to be the case. Wow, extraordinary. The other side of North East football, Sunderland, at least in the Premier League, Sunderland had a 1-1 draw away at Wolves.

1:00:43You went to this, Tim? No, you watched it. You did watch it. Yeah. All right. What should we know about this? Was it an interesting red card? Oh, right. So we're going there, are we? If we can, if we want. I mean, it's quite, you know. No, I think we should. Here, Man Run Good writes in on this very topic. After Ballard's red card, says Man Run Good, will loads of players be growing their hair over the summer? Return of the Bobby Charlton comb over, continues Man Run Good, warming to his theme. so this is about the Premier League's absolute red line on tugging at people's ponytails and the like an immediate red card it's about the only thing that they have been consistent on this year yeah not 100 % I think there have been a couple where there's been sort of like tickling of hair and it's not quite tickling of hair yeah you know there was one a couple of weeks ago maybe at Brentford anyway yeah this is the second time it's happened to Tolu Arakadari as well yes there's been four red cards for hair pulling in Premier League history All of them have come in the last two seasons.

1:01:44Three of them were this season. And two of those three were for this player. Yeah, and it's the only reason to play him, Jim Boatibullo. Is it? Because he's really quite bad. So do you think it was a deliberate hair pull? Or was it just one of those motions where your hand's coming out? Maybe you're trying to grab a shirt, which is not strictly legal either. But you accidentally grab these flowing locks. Yeah, it's one of those sort of, you know, he's trying to grab the back of him or something to stop it. And yeah, he's got his hair in his hand. I mean, I don't know how much it hurt him. We have no way of knowing, Tim.

1:02:14We'll never know. We'll never know. Oh, God. But yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous to do it, Dan Ballard, because if you do it, you're going to get sent off. And Julie took the VR to do it, and he got sent off. If you pull facial hair, Tim, what do you think? Should the penalties be even more severe? I feel like now, yeah. I feel like that would have to be more deliberate because the act of putting facial hair, probably a bit more precise, you really mean it. Like if you're defending your corner and I was to grab a chunk of like... It depends on the facial hair. Yeah, I suppose. I mean, a Yann Oblak or an Alexi Lailas back in the day.

1:02:44It'd be hard to avoid pulling on that. Yeah, for all sorts of reasons. Sorry, Dan. Wolves drew 1-1 with Sunderland. Hugo Bueno set up Santi Bueno for the equaliser after Ballard had been sent off. Other things to take from this game, maybe, were the weekend's second most toxic final whistle atmosphere. Tim? In the West Midlands, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so Rob Edwards, his subs were booed. Right. And the fans chanted he didn't know what he was doing. And, yeah, that situation is coming to a head, really. I think most people, myself included, expected him to see out the season. But he's struggling a bit at the moment.

1:03:26Okay. The booing of the substitutions and disagreement with his tactical choices are one thing. But the f*** epithet hurled at him, levelled at him on the final whistle. What's that about? Why has he upset them on a personal level? So every match he's made a huge deal of this, which I think is ridiculous, but of a big sort of let's go to the fans and applaud. And Wolves have lost a lot of matches, so it's quite an embarrassing scene at full time anyway. But because of the toxic sort of atmosphere, he just went straight down the tunnel this time. So the fans started chanting that he was a **** basically.

1:03:59And quite a lot of them were doing it, and that's very personal. And that's not going to change any time soon, the fact that they don't like him. Oh, sorry, right. and if he's got more time to himself it's gonna get worse if anything um quite so yeah it's um it's it's not a good situation tim when he was appointed was it he appointed with uh with a mind on what would happen if he were to lead them into the championship too like what would happen the season after was there was there an expectation of such a jolt that because that seems really unlikely to me yeah well he was appointed in december so i I think the idea was to get a couple of quick wins and then they'd back him in January.

1:04:38But that obviously never happened. I think he lost his first seven. And then they waved the white flag in January and sold three players for 80 million quid. So, yeah, for me, it's all about next season for him. And if Wolves wanted to appoint a manager in the summer, they'd look for a young, probably English manager, maybe someone who knows the club and the league, who's got promotion before and was doing well with another one this season in Middlesbrough. But he's now becoming tainted by... If you're going to win three matches out of 26, then that's going to happen. Still no need to get personal.

1:05:07Sorry, Daniel. I was going to say, obviously Scott Parker is now on the market, which is another reason. You know, it's a kind of, we talked about Alonso looming over Liverpool. Scott Parker will be looming over every intentioned, upwardly thinking championship manager for the next six months, I suspect. Is there a way that Parker gets the job, Tim? He's doing it to get a rise out of me, so I'm just going to leave that one. Why not? Well, there you go. That was Wolves-Sunderland, and I think with that we come to the end of today's show, because two fixtures remain to be played. As mentioned repeatedly, they are Chelsea against Nottingham Forest, which is going to be interesting, Monday afternoon, and follow that up with the other half of the big title duel as Man City visit the Hill Dickinson to face Everton.

1:06:00We will comment on those when we get back to Premier League business, which actually is going to be a while from now. We'll get on to those on Thursday because before that, our Euro show recording tomorrow with you, Seb, will be addressing not just the title races, which are pretty much sorted around Europe, but especially those second legs. Other guests too, because if you just said it's a Euro show with me, I feel like that might not drive the audience in quite the same way. This is going to be Horncastle. Horncastle is going to be here. Yeah, Tom will be here. yeah that's true Tom Williams is going to be here we'll have Paul Belus won't be here because he's too busy in Catalonia wouldn't you be living his incredible life indeed so anyway like I say that's more than enough for us today so many thanks to everyone who joined us on YouTube and many thanks to everybody who's enjoyed this or at least listened to it on the podcast version thanks to your award winning Daniel Story Seb Stafford-Bloor and to Tim Spears to producers Jake and Charlie in the booth for now from all of us here it's goodbye

1:07:11you've been listening to the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network for other great podcasts just like this one including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts search for the Athletic in all the usual places we're also at the Totally Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

1:07:38The Athletic FC.

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