The international break is done and dusted, which means Graham and Joe are - genuinely - looking forward to Rotherham on Friday night. No, really.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Inside Elland Road podcast with myself, Joe Donoghue and YEP
00:08 Chief Football Writer, Graham Smith. The international break is done and dusted for four whole months.
00:14 Football fans across the nation rejoicing at that. That does mean though that Graham
00:18 and I will be spending our Friday night in Rotherham, however, possibly in sub-zero temperatures,
00:23 which could mean a first appearance of the season for the fingerless gloves. Daniel Farker
00:27 spoke to us yesterday, Wednesday the 22nd of November. There were no mentions of tables
00:32 being danced on, but there was a recurrence of one of my favourite Farkisms. Can you guess
00:36 which one it is, Graham?
00:41 Not quite my topic.
00:42 No, no, that's a classic.
00:44 He brought that up for the Everton Points deduction, didn't he? What classic Farkisms
00:51 were there yesterday?
00:52 Do you want a hint?
00:55 Yes.
00:56 It was when he was describing Rotherham's style.
00:59 Oh, parking the bus?
01:01 No, no, no, no. And that's not explicitly a Farkism. That's just in the footballing
01:05 vernacular, isn't it?
01:06 Yeah. What do we say about Rotherham's style?
01:12 I think it's a very polite way of saying that they can be a bit rudimentary at times. He
01:18 has used it once before.
01:19 Go on.
01:20 It's the, they play, they fight and they play with the knife between their teeth.
01:24 Yes, that is. That is excellent.
01:28 It's very Rambo-esque, isn't it?
01:30 Like a pirate swinging from a pirate ship. Yeah, that is a good Farkism, actually. Note
01:37 that one down.
01:39 It does conjure great imagery, doesn't it? Well, I mean, I immediately went with Rambo
01:44 swinging from vine to vine through, I don't know, a Southeast Asian jungle. You went with
01:48 a pirate climbing the rigging, presumably. But yeah, what did Daniel Farka have to say
01:54 yesterday injury-wise and on, you know, what sort of mood was he in?
01:58 He was in a good mood. He always walks in and says, yes, as he walks in and then, you
02:08 know, he'll give a little greeting and say, welcome back. When the cameras are off, he's
02:12 really cordial, like really, really polite and personable. And then, you know, he's all
02:21 business. What did he say then? So he said five players are back in training, team training.
02:28 So the numbers have been boosted considerably. Jed Spence back in team training, Sam Byram
02:36 back in team training, Pascal Stroik back in team training, Jimmy Shackleton back in
02:41 team training and Joe Gellhart also back in team training.
02:45 Now, Byram and Stroik are only just back. They had their first session yesterday, I
02:50 think. Byram had that hamstring problem sustained in the Plymouth game. Stroik, of course, had
02:56 an operation on his hernia, on a hernia. You know, I never know the correct way to discuss
03:04 a hernia. I remember in the last press conference before the break, Popey asked him, was it
03:11 a double hernia? And I remember thinking, how do you know, Popey, that there's such
03:16 a thing as a double hernia? I know that a hernia is a thing where something like pops
03:21 out of a hole that it's not meant to pop out of and it's very painful. But I don't know
03:25 what a double hernia is. And then I'm pretty sure Farquhar said that he'd had both hernias
03:31 operated on. So that threw me completely. But regardless, Pascal's hernia or hernias
03:40 are fixed by a surgeon and he has come back sooner than expected to team training. I think
03:49 it might be a bit too soon for either of them for Friday night's game. If you had one team
03:53 training session on Wednesday, I don't know. I just feel like, why would you risk either
03:59 of them? They're both very important. You've got, you're not desperate. You've got Junior
04:03 Firpo who can play left back. You've got Liam Cooper who can play centre back. I wouldn't
04:07 risk them personally. And then Gellhart, probably looking at a squad place at best for him because
04:16 he's not getting into the starting line-up I think any time soon, unless we're about
04:19 to be surprised. And Jed Spence, I could see him being drip fed back in. I don't think
04:25 they're going to chuck him in from the start because he's played so little football this
04:29 season. Ten minutes against Wednesday is about the height of it, isn't it? All season. And
04:34 then Jamie Sackleton could play right back, but I think Gray will probably stick there.
04:42 Yeah, just on Spence, I mean, he pretty much hasn't played any football since April. I
04:47 mean, apart from that ten minutes against Wednesday, he was on loan at Rennes last season
04:52 during the second half of the campaign, got injured at the start of April and then didn't
04:56 play until the rest of the season. Farka has already said, I think he mentioned it again
05:01 yesterday that the pre-season or the lack of a pre-season that Spence had meant that
05:08 he was playing catch-up anyway. So then this two months out or eight weeks, however you
05:13 want to call it, won't have been helpful in terms of getting him match fit. Obviously,
05:18 he's still a very young player, still 23. So, you know, he's going to get back to that
05:23 match fitness and match readiness a lot sharper than if he were 33, for example, or 43 like
05:30 yourself, Graham.
05:32 Not quite, not quite.
05:35 And yeah, I mean, he will take some time to get back up to sort of the fitness level that
05:41 Farka will want before he starts him. But again, like yourself, I can see him being
05:47 in the matchday squad and maybe getting a ten minutes here or there, maybe in that second
05:55 tranche of substitutes that Farka likes to make or even just in stoppage time like he's
06:00 been doing with Luke Aylin in recent weeks. So I think it's possible that we could see
06:04 Spence against Rotherham in some capacity very late on, but I think it would be unwise
06:10 to throw him straight back in because if he pulls up after five minutes with a recurrence,
06:14 like that's, you know, it's just not very good, is it?
06:18 No, it would be negligent, wouldn't it? Everyone's itching to see him as well because that ten
06:24 minutes against Wembley really whetted the appetite because he looked really dynamic,
06:30 like really good going both ways. And it almost feels like the final piece of the puzzle,
06:37 doesn't it? You know, getting him in because we haven't seen it. We haven't seen what it
06:42 looks like with him and we haven't seen how he's going to play the right back role and
06:46 if he's going to play it in such a way that means that right back is more effective than
06:51 it has been.
06:52 Archie Gray, I think, has done a really good job there, but Jed Spence is a right back.
06:58 And then, you know, once Spence is back in fit and if he gets into the starting line-up
07:02 and makes that position his own, then you've got a real fight between Kamara and Gray,
07:06 haven't you?
07:07 Yeah, and at the moment there's not a great deal separating them. I know that Gray has
07:12 played more there alongside Ampadu, but Kamara has come in in recent weeks when Gray has
07:17 been playing at right back and has definitely shown why he was worth £5 million and also
07:23 why he's proven to be a quite useful signing for Leeds. I mean, putting all sort of personal
07:31 bias aside, I really struggle to pick between those two. So it's a good job that I'm not
07:36 Daniel Farke and I'm not the manager because that would be, yeah, I think that's a very
07:42 difficult decision to make because, I mean, Gray has his strengths, but then Kamara is
07:48 a slightly different player anyway. So I suppose it depends on the opponent, depends on what
07:53 sort of game Farke wants to play, whether he wants to, I mean, he always wants to be
07:57 the protagonist, but sometimes you need to be a bit more pragmatic. Yeah, it's a nice
08:05 problem to have.
08:07 Yeah, it definitely is. And as we've seen this season, you don't go too long in the
08:14 Championship with selection headaches because injuries and availability issues crop up all
08:20 the time and they have done this season. So look at Byron and Firpo. You know, Firpo has
08:25 just got back fit and Byron picks up a little niggle and it dovetails quite nicely. When
08:31 Gray needed to step out and play right back, Kamara was there, having got himself fit and
08:36 could come out and play centre mid. We haven't had too many games where it would have been
08:44 a fully fit Kamara versus a fully fit Gray. We haven't really had that yet. The only real
08:50 conundrum I suppose would have been, and was one that we didn't see coming, was James or
08:55 Nyanto. I think everyone would have picked Nyanto over James. It's been the other way
08:59 round. Football has kind of made us look a bit silly on that front because James is adding
09:04 so much end product. This is the reason why you have a squad, because the season is so
09:09 long and it's so intense. I don't think there will be too many star players kicking their
09:17 heels for too long just because the games come thick and fast. The Christmas period
09:23 is always really busy and hectic and you will need to rotate Gray out. If it's Gray that
09:28 gets the nod, he won't be able to play each and every game. He's still only 17. I think
09:35 the real talking point when it came to fitness from the press conference was Jorginho Routier
09:42 and this abdominal injury that he's picked up. This is the thing, isn't it? Everyone
09:47 kind of, well maybe not everyone, but a lot of people were celebrating the news that he
09:51 got back into the France under-21 squad, linking up with Thierry Henry. All very exciting,
09:56 all very good, wholesome news. Deserved as well because of the way he's played this season.
10:01 But this is the flip side of it. You let your players go, well you don't really have a choice,
10:06 but they go to international duty and they might come back with a problem. He has. Second
10:10 time this season he's had an abdominal problem as well. He came out of the Hearts game in
10:15 pre-season with one. That certainly throws up a situation for Farker to deal with. One
10:24 that I think the likeliest solution is Bamford, isn't it? Because if Piro can't play nine
10:32 or if Piro doesn't play nine because the nine needs to lead the press and Piro's not really
10:37 that player, Bamford is kind of a press-leading player, isn't he?
10:42 Yeah, I think you're right there. I think not tinkering with it too much. Essentially
10:47 just plug and play with Bamford for Jorginho probably works best. Bamford can hold it up
10:53 similar to what Jorginho's done this season. Yes, he's not the same type of player, but
10:57 he does know where the goal is and he could do with a goal. Rotherham in the bottom three
11:03 probably a good opportunity for him. It's not like he's coming in against a Leicester
11:06 or an Ipswich, for example. But yeah, I think that is the most logical solution. And you're
11:12 mentioning about Jorginho's injury and abdominal strain. I suppose that's what you get for
11:16 having abs, isn't it? That's just an occupational hazard.
11:20 This is why I've always tried not to have them because if you don't have them, then
11:26 they can't get injured. I haven't missed a game for months now. I've been a weekend,
11:36 week-out player every Monday night and I haven't had to miss any time through abdominal injuries.
11:42 In fact, I tend to find that the less muscle definition you have, the fewer injuries you'll
11:48 pick up.
11:49 I think that's a very smart way of looking at things. I think the physios and the sports
11:55 science and medical staff would probably completely agree with you. You were mentioning there
12:02 that Jorginho has been away with France under-21s on international duty. And obviously all the
12:07 questions beforehand were, can Thierry Henry improve him in the space of 10 days? And Farka
12:14 answered all of those questions with a great deal of scepticism. And then they went and
12:19 lost to Austria and then lost 3-0 to South Korea with a very, very strong team.
12:26 So I don't think coaching is actually for Thierry Henry, if I'm being perfectly honest.
12:31 He's not had a great record of it so far. I do like his punditry though. So maybe there's
12:36 some advice for him. But yeah, Jorginho, I think he came off the bench against Austria,
12:42 didn't really have a great impact. And then I don't think he played at all against South
12:46 Korea. So yeah, what's the point? Do away with the international break, then it'll be
12:51 fewer ab strains.
12:53 Yeah, I would ordinarily agree with you and say, let's just do away with international
12:58 football altogether because it's just been a constant source of sadness for most of my
13:03 life that I can remember. But then we did go and beat Denmark 2-0 and it sucked me right
13:08 back in. And suddenly I'm thinking, these young players, maybe we can build a team.
13:12 And it is interesting how many Leeds fans, if given the choice, would probably press
13:19 a button to destroy international football in an instant. If they had a blow up FIFA
13:24 button, how many would press it? Because I do think there is a bit of a disconnect. With
13:32 certain clubs, certainly with Northern clubs that perhaps haven't been as represented in
13:37 the England team in recent times, you just wonder how much of a connection there is with
13:44 the Three Lions and with South Korea's team. And international breaks like this one don't
13:48 do a great deal to mend that broken relationship because there wasn't a great deal to watch
13:54 or to get joy from. I kept thinking during this international break, can you imagine
14:02 for a second how much fun it would be to watch England if the FA gave the job to Marcelo
14:07 Bielsa?
14:08 Yeah, that would be incredibly fun. I'm sure what all Uruguay fans are experiencing right
14:15 now.
14:16 Exactly. I mean, you look at the impact he had with Chile, where he's still fettered
14:22 as a national hero. Argentina as well. In terms of his experience, you don't get many
14:30 managers with that kind of experience, which he's now building on with Uruguay and doing
14:34 really, really well. He also knows the English game because he worked here for four years
14:39 and he plays football that the entire nation, or most of it, would happily get behind. Of
14:48 course there's a question over would the players take to it and the big names and all of that,
14:53 who cares? But with the wealth of attacking talent that England have and some of the elite
15:00 athletes they have at their disposal, just think what he could actually conjure up. Games
15:05 against North Macedonia or Malta even wouldn't be the snooze fest that they've been in recent
15:12 weeks. I can say all this because England results don't matter a jot to me, so I'd
15:17 be quite happy to roll the dice with the England team and go for a wild experiment. But I think
15:23 it would suck a lot of people back into international football if the FA actually went and did something
15:28 a bit left field and a bit brave.
15:31 Well I think doing something a bit left field and brave is what the Denmark team did before
15:35 going over to Belfast. I don't know if you saw this over the international break, but
15:40 you're saying, "Well, we won 2-0, they've got me right back on the horse, I'm sucked
15:45 in again." The Denmark team were on the lash. They had been out in Copenhagen celebrating
15:52 qualifying for the Euros and that is probably why they weren't at their best when they
15:58 came to play Northern Ireland in what was a dead rubber, unfortunately.
16:02 There is no excuse for not winning a game just because you're drunk. I have watched
16:10 Ben White with hangover play Darby Contee off the park, so I'm no longer willing to
16:19 accept hangovers as a reasonable excuse for a poor performance. And I will have nothing
16:25 taken away from Michael O'Neill's Young Heroes.
16:28 That reminds me actually, I can't remember, it was a couple of years ago now, I think
16:33 it was Real Betis, and it was just after they'd either won something, it might have been the
16:37 Copa del Rey or it might have been Joaquin, do you remember Joaquin, the Spanish, he was
16:46 at the 2002 World Cup and I think until last year he was still playing, the winger. I think
16:53 when Betis in 2021 came to Loughborough to play Leeds in a pre-season friendly, it might
17:00 have been Leeds, I might be equating this with something completely different, but they
17:04 arrived and the Real Betis press release listed Joaquin as being out of that game or a game
17:14 with Restaca, so I quickly fired up Google Translate, typed in Restaca and that meant
17:18 hangover, which I was quite pleased with. I thought that was quite good, good humour
17:26 from the Spanish, not known for their humour. And just on your Ben White point, yeah that's
17:33 right, Ben White could play with a hangover, couldn't Rasmus Christensen?
17:39 Well that's the question to be asked isn't it? I didn't get to watch the North Ireland
17:43 game because it fell during my own game, but when I saw the goals I always look out to
17:50 see where he is and the second goal he was kind of trailing behind the play, he wasn't
17:55 at fault but he certainly wasn't contributing. Yes, what to do with Rasmus Christensen and
18:02 players of that ilk, that is a problem that is going to roll around before too long, something
18:08 that Nick Hammond might want to turn his hand to now that we've had it confirmed that he'll
18:14 still be at Leeds until at least the end of the next summer transfer window. It seems to
18:20 have gone down well with Leeds fans and everyone seems to be thinking this seems sensible because
18:25 he did a good job last summer, but of course we don't really know what he did last summer.
18:32 We don't really know what anyone did last summer, we don't know who made the big calls,
18:35 we don't know who came up with the initial suggestions for players and who made deals
18:41 happen and got things over the line because Leeds have been doing their business very
18:46 much behind closed doors since the 49ers came in.
18:49 Yes, I'm going to speculate here and say that there was quite a British theme to the transfer
18:59 business that Leeds did this summer. You look at Rodon, Ampadu, Glenn Kamara coming in from
19:05 Rangers, Karl Darlow coming in from Newcastle who Nick Hammond was previously a transfers
19:11 consultant for. You then look at Nick Hammond's background, he's been a sporting director,
19:17 technical director, a transfers consultant, advisor, whatever you want to call it for
19:22 the past 20 years at Reading, West Brom, Celtic, Newcastle, I'm forgetting probably another
19:30 one as well. He will have a really, really, really thick contact book. He'll know all
19:36 the agents, he'll know all the relevant people at various clubs to get in contact with and
19:41 ask is this player available, how much are you thinking of selling this player for, is
19:47 this one available on loan, we're looking to sign him, we're looking to add in this
19:51 position. I speculate that that's what sort of role Nick Hammond was doing. You also said
19:58 to me yesterday, didn't you, that he probably deals with the contracts as well. Again, purely
20:03 speculating, but when you look at the make-up of the Leeds hierarchy, it kind of just fits.
20:11 Yeah, I would probably see him as a deals kind of man as well, the person getting on
20:17 the phone and saying what can we do to make this a reality. Would you like a Tyler Roberts
20:27 perhaps, that kind of thing. I know it's very early days and we can only really judge the
20:35 recruitment on how it works out, not only this season but down the line. What you do
20:42 in a situation like this is you recruit a team that can get you up, but also I suppose
20:47 you recruit a team and players who you're not just going to jettison upon promotion
20:53 because you like to think that those players might be able to cope in the Premier League
20:57 as well. Ampadu I think is probably one of those that you'd say would have a real crack
21:03 at being a Premier League player. We'll be able to judge that work then, but we can already
21:09 say that they got it pretty right, didn't they? Amid all the mess and the shenanigans
21:16 that was going on, they managed to get enough decent signers over the line to put a team
21:21 on the pitch that will contend for promotion this season. Leeds are not going to suddenly
21:26 drop off and find themselves 10th. I just don't see that happening. The recruitment
21:30 work and of course Farke had such a definitive say in who actually came and arrived, it all
21:38 looked quite good and quite sensible. When you can make sense of a sign-in quite quickly
21:47 is a good thing, but of course you need to be able to make sense of that sign-in come
21:50 the end of the season. I think the problem we had last season was that sign-ins that
21:53 might have looked like they made sense initially, positions where Leeds needed strength in,
22:00 midfielders came in by the barrel load, by the end of the season it didn't look quite
22:04 so clever anymore. As long as Ampadu's form holds, and I see very few reasons why it wouldn't,
22:12 as long as Rodon stays consistent, as long as Kamara keeps doing his bit, as long as
22:16 Pirro keeps sticking the ball in the back of the net, then I think we'll be able to
22:21 say that last summer they got it right. Then it'll be really interesting to see what they
22:26 do in January because we're not expecting a great deal, but we think they might be active
22:30 in the loan market just to get that little bit extra of a kick. That's quite exciting
22:37 because the team is already doing well, they're already playing good football and I think
22:43 they're already quite a credible promotion outfit. We've seen quite a few teams already
22:48 this season and we've seen Leicester and we've seen Ipswich, Leeds have beaten them both.
22:56 Southampton of course was a bit of a blip and there have been blips here and there,
22:59 but by and large they've done well. So the prospect of adding further strength to that
23:05 team I think is quite an exciting prospect. You're adding from a position of strength
23:12 rather than from a position of desperation, unless of course it's going to be the world's
23:17 most horrendous luck with injuries between now and January 1st. They will be adding and
23:23 they'll be in a good place, they'll be in a good shape as Daniel Farker would say.
23:28 I'll tell you a midfielder they won't be adding on loan in January again, Western McKennie.
23:35 He's been speaking to Sky in Italy this week about, very briefly I might say, about his
23:41 time at Leeds. He said he felt that he didn't play to the best of his ability. I mean if
23:48 that was the best of his ability then I'd be concerned how he became a professional
23:51 footballer. He said he felt as though he let certain people down. I think conspicuous in
24:00 his absence of saying he didn't feel as though he let the fans down, that would have been
24:03 a very easy one to say but chose not to.
24:06 I don't know if this was just a throwaway, I mean was this interview done, because it
24:13 was such a very brief line from him on Leeds, was this like a post-game interview?
24:19 No no, it was a city down, proper, Sky, yeah, it's Sky, it's Leeds. You imagine that they
24:26 would have been briefed on the questions.
24:30 Even if you've not been briefed you've got to know that Leeds is going to come up as
24:33 a potential topic. Letting certain people down is interesting. I would have liked him
24:41 to elaborate on that. Maybe he's talking about Jesse Marsh, maybe he's talking about the
24:45 people that brought him in, I don't know. The Weston McKennie thing just did not work.
24:52 As a sign-in he was not what Leeds required. There were a lot of people saying it was part
24:59 of the whole give Jesse Marsh what he wants, give them American sign-ins and stuff. We
25:04 were told that Weston McKennie was a player that Victor Orda had liked for quite a long
25:08 time, as we were told with each and every sign-in pretty much when they came in. It
25:17 wasn't a good one was it? He is one that will not be remembered particularly fondly as a
25:23 Leeds sign-in. I just struggled to see what it was that he was adding to the team. What
25:31 was his area of strength? He wasn't a Tyler Adams and Tyler Adams was soon to be injured.
25:42 He wasn't a distributor, he was a transitional player wasn't he? I suppose he's supposed
25:49 to be a box to box and late runs into the box and scoring goals but we just didn't really
25:54 see any of that. You also have to say that he came into a really struggling, poor, misshapen
26:01 team with no balance. He played under four coaches in six months. It must have been pretty
26:09 horrific. Can you blame him for not having... how much buy-in he had only he'll be able
26:16 to actually say. From the outside it didn't look like relegation particularly crushed
26:22 him and why would it? He'd only been here for five minutes and it hadn't been an enjoyable
26:28 five minutes. So if there wasn't a great deal of buy-in in that regard I suppose fair enough.
26:32 But yeah, it will not be remembered fondly I think by many Leeds fans.
26:39 Today is Thanksgiving so I think we can give thanks that you're not having to submit his
26:43 ratings anymore shall we say. I think he can give thanks that I'm not having to submit
26:48 his ratings anymore. That would have been a better line. Moving on to the other players
26:56 who were on international duty this week. We had Willy Nianto dropping into the under
27:00 21s with Italy which on reflection was probably a smart move considering he hasn't played
27:04 an awful lot recently. Played 73 minutes against San Marino, scored twice, won a penalty. Then
27:11 went off clutching the back of his hamstring. There was a brief moment where I think we
27:14 thought he might be a doubt. That was quickly rebuffed and his appearance in the starting
27:22 line-up when Italy played the Republic of Ireland under 21s meant that yep, he's absolutely
27:26 fine. Made of sterner stuff. And he got another two goals or rather one and a half because
27:32 his last minute header took a bit of a deflection. Won that penalty as well. His first goal on
27:38 that evening was a spot kick and it was his shot which ricocheted up and hit the arm of
27:44 one of the Irish defenders. So two starts and four goals. Pretty good going. It's going
27:50 to be good for his confidence because he's still just a 20-year-old lad who just wants
27:53 to be playing football and really gives Daniel Farker some food for thought moving ahead
27:58 because any sort of dip in the form of Dan James or even Somerville and you've got to
28:04 say that with N'Anto playing like that, he'll be chomping at the bit to get back into the
28:09 starting XI.
28:10 Here's what I want to see from Willy N'Anto, Joe. I want to see him score a goal and then
28:19 celebrate it wholeheartedly with the fans. I'd like to see a moment where there's a bit
28:26 of reconnection because I still think a lot of the damage of the summer has not been undone.
28:34 I don't think it's all one way either. There's been times with his body language this season
28:43 where it hasn't really looked like he's… it's not that he doesn't want to be there.
28:48 He obviously wants to be playing football but he hasn't really approached the fans with
28:53 his teammates in the same spirit that they have when they've been celebrating goals or
28:58 wins. He was stripped down the tunnel after one of the last wins at Allen Road. He has
29:04 looked frustrated to me and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of residual hurt
29:10 on his part from the ferora that kicked up around him. But then when you act like he
29:18 did, you can't just say you're not willing to play and then expect everybody to treat
29:27 you like a hero. There is going to be a kickback from that. I think there's still quite a way
29:33 to go to repair that damage.
29:39 What he's thinking about January will be very interesting because he wanted to leave when
29:44 it looked like he was going to play this season. That was right back at the start before Dan
29:48 James took over and so forcefully wrestled that shirt off him. He wanted to go then.
29:57 How does he feel now that he's not playing? That he's not getting in for anything more
30:02 than cameo roles. When he has played, he hasn't really put together enough of an argument
30:08 to say I should be in the starting line-up. It wasn't really a surprise to me that he
30:12 dropped to the Italy 21s. You couldn't really have him in the Italy squad given his lack
30:16 of action but also his lack of form. He just hasn't really done it. He's got quite a lot
30:23 to do I think but certainly a couple of goals and actually looking like, "Yeah, alright.
30:30 I'm back. I'm with you. I'm one of you again." I think would go a long, long, long way. He's
30:35 just got to get on the team first to do it because he can't take Dan James out right
30:40 now. He's doing everything that's been asked of him and more.
30:45 Going back to one of our predictions on last week's podcast, you know how we usually do
30:52 a score prediction every week, Graeme?
30:56 Yes, I remember.
30:58 It's my pleasure to remind you that we predicted whether Wales would qualify for Euro 2024.
31:06 Can you tell me, can you jog my memory, which outcome you said you predicted?
31:12 I think my prediction is still on, isn't it? They can still qualify.
31:17 On a technicality, yeah, they can still qualify but I think we both understood it to mean
31:22 that they'd be qualifying automatically. I'm just looking here, Group D, here we go. One,
31:29 first place Turkey, second place Croatia, third place Wales. They haven't qualified
31:37 automatically so they are going to the playoffs where they will play…
31:42 Glencamares, Finland.
31:43 Glencamares, Finland. That will take place in March. That's a semi-final, one-legged
31:50 Cardiff City Stadium. If they win that, then they'll very, very likely play Poland. It'll
31:56 be between those two teams for a place at Euro 2024. Make sure you go easy on each other
32:06 in training in that week before.
32:08 Who of that quartet could you see doing a Ronaldo? Do you remember when he went and
32:14 put the head on Rooney just before England played Portugal and kind of gave him a little
32:19 shove with the head? They were just about to play and Ronaldo went up to Rooney and
32:26 it was almost like a 'nice to see you, teammate' but then Ronaldo pushed him with his head.
32:34 Was this the game where Rooney got sent off?
32:37 I think it might have been but I definitely remember that happening. It wasn't a dream
32:41 before you start.
32:42 It might be.
32:43 It was like 'right, we're not teammates anymore. I'm here to kill you'.
32:49 I feel like everyone remembers that game because of the wink after the tackle which got Rooney
32:55 sent off.
32:56 Yeah, and the tabloids called him a winker. Everyone does remember that but I also remember
33:03 the little shove with the head. I can't remember whether it happened in the game or before
33:07 the game but it definitely happened. I don't know if I can see any of Glencamares seeing
33:13 this. He seems like a chilled out entertainer type. He's always laughing and joking with
33:19 Paveda and Janto and that. He seems quite laid back.
33:27 Rodon is again very laid back.
33:30 I could see that from Rodon though. If it was maybe two on two, if it was like two Welsh
33:35 boys and two Finland internationals, maybe then. But I think because it's three Welsh
33:41 versus just the one Camara and the fact that they're not well established teammates yet.
33:47 They're all relatively new to the club and playing with each other. Maybe not but I think
33:51 Rodon's got a cheeky side to him.
33:53 Yeah.
33:54 I mean you've met him. He's practically your best mate now.
33:56 I'm not sure I could see it. I certainly couldn't see it from Dan James because he'd have to
34:06 jump to stick the head on Camara.
34:08 Ethan Ampadu's too professional.
34:12 Yeah. He's been schooled hasn't he? He's got pedigree as they like to say. Yeah. It will
34:19 be an interesting dynamic though. Particularly after the game when whoever is going to the
34:28 major tournament and whoever is not.
34:30 Well neither of them might end up there because you have to play the final afterwards.
34:36 I wonder whether Farquhar would prefer for Wales to win so he has three happy players
34:42 and one unhappy player as opposed to one happy player and three unhappy players coming back.
34:48 I think you've just answered that yourself to be honest. Daniel, here we go. This is
34:53 what you're going to ask after Rotherham. It's going to be like a 7-6 game and you're
34:56 going to go, Daniel would you rather have a team of happy players or a team of unhappy
35:02 players? Also, before I finish, what's your perfect Sunday? Roast in a woke and followed
35:10 by the F1 maybe.
35:12 Probably watch some football, have some cake on the sofa.
35:17 No, no, no. He doesn't watch football for pleasure, remember?
35:20 No, he doesn't. You're right.
35:21 I wonder whether he's watching enough football as it is during the working week.
35:26 I wonder when he's scrolling through Netflix what he likes to watch.
35:32 I'd like to think serial killer documentary.
35:34 Yeah, possibly or Scandi Noir maybe. I could see him being into some Scandi Noir. I'd be
35:42 really disappointed if he was working his way through the Friends box set for the seventh
35:46 time. I think after the R&B revelation that would just about do it for me. I'd be calling
35:52 for his head on the back page of the YTP.
35:57 What do you think Archie Gray did with his weekend off? Because he went away with England's
36:02 19s or he was supposed to. He was bumped up to the 20s, played at Doncaster in a defeat
36:08 against Italy's under 20s and then was recalled by Leeds back to Thorp Arch. Daniel Farke
36:13 then gave him a couple of extra days off and then back to Thorp Arch earlier this week
36:21 for some recovery sessions. What do you think he did with his weekend off?
36:26 As the parent of a teenage boy, similar in age.
36:30 I'm way older than a teenager currently.
36:35 I'm going to say he slept a lot and when he wasn't sleeping he was probably shuffling
36:42 around grunting something or other about being hungry and then maybe disappearing behind
36:47 a screen of some sort and then generally avoiding interaction and chores. That's just my take.
37:00 I'd like to think that at home he's just a normal teenager. A normal, sullen, grumpy,
37:06 uncooperative, unhelpful teenager. I was a teenager once so that's pretty much how I
37:15 would have handled a weekend off I think.
37:19 Not a driving lesson for young Archie do you reckon? He's just going around the villages
37:24 of North Yorkshire trying not to stall on his hill starts.
37:28 That's a good point actually. He might be learning to drive. Perhaps, I don't know.
37:36 I doubt he'll end up with my first car.
37:39 Go on.
37:40 No, no. It's this one I drive now. It's seen many, many years of travel. I had to change
37:48 the oil this week before going to Rotherham because I don't want to conk out on the way
37:52 there. I don't think it'll be my little run around that Archie will be having. He is taking
37:59 his driving lessons that is.
38:00 I had a Fiat Punto as my first car.
38:04 So you've downgraded?
38:06 I felt very privileged to do so because for many years my dad swore by Fiat Unos. Now
38:14 you won't remember the Fiat Uno but I encourage anyone who doesn't to go and have a good look
38:18 at them online. Just have a look at what I was being driven around in during your football
38:24 days.
38:25 You were being driven around in or you learned to drive?
38:27 No, no. Being driven around in. These are the cars that we had before we got the Punto.
38:31 See? See? Oh man, that is so square.
38:36 I remember a red one and I remember a blue one. I'm not having you criticise the shape
38:44 particularly because that was-
38:45 It's just like something you'd see that was manufactured behind the Iron Curtain.
38:48 That was the style. That was the fashion of the time. But yeah, Archie Gray will never
38:55 have to set foot in a Fiat Uno.
39:00 Did your Fiat Punto have all its doors?
39:06 Was it a four door? I think it had all its doors.
39:10 Okay. I mean that's a great section of the podcast.
39:14 I'm going to reminisce about early cars. I'll tell you what I wanted to talk about
39:20 this week that I saw. I saw a vacancy that I felt you might like to have a go at. It
39:28 was a defensive organisational analyst job at Wigan Athletic. And it struck me that you
39:38 would have to be an absolute thief of joy if that was your chosen route in football
39:46 was to stop other teams from playing and scoring goals. What I really get a kick out of is
39:53 setting a team up to defend stoutly from corners and stopping creative players. Surely to goodness
40:01 Joe, the ideal job for somebody in that sphere, the dream job would be like set piece coach.
40:09 Because it's like the most inventive and creative and exciting, well maybe not most exciting,
40:14 but it's one of the most exciting things to set up like a free kick routine where six
40:18 players run over the ball and then it gets passed on the side of the wall and then back
40:22 heeled into the middle where the goalkeeper arrives to finish it off. Like something completely
40:27 mental that nobody's expecting. Surely that's the dream job, not defensive organisational
40:32 analyst.
40:33 From that description I can see why you're a journalist and not a set piece coach. I'm
40:39 fairly sure that you listed more than 11 players there. I did see that vacancy and I think
40:47 it's the perfect role for somebody who's very much into that. Not quite my cup of tea. I'm
40:52 more of an attacker.
40:53 So you'd be more like an attacking coach. It does feel like, much to Danny Murphy's
41:00 chagrin, that it is becoming more and more specialised in football. Compartmentalised.
41:07 Analysts for the first team, analysts for recruitment, set piece coaches, throw in coaches.
41:15 I honestly don't see why it wouldn't or why football's resisted having specialists work
41:22 in specialist roles for so long. Because obviously you've got general coaches and then you've
41:28 got fitness coaches and things like that. But other sports have defensive coaches and
41:34 offensive coaches and etc, etc, etc. So special teams, coaches I suppose in American football.
41:42 So is this just football catching up?
41:45 I don't know. I think a lot of people listening to this will think, "Well, okay, yeah, that's
41:50 fair enough. But where does it end?" And also I think there's a counter argument to it saying
41:54 that Marcelo Bielsa didn't need a defensive organisation coach. He didn't need that ultra,
42:01 ultra specialisation. So is it overkill? Who knows? I do think there is definitely a benefit
42:08 to it. And I think especially if you're a team in League One where other teams maybe
42:13 don't have the resources to hire someone with that specialisation, then yeah, maybe that
42:20 is giving you that extra one or 2%. But also I do want to say I didn't see a listed salary
42:25 on that position. And I am aware that a lot of those types of roles in the world of football
42:33 do play on the fact that the people applying for them are often young, fresh university
42:40 graduates who are just keen to get their foot in the door in the world of football. And
42:46 it's not my place to say that that enthusiasm can be exploited at times. But maybe the salary
42:54 is not fitting of the standard qualifications required for that role. So, you know, not
43:05 to bring everyone back down to earth, but yeah, I think I was less enamoured by the
43:13 job advert than you were when you saw it and no doubt were like a kid in a sweet shop thinking,
43:18 "Oh, I can bring that up on the podcast. See what the European football nerd thinks
43:22 of this." By the way, can we go back to that being my nickname instead of the one which
43:27 has been mentioned on previous weeks?
43:28 The Virgin Joe. Yeah, you are probably right. Football does need to pay more to the people
43:35 around the game and not just the people playing the game, although they of course are the
43:39 ones that we pay to see. Yeah, I think where it ends is when somebody hires a kickoff coach
43:47 to specifically coach kickoff routines for the start of games and from when you concede.
43:52 I think that would be the end of it all. The whole thing, the game, that would be when
43:57 I would finally accept the phrase, "The game's gone." Somebody could say, we could probably
44:03 get Gary Lineker to open match of the day with, "Good evening, everybody. The game is
44:08 gone." Then the programme finishes, credits roll and we all go off into the darkness to
44:14 watch some other sport.
44:15 Yeah, I wonder what Daniel Farke makes of the specialisation and what he has. Goalkeeping
44:22 coach, that makes a lot of sense. You need a specialist to work with your goalkeepers.
44:28 But beyond that, I don't know. Do you need people to be more specialists? I don't know.
44:33 I might ask him at some point on a quiet week.
44:35 A quiet week. I mean, you can't see many of those coming up. I mean, the festive fixture
44:40 schedule is coming thick and fast. We've got Rotherham this weekend, then Middlesbrough,
44:47 then Blackburn, Sunderland. Who else is it after that? It's got Ipswich in there, Coventry,
44:55 Preston and West Brom all before New Year. That's what, five weeks?
45:01 That was impressive recall. My philosophy tends to be, we focus only on the next game.
45:10 We don't look beyond the next game. So I really struggle ordinarily to tell you who leads
45:14 a play and beyond the game that we're immediately facing.
45:18 I'm just thinking, I mean, it's not my place to say, but I'm just thinking several steps
45:23 ahead of you, Graeme, as per usual. I'm on big picture stuff, your day to day. But like
45:30 Michael Scott and Jim Halpert in the office.
45:34 John Halpert.
45:35 John Krasinski. That's the actor's name. It's been a while since I've watched it.
45:40 Did you see that one of our fellow Leeds United podcasts this week held themselves a live
45:46 show?
45:47 Yes, I did. Yeah.
45:48 Did it at once fill you with a sense of dread that one day you might be asked to do the
45:53 same by our employers?
45:55 No, not dread. I think I'd relish that. A live show, take questions and heckles from
46:02 the audience. That'd be great.
46:03 People looking at you, like looking at everything you wear.
46:06 If they're watching on Shots TV, then they're looking at me right now.
46:09 Yeah, that's a good point. But they're right there and you can see them looking, whereas
46:14 you can work away while imagining no one's watching it.
46:19 Are you just imagining that someone would get up out of the audience and then come and
46:24 try and attack you and you have to fight them off? Because I know what you're like. Some
46:29 of the videos from the accounts that you send me, it's like coolest fight vids and stuff
46:36 like that. You're watching way more violence than I am.
46:41 No, I think what struck me when I saw that Popey and Co had gone live was remembering
46:47 around the time of the club centenary that we did a live show with the original Joe of
46:55 the Inside Eleanor podcast at an inner city shopping center, food court type place in
47:02 Leeds. And we had Eddie Gray and Tony Dorigo along as part of a panel. And we just had
47:08 a discussion about Leeds. Eddie told some stories, Dorigo told some stories. We had
47:13 a Q&A. Eddie Gray in that kind of scenario, if you ever have concerns about not being
47:19 able to fill time or being worried that there won't be enough to say, then get Eddie Gray
47:23 along because the man could talk Leeds United until the cars come home and his stories are
47:28 absolutely superb. He tells them really well too. And we discussed various burning themes
47:37 of the time. And then during part of the Q&A, Nick Westley, who was our sports editor at
47:44 the time, he broke the first rule, which was surrendering the microphone. He didn't hold
47:49 on to it. He gave it up to a gentleman who really closely resembled Bilbo Baggins from
47:56 Lord of the Rings.
47:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]