Why Erik ten Hag Was The Premier League’s Worst Manager This Season
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Hello everybody and welcome to your It's All Kicking Off weekend preview show. It's Wednesday afternoon in Paris and I'm sitting in the world's strangest hotel room. Six multicoloured

ladies, dolls, let's call them dolls, six multicoloured dolls on the shelf above me, an old-fashioned telephone on the desk, a bedspread that looks like it's come straight from a fever dream, seven lamps by the bed and a stuffed frog on the headboard. Chris Sutton, that makes Norfolk seem relatively, relatively normal.

Is that in the red light area where you are? It's not in the red light area. It is right across the street from Gardenoor, the station that the Eurostar comes into. I'm here on Wednesday ahead of Aston Villa's Champions League game against PSG this evening. Apologies to Villa fans who may be tuning into this show expecting to hear us talk about

A famous victory or commiserate on a defeat, but we are having to record on Wednesday because my travel plans on Thursday preclude us from sitting down together at our normal time. So, fingers crossed for Villa tonight. There has been one big game already, Chris. I was at it Tuesday night at the Emirates. You said that Arsenal would beat Real Madrid.

I said that Declan Rice should be the Arsenal captain, but I don't think either was expected. A bloke who had never scored a free kick in more than 300 career games to suddenly turn into the love child of Roberto Carlos and David Beckham. What a performance by Declan Rice. What a performance by Arsenal.

Yeah, and we know that Real Madrid have had some comebacks in the past and are the comeback kings, aren't they? But I don't see it. Brilliant night at the Emirates. The atmosphere was raucous beforehand. And Declan Rice, what was it, how many free kicks has he taken before and not scored? And then he puts two in like that. I mean...

Unstoppable. What a moment for him. And then Mourinho scoring. He shouldn't have even been playing. Arsenal don't have a proper striker. What a finish from him as well. Unbelievable. You'd have been proud of that one. Little clipped finish with the left foot into the bottom corner. Especially, yeah, left footed, yeah. Yeah. There was a shot of Jude Bellingham after both goals, actually. For some reason, the camera panned straight to Hollywood Jude. And the look on his face...

was one of absolute astonishment. And I presume partly because he'll have spent an awful lot of time with Declan Rice at England training camps forever, for example, and probably never, ever seen him do anything like that. And he doesn't just do it once. He does it twice. I mean, some things in football you think you've seen before, but then you come across something like that and think, well, there's a new one.

Yeah, I mean, great moment. I mean, like you say, to do it once was pretty special with the occasion, you know, Real Madrid, the expectation for Real Madrid to go through. I think most people, you know,

think that Real Madrid may be favourites for the Champions League, but then to do it again the second time, just minutes later. I mean, what a special evening for us. Yeah, and you did call it. You said that Arsenal would beat them. So let's see if they can complete the job next week in Spain. Lots of intrigue in Europe. There's not so much intrigue in the Premier League. You know, we're not Sky Sports. Chris, we don't have to sugarcoat it and pretend that we are bracing ourselves for a

for an exciting end of the Premier League season or a tense end of the Premier League season because it doesn't look like we are. We know who are going down. It looks like we know who's going to win the Premier League. So let's just do today a couple of awards. Let's get a couple of awards in early. We'll do some at the end of the season, but we'll get a couple in early today. Let's do two. Manager of the season in the Premier League.

and dud of the season in the Premier League when it comes to managers. When it comes to managers. Dud, failure, call it what you want. The guy with the booby prize. But let's do the big golden rosette first. And let's say, I'm going to throw at you, obviously Arne Slott looks like he's going to win the Premier League in his first season as a manager in England. And Nuno Espirito Santo taking Nostrum Forest from my relegation tip to Stamford.

third in the Premier League and odds on to qualify for the Champions League. Unai Emery,

Villa doing well in the Premier League again. Still in the Champions League quarter-final. No matter what happened last night in PSG, they've got a set in Paris. We've got a second lead to come. Eddie Howe pushing for the Champions League again, having already won the Carabao Cup. Feel free to chuck any more in, but those are the four that I'm going to leave on your toes tonight.

Well, my manager of the season would be for my Nottingham Foresty and Nuno Espirito, Santo, and just purely, purely on the basis, people get really upset about these things. Arnaud Slott, you know, Liverpool are going to win the Premier League, great achievement. Eddie Howe, League Cup winner at Newcastle, amazing scenes.

300,000 Newcastle fans on the streets celebrating. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Unai Emery progressing Villa even further. Champions League and FA Cup semi-final still in that race for the Champions League spot. But in many ways, all these things, I know Eddie Howes was remarkable because the last time that Newcastle won a Carabao Cup was

But you could still see these things happening. Nobody, nobody could have seen Nottingham Forest up there in third place this season at this moment in time. You know, I think you had them down as a team who were going to be in a relegation battle. I thought they may just avoid relegation.

But, you know, FA Cup semi-final as well. What a job he has done. Nobody saw it coming. So he would be my manager of the season, Ian. Yeah, I should also, I should have mentioned the FA Cup semi-final as well. And I should also mention that Villa, you know, Amy's Villa are in the FA Cup semi-finals.

as well funny your newfound love of Nottingham Forest it's not going unnoticed by the way I was at Forest last week when they played Manchester United met up with an old friend of mine before the game and we were chatting about this that and the other and he just said to me he said oh by the way I've noticed recently that

Sutton started to be referring to himself as a Nottingham Forest supporter. How long has he supported Forest? And I said, well, about a month, if that's long enough. That's poor from you. I was born in Nottingham, brought up a little bit in East Leek. My wife's from Arnold. I'm a big Forest fan.

This season especially. It's funny how you've just become a more vociferous Nottingham Forest fan the higher up the table they've gone and the further they've got in the FA Cup. Okay, so you're going to go for Nuno as your manager of the season. Fair enough. I absolutely see it. It's a very, very strong case. I am going to go for Arne Slott.

Only because I think if you come to this country as he has to replace someone like Jurgen Klopp, I said at the time that I thought it was the biggest challenge for a Premier League manager since David Moyes replaced Alex Ferguson in 2008.

And I still stand by that. I really think it was. You could argue that maybe Emery replacing Wenger at Arsenal was similarly tough. I thought that Slott had it all on to finish in the top four. The fact that he looks as though he's going to win the Premier League and, by the way, finish top of that Champions League group stage before a twist of fate pitted Arsenal.

Liverpool against PSG in the next stage. I think that's also worthy of note as well. So I will go for Arne Slott, presuming that Liverpool aren't going to fall off the end of a cliff. So you go for Ejio, you go for Nuno, I go for Slott. Fair enough. And we are going to get some newsy topics in a minute, by the way. We're going to do a little bit of West Ham news.

There's also a spat developed, quite a developing story this one, a spat developed between the Man United goalkeeper Andre Anana and the Lyon midfielder Nemanja Matic.

before Lyon face United in the Europa League on Thursday night. We'll get to that. And we'll also do a little bit of EFL chat as well. But first of all, let's go back to our polls. So these are the runners and riders for the dud of the season in terms of Premier League managers. I wish I could think of a better word. Failure is an awful word as well. But you know what I'm getting at there. The wooden spoon. So on the start line here, we have two Leicester managers, I suppose. Steve Cooper.

before Christmas. No Steve Cooper in there. Ruud van... He's just on the list, Chris. Just on the list. Ruud van Oosterhooy, who took over from Cooper, won his first game, drew his second and subsequently lost 15 out of 16 in the league. Wilson Martin, who started off so dismally playing his champagne stroke suicide football at Southampton. One win and three draws from 17 in the league before he got the boot in

to be replaced by Ivan Juric, who's lost 14 with one win and has drawn Southampton already down. What about two Man United managers, Eric Ten Haag? Nine games in charge at the start of the season gave him wins over Fulham, Brentford and Southampton before he was on his way. Ruben Amrum has replaced him, seven wins from 22 for the Portuguese. United sitting in 13th place. And what about Ange-Poster Coghluh?

Spurs in 14th place after 16 defeats despite having scored 58 goals which is more than anyone in the Premier League apart from Liverpool Chris the floor is yours even though Spurs could win the Europa League I'm sorry to say I'm going to have to pick Eric Ten Hag are you? interesting yeah just look I mean you can look at Russell Martin but look at the situation which you know

He had to deal with going up. We know how difficult it is. We saw the three clubs who were promoted last season go down. A lot to deal with. Things didn't go right. Similar to Vincent Kompany in the way that he set Southampton up. And look how Vincent Kompany's ended up at Bayern Munich. But I think Eric Ten Hag, because he has had time to build at Manchester United, or he had time to build at Manchester United, he was in for a...

a couple of seasons, won the FA Cup and the expectation was for them to start really pushing on this season once again and he didn't do so. He spent an absolute fortune. This isn't on Ruben Amorim, Manchester United and their league position this season. And I'm not saying things have gone well for Amorim, but the foundation for Manchester United's demise is

was all set because of Eric Ten Haag. Fair argument. Surprised me a little bit, that one. Fair argument. If we were to dig deep into it, you could talk about Bostock-Clogley with Tottenham and similar lines, I suppose, given that he's had time to build that squad and they've gone backers. But that's your answer. Eric Ten Haag is your answer. That's fine. I found myself resting with this one on the Eurostar this morning from St Pancras, thinking about Tegelovic

Two managers, really. Ruud van Oosterooij. You've got to remember that Leicester were not in the bottom four when Steve Cooper was sacked earlier on in the season. And Leicester will go down. Obviously, some people have argued that they're actually a worse team now than Southampton are. 15 defeats from 16. The one victory in that run was a surprising one at Leicester.

Tottenham but I'm going to go for Russell Martin only because if you get a manager if you get a team promoted you get a team promoted then you set them up for the season and you set them up and you go through pre-season and you go through your tactical drills and you decide what you want to do and Russell Martin made a decision that

to play in a way with a group of players. And you've said to me before, Chris, but are the players good enough? Is it not the players? Well, it's up to him to know whether the players are good enough. And he chose to play a certain way

that to me was never going to work and set Southampton off on a trajectory from which they've been unable to recover. We can talk about his replacement, Diewicz, and where he came from and whether he had the credentials and whether he had the personality. You could absolutely talk about all of that, but I think that Russell Martin set the tone for what could yet be a record-breaking season for Southampton in terms of a record low number of points for a Premier League club they're currently on.

Can I just question you on something here? I'm afraid that Russell Martin is wearing the Dunces hat as far as I'm concerned. But yeah, go ahead. So did you expect Southampton to get relegated this season before a ball was kicked? Yeah. Where did you expect Manchester United to finish? Yeah, higher.

Yeah, yeah. Higher. But this isn't all on Russell Martin, though, is it, at Southampton? You know, it's on the club hierarchy. It's on the recruitment. You know, the recruitment was especially bad.

I think other than Ramsdale, I think you said the other day, they brought dozens of players in, literally dozens of players. And only Ramsdale is the one who you'd say, well, you know, he was an okay signing. And it was always going to be a struggle, you know, if your recruitment isn't on point, you know, bringing in championship players, Breriston Diaz, who, you know, is, you know,

You're never going to be guaranteed goals in that respect. So I think that in terms of his brand of football and style of play, I understand what you're saying and his stubbornness not to change. But the fact that he never had the players who were really capable of doing that, you know, had they under Juric, for example, they're being more direct or they've been more direct. What's happened?

They're still losing games. That was always going to be difficult. I haven't given Van Nistelrooy a pass. I've given Van Nistelrooy a bit of an excuse, given that from what I continue to hear and from what Tom Colamossiara...

Leicester, our Midlands correspondent tells me that it's such an unmanageable dressing room at the King Power that I'm not sure anybody could have got them in line. I do not agree with that. There's a strong argument to be made for Bostock-Clogg. I don't want to, I'm not trying to pull your tail deliberately here, Chris. There is a strong argument for Bostock-Clogg. Tottenham have been dreadful. And yeah, you mentioned the Europa League, fine, but we are talking about the Premier League.

And I watched Tottenham play at Chelsea recently and they're not even doing the good bits of Tottenham anymore. He's got his key players back and that was always his out. I felt, you know, when he's saying, well, you know, Romero's out, Van de Ven's out, Vicario out for long periods.

And he has had injury issues. Now they're back and they're losing. You know, I accept that. Would you sack him then at the end of the season? Oh, well, what I am told...

What I am told, and I'm not trying to dodge the question, I suppose I'll have to answer the question in a minute. What I'm told is that the, now that you ask me, is that the Europa League success or failure, Tottenham playing against Frankfurt on Thursday night, first leg of the quarterfinal. Winner of the Europa League, of course, qualifies to the Champions League. So United, Man United and Tottenham both have a strong interest in that for obvious reasons.

But I'm told by someone at Tottenham that no matter what happens in the Europa League, that will not be what makes Daniel Levy's mind up for him. So it won't be a Ten Hag situation like it was after the FA Cup when Ten Hag won the FA Cup out of nowhere against Manchester City. And all of a sudden, because they couldn't find a replacement and because there was a bit of a groundswell of support from supporters and because they got carried away by the glory of winning the FA Cup,

Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos decided to keep Jen Haag and they've subsequently admitted publicly that was a mistake. Don't think Tottenham are going to do that. Tottenham will make their decision on what's gone on over the whole of the season. I still think there's something in Ange Prostekoglu

I would give him another spin of the wheel. I would. I just think there is something there. And I've said before that Tottenham have started a policy. They're trying to stick to a new philosophy of younger players, players whose value will grow rather than buying oven-ready Premier League players. And I don't really want to see them rip it up if that's what they've decided to do.

So there is an argument to give Ange another spin of the wheel and give him until Christmas, but let's see. But let us know what you think, everybody. Anyway, who is your Premier League manager of the season and why? And who would you be handing the wooden spoon to with six or seven games of the campaign left? Chris has gone for Nuno and Ten Hag. I have gone for slot.

and Russell Martin you've gone so safe haven't you I mean the team who were top team who were bottom let us know stick your neck out

Stick your neck out at a time. Just be different. Which neck? Which neck do you want me to stick out? I've got, I've been looking at myself and this is, this laptop camera at the moment, I seem to have about four. But yeah, let us know what you think. You can find us on social, you know us to come on X, silly name and famous name. You can also leave comments at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever it is you get this show or indeed on Instagram at any of male sports social platforms.

We've had a few comments. I was just going to say, do you want to do the comments first? Because I've just thought about NEX. I've just thought about the importance of NEX and where you were going the other day is a good sort of link into that.

Your safari park adventure? Oh, the safari park. Yes, for anyone who was listening the other day, my other half, Vicky, and our daughter, Ether, were off to Knowlesley Safari Park for the day. Chris seemed to think that was quite amusing. I refused to let them take my car in case they drove it through the monkey enclosure. Well, the news was that apparently the lions were...

What's the most polite way of saying this? The lions were enjoying themselves. Is that an okay way to get across what I mean? Mummy and daddy lions were frisky. Yes, indeed, frisky, that's right. Bit of sunshine had brought out the best in a couple of them, should we say. Ethan was quite glued to that performance through the car window. And I was sent a photograph of a giant baboon sitting on the bonnet of

Vicky's mother's little car the message I have just said it's taken a couple of bolts off the back it's definitely taken something off the front and now it's having a go at the windscreen wiper there you go I think my safety first policy was probably justified but we do have some other comments here and we do know of course that we've been getting it in the neck a little bit Chris we're trying to be too funny well this is a message on a

on Apple from Flamborough Boy, who's, "'Take the comedy out of this podcast. It's like having coffee without the caffeine. It's pretty boring without a kick. The more of a laugh, the better, gents. The image of Chris's dog running around with his neighbour's arm in his mouth is a thought that I still can't get out of my mind.'" Chris Round on Spotify was taking me to task at the start of the week for getting some of my pronunciations wrong. Um,

And when we corrected those and had a good go at educating me on Tarkovsky and Gundogan, Chris has come back to say, apology accepted in, keep up the good work. More seriously, we talked a little bit about Phil Foden, didn't we, Chris, and whether he should go to the Club World Cup this summer. I suggested that he's been

pretty much flogged into the ground by club and country over the last 12 months and maybe wants a rest. Down Under Wolf says on Spotify, did Gareth Southgate contribute to the frozen situation? Trying to squeeze him into the England team in the Euros and not playing him in his natural position must have had a negative impact. We also discussed, Chris, didn't we, the fact that

uh liam de lapp had emerged as manchester's number one transfer target in the summer ipswich striker of course stephen douglas on spotify de lapp has great potential but he should stay stay well clear of old trafford as there will be immense pressure on him he would be much better going to forest or brighton for a few years

for the sake of his career. That's interesting. Yeah, Hitch's death was says... That's an interesting perspective, isn't it, though? Yeah, absolutely. There is an argument to suggest that another stage of development wouldn't do de lappe.

any harm, but equally, you know what it's like. Chris, short career, injuries, lack of form. You only get the option. Sometimes you only get the option to make a big move once, don't you? And maybe you should take it. And finally, Hitesh Jethwa on Spotify. Great show as always. Can't believe you didn't mention Dennis Bergkamp in your discussion about the best ever foreign players in the Premier League.

surprising, amusing and shocking, shocking in Capitals. There you go. Let us know what you think on some of those topics. And on Monday, we may well be reading out your question, your opinion. Just on the Dennis Bergkamp one though, that was, we were talking about attacking midfielders. Would you say Bergkamp was an attacking midfielder? I'd say he was, I'd say he was more of a withdrawn forward. Is that, is,

Is that a debate to be had? You're a pedant, Chris. That's what you are. You're a pedant. Yeah. If you don't know what it means, look it up. Liverpool, home to West Ham on Sunday, just lost at Fulham, of course. No great amount of pressure being applied on them by Arsenal. They...

could only draw Everton at the weekend, Arsenal at home to Brentford on Saturday, but of course they will have Madrid on their minds for sure, second leg of the Champions League next week. Liverpool at home to West Ham on Sunday, I'm going to that one. I think they're good opponents for Liverpool,

Chris, let's talk for a second about Graham Potter's West Ham. There hasn't been much of a bounce since he replaced Julian Lopetegui in East London, has there? Lopetegui. Lopetegui. Sorry, Chris Round. Lopetegui. Sorry, Chris Round. No...

But they actually, you know, he came in in early January when they made the change, West Ham, and they haven't, you know, they didn't make a lot of changes in terms of playing personnel in January. And that surprised me. No.

I always felt, it's easy being wise after the event, Ian, and I often am, but I always felt, probably the same as you, Lopetegui was never going to tick the sort of playing attractive, an attractive brand of football box. He was never going to tick that. So that was such a strange appointment. And Graham Potter, what has he done? He's inherited the same squad and the results are pretty much

The same. So for West Ham, Tim, Tim Stuyton, the director of football, I think, did he bring Potter in? He certainly brought Lopetegui in, but he's, yeah, he's, yeah, Tim Stuyton's gone now. Um,

but it's all about what happens in the summer and I think recruitment is a big deal. You've got to say, I think, Mikel Antonio of Centreford who they've relied on for season after season after season had that horrendous car crash, didn't he? That hasn't helped West Ham. Nicholas Fulcrook

a guy who I predicted would take the Premier League by storm. I think he started three Premier League games, scored a brilliant header at the weekend, actually, but he hasn't done what we thought he would do. And it's been a really frustrating season for West Ham supporters. I think we all understand that, but it's more about...

what happens, as I say, in terms of recruitment. Graham Potter hasn't done any worse than Lopetegui, but in many respects, if he wasn't given the opportunity, I think they brought Evan Ferguson in, a player who hit no world from Brighton. If he wasn't given the opportunity to really make wholesale changes in terms of recruitment, then what did we expect? I'm a fan of Graham Potter, as you know, as a coach and as a person.

I did think it was a strange choice by him when he went to West Ham, simply because I knew how high the level of expectation would be. And I knew, or I suspected how short expectations

or that patients would be in short supply. It tends to be the way it works sometimes at West Ham. I also know that the one thing they really want at West Ham and the one thing they used to throw at David Moyes was that they want a level of excitement and they want a level of cut and thrust

And they want to be on the edge of the seats. You could say, well, all football fans want that. Maybe they do, to a degree. But I think particularly so at West Ham. They want excitement. They want front foot football. They see other clubs in London playing front foot football. Even ones they laugh at, like Tottenham, play front foot football. They want a bit of the same. Now, Graham, Graham Potter, Graham Potter's Brighton were an attractive team to watch, obviously.

He did a great job there. He's a clever coach. He's a very intuitive coach. He's good with players. But the one thing that Brighton didn't do loads of under Graham Potter was score goals. They didn't score loads of goals under Graham. They were progressive in many ways, but they weren't free scoring. And I just watched them. I watched only the highlights, admittedly, the highlights of West Ham against Bournemouth at the weekend, two-all draw.

at West Ham and I thought Bournemouth was a better team it just felt boring Chris it felt boring and it felt flat and the crowd felt flat and I just thought oh blimey you know if this is the way it's going to be under Graham they will not give him he will not get that time he won't and that just made me you know get

Give it like you just alluded to. Give him a summer, summer on the training field, few players that he wants, things can change. Of course they can. All I'm saying is at the moment, if it's going to be a evolution or if it's going to be progress for Potter at West Ham, it is going to be evolution rather than revolution. It's going to be steady and he'll need to be given that time. At the moment, it does feel a bit flat.

Yeah, I think in terms of, I'm not a West Ham fan, we both know a few West Ham fans, but Graham Potter seems to be a better fit than Lopetegui was. Just on your thing about expectation at West Ham, would you say the expectation at West Ham is greater than at Everton? I know why you're asking me this. Yeah.

Are you going to start reversing? No, I'm not going to start reversing. No, no, no, I'm not. You said on the pod earlier this season, you thought Graham Potter should have been given the evidence. You know what? I think there probably is a bit more patience at Everton, actually. I think there would be. I think there would be a bit more patience at Everton. I do, actually.

as long as they saw because what they didn't like about Dice again was the football I think if Everton if they saw the seeds of something and a pattern then they probably would be actually I think they probably would be but I know why you've asked me that because I suggested that Potter would have been a better long-term appointment at Everton than David Moyes so I know why you're asking that anyway there you go Liverpool at home to West Ham at the weekend Wormed away out of that pretty well

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Now, there has been a bit of, there's been a bit of spice in the air ahead of Manchester United versus, sorry, Lyon versus Manchester United in the Europa League Thursday evening. Let's just go through it chronologically and succinctly as possible. Andre Inanna, the Manchester United goalkeeper, was asked at the weekend about the game. He suggested that he thought that United should be confident because we are the better team, we are the better club. It's

It's pretty innocuous to me. Anyway, those comments have been dropped on the toes of former Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Jat. Oh my God.

Chris Round is all over you, isn't he? He's in your head, Chris Round. I can't say Nemanja. Nemanja Matic. Nemanja Matic. Nemanja Matic. Nemanja Matic. Nemanja Matic. Former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder, currently playing for Lyon, was the player who was put up the official press comments before the game on Wednesday and Inanna's comments were put to him. This is what he said.

You know, to say that you need to have cover for something like that. Onana. You know, I respect everyone, but to say that then you need to get the answer.

If you are one of the worst goalkeepers in Man United history, you need to take care of what you are talking about. If David De Gea or Peter Schmeichel or Wanda Saar say that, then I will question myself. But if you are one of the statistically worst goalkeepers in Man United modern history, then he needs to show that before he says. So we will see.

One of the worst goalkeepers in Manchester United's history. Well, Nemanja obviously never saw Massimo Taibbi play. Yeah. Or maybe even...

What was he called? Mark Bosnich, maybe. Anyway... Oh, come on. Anyway, shots fired. Shots fired by Nemanja Matic. Anyway, we thought that was a decent enough story. And just before we started the podcast, you actually alerted me, Chris, to the fact that Anana has gone straight onto his ex-account

And return fire. And this is what Anana says. I would never be disrespectful to another club. We know tomorrow will be a difficult game against a strong opponent. We focus on preparing a performance to make our fans proud. But here's the kick. At least I've lifted trophies with the greatest club in the world. Some can't say the same. I mean, why? There you go. Why? Why? Why? I mean, it's pretty...

It's brilliant, isn't it? I mean, it is brilliant. It's box office, it's theatre. I don't know why Anana, he may have said it innocently that they were the better team before. The one thing, if I was a Manchester United player, I wouldn't be spouting off in any way, shape or form that they were a better team going into virtually any game that would be...

With the way the standards had dropped at Old Trafford, but then it turned into a spat and Matic came back at him and was strong. And then the pettiness from Inanna at the end, though, I think we all love that, don't we? I'm looking forward to the, what do they call it, the fair play handshake at the start of the game. I'm looking forward to that one. What would you do? What would you do if you're Inanna? Would you high five? Would you...

You've got to do it. You've got to give the straight handshake and look him straight in the eye and crack on, I think. And, you know, wait for the elbow and the ribs. It'll probably appear at the first Leon corner, I would imagine, and take it from there. But, yeah, interesting. I'm not sure that the Manchester United's media team will be that delighted with the way that that one

that one got away from them a little bit, but it can happen very, very quickly. Off the top of your head, did you ever get into any kind of pre-match slanging with opposition players in your time or would you? It's best just to keep your mouth shut, isn't it? Yeah, but did you? Not really, but I can give you a quick example of some really daft comments from Graeme Souness.

men against boys game at Celtic Park when we beat them 1-0 Blackburn in the UEFA Cup 2003 that would have been but Blackburn were the better team they had a good team two guys playing in midfield York and Cole up front they played us off the park in terms of their performance we still beat them 1-0 and then after the game Graeme Souness said it was men against boys

before the second leg this was. It was only half time if you get madrift. Really stupid thing to say. We went down to Blackburn and absolutely pummeled them. So a bit of egg on face. 2-0. I'm sure Graeme just took it on the chin afterwards like he would do, sugar the shoulders, I'm sure. I think so. I'm sure he's very relaxed about it. I doubt he thinks about it now. But no, why set yourself up like that? Why? Why?

Yeah, I mean, look, I actually think Inanna's original comments were pretty vanilla. Not quite sure why Matic's has gone for him like that. And to see Inanna reach for his mobile phone and give it both barrels... That's the old peeing fight, isn't it? That one, the old, we're the better team. No, we're better. No, we're better than you. We're better. Just wait till after. In this day of anodyne quotes and everybody being micromanaged in terms of what they say and do, that was a bit old school from those two.

And Warsaw did have at one point a 12-point lead at the top of League Two. They have subsequently won two games out of 16 and none of the last nine in the league. And a home defeat to Port Vale at the weekend saw them bumped off the top of the league. And they are now in the third automatic place.

behind Port Vale and Bradford ahead of their game at Barrow. What a collapse that has been. I'm not sure I can remember anything quite like that. It's not over yet. Walsall have got time to turn it around, but imagine if they miss out. Yeah, I mean, from the position...

12-point lead at the top. Yeah, and you can imagine with every loss, the confidence of the players just being sapped. It would be great to see them hang on in there and get automatic wins.

And they've got to somehow believe that they can do that. But I suppose, you know, everybody talking about the boring Premier League, that's the big debate now, isn't it? It's been really boring for Nottingham Forest fans and Brighton and Bournemouth and Fulham fans, isn't it?

Yeah, a bit of a bumper. There's been a bit of a bumper. Really boring for them because the Manchester clubs aren't doing well. We have to say it's a boring season. That's exactly what we said on Monday, wasn't it, Chris? I think there were plenty of teams in the Premier League who were pushing up against that glass ceiling. Some of them have burst through that glass ceiling spectacularly, giving us lots to enjoy and lots to love. It's been interesting also at the bottom of League Two, we talked about Mark Hughes going into Carlisle to try and give them a bit of an uplift and he

has managed to do it. But, but, unfortunately for him, Tranmere have all of a sudden hit the gas. So Carlisle have won a few, Tranmere keep winning, Carlisle do still look doomed. But there is intrigue and interest here.

everywhere you look and that's where we like it right Chris I think we're kind of done I've got to get on the metro and get across to the Parc des Princes for the Villa PSG game fingers crossed for Una Emery and his players not sure what you're watching mate I hope you're enjoying some fine weather in Norfolk getting the horses out getting the getting the horses out yeah a bit of bowling in the garden today

Crown Green? I'm getting there for that. I'm not far. One and a half years. You've not been giving Sophia some chin music again, have you? Yeah. Have you? Yeah. Love cricket. Chin height. Love cricket.

Love cricket, Ian. Oh, I love it. I'd bowl you a few bouncers. Are you going to play this summer? You wouldn't have to bowl them to bounce them over my head. If I get time, I'd like a game. Yeah, love my cricket. For those who don't know, as well as being a...

our star pundit and a Premier League winner and a Golden Boot winner and all the rest of it. Chris is actually a very, very handy cricketer and you do play quite a bit of overage cricket in Norfolk, don't you? Just wonder if you're going to go around the circuit again this summer. Overage cricket?

Really big me up there. Overage cricket. You've been a bit reluctant to commit. Have you not decided yet? No, I will play if I've got time, but I'd rather watch my daughter Sophia play than play myself. Well, cricket season has begun, but the football season still has some time to run. So let's stick on topic for now. Thanks for being with us, everybody. Remember, where to find us if you want to get involved in the debate. We do like

our community. We've covered some ground today. We've talked about Premier League winners and losers in terms of managers. Let us know what you think about that and who's right and who's wrong in the Matic-Anana debate. Manchester United against Lyon, of course. Should United be going on their post-season tour or do their players need a rest?

Graeme Potter is either man for West Ham or not. Have you got any Walsall fans listening? Are you going to do it? Can you hang on? Can you U-turn and get some forward thrust going again and get yourself out of League 2 and into League 1? Let us know. Find us on the socials. Go to Spotify, Apple, wherever it is you get this podcast. Hit the follow button. Leave us a review and tell a friend. Apart from that, make sure you're back on Monday. We'll see you then.

Hello, it's Ian here from It's All Kicking Off. I hope you're enjoying listening to the show. We really enjoy making it and would love to make it even better for you. So we're running a short survey to find out more about you, our listeners, so that we can continue to bring you episodes that will make you complain in the comments about our questionable opinions. It only takes two minutes and would be so valuable to Chris and I. The link is in the show notes. Thanks and back to the episode.