Vini's remarkable red + Man City welcome champions PSG

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2:07Pol Ballus: Totally Football Show, European edition.

2:15Pol Ballus: Today, Continental Leagues are back, Champions League too. We talk Man City, PSG. They spoiled the league for a generation with their crazy spending. How will they get on against Man City? We hear about Roma Real Madrid too, why Mourinho is still San Jose in the capital and how Vinicius Junior is losing face or a bit of it. Plus, there's Freiburg, here come the Cagliari and the Bundesliga fastest goal ever in this Totally Football Show.

2:50Pol Ballus: It's the return of the matchmiss. Totally Football Show European edition. Horncastle Williams here in the studio. Hello, Jimbo. Hello. Hello to you both. Hello. On the big screen, Seb Stafford-Bloor. Hello, right back. Paul Ballou's joining us very, very soon. Am I in a hurry? A little bit because there's a lot to talk about this week with all the leagues back in action and some big midweek European fun. Mmm, James.

3:19James Horncastle: Yeah, big European fun. Wow. Like Sabah against Slavia Prague.

3:24Pol Ballus: Well, that's the kind of... Or AEK against Shakhtar Janais. I'm going to go along with it. Oh, really? At Stamford Bridge. Of course, yeah. That's a deep cut. Well... It'd be a great program if you're a collector of such items.

3:37James Horncastle: I might become one. Are you not going to watch Slovan Bratislava against Stuttgart, James? When I go home.

3:43Pol Ballus: Okay. Seb, are you going along to any Champions League action? I'm going to rest up this week and then do Bayern against Arsenal next week. So I'm having a week on the sofa, which is wonderful. Tom, fresh back from Paris. Yes. Big game there. There is. Well, a couple of Anglo-French ties this week with Arsenal and Lille locking horns. And the small matter of Paris Saint-Germain against Manchester City.

4:12James Horncastle: What do they have in common, Tom?

4:15Pol Ballus: What don't they have in common? They're playing blue, but different shades of blue. Okay. I asked Julien in last Thursday's show, I think it was, whether there was any slight nervousness at Paris Saint-Germain, whether anyone was casting little looks at the way they've done their team building over the years. And I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with it, but there are huge parallels between the way that they are funded and the success that they've had. Has that been an issue particularly? He seemed to think not, Paris Saint-Germain. I don't think there's any particular nervousness at PSG.

4:51It's not something that the French media have really flagged. But when you look back at that period, the period that cities' offences date from, a lot of questions were being asked about Paris Saint-Germain at the same time. And not all of them were answered in satisfactory fashion. 2017, they signed Neymar and Kylian Mbappe for over 400 million euros, albeit they didn't actually pay for Mbappe until the following summer. And off the back of that and under pressure from some of the big European clubs, UEFA launched an FFP investigation or at least decided to scrutinise PSG spending. Months later, the following summer, they announced that nothing to see here, all above board, all fine, you can all just carry on.

5:38And even within UEFA, there were people who thought, oh, that's a bit surprising. A lot of money spent there. Really? Are we happy with that? And so UEFA tried to reopen the case. But then the Court of Arbitration for Sport rule that they left it too long. And so PSG kind of got away with not having their accounts scrutinized in more targeted fashion because of her technicality. The difference is that no one is kind of poking around in the way that the Premier League was. The DNCG French football's financial watchdog is basically just looking to see, is there enough money in the books for this club to get to the end of the season?

6:18Pol Ballus: Do we have a lawyer? We have a lawyer. This is all on the record. Absolutely. They've not broken any rules. There's no suggestion that they have. I'm certainly not. But there were periods where they could have been scrutinised more than they were.

6:32James Horncastle: The great thing as well is that PSG are a great friend of UEFA, you know, because they have, you know, not only, you know, got a president in Nassar Kalefi who is from this place called Qatar. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, James, but Qatar Airways and, you know, they sponsor a few UEFA competitions. And Nassar Kalefi rushed to the UEFA president Alexander Seferin's side when there was the Super League and all this sort of thing. So he's, yeah, they've, yeah, you could say that Nassau-Kalefi has almost replaced Andrea Agnelli as Alexander Seferin's kind of BFF. And so, yeah, they got on, get on very happily.

7:17James Horncastle: So I would say, you know, more questions, I wouldn't say questions, but we've seen in French football over the last summer what the French Senate passed. a bill about governments and kind of French sport, which I think one of the articles within that bill is about conflicts of interest. Oh, right. So the multi-club system, for example? Well, no, not a multi-club, but let's say, I'm speaking purely in hypothetical terms here, let's say that you're president of a football club and that football club is in a league which gets its TV rights once upon a time, but its TV rights from a company that you were also...

7:56James Horncastle: Is this Galliani? No. I'm talking about being sports, you know, sort of influence in old French football. Oh, yeah. But apart from that, I mean, synergy, great investors in football.

8:12Pol Ballus: Anyway, a damn good football team. Reigning European champions. What a game that's set to be. Man City clearly galvanized. by the chorus of oppobrium being directed towards them, at least judging by the latter stages of Sunday's game at Anfield. That's going to be an absolute cracking game. Before we get on to a little look through the Champions League fixers, what say you to a moment of the week or three? Seb, why don't you kick us off? I say yay to a moment of the week, Jimbo. Saturday, Hoffenheim against Hamburg. Really interesting game. won in the 92nd minute by a standing foot Miriam Mouheim volley from about 22, 23 yards.

8:59A little bit of context. Hamburg had gone one up. Hoffenheim turned the game around to go 2-1. Tom will be thrilled to learn that Hamburg drew it back to 2-2 with a brilliant, brilliant Terramoffi header. Nice moment for his career because he hasn't looked fit since he got to Hamburg. And obviously he's had that terrible injury and difficult times at Nice. Chased out by the fans, more or less. Chased out by the fans. brilliant back post had a proper center forwards goal and anyway um before that happened bernardo two yellow cards for hoffenheim we reduced to 10 men and then with practically the last kick muheim who chelsea fans may remember because he spent three or four years in their academy before not quite making it and moving back to switzerland and beginning his journey over here to hamburg brilliant goal brilliant goal he's now 28 and that might be the best goal of his his bundesliga career so far was even including his wider bundesliga career because he's been there since Hamburg were in the second division.

9:52Brilliant goal.

9:53Pol Ballus: Let's fight it when the Ziga. Don't do it. Gotta have it. Gotta have it. Lovely stuff. So that has been a great weekend for goals. Great weekend for goals. Tom, what was your moment of the week? I'm going to go for a great goal from Ligue 1 scored by Mati Sablin Monaco forward. His first Monaco goal playing at home to Toulouse and he receives a pass into feet about 25 yards from goal and with his first touch the ball sits up a bit so with his second touch he just keeps up in the air and then he volleys it swivels volleys the ball from a central position with his right foot sings its way into the bottom left corner um so yeah that put monaco 2-0 up they were ultimately pegged back to 2-2 although they remain top of the table and yeah abilene is now off the mark at monaco one of my favorite players i think in in liga joined from nantes over the summer in, I think, a 30 million euro deal.

10:47Quite a curious player, not massively prolific, but occasionally does things that are completely stupendous. He scored an even better goal than this, a similar goal against Paris FC last season. So he's really got an eye for the spectacular. He was leading the line for Monaco in the absence of Foller and Balogun, who's still kind of being eased back in. Paris Brunner, who remains suspended after his notorious cutthroat gesture. against Strasbourg the other week. And yeah, you know, took his opportunity in style.

11:20Pol Ballus: Him doing that little double flick before lashing it in. Did you see the goal from, you know, it'd be pretty remarkable you had, but there was a goal scored in the Portuguese second division. Yeah. The Spade Portugues. Exactly. Segunda or something, I don't know. Portuguese second division. it was the game between Torrenzi and Tondela right and a fellow called Cascavel scored an absolute this was in the 100th minute of the game yeah I did see this it was goalless at this point the ball comes whizzing in and how many replays did you need to work out what he's done Tom? so I think basically the first touch is so perfect that he basically controls the ball and just pops it up in front of him and then he just hits it on the volley right?

12:07Pol Ballus: and he passes it behind himself in the air maybe I need to watch it more So I think it comes in and with his first touch, he flicks it in the air behind himself. And then before the ball has touched the ground, he has spun and lashed it in. It's an incredible goal. The reason this came across our collective radar is that Torrenci are facing Sunderland this Thursday in the Europa League. Torrenci, who despite being in the second division, feature in European competition because they won the Portuguese Cup last season. What a story. What a story. What a story. What a moment of the week, James, for you.

12:43Yeah.

12:44Pol Ballus: Caught you by surprise with that one.

12:46James Horncastle: No, I have a few things to choose. I was thinking, how far do I go back?

12:50Pol Ballus: Would it be your sit down with Antonio Conte? Available on The Athletic right now. Great read. Great read. The often irrationable Antonio Conte comes across as warm, enthusiastic, quite cuddly almost.

13:03James Horncastle: Yeah, I would say over the last couple of years, he's mellowed. To the point where I imagine people think he left Napoli having had a fallout with Aurelio De Laurentiis. And no, he has not. He's probably one of the few people not to fallout with Aurelio De Laurentiis, the Napoli owner. So he was on great form. He was here in London for a very short time. I think he was only here for like 24 hours.

13:26Pol Ballus: Really? And he gave one and a half of those to you. He did. Wow.

13:30James Horncastle: Yeah. Could have had more with him, but I had to actually... You had to go. I had to tell him I've got a podcast to record. Oh, wow. Cut him off mid-answer. Sorry, sorry, I'm going to have to go in. It was, yeah, it was quite awkward because I think he was in full flow. I think he was maybe a little bit disappointed because, yeah, I was telling James we spoke for like 90 minutes and then most of that interview that is out is probably only 20 minutes of that 90 minutes. So if he kept talking, I mean, God knows.

14:01Pol Ballus: The rest of it was what, James?

14:02James Horncastle: Oh, you know, we were talking about our favorite Italian restaurants London, you know.

14:07Pol Ballus: Which was it?

14:09James Horncastle: Well, I've recently been to Mezzagiorno in the Corinthia Hotel. Nice. Sounds good. They do like a short rib ragu. God, love that. Which is very good. Yeah. And octopus stew. That was good. I feel bad for the octopi.

14:24Pol Ballus: Yeah. Pedies. Octopedies. Octopuses. It's not octopi. Uh-huh. Really? Yeah. I mean, mind blown. I was today years old when I was disavused of that. The origin of it. It's not a Latin word. Yeah, instinctively, that does make sense. Have I got that right? Anyway, do go on quickly. I'll tell you what it is, an octopie, when you bake it in a pie.

14:47James Horncastle: No, there was a very good porcheta as well. All right, then. But my moment of the week was actually not going to be that. You were talking about the goal in the Portuguese second division. Oh, yeah. And it called to mind a goal I saw, one of Italy's under-21 players score against Poland. And C 'est un d 'or. What a goal. Not even from the halfway line. 70 yards. Incredible.

15:11Pol Ballus: Incredible. Again, we talked about this last week and about how Italy are so back.

15:16James Horncastle: At the moment, I wouldn't say they've been this successful in a long, long time. In terms of winning under-17s, under-19s, going to under-20 World Cup finals.

15:25Pol Ballus: Do you remember when England had that run of under-17, under-19s? You could feel it. Can you feel it? Can you hear the wind building? Of course, that was a platform for World Cup success. And the under-19, but the other nice thing about the under-19s, sorry, we've digressed a little bit, is the redemption arc of their manager, Silvio Baldini. Oh, yeah. Famously once suspended for kicking another manager up the bum on the touchline. All right, some more moments, prospective moments of the week are in store in the Champions League, which returns with Match Day 2. What should we watch out for? On Tuesday this evening, perhaps as you listen, you've got big games.

16:04Pol Ballus: Atletico Madrid against Manchester United. Paul will be telling us a little bit about that later on. He's off to Istanbul to see Galatasaray against Barcelona. There's also on Tuesday Bayern Munich taking on Viking, who are currently flying in the Norwegian top division. It's their first ever home game in the modern Champions League. The other big Norwegian side, you recall, the one that tore it up last season, Bodo Glimt. They're in action on Wednesday against that Borussia Dortmund team with whom they had that draw, that 2-2 draw. And after that, they went on that incredible run of matches and made it all the way to the last 16.

16:41Pol Ballus: Can they do it again this season? We shall see. Also on Wednesday, Roma taking on Real Madrid, the return to the capital of one of Rome's favourite footballing figures, James Horncastle, who'll be going along to the game. Also, Jose Mourinho will be attending. What kind of reception do you think Jose will get, James?

17:02James Horncastle: I think he'll get a great reception. Yeah. Because I think people outside of Rome and outside of Italy don't understand how important it was for him, A, to choose to go to Roma. I think they never thought they could get a coach like Mourinho. Mourinho's reputation in Italy is very different from his reputation here in England, where I think people are a little bit tired and jaded by him. remember before he took the Roma job last memory that they had of him was at the Bernabeu having won the treble, getting into a car to sign for Real Madrid and Jose was the last coach of an Italian club to win a European trophy and what did he do at Roma?

17:44James Horncastle: He then led Roma to a European trophy

17:46Pol Ballus: Although some would say that Simone Inzaghi technically should now claim...

17:51James Horncastle: Yes, yes true we await to see whether The Premier League opened the investigation to City between 2018 and 2026. No, I mean, Inter, of course. I mean, not to labour the point, Chaps, because, you know, for years I would talk about Inter. But, yeah, I mean, they played PSG in one final, Man City in another. I mean, you've got to say that's very unlucky. Indeed. But, no, I mean, Jose won the first ever Conference League, Roma. People say it's tin pot, but Roma fans, they just want something to celebrate. They wanted a parade, first trophy in 14 years. And then he got them to Europa League final the following year where he sort of disgraced himself by going down to the car park and abusing the refereeing team and that sort of thing.

18:37James Horncastle: But for Roma, it was very much Jose's defending us. Jose's given a winning mentality. Even Gasparini yesterday, or the weekend, sorry, after the Como game was asked about Jose's role in kind of shaping this Roma team. He's turned a lot of, I wouldn't say average players, but sort of six or seven out of 10 players into mentality monsters. And so I think for that reason, even though Gasparini delivered the objective, which was dearest to the hearts of Roma owners, please get us into the Champions League. Look at how much money we've spent. You know, we've been burning through all this cash. It's nice to win a Conference League.

19:16James Horncastle: It's nice to win a Europa League, but we need to be in a Champions League. Gasparini delivered that. So I think as much as Gasparini is delivering, I think what the club has long needed, Jose for the fans is... He became, I think, the first person since Totti to be almost indistinguishable between, you know, what is Roma and what is the football club. It's like, I know we are bigger fans of Totti than we are of Roma. We are bigger fans of Mourinho than we are of Roma. And now it's sort of...

19:45Pol Ballus: Will that be the case on Wednesdays? Real Madrid and Jose Ruel into town. We'll hear from Paul Belus on the singular moment that Real are having. I say singular, but more or less the same kind of ongoing crisis that they have every season of late. Also on Wednesday, that Manchester City Paris Saint-Germain game, which we touched on before. Paris Saint-Germain with a 3-1 victory, using the B team, but then hastily throwing on the regulars when things weren't working out. Yeah, and that is a bit of an issue. Sorry, this was this weekend against Le Mans. Oh, against Le Mans. Homes Le Mans on Saturday evening.

20:19And Luis Enrique, as we know, likes to rotate in domestic fixtures. And one of the issues that PSG have had over the opening weeks of the season is that when the big guns aren't there, they do struggle. And a lot of the players they've brought in over the last couple of years to provide depth and to provide competition just haven't cut the mustard. Ilya Zabani, who came in from Bournemouth, just seems a million miles away from really challenging Marquinhos for a starting berth. Joe Fernandez, who came in from Barcelona, still looks really lightweight. Mika Goertz, the Belgian winger who was signed from Ajax over the summer, he still hasn't really had much of an impact.

20:58And so PSG find themselves drawing 1-1, throw on the big guns, Fariq Scalier, Fabian Ruiz, Vitinha, and within minutes, Ruiz has had a shot saved from the edge of the box. Chikaric Galia tucks it in. And then shortly after that, Magna Zakliush runs in from the right and curls in his first PSG goal. He'd started and he's part of the kind of support cast. He's been slightly more convincing. So, yeah, you know, PSG getting the job done, but they needed the cavalry to come off the bench to get over the line.

21:32Pol Ballus: And having rested key players, they'll be more or less at full strength, will they, for Wednesday's game? Yeah, I don't think there's anyone missing currently. Yeah, so Ousmane Dembele was given the weekend off, as was Nuno Mendes, which raised a few eyebrows. But then we know that Dembele has had injury problems throughout his career, barely featured in Ligue 1 last season, or at least only started, you know, kind of 10 or 11 games or something. So, yeah, he's been wrapped in cotton wool. But, yeah, I mean, they should be pretty much full strength, I think. big breezy 6-1 win over Slovan Bratislava in their first game so they're already top of the league phase but yeah this will be the first European test of the season What do you think Tom?

22:20I mean the way that City played against Liverpool 10 man Liverpool on Sunday evening and in particular the defiance that we saw from their supporters and from the players themselves and from Enzo Moresca shows that they're very motivated. And this will be the first home game since the verdicts were announced. It's, I mean, deeply ironic that it should be against Paris Saint-Germain.

22:48James Horncastle: I mean, of all the fixtures that whatever computer there is, we've come up with. We're not living in a simulation. But the first games that City play after the verdict of the Independent Commission is Liverpool in the Premier League and PSG in the Champions League. I mean, what matrix is this, James? I wonder how the PSG supporters will carry themselves. Will there be a spirit of solidarity? Or will they join in the mockery? Or will they just, you know, maintain a diplomatic distance?

23:23Pol Ballus: There you go.

23:24James Horncastle: Because they're, you know, pretty noisy bunch, the PSG ultras. Julian is not known for his restraints on these things.

23:31Pol Ballus: Seb, what game are you looking forward to midweek? I think I mean both the German sides both Bayern and Dortmund with those trips to Norway really really interesting because Bayern had a tricky old time at the weekend against Augsburg where they always seemed to they conceded the fastest goal in Bundesliga history after 8.3 seconds to Riven Fellhauer awful mistake from Manuel Neuer which has kind of been the discussion afterwards and I suppose one of the talking points heading into that game against Viking is going to be do you go with Neuer again on a plastic pitch? Do you let Jonas Urbig have a go in an important game?

24:06Club have been pretty forthright about backing Neuer, but let's see. And Dortmund have questions of their own to answer because they led 2-0 against Werder Bremen on Friday night, well in control. And then as has been their want historically in recent years against Bremen, they just threw it away. They just threw it away. Conceded two goals in six, seven minutes. Really sloppy. be the second one to nicholas fulkrug their former player really really bad mistake by gregor cobon um and that cost him top spot so they need to go and get that out of their system and they need i mean that's a harder task right to go to bodo on that pitch to get a good side away from home uh they're gonna play they're gonna end up playing i think nine games in the whole of um the next three three weeks before the next international break so it's a long old schlep including going to Bayern going to Munich to play Bayern so how do you rotate the squad how does Kovac balance his resources can he keep the results coming still unbeaten but yeah a little bit of doubt after Friday night so I'm I'm looking forward to both responses and Tuesday night Wednesday night that's not a full run for me as a German football correspondent

25:16Pol Ballus: excellent all right there's of course Thursday football as well we'll maybe touch on some of those fixtures a little bit later on but let's begin a look at what's going on around Europe with a bit of pulpa loose.

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28:27Pol Ballus: So Paul on his way to Galatasaray for the Barcelona game. Before he embarked, he did give us a quick briefing on what's going on, particularly with the two Madrid clubs ahead of their big midweek clashes. Paul, it's a big week for Madrid teams in the Champions League. Real Madrid are off to Rome. But what about Atletico Madrid and their clash with Manchester United? How bad an opponent for United are Diogo Simeone's side right now? I think that if you could choose one of the best or worst moments to face Atletico de Madrid, now would be one of the worst. Because I think that they are improving from what we saw at the start of the season.

29:09They won on Saturday against Alaves in a game that they had to fight a little bit. But the feeling is that Simeone is starting to assemble the pieces. Jonathan David is doing quite well up front. I expect him to be the starter against Man United. Alex Baena, the Spain international, that played quite well against England. In Wembley, he's also like being an important piece. And Kuti Romero, who scored the winner on Saturday as well. He's an undisputed starter now. So I would say that Simeon is starting to figure out this new team. They are second in La Liga. And they're finding a bit their mojo after another summer of quite a big revamp.

29:53in the squad.

29:55Pol Ballus: Four straight wins now, including that derby victory before the international break. Julian Alvarez has been making some changes too. I see that he's got rid of his agent after the summer's lack of movement. Exactly. That's been one of the news of the week surrounding Atletico de Madrid, which is Julian Alvarez is going to change his agent. It's not clear yet who is he going to go with. There's some names that are making the rounds, but the big news is that he's leaving Fernando Hidalgo, which in a way, his agent Hidalgo, was from the Atletico side of things, one of the worst advisors that he's had and one of the causes of what happened in summer and the tension and the bad management of it all.

30:40So apparently it seems that Julian Alvarez seems to think a similar thing because he has decided to get rid of him. So let's see which is his next move, his next step. But yeah, quite interesting to see that.

30:55Pol Ballus: Do you think this will improve the relations between Alvarez and the team and the fans? I think that it can help. But eventually what they need is Julián to produce on the pitch. That's what they need. That's what happened with Griezmann. Because Griezmann, when he returned from Barcelona, he asked for forgiveness. But the fans said, no, no, you have to prove it on the pitch. And eventually he did. He ended up doing it and winning the fans again. and that's what Julien Alvarez needs to do in the remaining of the season. He came from the bench on the weekend against Alaves and he was not still at his best.

31:30You could sense that there's still a lot to do from his side. So let's see if he can do it in the upcoming weeks and I think that the game against Man United is a great opportunity for that.

31:39Pol Ballus: Okay. Imagine being upset with Antoine Griezmann. Blows the mind, doesn't it? Let's see. Oh, Real Madrid are having a normal one. They did get the win this weekend. They are six points behind Barcelona. Vinicius got a red card for pulling an opponent's hair and couldn't miss the Clasico. And Mbappé's upset the fans again for posting pictures. Yep. Have you seen the whole sequence of what happened with the Vinicius red card? It's just astonishing, really. Box office stuff. Just basically Vinicius scores a goal in a counter-attack. I think it's a cutback from Jude Bellingham and he just scores an easy goal, a tap-in.

32:17But then the referee goes to B.A.R. and they saw that Vinicius has pulled the head of Nathan Saliba, Canada International, in the build-up to the goal. But basically, when Vinicius scored the goal, Jose Mourinho ran his way towards the whole pitch, just going to Vinicius, because he had dropped Vinicius. Vinicius started the game on the bench, which is some sort of sacred thing that you should not do if you're a round-rate manager. Mourinho did it. Maybe he had the excuse of the international break. Benitez struggled a lot, so he had a reason for doing that. But then he goes to Benitez to vindicate him.

32:53Like, let's see, I dropped you on the bench, but you still can make the difference. And five minutes later, the goal is disallowed, and he is sent off, causing this massive sin, shouting out loud, saying everything to the referee. But yeah, it's a clear red card. I don't think that Ramadid have anything to complain in that regard. And let's see what happens in the classic. The rulebook makes you think that it's going to be more than a one-game ban. But you never know. It's going to depend on what the refereeing committee decides. I think it's going to be on Tuesday or Wednesday. So depending on what they say, Vinicius is going to miss the Classic or not.

33:29But the expectation now is that he's likely to miss the match at the Camp Nou, which is going to happen in two weeks. Okay.

33:37Pol Ballus: If indeed it was Vinicius, because there is some doubt, Paul. oh yeah oh that's another theory i'm really invested in is that a thing in in spain as well yeah yeah yeah it has arrived in like spain as well all these social media conspiracy theories analyzing the tattoos of benetius and how he behaves so so basically the the conspiracy theory says that benetius might not be the same person than than like he was last season it all comes because Benetius made like a plastic surgery on his face. Basically, he modified his jaw for an aesthetic purpose in Soma because he felt that he would look better.

34:21And with that and his decline in his performance and his goal contribution and everything, basically fans in social media have sort of made these speculations on whether he's actually the same person because he's not playing like the Vinicius and Ramadit fans used to know. Wow.

34:40Pol Ballus: Meantime, what about Kylian Mbappe, who had time off during the international break? What was the business with the bicycle, Paul? Yeah, so that's basically the problem, that he had time off when his teammates were just training. And in the time off that he had, because he got injured playing with France, and while all of his other teammates were just training and going to the training center. Ramdi gave him a special permit just to go on holidays and rest. And yeah, he took a trip with his girlfriend. He went to Paris first. He went to the Fashion Week in Paris. After the Fashion Week, he went to Switzerland.

35:19And yeah, in Switzerland, he was spotted basically riding a bike and riding a bike through the woods and everything. And I think that there's a quote from Mourinho's documentary in Netflix saying that football is going on bikes and biking shouldn't be allowed, basically, because it's just placing an asset at risk. And yeah, all the Ravnirid fans could see Kylian Mbappe on his Instagram stories, filming himself happily, showing how he was riding a bike in Switzerland, having a nice time while his teammates were training in the training centre. And that caused a bit of unease, I would say, between the fans, to the point that it was rumoured that fans could boo him at the Bernabeu yesterday.

36:01It wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad of a situation. But the mood around the media and everything was that. There's a lack of connection between Mbappé, what he does, the love that he shows for Real Madrid, the commitment that fans see in him towards the club. And that's created some sort of controversy. Mourinho went to defend him on the press conference before the game in a quote that was amazing. I love that. I don't know if you saw that. But basically he went, well, you criticise him because he went to Paris to a discotheque. But it wasn't a discotheque because it was a place that had been renovated and changed to host the fashion week in Paris.

36:37So he didn't go to a discotheque. And then you killed him because he went on a bike through Switzerland. But I spoke to him and this bike was in a hotel complex that was with Little Islands. And he was riding a bike just to go to the central part of the hotel. So he was not taking a trip. It was just a lovely bike riding through the hotel facilities. So basically, we found out more about Kylian Mbappé's holidays through Jose Mourinho than through Kylian Mbappé himself. Excellent.

37:03Pol Ballus: Are they going to win in Rome, do you think, Paul? I think they will. I think they will. Very good. Paul, we'll catch up with you next time. It's going to be a pleasure. Yeah, going to try to. Paul Belus. One or two other things that we didn't get to touch on with Paul. One is the game that was abandoned this weekend in La Liga, Raya Vallecano against Athletic Club de Bilbao. which had to be called off after the fans threw a number of paper planes and soft balls onto the pitch, rendering the playing surface impracticable. And the reason they were doing this is that they are irate with their owner, Raul Martin Preza, who essentially they feel has been trying to run the club into ground.

37:48Pol Ballus: Well, he wants to move to another stadium, so he's not been doing proper maintenance on the ground, which led to it being declared unsafe, and they had to play elsewhere for the opening weeks of the season. This was their first game back. They're also pretty upset because he's invited a number of members of the Vox political party to the stadium, Ipswich style. They are quite a left-leaning fan base, the Raya Vaigano lot, so they didn't take kindly to this. Anyway, they would like him out. Also, apparently, they are irate because you can't buy tickets online. You have to queue up for them. That's old school.

38:29Pol Ballus: It is old school. It is old school. Oh, another thing from La Liga. Valencia have a new permanent manager. Did you see this? Gary Neville? It's not Gary Neville.

38:40James Horncastle: Phil Neville.

38:41Pol Ballus: Also not.

38:43James Horncastle: Neville Neville.

38:44Pol Ballus: Still no. Let me cut this short by saying that it's Javier Aguirre out of Mexico. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah, Anthony Gordon's friend. Well, I look forward to Valencia-Barcelona. You'll have to wait until January 31st. Producer Xavi has already looked that up. That's when they... Because they'd already played, so it'll be the return fixture. Huh. Anyway, that was La Liga. That was Paul Ballus. Next up, Italy.

39:13Serie A, freshly back.

39:15Pol Ballus: Inter stay top, I see, after their 3-0 victory over Parma. And they're still level on points with the side from Rome, But it's not Roma. James, what's going on? Lazio, joint top of the table.

39:27James Horncastle: Yeah, remarkable. And to think, I think their last game before the break was a game against Milan where they were 2-0 up at halftime and then ended up drawing that game 2-2. And it is astonishing considering that the fans are still in full process against the ownership. They have not been buying season tickets. So the Stadio Olimpico is empty when they play at home. Looks like Monaco. Yeah. Yeah.

39:58Pol Ballus: No, 10 ,000, I think, was the official attendance, but it looked barely that this weekend. Yeah.

40:03James Horncastle: They were playing against Monza. And, you know, I mean, you have to kind of salute Gattuso. The way he has been able to sort of almost immediately resurrect his reputation, having been in charge of Italy when they lost that playoff to Bosnia in March, is incredible. Because I think, look, there was a lot of doom mongering about Lazio because of the fan protests which started at the end of last season, because of the continued image of the owners being very tight and not spending money on the team, because of the reputation of Gattuso. So people were saying, oh, maybe Lazio might find themselves in a position where they go down.

40:48James Horncastle: And I think that overlooked the fact that Lazio do have actually quite a good core group of decent players. You know, players who played for Italy in better or worse. Zaccani, Fratesi who joined from Inter. Nuno Tavares is playing as well as he did a couple of years ago when he first moved to Lazio. And what an opening goal he scored. Yeah. No. I mean, I always like someone who plays football with a headband. Okay. And, you know, he's right up there. I don't think there's anyone else doing that right now. And he's always had that in his locker as a player. The headband. Yes, the headband in his locker.

41:26That's where he keeps it. Nothing else in there. Just a headband. But that ability to score goals like that.

41:31Pol Ballus: Incredible. Yeah. Very good. A 3-1 victory for Lazio, keeping them level on points with Inter at the top of the table. Roma, who were sharing the lead with the Neurod Suri, had a 0-0 draw with Como, largely influenced by the fact that Roma's big danger man, Donio Marlin, went off for a very dangerous challenge about 10 minutes into the second half. He really lunged in.

41:55James Horncastle: Yeah, this was the first nil-nil of the season in Italy as we get into sort of mid-October.

42:05James Horncastle: And it was largely a nil-nil because I think of this incident. It was a very fun nil-nil to watch, But to go back to Marlon James, you know, he goes on the dribble, sort of beats a couple of players, loses control of the ball. And then karate kid style just dives in. It's a brilliant kind of Panini sticker-esque kind of not bicycle kick, but just like stud style. It looks like it looks a little bit like that tattoo there. Yeah. So James is pointing at Daniel De Rossi's famous tattoo. which is a kind of road sign in which someone is launching a challenge and there are kind of lightning strikes around the ankle of the defender or the opponents that he's going on against.

42:56James Horncastle: Gasparini afterwards said, oh, enough with this. You know, you keep bringing the VAR and you slow everything down. It makes it look worse or the stock images make it look worse when in real time it wasn't all that bad. But I must say, James, when maybe from the camera stationed in one of the stands, which was, you know, sort of panning in and Marlins across the other side of the pitch, maybe it doesn't look bad from that far away. But I think, you know, when you look at all the other camera angles, you're like, that is worth a red card.

43:31Pol Ballus: Yeah, not good. Not good. Anyway, goal as that one finishes between Roma and Cuomo. Inter has mentioned 3-0 against Parma. Sukic, Chalinoglu and Marcus Taram on netting. And Napoli also 3-0 winners against Frozinone, which saw Scott McTominay back already from his heart surgery. And a great performance from Kevin De Bruyne too.

43:56James Horncastle: Yeah, and there have not been many of them over the course of his Napoli career. So, you know, I think if they are to turn their season around against teams that are better than Frozinone, although for Zinone have been the revelation so far in City, they will need Kevin De Bruyne to show the kind of form he did in the Asterix years of Man City.

44:20Pol Ballus: Ah, yes. Well, he got two goals, one of which was a lovely interchange and then a finish from a tight angle. Yeah. The other one was a penalty which Hoyland had originally taken, seen it saved, but then it was retaken because of encroachment. Now, the curious thing was, I don't know if you remember Paul telling us how the loophole in football's rules, whereby you can encroach if you don't touch the ground before the ball is kicked. So you can run and jump into the box as long as you don't touch down before the ball is kicked. Anyway, I'm still sceptical about this. Totally listener Giacomo Calo of Frozzanone tried this and he was kind of airborne.

45:06Pol Ballus: and I think he pulled it off pretty much perfectly. However, one of his teammates had done a commonal garden run into the box and got called for encroachment, so it was all for nothing. And they gave the penalty this time to De Bruyne, which to my mind is wrong. It should be the same penalty taker both times.

45:21James Horncastle: Yeah, although Allegri told Hoyland you should have given him the ball in the first place. But I agree with you, James. Have another go. It's always amusing when a player misses back-to-back. Yeah, indeed.

45:33Pol Ballus: And then you're on for a Martin Palermo. Indeed so Indeed so And Well you mentioned For us and only being The revelations of the season But the other Game that I wanted to mention Was The other candidate For that title Who are Very much Cagliari Who drew 1-1 with Juventus Featuring another goal From Harder than hot Daniel Maldini

45:56James Horncastle: Boy you can't stop scoring You know Remarkable Considering The week before The international break There was the Car accident that he was involved in where it initially came out that he'd failed a breathalyzer and then there were all these reports about him failing a drugs test, which he then went to a clinic for a long day, said, here's my results, I'm negative for everything, and then was later cleared as well from the test by the police. But no, I mean, Kelly have had a little bit like Lazio, an unexpectedly strong start to the season given some of the players that they've lost. really amusing end to this game against Juventus where Juventus do get back into it they leave with a point and Luciano Spoletti the Juventus coach goes over to Pisacane the Calgary coach afterwards and says you know well done you did this well you did this well you also were really good at wasting time and you just see Pisacane go wait huh wasting time wasting time and then grabs him by the arm and then Spoletti looks at him holding his arm He's just like this.

47:04James Horncastle: And then they... They both get red cards for it. Yeah.

47:07Pol Ballus: Which was harsh, I felt. Yeah. They've got Celta Vigo on Thursday night of Juventus. Also Thursday night, Lyon against Crystal Palace, Tom, which we'll see Pierre Sarge up against his former club in a match that's also noteworthy for the John Texter involvement or otherwise at both institutions? We both hate John Texter Derby. Who hates him the most? Right. Probably Lyon fans. Lyon who lost to Lille? First domestic defeat. He's lost to Lens on Friday night. Yes. First domestic defeat. But yeah, they've had a decent start to the season. And I suspect Pierre Sarge will be very fondly acclaimed by the fans of his former club because he was bundled out of the door by John Texter mid-season at the first sign of adversity, really, having completely turned Lyon's fortunes around, picked them up when they were staring relegation in the face, got them qualified for Europe at the end of the campaign, having never coached at the highest level before.

48:17Then went on to Lens and now obviously is at Palace. So yeah, could be a little Pierre-Sage love in there.

48:24Pol Ballus: Excellent. I noticed it's really tight at the top of Ligue 1, by the way. Lyon are currently one of six teams within three points of each other at the top. In pole position still, although their lead has been cut dramatically after last weekend, Monaco, only a point behind them are Lille and Rennes. And then close behind them, you've got Lyon and Paris FC, who had their first loss of the season this weekend under Liam Rossini. And then Paris Saint-Germain. Three points off the top now. Yes, I mean, and as we suspected, they are closing in on top spot. And as we've said already on the pod, none of those teams are capable of really challenging PSG seriously, I don't think.

49:09So, you know, PSG are starting to get themselves back in order. And yeah, you know, Paris FC losing unexpectedly at Lorient. Lyon losing at Lens. Lille got a bit of a scratchy win at home to La Havre. Not all convincing. David Ancelotti is still kind of figuring things out, seems to rotate quite a lot. Rusted some key players for the game against the Havre with one eye on the Arsenal game in midweek. Wren picked up a really good win, 4-1 at home to Ozer. Esteban Le Paul ending a mini goal drought, having made his France debut during the international break and a really nice goal as well. ball over the top from Wren's English centre-back Charlie Cresswell and the pool runs in behind and then with his first touch uses the outside of his right foot to lob the ball over the advancing goalkeeper so Wren going pretty well but yeah it does feel like a matter of time until PSG reclaim reclaim top spot

50:11Pol Ballus: Alright Marcel off the bottom of the table with their first win of the season Anywho Hey Seb Stafford Bloor hey James Richardson do you want to do some Bundesliga let's do some Bundesliga

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51:08James Horncastle: State fair food is getting smaller and pricier. We'll have room for fried cookies. Okay, you never overspend on food. What's your deal? What's his deal? He went to Metro and got$450 in value on the new Samsung Galaxy A37 5G for free. And no activation fees. Free phone? Oh, sign me up. Get that more for your money feeling. Only on Metro by T-Mobile. Bring your number and activate$40 period plan. $450 based on device discount waived activation fee. Not available if with Metro or T-Mobile in the past 180 days. This message is brought to you by today's sponsor, Walden University. Set a course for change.

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52:40James Horncastle: One purchase equals one donated. Always.

52:47Pol Ballus: So before we do any Bundesliga, what's the feeling about this new manager that Germany have got for themselves, Jurgen Klopp, and his opening matches with the men's team? Four games, what, one victory? Three goals? yeah so this breaks roughly in two Jimbo I think you'd give the football a kind of a six seven out of ten so lost at home to Greece in Augsburg had a pretty patchy 1-1 draw with the Netherlands and Amsterdam okay on paper look beneath the bonnet of that one and it was not so impressive XG was pretty unflattering from a German perspective beat Serbia 2-0 in Munich that was a pretty good result and this of course is was the the international break where initially klopp picked 44 players and the two squads broken too germany won pretty disappointing germany too which which had the bulk of the new slash more interesting players played pretty well played well against serbia and then went to greece i went to thetaloniki and and got a a credible goalless draw probably deserved to win that one too for lots of good moments the other half of this is that Klopp faced a lot of political questions.

54:03He famously wore that hat, that baseball cap, to his introductory press conference where he announced his squads, which read one of 83 million, which was a kind of a plea for unity. And then they had a bit of a spiel about wanting to reclaim the flag and didn't want to leave patriotism to quote the wrong people. And that issue sort of stalked him through the international period. another issue was his relationship with the media so if you remember when he was unveiled Jimbo he had a bit of a go at the reporting cycles and behaviors of the German mainstream media and said you know you're you're too negative don't like the way you report which ordinarily when you when you say that to a bunch of journalists doesn't end very well anyway he kind of carried that on because when he announced his squad there were I think 16 players who were being called up or were uncapped and almost all of those were leaked to the media um almost all of them were uh pre-reported by sky deutschland anyway clopp had a real go at the reporters who were both pretty high profile saying it's pathetic how you earn your living uh which is pretty strong pretty strong terminology right and anyway ended with one of the reporters going on doppelpass which is like a sunday morning discussion show and having a go right back saying well you know um i think it's pathetic that you're uh you know you're basically an advertising billboard um so it got pretty punchy but it's a show called double tap yeah there's a kind of like uh i suppose you call it one two right okay double pass right so that would be a german equivalent one two right um you've been playing call of duty yeah this is how you spent your international break uh but clopp is clopp right klopp has a level of popularity uh nationally that no other german coach has no other german player does either he can communicate with people beyond just the average football fan he has a power of the media that nobody else does he can gets away with more than your average coach would too so there's a little bit of tension and none of these issues are going to go away before the next international break so we'll pick it up in november but it was fine also i think the overarching point, James, is that he was statesmanlike in a way that Germany needed him to be.

56:24When he confronted issues such as the election result and Saxony-Anhalt with the AFD, it's very hard to imagine, for instance, Julian Nagelsmann dealing with those issues in the same way or not just nervously looking at a press officer and hoping to move on. So it feels like the right person at the right time, if that's probably the best way of answering your question.

56:45Pol Ballus: Excellent. Very good way of answering it. Thanks, Seb. So meanwhile in the Bundesliga, Freiburg going down to 10 men, but still getting the victory, which takes them top of the pile. They're great. They're great. So a little bit of context, right? So Freiburg for a long time, between I think 2011 and 2024, were coached by Christian Streich, legendary figure within German football, could not come across a nicer person either. the lovely man. He retired and succeeded by Julian Schuster, who was a former player, was one of Stryke's assistants. Anyway, since then, finished fifth in his first season, seventh in his second, alongside reaching the Europa League final, of course.

57:30And that has them top. And I think the story here is of... You mentioned they beat Schalke over the weekend. And afterwards, Derry Scherhant, who was among Jürgen Klopp's new international caps over the international breaks, had a great start to the season. He was asked about what it's been like this year. And he said that everyone sees what we're like on the pitch. We press really well. We're organized, good set pieces, all that kind of stuff. But you should come to our training sessions and see how everybody, beyond just the starting 11, buys into what we're trying to do. And he makes a very good point because if you look at that side, it's a lot of players who first of all have dropped into the side um as a result of players that have moved away so for instance um yannick engelhardt who james will remember from had a season at como i think with fabregas yeah moved back um he moved over from gladback over the summer um he's dropped into the space that has been vacated by johann manzambi uh for instance um and actually uh deris shohan is as a good example of any year because for a long time uh freyberg's talisman was vince grifo the kind of wide left um winger who good penalty taker good set piece taker great crosser anyway he's 33 now instead of moving towards the end of his career and he's really just got a bench role anyway he comes on at the weekend um there's no sulking he provides a brilliant ball for a kaisiki goto to score his first bundesliga goal the winner in a two-one game where they've been reduced to 10 men 10 top of the bundesliga and And they're all really cheerful about it.

59:04They were asked, she's just said afterwards, listen, it's great. I think at some point Bayern Munich might end up at the top of the table. They look pretty competitive. But we're enjoying it for now. And it's a great story because in budgetary terms, this is a mid-table side, right? And their recruitment is excellent. So Gotto scored the winning goal the weekend. He joined for 10 million euros from Anderlecht over the summer. This is not a team that's been built on a big budget. and ultimately top of the leg they have the joint best defensive record in the Bundesliga only conceded four times joined with Dortmund and with Bayern it's a tremendous success and actually that batch of new internationals Sheerhan we've mentioned but also Philippe Troy the right back who was playing Zweiter Bundesliga football a few years ago Engelhardt we've mentioned already he's now full German international none of this happens without being at Freiburg so just brilliant, brilliant in every respect.

59:58Pol Ballus: Bayern Munich, whilst they are three points and will presumably at some point climb back on top, how about RB Leipzig's performance this weekend, Seb? RB Leipzig, who will be facing Bayern Munich next weekend. Yeah, 6-0 winners against Eintracht Frankfurt, Jimbo. The story here, probably the performance for Antonio Nisa, but also a hat-trick on his return to the Bundesliga for Christopher Nkunku. Sort of a hat-trick of goals that capitalise on goalkeeping or defensive mistakes, but a hat-trick nonetheless. So that's really good news. It was a result that Martin Demichaelis, the Ebi Leipzig head coach, could really do with because there started to be some chatter about whether at some point Julian Nagelsmann might make his way back to Leipzig, which, if you're Demichaelis, is not great news.

1:00:50I personally think that Nagelsmann's immediate future probably lies outside of Germany. Where do you think it lies, Seb? Anywhere other than Germany. I just think he needs to get out from the conversation about what happened to Bayern, what happened to the national team. I think he needs a little bit of a, sort of an Andre Villas-Boas period. Drive across the desert. Russia, China. Well, no, in the figurative sense. Yeah. Like just go and do some interesting stuff at Marseille, for instance. Oh, yeah. One of those. Hey, let me tell you about something else while we're here in Germany. So Cologne against Gladbach on Sunday, that's a that's a that's a derby big game big rivalry and there was a point during the second half where the Gladbach fans in the away section the away section at Run Energy Stadium is separated from the home fans by what looks like a a bit of thick perspex I've never been to that part of the ground but that's what it looks like anyway during the second half some of the some of the Gladbach fans were kicking it down and sort of making angry faces towards the Cologne fans in the home section and then finally the whole thing breaks and you think oh god they're just going to invade the home block and about 50 60 70 ultras just stand there they kind of don't really know what to do and there's a solitary cologne fan standing there and i hope i don't do him a disservice but i think he was maybe in his mid 50s almost 60 everybody else is backing away and he's just standing there and you think well this poor guy's done for was it no it wasn't him it wasn't him can confirm it wasn't him but the gladback fans didn't really know what to do and sort of edge back into their own blog was it like have you ever seen those videos where you have

1:02:28Pol Ballus: dogs two dogs and there's a gate between them to get they just want to rip each other's throats and somebody opens the gates and they're like yes but it was 50 dogs and one dog on the other side all right so it was it was it was a very strange thing to say anyway then the riot police turned up and formed a kind of a human division between them and it all dissipated but it was um yeah people have um people have been having a little bit of a chuckle about that and just to finish have you heard about what's happening at bockham stadium with the jumping ban yeah okay so there was bockham are in the process of renovating their stadium there's a project which is going to be completed around 2028 2029 anyway one of the problems they've discovered in the east stand is that rhythmic jumping, as it's being described, causes a trampoline effect within that particular stand, the East Stand where all the ultras are.

1:03:24So it's exactly... So when people jump on one side,

1:03:28Pol Ballus: people on the other are getting bounced up and down. So Bochum released a press release on Thursday last week in which they said, you can celebrate goals, right? All the spontaneous stuff, fine, but don't do the rhythmic jumping because there is a danger to what they described as inexperienced stadium visitors who might get hurt as a result which means kind of people are going for the first time which seems unrealistic because you probably wouldn't get into that part of the ground anyway if you were just a new fan and yeah ultra's not too happy about it and there's also the club have said listen if you don't obey this we might have to shut the whole section there's no load bearing problem that's fine but um the the the company that own the stadium have mandated that if you can't if you can't follow the rules then we're just going to shut the whole thing down damn which is which would be a catastrophe of course but uh yeah and they lost at home to armenia battlefield on sunday so that wasn't that the mood has not got better as a result on the bounce on the bounce very nice probably helps if they lose there's less reason for the fans to bounce up and down as long as they keep losing structurally they'll be okay i remember we went on a trampoline once didn't we james oh yes yeah and it's it's very true that you know when say for example i go down very much

1:04:46James Horncastle: goes up yeah yeah but you do have to get the rhythm right because if if one is only if one of you is only out of step yeah like so if we go down at the same time but you get more or less the same time but i'm let's say five seconds behind you yeah that's a lot in trampoline okay let's say half a second then I just don't get the same bounce don't get the same bounce

1:05:11Pol Ballus: in fact you kill my bounce maybe I don't know

1:05:14James Horncastle: it's physics yeah

1:05:16Pol Ballus: if I go down we all go down yeah they go low we go high also works on a trampoline at the Bochum Stadium yeah so that's brilliant good I think that wraps it up for this Totally Football Show European edition we will be back next Tuesday with more of the same. Before that, we've got Champions League-infused shows both Wednesday morning and Thursday morning to round up the events in Europe's Top Cup competition. Many thanks, Tom, for being with us today. To you, Seb Stafford-Bloor there in Hamburg, James Horncastle as well, and producer, Xavi. And you, listener-struck viewer, will be back soon. Hope you'll be with us.

1:06:02Pol Ballus: For now, from all of the series, goodbye.

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