FA Cup third round preview: what are the 'Cupsets' to watch out for?
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It's snowing in Manchester on this Thursday morning, so it must be FA Cup Round 3 weekend. The weather is so bad up here in the frozen north that Accrington Stanley have been training indoors ahead of their game at Liverpool this weekend. Arne Slott's team have just lost at Tottenham in the Cowboy Cup.

So maybe the team from the bottom end of League Two will fancy their trip to Anfield. One thing's for sure, they will certainly enjoy themselves. Tamworth from the National League won't be worrying about the weather. They will face Spurs at the Lamb Ground on their plastic pitch. Hello and welcome to your It's All Kicking Off podcast.

Weekend Preview Show. Chris Sutton isn't here today. He's on his way to Dundee as we record. They host Rangers in the SPL on Thursday evening. Time once again seems to be running out for Philippe Clement at Rangers, but then we were always saying that and he's still there. So I'm delighted to say that I'm joined today by Nathan Salt.

one of our Manchester United correspondents and a Wrexham fan to boot. Wrexham, of course, have FA Cup pedigree of their own. Mickey Thomas still doesn't have to buy a drink in the town, even though it's 32 years since his goal helped to down Arsenal at the racecourse. Nathan, I'm not going to insult you by asking you if you were there that day. I don't think you were even born there.

But do they still talk about it? Or is that just something that old soldiers like myself like to think about?

Oh no, Mickey won't let you forget it when he goes around the town. So if his drink is running a little bit empty, let's retell the story of that Arsenal game. No, it's quite a painful weekend for Wrexham fans because the FA Cup is such an incredible competition and we went out in the first round this year. So it's, you know, seeing Accrington getting ready to go to Liverpool and seeing Bromley getting ready to go to Newcastle. That is what it's all about. No replays this year. That's still...

me, but you know, that has been discussed at length and written about at length in the mail over recent months, but the FA cup, the best weekend of the year for me in third round weekend, because there will be shocks and,

And, you know, I'm excited for all those that get to pull those off. Last time I saw you at Old Trafford for a game, actually, a month or so ago, I walked into the press box to find you and Mickey Thomas deep in conversation and walked over to say hello and then realised as I got there that it was just some niche player

Wrexham heavy conversation that I was just, I was essentially wouldn't be able to contribute to and wouldn't have been welcome. Anyway, we love Mickey. Mickey's had his battles with cancer over the last few years, of course, but he's doing fabulously well right now. You've mentioned you're devastated as a Wrexham fan not to be in the FA Cup this weekend. You mentioned FA Cup replays.

On this podcast, myself and Chris, who are both of a similar age, both in our 50s, have talked before about the importance of the cup competitions. And we've talked about the demise of replays, et cetera. And we grumble about it and we've grown about it. But then what people say to us is, yeah, but that's your generation. The younger generation don't care. For the younger generation, it's all about...

the Premier League, and it's all about the Champions League. They don't want FA Cup replays. They don't want the League Cup at all. You are of that generation, just about. So what's your take on that?

I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently and I proposed that, you know, if I could offer you the chance to win the FA Cup, but never as a Wrexham fan now, but never make it to the Premier League, would you take that or would you take consistently being a Premier League team and never winning a cup competition? Never, never going to Wembley, never lifting a cup. And I would 100% of the time take winning the FA Cup and never get into the Premier League.

I would always take the cup. I grew up loving the cup competitions. Silverware, no one can take away from you when you go into the annals of history and what is finishing 14th or 15th every year. I kind of look at teams like Crystal Palace and Brentford. I know they're doing a little bit better now, but it frustrates me when I see them put out quote-unquote second string teams in cup competitions. I don't get it. I never understand that. Why would you not go all out to...

to win a cup competition and then you get back the old, well, you know, if we finish a place higher, we get an extra 1.2 million and maybe that can get us. Yeah, I absolutely despise that rhetoric. I do not understand why you wouldn't go all out for cups. I would if it was me. I'm not a football manager, but cups are, you know, sacrosanct. And when I see them getting chipped away and people becoming less and less interested in them, it pains me, honestly. Did your mate agree? Yeah.

No, he was very much of the mindset to get to the Premier League and enjoy that ride and, you know, get to play Man United and get to play Arsenal, get to play Liverpool. Sure, that would be great. And in an ideal world, you get both of those things. You can win a cup and become this mega force of football. But this idea that you sort of disregard the cups now, I don't and never will understand that.

Well, you've just explained the reasons for it yourself in a very eloquent way. Teams, especially in the Premier League, are absolutely terrified of losing their status. Teams, what frustrates me is teams from further down the pyramid playing reserve teams in the FA Cup. Of course, they do it because they think, well, we've got no chance of winning it, so we might as well kind of have our little go in it, get out of it, and then focus on the league. It's an old debate, but it's really interesting to hear you say that, someone of your generation, to say that the FA Cup's important to you. I'm astonished, actually, that you've

have that view that you would rather win a trophy than ever play Premier League football. But I respect it and a little bit of me loves it too. So before we get into a couple of the kind of giant killing possibilities for this weekend, let's talk rather pragmatically about a big Premier League club, West Ham. They're at Villa in the FA Cup on Friday evening. They will have a new manager in the dugout. Graham Potter is back in football almost two years after being sacked in

Chelsea. A good fit for each other, Potter and West Ham, Nathan? It's a curious one because he's been so patient. He's kind of turned his nose up at jobs left and right and you thought, okay, let's see where he's looking to land and big jobs keep coming up and you see Anjan depression, you think, oh, maybe Tottenham or he's not going to go back to Chelsea and you keep thinking Graham Potter's always going to come up, the England job comes up, maybe he's in the frame for that. So he waits and waits and

And then he goes to West Ham, who, the way I look at West Ham, if everything went right, they could consistently be in that European mix. You're looking at Forest and I've got it right this season. You look at Bournemouth, they're really in the mix. You look at a Brentford or previously a Brighton or a Villa. If West Ham got it right, they've got resource, fan base, everything that would go into that. But they always seem, I think you wrote this in your column on Potter,

They're like a club that's always in a, in a hurry. And so they, you never get that, you never get that opportunity to build because as soon as you get a couple of bad results, the anxiety kicks in. And so I don't know, you say, is it a good fit for him? If he gets given the time and opportunity to, to coach and to, to rebuild it because he's going to need to, this squad is, you know, without an identity, without a coaching philosophy to it, which is quite strange, really, even with Lopetegui's up and down record of late, um,

So no, I'm not so sure it is this incredible fit after two years of waiting for that job. Yeah, absolutely. Take your point. I would not have predicted that Graham Potter would take this job, but then I was surprised he went to Chelsea as well. One thing is for sure is that he will have come out of Chelsea as a different person and a different manager because no manager ever emerges from failure as,

the same person. Never, ever. And that is the first time, even though there were plenty of mitigating circumstances for Potter at Stamford Bridge, he did fail. He admits that himself. He won't have come out of that the same person. And I think that is what will be key to this. He talked about his time at Chelsea as being in a washing machine. I listened to his interview with Jake Humphries on the High Performance podcast, which was revealing on this. The Chelsea experience took a huge toll

on Potter, a huge toll. He likened it to grief. And in the same sentence said, I know that doesn't sound right. He said, I know what grief is because I lost both my parents in a very short space of time while I was at Brighton. But even so, he talks about anger and sadness and bitterness and finally getting to that acceptance stage.

He talked about spending time away from football, working out how to be a human being again, reconnecting with his own children. So you only have to listen to those words to realise that he hasn't just brushed this Chelsea thing off as one of those things that happens. It's really affected him. I hope he comes back.

with the same qualities that he brought to Brighton. He's a great coach. He's a brave coach. He's innovative. He'll make big in-game decisions. He likes to create pathways for young players. He's big on culture. All of the things you would want to hear if you were a Premier League owner. But as you say yourself...

I'm not sure whether those are always the priorities at West Ham. And finally, I think, I think that's a bit of a soliloquy for me. This, I apologize. Um, one thing that he also said, Graham also said to Humphries on the, on the podcast was all you can hope for when you go take a job is a good club with good leadership. Obviously you had that at Brighton, not,

Not sure whether you can pin that on West Ham. Both his predecessors, Lopetegui and David Moyes, have had well-documented boundary issues with the director of football, Tim Steeden. So there's probably a bit of a riddle to solve for Potter from that point of view, almost on day one.

Yeah, definitely. The Steed and Osterstein issue is definitely one that needs to be looked at because, you know, he is the common denominator with David Moyes, who I've got a lot of respect for and did a very, very good job. Lopetegui, I was just going to say, I got to meet him. He sort of met with a few journalists when he became West Ham manager. And one of the things I found with him is that I think Potter will bring a different level of intensity.

Lopetegui is amazingly intense on first meeting. So there's not really a room to, when things are going badly, there's no room left for a greater level of intensity. The guys are walking hairdryer almost. So I think there's a little bit more nuance to, and a steeliness, I think, after two years, what you were saying there in that Jake Humphrey type performance podcast. I think you could see a steeliness about Potter where he's still wearing the scars from that Chelsea job.

And, you know, he maybe, I think at Chelsea, suffered fools a little bit. He was given the run around by players where there were too many players. They couldn't all fit in the dressing room. You know, some of them were nicknaming him Harry after Harry Potter. You know, he didn't have the respect, didn't command the respect, unfortunately, which you would hope that, you know, a coach of his quality would have had.

So I think he goes into West Ham with a steeliness to be like, I've waited, I've grieved, I've processed this. And I'm not the pushover that maybe he was to certain players at Chelsea. But the director of football, Steed and thing, he cannot be allowed to do whatever the hell he wants. Turn up at the training ground when he wants. Potter has to go in. I think with Lopetegui not working,

Potter has to go in and set the stall out straight away because West Ham need to improve and improve quickly. And that is giving the reins to Graham Potter and not the director of football. I actually hope, to contradict you a little bit, I actually hope that Potter goes into West Ham and just takes the Potter, the Brighton Potter into West Ham because that's Potter. Everyone changes, right? We all evolve. We all grow, hopefully in the right direction if we're lucky.

But ultimately, you are what you are. And I think Graham would be well-served to rely on the qualities, the empathy and the slight gentleness that got him to where he was. The top, I think Brighton in the Champions League places when he left for Chelsea. I think he should rely on

because that's what he is and his coaching. And I just hope he's given the room and the leeway and the authority to do it properly at West Ham. And we wish him well. He debuts at Villa Park on Friday night in the FA Cup. Man City are at home to Salford. Gary Neville, co-owner of Salford, made his feelings clear about that one when it came out of the hat. Briefly, 10 years ago,

in March, since what we call the class of 92, Neville and his mates took over at Salford. They've got them into the football league, but they haven't got them out of league two yet. It's been a harder journey and a harder job than they envisaged, I think, Nathan. I think they're on record as saying that.

You are steeped in the vagaries and the mysteries of the pyramid and of the lower leagues. So why hasn't it worked? And what have Wrexham done that Salford haven't managed to do? It's really curious because when Graham Alexander took Salford up, you thought, right, that is the shackles off. The National League is incredibly difficult to get out of. You know, you're seeing now...

Friend of the podcast, Mike Keegan's Oldham. They are stuck in that rut of trying to get out of the National League. It's very difficult. So when Salford freed themselves from that, I actually think the class of 92 lads thought, right, we're going to go up and up now. There's three automatic places in League Two. There's two further automatics in League One and we'll be in the championship in the next three to four years. And it hasn't happened. And the key reason why I think that hasn't happened and why it did for Wrexham is they haven't managed to get

the dugout, right? They haven't managed to get the manager, right? They went through Richie Wellens, who was a good manager, but he was only there for something like six months and he's flying now with Leighton Orient. So it wasn't given the time. I mean, Scholes sat in there for a little bit as an interim. You've had Neil Wood, who was highly respected at Man United in their academy. I think took him to the playoffs, ended up losing to Stockport. He was gone. Gary Bowyer, very experienced manager. He's had a go in there.

And now you've got Carl Robinson, who's done well at Oxford and MK Dons and, you know, a really sort of well-established football league coach. And it's no surprise to me that Salford are right up there and look like they will finally get over the hump. But yeah,

But the lack of consistency in a manager and the lack of consistency in the idea. Neville, I think by his own admission, has said that he gives managers a lot of grief at Premier League level. And he's actually realised that looking closer to home, they haven't got it right themselves. So I think that's been the key stumbling block for them, where it wasn't for Wrexham getting Phil Parkinson, who's just passed a thousand games and is on course to guide Wrexham to what hopefully I think is a

three successive promotions so that's been the key difference How is Salford viewed in non-league circles and lower league circles? Yeah it's the stick that people always beat Salford with and I've been to plenty of their games over the years either as a fan or as a reporter is

They haven't got that steep history to fall back on the fan base. There is that feeling, people pointing fingers, that it is Man United fans that turn up when Man United are maybe away. So growing the fan base is particularly tricky. And I think...

any team that gets a bit of money and becomes successful in the low leagues becomes despised and hated. And, you know, Rexham have had plenty of that, but I think with Salford, people just think it's built on a sort of house of cards. If you will, it's not steeped in, you know, if I, if I look at Rex and I can point to games before my time against Roma and Porto and Anderlecht and, you know, there's great history and you can talk to people like Mickey Thomas, as we said at the top of the show, um,

Salford, I don't really think they don't have these legends of yesteryear that people can sort of reminisce about and the nostalgia. They know Salford because of the class of 92. They got up, had a bit of momentum, had the sort of documentary on Sky. And then, like you say, it's 10 years and they haven't been able to keep going and going. So I think they're kind of looked down upon. I think they're in a bracket with maybe a Forest Green where people look down and sneer at them a little bit.

I understand why there would be jealousy. Money always. Money, notoriety, publicity always breeds envy. Just frustrate me a little bit when I hear that football fans are snooty and sniffy about clubs because they've got no history. I mean, what's wrong with a new thing? What's wrong with a new football club? What's wrong with somebody saying, you know what, this community here doesn't have what it might need to

So we're going to build it. I don't really see what's wrong with that. Yeah, we all, you know,

Chris and I constantly make historical references on this podcast. Of course we do, a couple of old guys, and that's great. We love our football history, but we also love innovation and we love invention and we love football clubs and football people who are prepared to go and punch upwards and punch at that ceiling and punch above the weight. So I'm not sure I'm on that particular bandwagon, but there we go. And before we move out of this section, really interesting, Ryan Giggs,

is the director of football. He's been appearing in the dugout recently next to Carl Robinson. He first appeared in the dugout back in October for a two-all draw against Fleetwood, I think. Since that time, Salford have only lost two of 14 games. They've won their last six. They are now third in...

in League 2 and they've only conceded one goal in almost two months coincidence or otherwise Giggs is in the dugout and Salford are flying much to watch and enjoy at the Etihad when they take on Manchester City this weekend

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There are a lot of ties, Nathan, that I would say have come out of the hat the wrong way round this weekend, which is a shame. And when I read a few out, I think people will understand what I mean. Liverpool at home to Accrington, Chelsea at home to Morecambe, Leeds at home to Harrogate.

City at home to Salford, Crystal Palace at home to Stockport, Newcastle at home to Bromley. It would have been wonderful if some of those had been the other way round. But you think you might have spotted one, one out of that group, Nathan, where there might be an inkling of a story. Yeah, I mean, you keep getting asked about what's the cup upset and I'd love to come on and say it's Accrington or it's Salford.

And I'm actually going to pick Newcastle versus Bromley, which seems a bit daft given that Newcastle feel like they're the form team in the country right now, that they're flying. I think I'm saying this banking on the fact that I think Alexander Izak will get a well-earned rest. Newcastle are flying right now. They've beat Arsenal. They deservedly beat Arsenal, I thought, in the Carabao Cup the other day.

They're there one step away from Wembley and very close to a trophy. They're flying in the Premier League. They're on course, I think, to finish in the top four now. Something has got to give. And if I go back, I cast back, not even too far in the recent history, January 2022, when League One Cambridge won

went up to St. James' Park and Joe Ironside scored an improbable winner and Newcastle were dumped out. I just think when a team is doing as well as Newcastle is, they're bound to make a raft of changes and Bromley, Andy Woodman there, an incredible bloke, a great man managing, brilliant motivator. They're good on their travels, fourth best on the road in League Two.

Look, the odds are stacked against them, but stranger things have happened. Cambridge proved that a few years ago at St. James' Park. And if I had to pick an upset this weekend, I'm looking at Bromley. I have a little theory, and I've had it for a while, that one thing that would liven up the FA Cup, especially now that we are without replays, when the FA Cup draw is made, I think that...

I'm going to get laughed out of town for saying this, but I'm saying it anyway. The lower-placed team should be given the option of playing home or away. I mean when the team's from a different division. I don't mean that, say, Tottenham should be given the choice of whether they play home or away against Liverpool, for example. But when it's teams from different divisions, the lower-division team should be given the choice. So they get the choice of either taking the money away

from playing away or having a chance of glory and a big day out playing at home. I wonder how many of the, you know, Liverpool, Accrington, Chelsea, Morecambe, Leeds, Harrogate, City, Salford, Palace, Stockport, Newcastle, Bromley that you rattled off. I wonder how many of those would trade in

you know, that amazing trip to a Premier League ground. Yeah. I forget the lad's name now, but there was a great video when the draw was made of an Accrington striker. I think it might be Josh Woods or something like that, that there was a big Liverpool fan and he was jumping up and down around his living room because he's going to be able to walk out under the, this is Anfield sign and the best video that I'd seen of the FA Cup draw. So I wonder how many of those teams are trading what is probably a once in a lifetime game for a lot of those players and,

to go for glory at home. Maybe, I don't know, maybe Stockport would have fancied having Palace at Edgley Park. That's a tricky place to go, but I'm not convinced Akron or Morecambe are swapping those rounder. Yeah, I mean, that is a great flaw in my theory is that you give them a choice and they'll all choose the away game.

The players would want to play away for the reasons that you explained and the chairman and the owners are always going to play away because of course they want the money from the gate receipts. Anyway, let us know what you think. Is that a possible thing?

Is that a possibility or just a stupid ladyman theory to give the lower-placed team the choice of a home or away fixture in the Cup? Salford, should we be jealous of them just because they're new and because they're operated by a bunch of Man Utd players?

Legend, I'm not sure about that. Graham Potter at West Ham. Is that a good fit or is that one going to hang off him like a cheap suit in six months' time? Let us know. You can find us on the socials. I can't do my usual little trick, silly name and famous name. I can just do silly name and Nathan Salt. Find Nathan on X. Worth following for all things Manchester United and indeed all things Wrexham. Nathan also features on his own Wrexham podcast. What's it called, Nathan? Give it a plug.

The Rob Ryan Red podcast. There you go. You can leave comments at our socials, of course. You can find the show on Mail Sports, social media accounts at TikTok and Instagram and on X, of course. You can see excerpts from the show there. You can leave your views and observations, which you can also do on Spotify, Apple, wherever it is you get this podcast. Make sure you hit the follow button when you're there. Leave us a rating and a review. A couple of comments here on Spotify. Chris and I have been talking recently about the

the best value for money players in the Premier League or indeed anywhere in the pyramid. We've talked about Chris Wood, £50 million at Forest. We've talked about Visser and Mbwemo at Brentford, who cost £13 million between them. Ian Tao has popped up on Spotify to say, Jamie Vardy.

will be the best ever, signing £1 million. I think honourable mentions also for N'Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez. Sounds as though Ian might be a Leicester fan. Fair point there. Also a reflection here from Fazza.

on Spotify on the Man United 2-2 draw at Liverpool at the weekend. They always turn up for their cup final against Liverpool, celebrating a 2-0 draw at Anfield as a sign of how very far the mighty have fallen. Right, quickly, Nathan, let's do a couple of other games.

There is a Minnow at home. Tamworth are at home to Spurs. National League is where Tamworth play their football. They're 16th at the moment, not having a great season. Fun fact from Tamworth, Paul Merson played for them once back in 2006 at the end of his career. They've been to round three before. They've lost to Everton, Norwich and Stoke at this stage. 5,000 capacity at the Lamb Ground and an artificial pitch, Nathan?

I've been to the Lamb Ground. I went to watch them in the FA Cup. The male used to do a road to the FA Cup where you follow a team through the ground. And I remember going, it was Tamworth Darlington.

And the Darlington players were all making their own way there. And two lads arrived late, so they turned up by taxi just before the teams were announced. So that was the magic of the cup for me right there when I got to the lamb ground. What, they came from Darlington in a taxi? I don't know where they came from. They got a train midway through, the train broke down, then they got a taxi. The classic tale of lower league FA Cup. So yeah, me and these two players frantically asking where the entrance was. And I was stood in front of it.

And did they win? Darlington did win on the day. Yeah, they did win. So Darlington carried on and I think they maybe went to Walsall in the next round, if memory serves me right. Taxi for Tamworth. Well, Tamworth, it's very, I think it's everything that Spurs will hate. And, you know, it's so compact. The pitch, like you say, it's artificial. It's a platformer.

top players nightmare that because it's in their heads as soon as they see an artificial pitch they get so paranoid and scared about injury maybe the paranoia makes a bit of sense because it's proven that the risk of injury is far higher I actually had a conversation with Archie Gray recently when I was doing England under 21s and I was really impressed with him and I think it'll be players like him with the youngsters the steely resolve whether he'll play we don't know he played centre back against Liverpool the other night but if

But if any of those players go, they're Spurs players and think they're too good for those kind of environments, they'll get a really sort of harsh welcome of what it's like to be under the pump against a team which is going to pump it long and try and use the advantages in a ground where there's no frills. You know, they will be getting changed in porter cabins and will hear every insult that comes their way. There's going to be no...

huge barriers and no big separation they are going to be right up against at Tamworth and if Ange Postacoglu and his players think they're maybe too big time or too Hollywood for any of it then they'll come crashing back down to earth at the Lamb Ground I can tell you that It'll be really interesting to see what team Ange picks obviously they had a big game and they won it last night in the Carabao Cup first semi-final first leg against Liverpool it's

He's not got a deep squad at the moment, Pastor Coghley. Another injury, Rodrigo Bentancourt. Looks awful that one. And we do wish Rodrigo well on his recovery. Notice he's been posting on socials from hospital with his partner. We really do hope he recovers well from that because that looked dreadful. But again, another missing player for Ange, Pastor Coghley. Unless he's going to play a bunch of kids, I'm not sure how much rotation he can handle.

bring to that game. You mentioned Gray, of course, the former Leeds player. I have to say that within all of this chaos at Tottenham and the up and down results and the pressure on Postakoglu and the constant chat around the club, he does look some player. Playing out of position for Postakoglu, there was one moment against Liverpool when he stepped out of defence with the ball, beat two players and played a ball inside the Liverpool left back to set someone like Kulishevsky away down the right side

to lead an attack that almost led to a goal. And in that moment, you can see what all the fuss is about. Some player, and I hope he goes on to develop well at Tottenham. You're right about the artificial pitch. Chris Sutton always talks about how much he hates them. There's a couple in Scotland he thinks he should be torn up. We know why clubs have them. They have them because they make money. They can rent the ground out during the week to...

to clubs and teams to play football and hockey and things like that. We know why they do it, but you're right, Nathan. The senior pros and the top-level pros hate them. Arsenal versus Manchester United, that's the big Premier League clash this weekend in the FA Cup. That's at the Emirates, Nathan. I will be at that one. That's on Sunday at three o'clock.

Very, very quickly, Chris Wheeler wrote a very interesting story this week suggesting that Cobby Maynew, the Man United and England midfielder, is on the radar of Chelsea. It was followed by a couple of other outlets as well. A few people have tried to poo-poo it, suggesting Manchester United would never in a million years sell one of their shiny academy graduates. But you have insight and knowledge on this, Nathan, so let's hear it.

Look, Manchester United, if they had their way, do not want to sell Kobimeni, but they don't have their way because of profit and sustainability rules, PSR. We've seen them bite clubs right across the Premier League and the sanctions are severe. Points deductions, heavy fines. You need to comply, basically. Now, Man United don't want to sell Kobimeni, but they also are self-aware enough to know that they might not have a choice if things don't improve. They need to sell Kobimeni

and Man United have a terrible record of selling players. Everybody makes a loss. For example, if you sold Anthony for considerably less than the 82 million you spent on him, that would be a significant hit against PSR. You know, you get punished...

big time. Whereas players yourself in your academy, a pure profit. That's becoming more and more well-documented. So Kobimane would be pure profit. Alejandro Garnaccia would be pure profit. Marcus Rashford would be pure profit. Now, don't get me wrong. Rashford is the one they would like to move. And Amarin, when you get him out, Amarin doesn't want to use him. He's on a huge wage. He's sort of priority number one to get rid of.

Not many clubs are finding the money to make that work. I spoke to somebody in Germany recently about how Borussia Dortmund really like him as a kind of different profile of winger to what they've got, but they can't get the money to work. They cannot get close to the wages, cannot really get close to the transfer fee. Garnaccio, he's another that doesn't really fit in the Amarant system in the 3-4-3, has not really been starting since he was dropped ahead of the Manchester derby.

Again, can you sell him? Could you sell him to Spain? Again, people are unsure whether they can stump up the money. Kobe Manu is probably the most valuable asset Manchester United have. And it's the one that Chelsea and Arsenal and all the top clubs would want. And so no, Man United don't want to sell him. But reluctantly, they realised that they need to sell somebody and nobody, including Manu, is unsellable.

And this, I mean, you put it very well there, Nathan, as I knew you would. And this essentially is Manchester United feeling the pinch after years of spending poorly on players, wasting money on players. If we didn't have PSR, Financial Fair Players, we used to call it, then Manchester United probably are one of the few clubs in the world who could continue to spend badly on players. Even they can't do it these days and they've done too much of it. And all that money that's flowed

out of Manchester United, as you say, Nathan, some of it has now got to flow back again. So we will see what happens there. Kobe Maynard, can he really leave Manchester United this January? Could he really leave Manchester United in the summer? What a blow that would be for a football club that prides itself on fielding an academy player

every single game they have done for years and years and years and finally it looks as though that may be under threat at some stage. Bicol Arteta didn't like the Puma ball that was used in the Cowboy Cup as Arsenal lost at home to Newcastle on

let me get my days right on Tuesday evening he said it floated differently it flew differently to the Nike one I think that is used in the Premier League while Mikel is another one in the FA Cup it's made by Mitre I mean it's all a load of old well do you know what Nathan I was going to say it's a load of old nonsense very brief story before we finish

I interviewed Kaspers Michael a couple of years ago and he told me how when Denmark played in the semi-final of the Euros against England at Wembley, UEFA changed the ball because a different ball is used for the last two rounds in the Euros, just like they are in the World Cup. He didn't get to practice with it.

And he said it really buggered him up. And that's a goalkeeper. He says it does make a difference. We've been laughing at Mikel Arteta, but that's from a horse's mouth. Kasper Speichel said it did make a difference. It does make a difference. You're laughing. I get that, but it's a load of...

both teams are playing with the same ball last time I checked. So surely, you know, if Newcastle lost, would Eddie Howard come out and blame the ball? I think it's a load of absolute nonsense. It's a bit daft that they keep changing the ball every competition. I can understand that. And I remember looking back, you know, the rhetoric around the World Cup with the Jabulani. It seemed like we talked more about the ball than the games back then. It was so strange. But,

come off it Mikel I mean that is I thought that was absolute nonsense his Arsenal team got beat by a better team just don't start talking about the flight of the ball and all that that was utterly ridiculous

Load of old balls, says Nathan Salt. And I think you are probably right. Nathan, thanks mate for being a wonderful stand in for Chris. See what we get with Chris is a bit of, you know, we get a bit of back and forth and we get a bit of banter and all the rest of it. But you know, we get you on, we get a bit of insight, we get a bit of knowledge, we get a bit of proper analysis. Maybe we need a little bit more of that conversation.

going forward. And yes, Chris Sutton, as you're sitting on the runway and you're delayed morning flight from Norwich to Dundee, I do hope you're listening. Nathan, thanks for being with me and everybody out there on this cold and frosty Thursday morning. Thanks to you too. Remember where you can find us on the socials, X, Instagram, TikTok.

Go to MailOnline for all your breaking sports news, your sports analysis. Do download the MailPlus app. There's premium content on there only available to subscribers. For example, my Graham Potter piece that Nathan kindly referred to earlier. And above all,

Make sure you're back on Monday. Enjoy the FA Cup weekend. Let us know where you're going, what you're hoping for, what you think of this lovely old competition and maybe some of your famous memories. And we'll read some of those out on Monday. We'll see you then.