The Iceman Cometh and the Man Named after a Northern Town

Click here to download the podcast.

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.

Eidur Gudjohnsen, a man who has played for two of the Champions' League semifinalists (and against the other two) chats to Guillem about Barcelona v Manchester United, Thierry Henry settling in Spain and all things Barca.
Mark Bolton, Guillem's co-hort from Sky's La Liga coverage is on board to help talk Spanish football and reflect on Arsene Wenger saying "Adieu" to the Premier League. We also look at the relegation scrap... looks like the fat lady won't be singing for a while.
Bill Edgar reveals who the worst moaners in the Premiership managerial fraternity are. And Guillem and I engage in some quick hitting (or, if you prefer, rapid strikes).

Eidur admits they've really missed Leo Messi and crosses his Icelandic fingers in the hope that he'll return against United. Refreshingly though he doesn't blame Barcelona's poor league form on injuries.
Knives out for Wenger. Or, rather, plenty of unsolicited advice for him. Mark rubbishes Wenger's conspiracy theories which is fair enough: that's what you're supposed to do with conspiracy theories. Until, of course, you find out they're true. I do think that Arsenal have had no luck with referees this year and while it may all have been in good faith, it doesn't change the fact: with fewer officiating mistakes, Arsenal would be in a somewhat different position.
We dip into the relegation debate and Guillem boldly predicts that Fulham can stay up at the expense of Reading. Good for Guillem who takes a bold stand, while Mark sits on the fence (though, he makes a good points about how Bolton will be penalized by the absense of Kevin Davies). Mark, maybe because his parents named him after the club, criticizes supporters for having a go at Megson, suggesting that now is not the time to have a go at the manager. I see his point, but, frankly, if the fans want Megson out, maybe relegation is the best path to a new manager.
Mark and Guillem guide us through La Liga. Surprisingly - given the fact that they peddle Spanish football on our TV screens every week - they admit that this is not a good season, going so far as to suggest that this is one of the poorest Liga campaigns in years. Still, there are plenty of bright spots. And Mark flags up his player of the year: Kun Aguero. Remember the name (on the off-chance you haven't heard of him before).

Comments

[Donal]

Hi Guillem, thought you said last week that the senior player liverpool had signed was an english player who can 'also' play on the right. Rafa has said that he is not English, but speaks good English. Are you confused aor trying to confuse us? Is he British or Irish? or do you really know???

[jonno]

Alright Guillem,
I am aware that we have moved on from the new liverpool signing debate but I have a bone to pick! As you stated in the podcast debate the player was English but today on the Liverpool official website Rafa was quoted as saying "one senior player is done. He talks good English, but is not English." Whats going on??

[David]

Guillem, thank you once again for replying. I'm sure you understand that this is a very emotional and turbulent time for all Liverpool fans, so I apologise if I was a little sarcastic or inflammatory. We fans really cannot even begin to contemplate the possibility of a future for this club under Hicks, especially considering his actions over this last year and what a complete mess he has managed to make as sole owner of his Texas Rangers team. There is a real air of desperation from Liverpool fans, we really, really, hate Hicks, and I'm sure in your heart of hearts you and most probably Rafa do also. I do understand that you are in a difficult situation 'at the moment' (haha) with regards to this whole mess. It looks like we will just have to bide our time with regards to a total takeover by the DIC; it's just the alternative looks so unappealing for the club and us fans. We all love this club so much and it just seems we are being threatened, and we all just want to be able to try and do something about it; so unless I can come up with the odd half billion quid then it looks like we'll just have to grin and bare it. Once again I apologise if my words annoyed you in any way, I'm a big fan of yours (and Gab's) and regard you as the best source when it comes to Liverpool and football in general, keep up the good work. Regards.

[Lui]

Ber - Bar another Russian billionaire coming in, there is no way we could have been taken over without debt being added to the club. With the cost of the club added to the cost of the new stadium, you're looking at close to - way over half a billion. Even DIC are reluctant to purchase the club at the price Gillet and Hicks have asked for because they know the stadium will cost as well.

Okay, so he said there would be no debt to the club. I agree, they both shouldn't have said this. But at the end of the day, every major club has debt. Man U do, Arsenal certainly do. It's the size of the debt which is important. The point is that we should be in a better commercial shape worldwide so the debt we have won't hit us hard. The liverpool brand should up there with Man U. Which it's not.

What I see from Hicks( at least what he's saying, if it's the truth) is someone who wants to push the club forward.

I can't think of anything more backwards than having Parry and Gillet running the club.

[guillem balague]

David, you forgot to include the line ‘at the moment’ when you quoted me about getting used to the idea of Hicks taking over… DIC might well be close to have an agreement with George Gillett (more than ‘close’ as you of course know) but it is all ‘at the moment’ in the hands of Tom Hicks who doesn’t plan to sell (just yet). We have heard for a while that DIC is about to take over the club and it is not happening yet, in the meantime Hicks is putting in place the possibility of buying 50% as you admit yourself. The different timetables suggested by some parties is what is making some people (myself included) doubt the real timing for the ending of this mess –I still think 6 weeks sounds too optimistic. I do know what I would prefer and I do know as well that DIC is not going to stop till they take over the club. But ‘at the moment’ the club is in the hands of the people who own it and despite DIC’s wishes Hicks can still put in place the financing to take over the club –unlikely, but so is any other possibility ‘at the moment’…;-)

[Ber]

Lui, i don't take that view at all, Hicks could come from Tokyo and I would still have the same view of him. You act like he's done nothing. What about this debt? That he LIED about. The meeting with Klinsmann that he announced to the World. And even still he's dragging the club through the mud with his constant public announcements. Now maybe his propaganda is working on you, and if it is i feel sorry for you. Nearly everything thats come out the last few days, especially the stuff about Parry are things I've seen on the Forums for years, what he's doing is trying to get the fans on board.

The day Hicks is in sole charge is the day this supporter walks away from the game.

And if anyone thinks that Hicks wouldn't sack Rafa at the drop of a hat, think again.

[Lui]

Ber - I'm a Liverpool fan, but I wish people would look at the situation at our club without this backwards "Hicks is a yank and what ever he says is evil" viewpoint, which most of our fans have.

Sure, he's come out and said things he shouldn't. However, if you look at what he's saying about Parry, he's absolutely correct. We're behind Man U, Barcelona, Real Madrid and I would dare say Chelsea in a commercial sense. This is when we have a comparable fanbase worldwide.

Parry has not done his job, Hicks is also right that the new stadium should have been built three or four years ago. It's making me sick to think our fans would allow this continue and risk our club falling further behind. Take the sponsership point Hicks brought up - we have 3 sponsers when we should have 12 or 15.

I agree with Guillem, I think the problem at the club is not Hicks ( who seems to simply want to make Liverpool a success and if that wasn't the case - wouldn't he have sold to DIC by now). The problem is Parry and Gillet.

I would not mind one bit if Hicks took over 100%. He's not in it to lose money. He wants to make money and the way that happens is to make Liverpool a success on and off the pitch. He's not stupid in that regard.

[Ber]

OK Guilleme, what is Hicks paying you?

The negative feeling towards Hicks comes from his own actions and his big mouth. Where's the spin?

And you can let Rafa know that if he plans on getting into bed with Hicks, he'll lose that special relationship he has with the fans.

[David]

Guillem, first of all thank you for replying. 'Get used to the idea because that's where the club is heading'? I'm assuming that you aren't taking into account the agreement between Hicks/Gillett that the one has to have first option on the selling of the other's shares, which expires at the end of May. What is to stop the DIC coming in in 6 weeks time and taking their 50%? And there is no reason to believe that they won't...afterall they were willing to accept 49% of the club, am I right? Hicks knows his time is running out, with regards to purchasing Gillett's 50%, so this is why he is taking his PR campaign to a new level - drive Parry out, blacken Gillett's name and make him look like the worst of the two and make Gillett make a public commitment to Rafa etc. Besides, the chances of Gillett having a change of heart and selling his stake to Hicks in the next 6 weeks are very slim I would think. Surely as a Liverpool fan yourself you know that the DIC is the only way forwards for this club; they have risked their reputation too much already to simply walk away now - it would be viewed as a defeat, and these guys won't accept defeat! I would be very interested to hear your views on this if you have time. Thanks.

[Andrew Dolan]

I meant to add: Does the fact that we're most excited about two foreign players in the FA Youth Cup final prove Steve Bruce's point correct?

[guillem balague]

Cesc, I do think that Ernesto Valverde is a good coach but something has escaped of his hands and it is worrying. Being a manager is no only about tactics but also about dynamic of the group, about looking after the non regulars, about rotating, about stopping negative trends by changing formation or exercises or applying psychology. I wonder if Ernesto has been partly at fault by not looking after that side of things. Also I think that the international call ups for Riera, Luis García and Tamudo have not been beneficial to them, as it changed their focus a little bit.

Ver, I’ve got the impression Rafa did not know about Parry involvement in one the Klismann meetings because probably Parry told him he was not involved. If that is the case, you are supposed to believe your chief executive, no? Interesting you think Rafa is the one playing games.

David, obviously you didn’t get my point. Or maybe I was not clear enough. I was putting out there a different perception of the situation for people to think about. I wonder if all the negative stories about Hicks come from a manipulation of the facts or of the characters involved with the clear intention of misinforming. It has been happening from day one. Everybody is telling stories about everybody else that leaves rivals in a very poor light. You say that Tom Hicks as a sole owner of the club would be a disaster, but you don’t know because he is not a sole owner of the club. I don’t know either and I’m not sure with him in charge things would improve that much. I do think though it is a better solution that what we have now. And I would say to you, get used to the idea because at the moment that is where the club is heading.

Kamran, Mark says thank you for your kind words, guys. And he will be back in the future. About Villarreal: they were very clever in getting cheap players from Latinamerica (but of quality, from River, Boca, etc), they loan out the young ones (Martin Caceres, Cazorla, Martin Ruben), they take a risk on players that learnt their trade in big clubs or clubs that look after their lower sides (Rossi) and they do it with one idea in mind: playing wonderful football. So the easiest thing is to choose the manager, one that suits the general vision of the club. Pellegrini was in our Sky Sports show this week and he speaks excellent English and I feel he would like to join a Premier League club at some point. Chelsea, are you listening?

[Killian]

Parry should have been long ago,poor transfer record,the gerrard leaving debacle and other minor things.Also for a c.e.o to wear a club tracksuit on away games it should result in an immediate sacking.
Rafa should stay away from Hicks although its clear he believes he will be in sole charge soon.Rafa is the man to lead the club forward and in my opinion is 3 signings away from the title(rafinha,bentley and either young or gareth barry)but whether he gets the required backing is another matter.
He surely would have the pick of 4 or 5 la liga teams to go back to,the obvious one would be Athletico as i dont think Real would want him.His stle of football,despite being a winning one is not the brazil 1970 style they want.

[Kamran]

Hi guys, really great show as always. Guillem, I have been fascinated by the rise of Villareal. They play great football and have a really positive philosophy. More than anything, I am really interested in Pellegrini. He is clearly an exceptional manager. Why does he never seem to be linked when the likes of Barca, Real Madrid and Atleti are looking for managers?
Also, what do you think the future holds for Sevilla? Will they be able to bounce back from the departure of Ramos and possibly Alves? Or or they at the end of their cycle?
Mark Bolton was really interesting and had a lot of things to say, Hope to see him back on the show.

[Alex]

Marie Banner - what do you mean? I'm not his biggest fan either but Lehmann had a very good game against Utd, making a few top class saves, especially to keep Rooney out.

A different point: I believe the constant barage of press telling Wenger to spend more money only has the opposite effect. The more he is told, 'the only way to win is to spend big', the less likely he is to do it.

[Joseph]

I was watching match of the day on Saturday (I know - what was I thinking), and the commentator described the decision to bring on Mauro Zarate as a fantastic decision. Considering Zarates form (scored 3 in the previous 3 games), the price tag he went to Al-Sadd with, the fact that he wanted to play so badly (as Alex McLeish described in his interview), and his pedigree based on what he has won, I was left thinking that surely it was a bad decision to bring him off the bench, a bad decision because he should be the first name on the team sheet! Why did Zarate go to Birmingham of all clubs? Surely, there is a manager and a club that values his abilities more than Birmingham.

[Andrew Dolan]

Great podcast as usual.

I was wondering if next week you could have a glance at the FA Youth Cup final on Wednesday night (Sky Sports 1 7:45 pm ko)?

Big praise for Jim Cassell, Man City's head of Youth development. 25 players have appeared in the first team in the past 10 years and the academy has brought the club £32.5 million! It runs on about £1.6 million a year!

But Steve Bruce said in January that the academy system is not working to produce English players. (Absolute rubbish!)

BUT a lot of the players on show on Wednesday will be non-English(I think about 7 nationalities in the 1st leg). As I'm sure you know European clubs are cherry picking from youth teams across the world as they only have to pay minimal compensation for under 16s who haven't signed a pro contract. A youth tournament in Argentina was cancelled recently with many clubs refusing to show up because European scouts would be watching.

I'd be interested to know which players you think have the most potential for the future? Both youth team managers have said their players will play Premier League football.

My Chelsea supporting friend is excited about Gael Kakuta (France). I'm a City fan and am looking forward to finally seeing Vladimir Weiss (Slovakia).

And doesn't Sir Alex complain less (statistically) because he so often refuses to give post match interviews to the media, sending out Carlos Queiroz instead?

[David]

Guillem,I hope Rafa is aware that he is playing with fire if he is coming down on Tom Hicks' side. I am very disappointed in you also Guillem, to say that would Tom Hicks really be all that bad as sole owner of the club. Oh my God I can't believe that would even enter your mind...are you aware how much debt he has placed on this club and how much of a fool he is for making this club into a laughing stock with his weekly, badly-timed and rash statements? He is a brash Texan businessman who is wanting to bleed the club dry; if he cared in the slightest about this club then he'd sell to the DIC! As for Rafa, why is it that he is so bothered about Parry's involvement in Klinsmann talks, when it was revealed this week that there was a second meeting with Klinsmann at HICKS' holiday home? Also, Parry, as Chief Executive,would have been there on the orders of BOTH Gillett and Hicks. I smell a rat, Hicks/Rafa are starting their slur campaign against Parry to get him out of the way, so Hicks can get his own YES man, Ian Ayre, onto the board. Rafa is only looking out for himself, surely he must realise that under Hicks the club will be driven under...but then again maybe it's because he knows he is safer in a job under Hicks than under the DIC. Very shameful and disappointing.

[Marie Banner]

Hi there Gab and Guillem.

First of all great podcast as usual, nice to hear a fellow midlander in Mark Bolton, his views on Bolton, Wenger etc, etc was spot on and what also made me laugh was when Gab said ''no one likes Jens Lehmann''. I think if Almunia was in goal on Sunday, they would have won or drew against Man Utd.

Anyway keep up the good work lads!

[Zap]

Call this "out of the box", but two subjects of the podcast combined to give me what I think is a pretty good idea.

Eidur is a fantastic, experienced player. He can play in midfield, in the hole or up front. He's exactly the kind of player Arsenal should be looking to sign: Proffessional, flexible, top class.

Won't happen, I know, but it would be great. Also, how about making the podcasts a bit longer? They've been very short recently...

[Asher Gilani]

Great Podcast this week. Guillem sticking up for either Rafa Benitez or Juande Ramos or in fact anything Spanish always brings about great comedic effect.

Firstly regarding Ronaldo, I don't understand why you thought he should have been booked for stopping. He does this every time he takes penalties and because he does not check at the moment of hitting the ball, it is legal. Also many people have said that Ronaldo does not perform at the same level when he plays the bigger teams. Do you think that this is mainly because it is far easier to take a winger out of a game? Done by using a full back to block him from going down the line whilst a defensive midfielder helps by blocking him from cutting in.

And regarding Bill Edgar's stat about managers who complain about the ref, isn't it obvious that Sir Alex doesn't complain a lot because United have been winning so often this year? He should instead see the interviews from matches where United or any other team have lost and then perhaps take the number of times complained as a percentage of total number of times not won.

[Ber]

Guillem, I find it hard to believe that Rafa didn't know that Parry was at that meeting, it was public knowledge that Parry was in the States a few months ago and once the Klinsmann story broke, it wouldn't take a genius to put two and two together.

But even so, does it really matter that much to Rafa? With everything else that's going on, it just seems trivial to me. Is Rafa playing games? I wonder.

[Piers]

Great podcast as usual guys, very funny, and of course illuminating. Wenger is an enigma, an absolute mystery to me and i'm sure most of the footballing world. But firstly let us go over his squad, many are complaining about the lack of strength in depth he has cultivated at Arsenal, while i am not so sure it is as simple as that. He has two good goalkeepers (albeit, one isn't quite good enough, and the other is some sort of buffoon-clown Kafka creation) and a host of different midfielders and attackers, indeed at the beginning of the season he practically has two players for each position in those two areas: Fabregas, Flamini, Rosicky, Eboue (although one has to ask why? God why has a top club such as Arsenal have a right back as right winger who cannot score for love nor money, pass accurately or beat a man with regularity?), Hleb, Adebayor, Van Persie, Eduardo, Denilson, Abou Diaby, Gilberto and Diarra. All of these players at some point or another have played and shown they can step up to varying degrees, so the problem is not lack of bodies but Arsene's handling of them.

Cesc is 20/21 years old, there is no way that such a young player should be playing every game in a season (plus an international tournament afterwards) not to mention being the shoulders upon which the whole team depends. Which begs the question, why was he forced to play all these games when it is plainly obvious he cannot perform to the best of his ability? Well, firstly let us not discount the injuries of Denilson and Diaby, two highly promising (obviously young) centre mids who have the potential to come in and take over in order to give Cesc a rest, much as Anderson has had to do in lieu of Scholes earlier in the season, but also is the release of Diarra. That one decision has probably cost Arsene more this season and perhaps next than letting Vieira go when he did. Wenger's man management skills have always been subject to debate and his ability to keep his players happy and hungry to help the team when they're not necessarily playing is one of his great faults (in my opinion). Why did he let him leave is one question, but the other is why did he not play him?! With Flamini's contract running out and Cesc being of such a young age what could be the benefit of keeping such a player on the bench, and then letting him leave mid season? Even if Denilson and Diaby had remained fit would could the possibly benefit be to let him go, one may say he may have been upsetting the dressing room with his desire to play but surely that is incomparable to what Lehmann has been doing and again asks the question of Wenger, can you handle players in the right way that can benefit the team?

How many players does Manchester United have that don’t play regularly? And how many of them do you see going to the press complaining? At Arsenal the lack of authority from the Manager in not stopping their poor disciplinary record has filtered to the choice of the captaincy (absolute disaster) to the rest of the team in the way they concede daft goals at the most inopportune times. Arsene doesn’t need to bring in a raft of new players this summer, but he does need at least one great, experienced centre back and a right winger that is just that, a right winger, or at least an attacking midfielder. Perhaps Lucio of Bayern, Maldini (gasp!) in his final year to play the same role that Blanc did at United a few years ago to pass on his wisdom, a right winger is more problematic, Ribery should have been at the Emirates this year, why Arsene didn’t snap him up beggars belief, I mean he ticks all the right boxes: technically excellent, adaptable…French, perhaps he was outside his spending budget, y’know, the one he gives himself. If Bayern could afford him Arsenal easily could have and not only would Wenger not have to play a right back at right midfield but he could play Ribery across the front 4.

A quick note regarding Guillem’s constant rants about Manchester United’s naïve tactical play, despite being a United supporter myself I have to agree, to an extent. Their defensive record has been outstanding in domestic and European competitions but if you watch the matches it is clear that United give their opposition more than enough chances to score, their last match against Arsenal and the two Roma games (especially at the Olimpico) being cases in point. If Roma could finish (or perhaps if they had Totti) it would have been a vastly different game, but saying that United always, always have another gear to go to when they go a goal down. Against Barcelona the game will be won in the defence, no question. Because if we go toe to toe, attacking head on I can only see one winner, and he ain’t in Red.

[reuben anderson]

Hi lads,

1) What's actually the problem with the way Ronaldo took the 2 penalties? I don't see how it's unsporting and it's surely not against the law to stop and fake - there's no such thing as "a run up" in the laws.

2) This is basically the 3rd time Wenger has rebuilt his squad, but in contrast to the earlier occasions, he's had a lot less money to spend compared to his rivals - up until January this year. I think he's made mistakes in selection, tactics and rotation - fabregas in particular has looked worn out since about February.

3) I don't buy the arguments about how everyone expected Arsenal to struggle without Henry this season. Henry was injured for most of the second half of last season and Arsenal were already playing better without him then. The most serious problem the current team has faced was the loss of Eduardo and Sagna at this crucial point when both were in fantastic form before getting injured, and neither has been adequately replaced.

[cesc blanc]

Records Guillem,

Any thoughts about Txingurri leaving Espanyol after this season? My theory is that, given that everyone was talking about buying your assets, like Jarque, kameni and Riera, that was the masterplan to keep the team together? And I'm already willing to bet money that they were just preparing to take 3 points from Camp Nou this weekend and kill us again from the title.
Regarding Herr Marcotti's debate from last week about managers being coached by revolutionary but gangsta managers, we have Laudrup, Koeman, Pepe Guardiola, Txiki, Bakero, Stoichkov, Romario all as former Dream Team members now in some way involved in football, althoug maybe apart of Michael, maybe Pep and Txiki as sporting director no one really worked out so far. Plus Valverde, who didn't work out with Cruyff for long though, but more with Clemente.
So, the theory, if as a player you had lots of fun and learned a lot from a genius coach, you might turn out a good coach one day too.
Guess we won't see Capello an Van Gaal pupils turning coaches at any time.

[Gabriele Marcotti]

1. Pork Romeo - I don't think experience is such a factor once a goalkeeper hits 30 (which Almunia has done). Simply put, Lehmann's contract is winding done and I think Wenger wanted to get a long, hard look at Almunia to see if he could be a long-term solution.
2. Jay -Wenger sometimes loses it. He's human, like all of us. When he said that thing about predicting a 10th to 15th place finish I nearly fell off my chair. From what my sources at Arsenal tell me, the biggest amount pressure Wenger faces is the pressure he puts on himself.
The Mowbray-to-Bolton thing was just an example. It's not to be taken seriously, it's completely baseless and a bit of a windup towards Mark (who is a West Brom fan). I think Mowbray, regardless of whether he gets promotion or not, is ready for a step up to a top ten Premier League side or the Old Firm.

[Jay]

Good podcast as always and I thought Mark Bolton was a good asset in the studio. Hopefully you will have him back more in the future. I have a couple of questions to ask you, both regarding managers, one being Arsene Wenger and the other being Tony Mowbray.

Firstly Wenger; I was listening to the postcast of the show on five live that Gab does on a Friday and heard the interview with the Arsenal manager. He seemed to sound more like my granddad did rather than a top football manager with all his moaning and groaning (although maybe my granddad sounded more like a football manager) but in amongst his moaning about the Liverpool game and not getting the credit he deserves he mentioned that he felt he deserved credit for being third because people where predicting Arsenal finishing 10th to 15th. To be honest I had to rewind my ipod to listen to it again to make sure I heard correctly, what was behind this statement? No 'specialist' would have predicted such a thing at the start of the season even with the lose of Henry, and if they did they deserve to be finding a new job. Is it the signs of Arsene cracking? Is he seeing a team falling away with potential departures, especially of Fabragas? Also do you think there is pressure, not just from fans but upstairs in the boardroom for him to spend some money and start brining in players to challenge for the title?

Secondly, Tony Mowbray; during the podcast Gab you mentioned Mowbray taking over at Bolton if they go down to the Championship. I am guessing, though I may be wrong, that if this scenario was to happen you are expecting West Brom not to gain promotion and even if they were to do you believe that Tony would make the move? I think he has West Brom playing some good football at the moment and as shown last week has a great enthusiasm for the game and certainly talks a good game. North of the border the pressure from fans is starting to make Gordon Strachan's job at Celtic not as secure as it was and many names have been talked about by fans as a possible replacement, with Mowbray being mentioned as one. With a history at the club and experience managing in the SPL do you think Mowbray would be ready to step up to European football and winning of titles so early into his career?

[Pork Romeo]

One of the common observations of Arsenal's failure to win anything is lack of experienced players.

Excuse me, but Arsenal had a 38 year old international on the bench, Jans Lehmann.

As Gab said, "no one likes Jans Lehmann." I think Wenger feels the same. But this is a crap way to pick a squad.

Almunia is a good goal keeper, but he would not have held up in the 2005 FA Cup final, he would not have stopped Riquelme's penalty in the CL semi final in 2006, and if he was in goal for Germany in 2006, Argentina would have gone through. Lehmann is a better goal keeper and that was obvious from the weekend's match against ManU.

Given Lehmann's experience in high pressure matches, it is hard for me to believe Wenger didn't swallow his pride and put Lehmann in goal. I think it cost them.